“Supplications in Mathnawī: A Narratological and Rhetorical Interpretation”

This study suggests that a narratological perspective on supplications in Mawlānā Rūmī’s Mathnawī reveals not only several artistic characteristics of the prayers, but also the poet’s views on certain aspects of the dialogue between mankind and the Divine Creator. Most of the supplications in Mathnawī appear unexpectedly. Most of the time, we are left wondering if the supplications are uttered by the narrator or by a character in the story; even sometimes they lie outside the storyline. For the most part, the supplications appear at turning points in the plot and exemplify some of the most private experiences of the story’s characters. They oscillate between cliffhangers in the storyline and the pseudo-binary of anthropomorphism and transcendence. Occasionally, they ensnare the narrator and the protagonist in the agonizing dilemma of deciding whether to pray or not.