<p>According to the Syriac <italic>Acts of the Persian Martyrs</italic>, the Sasanian king Shapur II began persecuting Christians in Persia soon after Constantine's death in 337 CE. Previous studies of the <italic>Acts</italic> (and related material) set Shapur's persecution within the context of Constantine's support for Christianity in the Roman Empire. Religious allegiances are said to have been further amplified during the Roman-Persian war over Rome's Mesopotamian provinces that followed Constantine's death. According to most interpretations, by the mid-fourth century <italic>Christianitas</italic> had become coextensive with <italic>Romanitas</italic>: Persian Christians were persecuted because they worshipped Caesar's god and, thereby, allied themselves with Rome. </p><p>By contrast, this dissertation reconsiders Christian historical narratives, the rhetorical and identity-shaping nature of the martyrological genre, and assumptions about the clear divisions of religious groups in late antiquity. Although the notion of Christianity as a "Roman" religion can be found in some of the historiography of persecution in Persia, our knowledge about Christians in fourth-century Persia is a harmonized event history woven from a tapestry of vague and conflicting sources that often exhibit later religious, political, and hagiographical agendas. </p><p> </p><p>To demonstrate how Shapur's persecution came to be interpreted as the result of religious changes within the Roman Empire, the dissertation first reconsiders how Constantine is imagined as a patron of the Christians of Persia in Syriac and Greek sources. The second part looks at the ways by which constructed imperial ideals territorialized "religion" in the post-Constantinian era. Finally, the third part presents the first English translations of the <italic>Martyrdom and History of Simeon bar Sabba'e</italic>, a fourth-century Persian bishop whose martyr acts are central to the historiography of the period.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to investigate the possible influence of Persian religion on dualism in Jewish apocalyptic literature, with particular attention to 1 Enoch. Many studies have been conducted on Jewish apocalyptic, although relatively few studies concentrate on Persian religious influence. One of the main reasons for this is the problematic dating of Persian sources, all of which appear to date to a later period than the Jewish apocalyptic texts they are suspected of influencing. Scholars who believe in the antiquity of the traditions underlying the Persian texts, such as Boyce, Otzen and Silverman, tend to be positive about the possibility of influence, whereas scholars such as Hanson and VanderKam insist that the origins of apocalyptic traditions can be found within Jewish religion and Mesopotamian culture, respectively. The dualism between God and evil plays a central role in Jewish apocalyptic. This basic dualism manifests itself in various dualities and on four levels. Firstly, on the cosmic level God is pitted against an agent of darkness (Satan/Belial/Mastema/Azazel) and good angels oppose fallen angels or demons. Secondly, in the physical universe God manifests in order, whereas evil shows itself in every area where God’s order is transgressed. Thirdly, on an anthropological-ethical level, mankind is divided into the righteous and the wicked according to the path each individual chooses within himself. Finally, on an eschatological level, the evils of the present age are contrasted with a glorious future that will begin when the messiah has appeared and the final judgment, which is sometimes linked with a resurrection, has taken place. In order to calculate when this new age will dawn, apocalyptic writers divide history into periods. Each of the abovementioned aspects finds a parallel in Persian religious thought, which revolves around the dualism between Ahura Mazda/Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu/Ahriman. Each of the dualistic principles is supported by a host of divine beings and the battle involves nature and mankind, who are expected to choose a side. There is a strong messianic expectation, as well as a well-developed concept of a final judgment that involves resurrection, and the periodization of history is fundamental to the religion. This thesis attempts to trace the development of the abovementioned concepts in Jewish thinking, depending mainly on the Hebrew Bible as representative of ancient Israelite religion. Where discrepancies between Jewish apocalyptic and the ancient religion become evident, the possibility of Persian influence is considered. The investigation will show that each of the abovementioned aspects of the dualism between God and evil in Jewish apocalyptic contain traces of what might be the influence of Persian religion. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie tesis is om die moontlike invloed van Persiese godsdiens op die dualisme in Joodse apokaliptiek te ondersoek, met spesifieke verwysing na die Ethiopic Book of Enoch. ‘n Groot aantal studies is reeds uitgevoer rondom Joodse apokaliptiek, alhoewel relatief min daarvan fokus op die invloed van Persiese godsdiens. Een van die hoofredes hiervoor is die probleme rondom die datering van Persiese tekste, waarvan almal uit ‘n latere tydperk as die meeste Joodse apokaliptiese tekste blyk te dateer. Diegene wat vertroue het in die antiekheid van onderliggende tradisies in Persiese tekste, soos Boyce, Otzen en Silverman, is geneig om positief te wees oor die moontlikheid van invloed, terwyl ander soos Hanson en VanderKam daarop aandring dat die oorsprong van apokaliptiese tradisies te vinde is in Joodse godsdiens en die kultuur van Mesopotamië. Die dualisme tussen God en die bose speel ‘n sentrale rol in Joodse apokaliptiek. Hierdie basiese dualisme manifesteer in verskeie dualiteite en op vier vlakke. Eerstens, staan God op die kosmiese vlak teenoor ‘n agent van duisternis (Satan/Belial/Mastema/Azazel), en sit goeie engele slegte engele of demone teë. Tweedens manifesteer God in die orde van die fisiese heelal, terwyl die bose manifesteer in die oortreding van God se orde. Op die derde, antropologies-etiese vlak, is die mensdom verdeel tussen goed en kwaad op grond van die weg wat elke individu in homself kies. Laastens word die boosheid van die huidige era op die eskatologiese vlak gekontrasteer met die glorieryke toekoms, wat sal aanbreek wanneer die messias gekom het en die laaste oordeel, wat soms verband hou met ‘n opstanding, plaasgevind het. Apokaliptiese skrywers verdeel gereeld die wêreldgeskiedenis in tydperke om sodoende te bereken wanneer die toekomstige era sal aanbreek. Elkeen van die bogenoemde aspekte vind ‘n parallel in die Persiese godsdiens, wat gebaseer is op die dualisme tussen Ahura Mazda/Spenta Mainyu en Ahriman/Angra Mainyu. Elkeen word ondersteun deur ‘n leer van goddelike wesens en die stryd sluit die natuur en mensdom, van wie verwag word om ‘n kant te kies, in. Daar is ‘n sterk messiaanse verwagting, sowel as ‘n goed-ontwikkelde konsep van ‘n laaste oordeel, wat gepaard gaan met ‘n opstanding. Die verdeling van wêreldgeskiedenis in tydperke is ook fundamenteel tot die godsdiens. Hierdie tesis poog om die ontwikkeling van bogenoemde konsepte in die Joodse denkwyse na te volg en maak hoofsaaklike staat op die Hebreeuse Bybel as verteenwoordigend van oud-Israelitiese godsdiens. Waar diskrepansies tussen Joodse apokaliptiek en die antieke godsdiens vorendag kom, word die moontlikheid van Persiese invloed oorweeg. Die ondersoek sal toon dat elkeen van die bogenoemde aspekte van die dualisme tussen God en die bose in Joodse apokaliptiek moontlike tekens van Persiese invloed toon.

Investigation and research into the Persian Gardens, leading this project into a step that these World Heritage Sites might have been known as sustainable construction, but the fact that water scarcity of their region is a serious threaten for all these amazing Gardens. Thus, enhancing and improving these gardens by merging, adding and adapting todays technologies can make them considered as constructions with water and energy conservation design. Based on nowadays world environment concerns, recognizing renewable and non-renewable sources of energies in a region or site can cause a miracle. Since, almost all Persian Gardens located in regions with arid and semi-arid climate, water poverty as a biggest issue and nonrenewable energy should be included as a problematic concern. There are many available active and passive strategies that can be applied in these heritage sites which decrease water consumption either directly or indirectly. Such as water harvesting, greywater reuse, photovoltaic panels and material changes. Water known as a vital element of each garden for irrigation purposes, but in Persian Garden water is more than a functional element. Thus, finding a way to provide and recycle water beside the underground sources is necessary. Subterranean, springs and wells are resources of water for Persian gardens which renew so slowly or non-renew these days. Being so close to a city with considerable population lunches and idea of using greywater for irrigation in these gardens. In this research, the doable options for energy conservation design for these sites will be discussed, then comparing some case studies in all over world where greywater reusing water system for irrigation is happening will be next step. In conclusion, greywater reusing system in urban scale in order to irrigate a filed or garden will be investigate on a Shazdeh Garden as a main case study of this research.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis analyzes a range of possible future scenarios governing security conditions in the Persian Gulf, in order to determine future requirements for forward-deployed Naval forces in the region. Examination of the past 30 years of U.S. Naval activity in the Persian Gulf provides examples of a full spectrum of deployment options ranging from a nominal presence in the 1970's to the recent deployment of forces unmatched in naval history. Two contrasting scenarios, "best case" and "worst case" are proposed by way of establishing a framework to evaluate the naval presence requirements that may arise in the future. Factors that could effect naval presence in the Gulf are success or failure of nationbuilding in Iraq, the path Iran takes regarding weapons of mass destruction, the progress of the Global War on Terrorism and the perception of American forces by the Arab world. These scenarios reveal the need for sustained naval presence in order to meet the future trends in the Persian Gulf. The Navy's recently implemented Fleet Response Plan calls for "deployment for a purpose." The purpose of naval forces in the Persian Gulf is clear: to provide persistent maritime dominance, power projection and effective crisis response. / Lieutenant, United States Naval Reserve

Within days of a major failed strike by attack helicopters during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) analysts were questioning the value of such platforms on the modern battlefield. As OIF moved from combat to stability operations, helicopter losses from enemy action actually increased seemingly strengthening the argument of those who see the helicopter as unsuitable to some combat operations. Attack helicopter operations have diverged into two distinct categories, interdiction and close air support (CAS), since their inception. This thesis argues that attack helicopters are most suited to perform CAS while their employment in interdiction is problematic at best. Doctrine, tactics, and threat are studied as they applied in the Soviet-Afghan War, Desert Storm, and OIF in order to examine the issue across a range of time and types of warfare.

The modern Arabic term for national homeland, waṭan, derives its sense from the related yet semantically different usage of this term in classical Arabic, particularly in classical Arabic poetry. In modern usage, waṭan refers to a politically defined, visually memorialized territory whose expanse is cognized abstractly rather than through personal experience. The modern waṭan is the geopolitical locus of national identity. The classical notion of waṭan, however, is rarely given much geographical content, although it usually designates a relatively localized area on the scale of a neighborhood, town, or village. More important than geographical content is the subjective meaning of the waṭan, in the sense of its essential place in the psyche of an individual. The waṭan (also mawṭin, awṭān), both in poetry and other types of classical writing, is strongly associated with the childhood/youth and primary love attachments of the speaker. This sense of waṭan is thus temporally defined as much as spatially, and as such can be seen as an archetypal instance of the Bakhtinian chronotope, one intrinsically associated with nostalgia and estrangement. The waṭan, as the site of the classical self’s former plenitude, is by definition lost or transfigured and unrecoverable, becoming an attachment that must be relinquished for the sake of virtue and glory. This paper argues that the bivalency of the classical waṭan chronotope, recoverable through analysis of poetic and literary texts, allows us to understand the space and time of the self in classical Arabic literature and how this self differs from that presupposed by modern ideals of patriotism.

Consacrée à la réception en France de deux grands textes canoniques de la littérature persane, l’Avesta et le Shâh-Nâmeh (Livre des rois) de Ferdowsi, la thèse examine les circonstances de la publication de la traduction de l’Avesta par Anquetil-Duperron et les travaux critiques de William Jones sur cette entreprise, et analyse le débat entre ces deux chercheurs, et notamment l’implication de Voltaire dans cette vaste controverse et la contribution de Louis Langlès, qui a le premier révélé aux Français l’œuvre de Ferdowsi en 1788. Ensuite, notre recherche repose principalement sur l’étude des échanges de vues et correspondances des hommes de lettres de la période révolutionnaire, napoléonienne et romantique par rapport aux deux œuvres. Elle examine la place que tient le Shâh-Nâmeh dans le champ des études comparatistes, alors tout nouvellement défini en France par Jean-Jacques Ampère, et les discussions portant sur la valeur historique et poétique de l’œuvre dans le cadre de réflexions sur l’ancienneté et l’origine du monde. L’épopée persane intervient à plusieurs reprises dans les débats de la période concernant l’Antiquité, la chevalerie, et le genre même de l’épopée. Outre Ampère, Volney, Silvestre de Sacy et Sainte-Beuve sont les figures marquantes de cette étude ainsi que le rôle important joué par Mary Clarke et Helmina von Chézy. / Devoted to the reception in France of two great canonical texts of Persian literature, the Avesta and the Shâh-Nâmeh (Book of Kings) of Ferdowsi, the thesis examines the circumstances of the publication of the translation of the Avesta by Anquetil- Duperron and the critical works of William Jones on this company, and analyzes the debate between these two researchers, including the involvement of Voltaire in this vast controversy and the contribution of Louis Langles, who first revealed to the French the work of Ferdowsi in 1788. Next, our research is mainly based on the study of exchanges of views and correspondences of the men of letters of the revolutionary period, Napoleonic and romantic compared to the two works. It examines the place of Shâh-Nâmeh in the field of comparative studies, then newly defined in France by Jean-Jacques Ampère, and the discussions on the historical and poetic value of the work as part of reflections on antiquity and the origin of the world. The Persian epic is a part of the debates of antiquity, chivalry, and the genre of the epic. Besides Ampère, Volney, Silvestre de Sacy and Sainte-Beuve are the key figures of this study as well as the important role played by Mary Clarke and Helmina von Chézy.

O propósito desta dissertação é apresentar algumas idéias sobre o emprego das palavras relacionadas à visão no texto do Livro I das Histórias de Heródoto. O principal destaque é dado à relação entre ver e saber e as investigações de Heródoto. O segundo propósito, decorrente do primeiro, é verificar a importância dos oráculos no Livro I e buscar a relação (se existe) entre oráculos, sonhos, visões e a busca do conhecimento. / The purpose of this dissertation is to show some ideas about the use of words related to sight in the text of HerodotusHistories, Book I . The main focus is given to the existing relationship between seeing and knowing and Herodotus researches. The second purpose, built from the first one, is to evaluate the importance of oracles described in Book I and to seek the relationship of (if it exists) oracles, dreams, visions and the search for knowledge.

Essa tese tem por objetivo analisar as percepções gregas do Império Persa Aquemênida e outros impérios orientais enquanto entidades políticas, com ênfase sobre o olhar remoto de Heródoto. Em primeiro lugar, o autor resume o estado da pesquisa acadêmica sobre as Histórias de Heródoto e sobre as atitudes gregas em relação à Pérsia, num esforço de esclarecer a complexidade das relações greco-persas, que, de acordo com a pesquisa mais recente, não eram apenas hostis, mas repletas de receptividade. A seguir, o autor examina as ideias persa e assíria de império, bem como suas organizações imperiais concretas. Analisa-se demoradamente a iconografia real persa e conceitos políticos tais quais bumi- e xaça-, concluindo-se que estes poderiam veicular uma ideia inovadora de império, embora profundamente enraizada em tradições mesopotâmicas anteriores. Descreve-se a maneira como as fontes clássicas nomearam o império ao longo do tempo, com atenção particular à formulação de autores mais antigos como Heródoto, Ésquilo e Tucídides. O autor se esforça para explicar em cada caso o uso de hgemonía, arch e até mesmo pólis para designar o Império Persa. Por fim, o autor examina a terminologia de Heródoto usada para designar o Império Aquemênida e como ela demonstra uma estratégia de alusões e ressonâncias com implicações críticas quanto à política expansionista de Atenas. Propõe-se que Atenas incorporou as ideias persas de império, enquanto, paradoxalmente, denunciava sua violência e tirania internacional. Essa postura contraditória teve seus impactos sobre historiadores como Heródoto e Tucídides e é uma chave interpretativa instrutiva para as Histórias. / This thesis aims to analyze Greek perceptions of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and other Near Eastern empires taken as political entities, emphasizing the early look of Herodotus. The author first summarizes the state of scholarly research on Herodotus Histories and Greek attitudes towards Persia in an effort to clarify the complexity of Greco-Persian relations, which, according to the most recent research, were not only hostile, but also full of receptivity. The author examines next Assyrian and Persian ideas of empire and their concrete imperial organizations. One analyzes at length Persian royal iconography and political concepts such as bumi- and xaça-, concluding that these could convey an innovative idea of empire, albeit deeply rooted in older Mesopotamian traditions. One describes the way classical sources named the empire over time, with particular attention to the wording of early authors such as Herodotus, Aeschylus, and Thucydides. The author strives to explain in each case the use of hgemonía, arch, and even pólis to designate the Persian Empire. Finally, the author examines Herodotus terminology to name the Achaemenid Empire and how it conveys a strategy of allusions and resonances with critical overtones towards Athenian expansive policy. One proposes that Athens paradoxically incorporated Persian ideas of empire, while publicly denouncing Persian violence and international tyranny. This contradictory stance had its impacts over historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides and it is an instructive interpretative key to the Histories.

O êxtase místico costuma ser estudado a partir da análise de rituais de incorporação, possessão de espiritos, transe de curanderia e outros processos que não raro envolvem música para propiciar estados alterados de consciência. Considerando que os rituais sufis integram música, dança e poesia com propósito extático, este trabalho aborda a relação entre a poesia e a dança mística em Rumi e Hafiz, propondo uma metodologia que utiliza noções de linguagem da dança para a análise de poemas. / The mystical ecstasy is usually studied from the analysis of rituals of incorporation, possession of spirits, trance curanderia and other processes that often involve music to provide altered states of consciousness. Whereas Sufi rituals integrate music, dance and poetry with purpose ecstatic, this work addresses the relationship between poetry and mystical dance in Rumi and Hafiz proposing a methodology that uses notions of dance language for analyzing poems.