Rashid al-Din's style of poetry

Rashid al-Din Vatvat is one of the most famous poets of the sixth century AH whose skills in the use of words and verbal/spiritual devices has made him a unique poet of his day. Thus, studying the aspects of his poems can distinguish his linguistic and literary distinctions from his other contemporary poets. Given that most scholars in the style of Rashid's poetry have confined themselves only to its literary level and have neglected both its intellectual and linguistic levels, the authors of this article aim to introduce the unique linguistic, literary, and content characteristics of Rashid's poems through stylistic approach of analyzing his poems. The results of the present study indicate that Rashid's lines are linguistically strong and sometimes comparable with Khaqani's poems. He chooses words with particular skill, and his speech is devoid of any defects in eloquence. He used the Arabic words with a full rhyming vocabulary, and obsolete words rarely appear in his poems. He makes exquisite and innovative compositions with his dynamic talents; however, in many cases he sacrifices meaning for rhetoric. Therefore, Rashid's poetry illustrates the transformation of Persian poetry from Khorasani style to Iraqi style. What distinguishes Rashid's poems from those of other poets of his day is the predominance of the moral and social themes that have been served. This, together with the poet's attention to rhetoric, implies social and moral crises of his age.