Metrical Structure in Persian Classical Poetry

Khwadje Nasir Tusi (the Persian thinker of the 13th century AD) raises a question in his mejar-ol-'ashar, which seems to be unanswered so far. The question may be re-expressed in modern linguistic terms as follows: why does a specific string of one- and two-moraic syllables (ex. u - - u - - u - - u -) in a specific meter (ex. moteghareb-e mosamman-e mahzuf or maghsur) have just one correct scansion (in this case: faulon faulon faulon faal = u - -/ u - -/ u - -/ u -), and other logically possible scansions (ex. mafailo mostaflon faelon = u - - u/ - - u -/ - u -, or faulon mafailo mostafelon = u - -/ u - - u/ - - u -) are all incorrect (Khwadje Nasir 1369/1991: 35-36)? He himself cleverly evades giving a direct answer to this, but as a matter of fact his question must be considered as a key one in Persian classical meter. Some scholars believe that the question itself is based on a wrong presupposition because there is no metrical foot in this kind of versification at all (Elwell-Sutton 1976: 85). Others believe that the question is not at all wrong, but some of the traditional metrical feet have to be changed anyway (Khanlari1373/1995: 155; Utas 1994). Taking a position in line with the second group,the present paper argues that according to a metrical analysis of the words of standard Persian, the feet of this language are right dominated, bounded and quantity sensitive (Hayes 1981) or iambic with an “End Rule Final” rule (Hayes 1995). It is very interesting that by analyzing the words of any Persian misra' (hemistich) into its feet, one reaches its natural rhythmical elements traditionally called atanin. Interestingly enough, any Persian speaking child can easily analyze a misra' into its atanin simply after seeing just a few examples. For instance the meter of moteghareb-e mosamman-e mahzuf atanin (" faulon faulon faulon faal") is analyzed into its atanin as "ta tan tan ta tan tan ta tan tan ta tan". The paper employs this finding as a basis both to re-describe the metrical feet of Persian versification and to answer Khwadje Nasir Tusi's question.