Critical Analysis of ambiguity in Dasht-e-Biyāzi’s Badā'i' al-Sanā'i

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature , Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.

10.22075/jlrs.2025.36401.2577

Abstract

One of the most remarkable literary devices for conveying ideas and mental images in both poetry and prose is ambiguity (īhām), which has examined and analyzed by rhetoricians as a speech ornament. It is necessary to look for the origins and underpinnings of each author's unique perspective on this literary device in Arabic rhetorical texts. Fasīhī Heravī, one of the writers of the 9th century AH, also renowned as Dasht-e-Biyāzi, explores this device from a variety of angles in seven sections in his book, Badā'i' al-Sanā'i (Wonders of the Arts). He has tried to dissect and define ambiguity by using examples from Persian poets of the 7th and 8th centuries, including Salmān Sāvoji, Kamāl Khajandi, Khawaju Kermāni, Hāfiz Shirāzi, and others. In addition, some of his examples are not found in earlier works on rhetoric. It can be argued that the aforementioned writer has the most comprehensive viewpoint on this topic. The present authors compared the opinions of rhetoricians prior to Dasht-e-Biyāzi in both Persian and Arabic in an effort to determine what innovations exist in this writer's perspective as well as the similarities and differences between his approach to this device and the works of earlier rhetoricians. The findings show that Dasht-e-Biyāzi's methodology and approach, along with the treatment of ambiguity, constitute a novel style for which there is no precedent in earlier Arabic or Persian rhetorical texts. Dasht-e-Biyāzi clearly outperforms rhetorical works created in the Persian language before him because he dissects ambiguity from a variety of perspectives and offers examples from Persian poetry in six sections.

Keywords

References

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Journal Of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies
Volume 16, Issue 41
In Progress
September 2025
Pages 183-214

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