Politeness in Shams’ Articles and Fihi Ma Fihi

In this research, using pragmatic theories and the descriptive-analytical method and focusing on Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, politeness strategies in the two works of Shams Tabrizi’s Articles and Fihi Ma Fihi were studied and compared. In this study, all dialogue-oriented sections in the text of both books were analyzed. The results of this study showed that among the politeness-related modes of expression, the frequency of using the direct expression method in Fihi Ma Fihi was higher than Shams’ Articles. In addition, the frequency of employing the non-affirmative technique with a face-threatening function was the same in both books, but the dramatic fall in the humiliation function in Fihi Ma Fihi indicated Mawlawi's greater concern for saving the reader’s face. Considering that the use of taboo words in the book of Shams’ Articles was more than Fihi Ma Fihi, it can be rightly claimed that the extent of observing politeness in Fihi Ma Fihi was more than Shams’s Articles; however, due to the connection of these two books with the educational genre and the high social status of the authors of both works in their own discourse, the linguistic structure of Shams’ Articles and Fihi Ma Fihi was, in general, politeness-oriented.