Societies in Persian literature

Societies in Persian literature

Analysis of Socio-Political Insecurity in Sadi’s Golistan

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
Abstract
Written in 1285, Said’s Golistan belongs to didactic literature containing many invaluable contents in socio-political fields. The present study seeks to identify Sadi’s views on the socio-political background of insecurity in Gulistan.  The study will draw on Parsons’s theory of social system and Levi Struss’s structural analysis. The study can be interpreted as exploratory since the subject of ‘socio-political insecurity’ has not been raised in previous studies. The study will analyze propositions in anecdotes in Sadi’s Gulistan to demonstrate Said’s epistemological system about socio-political insecurity. Initially, situations will be identified and encoded. Then, all social acts reported in Golistan will be encoded based on agents and their counterparts. Afterwards, the aforementioned social acts will be classified based on codes. The current study is document-based and qualitative research. The study’s results indicated that the sense of insecurity was felt in various social situations by courtiers, military staff, common people, civil servants operating in trade and the Royal system, and even beggars. Their insecurity could be attributed to the king or people around him, such as courtiers, military officers, agents, and princes
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