gift

Nowruz and Mehregan were among the celebrations of ancient Iran that were held in the court in the first Abbasid era. Giving gifts by Iranians on Nowruz and Mehregan was one of the main reasons for holding these celebrations in the Abbasid court. The population context of Baghdad, which was predominantly Iranians, had an impact on the celebration of Nowruz and Mehregan. The Abbasids held Nowruz ceremonies to the satisfaction of the Khorasanians and the Iranian ministers, including the Barmaki and Sahl dynasties. The Abbasid caliphs, like the Sassanids, made public ceremonies at the court and allowed the people to hold various ceremonies. In this article, the description, manner and reasons for the survival of Nowruz and Mehregan in the Abbasid court of the first era are discussed.

In his book It’s Not about the Gift: From Givenness to Loving, Steinbock advances a new phenomenological analysis of the gift. In this analysis, the gift is not about what is being given, but about the event of a loving relation between two subjects. In this interpersonal relation the gift emerges as each beloved withdraws themselves in order to reveal the other as they are by being loved in humility. In this paper, I undertake to express two main challenges for Steinbock’s account of the gift. The first concerns Steinbock’s attempt to disengage the phenomenon of surprise from the possibility of the gift. The second involves his neglecting the body. This neglect raises serious questions on the kind of love during which the gift is supposed to emerge. In the epilogue, instead of a conclusion, I offer some thoughts on the gift that have not been given much attention in the philosophical discussion of the gift.