Molavi and folkloric literature A comparison of the story of Four Hindu Men from Masnavi book II with an oral narrative of The Lisping Maidens and the Suitor in Ilam's province

Lisping Maiden and the Suitor is a folkloric story which is available in Aarne-Thompson classification index entry 1457. This story is also available in Koocheh book by Ahmad Shamlu as Tis-Tis-Madaseina entry. It also exists in both Fars People Stories and Iranian Myths Dictionary books. Since a long time ago, there has been a popular oral narrative of the story, very close to Masnavi’s Four Hindu Men, among people of Ilam’s province which its fictional structure, mainly characterization and message differ from the original written story. It is interesting that the story of Masnavi’s Four Hindu Men is also different from the original written story in Shams-i-Tabrizi’s Maghalat from the point of view of fictional structure, mainly characterization and message. This article aims at showing a sample of Molavi’s effect on folk literature through a comparison of structure and content of both stories in order to show their exact match.