کاوش نامه ادبیات تطبیقی
پیاپی 11 (پاییز 1392)

Comparative literature, on one hand, is the study of literature of a particular country, and, on the other hand, refers to the relationship between literature and other areas of human knowledge. In Iran, like any other country, the subject has recently drawn the interest of researchers, hence the output data is increasing day after day. Since the planned management of science and information requires knowledge and assessment of the current situation of the scientific field, this research is to evaluate and map out the knowledge of the comparative literature in Iran based on its scientific production using scientometric and clustering methods. The population of the study includes all the documents of this area in all forms of information. In addition, co-word analysis is used as the method of the study. The findings of the research are: general assessment of publications, document growth rate, collaborative works, interdisciplinary relationships, identification of main journals and common concepts, clustering of concepts, and mapping out the knowledge. The research findings indicate that, with the growth rate of 15.34% in the last seven years, there has been an increasing trend in the publications of this area. Among these, article publication is more outstanding. We found that more than 65% of the articles are published in ten journals. It was also revealed that there is a poor level of collaboration among the authors in carrying out a research. Based on clustering of concepts, it became evident that the documents of the subject area in Iran can be divided into 19 information clusters and most of the common concepts are centered on Persian and Arabic literature. Projecting the concepts in a map was also indicative of a complicated relationship between what exists between the texts and the documents of this subject area in Iran.

Persian poetry of the eighth century is full of the symbols and mystical secrets that are the outcomes of the innovation and talent of poets in this period as influenced by the concepts of Ibn al-Arabi’s mysticism. Among these symbols is the symbol of “Tabib” and there are similar and consistent concepts of it in the literature of the Abbasid period as well in comparison with the Persian poetry. This paper deals with a comparative study of symbols of “Tabib” in the poetry of poets in both periods according to the American school of comparative literature. The Tabib in the poetry of the Abbasid period is often the symbol of the well-known physician, although some poets have used it to describe the praised, and admire the ability, the remedying power and the remedy-seeking power or to praise the beloved. While Persian poets have transformed the Tabib as the symbol of the material and the worldly to the enigmatic and the mystical, in the poetry of the Abbasid period it is the symbol of the mundane. On the other hand, the spiritual context of the symbolic images of Tabib in the Abbasid poets is univocal, while in the symbolic image of the Persian poets, there are the three lexical contexts of the typical, the literary and the mystical tradition. In fact, the symbolic image of Persian poets, unlike the Abbasid poets that is univocal, is floating between the literal and the metaphorical.

The thought of anticipation and describing the portrait of Imam Mahdi is immensely apparent in the poetry of poets devoted to ahle beyet from past to present and especially in the contemporary poets. The contemporary poets have opened a new vision in poetry and literature called “mahdaviat”, and from the window of poetry have introduced Imam Mahdi as the Savior in the Apocalypse to those thirsting after Truth. Sayyed Reza Mosavi Hendi, Shekh Mohsen Abolhob, Salman Harati, Gheisar Amin pour are among the renowned contemporary poets devoted to this belief. The present article, through a descriptive-analytical method and reliance on instances in the poetry of these poets, has comparatively investigated the portrait of Imam Mahdi in contemporary Persian and Arabic poetries. Discussions such as the birth of Imam Mahdi (aj), absence, anticipation, glad tidings on the appearance of the Savior in the Apocalypse, describing the characteristics of the Mahdavi utopia are among the common themes in the poetry of poets under discussion. But issues such as titles, Return and responses to deviations on subjects related to Mahdaviat could be seen in the poetry of some of them such as Sayyed Reza Mousavi Hendi’s. Contemporary Persian poets via a literary expression, and by using idiom-simile describe the admiration and praise of Imam Mahdi face of while the Arab poets directly describe the face of Imam Mahdi & further more poets whit literary adaption of interruption of verses & successive narrative describe Imam Mahdi (aj) in their poems and they have given immorality and effectiveness to their poems and Audiences.

Amsal Movallad refer to the wisdom which has an indefinite identity and has penetrated into Arabic literature from different cultures such as Iran, India and Greek in the First Abbasid dynasty. The huge number of translations in the Abbasid era is one of the causes in transferring these examples into the Arabic culture. One of the commonest influential cultures in this period was the Iranian culture which penetrated into the hearts of Arabs dwelling in the desert. This study intends to examine Amsal Movallad among the most outstanding works of the Iranian writer (Ibn Moghafa) in the Abbasid era in order to scrutinize, on the one hand, the influence of this writer on Arabic literature, and, on the other hand, by referring to Arabic sources realize the Persian origin of some of these examples. References to common concepts of such examples in Persian literature as well are, apart from being a step in comparative literature, an indication to prove the hypothesis that a substantial amount of Persian literature’s wisdom is Persian.

The great Hosseini epic has been vastly reflected in literature. Due to its essential glory and opposition to oppression, this epic became a unique model in the minds of many orators and scholars. Inspired by the epic, most of them practiced resistance, freedom and awareness in their communities. These verses could be analyzed in the realm of comparative literature to both critique and reveal the signs of their compatibility and incompatibility.The present research, apart from explicating on the reflection of Ashura epic in the comparative literature, also scrutinizes the poems of Javad Jamil and Sayed Hassan Hosseini, as Persian and Arabic Ashura poetry representatives. In his poetry book “Al-Hossein Loghat Sanniyah”, Jamil, today’s well-known Iraqi poet, depicts the Ashura epic and its characters in a symbolic language. Using many instances of mystery in his work “The sparrow and Gabriel”, Hosseyni also recites the Ashura epic and ties the events of it with those of today.The study shows that both poets hold common ground concerning certain themes and due to their using symbols, their poems turn to be ambiguous at times.

One of the prominent branches in comparative literature research explores the development of schools and literary genres and movements, explaining their differences and similarities with regard to their history, tracing the story of their emergence and their fading away across the literatures of various nations. What histories epic poetry, dramatic literature, novel and other genres have had in Persian and Arabic literature? How has historical novel found its way from European literature into Persian and Arabic literature? These are just a couple of questions among many others and critical scientific concerns which the aforementioned research area investigates. The above question is exactly the issue that the current study, which is also close to the sub category of comparative literature and translatology, has been prepared to seek answers for. The present research, through relying on the basic hypothesis that translation (and especially the works of author- translators) has had an undeniable function in introducing historical novel from European literature to Persian and Arabic literatures and has ended in the creation of a new literary genre in the target language, follows the development of this literary genre from European literature to Persian and Arabic literatures. And through analyzing two examples in Persian and Arabic literatures, it depicts some fundamental differences of the historical novel in Persian and Arabic literatures. It also illuminates that "The Sun and the Monogram" (Shams and Toghry) the masterpiece of Mohammad Bagher Mirza Khosravi Kermanshahi, who is although one of the translators of Georgi Zidan’s historical novel (Zidan being in turn more influenced by Sir Walter Scott), is closer to the French version of historical novel and compared to Shami Virgin by Georgi Zidan is more matured technically and structurally.