Literary Engagement: Comparative Study of Schimmel’s Garden of Myrtles and Attar’s Tadhkirat-ul-Awliya

Literary Engagement: Comparative Study of Schimmel’s Garden of Myrtles and Attar’s Tadhkirat-ul-Awliya Abstract Traces of literary engagement and influence have always been well evident in different tribes and cultures. Tourists, orientalists and literary figures have taken effective steps in this concern. Annemarie Schimmel (7 April 1922 – 26 January 2003), the contemporary writer, translator, orientalist, researcher in Islam and gnosticism is an example of such orientalists, whose personality and scientific characteristics are well appreciated both in the world of Islam and the West. One of the most outstanding works of the scholar is `In the Garden of Myrtles: Studies in Early Islamic Mysticism’, written under the influence of Attar of Nishapur’s (c. 1145-c.) Tadhkirat ul Awliya. This study aims to introduce Schimmel, a contemporary scholar, who has taken effective steps to introduce the world of Islam, Shiism and gnosticism, while comparing and contrasting the two works, Tadhkirat ul Awlia and the Garden of Myrtles.