The Poetics of Sufism Writing Titles since 8th Century (AH.)

Probably the stream called Asceticism (later named Sufism and Mysticism) can be regarded as the most everlasting and permanent course which paved its way at some Muslems’ ideology with a few changes since the advent of Islam. It seems that asceticism، after Fiqh and Quranic works، has been written about more than any other areas. The style and the formal structure of mystical writings have constantly changed based on the prose of each era. Perhaps the first place where this formal change revealed was at the book titles، contents، or even their introductions. Titles and themes written in each era are، on the one hand، following the prose style of that era and reveal the prose features of that period، and on the other hand، they reflect the major themes of that area. Sufism writing titles، in the same token، represent Arabic and Persian prose features as well as Sufism mainstreams in each era. This paper، first، briefly discusses the main eras of Sufism from first to eighth century and its Arabic and Persian features، and then studies the forms of Sufism writing titles such as books، odes، etc. It seems that Sufism writing titles in the first centuries have been mostly in short، simple، clear، and non-musical (non- rhythmic) forms and represented the content of the books. As we move forward in history، these titles become longer، more rhythmic، and vaguer and even mysterious; literary and spiritual figures of speech appear، and symbolic contents and type of audience are accentuated.