review and analysis of “simile” in nafsat al-masdoor

shahāb al-din mohammad zeydari nasavi, the author of “nafsat al-masdoor”, as one of the outstanding technical, literal and stylist prose writers, had a great interest in using different innovative and expressive arrays to illustrate his works.  he looked simile as an essential element of fantasy, and a unique approach in presenting themes, ideas and sometimes transmission of emotions and feelings. this study is to review and analyze this expression technique in his nafsat al-masdoor, particularly from the point of the rhetorical approach. it should be said that zeydari had totally used 241 cases similes from which abstract elements and natural manifestations have had the most usage. in terms of the structure, more than 61% of the similes have been used as additional components that impact on text distinctness and inspiring of imageries profoundly. the importance of zeydari’s work is the manner he introduces similes, for most of them are the result of author’s innovation and creativeness. meanwhile, he has often used these similes along with different verbal and semantic arrays particularly rhyme and pun and ambiguity, which led his words being consisted of fantasy and music multi-layers.