Syntactic Analysis of Sentence Structure in Attar of Nishapur’s Tadhkirat al-Awliya and Musibat-Nama

Abstract

Language is a comprehensive reflection of a nation’s culture and thought, and its syntactic structure constitutes a key to understanding the depth and complexity of such thought. The examination of these structures plays a fundamental role in conveying the meaning and spirit of a literary work. The syntactic structure of Classical Persian texts, particularly mystical works, has consistently provided a rich basis for linguistic and stylistic analysis. The present study was conducted to examine Attar’s linguistic techniques in Tadhkirat al-Awliya and Musibat-Nama. The research employed a mixed qualitative–quantitative approach. After defining the statistical population as all sentences contained in 43 pages selected from each of the two works, the data were collected through note-taking and analyzed using statistical and descriptive methods. The findings indicate that Persian syntax in these texts, through the use of structures such as inversion, omission of sentence constituents, and related syntactic devices, contributes to the effective communication of mystical concepts while maintaining concision and clarity. Differences were also observed in the frequency and types of these structures across the texts examined, reflecting distinct stylistic and narrative approaches. Finally, drawing on authoritative sources on Persian grammar, this study contributes to and extends previous research in this field.