A New Scheme for the History of Metaphor

 In the Islamic rhetorical discourse, metaphor counts as a significant literary figure of speech, which is also quite controversial. Today, we need to re-read the Islamic rhetoric due to some reasons and especially study the process of the theory discussing the completion of metaphor. However we face some problems in this path such as; the synthetic and combinative nature of the concept of metaphor, the diversity of definitions given on metaphor in the history of rhetoric, lack of a clear border in the definition of metaphor on one hand and its relation with some other figures of speech within the theory of ‘completion of metaphor’ in history, on the other hand. This essay intends to offer a new scheme for the theory of completion of metaphor with having all the mentioned obstacles in mind, finding theoretical principles for writing about the history of metaphor. In the suggested scheme, the combined concept of metaphor is separated into three ‘Arabic’, ‘Greek’ and Al-Jurjani’ perceptions and each of them is surveyed within an independent narration from a historical perspective. In the final report, the completion of the ‘Islamic Metaphor’ which results from the synthesis and interaction of the three mentioned perceptions is conveyed. This paper hopes to be a theoretical plot for writing the history of metaphor in Islamic rhetoric.