A Reflection on the Nature of Ritual Literature

Ritual literature has a long history in the history of Persian literature, which shows the importance of ritual topics and concepts for poets and Persian speakers. In the past, the main theme of ancient religious literature was myths, traditions and cultural customs, but from the Islamic era and especially with the coming of Shia governments, it took on a religious flavor. Regarding the nature of ritual poetry, especially in the contemporary era, definitions have been made that are not usually comprehensive; furthermore, there has not been a precise boundary between ritual poetry and other poetry, and sometimes in the definitions of researchers, ritual literature has been mixed with mystical, religious or didactic literature. In this paper, library research has been used to identify what ritual poetry is and present a more comprehensive definition of ritual literature. In what follows, the most common types of ritual literature are listed. The structure and content of ritual literature are briefly examined.