Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Author

• mahmood nadimi harandi

Department of persian language and literature, Payame Noor Unvierstiy, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

 
Geophagia means the habit of consuming soil, mud, etc. It has a long history in many parts of the world. This phenomenon has also been reflected in Ancient Persian and Arabic texts in different ways, and various groups of people have tended to it. Many ascetics and Sufis, caliphs and kings and statesmen, poor people, women, children, madmen and the general public have been inclined towards it. In this research, we have investigated the reflection of geophagia in Persian and Arabic poetry and prose texts and we have tried to answer these questions: 1. How is geophagia reflected in ancient Persian and Arabic texts? 2. How is geophagia among different social spectrums? 3. How is geophasia in medical, religious, ethical and literary texts and in proverbs?
We have done this research in a descriptive-analytical method, and by identifying various sources in which geophagia is mentioned and referring to them, we have examined and analyzed the issue. According to the evidence of Ancient texts, geophagia in addition to madness, is often due to poverty, asceticism and piety, pleasure and addiction, or the longing of pregnant women. Various proverbs among Iranian tribes with the theme of geophagia have shown the prevalence of geophagia and also the difficulty of quitting it. Except for the early ascetics, who considered geophagia as a form of piousness and ascetic practices, insisting on halal eating and less annoying, poets and writers often had a negative attitude towards this issue and considered it one of the disgusting and sick habits. They have invited others to avoid it. In medical texts, geophagia has been recognized as a kind of disease and they offered solutions for its treatment. In moral texts, geophagia has been considered as one of the diseases of the soul, and sometimes mud eating addiction has been mentioned in parables. In Islamic religious texts, geophagia is also forbidden.

Keywords

• Geophagia
• eating mud
• Ancient Persian and Arabic texts