Analysis of the Integrative and Rhetorical Approach in the Poetry of Homam Tabrizi

Abstract

Homam Tabrizi was one of the influential poets of the seventh century AH (thirteenth century CE) and among the pioneers of integrative poetry. He composed integrative ghazals structured upon rhetorical conventions in which the identity of the intratextual addressees appears multilayered, dual, or multiple. These addressees generally occupy, simultaneously, the positions of the divine beloved, the earthly beloved, and the patron, including both political and spiritual patrons. In this study, an attempt has been made, through a descriptive–analytical method, to examine the quality of the rhetorical approach and the dimensions of the integrative strategy concerning the identities of intratextual addressees in the ghazals of Homam Tabrizi. The findings indicate that Homam Tabrizi was a creative poet and one of the innovators of integrative poetry who, through a simultaneous rhetorical and integrative approach, succeeded in establishing an artistic and poetic linkage among literary genres and the amorous, mystical, and panegyric discourses. He presents various manifestations of poetic address and the integration of the addressee’s identity, creating figures with dual and triple identities in his poetry. In this research, these configurations have been examined and analyzed under the titles “Beloved–Patron,” “Beloved–Spiritual Patron,” “Beloved–Divine,” and “Divine–Beloved–Patron.”