Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Research Article ISSN 1112-9867 Special Issue Available online at http://www.jfas.info ADAPTATION OF THEATRICAL ELEMENTS OF NEZAMI GANJAWI A CASE STUDY ON THE BALLAD OF KHOSROW AND SHIRIN M. Amiri National Zabol University Faculty Member, MA Theater Producer Published online: 15 May 2016 ABSTRACT Nezami was one of the most skilled writers of Persian poems and ballads, not only he had his own signature style but the impact of his style is evident on the works of poets not contemporary to him. Nezami had sufficient knowledge about the popular sciences of his time (literary sciences, astronomy, Islamic sciences and the Arabic language), and his vast knowledge is evident in his body of work. He could be considered as a master playwright, because his masterpiece “The Ballad of Khosrow and Shirin” is amongst the best plays ever written, thus every adaptation of this masterpiece might result in an original and good quality creation. This paper tends to analyze some theatrical adaptations of the mentioned ballad, in order to examine their types of approach to this invaluable play. Key Words: Ganjawi, theatrical elements, Khosrow and Shirin, adaptation Author Correspondence, e-mail: [email protected] doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jfas.v8i3s.265 1. INTRODUCTION What makes Nezami’s poems so unique is his storytelling ability in them, even though his predecessors have used this style before, but Nezami succeeded in creating a rich and meaningful story. Therefore, a thorough investigation of Nezami’s writing techniques is necessary in order to understand the key to his success in telling of traditional stories , and might make way for a comparative study on them, Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Libraries Resource Directory. We are listed under Research Associations category. R. Nasrpour Parvin J Fundam Appl Sci. 2016, 8(3S), 833-854 834 Hakim Jamal Alddin Abu Muhammad Elias Bin Yusuf Bin Zakki also known as Nezami Ganjawi, was one of the most prominent Persian story tellers and masters of ballad writing, He was born on the year 525 in the town of Ganjah and stayed there (except for a brief journey to a town nearby Ganjah due to receiving an invitation from Qezel Arsalan) until the day of his death on the year 614 or 616. As it is obvious from his poems, his talent was not restrained to poetry, but he had a special fondness for literary techniques, history and stories since his youth, thus he pursued and completed his education. His most famous work would be the “Five Treasures” or Khamsah, which its first mathnawi is “The safe of Secrets” and its best would be “Khosrow and Shirin” The mathnawi of Khosrow and Shirin” which is the subject of this study consists of 6500 verses. This ballad (mathnawi) tells a love story between Khosrow Sasaani and a Christian girl named Shirin Shahdokht, Nezami has finished this ballad by the year 576, and has dedicated it to Atabak Shams Alddin Muhammad Jahan Pahlawan Ben Ildagz. The story telling literature can be defined as any kind of story that its fantastical and made up aspects would be prevail its historically accurate ones (Mir Sadeqi, 2009, P: 33). The story telling literature has different sub branches such as: tales, romances, novels and short stories, each of these sub branches have different characteristics that are unique to them which reviewing them requires knowing. Nezami’s stories and especially “Khosrow and Shirin”, have the characteristics of traditional and ancient stories. Therefore, “Khosrow and Shirin” is actually a story rather than a poem, because most characteristics of stories can be found in it. Nezami’s style is accurate and magical, his detailed descriptions, cliff hangers, use of symbolisms and shifting the style of storytelling have made this story similar to its modern counterparts. Proving the mentioned characteristic requires the thorough investigation of the story “Khosrow and Shirin”. The principles of story analysis are based on the elements used in the story, and the story assessment is based on the application of those elements within the story. Prominent story elements have a crucial role in the assessment and analysis of the story. Nezami, along with Ferdowsi and Sa’die was amongst the pillars of Persian poetry. Even though story telling within a poem was not started with Nezami, however he was the only one who was able to improve symbolic poetry. Different factors make up for Nezami’s successful storytelling. The accurate choice of words, the rhythmic verses, use of creative compounds, invention of new and novel meanings, good description which derives from a strong imagination, accuracy in describing the natural sceneries, night and day and castles and the impressive use of metaphors R. Nasrpour Parvin J Fundam Appl Sci. 2016, 8(3S), 833-854 835 and analogies, are amongst the mentioned factors. Factors that made his stories so popular that many poets after him attempted to mimic his style, but failed in doing so. Study Method The method used in the conduction of this study consisted of the analysis of the semantics signs of story’s elements and their way of application in the story based on the analytic approach of phenomenology in order to analyze the elements and their way of applications in the story. Based on the principles and hypotheses of this method and approach, each sign has an applicatory correlation with other signs and elements within the story which makes it extraordinary and takes it to an analytic – visual level. No sign or element could make any sense solely; rather it is the correlation between elements which creates the ideal theatrical mode. The Antecedents of Plays (Theater) and Playwriting in Iran The emergence of plays and playwriting in Iran dates back to the pre-Islam era. The ancient forms of Persian plays were rooted in religious teachings. The earliest forms of plays were the Zoroastrian ceremonies in which Maqs would gather and sing the songs written in the Avesta while dancing in groups. In ancient Persia, theater-like ceremonies were carried out in the occasion of mourning and victory, such as Kin Syawosh which was a ceremony in honor of Syawosh’s death carried out in the north east localities of Iran until the fourth century, other ceremonies in that form such as Kin Iraj, Mourning for Zaal, Jamshid Religion and crying for Moqan was also carried out at that time. After those play-likes, other form of plays began to emerge in Iran amongst which Kooseh bar neshin (pre Islam), curtain plays, Nowrouzian plays and various types of traditional plays such as ma’rkeh giri (gathering people by different means) story telling (Naqali), and roo hozi plays were carried out as well (Jaffari, 1999, P: 28). Naqali or story telling was a non-religious form of theater that has survived since the ancient times. Our knowledge of pre-Islamic story telling or naqali is restrained to descriptions mentioned in history and literary books such as Ferdows’s “The Persian Book of Kings”, ballads of Nezami Ganjawi, “The History of Sistaan”, “The History of Bokhara” and Bin Nadim’s “Al Fehrest”. As mentioned in those books naqali or story telling of pre Islam era included telling the epic pre Islam stories by expert story tellers, this tradition found its way to the era of Islam and is the reason for the rhythmic edition of some Shahname’s stories or stories such as “ Veis and Raamin” , “ Khosrow and Shirin” , “ Seven Minarets” etc (Alnazshakhi, 1972, P: 20-28). R. Nasrpour Parvin J Fundam Appl Sci. 2016, 8(3S), 833-854 836 In Iran’s history of theater a story teller or naqal is the most prominent figure. Some story tellers were amazingly skilled and could be considered as true artists. Theater and playwriting in its European form does not have a long history in Iran. The art of theater always had a traditional sense in this country since many centuries ago. Shabih Khani or Ta’zieh (Theatrical form of mourning an Imam’s martyrdom), puppetry, naqali and takht hozi were amongst the most popular plays performed in Iran. The first half of the thirteenth century HQ was the time that Iran was introduced to the European form of theater. First, Iranian ignored this form of theater altogether, however they became more and more curioswith the passage of time, thus they began to analyze and study it in the second half of the thirteenth century HQ. This occasion had a long history before it though, since the Ottoman Turks prevailed the army of Shah Ismail Safavid at Chaldoran, the echoes of their cannons made Iranians who were brought up to mind their own business awake, thus they realized that there was a world beyond their land in front of which they deemed helpless. Therefore, they interest shifted toward the west. West, which had just came out of the renaissance and was supplied for despotism and was ready to colonize the Asian , African lands and the newly discovered continent of Americas .Then our inevitable European relationships with European powers such as England, France and Russia began in the Qajar era. When after Aqa Muhammad Khan’s warfare to Tiflis Alexander Gribaydof , a playwright and Russia’s autonomous Vizier to Iran was killed in Tehran, Abbas Mirza who was next in line for the thrown sent a groups of diplomats to Russia to offer Iran’s apology , two months after that murder’s occurrence. The Iranian diplomats’ visit to Russia lasted for 10 months and 15 days, so the Iranians could investigate Russia’s form of theater along with other investigations.