Narrative structures of Attar's Masnavies

Scholars of mystical poetry believe that a great number of Persian mystical Mathnavīs, especially the three wonderful works of Persian literature, namely Sanai’s Ḥadīqah al-Ḥaqīqah, ʿAttar’s Manṭiq al-Ṭayr and Mowlana’s Mathnavī Maʿnavī, have a common narrative structure based on their main plot and design. However, the Ilāhī Nāmah, Manṭiq al-Ṭayr and Muṣībat Nāmah of ʿAttar, which are considered as spiritual travelogues, in addition to having a main plot, benefit from different micro-narrative structures. In the present research, adopting a descriptive-analytical method and narratological approach, the goal of which is to discover a comprehensive model of narration, attempt has been made to decipher the anecdotes-allegories and their main function by exploring the narrative structures of the three Mathnavīs mentioned above. We came to the conclusion that ʿAttar, in addition to the unity-plurality structure based on the main design of these Mathnavīs, has also deployed the narrative structure of travelogues, the Arabian Nights and the Holy Scriptures. The main secret of his anecdotes-allegories is that he measures the history of his time with the narrative pattern of the history of prophets and does not refer to the historical events of his time.