Document Type : Original Article

Author

• Alireza Nabilou

Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, University of Qom, Iran

Abstract

The present article deals with a story related to the Chinese and Roman contest and disputation, and shows the skill of each over the other. The main theme of the story refers to the comparison of the art of painting and polishing the porch of the two nations. In the texts of Persian language and literature of poets and writers related to the 11th century AD and beyond, more attention has been paid to this matter. Some poets such as Fakhr al-Din Asad Gorgani, Naser Khosrow, Rashid al-Din Meybodi have only referred to this Chinese art, some, such as Nizami Ganjaei, have presented the story in more detail, and some poets and writers such as Ghazzali, Anvari, Jalal al-Din Rumi and Hasani Razi have interpreted this story in a more detail, and beyond the narration, they have drawn interesting results from it. Ultimately, the argument is that one of them paints the porch and the other polishes the other part of the porch, reflecting that painting, and finally the result and interpretation of the story is: Al-Ghazzali likens the efforts of the men of truth to purify the heart and cultivate the soul to the work of the Chinese, who, by polishing their side, perceive those manifestations better and clearer, and thus the truth is better manifested in their hearts.

Keywords

• China
• Persian literature
• Painting and polising
• Rumi
• Nizami
• Ghazzali