A Comparative Study of Anvari and Motanabbi’s Purposes of Praise in Their Poetry

Eulogy is one of the oldest and most frequent themes of poetry in Persian literature. Indeed, it can be considered as a fundamental theme that arose at the beginning of the formation of poetry. Originally, it comes from Arabic literature. In eulogy, the purpose of the poet is to praise a person to expresses his or her request to that person. Eulogy is a literary genre that, due to exaggerated descriptions of some poets, is criticized for exploiting literature. However, it should be noted that it has goals other than receiving rewards, gaining reputation, and so on in the works of some poets. Anvari is one of the most outstanding Persian poets who is considered as one of the prophets of Persian poetry. Anvari’s divan (poetry collection) consists of two volumes and the first volume includes eulogies. Abu Tayyeb Mutanabbi is one of the most renowned Arabic poets and, like Anvari, is considered as one of the prophets of Arabic poetry. He has written odes in praise of Seif-o-Doleh. This article, which is a descriptive-analytical study, aims at comparing the first volume of Anvari’s divan with Mutanabbi’s odes in the framework of American comparative literature. It tries to compare them in terms of their purpose of praise and their rhetoric. The findings reveal that there are similar themes such as bravery and generosity in their poetry. However, they differ from each other in that Anvari praises the appearance, the estate, and other worldly belongings of the object of his praise, while such praise is cannot be found in Mutanabbi’s poetry. Besides, has a high self-respect and shows great arrogance in the major parts of his poetry. Thus, the most important difference between them is Mutanabbi’s narcissism. The analysis of these commonalities and differences is one of the objectives of this comparative research.