Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mahsa Nazari Kalandaragh ¹
• Mohammadamir Jalali ²

¹ Master's student at Allameh Tabatabaei University

² Faculty of Allameh Tabataba'i University

Abstract

This paper explores the how and why of the opposition of Waṣṣāf al-Hażrah Shirazi to Nasrollah Monshi in Tāriḵ-e Waṣṣāf from two perspectives: cultural and psychological reasons. The author of Tāriḵ-e Waṣṣāf also arises in a “challenge” against Kalila wa Demna in the fifth volume of his history. The usage of the term “challenge” by Waṣṣāf is due to a critic referring to Kalila wa Demna as the “Persian Quran” in a disparaging remark regarding his prose style. Harold Bloom, in his book Anxiety of Influence, asserts that poets and writers, while being influenced by the works of great authors before them as “models,” harbor feelings of hostility and inferiority toward those great figures, and thus sometimes even misread their works. In his challenge , Waṣṣāf also interprets the meanings of Kalila wa Demna as derived from the sages of India and even considers them as “imitation,” and subsequently, while critiquing its grammatical and rhetorical aspects, he calls the “words” of the discussed phrases in Kalila “full of faults and blemishes.” Based on the above, the rationale for Waṣṣāf's challenge to Kalila waDemna can be explained from two perspectives: the “cultural” aspect, considering KalilawaDemna as an “overtext” in the society of Iran during his era, and the “psychological” aspect, focusing on his conflicts and mental struggles with Nasrollah Monshi and KalilawaDemna as a “model.” The text under examination will be the section “Waṣṣāf al-Hażrah’s Challenge” inthe fifth volume of the HistoryofWaṣṣāf, which we have edited based on four manuscript versions.

Keywords

• Tāriḵ-e Waṣṣāf
• Kalila wa Dimna
• Persian Quran
• Tahaddi
• Theory of Anxiety of Influence