تاریخ ادبیات (May 2013)
Epic aspects and stylistic features of Khavaran-nama of Ibn Hesam Khosfi
Abstract
One of the prominent examples of religious epic in Persian literature is Khavaran-nama by Ibn Hesam Khosfi, who in the ninth century wrote the events of the wars of the Islamic army under the command of Hazrat Ali (AS) in the lands of Khavaran into poetry. In this research, we have first talked about the epic, the religious epic and its causes and examples, as well as the status and works of Ibn Hesam Khosfi, and after a brief introduction of Khavaran-nama, we have listed the epic aspects and other noteworthy points, disadvantages and stylistic features of this work in detail. In the end, we have tried to give a vision of the most important features of this religious epic based on the mentioned materials and evidence. In this work, the elements of the epic, including the story format, heroism, war, and extraordinary elements and forces, are clearly shown, and Ibn Hesam’s complete and perfect imitation of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh in the fields of words and speech, as well as the content are clearly evident. Among the other aspects worthy of attention in this saga, we can mention the humorous expression, the manifestation of the lyrical literary type, the religious prejudices and the beautiful prayers of the poet. The most important disadvantages of this work are: some weak points in the processing of the story, filling, problems in the metre and rhyme of some verses, as well as problems in the syntax and poetic images. Since Khavaran-nama was written in imitation of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, no traces of the poetry style common in the 9th century can be seen in it, and on the contrary, the traces of the old style are quite evident in it.
