Association of Asian Studies: AAS 2024 annual conference.

PANEL J004 - Birds and Symbolism in Persian Literature and Book Culture of Central, South, and West Asia

Abstract: Adjacent to the panel "From Literature to Science: Narrating Birds in Second Millennium South and Central Asia", this second panel will include presentations from scholars and researchers of Persian literature, whose works of research delve into the bird culture in Persianate traditions of South, Central and West Asia. Birds' footprints will be traced in the elite and rural literary contexts, religious practices and manuscript illustrations.

Iconic and symbolic application of the domestic and wild birds, such as the falcon, the rooster, the owl and the crow, will be analyzed in roles of tricksters, advisers, storytellers and devotional companies in narratives, and their techniques of raising and training for hunting and fighting purposes or for sacrifice ceremonies will be presented in a crosscultural context along with case studies from a number of treatises in classical Persian dating to the Medieval period. Theodore Beers will discuss one of the bird-centric chapters in the 12th century Persian translation of the Panchatantra called the Kalīla and Dimna: that of “The Owls and the Crows.” Mahin Tahmasebi will shed some light on the emblematic portrayal of the rooster in two major works from the 11th century: the Šāh-nāma (book of kings) by Firdawsi and the Varaqa-u Gulshāh romance by the poet 'Ayyuqī. Narges Pourmohammadian will elaborate on the falcon and falconry as a royal tradition and will develop her arguments based on two treatises about hunting: Qawānīn al-Ṣayyād (Hunter's Rules) and Šikār-nāma-yi Ilḫānī (the Ilkhanid Hunting Book) from the 13th-14th centuries.

Panel convenors: Pegah Shahbaz, University of Göttingen and Jahnabi Barooah Chanchani, University of Michigan.