مجله متن شناسی ادب فارسی
سال ششم شماره 1 (پیاپی 21، بهار 1393)

From past to the present، the issue of Perfect Man has been one of the studied subjects in Persian and mystical literature. In this regard، some great figures of Persian literature like Sanaee Qaznavi، Molana Jalal al-Din Balkhi and Sheikh Attar Nishaburi are famous for having mystical ideas but there are also some figures among mystics in whose words and works the traces of mysticism can be identified. One of such figures is Hakim Nizami Ganjavi. This article aims to analyze one of the principal issues of Islamic mysticism، i. e. the image of the Blessed Prophet (PBUH) as the Perfect Man and human Perfection، in his works and answer the following questions: What is the image of Muhammadan truth in Nizami’s Khamseh? How is the Muhammadan Perfect Man defined in his view? What are the ideas and views of a philosopher like Nizami about the prototype of the Perfect Man، that is، the Blessed Prophet? To do this، first، the concept of Man is explored in Nizami works and، then، the issue of Muhammadan truth as the Perfect Man and human Perfection is investigated in his ideas and works.

What distinguishes Khayyam from other visionaries is his intimacy about his ignorance. He knows he is ignorant and not only does not conceal this from himself and others but also expresses it loudly in his famous quatrains. He wants to teach the claimants of knowledge that knowledge of ignorance is not fault but pretending to know the mysteries is fault. He wants to state vividly in his quatrains that claimants of knowledge have indeed no knowledge. This is the very acknowledgment of ignorance which brings his soul astonishment equal to the astonishment of mystics. While explaining different dimensions of Khayyam’s astonishment in his philosophical quatrains، this research tries to show how much the marvelous mysteries of such bewilderment have influenced various groups of his addresses with variegated tastes and how much they have plunged into such astonishment.

Until now we have been familiar with several corrections of Nizami’s Khamseh like Vahid Dastgerdi، Moscow، Servatian and Barat Zanjani but in recent years a new correction has been published by Samieh Basir Mozhdehi (reviewed by Baha al-Din Khoramshahi) whose first and second imprints were published by Dustan publishing in 1383 and 1388 respectively. Such correction has been done based on the so-called version of Sa’dloo (due to the fact that this version has been found in a family with the very name) which belongs to eight century (A. H) and via contrasting with versions of central library of Tehran University، Vahid Dastgerdi and Russian Academy of Science. The author thinks that her findings and understandings of the verses، using the most correct variants (in her view)، considering the rules of rhyme، styles of poetry، prosody and other rhetorical techniques، and using the version of Sa’dloo as the basis of her correction have altogether made her correction more authentic and closer to the main version of Nizami’s work. It should be mentioned that although this correction is recent and could apply the results of new sciences besides having access to two authentic versions of Vahid and Moscow to provide a better work than the predecessors’، it is unfortunately one of the corrections with most mistakes and problems. While indicating to some verses in this correction and comparing it with the versions of Vahid and Moscow (that the corrector has acknowledged her correction has been contrasted particularly with these two ones)، this research aims to show that such correction is not authentic. The important point is that، contrary to the words of author about paying attention to poetic styles and techniques، the reader finds out after close reading that unfortunately the corrector lacks sufficient knowledge about such rules and even the morphology and poetic space of Nizami.

Sandbadnameh is an allegorical work of sixth century with bombastic prose. This book consists of one main story and thirty three secondary tales. In various issues such as the deceit of women، kings and princes and speaking animals these tales imply vivid moral subjects. After classifying the tales regarding theme and motif for structural analysis، other elements of fiction such as character، setting، point of view، stage، plot، tone، style and addressee are explored briefly. The aim of such investigation is to compare the Zahiri’s fiction writing with today’s definitions and criteria of fiction writing and the rate of his commitment to maintain the framework of fiction writing. Using stock and allegorical characters، fixed tone and style in dialogue tales، lack of variegated plot and logical and stable relationship between events make this work far from contemporary criteria of fiction writing in spite of its great volume، and introduce it as a symbolic and allegorical tale. On the other hand، bombastic and embellished prose as well as being loyal to ancient fiction writing have added to literary significance of this literary work.

Ma’aref al-‘Arefin is a valuable tazkereh of mystics and famous sufis of Qajar time and since this era has been considered less by scholars from cultural and literary perspectives، this article aims to introduce the only version of this useful work. This work، written by Muhammad Kazim Tabrizi pen named “Asrar”، is about the biography of almost fifty famous mystics contemporary with the author which besides their biography includes some examples of their sayings and sometimes some parts of their poems and works. The organization of this work is based on the biography of Poles born after Shah Ne’mat Allah Vali and because of this the author has divided the book into seven chapters and named each chapter “Ta’refeh”. Acquaintance with influential figures in Qajar mysticism and Sufism some of whom have been mentioned for the first time in this work، an unknown ratification took place in Ne’mat Allahi dynasty and mentioned only in this work and autobiography of Asrar Tabrizi are the most important issues which are discussed in this research in detail.

The researchers of Mathnavi have considered the first tale of this work named “Kanizak va Padeshah” as a symbolic tale and each of them has decoded it according to his particular view. They all agree upon decoding three characters of this tale. The main dispute is over decoding the king and maid characters. Seemingly following the Kharazmi commentary، most commentators assume king as the symbol of soul and maid as the symbol of the self. In the works of Dr Zarinkoub، maid and king symbolize human being and God respectively. But some scholars believe that king’s taking shelter in the mosque and confessing to his fault is discordant with considering him as the symbol of God. Thus، there seems to be more propensity to Kharazmi’s view. After criticizing other views، this research tries to explain the view of Zarinkoub by focusing on the motif of the story and Molavi’s manner of fictionalization. It is assumed that the motif of this tale is the fault of human (maid) in knowing the true beloved (king) and choosing an unstable beloved named the world (goldsmith). There are two groups of factors which confirm this hypothesis: the factors outside the tale which include the theme of the main source of the tale، the record of such theme in gnostic texts، the presence of this theme in the works of early mystics like Attar and the repetition of such theme in other tales of Mathnavi. The factors inside the tale are: the prologue of the tale and final verse، the dilemma of the tale and its pivotal character، the denouement and conclusion by Molavi at the end of the tale.

Gomizshan and Vazarshan are the names of two most important cycles of creation in Persian mythology during which the battle between two forces of goodness and vice reaches its most severe stage and at last leads to the final victory of the good over the vicious. Belief in the struggle between good and vicious principles which constitutes the basis of Persian mythical thought is manifested in Shahnameh in the form of long battles and wars between Iran and Aniran (non-Iranian). In Shahnameh، Iran symbolizes Ahuramazda whereas Aniran (mostly Turan) mostly symbolizes the land of Ahriman and the struggle between the two lands embodies Gomizshan in Persian myths which is finished by Keikhosrow at the end of epical part of Shahnameh and reaches its Vazarshan in Shahnameh. Based on psychological views of Carl Gustav Jung، this article aims to explore the roots of dualism in Persian mythical thought and thus Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh، and good and vicious aspects are decoded as the symbols of consciousness and unconsciousness in such kind of psychology. The results of this study show that، in the dualist attitude of the myth، the worlds of goodness and badness are comparable with consciousness and unconsciousness respectively، and the opposition Ahuramazda/Ahriman or Iran/Aniran in Shanhnameh and mythical thought can be evaluated as the struggle between consciousness and unconsciousness for reaching the perfect Self. Since the sequence of ups and downs of prominent kings in Shahnameh ends with the final victory of Iran over Turan in the reign of Keikhosrow، it can be said that the spirit of national epic which had been blown into the body of Kiomars from the beginning leads to the immortality of Keikhosrow via passing different embodiments، which can be the symbols of persona in Jung theory، with continuous sequence of life and death archetype.