A Comparative Study of Narrative in Tārīkh-e Bayhaqī and Tārīkh-e Balami

Tārīkh-e Bayhaqī and Tārīkh-e Balami are considered two masterpieces of Persian history. However despite many studies done on the two books, no comprehensive study is done from the perspectives of comparative, historical and literary criticism on aspects such as narrating history style and language. Nonetheless, these two books are proper examples for comparative studies as they principles of narrative and storytelling are traceable in them. The present study is to study the characteristics of narrative and fictional aspects of the two texts including perspective, character, tone and atmosphere in order to show some of the similarities and differences between the two masterpieces. Some of the results of this study indicate that the diversity of perspective in Tārīkh-e Bayhaqī is more than Tārīkh-e Balami. In Beihaghi's text the focus is more on characters than on action while Balami's text is more action-oriented. Beihaghi is more successful in stage-setting than Balami, as well as in elements of tone and atmosphere. These factors make the former text more vivid and so more attractive to the reader.