From Myth to Mysticism: An Investigation of the Evolution of Semantic Functions of "Qaf"

The myth of "Qaf" is one of the vastly-used motifs in the history of Persian literature, especially the mystical poems, and thus the analysis of the evolution of its semantic function will lead to a clear understanding of this myth in the field of mysticism by the readers of mystical works. Gathering the data of this study, two types of sources were used: mystical and non-mystical. For non-mystical sources, the historical-mythical books, dictionaries, lexicons and general as well as specialized encyclopedias and, for mystical sources, a selection of prominent mystical texts belonging to different periods of literary history (from fourth to fourteen centuries A.H) were considered. Then, using descriptive-analytic method and based on Leonard Bloomfield's theory of "semantic changes", various semantic functions of "Qaf" in the mystical context were investigated. The main question of this study is whether the mythical features of "Qaf" in the field of mysticism have remained intact or they have been exposed to semantic changes in the course of time. The results of this study show that many mythical features of "Qaf" have transferred to mystical sources keeping their original form. Also, the semantic aspect of "Qaf" and its functions in early mystical texts tends to mythical narratives and as we reach later periods, the notions related to it become more abstract; i.e. it leaves the mythical form and takes a mystical one.