Persian Language and Literature

Publication Information

A Study of the Principle of Saint – Ship in Attaarrof, Kashf-ul-Mahjub and Mesbah-ul-Hedaya

Ali Sheikh-ul-Eslami

The noble principle of «saint–ship» is one of the most important aspects of Islamic Sufism.The prose and poetic books written by suphies emphasized that a disciple needs to follow the guidance and instructions of a wise sheikh in order to have the frightening valleys and dark ways behind him. Meanwhile it is impossible to ignore the key role of the most important Sufism prose books such as Att’aarrof, Kashf–ul–Mahjub and Mesbah-ul-Hedaya. Att’aarof is one of the primary works of Sufism which reinforced the beliefs of sufists in the very beginning of the fourth century very briefly but in as exact a way as possible and with good reasoning – this was the golden age in which Sufism was approaching its scientific and technical ultimate; Kashf-ul-Mahjub followed by Sharh-e-T’aarrof by Mostamali Bokhari is the first book written in Persian on Sufism which is considered as a work of great importance among sufist books. Also Hojviri in a complete and detailed way addresses the issues including the issue of «saint–ship» which was typical of the tassavof discussions then. Misbah-ul-Hidaya is also unique in terms of Sufism and morality among Persian works of 7th century. Examining the ideas of 3 authors regarding «saint-ship» can, to a large extent, represent the common ideas in this field during different eras, that is, fourth, fifth and seventh centuries. Studying these books can yield a good sample representing the general ideas about the issue of «saint-ship» in Islamic Sufism, since these 3 books have certainly taken advantage of their previous or contemporary works and had also influenced the works after themselves

Magic Realism in Qolamhossein Saedi's Fictions

Taghi Pournamdarian

Magic Realism is a modern fiction style. Although it invokes a South American's name and Gabriel Garsia Markez, specially, it is typical of the third world nations. In fictions of this style, reality and fantasy tie together but in the manner that reality dominates fantasy rather than the other way around. Among Persian novelists, Qolamhossein Saedi is inclined to this style in his fictions. It is possible to divide Saedi 's fictions into two groups: The first one, fictions that have been written in Magic Realism style. The second one, fictions in which only traces of Magic Realism can be found. In this article, both groups of fictions and the rational why Saedi followed this style will be discussed.

Why did Baqdad Mystical School Adhere to Religion's Order?

Seyyed Ali-Asqar Mirbagherifard

About the beginning of the second century and after the installation of Baqdad, Baqdad mystical school was established by some of Sophies such as Maruf karkhi. This school was continued by Sari Saqati and finally was completed by Jonayd Baqdadi .The climax of this school was in the fourth century thanks to Jonayd's learnings and those of his students such as Shebli, Vaseti and Joreyri…

The most distinguishing characteristic of the disciples of this school was their absolute adherence to the appearance of the religion which was mainly caused by their reaction to unawareness school. They explained this school by discussing the alertness (consciousness) and unawareness. Jonayd himself was always on alert and was never unaware. Possessing this characteristic, he was always ready for obeying the religion's orders. There are other factors in addition to the above-mentioned causes for obeying the religion's orders.

In this article, first, we examine the domains in which Jonayd school caught on in the third, fourth and fifth centuries and then some disciples of this school will be briefly introduced. Then we will discuss why the founders of this school were committed to following the face rules of this school.

A study of Anushirvan and Bozorgmehr’s Pieces of Advice and their Influence on Sa'di's Golestan

Vahid Sabzianpur

Iranian scholars like Allame Ghazvini, Foruzanfar, Khazaeli, among others, have attempted to look for the main motifs of Sa'di's ideas within the old Arabic poetry. In a detailed study, Hossein-ali Mahfuz claims that the main themes of sa'di thought should be sought in the poetry of Arab poets like Motanabbi. It is understood here that the role of the Iranian ancient culture and literature has been ignored. In the meantime, defenders of Sa'di have tried to account for the claim mentioned above by appealing to factors like the accidental occurrence of a thought to two different poets unknown to one another, competition at composing a single theme, and by mentioning humane and lofty intentions in Sa'di's texts. Adopting a different approach, the present article attempts to go further back beyond the Abbasids to the Old Iranian culture and literature in the quest for the origins of Sa'di's thought. It will investigate thirty such texts not mentioned in the studies available. These are presented as samples, to demonstrate that our researchers, instead of looking into old Arabic texts, should search Sa'di's thoughts in the ancient Iranian culture.

The Aesthetic Principles of Realism

Rohollah Hadi

Social Realism belonging to the domain of art and literature is a type of political aesthesiam affirming the mechanical unity of idealogic and static principles. The post-revolution theoretical discussions of this literary school in Octobr 1917 were inspired by the ideas of Karl Marx, Friedri Engels and Veladimir IIych Lenin. The Mother by Maxim Gorki is the masterpiece written in this era. The basic principles of Social Realism, emphasizing the realistic reflections in the social domain of artistic productions and philanthropy were approved in Moscow, Augest- September 1934. Although this congress was a literary one, but its principles were generalized to other domains of art, i.e. painting, music and cinema etc. Social Realism was rather concerned with making changes in the of literary works.This is why some themes such as fighting capitalism, historical optimism, war, revolution, informed history-orientasion, labourer, revoluton leaders and red army were taken up by literature and art field.

Mohammad Ibn-Fadl: A Little Known Mystic of Malamat

Naser Rahimi

This article attempts to introduce Mohammad Ibn-Fadl, one of the little known mystics of Malamat in the third century (A.H.). To this end, the author uses old sources in his historical method of analysis, providing information about his name, hometown, family, date of death, religion and jurisprudence, works, companions, narrators and travels. An older source of a story about him, as narrated in Mowlavi, s Mathnavi without direct reference to him, is also introduced.

A Critical study on Attributing Hafiz to Malamat Faction

Farideh Vejdani

This article presents a critical study of two groups of Hafiz’s poetry commentators who have introduced him as Malamati or as a poet inclined to the customs of Malamat. Due to the wide time gap between the mallamat epoch and the time Hafiz lived, the first group’s emphasis on Hafiz as being a Malamati is doubtful. This article seeks to refute the claim made by the second group that Hafiz was inclined to mallamati thoughts by adhering to their doctrines. The same group has charecrterised gafiz's Erfan as a Malamt one.To this end; this article discusses seven cases of agreement and disagreement between Hafiz’s poetry and Malamatis’ opinions in order to highlight contradictory interpretations in his poetry and the lack of such interpretations in the discourse of Malamati proponents. Then, this study has attempted to find a reason compatible with his linguistic logic and poetic construction for agreements and disagreements between Hafiz’s poetry and Malamatis’ opinions. Eventually, according to the reasons presented, it is concluded that Hafiz is by no means a propagandist for any official or unofficial thought. He is a freethinking poet who doesn’t fit any sort of mystical or nonmystical doctrines, and his art is of the highest value to him. Nevertheless, his poetry’s interpretability and, on the other hand, commentators’ efforts to present a response more compatible with the current expectations have led to attributing the title Malamat to him.