The Pathology of Eloquence in Persian Rhetorical Books

What can make the delicacy and the linguistic and expressive beauty of literary works, including prose and poetry, to be revealed is the level of skill and familiarity with rhetorical science, through which and with the help of them, one can express a meaning in different ways in terms of literary and artistic creativity. However, this is due to the fact that the differences are based on imagination. The critical comparison of these works can be very effective and constructive in their better and more accurate understanding. Therefore, the present research is to analyze and criticize "expression" in ancient and contemporary Persian rhetoric books through a critical and scientific approach and to show, using enough evidences and avoiding any love or hatred, its shortcomings and deficiencies. Almost all existing sources of "expression" from the old to the contemporary period have been investigated in present study, and the existing similarities, differences and contradictions, including imperfections, were analyzed through a three level critical exploration. The findings show that the authors of most rhetorical books have turned to imitation and repetition in their definitions, proposing their viewpoints and examples and have been suffering weaknesses and shortcomings such as Arabism, extreme fluent-writing, and using abbreviations, details and difficult examples.