Molammaʿ, a form of bilingual poetry, has been a companion to Persian poetry since its earliest beginnings; poets from the earliest periods of Persian literature to the contemporary era have also shown an interest in composing bilingual poems. In this study, Persian–Arabic molammaʿs from recent decades, particularly the 1380s and 1390s SH (the 2000s and 2010s CE), were collected through non-exhaustive inductive sampling, and their linguistic features and their relationship with the Iranian poetic tradition were examined using a descriptive-analytical approach. Ritual poetry was excluded from this study because of its direct and natural connection with religious texts. It appears that molammaʿ-writing experienced a period of decline in the contemporary era for various reasons. However, some younger poets, particularly during the two aforementioned decades, turned to it as a literary technique. They experimented primarily with the themes and form of the ghazal, composing molammaʿs by employing Arabic phrases that are generally familiar to Iranian audiences. Through direct quotation, modification, and combination of Arabic expressions, as well as the incorporation of Arabic syntactic structures into Persian, they sought to create a distinctive emotional atmosphere and a particular narrative. The Arabic hemistiches or couplets in contemporary molammaʿs draw upon religious texts and the Iranian mystical tradition and, unlike the molammaʿs of classical Persian literature, do not establish a significant relationship with Arabic literature.
Introduction
Molammaʿ (bilingual or macaronic poetry) refers to poetry in which two languages—most commonly Persian and Arabic in the Persian literary tradition—are deliberately combined. Poets from the fourth century AH (tenth century CE) to the contemporary period, across various literary eras, have composed molammaʿ poems and experimented with this form in different thematic contexts.
Molammaʿ-writing appears to have experienced a period of decline after the Constitutional Revolution. Only a limited number of poets, such as Malek al-Shoʿarā Bahār and Shahriar, continued to compose poetry in this form, while influential literary figures such as Nima Yushij and Mehdi Akhavan Sales showed little interest in it. In recent decades, however, molammaʿ has re-emerged in a new form through the incorporation of Arabic phrases and expressions into the ghazals of poets such as Mohammad-Hossein Bahramian, Ali-Akbar Yaghi-Tabar, and Mehdi Faraji.
The Arabic hemistiches and couplets found in contemporary Persian poetry display distinctive features while also recalling the established tradition of molammaʿ-writing in Persian literature, particularly the tradition associated with the Iraqi style. The cultural and social context of this renewed interest in molammaʿ, as well as its reappearance in contemporary ghazal poetry, therefore merits further scholarly investigation.
Literature Review
A number of valuable studies have examined the meaning, characteristics, and historical development of molammaʿāt, or bilingual poetry. Some of the most important related works are as follows.
Earlier works include research by Sajjadi (1983) and Tolouei (1992) which predate the period examined in the present article. Mousa’s (2002) doctoral dissertation focused on Persian-speaking poets who composed in Arabic, from the beginning to Abd al-Rahman Jami. His two subsequent Arabic-language studies (Mousa, 2009; 2010) also did not extend his discussion beyond the period of Jami.
Daneshpazhouh (2003) briefly refers to contemporary molammaʿāt, citing only a Persian–Turkish couplet by Shahriar and a humorous Persian–English molammaʿ.
Qahramani-Moqbel (2011) examined such poems from the perspective of meter and rhyme. Similarly, Khabbazha (2013) compared Jami’s Molammaʿ Ghazals with those of Saadi and Hafez, focusing on classical molammaʿāt, particularly those of Jami, from a comparative perspective.
Rasouli published the book Molammaʿ in Persian Poetry in 2015 and co-authored the article “Molammaʿ and Its Evolution from the Beginning to the End of the Tenth Century AH.” (Rasuli & Razi 2016). These works address the literal meaning of molammaʿ, its historical development, the distribution and arrangement of Persian and Arabic lines, and poets who composed molammaʿs from the earliest periods up to Jami.
Therefore, it appears that Persian–Arabic molammaʿāt in the contemporary period—particularly during the 1380s and 1390s SH (the 2000s and 2010s CE)—have not yet received adequate scholarly attention. The present study draws upon the aforementioned books and articles while seeking to address this gap.
Research Method
The data required for this study were collected through a non-exhaustive inductive approach and library research by examining the published collections (divāns) of poets from the 1380s and 1390s SH. The selected molammaʿs were described and analyzed from linguistic and literary perspectives. To ensure greater focus and coherence, the scope of the study was limited primarily to ghazals composed during the aforementioned decades.
Findings
An analysis of Persian–Arabic molammaʿ ghazals composed during the 1380s and 1390s SH indicates that, after a prolonged period of decline, molammaʿ-writing has experienced a revival in contemporary Persian poetry as a renewed literary technique. A number of younger poets have incorporated Arabic expressions that are widely familiar to Iranian readers—including Qurʾanic verses, frequently cited hadiths, liturgical formulas, Arabic proverbs, and mystical sayings—into the structure of Persian ghazals. These expressions appear in the form of direct quotation, modification, and combination, as well as through various linguistic processes such as omission, substitution, and recombination.
Rather than functioning merely as decorative elements, these Arabic expressions contribute to the creation of a distinctive emotional atmosphere and particular narrative effects. From a structural perspective, contemporary molammaʿs differ noticeably from their classical counterparts. Instead of alternating Persian and Arabic hemistiches or couplets according to a fixed pattern, they generally adopt a freer structure in which individual Arabic hemistiches or occasional Arabic couplets are incorporated into Persian ghazals.
The linguistic analysis further reveals that the Arabic used in these poems is shaped less by contemporary Standard Arabic than by the literary, religious, and mystical traditions that have long formed part of Iranian culture. Consequently, Arabic vocabulary, expressions, and syntactic patterns are frequently adapted to the Persian linguistic context and Iranian literary conventions. Through the use of direct quotation, modification, and the combination of Arabic expressions, as well as the incorporation of Arabic syntactic structures into Persian, contemporary poets seek to create distinctive emotional and narrative effects.
Overall, the findings suggest that contemporary molammaʿ poetry, while reviving a classical literary tradition, does not establish a significant relationship with contemporary Arabic literature. Instead, it draws primarily on religious texts and the Iranian mystical tradition and on Arabic expressions that have become part of the shared cultural and linguistic memory of Iranian readers. In this way, molammaʿ enriches the emotional and intertextual dimensions of the contemporary ghazal while reinforcing its cultural and religious associations.
Conclusion
During the 1380s and 1390s SH, a number of younger Iranian poets revived the tradition of Persian–Arabic molammaʿ-writing and employed it as a literary technique, particularly in the form and thematic contexts of the ghazal. By incorporating Arabic sentences and expressions that are generally familiar to Iranian audiences, these poets introduced new linguistic and stylistic possibilities into contemporary Persian poetry.
The Arabic elements used in these poems are generally drawn not from contemporary Arabic literature but from a shared cultural repertoire shaped by religious texts and the Iranian mystical tradition. Direct quotation, modification, and the combination of Arabic expressions, together with the incorporation of Arabic syntactic patterns into Persian, enable poets to create distinctive emotional atmospheres and particular narrative effects.
In comparison with classical molammaʿs, the arrangement of Persian and Arabic hemistiches or couplets in contemporary examples is often less regular and less dependent on fixed structural patterns. The revival of this form in recent decades therefore appears to be rooted primarily in the internal literary and cultural traditions of Iranian society. In other words, the Arabic phrases used in contemporary molammaʿs are generally more closely connected with the Arabic religious and literary heritage embedded in Iranian culture than with contemporary Arabic literature.
The Arabic hemistiches and couplets in contemporary molammaʿs thus draw primarily on religious texts and the Iranian mystical tradition. Unlike many examples of molammaʿ in classical Persian literature, however, they do not establish a substantial or effective relationship with Arabic literature itself.