THE NARRATIVE VISION OF THE WESTERN BETWEEN DOCUMENTATION AND SIMPLIFICATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE TRAVELOGUE OF AHMAD FARIS AL-SHIDYAQ AND MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM BASTANI

Abstract

This comparative study examines two prominent travelogues in modern Arabic and Persian literature: Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq's Kashf al-Mukhba‘‘an Funun Urubba and Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi's Az Pāriz tā Pāris. Using the American School of Comparative Literature as a methodological framework, the research focuses on narrative style, thematic structure, cultural and political perspectives, attitudes toward women and Westernization, and the role of memory and poetry. Findings indicate that al-Shidyaq adopts a documentary, detail-oriented narrative emphasizing statistics and material description, while Parizi employs a simplified, literary style aimed at general readers through anecdotes, poetry, and humor. The study concludes that divergent cultural backgrounds and life experiences produced two distinct travel-writing models, both contributing valuable insights into Middle Eastern perceptions of the West .in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries