The comparative study of Alinameh and Eftekharnameh in terms of narrative time

In examining epic in particular religious epics whose heroes are prophets and prominent religious figures who are connected to the source of inspiration and revelation, if not all, most are aware of the events and destiny of the characters, predict future and speak about the far and near past, narrative time gains most attention.  Based on the perspectives of the following theorists such as Rimmon Kenan, Gerald Prince, Heidegger, and in particular Gerard Genette this article aims to examine the notion of time in the two epic poems Rabi’s Alinameh the first religious epic after Islam and Sahba’s Eftekharnameh, accounted as the last religious epic, and also explore and analyze them in terms of order, duration, and frequency.  Employing descriptive analytic method together with applying comparative literature approach to these works denote that due to  employing multiple time intervals and high frequency of anticipation in relation to looking into past they lend themselves to further examinations.  The study of duration shows that speed in most parts of the stories in two works in particular in Eftekharnameh is a positive one and the study of frequency shows that Alinameh seems to proceed with lower speed in relation with Eftekharnameh since its composer uses the aspect of frequency repetitively while in Eftekharnameh the composer benefited from using the aspect of narrator more.