Meter and Rhyme as Two Criteria for Archaism of Aral Poetries: A Case Study of Meter and Rhyme in Yarsan Kalams

Kalams are the religious poetries of Yarsan people in Gorani. They are considered as a subset of Iranian oral poetries. In this paper we aim to investigate diversity of meter and rhyme in a number of Kalams of Yarsan. Thus by investigating some texts, for which there is not enough information of their history, we try to investigate diversity of meter and rhyme in these texts and by investigating the fixation of meter and rhyme in these kalams, determine their antiquity. Diversity of meter and rhyme gives us a methodological criterion according to which one can suggest older texts have more diversity in meter and in rhyme but more recent texts have more fixed status.