A Narratological Analysis of Beihaqi's Historiography on the basis of Narrative Intelligence Theory

This study aims to analyze Beihaqi’s historiographic style based on the narrative intelligence theory. Narrative intelligence (Randall, 1999) comprise cognitive abilities for perceiving and reproducing narrative structures. The authors argue that the analytical potentials of this theory provide a useful framework for the study of Beihaqi’s historiography. The results show that using the subabilities of emplotment, characterization, narration, and genre-ation, Beihaqi has managed to artistically apply the principles that have been introduced by recent theories of historiography proposed by Western scholars. Being influenced by the meta-narratives of the Islamic-Iranian culture, Beihaqi produced a coherent work which is in harmony with other constituents of the culture and civilization. It is also argued that the structural capacities inherent in narratological studies can be used effectively to link Persian literature with the principles of scientific historiography and to localize narratological theories.