This paper aims to verify an ongoing literary code in modern Persian poetry when tackling topics of a political or ideological nature. A couple of preliminary statements are necessary. The first concerns the task accomplished by poetry, in the present and in the past, as a means of diffusion of ideas as a political instrument. In the Muslim world, oral tradition has been more persistent than elsewhere, while poetry and music have always been interconnected, and where musical realms pertain not only to the cultured elites, but to all social strata, such a role is particularly important. In spite of the deep changes that have taken place in Muslim societies in the past two centuries – besides the striking case of Umm Kulthūm and her support of ‘Abd al-Nāsir's policy – to confirm our hypothesis, it would suffice to mention Mahmūd Darwīsh's verses dedicated to Beirut, and their impact on the people of that city during the 1982 Israeli siege. Such poems were immediately put to music, sung, and consequently spread by one of the most popular Arabic singers, and became a kind of patriotic hymn, representing an ideal shared by all, regardless of any political or religious differences.

The second statement is related to Persian as a language. In fact, I do not think that the role of Persian as a common language for a great part of the Muslim intelligentsia, at least until the 1930’s, has been sufficiently emphasized. This justifies a topic through which I intend to express my gratitude, however inadequate, to Prof. Heshmat Moayyad, my Persian teacher during his first year at the Istituto Orientale of Naples, who often specifically concentrated his academic interests on modern Persian literature.

We are obliged to somehow choose authors for our sampling field. Muhammad Rizā Mīrzā ‘Ishqī (1893-1924), within the context of a general overview of Persian literature, represents a break and a new trend. His attitude is motivated primarily in political and ideological terms. In fact, to change the code or means of expression, and to break away from old literary genres seems crucial to him in order to diffuse new ideas, independent of traditionally consolidated forms and styles, and to come closer to the language of the public to whom the underlying ideological message is addressed. His plays confirm this.