Reification of the Described and the Five Patterns of Description in Nizami’s Haft Peykar

While Nizami’s adroitness and expertise in detailed illustration and description have always been the focus of attention of the analysts of his works, so far there has been no due analysis of his artistic techniques and the various patterns he has used in description and image-creating. Choosing Haft Peykar as one of the most prominent works of Nizami and using a descriptive-analytical method, this study aims to answer the two fundamental questions of what aesthetic, rhetorical, narrative, etc. functions, Nizami’s skillful illustrations and detailed descriptions in the text are and whether it is possible to determine cogent and verifiable patterns in Nizami’s descriptions and illustrations. As a result of this research, it became clear that Nizami made his work tangible and realistic for the audience by objectifying and reifying what was described. This objective entity itself has secondary functions that can be investigated in the areas of rhetoric, aesthetics, or narrative logic in the text of Haft Peykar. Most of the descriptions and illustrations of this work can be classified under specific patterns.