A Stylistic Introduction to Nushāfarin Nāme

Nushāfarin nāme is an Iranian prose folk tale recounting the passionate love and courageous acts of “Prince Ibrahim”, the son of “Jahangir Shah”, a king of China, to attain the hand of his beloved, Nushāfarin Gowhartāj, the daughter of Damascus king. There are stylistic features of folk tales and traditional romances to be perceived in this tale, as heroic deeds, and the presence of supernatural creatures, plants, places, objects of wonder, use of cyclic plots, cliché statements, ballads, folk songs, proverbs, ironies and hyperboles, to count just a few. A semi-literary language has been employed there, with a prose reminiscent of that of the Gājār period, lacking the old fashioned style of the Safavid era's writings. There are many instances of descriptive verbs and colloquial expressions, with conspicuous folk tale and chivalric legendary themes. This tale, along with the tale of “Shiroyeh Namdar” have functioned as models of story-telling for Naqib-ol-Mamalek in writing Amir Arsalān. The present paper, having introduced Nushāfarin- nāme, explores elements of its influences on Amir Arsalān Nāmdār, while discussing and analyzing various features of the former.