The role of Beyhaghi’s allegories in the articulation of the atmosphere of distrust in the court of Masoud Ghaznavi

In Beyhaghi’s history, the artistic as well as literary devices, allegories in particular, are not simply intended for their aesthetic appeals or as embellishments. They are rather employed to serve the author’s purposes. In other words, sometimes the author is compelled, given his own social and political position or the social and political position of the real characters in his work, to convey his thoughts to the reader by employing indirect methods of expression such as using allegories and anecdotes. Thus, the reader, by penetrating the underlying layers of the text would explore fresh and compelling meanings, which due to their literariness are more effective. This paper aims at analyzing some allegories as well as anecdotes used in Tarikh-e Beyhaghi as indirect methods of expression employed by Abolfazl-e Beyhaghi in order to demonstrate how they helped him to bring to picture the turmoil of the time and the atmosphere of distrust in the court of Masoud Ghaznavi.