Religious Places, Characters, and Symbols in al-Hamadhānī’s Picaresque Maqāmas and Lazarillo de Tormes

Document Type : Original Article

Author

*Associate Professor

Abstract

            Protagonists in both al-Hamadhānī’s picaresque maqāmasand the Lazarillo de Tormes trick people. The authors use a variety of elements and aspects in order to succeed in their tricks. Religious aspects play an important role in the process of deception. Both use three religious aspects: religious places, characters, and symbols. I argue that there are some similarities in their religious elements; however, the two works vary in using them in order to succeed in tricking people. The study reaches some findings among which is that comparing the two literary works proves that Lazarillo de Tormes has been influenced by Arabic maqāmas by al-Hamadhānī. The study also paves the way to scholars to study other elements in the two works such as social and political elements.

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