The Morphology of the Tales of Kalilah-O-Demnah Written by Nasrollah Monshi"

The Purpose of this study was to investigate the morphology of the tales of "Kalilah-O-Demnah" written by Nasrollah Monshi, on the basis of the model proposed by Vladimir Propp's (1895-1970 B.C). Among the main aims of the present study, the following can be enumerated: determining the structure of tales of "Kalilah-O-Demnah"; a better understanding of the structure of Indian tales; a better understanding of the structure of "Kalilah-O-Demnah"; and distinguishing between the structure of Indian tales and their Iranian counterparts. The reason for choosing "Kalilah-O-Demnah" for the present study is its role in the emergence and the trend of the technical prose, numerous imitations of this masterpiece, and the like.The study adopted a descriptive design, and the results have been analyzed using content analysis technique, library and document analysis method, and Propp's method. The results of the study indicate that fifty seven tales of this book have thirty four functions and one hundred moves; the simplicity or complexity of the tales depend on the combination of moves. Moreover, the findings are indicative of the fact that the structure of the two main tales in the chapters "Bazjosteh kar Demnah" and "Zahed-O-Mehman oo" is different from that of the other tales. In fact, since these tales are not existent in "Panchetantarah" and because of their structural differences, it seems that these tales have been created in Iran and added to the book translation, later.