An Introduction to Persian is intended to serve as an introduction on the elementary level to the modern Persian language. Each lesson is provided with specific exercises and drills for the major grammatical and syntactical points introduced therein. Vocabulary are included at the end of each lesson are intended for active acquisition. Specialized supplementary vocabulary lists are also scattered throughout the book. In part two of the grammar, the outstanding differences between modern and classical usage are given. In part three the distinguishing features of ordinary colloquial Persian are given. A set of 9 audio CDs which helps in learning pronunciation is available for the book (ISBN 978-1-58814-043-2).

An Introduction to Persian, Revised 3rd Edition

W. M. Thackston

Reference

Ibex Publishers

This volume forms number eleven in the Intellectual Traditions Series, a series aimed at providing scholars and students of Iranian Islamic heritage with new source materials. With this publication we extend the geographical horizons of the series to include Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, in both of which Persian has been or was the language of learning and culture for a millennium. In the sixteenth century Tajik Persian was the lingua franca of all Central Asia, as it is still the common language of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and cities in Uzbekistan like Bukhara and Samarkand. In the northern subcontinent, from the time of the first lasting Muslim incursions in the tenth century until the mid-nineteen century, when the British replaced Persian with English, the common language was Persian. Introduced by the Ghaznavids and cultivated by all their successors, particularly the Mughals by virtue of their Timurid cultural heritage, Indo-Persian literature represents a large portion of the totality of the wealth of Persian literary output. Of the three texts included in this publication, Bayazid Bayat s account is of special value because it was dictated by an illiterate and must therefore be a fair representation of Persian as it was spoken in the sixteenth century. In this regard it may be unique among medieval texts.It will also be of interest to historians to contrast the three original memoirs by Princess Gulbadan, Jawhar Aftabachi, and Bayazid Bayat with the convoluted accounts of Abu al-Fazls Akbarnama, the official history of Humayun's and Akbar's reigns that was based largely upon such memoirs.

Three Memoirs Of Humayun: Gulbadan Begim's Humayunnama/ Jawhar Aftabachi's Tadhkiratu 'l-waqiat (BIBLIOTHECA IRANICA, INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS SERIES) (English and Old Persian Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Mazda Pub

A fantastic adventure story, based loosely on the exploits of Hamza, an uncle of the prophet Muhammad, who travelled throughout the world spreading the doctrines of Islam, The Adventure of Hamza--also known as Hamzanama--tells of encounters with giants, demons and dragons; of abductions and hair-raising chases; and of believers, as well as those who resisted the truth. The excitement of these ancient tales was best captured in public recitations at coffeehouses from Iran to northern India. Each oration was given a particular flavor by the storyteller, who departed freely from the written text, which itself varies in composition and structure from manuscript to manuscript. An illustrated version of the Hamzanama was commissioned early in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, in the second half of the sixteenth century, by the teenage emperor himself. Consisting of 1400 paintings of an unusually large format, it was one of the earliest products of the royal Mughal painting atelier, and perhaps the most ambitious. The enormous size of the illustrations, which are nearly two feet high each, can be explained by their role in complementing the recitations; their sometimes broad and animated style conveys the vigor of the tales. Just over a tenth of the 1400 paintings from Akbar's commission survive today, and this publication of The Adventures of Hamza brings together 60 of the greatest of these works from collections all over the world, and places them alongside new translations of the related text passages.

The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India

Arts & Photography

John William Seyller

History & Criticism

Freer Gallery of Art

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