The Evolution of Metaphor of Intellect in the Sonnets of Sanai, Attar and Mowlana

In the poem of mysticism and Sufism, many mystics have spoken about the theme of ‘intellect’ and have expressed a trinary viewpoint regarding the biological and environmental characteristics as well as external and environmental factors. Some have praised and named him by the name of light and attendant of life. Others, on the contrary, have introduced the intellect as unable, which says nonsense and makes claim and some have sometimes assumed him the ladder of the roof of right and sometimes catena of life. In this writing we have tried to examine the viewpoint of Sanai, Attar and Mowlana as the three main characters in the history of mystical poetry in relation to the key concept of intellect and showed that, in the 74 macro-metaphors, they refer to three types of positive, negative, and two-dimensional metaphors in their sonnets. Metaphors such as guidance, adeptness, laddering of the right roof, eyes, awakening, and awareness are in the realm of positive metaphors. Catena, chain, humiliation, abjectness, prate and rebellion are associated with negative metaphors; and old in the realm of two-dimensional metaphor. Based on these three types of metaphors, it can be said that the historical movement of negative semantic metaphors has ascend from Sanai to Attar and has descend from Attar to Mowlana. The theoretical basis of the research is the theory of cognitive metaphors, which contrary to the traditional view of metaphor, believes that not only language but our daily conceptual system, mind and inside are essentially metaphorical.