Analysis of Dah-nāmeh (Ten letters) in Persian Literature from a Literary Genre Perspective

Due to fragmentary and wide-ranging subjects in literary biographies, literary histories, bibliographies and other references, some subjects are mentioned which are not reliable in terms of authenticity. A case in point is the numerous works considered to be dah-nāmeh (Ten letters). Sometimes this situation arises as a result of the mistake made by some researchers who prejudge or blindly rely on the quotations without further investigation or reference to the original works. They believed a minor similarity in name, lexical – and not terminological – reference, personal recollection and observance in a book to be a compelling reason for considering a literary work as belonging to a certain genre; in a way that 23 poems are recorded as dah-nāmeh, half of which are not truly of this type. The research questions in this paper are: What is investigated and reviewed based on theories related to literary genres? What criteria and tools are most useful for determining literary genres? Do all works called dah-nāmeh truly belong to this literary genre? At the end, by eliminating 11 works considered to be dah-nāmeh, only 12 of them remained. Seven poems fully meet the criteria for being classified as dah-nāmeh. These poems include Manteq al-Oshshāq by Ohadi Marāghe’i, Mohabat-nāmeh by Ibn Nasouh, Oshshāq-nāmeh by Ubeyd Zākāni, Tohfat al-Oshshāq by Rokn Sā’en Semnāni, Rouh al-Āsheqin by Shah Shojā’, Rozat al-Mohebbin by Ibn Imād and Mahboub al-Qoloub by Hariri. There are another three works belonging to dah-nāmeh genre, including Oshshāq-nāmeh by Araqi, Sohbat-nāmeh by Hemām Tabrizi and Si-nāmeh by Amir Hussein Heravi. However, two works, including Rozat al-Āsheqin by Aziz Bokhāri and Eshrat-nāmeh, were left uninvestigated.