Examining Folk Beliefs in Qashqai Literature

Abstract

Folk literature, as a reflection of culture, beliefs, and collective identity, plays a fundamental role in transmitting the values and lived experiences of ethnic communities. Among the Qashqai tribe, this literature extends beyond mere entertainment and functions as a medium for the preservation and reconstruction of cultural beliefs and identity. The present study aims to investigate the representation of folk beliefs in the poetic and prose literature of the Qashqai tribe and to identify the aesthetic mechanisms employed in this representation. The research adopts a descriptive–analytical approach and utilizes the method of content analysis. The data corpus consists of poems, songs, lullabies, folktales, and oral narratives collected from both fieldwork and written sources, which were analyzed in light of their cultural, social, and aesthetic structures. The findings indicate that folk beliefs play a central role both at the level of content and themes and at the level of structure and form within Qashqai literary texts. These beliefs, through aesthetic devices such as meter, rhyme, repetition, musicality, symbolic imagery, and metaphor, contribute to the reinforcement of cultural identity, the consolidation of social values, and the transmission of collective experiences. The role of women in the transmission and creation of oral literature, as well as the interconnection of these texts with music, rituals, and the nomadic lifestyle, was identified as a key factor in the vitality and continuity of this cultural tradition. Although Qashqai literature shares certain thematic commonalities with formal Persian literature, it possesses an independent and distinctive identity. Folk beliefs in this literary tradition not only contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage but also enrich its literary and artistic dimensions and ensure the continued dynamism of the tribe’s cultural life.