A Linguistic Analysis of Al-Sahifa al-Qaseriyya, a Religious Epic Poetry Work

Al-Sahifa al-Qaseriyya is composed by Gholamreza Qaser-Kermani, a poet of the Qajar Era, in five chapters. This descriptive-analytical study aimed at giving an accurate description of Al-Sahifa al-Qaseriyya. For this purpose, the unique language and stylistic features are introduced and the importance of this work among religious epics is highlighted. The findings point to the work's novelty in the composed contexts and themes, particularly in expressing the sufferings inflicted on children in the Ashura incident, including Moslem's children. The poet describes the detailed incidents related to their martyrdom to expose the vicious nature of the enemy and attract the attention of the readers. The tone employed in this epic is similar to the tragedy whereby the readers can imagine the horrific Ashoura incident more clearly. Linguistically speaking, it is influenced by the literary return style and Ferdowsi's poetic expression. In the intellectual view, it expresses individual deep sorrows and concerns of the poet. He describes the events based on his language style, deriving from his deeply religious beliefs. In this study, the qualitative content analysis method is used. 

After the advent and subsequently spread of national epics used to represent the narratives of Iranians in terms of heroism, it took only half a century after Ferdowsi's Shahnameh that religious epics emerged (Razmjou, 2002). To provide contexts for restoring natural pride, Ferdowsi played the main role in adding interest into speechwriting, causing others to test themselves in composing such poems due to the tone attractiveness, epic themes, and contents. The first step after Ferdowsi was the composition of religious epics originating from early Islamic battles (Razmjou, 2002) and Shiite thoughts shared by Iranians. Of the common epic heroes in religious anecdotes, one can refer to Hamzeh, Ali, and Imam Hossein. The prevalence of religious epics reached its peak during the Safavid period (Rastegar-Fesaei, 2008). Following the Literary return tradition, and enduring love and respect for religious figures during the Qajar period, a Kerman-based poet, a devout educated man in Najaf, embarked on composing this Sahifiyya.   

This is the first research that particularly aims to focus on textual criticism and the introduction of this work. The qualitative content analysis is used  along with using library resources.

Qolamreza Qaseri Kermani is a poet  born in Joupar, Kerman. He narrates his own life story in the first chapter. He first studied in Kerman, then in Najaf, Iraq. Then he returned to his hometown at about the age of forty where he taught and  preached. In his forties, Qaseri composed Al-Sahifa al-Qaseriyya in five chapters in the form of Mathnawi using Ferdowsi’s Shahname’s meter. Chapter Two recounts the martyrdom and fate of five children especially Moslem's children, Abdollah Ibn Hassan, and Ali-Asqar in the Battle of Karbala. The third chapter refers to Imam Hosayn’s suffering  at the hands of enemies in the Ashoura incident and the horrific scene depicting the way the master of martyrs was slaughtered. In the next chapter, a group of Christians and Jews protesting against Yazid for the beheading of Imam Hussein and for non-Muslims' speeches about Imam Hosayn's admirable personality traits are portrayed. Chapter Four describes the virtue of scholars and theologians as well as their excellence by telling the anecdotes related to Muhammad the Prophet and the other Shiite imams. Also, the poet’s liturgical poems are presented in the last chapter. In this book, he is strongly influenced by Ferdowsi’s poetic language of Shahnameh. However, the tone of his work compared to Shahnameh is more tranquilized and closer to mourning. Because this book is written to show the legitimacy of Ashoura and express the martyred children's conditions in the hands of Yazidis, it is novel in terms of the epic text. In terms of narrating epic episodes of the battle, this work does not have anything new to say. In the description of scenes, in the unnecessary cases, it does not turn to the expression. The poet is more skilled at narrating terrible scenes of what happened to children in the battle of Karbala and the way non-Muslims defended Imam Hossain’s rights, resulting in their faith in Imam and hatred of Yazid. The poet’s speech tone is influenced by Nezami’s liturgical poems when he composes liturgy; he is a follower of Saadi in his preaching. However, he is poor at keeping up with Ferdowsi in terms of epic tone. Words of advice and aphorisms at the end of anecdotes and terrible scenes of children in the Ashoura incident are strongly influenced by Ferdowsi's sayings. The moderation and coherence of the text  are also insignificant compared to Shahnameh’s.