Recognizing the Pattern of Understanding and the Hermeneutical Orientation of Azaryazdi

Mehdi Azaryazdi is known as the father of the Persian Child Literature. Amongst his works, the "Good Stories for Good Children" book series have gained a lot of popularity and are considered as the most widely circulated work of child literature in Iran. Through the present study, in order to find the pattern of understanding (i.e. hermeneutical orientation) of Azaryazdi, a comprehensive sample of 121 rewritten stories of his collection are reviewed. Then their differences with the original (i.e. ancient) stories are classified. Hereby, seven categories of changes are identified. These seven types of changes are conclusively the outcome of author’s understanding of A) ancient texts, B) his own mission and duty, and C) the audiences (i.e. children).According to the research findings, in each of these three stages of understandings, Azaryazdi believes in A) Possibility of objective understanding, B) Complete and true understanding, and C) Just one single true interpretation of texts, contexts, or whatever which is the subject of understanding. In his view, the meaning and function of words are permanently fixed. Though, by emphasizing on moral concepts, he does not allow his audiences to have a different or opposite understanding of the purpose of his writings. Therefore, it is concluded that the pattern of his understanding is matched with the traditional hermeneutics; particularly harmonized with Schleiermacher's style.