Editor’s Note

Abstract

It has been seven years and now, seven issues later, the International Journal of Persian Literature is going as strong as ever thanks to the many enthusiastic scholars who have been helping us appreciate the magnificence of Persian literature and its many multifaceted intellectual engagements. This was a sad year for Persian literature with the loss of one of the greatest Arabist scholars and philologists, and no less one of the greatest Persian philologists and literati in the history of Persian literature, Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani. One of the paragons, irreplaceable in every aspect, he trained some of the greatest scholars in the field and contributed, with his eminently surgical attention to detail, to Persian and Arabic literatures and all of their substudies, whether it be history, jurisprudence, logic, philosophy, poetry, prose, etc. Our next issue (issue 8) will be a Gedenkschrift special issue in celebration of his scholarly achievements, although it would take many decades (and dozens of issues) to actually come close to satisfying such want. Often in special issues in a field, one has to be careful what themes are addressed; however, in his case that won’t be necessary as his umbrella of expertise was all-encompassing in Iranian and Arab philology. That said, we do hope this volume, which behooves some novel engagements in the field, will be enjoyed by our loyal readers. We would also like to thank you, our readers, and our many contributors for their support. Many thanks go to Valerie Ahwee for being such a good friend to the journal for years and always making us look better with her wonderful and attentive copyediting skills. A final thanks goes to the wonderful PSU team, editorial and otherwise, for being the best publishing team one can hope to work with. This journal is a team effort and every person and group mentioned is equally credited with the journal’s success.This issue is dedicated to my day, my night, my sun, my moon, my ocean, my desert, my air, my wind, my mountain, my pillar, my earth, my world, my beautiful daughter Iran Ghazal Korangy whose every word, unparalleled willpower, and drive inspires in me a world of effort; and thanks infinitum to God for endowing me with this blessing.