The Image of Imam Ali (PBUH) in the Poetry of Muhammad Husayn Al Yasin and Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The image of Imam Ali (PBUH) in contemporary Arabic poetry differs from his representation in Persian poetry in a manner that transcends linguistic boundaries and extends to the very mode of poetic conceptualization. This study seeks to elucidate this distinction through a comparative analysis of the Alid odes of Muhammad Husayn Al Yasin and Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar’s poem “Monajat” (“Supplication”). The study employs a descriptive-analytical and comparative approach, and its corpus is drawn from primary sources: the two poems “Ali” and “Ali Aydan” (“Ali Again”) from the collection Al-ʿAhd al-Thalith (The Third Covenant), the poem “Fi Dhikra Ali” (“In Memory of Ali”) from the second volume of Diwan Al Yasin, and fifteen couplets from Shahriar’s “Monajat” in Kolliyat-e Shahriar (The Complete Works of Shahriar). The findings demonstrate that Shahriar constructs the image of Imam Ali within the devotional mode of supplication, regarding the Imam as an intermediary between the servant and God and drawing his imagery from such semantic fields as the sky, birds, shadow, and clouds. Al Yasin, by contrast, constructs the image within the modes of elegy and historical commemoration, representing the Imam as a root extending through lineage and history, while deriving his poetic lexicon primarily from the semantic fields of water, vegetation, and genealogy. The analysis further reveals that the Persian poet symbolically elevates himself toward the presence of the praised figure and concludes the poem by invoking his own name, whereas the Arab poet brings the sacred presence into his own household, where the image of Imam Ali becomes intertwined with that of his namesake descendant.