Authors

• GH Gholāmhosseinzādeh
• Z Lorestāni

Abstract

Irony is a type of diction that is used nearly equivalent to current literary idioms such as comic rhetorical question, metaphor, antanagoge, blaming, comical allusion, sarcasm, mockery and punning. In other words irony is the amusing or strange aspect of a situation that is very different from what we expect, or the use of words that say the opposite of what we really mean.
This kind of diction had been prevalent in the literature of Europe from the eighteen century but its origin comes back to the ancient Greece and even earlier than that.
Some examples of irony can be found in the classic literary Persian works including maqālāt Shams of Tabriz. Shams in order to distinguish his sayings has used ironic expression very well. Shams’ speech and thought is naturaly ironical, namely his manner of thinking and diction are such that break the usual structurs of language and present an ironical speech.

Keywords

• Irony
• Shams Tabrizi
• Rhetoric
• Maqālāt Shams
• Ironical Meaning