جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « mystical letters » در نشریات گروه « ادبیات و زبان ها »

Bahr al-Maʻāni is a collection of mystical letters of the Chishti Order Sufi, Seyyed Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Din Ja’far Makki Hosseini (732-825 AH/ 1332-1422). The Academy of Persian Language and Literature (The Department of the Encyclopaedia of Persian Literature and Language in the Subcontinent) published it in 2018, edited by Dr. Mohammad Sarvar Molaei. After a lithography print in 1889 in Moradabad, this book is the first edition of Bahr al-Maʻāni, but due to the accumulation of incorrect, illegible, and ambiguous words and phrases, incoherence and disorganization can be seen throughout the book. On the one hand, this is related to the editing process, in which the editor should have revised the misreadings of the author or the scribes by comparing various copies of Bahr al-Maʻāni and the sources used by its author. On the other hand, it is related to the fact that a large part of the book is reciting previous mystical works without mentioning the references. By false omissions and additions, the author has impaired the text’s coherence, fluency, and integrity, and consequently, in many cases, he has left the reader with considerable ambiguities. In this paper, we have tried to analyze these issues in the abovementioned edition of Bahr al-Maʻāni with a critical approach.

Mystical letters are one of the most valuable examples of informal writings. These letters show abundant imagination, creative mind and mystical pen of their writers, and distinguishes the mystics from the courtly writers who are well aware of the art of letter writing. A study of these texts shows that there is a regular and coherent structure in them. By using descriptive-analytical method, the authors of this study have tried to analyze the content of the letters of Ghazālī, Sanāī, Rumi and Ayn al-Quzat in terms of structure and content of the letters. The style of writing, the subject, the addressee, and in general the structure of the letters is among the items that have received less attention; therefore, the need for such research in these areas is felt.  The findings of the study indicate that the structure of mystical letters is different from courtly letters. The difference is more evident in the speeches, the titles and the beginning of the letter; also, the main subject of the letter is the written requests. In addition, the letters of the mystics are full of advices that are morally and educationally valuable and for teaching ideological and mystical principles are useful.