A Comparative Study of Versified Historiography in Ibn Hani and Amir Moezi's Panegyrics (A Case Study: Themes, Literary Structures, and Poetic Images)

Generally, versified historiography or recording historical events has had a special place in Arabic and Persian poetry. But this has been widely and differently emerged in Arabic literature in Abbasside era. Iranian poets of this era had been greatly influenced by eminent Arab poets and litterateurs in recording historical events, as they had made a close relationship with Arabic literature and poetry. In this respect, the historical panegyrics of Amir Moezi as a court poet influenced by Arab poets like Mutanabbi in his use of words , poetic images, and themes could be compared from different aspects with the historical panegyrics of Ibn Hani who has been also influenced by Mutanabbi and is called the “Mutanabbi of the west”. He has -directly and consciously- adopted many of the themes in his panegyrics from Arabic poems, through the study and mastery of the poems of some contemporary or earlier Arab poets- or indirectly and unconsciously- through the influence of some contemporary or earlier Iranian poets. And he had observed the overall design, general structure, themes, and poetic images of Arabic odes in a number of his odes. So, in this research, by comparing and examining the historical praises of these two poets and expressing their similarities and differences in terms of theme, structure, and poetic images, the position of each of them in recording the historical events of their eras was shown.