Analyzing the Lexical Elements of Ibn Arabi’s Tarjumān al-Ashwāq Based on the Environmental Linguistics Approach

Environmental linguistics is one of the new approaches in linguistic research and a branch of social linguistics that studies the relationship between language and the natural-social environment of its speakers from a new perspective. According to environmental linguists, geographical environment and climatic conditions cause linguistic variations; as a result of which intellectual and cultural differences in an environment emerge. Tarjumān al-Ashwāq (The Interpreter of Longings) is a poem by Mohi al-Din Ibn Arabi, one of the prominent thinkers and mystics of Islamic mysticism who depicts Ibn Arabi's romantic feelings towards Nazam, the daughter of Sheikh Makin al-Din, during the poet's years of residence in Mecca. In this work, Ibn Arabi employs a language that has semantic correlates appropriate to the geographical environment of Mecca and the socio-cultural conditions of the residents of that environment to express his moods and describe the characteristics of his beloved. From the linguistic viewpoint, this work depicts a linguistic community representing the particular discourse of the geographical environment the lover and the beloved were residing in.  In the present study, with the aim of evaluating and recognizing the specific discourse of the poet's biosphere, the linguistic community and the lexical network of Tarjumān al-Ashwāq were categorized based on the biological, intellectual, and cultural components and indicators of Ibn Arabi's life environment; using a descriptive-analytical method and from the perspective of environmental linguistics. The findings of the study reveal the correlation between the natural environment and language, which has in turn affected the culture, vision, and worldview of Ibn Arabi as one of the users of that environment