Mathnawi

Mathnawi

 

a verse form in Arabic, Persian, and Turkic poetry; a rhymed hayt (distich), or a work consisting of many such distichs, each with its own rhyme, Inasmuch as the form was used chiefly in the composition of long narrative poems, the term mathnawi was applied to the genre itself. In regard to content, the most notable types within the genre are the heroic mathnawi (Shah Nama of Firdausi), the didactic-philosophical (the long poems of Nizami), and the romantic mathnawi (Layla and Majnun of Navai).

REFERENCES

Bertel’s, E. E. Istoriia persidsko-tadzhikskoi literatury. Moscow, 1960.
K viatkovskii, A. Poeticheskii slovar’ Moscow, 1966.