masnavi
Rhyming Persian verse
A masnavi is a form of Persian poetry written in rhyming couplets, with each line's two halves rhyming independently.
This structure allows for poems of indefinite length, making it the preferred form for epic and narrative verse in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literature.
The form accommodates storytelling, philosophical discourse, and mystical teaching: The poet composed a masnavi on the theme of divine love. (Capitalized Masnavi typically refers to Rumi's masterwork.)
Two successive verse lines
Iran's native tongue
- IranIslamic republic in Asia
- AttarPersian mystical poet
- classicalOf ancient Greece/Rome
- literatureBody of written works
couplet
Two successive verse lines
narrative · didactic · allegory · parable · anecdote · prosody
Farsi
Iran's native tongue
literature · calligraphy · manuscript · illumination · divan
heroic
Exceptionally brave and noble
- UrduPakistan, Hindustani, Hindi-Urdu, salam, couplets
- Sufismtariqa, fana, sufi, Sufism, dervish
- Indian Poetrypad, Tagore, Thirukkural, Vedas, Upanishads
- Pashto Poetryfolk poetry, classical poetry, classical forms
- Persian literaturePersian poetry, Rumi, Attar, Omar Khayyam, Hafiz
- Persian poetryPersian poetry, Hafiz, Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Attar
masnaviquatrain
Four-line poetic unit
haiku · lyric poetry · epigram · sonnet · tanka
masnaviprose
Unversified language
novel · short story · free verse · essay · oral storytelling