“20 Proverbs 2”: A Narrative of Lori and Bakhtiari Legends and Oral Heritage

Ebrahim Makvandi, author and researcher of local culture, announced the publication of the book “20 Proverbs 2,” aimed at reviving Lori and Bakhtiari legends and oral narratives. The work is the product of years of collecting word-of-mouth accounts from elders, tribes, and villages across the region.

A new step in preserving the oral heritage of Zagros;

Ebrahim Makundi, a writer and researcher of indigenous culture, announced the publication of the book "20 Proverbs 2" with the aim of reviving the legends and oral narratives of Lor and Bakhtiari; A work that is the result of years of collecting side-by-side narrations from elders, nomads and different villages.

Ebrahim Makundi, writer, researcher, actor, theater director and journalist, announced the publication of the book "20 Proverbs 2"; A work in the continuation of the "Bakhtiari Parables" collection, which was compiled with the aim of preserving and recognizing part of the oral heritage and folklore literature of Lor and Bakhtiari.

In the introduction of this book, Makundi said: I wrote the first volume of the "20 proverbs" collection in 2013, which was well received by the people, especially the Lor and Bakhtiari community and those interested in the culture and literature of this people. This welcome and encouragement of native culture lovers made me start collecting new narratives after about 10 to 11 years and publish the second volume of this collection.

He considered the main purpose of writing this work to be to revive the cultural heritage and to prevent the forgetting of the narratives that the past generations have narrated orally and added: I have heard many of these parables and legends in my childhood from my maternal and paternal grandmothers. These narratives later became an incentive to search, collect and record stories that form part of the cultural memory of the people of this geographical area.

Referring to the difficulties of collecting the contents of the book, this researcher said: To collect these narratives, I traveled to remote villages and different nomadic areas and even accompanied them on the nomadic migration. In this way, I talked with the elderly, old men and local storytellers in order to record and perpetuate the narratives that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Makundi explained about the content of the book "20 Proverbs 2": The narratives of this collection have a diverse range in terms of content, and some of them deal with the world of legends, demons and fairies, supernatural beings and people with supernatural powers. In addition to the narrative appeal, these stories are a reflection of imagination, beliefs, and the way of narration in popular culture and can be read by different generations.

Emphasizing the cultural link between Lor and Bakhtiari, he said: In this book, narratives from Bakhtiari-inhabited regions, Lor regions, including Behbahan and Lorestan, have been collected. The selection of the title "Lore and Bakhtiari" was also made with the aim of emphasizing the connection of this cultural heritage and reminding the linguistic and narrative commonalities of these communities.

According to Makundi, all the narrations in the book were heard from local narrators, and at the end of some stories, the name of the narrator or the region from where the narration was narrated is mentioned. Also, the first two narratives of the book are presented in two languages, Lori Bakhtiari and Farsi, so that the audience can get to know the original text and its Farsi translation.

In a part of the book's introduction, Hasan Rasouli, the author and publisher of the work, has compared Makundi's effort in preserving the oral heritage of Bakhtiari with Ferdowsi's effort in preserving Iran's culture and national identity. A comparison that, according to Makundi, reminds us of the importance of recording and transmitting folk narratives.

Makundi also announced the preparation of the third volume of the series and said that he planned to publish it. According to him, a commemoration ceremony will be held for him by the Cultural Heritage Association in March, which includes the unveiling of seven books.

In the end, he thanked the people who collaborated in the creation of this work, named Mohammad Taha Chamanzadeh, the cover designer, as well as Sepehr Makundi, Farzadeh Kazemi and Shahram Sadeghi, and expressed his hope that the book "20 Proverbs 2" will be welcomed by those interested in popular culture, oral literature and ethnic heritage.

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