Picturizing Animals in the Arabic, Persian and Turkish - Azerbaijani Proverbs: A Comparative Study

Animals have a special place in human thought and life throughout history since they were used as a symbol to refer to different purposes in stories and proverbs. So, they play an important role in the people's culture and literature. Thus, animal behaviors and characteristics were not the same for all nations due to the geographic nature of each nation, the impact of animals' in it, and to the beliefs, customs and traditions of each nation.From this standpoint, we found that there were many common beliefs among nations regarding animals and their behaviors. At the same time, we found that there were different images and characteristics that were drawn in the minds of these nations about animals and reflected in their proverbs. Basically, this research compares the image of animals in the Arabic, Persian and Turkish-Azerbaijani proverbs showing the common and different images of animals in these proverbs. Keywords: Arabic, Persian, Turkish-Azerbaijani proverbs, animals, image, symbol.