PERSIAN LITERATURE (FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES)
Year:2019 | Volume:9 | Issue:1 (23) |Papers Count:13

One of the issues in Islamic mysticism which has caused many challenges and which has become the pretext for justifying the dissent from Sufi teachings is the issue of “ non-compliance with the Sharia. ” Critics and exegetes have offered various views on mystics’ non-compliance with the Sharia. Reflection on and analysis of the critical thoughts of the mystics themselves on this matter can reveal the truth. A glance at the words and behavior of mystic elders reveals their adherence to religion and its supreme purposes and their avoidance of any religious superficialism. Although sporadic research has been done explaining this issue, its importance requires us to delve into the view of the mystics themselves on the matter. In this article, while having the justifications for non-compliance with the Sharia in mind, the opinions and statements of mystics and scholars of mystical thought are examined. Our hypothesis is based on the fact that non-compliance with the Sharia has been the result of pseudo-Sufis’ acts and the attribution of this non-compliance to Sufi sheikhs may need rethinking.

In this paper the theoretical history of “ types of poetry, ” as defined in ancient times up the seventh century, has been chronologically analyzed. The study was necessitated upon noticing that despite the wide extent of discussion about categorization and definition of types of poetry in contemporary studies, the question of whether there was a clear definition and categorization of types of poetry in ancient literary theories remains unanswered; and if the answer is yes, what was the basis for categorization of types of poetry? The existence of phrases in Khaqani’ s verses that explicitly refer to ten types of poetry reinforces the hypothesis that ancient literary theories clearly defined and categorized types of poetry. So, under the four titles of philosophers and logicians, Arab literary scholars and rhetoricians, Persian works of literary and rhetorical criticism, and poets, ancient theories are studied and it is concluded that literary genres— particularly poetry— was a well-known subject among the ancients and especially Arabs, and in their works of literary and rhetorical criticism, a chapter or at least a title was devoted to it. In Persian literature, the theory of types of poetry is much more recent than the Arabic theory and is entirely influenced by it. Nevertheless, an evolution of the theory of types of poetry can be detected in Persian poetry.

The ultimate goal and the destination of the mystical path in Islam is Fana, and in Buddhism is Nirvana. Reaching to both destinations is through elimination of desires. There are so many similarities between Fana and Nirvana that sometimes they are considered as identical concepts. Fana and Nirvana are mystical experiences and can also be studied through the lens of theories on mystical experiences. One of these theories is Constructivism, which believes mystical experiences are processed through and organized by beliefs and expectations that the mystic brings to the experience. In the Constructivist view, the mystic goes through mystical experience, while he is contextualized with the established doctrines and concepts of his religion, and since established doctrines and concepts of various religions are profoundly different, mystical experiences could not be the same. In this article, we attempt to study Fana and Nirvana through the lens of Constructivism. We argue that the difference between these two faiths is drawing their mystics’ mystical path genuinely different inasmuch as these paths would not end up in the same destination, and thus, Fanā and Nirvana are profoundly different. This article begins with a brief explanation of mystical experience and a short introduction on Constructivism and Essentialism; then continues by describing some principal doctrines on Fanā and Nirvana and recommended instructions to reach them, and finally ends with a comparison of these teachings and conclusion of the argument.

Persian poets of all religious and theological tendencies have been under the influence of the verses of the Koran. This influence is expressed in various forms (allusion, quotation, reference, adaptation etc. ) in their poems to the extent that few poems can be found which are void of such contents. As different Islamic sects have different interpretations of Koranic verses and references, each interprets verses of the Koran according to their own definitions and teachings and also with regard to the socio-political conditions of their time. In this research, the use of the term “ pen” in the poems of prominent Persian-speaking poets of religious-theological tendency is investigated. Considering that no specific research has been done in this field, the analysis and classification of poetry’ s perceptions of one of the themes of the Koran is worthwhile. After analyzing and categorizing exegetes and theologians’ interpretations of the word “ pen, ” a selected group of poets’ perceptions of the word is studied. It is worth noting that in doing so a more correct understanding of verses mentioning the word “ pen” is accomplished. The selected poets of this research are Ferdowsi, Naser Khosrow, Khayyam, Sana’ i, Khaqani, Nizami, Attar, Saadi, Rumi, Hafez, and Jami.

Khaqani is a unique poet in ancient Persian literature, since he allows the thorough emergence and appearance of his “ I” in his poetry. In his poems, he does not appear only as a poet, but he reveals the appearance of a human who is emotional, excited, love seeker, fighter, freedom seeker, noble, and humanitarian. These features are among those which the Romantics considered themselves to have and which they included in their literary manifesto. In addition to these features, the images in his poetry have the qualities of Romantic images. This means, like the images of Romantic poetry, his are ambiguous and shadowy, structured, united, coherent, timeless, placeless, metaphorical, intellectual, and naturalistic. This article tries to present a further explanation on Romantic manifestations in Khaqani’ s poetry and thought. Choosing a descriptive and analytical method, it endeavors to confirm the existence of many similarities between Khaqani’ s poetry and the school of Romanticism. The research demonstrates that Khaqani’ s personal and emotional poetry is unparalleled in classical Persian poetry. His poetry has a sentimental, humanistic, and libertarian backdrop. Therefore, it can be argued that the Romantic features of Khaqani’ s poetry are unique in classic Persian literature.

Khalgh al-Ensan is an unpublished Arabic book by Bayan al-Hagh Neyshaburi (died in 521 AH) in the field of commentary on the Koran in which there are some verses from Ferdowsi’ s Shahname. Neyshaburi was the judge of Ghazne on behalf of Ghaznavids, but in the last years of his lifetime, returned to his birthplace, Neyshabur, and collected his Majalles in commentary of a chapter from the Koran, called “ Khalgh al-Ensan. ” The existence of these verses in such an old book indicate the fame of Shahname in so-called era in the eastern territory of the Persian literature which Second Ghaznavid had the power beside Seljuqids. In fact, an author who was known as a religious scholar with a strong attention to Ferdowsi’ s Masnavi can demonstrate the relationship between religious scholars and non-religious poems. In this article, moreover we noted to important variants between ancient MSs of Shahname and Khalgh al-Ensan that can improve some parts of Ferdowsi's Masnavi in future. In our opinion, Neyshaburi’ s reference for Ferdowsi’ s poems, was a selective book like an anthology of Shahname, that existence of some old instances of those books is proved; for example, the selection of Ali ibn Ahmad that is existed at the moment and is published, or Mas’ ud-e Sa’ d's selection which is missed, both of them very close to Neyshaburi’ s lifetime.

Epilogue is one of the structural components of most Persian poems which comes at the end of many poems independently or as the continuation of the main chapters of the book. The goal of this paper is to study the content of the epilogues of Persian poems with focus on twenty-four poems written up to the seventh century. In most of the examined poems, epilogue has strong relations with the main chapters and plays an important role in understanding them. Persian poems are divided to three categories: poems without epilogues, poems with short epilogues, and poems of extensive epilogues. Of the remaining poems of Dari literature, the first poem with an epilogue is Asadi Tusi’ s Garshaspname. Extensive epilogues may contain historical issues (date and the amount of time taken to write the work), introductory information (description of the work, number of lines, style, interpretation of the work etc. ), social issues (preaching, condemnation, and protest), praise, prayers, and conclusion. Poets have epilogized because of reasons such as observing literary traditions, the need of the text for paratext, creating a space for dealing with issues other than the main content of the work, and improving the status of their works. Some poets do not distinguish between preface and epilogue in that both parts of their works might cantain praise, didactic material, and celebration of the work.

Many lines of Khaqani’ s divan have been misunderstood because of its complexities and nuances as well as the use of whimsical words and words in different semantic contexts. At the same time, this vastness of words and phrases in Khaqani’ s poetry caused his divan to be one of the major sources of new words and poetic evidence for ancient lexicologists. Investigators of Khaqani’ s divan have occasionally used invalid dictionaries— such as Jahangiri, Borhan, and Majmaolfors— to correct Khaqani’ s dubious and controversial lines; therefore they have sometimes misunderstood them. In this study, while looking critically at dictionaries and using evidence from ancient texts, suggestions are put forward to correct three lines of Khaqani’ s divan, and it is demonstrated that the word “ khoshni” (meaning prostitute) is the result of the erroneous reading of “ khonsa” (meaning bisexual) in a few lines of this divan. Unawareness of the meaning of “ khonsa” and “ mokhannas” is one of the main reasons that has prevented scholars from recognizing the original form of Khaqani’ s manuscripts, while paying attention to the correspondences between the words and the phrases contained in the lines and the use of identical themes in the works of Khaqani could be one of the ways of correcting his poems.

Khaqani Sharvani, whose eloquence and fluency has long been recognized, is one of the most prominent Persian poets of the sixth century. In his poetry, he uses the terminology of different sciences and wordplay to the extent that the reader is often required to consult dictionaries and references repeatedly. The original manuscripts of Khaqani’ s divan gradually disappeared due to factors such as war. A mere handful of these manuscripts are available now which form the basis of research projects. Nevertheless, the availability of several valid copies of his divan has partially satisfied students and poetry enthusiasts in the last decades; yet, the lack of an immaculate critical correction of his divan still exists. In this study, considering the abundant errors in Khaqani’ s divan, which have entered it by the scribes and correctors of the manuscripts, and also considering the fact that Khaqani emphasized the importance of form and its influence on the semantic dimension of his poems, the authors try to correct some of the errors in Sajjadi’ s version using other print versions or manuscripts. Undoubtedly, these very few samples indicate the necessity and significance of correction of Khaqani’ s poetry.

“ Seclusion of warrior” means his compulsory, temporary retirement in some special circumstances to which he reluctantly submits and is released from it after certain events which, in the cases examined in this article, are the outbreak of (or preparation for) a great war. In Greek and Indian epics, one can find at least two examples of this motif: Achilles, the hero of Iliad, whom his mother’ s prudence forces to seclude himself in the disguise of a girl in a local king’ s harem, and Arjuna, the hero of Mahabharata, who, because of a fairy’ s curse and his family’ s exile, is made to reside like a eunuch in a harem for a year. Both of these stories are in connection with harem and with warrior’ s some kind of temporary retirement. It might seem that Iranian epic has no trace of “ warrior’ s seclusion, ” but considering the various versions of the story of Esfandiar’ s imprisonment by his father, King Goshtasb, one can find important points that bear resemblance to the details of these two Greek and Indian stories. It seems that this motif has an original Indo-European version, whose mythical aspect is reflected in Greek and Indian epics and its mundane aspect in Iranian epic. A comparative study of these three stories leads us to the recognition of “ warrior’ s seclusion” and its probable mythical origin (the warrior’ s hesitation and the world’ s need).

Khaqani’ s poetry is replete with references to the sciences of his time. This causes his poetry to be impossible to understand without comprehending the variety of sciences (medicine, astronomy, history, mythology, geography etc. ) which he makes reference to. One of Khaqani’ s techniques to enrich his poetry is using Koranic verses and Hadith. In his time, the first sciences that children learned at school were religious sciences including the Koran and Hadith. Undoubtedly, these teachings influenced their mentality, language, and art. So, there were few poets whose works did not reflect these teachings. In Khaqani’ s poetry, because he adorns each line of his poems with religious images and themes which are in line with his writing style, this reflection is highlighted. In some cases the scribes or correctors’ negligence has caused Khaqani’ s divan to be distorted. In this article, some cases in which the scribes or correctors have been ignorant of the religious context of Khaqani’ s poetry are studied.

We can explore Bidel Dehlavi’ s epistemic system and artistic identity through two layers of intuitive experience and spiritual texts. A collateral bond, in terms of ontology and epistemology, unites these two epistemic-artistic layers. The first, is an intuitive experience stemming from the demeanor of “ Tabatol to Fana” (translation: Annihilation to Inexistence) and ascension of “ Peleh Peleh ta Khoda” (translation: Step-by-Step to God). The second is a mysterious collection of spiritual texts whose real value is appraised through philosophical sonnet. The collection decrypts the indivisibility of the truth in a symbolic language, and places God at a level that is within the scope of man’ s intuitive understanding. In other words, Bidel recreates meaning via the triple process of deducing, paraphrasing, and interpreting spiritual texts. The fundamental questions of the research are as follows: What is the most prominent possible existing connection between the intuitive experience (the epistemic layer) and the symbolic interpretive language of Bidel (artistic layer)? What are the reasons for Bidel’ s tendency toward symbolic expressions in his poems? By examining these two questions, we test the hypothesis that Bidel’ s ontological and epistemological foundations have an intentional and subtle relation to his symbolic language and formulations. The poet turns to symbolism and creation of spiritual texts in order to remove the mask of meaning. On the other hand, the essence of natural languages, embedded in empirical human discourses, blocks the way to absolute manifestation. This is the reason why Bidel is able to overcome this linguistic restriction via imagination, mystery, and symbolism through Sufi understanding.

Mystics and truth-seekers, in their readings of mystical texts, have predominantly focused on texts which, in addition to giving an account of theoretical principles, provide didactic programs and strategies. Awarif ul-Maarif laid out a comprehensive source of mystical knowledge before the reader of the early seventh century. Its inclusion in the syllabus became, for centuries to come, a prerequisite for the foundation of new Khanqahs. In addition to providing an account of the principles of spiritual practice, Awarif ul-Maarif defined the limits of and identified positive and negative aspects of Sufi precepts. In doing so, it distinguished itself by criticizing the theories of opposers of Sufism, discussing skeptics’ ideas and pointing out how skepticism could be overcome. The need for a translation of this work and the efforts undertaken in this respect led to renderings by various translators each benefitting the reader in its own way. This article compares two of these translations, i. e. Abu Mansur Isfahani and Abdurrahman Shirazi’ s translations which date back to the late seventh and early eighth century respectively. The article deals with the texts’ structural approaches, the translators’ style and mode of expression, and the strengths and weaknesses of their translations. The most important finding is that Isfahani’ s version is merely an adaptation of the original Awarif— albeit it is written in a more poetic style and engaging the reader’ s imagination to a greater extent— whereas Shirazi’ s Maarif ul-Awarif is an accurate and comprehensive translation which remains faithful to Suhrawardi’ s message.