Literature History of Iran

It is the name of an English book by the English orientalist “Edward Brown” on Persian literature and Persian writers’ and poets’ biographies. Brown is the first person who considered the historical evolution of literature in a critical and analytical form. He made an effort to present Iranians’ history as well as their cultural life. according to Persian literature. Therefore he named his work “literature history of Iran”, instead of “Persian literature”.

The book structure
####Most of the book topics are extracted from the western and Iranian scholars’ work and the manuscripts and sources in the libraries in Iran, England and other European countries. It is compiled in four volumes as follows:
1- From the early times up to Ferdowsi’s (famous Iranian epic poet): The literature history of Iran, the pre-Islamic history, from the Islamic history up to Qaznavids (name of a dynasty), the Islamic culture in Iran, founding the philosophical, theological and intellectual sects.
2- From Ferdowdsi up to Sadi (celebrated Iranian poet): it considers the principles of poetry critique and different kinds of Persian poems, the political and social situations in Ian in the 11th century, topics on Ferdowsi, Avicenna and some other poets, Saljuqid (name of a dynasty) and Mongol history.
3- Mongols era, the correspondences between the Mongol kings and the Western emperors, introducing the historians and geographers and also the important Persian and Arabic books written in this field, topics on Sufism literature and poetry about Hurufiya (unorthodox Muslim sect of gnostic-cabalistic tendencies founded by Fazl Allah Hurufi, 1340 – 1394, of Astarabad in Iran)
4- The historical evolutions and social, political and literary situations in Safavid, Afsharid, Zandiya and Qajar era, the advent of Sfavid dynasty and Shi’ism in Iran, topics on Uzbeks in the East, the decay of Safavids, the political and social situations in time of Qajars, the religious, cultural and literary situations: the Iranian and Indian poets in time of Sfavids, Shi’I literature and the Shia writers, Babism and Bahaism literature, religious poets, etc.

The book is translated into Persian many times and all the four volumes have been published from 1954 to 1990. It was also published in England from 1902 to 1924.