Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Author

• Mohammad Ebrahimpur Namin

Assistant Professor at Islamic Azad University, Persian & foreign Language &Literature Astara,Unit,. Iran

Abstract

One of the types of writings in Sufi literature is collections collected in recording and quoting the sayings of Sufi elders and elders؛ Works that in a general sense are called Sufi memoirs. This group of works is generally derived from a common tradition in most of the almost all religions and sects that the lives of saints and saints, especially after their death, are not limited to the objectivity and historical reality of their lives, but more intertwined and covered with multiple layers of myth. A tradition of all kinds in its broadest sense can be interpreted as Hagiography. This heritage of Sufism as a type / genre has been mentioned in old and new sources with expressions such as circumstances or situations / Tazkereh / Sira or Sirat or Sirtnameh or Sir / Maqamat and Manaqbeh or Manaqbehnameh / Walinameh / Ulyanameh. The present study is a critique of the genre and examines the historical perspective of the developments of this type of Sufi writings, which shows how the genre originated from the legacy of the early ascetics and at the peak of its development leads to the specific scriptures of the elders.

Highlights

Sufi Hagiography

(Historical Perspectives on the Developments of a Genre)

Mohammad Ebrahimpour Namin

Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Astara

Abstract

With a brief look at the biography of the Sufi elders and its types and examples, we can distinguish four stages from a historical perspective. According to the author of these lines, the four stages that correspond to the evolution of the position of Sufism as a social institution and the influence and religious, social and even economic role of the elders of the path have advanced and emerged; In this way, the relationship between this change in social role and the changes in the initials of elders can be considered as an interactive and organic relationship.

Historical stages:

1. The period of asceticism (mainly in the second and third centuries AH);
2. The period of collecting anecdotes and compiling and compiling the oldest examples of the first manuscripts, of which there is generally no name left today (from the end of the third century to the end of the fourth century AH);
3. The period of the emergence of the first manuscript in the strict sense of the word and in the form of both general notes and special walinameh-ha (from the end of the fourth century to the end of the fifth century AH);
4. The period of writing the later walinameh (hagiography) walinameh-ha (from the sixth century AH onwards).

Findings

The results of this study show that just as Islamic Sufism dates back to the asceticism of the second century AH, the ancient and primitive forms of Sufi hagiography are rooted in monographs with the general title "Al-Zohd" or "Book of Asceticism" by the second and second century Islamic narrators who themselves were generally from the asceticism of the age and in their works more, sayings and a little about the condition of some of the ascetics of Islam who were later considered as Sufi shaykhs in the tradition of Sufi history, such as Owais Qarni, Ibrahim Adham, Sahl Tostari, Bishr Hafi, Maruf Karkhi, etc. have been recorded and narrated. The most prominent of them are Abdullah bin Mubarak Maruzi (118-118 AH) and Ahmad bin Hanbal (164-241 AH). The narrators of the next generations have also written works with titles such as the book of the saints, including the descriptions and sayings of the saints, and a collection of narrations of miracles called the miracles of the saints. This group of works should also be considered as the prerogatives of hagiography in the manner of hadith scholars who have undoubtedly influenced the Sufi hagiography; Works such as Kitab al-Awliya by Ibn Abi al-Dunya (208 - 281 AH) and Karamat al-Awliya by Abu Muhammad Hasan ibn Abd al-Rahman bin Khalid Ramhormozi (died around 360 AH), and Karamat al-Awliya by Abu al-Qasim Hebatullah ibn Hassan Lalakani Razi Tabari (died 418 AH). Although later the school of Sufism found its full independence and distinction, the authors of these ancient works, a number of traditions and writing principles of the muhaddithin, including adherence and commitment to recording and quoting documents, and paying more attention to sayings, and accuracy in recording details, especially year and year. The elders as well as the students and narrators of the translators as basic and necessary principles in the methodology of class writing, for some of the leaders of the Sufi class writing such as Abu Abdul Rahman Sulami (died 412 AH) in Tabaqat al-Sufiyyah They inherited in the Sufi classes and other examples in later times. Hence, it can be argued that the Sufis were also influenced in the compilation of sciences and knowledge and the history of their rijals, because many other pioneers of Islamic sciences were influenced by the pattern of growth and development and compilation of hadith sciences. After the period of ascetics and during the third and fourth centuries AH and simultaneously with the epistemological and social system of Sufism as a "sect" and a kind of independent religious approach independent of other approaches, anecdotes and narrations of Sufi shaykhs, which is also the "history of sect" It was considered and the establishment and adherence to them was one of the most important methods of Sufi education, it was collected by a number of Sufis and narrated orally or in writing.

Among the most important figures who are famous for collecting and narrating the narrations of Sufi sheikhs are Abu Muhammad Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Nasir Khawas Khaldi (253-348 AH) and Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Obaidullah ibn Bakwiyyah Shirazi (died 428 AH), of course, after Baghdad and Neishabour. Some of these anecdotes were compiled in collections with general titles of anecdotes and news, which this tradition continued in the following centuries. Died 768 AH) and from Persian examples we can mention the advice of the elders (apparently from the fifth century AH) and the selected prosperity of the councils and the garden of the mystics (apparently from the early sixth century AH) and a thousand Sufi anecdotes (from the seventh century AH).

The final and complete form of the Sufi hagiography can be seen in two general forms, in the books of the Sufi classes and memoirs, and in the individual walinameh-ha or the same as the hagiography. Tazkerats and general classes, with the exception of Tazkerat al-Awliya Attar, which has its own characteristics, are mostly written to compile the history of Sufism, so they have a more or less historical order in mentioning the elders. "Walinameh-ha" are a specific and individual form of the Sufi orthographic writing tradition, the oldest examples of which date back to the early periods of Sufism, such as Manaqib Ibrahim Adham (died 161/162 AH), written in 232 AH Hijri) and the biography of Ibn Khafif Shirazi by Abul Hassan Dailami (d. 391 AH), in Arabic and from the East of the Islamic world, as well as Manaqib Abu Muhammad Muhrez (d. 413 AH) by Abu Tahir al-Farsi (d. 440/450 AH) in Arabic and from the Maghreb. The oldest examples of walinamah (hagiography) in Persian are the walinamah-ha(hagiography)s of the elders of Khorasan, especially the walinamah-ha (hagiography)s of Abu Saeed Abu al-Kheir and Abul Hassan Kharghani. Persian manuscripts, like other Sufi manuscripts, are a collection of Manqabati sayings and mainly include the mention of "virtues" and "virtues", but in its historical evolution, from examples such as the states and sayings of Abu Sa'id Abu al-Kheir to later examples such as Safwa al-Safa Ibn al-Bazzah in the mention of moral and spiritual virtues and mystical experiences is overcome as the miracles of the other sheikh are manifested not only in the period of walinamah (hagiography) and sheikhdom, but also in a wide range from before his birth until after his death, and thus a completely pure and holy image of life. A "Sufi sheikh" is compiled and drawn from before birth to after death, and in accordance with the Prophetic biography.

Conclusion

The walinameh-ha of the Sufi shaykhs, in their most complete structure, are a kind of integrated narrative, mixed and composed of history and myth, correct, falsified and distorted news, quoting all or parts of the life and circumstances, as well as a collection of sayings and articles of the elders and elders of the way. It is dedicated, and because in this narration, the narrator emphasizes more than anything on the wonderful aspects of the life of his protagonist and presents a sacred and glorious image of him, and propagates the path and deepens the legitimacy of the sheikh and the path and monastic system attributed to him, especially in the eyes of the general public, the element of "dignity" is the dominant element and the most important feature of the typology of such Sufi writings. Although in ancient examples such as the book of Al-Noor Sahlgi (in Bayazid officials) and some other examples, there is no specific historical order in expressing the stages of the sheikh's life, but in complete examples of this genre such as states and words, and the mysteries of monotheism and Safavid al-Safa and... and a historical order is seen. Although this form and type of literature can be considered in some ways as educational literature, in practice it is a mixture of historiography, biography, epic and sometimes lyricism and richness. Although the origins of hagiography are not unrelated to the traditions of Islamic hagiography and stratigraphy, the very deep roots of this type of characterization cannot be ignored in the collective subconscious and cultural traditions of pre-Islamic Iran.    

References

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Keywords

• Sufi literature"
• Sufi memoirs"
• Walinameh"
• Ulyannameh"
• Genre Criticism"

Main Subjects

• Sufism and Mysticism