A Hermeneutic Analysis of Proverbs in Amālī by al-Sayyid al-Murtada

Abstract

The interpreter, in a hermeneutic perspective, plays an active role in explaining significations of a text and expressing their meanings according to a specific reading, understanding the text and making it understood, and being affected by it or affecting it. The text is analyzed regardless of the speaker/writer and their intentions and given a new meaning with the aim of expressing various implications and readings. Reflecting human lifestyles, modes of thinking, and interpretive modes in different periods and areas of life, proverbs are one of the deep-rooted literary forms and inseparable part of cultures, depicting habits, customs, and beliefs of nations. Studying proverbs can help us understand similarities and differences between cultures. For this reason, scholars have deployed proverbs in their writings to explain their ideas and make themselves understood. Using a descriptive method of content analysis and an author-centered literary hermeneutic approach, the present article strives to answer the important question as to whether or not the meaning of proverbs changes over time. It was concluded that proverbs are uninterpretable texts only aimed at conveying a meaning, concept, or knowledge in the form of simile, metaphor, or irony. Following a way similar to his predecessors’, the author of Amālī used proverbs to explicate a difficult word or phrase in a narrative, a report, or a couplet. The present study used the list of proverbs from Amālī al-Sharif al-Murtada researched by Muhammad Abolfazl Ebrahim and (re)published by Zavel-Ghorba Publication in 1431 A.H. / 1388 S.H.

Keywords

• proverb
• interpretation
• al-sayyid al-murtada
• culture
• amālī