The Content Analysis of the Safavid Era Storytelling: A Political and Social Goals Approach

Abstract

Entertainment is one of the most well-known purposes of a story. In this article, it will be shown that in addition to entertainment, stories played an important role in the political and social goals and conditions of the Safavid era. To this end, the proverbial tales of the Safavid era have been content analyzed. The first major goal in the story of this period is to "propagate the ideological foundations"; the critics of this period aim to promote religious discourse among the masses by propagating the prevailing political ideology. Another purpose of the stories is related to the "political and social" issues in two areas: "Naql, in the role of stabilizing / shaping Iranian identity" and "Naql, in the role of socio-political preacher". It could also be mentioned that the stories have "psychoanalytic" themes, full of fantasies to raise people's health through the imagination or forgetfulness. Another aim of the proverbial tale of the Safavid era is "fun and entertainment." Based on the statistics extracted from the stories, it is revealed which of the purposes of the story in this period were more important than the other goals and why.















Keywords: Prose story; Safavid period; political-social goals of a story.

Theoretical background of research

Zolfaghari, Bagheri, and Haidarpour in their study "Sociological Aspects of the Story of Alexander the Great" (Literature of Research, 2013) addressed some of the anthropological aspects of Alexander the Great's narrative, including allegory, insult, social life and etiquette.

Afshar, in the introduction to the book Alam Araye Shah Tahmasb, in the preface, briefly presents a statement about the political goals of the stories of the Safavid era (p. 8); he writes:

In the Safavid period, in order to show the political and governmental influence, and promote the activities of the army and successive struggles to protect the rights, and borders and of the country, there were writers and narrators who explained events to the people in their storytelling style. To cultivate.



Although Afshar's statement is about stories such as "Alamaras" and other historical texts, it is a generalizable statement that dates back to the Safavid era.

Research questions

1. Did the story in the Safavid era, in addition to entertainment, have any other content?

2. Why did the story take on socio-political content in the Safavid era?

3. Among the various purposes of narrating the story, what was the most important content of the story in the Safavid era?

Research hypotheses

1. The story in the Safavid era, in addition to entertainment, which is the most well-known purpose of the story, has other goals.

2. During this period, the story became a medium for the government's religious and political propaganda among the people, due to its popularity among the masses and the establishment of a coffee shop.

3. The most important content of the narrators' stories in this period was political and social issues.

The main topic of research

However, at the beginning of the Safavid era, the story of sanctions was imposed (see. Hamvi, 2007, 143-140). But when the kings and politicians of the Safavid era saw the popularity of the story among the people, they decided to use the story as a tool to transfer the religious system to the public, and in return, define a court order for narrators and storytellers.

The four main contents of the prose stories of the Safavid era

1. Religious propaganda

1.1. Direct and indirect references to the Shi'ite religion

The purpose of referring to the Shi'ite religion in the stories of this period is, in fact, parts of the story that the narrator / storyteller refers to in a clear or unambiguous way. These allusions are: the help the hero of the story by Imam Ali; A reference to one of the Shi'ite beliefs such as the savior of the resurrection day, taking one of the Shi'ite Imams as the protagonist.

1.2. Shi'iee truth

In most of the stories of this period, Shi'ism is considered as the religion of Islam; Islam at this historical juncture includes only a part of Islam, and that is the Sh'ite religion, and it seems that the only true religion of Islam is Shi'ism; therefore, wherever an individual or group acknowledges the true nature of Islam, they mean the Shi'ite religion.

1.3. Changing the religion of the opposition to the religion of Shi'ism

The main mission of most storytellers in the Safavid era is to convert non-Muslims [non-Shi'ite] to Islam. For example, in Eskandarname, Alexander is portrayed as a Muslim who seeks to convert non-Muslims into Shi'tes.

2. Political and social

2.1 The narrator in the role of a socio-political preacher

In this type of preaching and social critique, the narrator raises problems such as addiction, laziness, pessimism, and lack of religiosity, and tries to improve them.

3. Psychotherapy

The simple language and fascinating world of the story solves the narrative, and this, in turn, causes the audience's worldly connections to be cut off and make for him/her an entry into the colorful world of the story. This individual caliphate has psychological benefits from three aspects; The first is to eliminate personality defects. When the audience hears the story, they identify with one of the people and try to compensate for their weaknesses. The second benefit of this storyline is the unimaginable fantasy and departure from the real world, which has been one of the joys brought to the audience. The third benefit is the elimination of phobias.

4. Fun

In addition to the customary motives of the ruling power to the narrators in this period, storytellers did not neglect the inherent purpose of the story, which was to entertain the audience; because the mere expression of customized desires in the story, of course, caused the audience to be indifferent to the pursuit of the story.

References


Afshar, I. (edt) (1991). A'lam A'raye Shah Tahmasb. Tehran: Donyaye Ketab.
Afshar, I. (edt) (1999). Hossein Kurd Shabestari. Tehran: Cheshmeh.
Hakim, M. (2004). Summary of the seven-volume generalities of Eskandarname, narrated by Manouchehr Khan Hakim (selected and edited by Alireza Zakavati Qaragzlu). Tehran: Ney.
Hamwi, M. (1984). Anisalmonin (edited by Mir Hashem Mohaddes). Tehran: Bonyad Beesat.

Zolfaghari, H. Bagheri, B. Heydarpour, N. (2013). The anthropological aspects of Alexander's story. Literature Research, 33, 35-65.