Spring 2025 Course
Introduction to Classical Persian Prose
Sign up below for the Spring Term! Registration closes April 11th.
Course Description
From historical writing and travel memoirs to mystical treatises and humorous anecdotes, the prose literature in Classical Persian is a rich and varied tradition. These works are central to the history not just of Iran, but encompass the broader Persianate sphere of Central Asia, India and the Ottoman Empire.
Through selected passages from the great works of Classical Persian prose, students will gain an appreciation for this literature and gain confidence in reading Classical Persian texts. Some of the works we will be looking at include:
- The early historical work, theTarikh-e Beyhaqi
- Nasir-i Khusraw’s Books of Travels (Safarnama)
- The mirror for princes known as the Qabusnama
- Attar’s Sufi biographical dictionary, the Tazkirat al-Awliya
- Hujwiri’s Sufi manual the Kashf al-Mahjub
- The Gulistan of Saadi
- The chronicle of Akbar’s reign known as the Akbarnama
Texts will be read in their original Persian, but class discussion will be in English.
Details
- Cost: $99
- Class meets Sundays at 2 pm Eastern Time (US)
- Class meets once a week for 10 sessions
- Class begins April 13th and ends on June 22nd
- Recording available for students who can’t attend live.
- Course materials will be provided by instructor
Prerequisites
At least one year (two semesters) of modern Persian.
Instructor
Dr. Leila Seyed-Ghasem holds a Ph.D. in Persian Language and Literature from the University of Tehran. Her doctoral dissertation, titled “The Rhetoric of Syntactic Structures in the History of Bayhaqī,” received the distinction of Best Doctoral Dissertation in Persian Language and Literature in 2013. A revised version of the dissertation was published as a book and subsequently awarded the Iranian Book of the Year Award in the category of literary criticism. Her research interests extend to the field of balāgha and its connections to modern linguistics. Her studies on this topic have been published in esteemed Persian peer-reviewed journals. She is a cofounder of joyofpersian.com for teach