Medieval Masters of Metaphor and Allegory: Are the Works of Nezami and Dante Similar?
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Middle Eastern and North African Colloquium Series
Kamran Talattof is the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Chair in Persian and Iranian Studies and professor of Near Eastern Studies in MENAS. He is the Founding Chair of the Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Persian & Iranian Studies.
Nezami Ganjavi (1141-1209) and Dante (1265-1321) share unique, creative imaginations and eloquence. Dante's enduring literary portrayals in his Divine Comedy exhibit fictional and fantastical qualities similar to Nezami's various portrayals of the "Story of Ascension" and other stories in his Seven Beauties. In particular, both authors display a fascination with the portrayal of love and an ability to construct colorful allegories. Beyond that, Dante's Divine Comedy is an extensive allegory that conveys commentaries on religion, politics, and love, while Nezami's allegories are literary constructs that help him paint his stories. What Talattof has conceptualized as Nezamian Pictorial Allegories are short and different from the conventional double-meaning of this literary device. This presentation reviews the allegorical and metaphorical aspects of Nezami's "Story of Mahan" to illustrate how these two poets are different and how the burgeoning comparison of Nezami's work with religious texts has impeded a full understanding of Nezami's worldview and works.