From the Chronicles of Judges in the Abbasid Era: A Narrative Perspective

Abstract

The narrator is an essential element of narration; in every story, no matter how short, there is a speaker who narrates the story, inviting the listener to hear it as it is told. This speaker is the narrator, and there is no story without a narrator to tell it. The importance of the narrator stems from this inevitability, and thus, many studies have focused on defining the narrator and explaining its types and functions within the narrative structure. The research presents a study of the narrator in traditional narratives through a collection of tales about judges handled in the lengthy texts of the Abbasid era. The research relied on a selection of literary books produced by the creative minds of the Abbasid era: " Kitab Al-Bayān wa Al-Tabyīn " and "Kitab Al-Hayawān " by Al-Jāḥiẓ, "Al-Aghani" by Al-Isfahani, "Al-Kamil" by Al-Mubarrad, "Al-Tadhkirah al-Hamduniyah " by Ibn Hamdun, "Mufid al-'Uloom wa Mubid al-Humoom" by Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi, and "Nishwar al-Muhadara" by Al-Tanukhi. The study focuses on a theoretical examination of the narrator followed by a practical study through application to the tales of judges. The research is divided into an introduction, three main sections, and a conclusion. The introduction discusses the importance of the study, previous studies, and includes the research methodology and its components; the first section explores the concept of the narrator, both linguistically and terminologically; the second section discusses the main functions of the narrator; the third section reviews the types of narrators; the conclusion highlights the most significant findings of the research.