A comparative study of the Function of letters in producing New type of poems in Arabic and Persian

Arabic literature in the Mamluk-Ottoman era saw new varieties of poetry whose letters (as the smallest linguistic unit) played an important role in their production. Some of these new forms and forms include: chronogram, verse riddles and puzzles, geometric poetry, poetry whit dotted or un dotted letters, Circumlocution (mahbuk-altarafen), tatriz poetic prose, tashjir (tree form poetry) takhmis , tashtir, autimetabde and.... On the other hand, despite the Holy Quran, the interaction between the two Arabic and Persian litterateurs and the influence of Arabic literature on the rhetorical techniques of the Persian language are undeniable fact. Therefore, the present study have focused on five important: chronogram, tatriz, geometric poetry, poetry whit dotted or un dotted letters, and Knitted agreed poems to study the mentioned species in Arabic literature and also it is looking for  the mentioned species in Persian literature to find their differences and similarities in the two literatures, if they are common.
 

This study was carried out using library method and based on descriptive and comparative method. Therefore, the research subjects were studied separately in both literatures and after finding similar samples in Persian language, with The Arabic samples was adapted to inference their differences and similarities. And after finding similar examples in Farsi, they were matched with Arabic ones to deduce their differences and similarities.
 

One of the types of poetry whose letters play a key role in the production  is chronogram. In this way, letters are used as numbers, each letter has special number and the poet tells the story of the occurrence by letters through the poetic verse. It uses a proper word or phrase that sums the numbers of the letters making up the date. Although a chronogram was common in Arabic literature Before the Mamluk  period . but in this period it was seriously considered. This type of poetry is also popular in Persian literature, influenced by Arabic literature and has a similar function , and the date of this technique in Persian back to the fifth century but it reaches peak from the middle of the first half of the eighth century.
Geometric poetry is another type in which letters have the ability to play in a certain geometric form, such as a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, and rhombus. By considering in poems that are written in geometric shapes like circles and squares in Persian verses, it can determine that the basis of such poems is on the word, not on the letter.
Poetry whit dotted or un dotted letters is made with the help of punctuated and non-punctuated letter. Thus, if all of its words are punctuated, the poem is dotted poetry(Mojam) and if its words are non-punctuated, the poem is un dotted poetry(Mohmal), and if the letter is punctuated and other one is non-punctuated, a poem raqta is formed. As well as in Arabic, the Artistic practices had also been common in persian Poetry industry is the epitome of poetry.
The word "tatriz" means to decorate and to paint dress by colored thread in the poetic term is a kind of poem that poet arranged the early letters of the verses to form a definite name. The technique that the Persian poet uses to create a poem such as the poetic Arabic poetry is called the technique of soliloquy. In such a way that the author or poet in his writing or reading poem, inserts such a letters or words an independent word or term (whether prose or poem) is created by separating them from writing or poem.
Circumlocution (mahbuk-altarafen) is a term in which all verses or a piece of poem start and finish with same letter, or each verse starts with one of the mojam letters. But studies of Persian rhetorical books indicate that this kind of poetry is not applicable in this literature. Perhaps the most important reason is its limitation in domain of vocabulary, as seen –according in the Arabic example- this type of poetry requires a huge number of vocabularies to be selected desired words by the poet as he wants. As Mohammed bin Omar al-Raduviani by studying on lipogram have pointed out this problem and he said " it is accepted in 'Arabic' more than in Persian, because in Persian letters are scant , and also words and terms ." (Al Radaviani, 1362: 108).
Letters as the smallest linguistic unit, are effective in producing poetic species, including the use of chronogram, geometrical poetry, tashtir and…. Some of them which have been effected by Arabic are also popular in Persian such as the geometrical poetry, and geometric poetry.However, there are differences in geometric poetry in the two literatures. That means, the basis of such a poem in arabic literature are letter and is very diverse but in Persian it is the word that forms the basis of such a poem. And it has just appearance on round and square form. Some of  poetic species have found differently usage  in this language as we saw in the acrostic. And Some of them are used only in Arabic due to derivative characteristics and the ability to construct multiple words from a single root, (such as Shakib, 2005: 162-149).