Journal of Comparative Literature
Year:2011 | Volume:NEW SERIES - 2 | Issue:3|Papers Count:18

Yahia zakarie (Johanaan) imprisoned for his defense of right and they killed him and offered his severed head to king Herod. The similarity of this with the events of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Hosein made the writers of Taazie (the Iranian drama) to look at this character too in their texts. They based their drama on the Qoranic conception of the tale but European writers including Oscar Wilde based their work on Bible. The author compares common features of the martyrdom of Imam Hosein, Siavash, an Iranian mythological hero and Johanaan in Iranian texts of taazie and Wilde's Salome.

Ashora is a unique heroic event in human history and it is associated with the great flag-bearer of liberty, nobility, and anti-tyranny, Hussein-Ibn- Ali. Imam Hussein has been made eternal due to his pivotal and outstanding character that has attracted a great many justice seekers of different nations and the name has appeared in many eternal literary works. It is beyond doubts that every earthly eye apprehends him to the point s/he can. According to the scholars different factors such as political, social conditions and many others were responsible in creation of Ashora and its heroic characters. This paper considers some of the significant poetries of Iranian and Arabic Ashoraie poets of the last century. In this regard the poet's point of view towards Ashora, the presence of the lord of martyrs in Karbala, the dominant emotional sense of the poetries, virtues and other various aspects of Imam Hussein's personality, common features of Ashoraie verses in portraying Imam Hussein are taken into account.

Tohidi has paid close attention to Iranians and Persian language therefore Iranians and their relation with Arabs could be traced and examined in several areas of Iranian kings and rulers and their relationship with Islamic culture, observing and criticizing their ethics and conducts; Secondly Iranian scientists and intellectuals from Tohidi's point of view; Lastly, linguistic and cultural conflict between Iranians and Arabs. Tohidi indicates his impartial perspective in dealing with the correlation between the two nations from pre-Islamic era to the present time. It could be said that the most prominent element in connecting the two nations is the Persian, for the wide spread of this language has found its way into Arabic from the time of barbarism and continued to the author's day. He believes that this range of Persian words has made it an inseparable part of Arabic and the meaning of these words requires no explanation since Iranian habits and customs has intertwined with that of Arabic.

Due to human communication language has always undergone transformation; words have entered from and to other languages causing languages and cultures deep and wide. In the course of time as Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and Mongolian languages blended with the local languages of the subcontinent Urdu was formed. Many Persian words with their original meaning and form found their way into Urdu, on the other hand group of words with different meanings were led to the target language. Parallel to this event, local and Indian words, compounds, and expressions entered the Persian subcontinent. Every writer used certain local words and phrases in his poetry and prose reflecting their thoughts and visions of that particular region. Since the Persian poets of the subcontinent have employed combination of these words their reader being unaware of the fact encounter difficulties. This issue necessitates a dictionary for a comprehensive understanding of words and compounds of the Persian subcontinent texts. The present article endeavors to detect the extend of influence by Perisan language through explaining words, compounds, and expressions employed by the Persian speaking Hindus' eulogies.

Iran and Greece with their ancient civilization have been the subject of researchers from the political confrontation of Greek democratic society and Iran's monarchy and many other perspectives. However comparing the myths of the two nations has been neglected by the researchers; therefore, the present paper puts forward a Bakhtinian reading of the myths of Iran and Greece. According to Bakhtin, Iranian and Greek myths have fundamental differences to consider. The main three differences taken into account in this paper is firstly the absence of the other in Iranian myths and its presence in Greek's; secondly the presence of dialogue in Greek myths and its absence in Iranian's, and finally the distinguished task of gods in Greek myths and its absence in Iranian's.

Undoubtedly, Allameh Iqbal Lahori is one of the greatest bilingual poets in the Indo-Pakestan subcontinent whose character and poetic skills were to a great extend influenced and developed by Persian literature. Being familiar and trained in the school of great poets such as Sanaie, Molavi, Sadi, Hafez and many others, he has been able to compose odes, lyrics, quatrain, and other forms simultaneously signifying the reflection of these great poets and his own mental perception. The poet is deeply influenced by Molavi's Islamic concepts and mysticism yet this is not the case when dealing with Hafez and Sadi. His great literary works such as Inside Secrets (Asrar Khodi), Secrets Whatsoever (Romoos Bikhodi), Persian Zaboor (Zaboor Ajam), New Raz Masnavi (Golshan Raz Jadid), Orient Message (Payam Shargh), The Rest (May Baghi), Immortal Letter (Javid Nameh) and  many others has bestowed him an important place in comparative literature. The researcher explores some of the mental and artistic influences on Lahori to the time of Hafez.

Ghazi Imam Rokn Al-Din Da'didar Qomi, the bilingual and poet laureate, lived in Qom during the late 6th and early 7the century Hejra. This wise shi'ism scholar is to a great extend influenced by the Arabic culture and poetry. Among his valuable compositions, Divan being compiled at the request of the ruler of his time Azo'din Yahya can be referred to.  The Divan is replete with Persian and Arabic poetry. This bilingual poet is so great at composing Arabic poems that the large part of his Divan is devoted to the Arabic verses. Imitation being a distinct feature manifested in this literary work in a way that he has composed the Arabic and Persian verses by employing the poetic styles of the poets of Iraq and other Arabic and Persian pioneers; Notwithstanding due to the brevity of his verses they fall short of innovation and creativity.

The use of words in Persian and Arabic contemporary poetry has fundamentally changed since the old times. In traditional poetry "Night" was employed in its real meaning and it mainly indicated the spiritual and emotional feelings, usually associated it with nice characteristics however there were times when poets complained of its long lasting quality. In contemporary poetry connotation of the very word changed altogether and became a symbol of poet's inner pain or social sufferings. Although "night" at first carried a romantic concept in Youshig's poetry, the father of modern Persian verse, it soon took on a political and social tune signifying ignorance, despotism and censorship within the society. The abundance usage of this word indicates Youshig's commitment to man and society; a commitment that seized sleep from his eyes. On the other hand, the same word has a different connotation to the Arab modernist poetess, Nazok Malaeke. To her night is a safe shelter for the wandering spirit and remained a romantic and an individualistic concept until her death.

Poetry being one of the notable verbal arts has been defined by many philosophers and literary scholars since the ancient times.  To logicians, poetry is “imaginative discourse”, and to critics and literary scholars is a “rhyming discourse” yet the two theorists (Shabi and Naderpoor) have blended the two concepts by calling poetry an “imaginative rhyming discourse”. Today poets and literary theorists have put forth rather a deep and appreciative definition of the genre rather than a technical one. With the help of library sources and document analysis, the researcher not only delves into the concept of verse and versification but also takes into account the theories of the two contemporary Arabic, Abulghasem Shabi, and the Iranian poet Nader Naderpoor.

Among Persian literary works and figures "Shahnameh" and "Ferdosi" respectively are of great importance and have drawn attention to themselves from the 5th century Hejra onwards. Since then Shahnameh has been translated into many languages including Arabic. Two hundred years after shahnameh was composed, Fath Ibn Ali Ibn Mohammad Isfahani (Ghavamodin) known as Bondari translated about two thirds of Shahnameh at the request of Isa Ibn Abibakr, one of the kings of the Ayubid. This translation is still regarded as an authentic source in studies of Shahnameh. About seventy eight years before Cairo Library published this text, it was first published in 1932 by an Egyptian named Abdulvahab, a man of letter in Persian literature. However this important source remains to be further investigated. The present article aims at a comparative study of Shahnameh called Siavash's descent and Bondari's translation based on a version prepared by Khaleghi Motlagh. This study intends to answer questions such as to what extend has Bondari remained faithful to the original text? How much does he add or omit to and from the original text? What changes does he make from the original text? It should be mentioned that the texts on which this study is based on is the third book of Shahnameh edited by Khaleghi Motlagh and Alshahnameh published by Almesri Library. The researchers have also considered the Arabic version of Shahnameh by Ayati. After an introduction the content is categorized into three parts of omissions, additions, and finally differences in narration.

It is a fact that poets are distinguished from others due to their inner gift of art notwithstanding, poets have praised and exaggerated themselves in their verses. Since boastfulness or narcissism is important to psychologists, in an artistic comparative study the researcher has analyzed narcissism in both Hafez and Mutaneby. What distinguishes the two poets is where Hafez solely admires his artistic character through abstraction and it is approved by the reader due to its artistic delicateness; Mutaneby employs the personal pronoun to praise both his real and artistic character indicating his ego and pride. This boastfulness approved by the addressee categorized as an artistic narcissism is different from the psychological disorder.

This paper tries to explore the common themes present in the poetry of Abufaras Hamedani, the famous Arab poet, and Masud Sad Salman, the great poet of imprisonment. Spending years in prison, both the poets have experienced sorrow, hardships and hopelessness that is reflected and could be traced in their works. Initially, the researcher discusses imprisonment and Masud Sad Salman then the life and the literary works of the two poets are taken into account and the impact of Arabic literature on Salman poetry is taken into account. The following part of this research deals with the principal motivation of this article that is autobiographies and complaints and subsequently some of their verses are compared and contrasted. The concluding part examines themes such as praise, pride, and description, and brotherhood within their poetry.

Pashtu as one of the official languages of Afghanistan is also spoken in some parts of Pakistan. This language bears many characteristics with Iranian languages in its root it is also categorized as Indian and Aryan languages. Almost all great Pashtu poets have left literary works in Persian; among them Khoshhal Khan Khatak can be mentioned. He was born in 1022 Hejra and died in 1100 Hejra. He was one of the heads of the Khatak tribe who has composed different forms of poetry and some are in Persian. Accordingly his poetry is compared with other Iranian poets especially Hafez from the perspectives of rhyme, rhythm, theme and many others. Moreover, his poetries are compared with other writers in terms of employing the Koranic verses, mystical themes and so forth. The life of the poet, his Persian verses and whether Pashtu poets have also composed Persian poetry or not? can one draw an analogy between Persian poetry by Pashtu poets with that of Persian poets? are the points the paper focuses on.

This article studies the history of grammar in several world languages including Sumerian, Chinese, Indian, Roman, Greek, European, Persian and Arabic to analyze the formation of grammar by way of comparison and finally signifying the place of each language in terms of writing and formulating grammar. The focus of this paper is the role and place of Persian and Arabic grammar in comparison to other world leading languages of the past and present. Undoubtedly, the findings of this study could be a step forward in clarifying the grammatical background of great world languages.

One of the applications of comparative literature is that it calls for similarities and differences in form, structure, and content in the works of different writers. Mohtasham Kashani in Persian literature and Sharif Razi in Arab literature have composed poetries on the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Although the grievous event and the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and his faithful followers in Karbala is the salient poetic subject of Shi'ite poets the language and views of these two poets are to some extend different from others. This article deals with the sorrow within Kashani and Razi's poetry based on narrative- historical, narrative-political, emotional, imaginary, moral, and philosophical aspects.

Considering the effect of western Asian mythology on the foundation of Iranian and Indian mythology, this article aims to compare the myth of Tapehgoz with Zhak's in Ferdosi's epic. Tapehgoz is an invulnerable and cannibal monster of the eighth story of Dadehghot's collection, one of the most Oghuzlar's ancient epic works. This story bears a lot of similarities and congruities with Zhak's. Comprehensive studies are executed on the intertextuality of characters and stories of Ferdowsi's epic with other nations' myths it seems no article has yet investigated the intertextuality of Zhak and Tapehgoz. The present research compares and analyses the congruity of events with theories of Julia Kristiva, Mikhail Bakhtin, Ronald Barth, Harold Bloom, Genet, and Tzvetan Todorov.