The Persian "Bilawhar wa Buyūdhas(a)f(a)" as a Mirror for Princes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.10124Abstract
The present article introduces a fourteenth-century Persian retelling of the story of Bilawhar wa Buyūdhas(a)f(a), produced for the Jalāyirid court in Baghdad between 790-800/1389-1397, and highlights its stylistic and structural characteristics as an important representative of Persian prose in the post-Mongol period. The article examines the dynamic role of the framing structure in the classification of fictional and non-fictional content, and elaborates on its semantic significance in the transmission of relevant messages to the target audience according to the needs and necessities of that particular historical period. The article demonstrates how the flexibility of the framing structure along with the adaptability of the embedded narrative content on subjects such as religious tendencies and standards of governance turned this story of Buddhist origin into a text in the mirror for princes genre in accordance with the Perso-Islamic culture.
Key words: Bilawhar wa Buyūdhas(a)f(a), mirror for princes, Persian advice literature, framing narrative, the Buddha, Jalāyirid dynasty
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