Investigating Social Trust in Seif Ferghani’s Divan from a Sociological Perspective

Trust is one of the most important aspects of human relationships and the creator of participation and balance among members of a society. Social trust is one of the most important characteristics of social capital, for which various types and levels of trust have been defined. Trust is generally divided into intragroup and intergroup categories. Intragroup trust includes trust in relatives, personal trust, and interpersonal trust. The intergrouptrust includes institutional trust, fundamental trust, and moral values. Meanwhile, dependant variables related to social trust include the performance of the government, security, and religion. Social trust is in the minds of many traditional and contemporary sociologists. The concept of trust manifests itself in many different ways. This issue is one of the most important factors in establishing communication between members of the community. Trust is the basic foundation and pulse of the social order. The existence of social problems indicates a lack of trust in the society. The expression of social problems, ugliness, and vulgarity of the corrupt class, especially in the institutional systems and the performance of the government, has long been seen in the poems of our poets and writers. Saif Ferghani is a poet of the seventh and eighth centuries AH who, as a reformer and social critic, critically expresses bad social and economic conditions. In Seif's poetry, bad social conditions have destroyed the public’s trust in the government and even in the society, and Seif, as a representative of these people, expresses distrust, especially of the government and its institutions. The present study investigates social trust in Seif Ferghani’s poems based on the theories of three sociological theorists: Anthony Giddens, Robert Putnam, and Francis Fukuyama. Interpersonal trust, personal trust, institutional trust, religion, security, and moral values ​​are the most common subsets of social trust in the theories of these three sociological theorists. Analysis of the theoretical content of Seif's poetry ideas shows the poet’s dominant thought in the field of intergroup trust. Saif’s biggest complaint is the poor performance of the government and the governing body of the society. In Seif’s Divan, due to the transformation of social life, the disruption of social order and corruption, instead of trust, one should speak of distrust. The only trust that can be seen in Seif’s Divan is the interpersonal trust that is based on the relationship between the lover and beloved. Religion, security, and moral values ​​have also been examined as other variables of social trust in Saif’s Divan which are directly related to institutional trust and government performance. In general, Seif believes that a ruler who does not have religious and moral values ​​in the society disrupts the security and order of the society. According to him, having religion can increase social trust in the society.