Sociological Analysis of Proverbs in Persian Heroic Legends

Written popular literature of Iran, in addition to its literary and artistic dimensions, is rich in sociological information. In these texts, along with multiple linguistic clichés such as idioms, allusions, curses, oaths, etc., there are lots of proverbs which familiarize us with people’s ideas and beliefs, values and anti-values, ethical principles, agility customs, the role of women in the society, religious issues, etc., while making them sweet, attractive and popular. The objective of the present descriptive-analytic research is to study 500 proverbs extracted from among 30 verse and prose heroic legends written between the 6th century AH and the end of the Qajarid period, in the general framework of sociology of literature, in order to provide a sociolinguistic perspective. Data analysis indicates that the proverbs could be classified into four general categories including world and chance, social issues, politics and governance, and ethical advices. Besides, there are sometimes traces of patriarchal and opposing thoughts against women.