Namaeh Farhangistan

Namaeh Farhangistan

Soil-Sprinkling on Letters

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Iman Mansoub-Basiri 1
Hassan Ziari 2
1 Associate Professor of Romance Languages ​​and Literatures, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Persian Language and Literature Teacher, Shahid Kabiri Goldasht Middle School, Isfahan, Iran
10.22034/nf.2024.387622.1243
Abstract
Letter-writing, in ancient times, had special rituals that have been forgotten today. Some of these rituals are common among different cultures, and others are seen only in one cultural context. In the present research, the authors specially have dealt with the ritual of sprinkling the soil on the letter in Persian literature. One of the characteristics of this ritual is that it is unparalleled in the field of literary evidence and only discernible in the area of Iranian culture: in other cultures that have a very long tradition of letter writing no evidence of this tradition was found not only in the field of literature but also in cultural and historical evidences. As shown in the article, the custom of »sprinkling soil on letters« has been widespread among the Semitic and Iranian peoples, and it has been observed and used not only for letters in the strict sense of the word, but sometimes even in writing »petitions«. The authors of this research have tried to investigate the custom of sprinkling soil on letters in a compact way and based on various evidences in Persian language and literature. This essay attempts to analyze the custom of sprinkling soil and throwing letters on the ground in literary works in different eras based on numerous evidences that have emerged from targeted readings as well as notes and random researches.
Keywords
Letter, soil-sprinkling, throwing letters on the ground, Persian literature, letter-writing rituals

Subjects

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Namaeh Farhangistan
Volume 24, Issue 4 - Serial Number 98
September and October 2025
Pages 83-94

  • Receive Date 27 February 2023
  • Revise Date 23 March 2023
  • Accept Date 22 May 2023