Narrative Quatrain (Ruba’i) in Attar's Mokhtarnameh

Abstract

The largest volume of mystical narratives in Persian literature is devoted to Mathnavi. This has caused neglecting the potentials of other forms of narrative and the tendency of mystics to tell stories in those forms. This necessitates new studies that can examine the potentials of other poetic narrative forms and their features. One of the important functions of storytelling in Sufism is sharing spiritual experiences in form of a short narrative. The mystic storytellers for transferring their spiritual experiences, which are uniquely characterized as condensed and fleeting, seek a poetic form that reflects the condensed narrative of their intuition as concisely and cohesively as possible. Quatrain (Ruba'i), as one of the oldest forms of Persian literature, due to its structural features, can display the transience of the spiritual experiences of quatrain-writer mystics; besides representing unity and integrity. In this research, conducted through descriptive-analytical method and from the viewpoint of the presence of narrative elements in Attar's Mokhtarnameh, we found that in 261 quatrains (out of a total of 2279), the unity of the mystical experiences of the narrator is displayed in the most compressed form and with entanglement and integrity of form and content; more than other storytelling formats. The main characters of narrative quatrains are the lover (mystic) and the beloved, and since the narration occurs in the mystic’s subconscious mind, the place and time are often vague and general. In narrative quatrains, Attar has connected the experience to mystical interpretation of the narrative through deploying imagination and poeticness, and has turned the crude form of his narrative into an artistic one (plot).

Keywords

• mystical poem
• narrative quatrain (ruba'i)
• attar neyshaburi
• mokhtarnameh