Persian Texts Research Articles

Translating Indian Algebra in the Seventeenth Century: ʿAtāʾollāh Roshdi’s Persian Version of Bhāskara II’s Bījagaṇita

Abstract One of the most important works in the field of medieval Indian mathematics corresponding to algebra is Bījagaṇita (Seed Calculation), a Sanskrit treatise by the famous mathematician and astronomer Bhāskara II (or Bhāskarācārya, c. 1114–aft. 1183). This paper is a general overview of the Tarjoma-ye Bij ganet (The Translation of the Bījagaṇita, 1634), a Persian text composed by the mathematician ʿAtāʾollāh Roshdi (or Rashidi), who served at the court of the Mughal emperor Shāh Jahān (r. 1628–58). The translation is divided into an introduction, subdivided in six chapters (bāb), and five books (maqāla). After discussing both Bhāskara II and Roshdi, I compare the latter’s translation with the original Sanskrit text on the basis of available English translations. I will also demonstrate how an intermediate language, which played an important role in the connection of South Asian scientific sources, facilitated this translation.

Out of the Mouth of Babes … (Ps. 8:2)

Abstract The present paper investigates the role of children as mediators between the world of humans and the divine, as reflected in Zoroastrian Middle Persian texts. Taking the curious portrayal of the main protagonist of the Pahlavi “Story of Jōišt ī Friyān” as a starting point, it examines how the author of the tale accentuates his own educational message by attributing it to an underage boy. In this context the article attempts to contribute to the discussion on the place of visions in traditional Zoroastrian society and literature.

The Verbal Root <i>Raqa‛</i> in Moslem and Biblical-Aramaic Texts

The paper pursues two goals: (1) to trace the evolution of semantics of the verbal root raqa‛ and its lexical derivatives (participles, verbal names, etc.) in Persian and Arabic Moslem texts; and (2) to compare the obtained results with semantics of the same Semitic root in the Biblical-Aramaic texts of the Old Testament. The comparison reveals a great variety in branches of the root raqa‛ in Persian and Arabic Moslem texts and shows a shortage of those in the Biblical-Aramaic texts. The author explains this phenomenon by the specific contents of the Old Testament where the verbal root raqa‛ with its derivatives is used to glorify God the Creator of the Universe and to curse idolatry.

Improving the quality of Persian clinical text with a novel spelling correction system

BackgroundThe accuracy of spelling in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is a critical factor for efficient clinical care, research, and ensuring patient safety. The Persian language, with its abundant vocabulary and complex characteristics, poses unique challenges for real-word error correction. This research aimed to develop an innovative approach for detecting and correcting spelling errors in Persian clinical text.MethodsOur strategy employs a state-of-the-art pre-trained model that has been meticulously fine-tuned specifically for the task of spelling correction in the Persian clinical domain. This model is complemented by an innovative orthographic similarity matching algorithm, PERTO, which uses visual similarity of characters for ranking correction candidates.ResultsThe evaluation of our approach demonstrated its robustness and precision in detecting and rectifying word errors in Persian clinical text. In terms of non-word error correction, our model achieved an F1-Score of 90.0% when the PERTO algorithm was employed. For real-word error detection, our model demonstrated its highest performance, achieving an F1-Score of 90.6%. Furthermore, the model reached its highest F1-Score of 91.5% for real-word error correction when the PERTO algorithm was employed.ConclusionsDespite certain limitations, our method represents a substantial advancement in the field of spelling error detection and correction for Persian clinical text. By effectively addressing the unique challenges posed by the Persian language, our approach paves the way for more accurate and efficient clinical documentation, contributing to improved patient care and safety. Future research could explore its use in other areas of the Persian medical domain, enhancing its impact and utility.

Automatic real-word error correction in persian text

Automatic real-word error correction in persian text

Cultural Perspectives in English Translation: The Story of Crow and Snake From Panchatantra

The problem is that although the culture and language are blended, the linguistic elements sometimes roughly demonstrate cultural dimensions in translated products. In other words, a cultural translation usually demands an understanding of linguistic i.e. culturally bound terms and expressions as well as extra-linguistic elements including cultural ones. Since literature is a nation’s cultural resource, the issue becomes even more complicated when literary translation is being involved. To our knowledge, there is no original Panchatantra left in India and all we have today are translations in different languages. To this end, the Persian version has always been considered the source text since the book was first translated into Persian in 550 CE. Therefore, the English translation of the story Crow and Snake is selected from Panchatantra as the target text and investigated employing Bassnett and Lefevere’s (1992) Cultural Theory with a focus on interpretive Discourse Analysis (DA) as analytical frameworks. The Persian text is the translation of Monshi, reprinted in 2010 and the English translation was done by Ryder in 1925. The findings reveal that the relationship between language and culture still remains complicated, and yet the lack of cultural understanding among the translators leads to violation and distortion of the intended messages and meanings embedded in source texts. It is quite safe then to say that the lack of cultural knowledge highly influences the translation

The potential impact of intralingual translation of Persian everyday legal texts on average citizens

ABSTRACT The everyday life of citizens involves dealing with legal documents. In Iran, the special features of Persian legal language make this particularly challenging and time-consuming. The study presented in this article investigates the effectiveness of intralingual translation in simplifying Persian legal language, to (a) reduce the time required to read, (b) increase understanding and (c) increase confidence in signing legal documents. Three prevalent Persian legal texts were selected and an intralingual translation of the texts was carried out. Then, a questionnaire was designed, piloted and administered to a sample of 20 participants, to determine the time needed to read and understand the three texts and their intralingual translations, as well as their confidence to sign the documents. To control the variable of repeated reading, a control group of 20 participants was asked to read the original twice, without reading the simplified version. The findings support the hypothesis that intralingual translations of legal texts used by citizens in their daily life reduces the time required to read and understand them and increases the degree of confidence to sign them. This study encourages the use of intralingual translations to simplify legal texts for the benefit of regular citizens.

Persian Translation Study On Arabic Story Of The Collared Dove In Kalila and Dimna/ دراسة الفکر السائد علی قصة الحمامة المطوقة في کلیلة ودمنة وترجمتها الفارسية

“Kalila and Dimna” is considered one of the most famous international literary heritages that has been welcomed by various peoples, as we find that it has been translated into various languages in the world. In this comparative study, the researchers attempt to uncover the differences between the Arabic text of the story “The ring-necked dove” and its translation in Persian, seeking to reveal the contingent additions to that story and the role of culture in the change made by Nasrallah Munshi to the text, relying on the theory of “Framing” by Mona Baker. Due to the presence of some differences between the various versions of Kalila and Dimna, the researchers decided to rely on the version issued by Abd al-Wahhab Azzam and Taha Hussein, while the Persian version relied upon is a version explained by “Mojtaba Minavi,” issued by the University of Tehran Publisher. The story that researchers are focusing on analyzing its translation includes a flock of pigeons falling into a trap The story that the researchers are focusing on analyzing its translation includes a story of a flock of pigeons falling into a trap, but through cooperation with others, they are able to remove the trap, going to a rat to help them. In this study, which was conducted using a descriptive-analytical approach, the Arabic text was compared with its Persian translation to reveal the additions to the Persian text. Then, the researchers tried to uncover the translator’s possible justifications for adding new parts to the text. The results that the researchers reached indicate that Ibn Muqaffa holds the ring-necked dove responsible for what happened to the flock of pigeons because she (the ring-necked dove) was their leader, but the translator (Nasrallah Munshi) tried to reframe the story so that he could exonerate the ring-necked dove and direct responsibility to the flock of pigeons without the ring-necked dove. On the other hand, between the lines of the Arabic text, there is an emphasis on the necessity of cooperation in order to get rid of disasters, but in the Persian text, we find an insistence on values such as sacrifice and altruism, as well as the role that lack of attention to the leader’s orders plays in the occurrence of disasters and misfortunes, as well as the effect of the wisdom that the leader possesses in That's it, people. In other words, the translator is trying to exaggerate the role of the leader in saving his nation. While Ibn Muqaffa tries to focus on the role of cooperation in achieving this salvation. This study helps researchers know the differences in Arabic stories and their translation into various international languages while introducing the Arab literary heritage to students.

Moral sensitivity of nursing students: a systematic review

BackgroundMoral sensitivity is an essential criterion for nurses' professional competence, and it is effective in professional performance and the development of communication between nurse and patient. According to several definitions of moral sensitivity in nursing texts, each of them has examined moral sensitivity from a different aspect, and there are still uncertainties in the field of moral sensitivity of nursing students. Therefore, to clarify the characteristics and dimensions of the concept of moral sensitivity of nursing students, we used the method of concept analysis.GoalTo clarify and define moral sensitivity of nursing students.MethodFor this systematic review, ten databases (PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Emerald, Springer, Proquest (open access), ERIC, SID, Irandoc, Magiran) were searched. They were published between 1990 and 2020. Inclusion criteria were having access to the full text of the article, types of studies (quantitative, qualitative, concept analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis) related to the attributes, antecedents, and consequences of nursing students' moral sensitivity, medical students' moral sensitivity and Ethics education, articles being published in scientific journals in English or Persian language, texts published in non-peer-reviewed journals and letters to the editor were excluded from the data analysis. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool 2018 and Prisma ScR Checklist 2020. Rodger's evolutionary concept analysis was used to conduct this study.ResultsFrom 361 articles, 38 were included. The results showed moral sensitivity in nursing students improves through specialized ethical knowledge and presence in educational and professional settings. The attributes consist of honest and benevolent communication, compassionate professional practice, intuitive perceiving moral challenges, awareness of the responsibilities and moral consequences of decisions. The moral sensitivity of nursing students improves the quality of nursing care and the effective management of ethical challenges.ConclusionResults can help develop nursing education theories and programs, design appropriate tools to evaluate this concept, and increase the quality of care and management of moral challenges in society and health systems.LimitationThis research has only examined Persian and English texts; also, accessing all the international databases was impossible, and more investigation in this field is required.

Mādayān ī Wīrāzagān: a newly discovered Middle Persian text: transliteration, transcription, and translation

AbstractIn 2017, the editio princeps of a newly discovered Middle Persian text, the “Mādayān ī Wīrāzagān” or simply “Wīrāzagān”, was published by Raham Asha. This text, which is important not only from a literary and religious perspective, but also from a mythological point of view, was previously unknown to the scholarly community. The Middle Persian original of the text is found in the Codex TD 26 (49r-62v), preserved in the library of the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai. The manuscript was first discovered and studied by R. Asha in March 2011. The preliminary remarks on the Mādayān ī Wīrāzagān and other texts contained in the Codex TD 26 (Ms. R 494) were published in 2012 in the journal of the same institution. Here I present a translation (accompanied by the transliteration and transcription) of the original text published on pages 3–16 of Asha's book.

Persian in the Lands of Rum: Texts, Translations and Courtly Patronage

Persian texts composed in Anatolia both in the pre-Ottoman and Ottoman periods have received scant scholarly attention, and Persian remains perceived as an alien language. This article presents an overview of Persian in Anatolia and the Ottoman empire from the twelfth to nineteenth centuries. It argues that in the medieval period Persian texts were more widely disseminated than is often assumed, and goes on to analyse the changing fate of Persian over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the reasons for its eclipse by Turkish. Finally, it presents manuscript evidence to suggest that even in the later Ottoman period, Persian was far from being restricted to a source of literary models.

Indonesia, Islam, and Literature: Phenomenal Popularity of Sastra Islami

The goals of this paper are determined by the relevance of Islam in the light of modern Indonesian culture. For the first time in Russian oriental studies, an attempt has been made to determine the specifics of some literary texts that Indonesians call Muslim (literally “Islamic”) literature or sastra islami, which has been in demand for the local book market for two decades. The demand for this literature comes from the “observing” Muslim public of Indonesia, and is quite easily explained by the long period of neglecting the role of Islam in the sociopolitical life of the country. After the fall of the Suharto regime (since 1998), Islam gradually transformed from a marginalized subculture to its mainstream status, slowly displacing the liberal pro-feminist cluster of sastra wangi literature which was on top of its popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Along with the strengthening of religious discourse, “new classic” works of certain engaged authors help the self-identification of some Indonesian youth (this is especially noticeable among the female audience) through the Muslim metanarrative. The phenomenon of sastra islami is widespread, and its commercial success is confirmed not only by the circulation of numerous re-releases, but also by box-office film adaptations. The main sources for this paper are two novels by the popular Indonesian writer Habiburrahman El Shirazy, also known as Kang Abik (“Verses of Love”, 2004 and “Land of Love”, 2005), the novel used as an additional source is “The Sinking of the ‘Van der Wijk’” (1938) by Haji Abdullah Malik Karim Amrullah, also known as Hamka (an abbreviation of his full name). Significant novels of these authors became “new classic” examples of Muslim modification of mass literature. In its core these books unfold fascinating stories about young Indonesians in outstanding circumstances, according to main plot structure all the good heroes who follow the path of Islam are rewarded, and the unrighteous ones are punished. Constant retelling of the al-Quran and the Hadiths by the characters of the novels helps to popularize the sacred texts for the common reader. Film adaptations provide proselytizing activity — attracting new audiences and involving them in the world of Islam. The main conclusion of this paper is that sastra islami is both a phenomenon of Indonesian pop-culture and strong element of the cultural identity of Muslim Indonesians, since the principle of adab literature “entertaining means teaching” dates back to the times of the entry of Islam into the world of Nusantara and since the very same times of adaptions of the traditional Arabic and Persian texts.

Джинны и дивы как «чужие»: демонизация образа врага в классической мусульманской традиции и ее истоки

The present paper analyzes the origins of certain motifs of demonizing the “other” in classical Islamic tradition. It reveals the main trends in the development of this mythologem based off of textual analysis. The material for the analysis is a body of Arabic and Persian texts of different genres: history (al-Tabari, al-Juwayni, Khvandamir, Sharaf al-Din Bidlisi), geography ('adja’ib), folklore (“The Thousand and One Nights”), epic poetry (Firdawsi, Nizami), and theological literature (Muhammad al-Tusi). Motifs such as the hero marching to a land infested by demonic enemies and demonizing black people date back to Indo-Iranian tradition. A powerful enemy is often associated with a demon. This comparison emphasizes his superhuman fighting qualities. The most representative case is the demonizing of formidable conquerors, such as the Mongols. Demonizing the enemy is particularly frequent in official chronicles from the Timurid period onward. Comparison with demons had become an important component of Muslim ethics by the 14th and 15th centuries. Demonizing the outsiders can actually be seen most clearly in the visual arts: from pre-Islamic monumental painting in Central Asia to book miniatures. The most illustrative example is the depiction of demons in the paintings of Siyah Qalam. The author declares no conflict of interests.

Belief Mining in Persian Texts Based on Deep Learning and Users' Opinions (revised December 2022)

Belief mining and the study of public opinion provide valuable information. Analyzing the feelings and belief mining of social media data leads to understanding users' opinions and has wide applications in decision making and policymaking. This article applies a new method based on deep learning to solve the problems of belief mining for Persian comments on the Twitter. In this method, first, the data is preprocessed with a deep neural network and then classified into political, cultural, economic, and sports classes, and the sentimental polarity is obtained. SentiPers is applied on four different datasets from Persian Twitter, Digikala store, Google translator, and synonym for evaluation. Then the results are compared with other machine learning and deep learning methods such as neural network, support vector machine, DNN, CNN, and LSTM. Python software has been used to implement this method. The accuracy of the proposed word embedding method for LSTM, CNN, DNN on the SentiPres dataset is 0.931, 0.923, 0.916 respectively. For the TF-IDF method, it is 0.837, 0.863, 0.883 respectively. that the accuracy of LSTM-WSD, CNN-WSD model has increased by 8% and 6% compared to TF-IDF. The results show that the LSTM and Word embedding methods work best.

«Мы дадим прочесть тебе, и ты не забудешь!» (Коран, 87: 6). Рассказ о казанском хане и ловком везире

Purpose of the study: To analyze the text and present a translation of the latifeh anecdote about the clever vizier of the Kazan Khan. Research materials: The archive of Rizaetdin Fakhretdin. Results and scientific novelty of the study: the study is based on the publication and translation of the text, an anecdote – latifeh – about the clever vizier of the Kazan Khan who escaped death with the help of a cunning reading of an unvoiced Persian text in Arabic. The latifeh has been preserved in the archive and with a high degree of probability belongs to the pen of a very prolific poet and highly educated representative of the Muslim clergy of the Volga-Ural region, ‘Ali Chokry ((1827/28–1889). The list presented for research is currently stored in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy Sciences in St. Petersburg. It is in its composition that the published anecdote is stored. This anecdote about “Sonkor-bik Kalanis” is also of Persian origin, since it arose in a Turkic environment where Farsi was well known. Perhaps it refers to the era of the Kazan Khanate, but we have no information about the existence in that state of the position of vizier under the khan. However, as an example of playing on words of an anecdotal nature, this story could well have appeared in the Volga region in the early Middle Ages. After all, it is based on the difference in reading the Arabic language and Turkic speech recorded in Arabic script. The Turks and Arabs faced this problem as soon as Islam penetrated the Turkic environment and their acquaintance with the Koran began. Thus, the “Latifeh about the Kazan Khan and his Vizier” is not just an interesting and funny anecdote, but an instructive philological puzzle that came to the mind of a sophisticated connoisseur of the three major languages of Islam – Arabic, Farsi, and Turkic.

The Behistun inscription (c.520 bce): Portuguese translation from the old Persian text, critical introduction and commentaries

A inscrição monumental Aquemênida no monte Behistun (Bisitun), na província iraniana do Kermanshah (oeste do Irã), narra a versão oficial da ascensão de Dario ao poder na Pérsia Antiga. Em três línguas e grafias (persa antigo, elamita e acadiano), este inestimável documento histórico foi essencial para a decifração do cuneiforme no século XIX. Ele também se prestou à reconstrução da história do Império Aquemênida, anteriormente conhecida mormente graças aos relatos das fontes gregas e bíblicas. Devido à relevância e singularidade da Inscrição de Behistun, propõe-se uma tradução direta do persa antigo para o português, ampliando o acesso do público leigo e especializado ao documento. Comentários históricos abordando as principais discussões relativas à inscrição acompanham o texto.

A corpus of Persian literary text

Persian poetry has profoundly affected all periods of Persian literature and the literature of other countries as well. It is a fundamental vehicle for expressing Persian culture and political opinion. This paper presents a corpus of Persian literary text mainly focusing on poetry, covering the ninth to twenty-first century annotated for century and style, with additional partial annotation of rhetorical figures. Our resource is the largest and the most diverse corpus available in Persian literary text, with a particularly broad temporal scope. This allows us to conduct several computational experiments to analyze poetic styles, authors and time periods, as well as context shifts over time, for which we rely both on supervised models and on Persian poetry-specific heuristics. The corpus, the tools, and experiments described in this paper can be used not only for digital humanities studies of Persian literature but also for processing Persian texts in general, as well as in other broader cross-linguistic applications.

Correcting spelling mistakes in Persian texts with rules and deep learning methods

This study aims to develop a system for automatically correcting spelling errors in Persian texts using two approaches: one that relies on rules and a common spelling mistake list and another that uses a deep neural network. The list of 700 common misspellings was compiled, and a database of 55,000 common Persian words was used to identify spelling errors in the rule-based approach. 112 rules were implemented for spelling correction, each providing suggested words for misspelled words. 2500 sentences were used for evaluation, with the word with the shortest Levenshtein distance selected for evaluation. In the deep learning approach, a deep encoder-decoder network that utilized long short-term memory (LSTM) with a word embedding layer was used as the base network, with FastText chosen as the word embedding layer. The base network was enhanced by adding convolutional and capsule layers. A database of 1.2 million sentences was created, with 800,000 for training, 200,000 for testing, and 200,000 for evaluation. The results showed that the network's performance with capsule and convolutional layers was similar to that of the base network. The network performed well in evaluation, achieving accuracy, precision, recall, F-measure, and bilingual evaluation understudy (Bleu) scores of 87%, 70%, 89%, 78%, and 84%, respectively.

CEO overconfidence and financial reporting complexity: evidence from textual analysis

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between the Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) overconfidence and financial reporting complexity in Iran, a context characterized by weak corporate governance and heightened managerial discretion.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 1,445 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2021. CEO overconfidence (CEOOC) is evaluated using an investment-based index, specifically capital expenditures. Financial reporting complexity (Complexity) is measured through textual features, particularly three readability measures (Fog, SMOG and ARI) extracted from annual financial statements. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is employed to test the research hypothesis.FindingsResults suggest that CEOOC is positively related to Complexity, leading to reduced readability. Additionally, robustness analyses demonstrate that the relationship between CEOOC and Complexity is more distinct and significant for firms with lower profitability than those with higher profitability. This implies that overconfident CEOs in underperforming firms tend to increase complexity. Also, firms with better financial performance present a more positive tone in their annual financial statements, reflecting their superior performance. The findings remain robust to alternative measures of CEOOC and Complexity and are consistent after accounting for endogeneity issues using firm fixed-effects, propensity score matching (PSM), entropy balancing approach and instrumental variables method.Research limitations/implicationsThis study adds to the literature by delving into the effect of CEOs' overconfidence on financial reporting complexity, a facet not thoroughly investigated in prior studies. The paper pioneers the use of textual analysis techniques on Persian texts, marking a unique approach in financial reporting and a first for the Persian language. However, due to the inherent challenges of text mining and feature extraction, the results should be approached with caution.Practical implicationsThe insights from this study can guide investors in understanding the potential repercussions of CEOOC on financial reporting complexity. This will assist them in making informed investment decisions and monitoring the financial reporting practices of their invested companies. Policymakers and regulators can also reference this research when formulating policies to enhance financial reporting quality and ensure capital market transparency. The innovative application of textual analysis in this study might spur further research in other languages and contexts.Originality/valueThis research stands as the inaugural study to explore the relationship between CEOs' overconfidence and financial reporting complexity in both developed and developing capital markets. It thereby broadens the extant literature to include diverse capital market environments.

Sülûk-ü Tarîkat: Erken Modern Hindistan’dan Bir Nakşbendî Metni

This article presents the first complete English translation of a major Persian text on Sufi meditation and cosmology: the towering eighteenth century Naqshbandī Indian Sufi master and poet Mirzā Maẓhar Jān-i Jānān’s (d. 1781) Sulūk-i Ṭarīqa (The Conduct of the Sufi Path). Composed in 1760, at the centerpiece of this text is the encounter between the realm of divine reality, prophetic authority, and the practice and conduct of the Sufi practitioner, especially in relation to the journey through the subtle spiritual centers or laṭā’if.