Insertion of Persian Poetry in Prose Texts (Relying on 8th-Century Prose Texts)

Inserting rhymes and poetry into Persian prose has a long history. Looking at the ancient prose texts, we can see that most of the writers after the birth of Persian poetry tended to this mixture; it is as if they were aware of the effect of poetry on the soul of the audience and the persuasion caused by it. Incentives based on literary and social-political goals have caused poetry to enter prose texts. By looking at the list of old and new rhetorical science books, it became clear that so far, rhetoricians have not paid enough attention to the types of poetry insertion in prose texts, which is one of the aesthetic aspects. The only term that fits this technique better than other interpretations is "Esteshhad" (affidavit). a general term that includes verse, hadith, news, and poetry in the text. Other terms such as solution, adaptation, and guarantee have been proposed, which, according to the existing definitions, are not exactly related to poetry. The appearance of poetry among prose texts has types and rules that have not been discovered so far, and terms for these types have not been provided. The present article tried to examine the prose texts mixed with poetry in the 8th century as an example of research, because Persian poetry has reached the peak of its development in this century, and tried to explain the types of poetry insertion in prose and its purposes by citing examples of the texts and presenting its proposed definitions to solve the problem. The suggested term in this writing is the completely Persian and literary term "She’r-Amizi".Keywords: Poetry, Prose, Rhyme, Insertion, Esteshhad. IntroductionThe combination of poetry and prose has been common in Persian texts for a long time. The presence of scattered poems in most prose texts reminds us of the importance of examining them in terms of quantity and literary quality. The research on why and how to insert poetry in prose texts has results worthy of reflection. This article seeks to answer the question: 1- What is the appropriate term for this literary technique? 2 - what are the different forms of inserting poetry into prose? What goals did the author have in mind for this work? And what are the results of using this literary technique?The Goals of Inserting Poetry in Prose TextsPersuasion and satisfaction of the audience, boasting, documenting speech, lexical witness, technical witness, explanation and interpretation or translation of hadith, verse or Arabic poetry, and indirect expression. Literature ReviewRegarding the poetic Esteshhadat of literary texts, general or case research studies have been conducted so far.Faqihi (1994): Doctoral dissertation with the title "Arabic Verses in Persian Literary Texts until the Middle of the 6th Century: Including Extraction, Translation, Arabization, Reference of Persian and Arabic Sources, Mentioning the Names of Many Arab Poets and Some Necessary Explanations" in Tarbiat Modares University. It is worth mentioning that he did not analyze the poems as much as he should have and often limited himself to extracting and presenting a few extracted poems.Sarvestani (2009): Master's thesis with the title "Culture of Persian Poems in Persian Mystical Prose Texts" at Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, which was presented in the form of extracting poems and without analysis and research on the poems.Safari Agh Qal'eh (2015): a research in the form of a book titled "Persian Poems Scattered in Texts up to 700 AH" which was published in two volumes by Dr. Mahmoud Afshar’s publications. This book has examined almost all printed texts up to the end of the seventh century and has its own literary values, although the research scope of the present treatise seems to be a continuation of this book, most of the issues that should be analyzed in this treatise are in Mr. Safari's book.The Goals of Inserting Poetry in Prose TextsPersuasion and satisfaction of the audience, boasting, documenting speech, lexical witness, technical witness, explanation and interpretation or translation of hadith, verse, or Arabic poetry, and indirect expression.The Results of Inserting Poetry in Prose TextsIntroducing anonymous poets, revealing the author of some poems, revealing repetitive themes, discovering the intellectual values and tastes of writers, discovering plagiarism, revealing the involvement of writers in the text and preserving the cultural works of the Persian language.Types of Mixing Poetry in Prose- The author has sometimes changed some words from the original verse while maintaining the meter and rhyme and used another word that was more in harmony with the text and topic.- Does the poem relate to the previous text or not? Maintaining the connection between the poem and the text has various forms; sometimes this connection is completely perceptible and understandable. Sometimes the connection is far from the mind, to the extent that the necessary connection between the content of words and poetry may not be received.- The poem either comes after the end of the sentence, or it comes in the context of the sentence and words.- The style of the poem is expressed or not.- Titles such as one verse, verse, Masnavi, etc. are given before inserting the poem, and sometimes the poem is inserted without mentioning the title.Sometimes the way of inserting poems is subject to rhyme; that is, the text can be considered a proportional mixture of prose and rhyme, and sometimes the author has included poetry wherever necessary.- The pattern of the authors in giving the name of the poet is different; sometimes the author did not pay attention to this issue, and sometimes he wrote the name of the poet or the source who quoted the poem there, or both. MethodologyThe research method in this article is in the form of content analysis, and its content is 8th-century prose texts. FindingsAccording to the definitions of ancient and contemporary rhetoricians, the best term that can be considered for this innovative art is "Esteshhad". The main purpose stated for the use of Esteshhad is to prove the speaker's words, which also comes from the literal meaning of Esteshhad, but the patterns in the texts that we encountered in this article do not fully match the existing definitions of Esteshhad; when the author uses poetry when quoting one of the characters of his work, we do not see any intention to prove the claim in it. This issue is also true about the translation of Arabic verses, hadiths, and poems, or arranging the story told in the work. Therefore, it is necessary to broaden the definition of Esteshhad. On the other hand, "Esteshhad" is a common term in other sciences, such as law. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a special term in Persian literature regarding this issue. Since in this literary art we see the tendency of the author towards poetry and prose and poetry are mixed, the term "poetry" can express this literary art to a great extent. In addition, it does not have the mentioned problems regarding Esteshhad. ConclusionThe insertion of poetry in prose has been used for persuading the audience, clarifying the meanings of words, explaining, interpreting, or translating verses, etc., and boasting or simply embellishing words. Inserting the same poem or changing it, bringing the poem in the middle of the sentence or after it is finished, mentioning or not mentioning the poetic form, and inserting or not including headings such as verse, verse, and one verse before the poem are the methods of using this technique. The introduction of anonymous poets, the revelation of the composer of some poems, the revelation of the repetition of themes in the author's works, the discovery of the intellectual values of writers in a period, the discovery of literary plagiarism, and the revelation of the involvement of writers in writing texts and the preservation of cultural works are among the results of literary research.