The Exemplum in Classical Persian Literature
The Rhetoric of Ethics from Aristotle to Attar
The Exemplum in Classical Persian Literature
The Rhetoric of Ethics from Aristotle to Attar
Description
Classical Persian literature is rich with entertaining narrative examples in the form of anecdotes, fables, tales, reports, and parables. Typically identified by terms such as hikayat, tamthil, qissah, and khabar, or introduced by phrases such as “it was said” or “I heard,” these stories can be read as what rhetorical theory refers to as "exempla" (singular, “exemplum”). Although often treated as literary ornaments or simple moral lessons, exempla were among the most powerful literary tools through which premodern writers explored topics in philosophical ethics, rhetorical persuasion, and moral truth.
This book offers the first sustained study of the exemplum in Persian literature. Moving from Aristotle and Galen to the Arabic philosophical tradition of Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, and drawing on a range of medieval and early modern poetry and prose genres, Alidina illuminates the use of exempla by one of the tradition's boldest and most daring exponents: Farid al-Din 'Attar. This book demonstrates how the study of Attar's exempla not only sheds light on his philosophy of ethics, but also raises deep questions about the limits of deductive moral reasoning, the relationship between literary fiction and moral truth, and the power of stories to inspire spiritual and political transformation.
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Table of Contents
Transliteration Charts
A Note on Dates
Introduction
I. Ethics and Storytelling
II. 'Attar, Sufism and Exempla
III. Defining the Exemplum in Greek, Arabic and Latin
1.The Exemplum in Aristotelian and Galenic Theories of Logic and Ethics
I. Enthymeme and Exemplum
II. Moral Self-Reflexivity and Parrhesia
III. Summary
2. The Ancients and The Heirs: Debating and Legitimating Homiletic Storytelling
I. The Origins and Early Disputes of Islamicate Storytelling
II. Controversies during the Umayyad and 'Abbasid Periods
III. Summary
3. Through Rupture and Continuity: Transmitting Exempla in the 10th–14th Century
I. Introduction
II. The Documentary vs. Narratological Approach
III. Comprehending the Old Man Planting
IV. The Inconvenient Home of the Old Woman
V. Summary
4. Exempla and Exemplarism: Re-reading 'Attar's Discourse of Birds
I. Introduction
II. Gathering the Congregation
III. The Hoopoe's Sermon of Pious Counsel
IV. Arriving at the Court of the Simurgh
V. Summary
Conclusion
I. Similarity, Discontinuity and Ornamentation
II. Crisis, Change and Continuity
III. Reconstituting our Contemporary Ethical and Political Consensus
Notes
Bibliography
Product details
| Published | 18 Feb 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | 9781350667631 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Series | I.B. Tauris Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Persian Literature |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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