A Study of the Development and Evolution of Persian Prose Fatḥnāmes (Books of Conquest).

Kings and generals used to issue a letter to announce the victory and conquest of the new territory with their own handwriting or the composition of their court secretary after the end of the war or the successful conclusion of the military campaigns in other lands. This letter is referred to as the Fatḥnāme (book of conquest). This study seeks to investigate the process of development, evolution, and independence of prose Fatḥnāmes in the Persian literature. The study's questions are when did Fatḥnāmes become popular as an independent type of court and sultanic writing and which Persian literary genre do Fatḥnāmes belong to? To answer the questions, the process of development and independence of Fatḥnāmes is first examined using a descriptive method. Then, the position of Fatḥnāmes as a literary genre is explained in terms of form, structure, and function using an analytical method. The results shows that Fatḥnāmes were initially implicit and secondary writing in the historical texts written in news language and gained independence and were gradually written in literary and artistic language since the 6th century (AH). The principles and manners of their writing were then developed in the books of Monša'āt and techniques of letter writing. In terms of literary genre, Fatḥnāmes are literary and short narratives of victory in war, which have an epic aspect and are written to legitimize war and preserve the power and rule of kings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]