examining the status of mongols and persians in ahmad tabrizi’s shahanshāhnāma

shahanshāhnāma is one of the historical epic poems composed by ahmad tabrizi at the end of the ilkhanids’ reign. at the time, the poet was not able to openly criticize the mongols. at times, one may even think that he is praising them. on the contrary, in the hidden layers of his composition, the poet tries to show his criticism by using rhetorical and linguistic tools and praising iran and iranians, especially sultan jalal al-din kharazmshahi. the present paper tries to uncover these hidden layers of shahanshāhnāma and reveal tabrizi's interest in iran and iranians. to this end, the critical discourse analysis approach is adopted. to further uncover the poet’s tilt, the study examines different rhetorical and linguistic techniques such as choice of diction, similes and metaphors, meaningful and exaggerated description of battles in the iranian and mongol fronts as well as references to dominant discourses like drawing analogies between the characters and those of the shāhnāma.