A Comparative Analysis of Sa’di and Alexander Pope’s Views on “Man’s Rationality” and “Body-Soul Dualism”

The present paper offers a comparative analysis of the ideas of “man’s rationality” and “body-soul dualism” from the perspectives of Sa’di, the great Persian classical poet of the 13th century and Alexander Pope, the outstanding English writer and poet of the eighteenth century, based on the American school of comparative literature. The works of the two poets manifest their deep preoccupation with the question of ‘human nature’ and demonstrate that their ideas have emanated from two important sources: The Holy Scriptures and the traditions of classical philosophy. The significance of this study is twofold: it displays the approach of the two poets from two different cultures to the eminent subject of human nature and it further highlights the common grounds between the fields of literature, religion, and philosophy in Persian and English literature. The paper illustrates that although Sa’di and Pope come from two different religious and philosophical backgrounds, they are similar in their fundamental reflections and principle ideas on human nature.