Zahra Abouali Zadeh - Literature department, Islamic Azad University, Dezful Branch, Dezful, Iran
Nasrullah Emami - Professor of Persian Literature, Islamic Azad University, Dezful Branch, Dezful, Iran

Lyric genre is one of the most popular forms of Persian literature, consisting of many literary subtypes. One of these sub-braches the name of which has been mentioned in new categorizations, is riddle-poem composing. This research has attempted to examine this subtype and Persian poetic period in Samanid dynasty and the first period of Ghaznavid in terms of riddles and find out why the poets of this period have been inclined toward using riddle or enigma literary genre. It has also tried to investigate the literary value of riddles and their aesthetic appeal in Persian poetry. This study has shown that using riddles and enigmas is not only an attractive and enjoyable art but it also indicates the emotions of the poet and his/her awareness of drawing upon new figures of speech and beautiful and rare images which boost and immortalize enigmatic poetry. Moreover, riddle and enigma as a subtype of lyric genre have emerged and continued based on the conditions and the people's demands of the time

literary types, lyric genre, riddle, enigma, poetic period