Study of the narration in Attar’s work Mosibat Nameh, based on Todorov’s theory

Mosibat Nameh is the longest and apparently last elegy of the three elegies of the renowned Iranian poet, Attar. The narration of the journey of a wayfarer who has embarked on the path of Sufism raises the opportunity for study of narrations; given the particular narrative features of this elegy and its mystical origins. In this article, the narration on the wayfarer’s journey is studied based on the view point of Tzvetan Todorov; the Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, literary critic, sociologist, and essayist. Among the three manifestations that Todorov proposes for study of narrations, the verbal manifestation is taken into consideration for study of this narration. The study of the four elements of aspect, time, view, and tone in this manifestation shows the concurrency of time and narration in a large segment of this adventure and the high frequency of the uniaxial narration in the time zone; the superiority of the reporting aspect of the narration; the outside viewpoint; and the focus of the narrator on the wayfarer in the first place, and the addressee in the second place.