مجله ادبیات عرفانی
پیاپی 27 (زمستان 1400)

Abdul Jabbar Niffari is one of the unknown mystics of the fourth century (AH). One reason for his anonymity is his complicated mystical prose. His most important works are Al-Mawaqif and Al-Mukhatabat, which contain direct reports of his mystical experiences. The explanations in these two books are chiefly devoid of conventional scientific terminologies of that era. In fact, these reports are based on direct quotations from God. The purpose of this study is to examine the content of these two books via an analytical-descriptive research method to see which characteristics of “Sufi-deconstructed texts" correspond to Niffari’s two books. Subscribing to the famous classification of mystical texts into two categories of "deconstructed" and "constructed", the main question of the research is whether the books of Al-Mawaqif and Al-Mukhatabat can be considered "deconstructed prose". By examining the main features of the deconstructed texts and presenting evidence from these two books, it was concluded that they should be categorized as deconstructed texts.

Meditation on the works and themes of poetry in the mystical genre shows that poets have changed the plot structure of previous anecdotes in order to create and convey a new message by relying on intertextual similarities. Examination of a wide range of original anecdotes in this genre reveals that poets have sought to create semantic-moral meanings, themes, and mystical atmosphere by changing the plot of narratives. In view of that, the present study, conducted by adopting a descriptive-analytical research method and using library resources, aims to investigate the status of narrative, plot, and intertextuality in some original poetic anecdotes in the mystical genre, and to create new structure, principles, and didactic meanings in the subsequent anecdotes. The findings show that the creators of the subsequent (new) narratives have made changes in the plot of the subsequent narrative in the mystical genre with the aim of changing the meaning, and this change has been done in three ways: “extending or reducing the plot”, “adding or reducing episodes to the narrative”, and “adding mystical meaning to the actions of actors by an open-ended trick”.

Sanai, the founder of Persian mystical poetry, is one of the poets who strived to introduce the language of mysticism practically and at times theoretically. So far, several theories have been proposed regarding mystical language. These theories, where they are based on the more general theories of language of the target religion, fall into two categories of formative theories and role-oriented theories. One of the role-oriented theories about the language of metaphysical experiences is John Herman Randall's theory. This philosopher considers religion, just like science and art, as a kind of human activity that contributes to human culture, and lists four roles for religious mysteries and myths. The present article, adopting a descriptive and analytical research method, renders a new analysis of anecdote functions in Sanai's Hadiqat al-Haqiqah and examines their correspondence to Randall's theory. The findings reveal that Sanai deploys anecdote for two purposes; first, to clarify ontological, theological, cosmological, and anthropological issues and to correct social problems, and second, among Randall's four roles, Sanai’s Hadiqat al-Haqiqah anecdotes, in the first place, play the role of stimulating practical senses and strengthening practical commitments (Anthropological), and stimulating senses of cooperation and social cohesion (Social), in the second place. The next two roles, namely the transmission of unspeakable human experiences (Theological) and the explanation of the glorious divine system (Cosmological) have been considered less by this mystic poet. These roles place Sanai’s mysticism under the banner of Khorasan School, which is better known as humanism and socialism.

The present article introduces a newfound manuscript of one of Najm al- Din Razi's (573-654 AH) treatises, which was written before the Mongol invasion and during the life of Majd al- Din Baghdadi (martyrdom: 607 or 616 AH). Besides describing and editing the treatise, attempts are made in this study to prove its attribution to Najm al- Din by looking for similarities between this work and his other works, particularly Mirsad al-Ebad. Due to the similarities found in the use of words, collocations, and phrases; the use of the same hadiths, verses, and poems, which are present in other works by Najm al- Din; as well as the similarity in the topics raised; this treatise can be attributed to Najm al -Din Razi. Considering the goals of this research, a stylistic analysis approach and a historical analysis based on base manuscript were adopted. The editing was done on base manuscript (No. 2996 F) available in National Library of Iran. The results of the research make it clear that this newfound short treatise, containing an initial draft of Mirsad al-Ebad, was most probably authored by Najm al- Din Razi, which was written in the period when he paid homage to his sheikh, Majd al -Din Baghdadi.

There are two main traditions in German Orientalism: The Romantic tradition and the Philological one. The Romantic tradition considers the East as a distinct, irrational, and intuitive “other” that is based on the introduction of works and their translations rather than in-depth investigations. This tradition has proved effective in disseminating Oriental texts’ translation into German. The philological tradition makes German Orientalism distinct and focuses on cataloging, correcting manuscripts, and researching the texts. In German-speaking Orientalism, the philological tradition has been prevalent since the eighteenth century. The last circle of German orientalists, including Helmut Ritter, Fritz Meier, and Schimmel is a manifestation of the fusion of the two traditions and its evolution regarding the concept of "context". In their works, the external elements and the context of culture are also considered as much as the internal context and the linguistic and rhetorical components. The key component of this trend is the concept of "text". Here, the Ritter and Meier's special method in dealing with mystical texts is shown. The main features of their works are: categorization of texts and finding mother texts, finding a network of texts (based on the evolution of manuscripts), correcting original texts based on the most authoritative versions, translating texts into German, and giving priority to prose, bibliography, and historiography. The Golden Ring method of German-speaking Orientalism can be effective in understanding the text, networking and genre of Persian-language mysticism. These orientalists consider mysticism and Sufism as a movement derived from Islam and as a historical, cultural, and textual phenomenon, rather than a romantic or enlightening movement.

The verse “Our guide said, ‘the pen that designed creation committed no mistakes’/blessed be his saintly and error-covering appraisal” is one of the controversial verses of Hafez that has widely attracted the attention of commentators. The history of the description and interpretation of this verse is about five centuries old. That is, from the time Jalaluddin Davani explained the meaning of this verse in the second half of the ninth century AH, many commentators have attempted to elucidate and clarify its meaning. The existence of these endless disputes motivated the researcher to explain the meaning of the verse based on the textual evidence and also semantic relationship between different parts of the sonnet, via adopting descriptive-analytical method and Michael Riffaterre's model. Riffaterre, with his dual design of heuristic and hermeneutic reading, considers the understanding of the latent meanings of a poem to depend on focusing on the way the main idea is represented in the form of "accumulations" and "descriptive systems" of the text. Accordingly, the sonnet was divided into four sections, and after examining the lexical accumulations of these sections and finding the focal idea or "matrix" of the work, the disputed verse was read to identify and present the most documented interpretation for it. The results showed that the meaning of "covering error", as a praiseworthy attribute in the eyes of the guide, is “not seeing” worldly deficits and vices as errors rather than "ignoring" them as real errors that challenge the existence of a good system. Another point is that if the whole sonnet is read with the focus on the fourth verse, there is strong textual evidence that shows Hafiz composed this sonnet with the genuine intention of requesting Shah Shoja to overlook the mistake that was falsely attributed to him; an error-covering which is the result of not seeing that false accusation  as error rather than ignoring that as a real error.