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FEUVRIER, JEAN-BAPTISTE, called Joannès (b. Saulx, near Vesoul, Haute-Saône, France, 6 October 1842; d. Saulx, 29 November 1926; Figure 1), French military physician, Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah’s personal physician from August 1889 to October 1892, and author of a travelogue, Trois ans à la cour de Perse. The only son of François…

FEVZİ (FAWZĪ) EFENDİ, MEḤMED, Ottoman author who wrote some books in Persian (b. Tavas district of Denizli province, 1826; d. Istanbul, 28 Rabīʿ II 1318/25 August 1900). Fevzi Efendi studied with a number of scholars, including Evliyâzâde Ali Rızâ (Awlīyāʾzada ʿAlī-Reżā) Efendi in Manisa. Fevzi Efendi was appointed mufti of…

FEVZİ (FAWZĪ) MOSTĀRĪ (d. 1160/1747), author of the Bolbolestān, an imitation of Saʿdī’s Golestān, the only prose work written in Persian known to be by a Bosnian author. Born at Blagaj, some 10 km to the southeast of Mostar in Herzegovina, in the second half of the 11th/17th century, Fevzi…

FEYLĪ, group of Lor tribes located mainly in Luristan. During the two centuries in which the whole of Luristan was ruled by hereditary wālīs (descended from Ḥosayn Khan Solvīzī, appointed by Shah ʿAbbās I in 1006/1597-98) all the tribes in the region were called Feylī, but, at the beginning of…

FEYLĪ DIALECT. See LORĪ.

FICTION. i. Traditional Forms. ii. Modern Fiction. ii(a). Historical Background. ii(b). The Novel. ii(c). The Short Story. ii(d). The Post-Revolutionary Short Story. ii(e). Post-Revolutionary Fiction Abroad. ii(f). By Persians in Non-Persian Languages. ii(g). In Afghanistan. ii(h). In Tajikistan.  

FICTION. i. TRADITIONAL FORMS This article deals with all kinds of stories written for specifically literary purposes up to the time when narrative prose in the modern style, derived from the West, was introduced in Persia. Excluded from this survey are folklore and fairy tales, unless they play a part…

FICTION ii(a). HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF MODERN FICTION The long reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1848-96) and the Constitutional Revolution a decade after his death witnessed the gradual emergence of modern fiction in Persia. Several social and historical landmarks, most notably in education and journalism, had a direct effect on the development…

FICTION ii(b). THE NOVEL Literary history does not usually follow the smooth path of an evolutionary process. Some writers limit themselves to period pieces, and others write books whose latent significance becomes apparent decades later. Both creative development and the longevity of some authors, as in the case of Moḥammad-ʿAlī…

FICTION ii(c). THE SHORT STORY Historically, the modern Persian short story has undergone three stages of development: a formative period, a period of consolidation and growth, and a period of diversity. FORMATIVE PERIOD The formative period was ushered in by Moḥammad-ʿAlī Jamālzāda’s collection Yak-ī būd yak-ī nabūd (1921; tr. H….

FICTION ii(d). THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY SHORT STORY As an independent genre, rather than as a novel in miniature, the post-revolutionary short story is marked by its formal sophistication and has carved out a distinct and experimental space of its own in fiction. The immediacy of the genre was exploited in recording…

FICTION ii(e). POST-REVOLUTIONARY FICTION ABROAD Not only were the novel and short story imported genres, it should be noted that the very first works of Persian fiction, including Āḵūndzāda’s Setāragān-e farīb ḵorda and Sīāḥat-nāma-ye Ebrāhīm Beg by Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn Marāḡaʾī, and later works such as Hedāyat’s Būf-e kūr, were either written…

FICTION ii(f). BY PERSIANS IN NON-PERSIAN LANGUAGES Persian fiction is not limited to works written in the Persian language, or to works written within the geographical boundaries of Persia herself. Many Persians who have left their homeland for a variety of reasons and lived abroad for a long time, have…

FICTION ii(g). IN AFGHANISTAN The introduction of modern fiction in Afghanistan was concomitant with the institution of new educational and literary organizations, namely the Ḥabībīya School and Anjoman-e adabī, and the publication of the bi-weekly Serāj al-aḵbār-e afḡānīya, edited by Maḥmūd Ṭarzī, in the early twentieth century. In addition to editorials,…