زین العابدین شهدی شاعری نوشناخته در شعر اطعمه و پارودی

Introduction

Food and drink poetry (Shiʿr al-Aṭʿimah wa al-Ashriba) constitutes one of the most distinctive, creative, yet insufficiently explored genres within the tradition of Persian humorous literature. Relying on parody, humorous imitation of classical poetic forms and diction, and extensive use of elements drawn from material culture and everyday life, this genre provides remarkable potential for social, cultural, ethical, and even political critique. Although its foundations were firmly established in the works of ʿUbayd Zākānī and, more prominently, Bushāq Aṭʿimah, food poetry continued to evolve in later periods, undergoing significant stylistic, thematic, and discursive transformations. Nevertheless, the study of this genre during the Qajar period—particularly with a focus on lesser-known poets—remains marked by serious scholarly gaps. Mirza Zayn al-ʿAbedin Shahdi is among those poets who, despite possessing a distinctive poetic voice and offering an innovative fusion of food poetry, ritual praise, mystical language, and parody, has yet to be the subject of a comprehensive and independent academic study.

Literature Review

The present research aims to introduce, analyze, and clarify the literary position of Zayn al-ʿAbedin Shahdi within the tradition of Persian food poetry and parody. It seeks to demonstrate how Shahdi, through a conscious and skillful use of humor, parody, and intertextuality, developed a novel model of ritual–social satire in the late Qajar period. The central research question addresses the extent to which Shahdi’s poetry continues the tradition of Bushāq Aṭʿimah and ʿUbayd Zākānī, and the ways in which—at the levels of intellectual, linguistic, and rhetorical structure—he transcends that tradition to achieve new expressive functions and meanings.

Methodology

Methodologically, this study adopts a descriptive–analytical approach grounded in qualitative content analysis. The research corpus consists of Shahdi’s surviving poems, primarily preserved in the Tazkerah-ye Anjoman-e Qods as well as several Qajar-era poetic miscellanies. These materials are examined across three principal analytical levels: intellectual structure, linguistic structure, and literary–rhetorical structure. The study draws upon stylistic analysis, literary semiotics, discourse analysis, and intertextual reading, interpreting poetic themes in relation to the historical, social, and cultural contexts of the Qajar period. The use of contemporaneous tazkerah sources—particularly the Tazkerah-ye Anjoman-e Qods—also enables a partial reconstruction of Shahdi’s social, ritual, and literary position within his milieu.

Discussion

Findings at the level of intellectual structure reveal that Shahdi’s poetry is characterized by a deliberate and meaningful juxtaposition of the sacred and the mundane. By employing genres such as supplication, prayer, panegyric, and devotional praise of Imam Mahdi (peace be upon him), and by focusing on rituals such as the Mid-Shaʿban celebrations, Shahdi preserves the didactic and moral tone of Shiʿi ritual poetry. Simultaneously, however, he recontextualizes these serious and sacred themes within a humorous, food-centered, and at times satirical framework. The result is a controlled, ethical, and non-destructive form of satire which avoids overt invective or obscenity while enabling pointed critique of individual and social behaviors. Issues such as gluttony, extravagance, greed, hypocrisy, superficial religious beliefs, and simplistic notions of eschatological reward are addressed through playful exaggeration, irony, and allusive humor.
At this same level, the reflection of socio-political concepts and events of the Constitutional era—including constitutionalism and despotism—emerges as another significant dimension of Shahdi’s poetry. Rather than articulating these concepts through direct political rhetoric, the poet represents them metaphorically through items such as sweets, snacks, and convivial banquet elements. This humorous reduction functions as an implicit critique of the ways in which society engages with serious political ideals, suggesting that notions such as freedom and justice have been trivialized and transformed into objects of casual entertainment. From this perspective, Shahdi’s poetry possesses not only literary value but also ethnographic and sociological significance, offering insight into the political culture and social mentality of late Qajar Iran.
Analysis of the linguistic structure of Shahdi’s poetry demonstrates a remarkable lexical diversity and a high degree of compositional creativity. The simultaneous presence of culinary, ritual, mystical, astronomical, and lyrical vocabulary transforms the poetic language into an interdisciplinary space where religious discourse, Sufi terminology, popular science, and everyday life intersect in a humorous manner. Innovative compound expressions such as “the chain of cotton-candy tresses,” “the cotton-candy amulet,” and “Layla’s cotton-candy curl” illustrate the poet’s use of conceptual metaphor to connect otherwise incongruous semantic domains, thereby producing a multilayered, cognitive, and imagistic form of humor. At the syntactic and morphological levels, the frequent use of conditional clauses, ellipsis, verbless constructions, colloquial expressions, and even non-standard grammatical forms contributes to an intimate, conversational, and satirical tone while enhancing the poetic function of language.
From a rhetorical and musical perspective, Shahdi’s poems make extensive use of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, metonymy, allusion (talmih), antithesis, and ambiguity. Allusions to religious and mythological narratives—such as those of Jesus, Moses, Joseph and Zulaykha, and Farhad and Shirin—when interwoven with culinary imagery and everyday practices, transform the poems into multilayered and intertextual texts whose full interpretation requires the activation of the reader’s cultural memory. Rhyme and refrain are not employed merely for musical effect; rather, they function as discursive tools in meaning production. Repetitive verbal refrains and food-related rhyme patterns establish a close relationship between form and content, reflecting the poet’s self-conscious engagement with linguistic structure.

Conclusion

Overall, the findings indicate that Zayn al-ʿAbedin Shahdi was a creative poet, deeply aware of the Persian literary tradition and highly proficient in exploiting the expressive, rhetorical, and semantic capacities of the Persian language. While his work continues the legacy of Bushāq Aṭʿimah and ʿUbayd Zākānī, Shahdi moves beyond mere imitation by incorporating ritual, social, and historical layers into food poetry, transforming it into a medium for ethical, social, and cultural critique of his time. Recovering and reassessing Shahdi’s poetry not only contributes to a more complete history of Persian satirical literature but also opens new avenues for comparative, stylistic, and semiotic research in Qajar literary studies. This study ultimately demonstrates how revisiting lesser-known poets can significantly deepen our understanding of the dynamism and multilayered nature of the Persian literary tradition.

Acknowledgments
We deem it necessary to express our sincere gratitude to the esteemed members of the editorial board and all those involved in the journal Literary History of Shahid Beheshti University, who, through their careful consideration and support, made the publication of this research possible.