"The Persian MâR-Nâmeh Or, the Book for Taking Omens from Snakes" (1892)

(publicdomainreview.org)

53 points | by Thevet 3 days ago ago

9 comments

  • georgefrowny 31 minutes ago

    Just another reminder of the absolutely massive public benefit that the Internet Archive represents.

    Just wish they'd make the metadata crowd-sourced, maybe a tie-up with Wikidata.

  • shervinafshar 9 hours ago

    > How, one should rightly ask, could a khrafstar like the snake possibly be associated with good fortune?

    For a while a running joke in Persian Wikipedia community was to call software "bugs", _khrafstar_s.

    • sfRattan 5 hours ago

      The use of "bug" for engineering defect (a use that predates software by around a century) shares Middle English etymology with bugbear and bugaboo, both of which relate to evil spirits/creatures and annoyances. Khrafstar is not unreasonable as a translation.

  • Razengan 7 hours ago

    I wish there were more games based on Persian lore.

    Like how Al-Qadim was an Arabian-themed setting for D&D.

    • pazimzadeh 5 hours ago

      Or just more movies about the Persians, where they’re not evil etc..

      • brunorsini 4 hours ago

        Go straight to the source, Iranian cinema is awesome and widely available.

        An easy starter is last year's "It Was Just an Accident", which was nominated for a couple of Oscars. It goes from being hilarious to offering a deep reflection on vengeance vs reparation.

        Kiarostami and Farhadi are also two great directors to explore.

    • PetitPrince an hour ago

      Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a very solid metroidvania that nails the cultural aspect. There's even a well produced farsi dub!