German scholar seeks bests of Iranian history- culture at TIBF

1393/02/15-11:51

 Visiting the 27th Tehran International Book Fair, the German professor of Iranian studies, Ulrich Marzolph said that due to his deep fascination with the Iranian history and culture, he is searching for the best works on these subjects.

Speaking to IBNA, Marzolph described his personal interest to the Iranian history: “My major field of study is the Iranian culture and literature, of course it is not limited to the contemporary literature, but the literature of Iran in the course of history.”
“When I consider a popular story, I will be so engaged in finding its historical origins, I'm fascinated to know what is the historical background of the story. In fact, I have always been interested in discovering the historical environment where such stories emerged,” he said.
“The historic aspect of popular stories knows no definite limitation, for example when the Qajar dynasty ruled over Iran, many popular stories were published, but some other ones dates back to the Safavid era, that's why my historical studies are centered on these two eras” Marzolph added. 
Elsewhere in his remarks, the German scholar pointed to the arrival of lithography and typography to Iran and said: “in the Qajar era when typography came for the first time to Iran, it was not welcomed. Shortly earlier, the other method of printing, photography had been introduced to the Iranians by Austrian professional. This method enabled the manuscript versions to be printed, therefore it was welcomed and became important for the Iranians.”
“Almost 15 years ago Iranian specialists and librarians realize that they have to provide more information about the number and titles of lithograph books. As a result, measures were being taken for providing and publishing the list of these books, but unfortunately their achievements have not been so much considerable,” Marzolph suggested. 
He referred to his last book which is being displayed at the 27th Tehran International Book Fair titled: ‘Narrative Illustration in Persian Lithographed Books’ printed by the Nazar Publication.
It's more than 20 years that Ulrich Marzolph have studied on the Iranian popular stories producing many essays on this subject such as: “The Shahnama in Print: Lithographed Editions of the Persian National Epic”; “The Pictorial Representation of Shiite Themes in Lithographed Books of the Qajar Period”; “Social Values in the Persian Popular Romance ‘Salim-i Javahiri”; “Marginal Miniatures: The Teheran edition of Damiri's Hayat al-Hayawan (1285/1868)”; “The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: The Survival of Ancient Iranian Ethical Concepts in Persian Popular Narratives of the Islamic Period”; “Illustrated Exemplary Tales: A Nineteenth Century Edition of the Classical Persian Proverb Collection Jame' al-Tamsilmore”, etc.