Reflection of Folk Culture and Literature in Persian Poems about Predestination

The poems of fortuity are a collection of works written in the Safavid-Qajar period based on the algebraic thinking in the form of a story. Most of these poems are in the form of manuscript and they are more than 20. In this article, four prints and 11 manuscripts of these poems have been studied considering the elements of popular culture and literature. Although the poems of fortuity are written in the form of formal literature with a focus on the theological and philosophical themes, their linguistic and content characteristics prove that the main source of inspiration for these texts is the folk cultures and literature. The superficial approach to the fortuity that challenges the subject, being free  of the  complex philosophical reasoning and  the promotion of fatalism thinking in these poems,  the manifestation of popular culture and literature such as simple language and expression, the slang tone of these works, realization of superstition such as the belief in fortune, describing some popular traditions, reflecting some popular behavior, and describing personalities and places in the  popular life are some indications of fortuity poem  being  influenced by folk  literature. In terms of story structure, fortuity is also perfectly consistent with the structure of folk tales. Weaknesses in plot and verisimilitude, centrality of the events, static and dynamic characters, vague time and place and the omniscient narrative are some features that link these poems to the folk literature