Imagery in the Persian Poetry of Sheikh Bahāʾī

Abstract

Sheikh Bahāʾī is one of the prominent poets and mystics of the seventh century AH who composed poetry in both Arabic and Persian, encompassing diverse and rich thematic content. He is among the poets who have long attracted the attention of literary scholars, and his poetry has been examined from various perspectives. In this qualitative study, conducted using a descriptive–analytical method, an attempt has been made to evaluate the imagery in the poetry of this poet in order to further elucidate the literary dimension of his intellectual and artistic personality. The most prominent forms of imagery identified and analyzed in Sheikh Bahāʾī’s poetry include simile, metaphor, metonymy, personification, and allusion. In these rhetorical devices, the relationship between signifier and signified is of fundamental importance and plays a crucial role in the transmission and comprehension of meanings and concepts. The findings of this study indicate that Sheikh Bahāʾī employed simile and metaphor more extensively than metonymy and allusion.