Common Lyrical Themes in Naser Khosrow and Motanabbi

In order to know literature history deeply and accurately and to visualize its changes and their reasons, studying comparative literature is an essential. Since through this one can discovers the roots of all influential thinking movements of a nation. Comparative literature deals with studying factors of transition of literature from one culture to another, different genres, literary concepts and issues and influence of a poet or a writer in other nations’ literature. In addition to social and historical advantages, to study each of the above- mentioned branches can portray a deep understanding of national literature and clarify the history of thoughts and literary contents. An age old research in comparative literature which is known as plagiarism ‘ or Seraqaat’ in old Islamic poetry is to compare and contrast the works of two poets or authors and find out in what aspects they have affected each other. An outstanding Arab poet who has always been the focus of attention of Persian poets and whose work is fraught with philosophical problems as well as parables is the well-known fourth century poet called Motanabbi. This paper follows the theory that Naser Khosrow who belonged to the courtiers of the time, for whom a high skill in Arab poetry was necessary, was familiar with the poetry of Motanabbi. Finally, this study reveals that some of the contents Naser Khosrow used in his poems are adaptations from Motanabbi' s book of poems.