An Intertextual Study of Hunting Image In Sham's Sonnets

Hunting image and its correlates are among the dynamic and ambiguous images in Sham's sonnets. By considering abundant usage of this image in other mystic texts, a better understanding of it can be achieved. By applying intertextuality theory, which is based on the idea that text is not a closed independent system and no text is created and received in vacuum but is written and read with other texts, the relationships between texts, with regard to this image, are investigated and interpreted.Hunting image is considered as a focal image and, on the basis of this, its main image clusters, which consist of prey, hunter, trap, arrow and bow and sword, are studied. It can be concluded that, in most texts, hunter represents God who draws escaping Man to the trap of divine love and his mercy. Arrow and bow of God's mighty, sword of calamity and divine trials are all tools for hunting virtual existence of Man and transforming it into real existence.