Volume 35, August 2022 Number 2: Oral Tradition among Religious Communities in the Iranian-Speaking World
Whilst the study of “oral verbal art” in the literary sphere is now receiving a certain amount of academic interest, much less attention has so far been paid to the dynamics of orality in the sphere of religion, not least in non-Western traditions.1 Many specialists in such fields as religious studies and theology were trained as philologists, and some regard arguments based on orality with suspicion. This relatively discouraging academic environment, combined with the hazards of embarking on a novel approach and, in the case of the “great world religions,” the vastness of the terrain to be covered and the minute contribution even the most successful piece of “oral” research could make, have led to a comparative lack of academic curiosity about the role of the spoken word in the history of religious traditions and the dynamics of their current developments.

In several branches of Iranian studies, however, demand created supply: in the study of smaller religious traditions in the Iranian-speaking world,2 the role of orality became so evident that a growing number of scholars are now seriously engaged in the study of various aspects of orality in religious traditions. Several cultures in the Iranian-speaking world were either very slow to accept the use of writing when it came to religious texts, or did not have the means to develop a strong written culture. Points of focus in current research include the orally transmitted religious/cultural heritage informing the life of religious communities and the modes and implications of oral transmission of sacred texts, as well as those of the process of scripturalization that is currently taking place in some traditions. As will be seen from the articles in this volume, both research questions and methodologies represented here are varied and exploratory.

It should be pointed out here that the editors have adopted a very broad view of the concept of “religion” in mainly “oral traditions.” Several of the traditions covered here have not developed an explicit theology, and the boundaries between “religious” and “non-religious” elements are vague. Religion is widely seen as tradition, and much of the tradition is felt to be religious. Texts with a moral or traditional component, such as Yezidi “laments” or wedding songs (see below), though not regarded as sacred, are definitely felt to be based on or related to “religion.”

Two papers on the close cultural contacts between Christian and Muslim communities are included here to show that, in some largely “oral” cultures, linguistic and religious boundaries between communities are far more porous than in their “scriptural” counterparts.

Before the advent of Islam in the seventh century CE, the dominant religion in much of the “Iranian” world was Zoroastrianism. Sacred texts of that religion were transmitted orally from the second millennium BCE until sometime between the third and seventh centuries CE, when an adequate alphabet was devised to write their language. Because the Avesta, the sacred .[1]

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