A Morphological Inquiry into Ibn-e-Hessam Khosfi Birjandi's Khavarannameh Based on Propp's Theory

Morphology analyzes the effect of content on the structure of literary works as well as the impact of their structure on content. As the structure of each literary work is closely related to its content, each particular concept is embodied in a specific format. The present study, drawing on a descriptive-analytic method, was an attempt to explain the narrative and to analyze the morphology of Ibn-e- Hesam Khosfi Birjandi’s Khavarannameh (d. 875 AH). Khavarannameh is an epic religious work including fantasy stories such as the travels and warfare of Imam Ali (AS) from the perspective of the characters, heroes, dutifulness, time, location, motivation and movement. The work stands out because of its structure and form of the themed stories. The present study was an attempt to analyze the structure of Ibn-e- Hesam Khosfi Birjandi’s Khavarannameh in light of Propp’s theory. The work included some religious practices which did not exist in Propp’s classification. The results suggest that in spite of its religious nature, the religious-epic Masnavi of Khavarannameh has its own unique functions as a fairy tale. It also has some other functions that are specific to religious epics, such as invitation to faith, acceptance of the invitation, rejection of the acceptance, and so on. Regarding the number of moves, the rising action of the events include 12 one-move adventures, 5 two-move adventures, 7 three-move adventures, and 3 three-four-move adventures which play a significant role in the logic and coherence of the work.