The Imageology of Bah al-Dawlah of the Būyids in Sharif al-Raḍi’s Poetry

Knowing the “other” paves the way for the rise of a new discipline named the science of image or imageology. This discipline is one of the branches of Comparative Literature, and it studies the picture of the “other” in literary texts. The image of the “other” is formed through the familiarity of the scholar under the name of “Me” with the other under the name of the “other”, and its analysis is based upon the tenets that imageologists have laid down. The most important of these tenets are as follows: modes of reading the “other”, and the influential factors in image-making. Since the study of imageology gives way to the knowing of different peoples and the awareness of their culture and civilization, therefore it is of prime importance in literary studies. The present paper studies the image of Bahª al-Dawlah in Sharif al-Raḍi’s poetry, so as to show, how his image is formed. Bahª al-Dawlah was one of the rulers of Būyids, an Iranian dynasty that ruled over some parts of Iran and Iraq during the fourth and fifth century A. H. Sharif al-Raḍi was his contemporary and had a very close contact with him in Iraq for 24 years, that is why Sharif depicts his image in his poetry. As this study shows, the poet has pictured the “other” while his pictured image is mixed with the partiality to his race, with the prejudice to “Me”, with pride of him, with anger towards the “other”, and with resistance against him. However, he has not deformed the image of the “other”, and his image in his Divan is very close to historical realities. Also, in his image-making, the poet has been under the influence of personal, social, political and religious factors like his attribution to Bani-Hᾱshim, injustice in the distribution of richness, trespassing the other, the conflict between Būyids rulers, and the tension between Sunni and Shiite.