Negotiating Arabic and Persian
Rhetorical Adaptation and Autonomy in Persian Literary Criticism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9978816 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shahla Farghadani (0000-0002-2290-2422, University of Michigan, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 2-32 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Iranian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-0862 • E-ISSN: 1475-4819 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/irn.2025.10128 |
| OpenAlex | W7117985974 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
This article reframes the traditional view of Persian rhetoric as merely a derivative of Arabic tradition by examining its development through four key manuals: Muhammad ibn ʿUmar Rādūyānī’s Tarjumān al-Balāgha , Rashīd al-Dīn Vatvāt’s Hadāʾiq al-Sihr , Shams-i Qays-i Rāzī’s al-Muʿjam , and Sayf-i Jām-i Hiravī’s Jāmiʿ al-Sanāyiʿ . It is an exploration of the historical and cultural contexts in which these works were composed, highlighting how Persian rhetoricians adapted and reshaped Arabic models as part of a broader movement toward literary autonomy. By foregrounding these dynamics, the article offers a fresh perspective on the reciprocal relationship between Arabic and Persian rhetorical traditions. Particular attention is given to Tarjumān al-Balāgha as a seminal effort to Persianize rhetorical tradition, in which Rādūyānī adapts and reconfigures Arabic concepts to lay the groundwork for a distinct Persian literary identity, and to Jāmiʿ al-Sanāyiʿ , which subsequently consolidates this project into a coherent and comprehensive Persian framework. Together, these works mark pivotal moments in the trajectory of Persian rhetorical thought and reflect broader cultural and intellectual currents in the medieval Islamicate world
Arabic · Foregrounding · Literary criticism · Orientalism · Persian · Persian literature · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Islamic Studies and History · Medieval and Classical Philosophy
Iran under the Mongols
The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature
The Anthologist’s Art
The Early Ghaznavids
The Rise of the New Persian Language
History of Iranian Literature
Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī and Poetic Imagination in the Arabic and Persian Philosophical Tradition
Arabic Poetics
The Maqāma Genre and the History of an Islamicate Literary Form
Multilingual poetics in Arabic and Persian Maqāmāt
Cases of divergence between Persian and Arabic poetics
Amir Khusraw and the Genre of Historical Narratives in Verse
The Grammatical Tradition in Persian
Imitation and Innovation in Timurid Poetics
A History of Style and a Style of History
Early Persian Works on Poetics and their Relationship to similar Studies in Arabic
Persian Historiography
What Is Arab Islamic Rhetoric? Rethinking the History of Muslim Oratory Art and Homiletics
Linguistic Shuʿūbīya and Early Neo-Persian Prose
| Highly cited | No |
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