Studies on Arabic Language and Literature

Examining the correctness of the attribution of letter 53 of Nahj al-Balaghah to Imam Ali (PUH) Based on the most accurate theories of Vocabulary Richness

Document Type : Scientific- Research Article

Authors

Soghra Falahati 1
Somayyeh Modiri 2

1 Associate Professor in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Al-Khwarizmi University, Tehran, Iran.

2 PhD student in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Al-Khwarizmi University, Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22075/lasem.2023.29731.1362
Abstract
One of the most controversial issues in the present century is the existence of texts attributed to important people, for which there are no documents. Researchers have always tried to study these claims from different angles. The importance of this matter led to the emergence of a trend in linguistics, called "Authorship Attribution" (A.A.). Authorship Attribution is the task of identifying the authors of contested or anonymous texts, and aims to identify the author of unknown texts, based on writing style. There are various theories in this field, but so far, no comprehensive, preventable, and one hundred percent reliable method has been presented. In this research, Yule's theory was combined with four other theories about vocabulary richness, to study the validity of the attribution of the letter 53 of Nahj al-Balaghah to Imam Ali (PUH), through the descriptive-analytical and statistical method. The results of the research indicate that in addition to the high accuracy for the calculations, the output of theories does not depend on the length of the text. Moreover, the results indicate that the variable W has the most important role in determining vocabulary richness, and its value for letter 53 is not very different from its value for the other selected letters, so it is proven that the author of letter 53 and the other letters was one person, and as a result, the doubt about Nahj al-Balaghah is false.

Keywords

Authorship Attribution
Nahj al-Balaghah
Doubt
letter 53
vocabulary richness theory
Subjects

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Studies on Arabic Language and Literature
Volume 14, Issue 37
Volume 14, Issue 37,Spring and Summer 2023.
September 2023
Pages 187-210

  • Receive Date 25 January 2023
  • Revise Date 12 June 2023
  • Accept Date 05 August 2023
  • Publish Date 01 September 2023

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