Nasrin Eskandari; Ahmadreza Yalameha
Abstract
Shahanshah Nameh is a kind of heroic poem which belongs to the genre of epic. Epics are mainly composed of poems describing their heroes’ actions and honors, as well as ethnic and individual grandeur. Shahanshah Nameh-e Soleimani is a literary epic that contains twenty-one thousand verses written ...
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Shahanshah Nameh is a kind of heroic poem which belongs to the genre of epic. Epics are mainly composed of poems describing their heroes’ actions and honors, as well as ethnic and individual grandeur. Shahanshah Nameh-e Soleimani is a literary epic that contains twenty-one thousand verses written in imitation of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh in the form of Masnavi and in Bahr-e Moteqarib (the Convergent Prosodic Meter). It was composed to provide a rich description of the travels and conquests of Sultan Soleiman Qanuni. Since literature is sometimes equated exaggeratedly with description, this article is an attempt to examine the specific and distinct descriptions (in terms of frequency, type, subject, and function) used in this understudied poem. Our findings indicate that description is one of the important tools and techniques of storytelling in this poetic work. The minimum unit used for description is a clause or phrase and the maximum unit is a compound sentence. These descriptions can be classified into subjective, objective, and pictorial ones focusing on subjects like battlefields, heroes, warfare, seasons, natural elements, the beauty of maidens and young people, winter, etc.As far as function is concerned, these descriptions are employed for both poetic (creating emotions, fantasies, and feelings) and narrative ones. To create imagery, the poet has used figures of speech including hyperbole, metaphor, simile, irony, and personification.
