The Structure of Fictional Motives in Amir Arsalan

The study of Persian epic-heroic prose works، created under the influence of Shahnameh and following narrative tradition، is one of the fields which is not considered in present research trend. Amir Arsalan is the last outstanding and influential instance of declined current of Persian narrative stories which was being narrated by Naghib-al-Mamalek Shirazi in the form of Naghali in Qajar period and has been inscribed by Touran Dokht، the daughter of Nasir-al-Din Shah. The influence of this story among various socio-cultural classes of Iran shows the importance and status of this work but the real value of this story can be understood only through investigation of its structural motives. Knowing the necessity of a research on motives of Persian narratives and the lack of research on Amir Arsalan، the authors of this article study the fictional motives of this story in four sections: marvelous motives، epic-picaresque motives، romantic motives and religious motives. The main feature of motives in this work is the presence of two factors، that is، repetition and stimulation. Another characteristic of this study is the influence of Shahnameh on Amir Arsalan which has took place through Naghali and the allusions to Shahnameh which are present in Amir Arsalan is an evidence for this matter.