The formal characteristics of Arabic and Persian ghazals: a statistical comparative study

The link between poetry and music is stable and inseparable. The musical background in poetry reveals the influence of melodious principles and bases of the texts in both Arabic and Persian literatures. In addition to the meaning of the Ghazal, its form and foreign music are the factors that make people compose and read this poem format. In the paper, from the perspective of comparative literature, we are going to investigate the Ghazal's meter in two Arabic and Persian literatures to achieve the real differences and commonality in this field and the harmony between the meaning and form of Ghazal in both literatures.
By examining the meters of the odes and Ghazal pieces in Arabic literature, we have found a similarity with the meters used in Arabic poetry in general so that the Tawil, Wāfer, and Kāmel meters are considered to be the most widely used ones. We also found the most commonly used meters in Persian poetry, similar to those of total Persian poetry. Meter format of Persian Ghazal in different centuries was due to the temporal and local conditions. In the sixth century, in which Ghazal emerged, its meters were more diverse and were of shorter meters. Then, in the next few centuries, Ghazal composers such as Sa'di and Hafez composed lengthy Ghazals that are still common. All these Ghazal meters have features that are consistent and proportional to the poet's mental and inner states of sadness and joy.