Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Authors

• Saloomeh Sayyad Rajebi ¹
• Mohammad Ebrahimpur Namin ²
• Khosro Jalili Kohnehshahri ¹

¹ Department of Persian Language and Literature, Astara Branch, Islamic Azad University, Astara, Iran.

² Department of Persian Language and Literature, Astara Branch, Islamic Azad University, Astara, Iran

Abstract

_{Anecdotes of Elders in Persian Sufi Poems
 
Sufi literature in its two forms, prose and verse, especially between the 6th and 9th centuries A.H., is a large and important part of Persian literature with various types and subtypes such as edicts and didactic works of prose and verse, as well as works that report moments of passion and Sufi illumination is in a lyrical or symbolic language. One of the main and common materials among almost all these different types, although with different levels and frequency among the types, is the narration of "stories" and "sayings" of Sufi Sheikhs. This research is an attempt to present a detailed and documented picture of the quality and quantity of the reflection of the "stories" (and not the sayings) of the Sufi sheikhs in the most important Persian Sufi educational systems, including Hadiqat al-Haqiqa Sanâ'i, Attâr's poems including Elâhinâma, Asrârnâmeh, and Manteq al-Tayr and Mosibat-nâme, the six books of Mowlânâ's Masnaviye Maʾnavi, and Jâmi's Haft-orang. The results of this research show that out of the total of 300 stories narrated in these works, apart from the stories attributed to the unknown elders (47 stories), which constitute the highest amount of stories, the most stories are related to Bâ Yazid (with 24 cases), Abu Saʾid Abul Xair (with 21 cases) and Šebli (with 20 anecdotes). Also, about a quarter of all the stories are "Karâmat stories" and the theme of the rest of the stories is the teaching of Sufi knowledge and concepts. It is worth mentioning that in a historical and comparative perspective, it is clear to see the increase in attention to the narration of Karâmat stories between Sanâʾi and Rumi; As in Hadiqat al-Haqiqat, there are no honorable stories, but among the 26 stories narrated in the six books of Mowlânâ's Masnavi, 15 stories (that is, about 60 percent of the stories) are about honor. Finally, it is possible to consider the totality of Persian Sufi poems as having less attention to stories of virtues compared to types such as Tazkirats and hagiographies as well as some ancient Arabic short books.}

Highlights

Extended abstract

Anecdotes of Elders in Persian Sufi poems

Introduction

Sufi literature in both its prose and verse forms, especially between the 6th and 9th centuries A.H., is a large and important part of Persian literature, with various types and subtypes such as destinies and didactic works in prose and verse, as well as creative works. which reports moments of Sufi enthusiasm in a lyrical or symbolic language. One of the main and common materials among almost all these different types, though with different levels and frequency among the types, is the narration of "stories" and "sayings" of Sufi Sheikhs. This research is an attempt to present a detailed and documented picture of the quality and quantity of the reflection of the "stories" (and not the sayings) of the Sufi sheikhs in the most important Persian Sufi educational systems, including Hadiqah al-Haqiqa by Sana'i, Attar systems including Elahi Nameh, Asrar Nameh. , Manteq al-Tair and Mosibat Nameh, the six books of Mavlan's spiritual masnavi, and Haft Aurang by Jami. And by determining the meaning of "story" and "narrative" and separating it from mere quotations and prayers and personal expressions of the sheikhs with themselves or the Lord, the difference between the stories whose basic element is "Kramat" has been tried. Sheikhs should be identified with stories that are not dignity-oriented and have a view to the teachings of Sufism. Therefore, if we consider "narrative" as a well-known form of narrative in classical Islamic literature in which the two elements of event and time play an essential role, and "narrative" as the expression of an event or incident with elements such as plot, scene, character, narrator, conflict, point of view, conversation, etc., narratives with minimal elements such as dialogue, character and action are considered "narratives" and the quotes attributed to the sheikhs in which the sheikh is the only character,the speaker and narrator (addressing himself, the disciples, or prayers to God), along with relatively many verses that allude to the Sufi sheikhs,  are only mentioned and cited as an example, due to the lack of narrative elements and being empty of the least story action are out of the scope of this research.

Discussion

It is important to pay attention to the division of the stories of the Sufi poems under study into two general categories: "merit stories" and "educational stories" in this research because in some types of Sufism literature such as tazkirehs and uliyanamehs, "Dignity" is the dominant element of the genre, while the primary assumption of the current research in this case is that "dignity" is not the dominant element in Persian Sufi didactic systems and educational anecdotes are more frequent.

According to what has been said, this article is an attempt to answer these questions: 1. How many stories of elders have been narrated in the target poems? 2. The most narrated stories are about which Sufi sheikhs? 3. What are the content characteristics of these stories? 4. And also this important question that are the stories narrated in Sufi poems, like the stories of tazkira and manaqib, mostly stories of honor (stories centered on dignity) or educational and punishing stories based on teachings and doctrines Sufism?

For this purpose, the texts of Persian Sufi poems are studied and in each poem, educational stories are separated from stories of virtues and stories in which two or more Sufi sheikhs are present and talk to each other or witness and create an event and play a role in it. These stories have been calculated separately and included in the number of stories.

Conclusion

The results of this research show that out of the total of 300 stories narrated in these works, aside from the stories attributed to the unknown elders (47 stories), which constitute the highest amount of stories, most of the stories are related to Bayezid. (with 24 cases), Abu Saeed Abul Khair (with 21 cases) and Shibli (with 20 stories). Also, about a quarter of the total number of stories are "stories of virtues" and the content of the rest of the stories is the teaching of Sufi knowledge and concepts. It is worth mentioning that in a historical and comparative view, it is clear to see the increase in attention to the narration of Karamat stories between Sana'i and Rumi; As in Hadiqa al-Haqiqah, no dignity stories are narrated, but among the 26 stories narrated in the six books of Maulana's Masnavi, 15 stories (that is, about 60 percent of the stories) are "dignity-oriented". In the end, it is possible to consider the totality of Persian Sufi poems as having less attention to the stories of virtues compared to types such as tazkira and al-Olianamah as well as some ancient Arabic destinies.

Comparison table of all anecdotes with dignity-oriented anecdotes by sources

Table of separation of stories and names of Sufi Sheikhs

References:

Ebrahimpour Namin, Mohammad, (2020), "The first Sufi writings", Journal of Persian Language and Literature of Tabriz University, year 73, number 242.

 Abi Saad, Abu Rooh Lotfollah, (2012), Abu Saeed's states and words, corrected by Mohammad Reza Shafi'i Kodkani, Tehran: Sokhn.

Barrett, Rolan, (2023), an introduction to narratology, translated by Hoshang Rahnama, Tehran: Hermes.

Keywords

• Sufism literature
• Persian Sufi poems
• stories of elders
• dignity'

Main Subjects

• Sufism and Mysticism