Divan and the Style of Molla Ghasem Masshadi, the Dumb

Introduction
The purpose of this research is the study of the character, position and style of Molla Ghasem Mashadi in his divan. Although there are several poets and works of art in Indian literary style of Persian literature, which still have not been investigated, a survey on Molla Ghasem Mashadi’s character and poetry is of a great importance. Molla Ghasem demonstrates the characteristics of Indian literary style in such a way that his divan may be called the paradigm of Indian style. Images of his poetry are made of several layers and are the appearance of the artistic imagery. He compounds his thoughts with precise imagination and leaves the readers in a labyrinth of them. Molla Ghasem is also the missing link between his pupil, Bidel, and his master, Saib Tabrizi. A survey on his divan makes the university students, scholars and ordinary readers of literature familiar with this litterateur, and make them enjoy his poetry.
 
2. Methodology
     In this survey which is conveyed based on laboratory data and fulfilled by a descriptive comparative analysis method, after introducing the character and the divan of Molla Ghasem, which is important because of its unfamiliarity, we will discussed the poetry style of this Indian style poet. These studies are held based on Karl Vossler and his clientele in stylistics. To Vossler poetry and the language of it is the same thing and literariness of a literary text is important. Up to him, a stylist scholar should care about affection parameters as well as the structure of the poem. This way, all the language characteristics (as an expression tool) are studied and the era of the survey is vast enough. In this paper, based on Vossler’s method, the scholar focuses on the text itself and tries to find out the rules governing the course which causes the elements and linguistic pattern make the meaning and aesthetic effect. Accordingly, the objective stylistics is maintained. (Abrams, 2008, P. 434) thus, firstly the formalistic factors are discussed and then linguistic features and the formation of side, inner and semantic harmony beside the compound-making, contents, imagery and affection of Ghasem’s poems are studied.
 
3. Discussion
After the erroneous imperfect lithography printout of Divan of Ghasem, the dumb, in India (1877) this is for the first time that it is completely and correctly printed in Iran containing about three thousands verses in five sections which are “speech’s home” with four hundreds sonnets, “the chain of flame” with one hundred and seventy five semi-sonnets, “sight’s wing” with thirty four quatrains, “silence’s pupil” with six couplets, and “the arrow of sigh” with sixty eight frequently strong mono-verses. Ghasem’s poetry is temporally and characteristically in the range of Indian poetry style. Considering the outer music of the poems, his quatrains, couplets and mono-verses form only five percent of Ghasem’s divan and all the rest ninety five percent is formed by his sonnets and semi-sonnets. With a frequency rate of 22%, the most common rhythm of the sonnets and semi-sonnets of Ghasem’s poems is Ramal- Mosadath- Mahzoof. In Ghasem’s divan the most important point about side music and rhyme is repetition. All the verbal and semantic technics form the inner harmony of a poem. (Shafie Kadkani, 1997, P. 296) Ghasem Mashadi uses the poetry technics to increase the aesthetic features of his words. As we already said about his verbal technics and rhyme, repetition is the most efficient tool of the poet, but it is limited to the rhyme. Tarsi, as a Persian poetry technic, needs the poet’s mind to be well musical, and at the same time, caring about the meaning not to be sacrificed. Ghasem Mashadi in his poetry has fulfilled this difficult duty very carefully. He knows the semantic technics, like simile, metaphor and proportionality…, as well verbal ones and utilizes them in their proper cases. Ghasem’s poetic language comprises innovations which bedights his poetry with his noble signature. Using slang words, colloquial expressions and folksy thoughts in poems are Ghasem’s another lingual characteristic in his Indian literary style. Imagination and precise thoughts are of semantic properties of his poems. Ghasem’s rare ability in creating images is obvious through his divan entirely, but the same point has been the cause of his poetry being condemned to obscurity and ambiguity. In most of his works the evidences of an earthly love are apparent. The mad Ghasem has criticizes himself so many times and these self-criticisms are both about his mental-psychic and corporal situation.
 
4. Conclusion
Molla Ghasem Mashadi, known as 'dumb', is an able 19th century poet whose birthday and death time are not so clear and like so many of other Safavid poets is unknown in Persian literature. He makes poems in Indian poetry style and successfully utilizes the facilities of the style to improve his poetry. He was a pupil of Saib Tabrizi and has attended his presence in Isfahan, while the similarities between his and Bidel’s poetry make his literary impression on Bidel believable. His divan consists of more than three thousands verses in sonnet, semi-sonnet, quatrain, couplet and mono-verse forms. Sonnets and semi-sonnets, which cover the ninety five percent of his divan are composed in different rhythms. Rhyme and rows which fulfill the side music of Ghasem’s poems has characteristics that make his works of art particular. Several evidences show that he overuses repetition technic for making the rhymes, so that it seems to be out of his weakness in word knowledge. Ghasem shows fondness to poetic rows and rarely makes poems without them. Rows of his poems are in 45% of case a verb,in 30% a noun or a noun-ending one, and in 25% of his verses a letter or a letter-ending row. Molla Ghasem’s poetry is free of overusing of literary technics, while he often utilizes the verbal and semantic ones. Repetition is not limited to the rhyme and is his very frequent literary device. As other Indian style poems, exaggerating similes and metaphors are very abundant in Ghasem’s poetry. Other devices like allegory, proportional similarity and paradox are affluent in his poems as well. Among his narrative exemplum, references to Leyli & Majnoon, Khidr & the life spring, Solomon and his ring and his vast kingdom are respectively the most frequent subjects that Ghasem’s narrative exemplum are based on. Ghasem’s literary language is specific. Utilizing slang words, colloquial expressions and folksy thoughts, awesome words, frequent allusion, motif-like possessives should be added to the stylistics of this poet. Imagery and precise thoughts are so deep in his poetry that causes his impeachment to ambiguity. At the same time, focusing on his poetry and finding out the image which has been imagined by the poet, Acquits him of that. The subject of love is much an earthly one in his poetry, while the evidences of a spiritual love are found as well. One of Ghasem’s poetry specifications is auto-criticism. Auto-criticisms of Ghasem are mainly focused on his character, and the reader can understand his sad spirit and growing weakness in his body.