Art Philosophy and Mystical Aesthetics from the Viewpoint of Molana with emphasis on Masnavi Ma navi

Masnavi Ma’navi, by Molana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, is one of the most outstanding treasures of Persian literature which can be considered as a source for understanding the concept and function of beauty and art. This honorable book has stated the most important rudiments of Islamic art philosophy and aesthetics by proposing the most precise allegories. This philosophy, whose most fundamental doctrine is «forgetting the sensible beautiful appearances and discovering the truth of virtue and existence», makes the foundation of an art whose most important objective is purifying the soul from self-conceit and understanding the truth of Unity of Existence so that Molavi’s Masnavi, as one of the overt manifestations of such an approach, becomes an astrolable of the sun of divine beauty and a ladder towards the heaven of spiritual truths and beauties. The question in this study is how the principles of mystical art philosophy and aesthetics, discussed in Molavi’s Masnavi, can be recognized on the basis of concepts such as Epiphany, Virtue, Love and Imagination. Accordingly, by considering the mystical and enamoured view of Molana about Existence and the philosophy of Creation, the authors aim to study his aesthetic ideas about art and artistic status. The main objectives of this research are to understand the link between mystical literature and artistic creations in traditional cultures, and to realize the principles and criteria of Islamic art in order to give a more reasonable criticism and to avoid hasty and superficial prejudices. The library sources provide the data of this study and the method of research is descriptive and content analysis