Lakshadweep, A Group Of Coral Islands In The Arabian Sea Off The Malabar Coast, Is A Centrally Administered Territory Consisting Of Three Distinct Units -- Laccadive, Minicoy, And Amindivi. Amini Is The Largest Island Of The Amindivi Unit. The Islanders Have Three Caste-Like Groups- The Aristocratic Koya, The Sea – Faring Malmi, And The Praedial Slaves Melacheri – Consisting Of The Descendants Of Migrants From The Mainland. This Island Society Exhibits A Unique Blend Of Matrilineal Principles And Islamic Regulations. This Can Be Seen In Their Institutions Of Taravad, Karanavan, And Duo-Local Marriage On The One Hand, And In The Observance Of Islamic Prescriptions In Regard To The Performance Of Duties By Fathers And Husbands On Occasions Like Birth, Circumcisions, Marriage And Divorce, And In The Operation Of The Laws Of Property And Inheritance On The Other. The Historical And Socio-Economic Processes Through Which Their Social Structure Evolved, The Constraints Under Which It Functions Today, The Struggle Of The Melacheri To Shake Off The Yoke Of The Koya, The Role Of Islam, And The Impact Of Government Sponsored Programmes Form The Subject Matter Of This Fascinating Study. A Part From Describing An Unusual Form Of Social Organization, This Book Presents A Significant Microscopic Picture Of The Processes Of Change In The Island Society.

The Dictionary of Oriental Literatures fills a long-felt gap in Western literature by presenting a concise summary, in three volumes and about 2000 articles, of practically all the literatures of Asia and North Africa. The first volume describes the Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian literatures; the second covers the area of South and South-East Asia, comprising, besides all literatures of India and Pakistan, those of Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines; and the third is devoted to the numerous literatures of West Asia and North Africa. including on the one hand the literatures of the ancient Near East and Egypt, and on the other hand those of Central Asia and the Caucasus, of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and of the various Arab countries including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The majority of entries give information about the life and work of the individual writers and poets of the classical, medieval and modern periods of the literatures included and also attempt to evaluate their writings from the historical and aesthetic point of view. The remaining articles describe literary terms, genres, forms, schools, movements etc. The Dictionary has been prepared by the Oriental Institute in Prague under the supervision of a Advisory Editorial Board of European and American scholars of international reputation and is unique in that it is the fruit of the collaboration of over 150 orientalists from many parts of the world. Contents include: Volume I East Asia: The Far East, including Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian literatures. Volume II South and South-East Asia: Ancient Indian, Assamese, Baluchi, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Indian literature in English, Indo-Persian, Kannada, Kashmiri, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Pashto, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, Sinhalese, Nepali, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Malay and Indonesian, Javanese, Vietnamese and Philippines literatures. Volume III West Asia and North Africa: The Near East and Egypt, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Turkish, Persian, Afghan, Kurd and Arabic literatures, covering all the Arab states from Iraq in the East to Algeria in the West.

Lexicography by Iranian has very long record; older than one can imagine it; around 6 centuries sooner that the first European Dictionary was edited. However editing the specialized dictionary, alike other places, is rather new work. The present specialized dictionary is in fact the shorter edition of what will be furnished within few months. The method of preparing of these specialized dictionaries has been a scientific methods comprising gathering information and arranging in alphabetic form. The shorter editions-Persian-English and English-Persian, are comprised of the main Persian literature terms and their equivalents in English; each term followed by the supplement descriptive essays on more specific terms in Note chapter of the Persian-English volume.

The World`S Most Detailedand Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary.

Tracing words to their origins opens a new window to human civilization and culture and helps us understand the roots of some of our present social trends and attitudes. For example, the etymology of words for family members clearly shows the division of responsibilities in the most basic unit of society - the family. Father was the "protector" of the family (Pa: protect), mother was the "feeder"(Ma: breast), brother was the load "carrier" (Bher: carry) and daughter was the "milker" (Dhugh: to milk). If one makes the effort to read beyond the shallow shell of sounds and symbols, one can recognize our human oneness portrayed in our words and their historical roots. The primary motivation for writing this dictionary is the hope that it would foster a greater appreciation for the commonality in the apparent variance among different languages and cultures, and ultimately nurture a greater understanding among those who speak apparently different languages. In tracing any Persian word to its origins, its cognates in other Indo-European languages must be considered. In this dictionary, English cognates are regularly referred to along with some other Indo-European equivalents. Altogether, over 1,600 roots and 17,400 derived words are presented in this dictionary. One of the most unique features of this dictionary is its graphical presentation of etymological data, similar to a family tree. The derivations of words are indicated with arrows rather than lengthy text. The arrows greatly simplify the process of tracing words to their roots.

Integrating forgotten tales of literary communities across Iran, Afghanistan and South Asia - at a time when Islamic empires were fracturing and new state formations were emerging - this book offers a more global understanding of Persian literary culture in the 18th and 19th centuries. It challenges the manner in which Iranian nationalism has infilitrated Persian literary history writing and recovers the multi-regional breadth and vibrancy of a global lingua franca connecting peoples and places across Islamic Eurasia. Focusing on 3 case studies (18th-century Isfahan, a small court in South India and the literary climate of the Anglo-Afghan war), it reveals the literary and cultural ties that bound this world together as well as some of the trends that broke it apart.