The Position of Eftekharnameh among Religious Epics

Eftekharnameh-e-Heydari is about the battles of Imam Ali (peace be upon Him). The book is composed in two parts: one covers the period of the Holly Prophet (peace be upon Him) and the other is about the period after His demise. Written by Mirza Mostafa Eftekhar al-Olama (1284-1327 AH) in 1304 AH, Eftekharnameh-e-Heydari is made up of about 17000 verses. Like all other instances of epic poetry in Persian literature, Eftekharnameh-e-Heydari has been heavily influenced by the Shahnameh. The research question of the present study is to identify whether Eftekharnameh has a proper and coherent structure as an epic poem. In answering this question, the study evaluates the epic inklings of the linguistic and rhetorical features of the poem and its literary position. In this evaluation, the analytical descriptive method is utilized. The analysis of epic features in this work is based on the fact that literarily and linguistically speaking, these features are those expressive components whose presence in a particular work can turn it into an a typical literary example of epic poetry. The study believes that compared to other religious epic, Eftekharnameh has a mediocre literary position, and this mediocrity is due to the poet‘s youth and literary immaturity at the time, it is thought, he was writing this work.