Koranic Tales’ Influence on Molavi in the Villager and the Citizen Story of the Masnavi

This paper deals with the influence of Koranic tales on Molavi as witnessed in his story titled the Villager and the Citizen which comes in Part III of the Masnavi. It addresses Molavi’s pattern-based approach in adopting basic intellectual models from the holy Koran as well as his use of these “ideal patterns” and “paradigms” in developing the said story and decoding its constituent elements while presenting moral, social and epistemological propositions. This is viewed as a unique approach in research on Molavi. The conclusion is that Molavi has widely exploited the Koranic tales as paradigms to develop his stories and parables and achieve his main aim, that is to teach moral lessons. This influence is so great that it may not be reduced to “association of ideas” or “system of allusions”.