Volume 22 Issue 1

Polsko-perskie relacje kulturalne / Polish-Persian Cultural Relations

2025

Publication date: 09.2025

Description

The publication of this issue was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Faculty of Polish Studies.

Cover design: Paweł Sepielak

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Dr hab., prof. UJ Łukasz Tischner

Secretary Dr hab. Dorota Siwor

Editors of Issue Dr Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Mateusz Kucab

Issue content

Introduction

Renata Rusek-Kowalska, Mateusz Kucab

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 1-7

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.001.21750

PDF

Distant Affinity: An Overview of Polish-Iranian Cultural Relations

Renata Rusek-Kowalska

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 8-23

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.002.21751

The article presents Polish-Iranian cultural relations throughout history in a concise yet multifaceted manner, beginning with the shared Indo-European roots of the Slavic and Iranian peoples, as evidenced by linguistic studies, and ending in modern times. Although the cultural ties between Poland and the broadly defined Iranian world are ancient, they have never been particularly strong nor clearly recognised or appreciated by either side. Nevertheless, they do exist and, in certain periods, have gained in intensity. The author of the article identifies several such historical moments.

PDF

Polish-Iranian Relations: A Three Act Play in Latin, Persian, and Polish

Mirosław Michalak

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 24-51

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.003.21752

The first act of our play is staged in Poland and has been recorded in a Medieval chronicle in Latin called Annals or Chronicles of the Illustrious Kingdom of Poland by the Polish author Jan Długosz. In his interesting account he tells us of envoys who came to Poland from Persia on behalf of the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan, in charge of negotiating an agreement for concerted action against the Ottomans. The account showcases a very peculiar case of anachronistic Orientalism of the Polish author regarding the Middle East as well as the Polish king’s attitude towards a strange proposal of the foreign ruler. This is the first ever testimony of diplomatic ties between the two kingdoms.
The next act is set in 19th century Warsaw during a short stay of the Iranian Emperor Naser ad-Din Shah Qajar on his way from Iran via Russia to Western Europe and England. The visit was widely covered by most of popular newspapers in Warsaw and had been reflected in Shah’s travel book and in a diary of the then Mayor of Warsaw, Sokrat Starynkevich. Maybe, the most attractive to the Polish audience would prove the travel journal of the Persian Shah. His detailed day by day account includes not only a good deal of information but also personal impressions and attitude towards a foreign environment and people. We have here a rare opportunity to see Warsaw through eyes of a man of power from the distant civilization. With the third act we enter the realm of poetry. A Polish poet Stanisław Baliński who spent several years in Persia on diplomatic mission, on his return home in 1928 published a collection of poems under the title Wieczór na Wschodzie (“The Evening in the East”). This was a poetic record of Baliński’s stay in the Middle East, mostly in Iran. It was a specific account of impressions and feelings experienced in the country which has inspired the poet’s uncommonly beautiful verses by its rare exotic spiritual climate.

PDF

New Source on Safavid-Polish Relations and What It Tells Us

Ali Abolghasemi, Stanisław Adam Jaśkowski

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 52-84

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.004.21753

The relations between the Safavid state and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth have been the subject of scholarly inquiry since as early as the years immediately following the fall of Isfahan, as evidenced by the early study by Krusiński (1734 and 1740). Since then, the research into the subject has largely been based on the limited narrative sources, as well as the documents – Persian, Turkic and Latin – mostly kept in the Central Archives of Historical Records (AGAD) in Warsaw, as well as those included (in Latin translations or in French) in Krusiński’s compilation. In recent years, these have been supplemented by the documents copied into the early 17th-century Carmelite manuscript kept in Naples, and other limited sources.
The present work contains the transcription and translation of the documents sent from Persia with the Polish envoy, Teofil Szemberg, on his return to Poland. These documents never reached Poland, as Szemberg was killed in Dagestan in 1638. Copies of the documents, long thought to be lost, were discovered in a manuscript kept in the library of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in Iran. The documents and the commentary found in the manuscript fill long felt vacuum in the study of the Safavid-Polish relations, and add to the knowledge of Szemberg’s mission. Moreover, they allow for the better understanding of the relationship between the Persian and Turkic languages both in Safavid diplomacy and on the official level of the state in general.

PDF

Polish Women Immigrants in Iran since World War II: Social and Cultural Activities in the Host Land

Sara Yarmahdavi, Habibullah Saeidinia

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 85-107

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.005.21754

The migration of Polish women to Iran during World War II represents a significant yet overlooked historical event. This study, through a descriptive and historical-analytical approach, investigates the socio-cultural impact of Polish female refugees between 1942 and 1945 on Iranian society. By engaging in diverse roles – from working in cafés and artistic fields to serving in embassies and the Polish military – Polish women challenged Iran’s deeply rooted gender norms and religious taboos. Their integration into Iranian society, including marriages with Iranian men, played a key role in breaking traditional gender boundaries and fostering greater female participation in public life. The transformative influence of these women persisted even after the war, as around 200 to 300 Polish immigrants who remained in Iran continued their social and cultural contributions.

PDF

Jereneczka – polski fantazmat Bozorga Alawiego. Analiza i przekład

Anna Krasnowolska

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 108-127

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.006.21755

Bozorg Alavi’s short story Yerenečkā seems to be the first one in the Persian prose literature to trace the passage of Poles through Iran during the 2nd World War. Yerenechka – as a literary character – gives rise to a stereotypical image of the Polish women who, in Persian literature, are presented as both war victims and erotic objects. Alavi’s story perpetuates the false image of Poles who entered Iran with Gen. Anders’ Second Corps, as refugees fleeing solely from German aggression, the Soviets’ responsibility for their ordeal being fully ignored. In Iran Yerenečkā was read as an erotic fantasy in Hedayat’s style. Yet, the author’s final declaration of his particular emotional bonds with his heroine draws the readers’ attention to the events of Alavi’s own life, in particular those concerning his elder brother Morteza, a communist who perished during the Stalinist purges.

PDF

Polish Women as “Sweet Pillagers” in Persian Poetry

Renata Rusek-Kowalska

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 128-152

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.007.21756

Between 1942 and 1945, Iran served as both a transit country and a refuge for approximately 120,000 Polish exiles who had survived the Soviet gulags and kolkhozes. Among them were soldiers as well as a significant number of civilians (about 45,000). While the military moved to the war fronts to support the Allies, the civilians – primarily women and children – remained in refugee camps, awaiting further relocation.
Although generally isolated from Iranian society, many Polish refugees nevertheless managed to venture into the cities and lead independent lives. Their presence has left some marks on Persian literature, particularly in prose. These Polish traces in Persian fiction have gradually increased over time and are receiving growing scholarly attention. However, when it comes to Persian poetry, verses on the Polish exiles are extremely rare and largely unexplored. Therefore, this paper seeks to partly fill this lacuna by examining a Persian poem composed during the Second World War that addresses the “Polish beauties”.

PDF

“Wilderness is Paradise enow”. Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s Poetics of Rubaiyat. Preliminary Reconnaissance

Mateusz Kucab

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 153-166

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.008.21757

The article undertakes an analysis of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s wartime rubaiyat cycles and the ways in which the poetics of Omar Khayyam’s quatrains encapsulated Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s wartime experience. The author posits that the minimalist and precise form of rubaiyat was for Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska a form of sketching the world in destruction and destruction itself. This structure allowed her to build smaller meaningful wholes in the face of the Apocalypse of a world falling apart. Referring to Pawlikowska- -Jasnorzewska’s reference poems, the author wants to show how Khayyam becomes not only a patron of Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s war phase, but a consciously evoked philosophical guide.

PDF

Are Those Two Windows Mirroring Each Other? On the Poetry of Foruq Farroxzād (1935–1967) and Halina Poświatowska (1935–1967)

Katarzyna Wąsala

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 167-191

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.009.21758

This paper offers a glance at the poetic oeuvre of two outstanding personalities of Persian and, respectively, Polish literature: Foruq Farroxzād and Halina Poświatowska (both 1935–1967). Although their environment differed in almost every respect: geography, sociopolitics, culture and religion, they shared more than just dates of life. Working on the translations of Poświatowska’s poetry into Persian (a collection of poems was published in 2015 under the title Ādamak, matarsak va āšeq) and Farroxzād’s poetry into Polish helped the author discover their similar sensibilities and shared concerns. Described as feminine, sensual and at times even scandalous, their poetry is also philosophical and reflective, touching upon topics such as woman’s prescribed role in society, relationship with nature, passage of time and inevitability of death. Through linguistic analysis of selected poems, the author would like to draw attention to the similarities in terms of form and poetic imagery between the discussed poets who – despite never meeting each other – sometimes enter dialogue and sometimes sing in unison.

PDF

Unexpected Resemblance of Distant Cousins: Can Iranian and Polish Cultures Meet in Translation?

Karolina Rakowiecka-Asgari

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 192-214

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.010.21759

Despite geographical distance, Polish and Iranian cultures share not only Indo-European origins but also similar recent historical and literary experiences. These areas of cultural proximity can occasionally enrich the repertoire of strategies available in translation. Given the general tendency towards exoticisation when translating Persian texts into Polish, careful consideration of shared cultural notions, as well as the limited inscription of domestic ideas (in Lawrence Venuti’s terms), emerges as a particularly valid direction for study.
Drawing on methodology of translation studies, this article analyses strategies for translating a lengthy poem by the prominent Iranian modern poet Foruq Farroxzād, Oh, Land Full of Treasures… (Ey marz-e por-gowhar…). By comparing this social satire – written in Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s Iran – with its Polish counterparts from the communist and pre-WWII eras, as well as its English and Italian translations, the author highlights commonly unrecognized cultural and historical similarities that facilitate the straightforward translation of humour and satiric allusions between Persian and Polish. This comparison demonstrates that the Polish literary idiom is fully capable of providing satisfactory equivalents for terms reflecting such aspects of the second Pahlavi reign as bureaucracy, ideologized language, corruption, and censorship. Moreover, the longing for past glory and the hypocrisy mocked by Farroxzād in Iranians are national flaws often referenced by her Polish counterparts.

PDF

Zoroaster and the Poles: An Overview of Academic and Non-Academic Interest in Zoroastrianism in Poland

Paulina Niechciał

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 215-233

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.014.22015

The article examines the evolving interest in Zoroastrianism in Poland, from early literary references and Romantic-era mythmaking to modern academic research and popular culture. It traces how Zoroastrian themes were shaped by European influences and Polish identity narratives, highlighting key figures such as Ignacy Pietraszewski and the development of Iranian studies. The paper also explores contemporary scholarly research on Zoroastrianism and its communities, and discusses the emergence of pseudoscientific discourse employing Zoroastrian motifs in Polish popular culture.

PDF

The Snake in Pamiri and Polish Folk Narratives and Proverbs. A Comparative Study of the Most Common Traits

Zuzanna Błajet

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 234-252

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.011.21760

The snake is one of the most common animal characters in the oral narrative traditions of Tajik Badakhshan and Poland. This article aims, firstly, to describe the most common traits of the snake in Pamiri oral narratives, which are: on the one hand ingratitude and meanness and on the other hand gratitude and caring; and secondly, to examine the similarities in the representation of these characteristics linking Pamiri and Polish oral narratives. Folktales, legends, memorates and ethnographic accounts were subjected to comparative analysis. Snake-related proverbs were also included in the research as a supplementary material. Part of the research material was collected during field research in Tajik Badakhshan. The analysis showed that the two traditions share key similarities in the depiction of the snake’s ingratitude and meanness, but also gratitude and caring as well as in the functions performed by snakes possessing these traits, such as that of donor, household guardian or antagonist.

PDF

The Story of Amelia Wojciechowska Told by Her Son

Marcin Chrobak

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 253-261

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.012.21761

PDF

Recenzje

Nowa książka o Polakach w Iranie [Katarzyna Rodacka, Domy na piasku. Polacy w Iranie (1942–1945) (Homes on Sand: Poles in Iran (1942–1945)), Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy „Znak”, Kraków 2025, ss. 318, ISBN 978-83-240-6443-4]

Anna Krasnowolska

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 22 Issue 1, 2025, pp. 262-264

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.25.013.21762

PDF

Files to download

Title & imprint pages PDF Contents PDF Notes about Authors PDF

Słowa kluczowe: Indo-European heritage, Polish-Iranian cultural contacts, trade relations, Sarmatism, Poles in Iran, academic interests, literary translations, Polish-Iranian relations, Polish king Casimir IV and ruler of Persia Uzun Hasan, diplomatic correspondence, Naser ad-Din Shah of Iran, diaries, Polish poet Stanisław Baliński, diplomacy and travel, Safavids, Turkic languages, diplomatics, diplomacy, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish women, World War II, Iranian society, social and cultural activities, Persian literature, Poles in Iran, literary stereotypes, erotic fantasy, Stalinism, Morteza Alavi, Polish exiles in Iran, Polish women, Persian poetry, humoresque, Abu al-Qāsem Hālat, Hāfez (Hafez), Turk of Shiraz, war, Omar Khayyam, quatrain, comparative literature, comparative poetics, contemporary poetry, poetry translation, Halina Poświatowska (1935–1967), Foruq Farroxzād (1935–1967), Persian poetry, Polish poetry, linguistic criticism, Persian poetry in translation, Foruq Farraxzād, satire in translation, Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrians, Oriental studies in Poland, Iranian studies, Zoroastrian studies, snake-lore, folklore, snake-donor, snake-guardian, mean snake, Pamiri narrative

Funding information

The publication of this issue was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków – Faculty of Polish Studies.