SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article explores the vernacularization of Arabic rhetorical embellishments by Persian rhetoricians, presenting it as an early instance of comparative literary theory emerging through translation. Focusing on the organizational figurative device laff-va-nashr (“wrapping up and rolling out”), I trace its adaptation from Arabic rhetorical sources into fourteenth-century Persian rhetorical manuals. The discussion addresses the complexities of the coexistence of laff-va-nashr and tafsīr in Persian rhetorical handbooks and examines the subtle innovations Persian rhetoricians introduced to this figure. By charting its transformation from an author-oriented device (tafsīr) to a reader-oriented one (laff-va-nashr), this study highlights a significant example of cross-fertilization between philology, translation, literary theory, and hermeneutics in Persian rhetoric. Ultimately, this comparative analysis of Persian and Arabic rhetorical traditions serves as a preliminary step toward understanding Islamic balāgha as an intrinsically multilingual poetics.