An Analysis of the Prose of Rashid-al-Din Fazl- Allah's Jāme'-al-Tavārikh from the Standpoint of Its Stylistic and Literary Features

Jāme'-al-Tavārikh-e Rashidi, like other history books preceding and following it, is imbued with writing literary skills. The salient indications of this characteristic are the presence of a huge number of verses and rhymed expressions (tasji') throughout the book. Amongst the articles written about Jāme' not a single article can be found that is specifically devoted to the literary aspects of it. Areas such as the literary style of the writer(s), use of literary sources, criteria of utilizing lierary themes, the estimation and classification of verses and well known quotations, the place of rhetoric and other literary areas in this historical text merit examination and comparison with similar texts. In this article, efforts have been made to provide answers to a number of questions: what kind of style is that of the writer or writers as individuals, and with respect to their period? What are the sources they have made use of in order to strengthen their speech rhetorically, and what has been the method of such use? What is the literary style of Jāme'-al-Tavārikh? How does it differ from the literary mode of other historical texts before and after it?