Methodology of German-speaking Orientalists in Studying Persian Mystical Literature: The Case of Helmut Ritter and Fritz Meier

There are two main traditions in German Orientalism: The Romantic tradition and the Philological one. The Romantic tradition considers the East as a distinct, irrational, and intuitive “other” that is based on the introduction of works and their translations rather than in-depth investigations. This tradition has proved effective in disseminating Oriental texts’ translation into German. The philological tradition makes German Orientalism distinct and focuses on cataloging, correcting manuscripts, and researching the texts. In German-speaking Orientalism, the philological tradition has been prevalent since the eighteenth century. The last circle of German orientalists, including Helmut Ritter, Fritz Meier, and Schimmel is a manifestation of the fusion of the two traditions and its evolution regarding the concept of "context". In their works, the external elements and the context of culture are also considered as much as the internal context and the linguistic and rhetorical components. The key component of this trend is the concept of "text". Here, the Ritter and Meier's special method in dealing with mystical texts is shown. The main features of their works are: categorization of texts and finding mother texts, finding a network of texts (based on the evolution of manuscripts), correcting original texts based on the most authoritative versions, translating texts into German, and giving priority to prose, bibliography, and historiography. The Golden Ring method of German-speaking Orientalism can be effective in understanding the text, networking and genre of Persian-language mysticism. These orientalists consider mysticism and Sufism as a movement derived from Islam and as a historical, cultural, and textual phenomenon, rather than a romantic or enlightening movement.