Analysis of Jamal's battle in Nahj al-Balaghah based on Algirdas Julien Greimas's Actantial Model

One of the manifestations of the caliphate of Amir al-Mu'minin (AS) is his battles and how he interacted with the non-conformists of that era. Some of the events of these battles need to be explored to clarify their different angles. Narratology and the use of new sciences can help to explain these events. Among the theorists of this field is Algirdas Julien Greimas, who considers the texture of the narrative to be close to the grammatical form of the language and, through ignoring the difference in the content of the story, considers it to have a general shape. To interpret the narrative, Greimas introduces a general plan with six actants to clarify its hidden angles for the audience. This article tries to use the descriptive-analytical method to implement the various elements of this six-part model on Nahj al-Balaghah's narration of Jamal's battle and present a structured understanding of the events of this combat. The results of this implementation show that Nahjul-Balaghah has included significant expressions in all six parts of Greimas'model. The exploration of the propositions of Nahj al-Balaghah shows that the main actants were Talha and Zubair, and other people's actions revolved around their movements and behaviour.