Oral character of middle Persian literature : new perspective

From the very beginning oral transmission of texts played a significant role in the Iranian world. It became a main topic of several works by Bailey (1943), Boyce (1957, 1968), de Menasce (1973), Skjærvø (1384hš), Smurzyński (2006) and Tafazzoli (1378hš). In my paper I try to depict the problem of orality in Middle Persian literature once again, but this time using some tools developed by Ong. On the other hand, it is highly likely that at least the “obscurity” is addressed to works of the 9th century that also contain material which at one time was transmitted orally, but which themselves were products of a written culture. Their style is difficult because the authors wrote in long, complicated sentences. Most of these sentences are in no way adopted to be transmitted by heart.