The Trace of People’s Beliefs in the Animal Oriented Stories in Molavi’s Masnavi

Abstract

Culture is one of the most important issues which have occupied the minds of people in a society. People have close relationship with the beliefs of the past. This necessitates the proper analysis and psychological and social interpretation of these beliefs. Since the beginning of creation of the world, animals ha ve played important roles in the cultures and customs of nations in different ways. They have been used, to a great extent, in prose works, poems, people's maxims and narratives in the forms of symbols, signs, metaphors and similes. These traces can be found in the works of such Persian poets like Attar, Sanaii, Molavi, Saadi and Hafiz. In this article an attempt is first made to study people's culture and its background. It then focuses on people's attitudes towards some animals in one of the most outstanding Persian poems, entitled Masnavi Molavi aimed at a better understanding of the poem and obtaining knowledge on the background of the beliefs of the poet's contemporary people.