An Analysis of Qurʾanic Intertextuality in the Tamhidat of Ain al-Quzat Hamedani based on Gérard Genette's Theory

As a contemporary literary theory, intertextuality examines the presence of one text in another one. According to this theory, there is no independent text. Rather, all texts are derived from previous texts or texts of their time. Therefore, authors are not creators of their own works and take all their intellectual themes and beliefs from previous texts. By explaining and classifiying intertextuality, Gérard Genette brought it from a purely literary theory into the operational field and textual criticism. Due to the clear influence of sacred scripture on artistic and literary texts, gnostics and mystics have borrowed many of their intellectual sources from the Qurʾan as a supertext and a sacred text. Ain al-Quzat has used Qurʾanic intertextuality many times in his Tamhidat, and many of his intellectual, religious, and even literary sources can be traced and found in the Holy Qurʾan. The present study explores the Qurʾanic intertextuality in Tamhidat of Ain al-Quzat based on Gérard Genette's theory by a descriptive, analytical and comparative method using library sources. The result of this research shows that there is a strong and unbreakable link between the Qurʾan and Tamhidat in the form of explicit and implicit intertextuality, and the Qurʾan has left spiritual and linguistic influences in the mind and language of Ain al-Quzat and his Tamhidat. Qurʾanic intertextuality exists in explicit and implicit forms in Tamhidat, and the findings show that partial adaptation, lexical borrowing, and the implicit intertextuality of illusion prevail over other types. Considering the thinking governing Tamhidat, which is a mystical and interpretive book, requires authors to select pre-text in detail and analyze it in their own text in order to represent their desired result from the intertext according to the form and meaning of the Qurʾanic ayahs.