پژوهشنامه ادب حماسی
سال پنجم شماره 2 (پیاپی 9، پاییز و زمستان 1388)

Among the paintings and works found in historical places one can get familiarized with the ancient Persian culture and traditions. What catches the eyes among such paintings are ceremonies where one witnesses dances.The purpose of this article is to investigate various aspects of such dances. Then Sama which is regarded as a Sufi dance is dealt with. In the course of history these two styles of dances had some significance and by tracing ceremonies and feasts given by Royalties and the Sufis one can infer subtle points, but in Masnavi also there are some references to this subject. Mowlana had particularly held high regard for Sama in sufi ceremonies.

Mowlana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi, is the great Iranian thinker, and the most eminent figure in the Persian culture and literature who lived in Ilkhanian period in Roman land.The purpose of this article is to criticize the relationship of Sultan Kayqobad the first with Mowlana, and his father, and to provide criticism of the myths fabricated by Aflaki, the disciple of Mowlana, around his master to further elevate his stature. Attempt is also made to illustrate the great influence of Mowlana’s thought and works on the diffusion of Persian language, poetry, and culture in Asia Minor and other ottomans’ conquests, and to introduce Mowlawiyya literature, such as Maref of Baha-e Valad, and his other works, Maref Borhan-al-Din Mohaqqeq, Maqalat Shams Tabrizi, etc, which played a significant role in promotion of Persian language outside Iran particularly in Asia Minor and the subcontinent.

Irrespective of their whereabouts, their cultural era, humans share common gifts and potentialities arising from their epistemological existential essence. A large part of peoples’ knowledge and experiences are common despite their differences in terms of culture, time, place and personal experiences. The important point is that this difference is only external, the underlying structure or deep structure is similar, since human potentialities are rarely influenced by cultural differences hence there exists similarities between Plato, Suhrawardi, Mowlana and Jung regarding the structure of the world and Man’s psyche in terms of deep structure. By presenting Plato’s world of illusion and Suhrawardi’s world of image, Zoroaster’s spiritual divine forms (farvahar), Jung’s collective unconscious, and the sayings of Attar and Mowlana regarding divine eternal self, one can clearly find resemblances in terms of deep structure between these modes of thoughts.

Mowlana Jalaloddin Mohammad Balkhi, the outstanding mystic poet, composer of such noble works as Masnavi, Divan Shams, and fihe ma fih is an extraordinary figure in the Persian language and literature. Fih ma fih is a record of talks, and lectures given by Mowlana in various occasions.The purpose of this article is to give a brief introduction to the discourses, sermons given by Mowlana. Also the interrelationship of subjects in fihe ma fih with Masnavi and Divan Shams is dealt with.

Mowlana, the most eminent Iranian mystic of the seventh century, before frequenting extraordinary figures such as Shams Tabrizi,Salah al-Din Zarkub, and Hosam al- Din Chelebi enjoyed a wide reputation and had a high stature among people. He had many disciples dedicated to him heart and soul. However, after meeting with Shams he was transformed and never recovered to his normal self, although later on Salah al-Din Zarkub, and Hosam al-Din Chelebi to a certain extent filled his place.This article is mainly concerned with the impact of this spiritual figure on the richness of the Persian Literature drawing upon Mowlana’s words regarding him interesting points worth contemplating are illustrated.

The ultimate aim of a mystic after forbearing hardships in the path is to attain certainty, something to be tasted, understood and experienced only. Certainty gives the heart, assurance, the mind tranquility, the soul rest, and the heart hope and pictures death as a gate towards one’s dreams. It regards the next world very close, and loving the carnal soul far from the human realm. The opposite pole to certainty is temptation and doubt and its path contrary to that of certainty. Mowlana regards attainment of certainty and deliverance from doubt dependent upon God’s guidance, and true will of the wayfarer, a concept treated as the ultimate end in composing Masnavi. The purpose of this article is to cast a look on Mowlana’s attempts in this regard bringing eloquent lyrical poems as evidence.

Mowlana’s mystical and philosophical views overall are based upon one principle and that is unity of existence (wahdat al-wujud). The pillars of this principle are as follows: being and non- being, unity and separation, conflict, and Perfect man. The present article focuses on love regarded in the philosophy of unity of existence as the foundation of Gnosticism and Asctecism. Mowlana regards love as the essence of all improvements and magnanimities. Ayn al-Qozat-e Hamadani believes that love is the intermediary between the lover and the beloved, joining them together. Mowlana believes God is the main axis of love and the world is regarded as orbits, connected to and dependent on it. Mowlana’s Masnavi begins and ends with love.

This article provides a brief introduction to the story of creation of man. God commands the angels to bring some dust from the earth and that among them only the angle of death succeeds to grant God’s command by deceiving the earth. This story is included in the fifth book of Masnavi and Najm Razi’s Mersad-al-ebad for two entirely different purposes. Mowlana first speaks of the issue of good and evil and concludes that the earth’s refusal of the God’s command was for the reason not to be involved with the issue of good and evil whereas Najm Razi believes the reason to be the fear of close proximity to God stating that I have chosen the ultimate distance in order to be safe from the fear of closeness. In this narrative, interesting subtle points from both Mowlana and Najm Razi on subjects such as virtues of heart and soul, and characteristic features of angles are presented.

Act alongside solemn belief and verbal acknowledgement constitutes one of the three pillars of Religiosity and in fact without it the spiritual path of man comes to a halt. Mowlana is among the eminent mystic thinkers who has paid much attention to the issue of ‘Act” throughout his noble oeuvre Masnavi. His accounts in this regard are so vast and deep that presenting them is beyond the scope of this article but since a large part of Mowlana’s sayings is concerned with the rewards of act and he has analyzed this issue at length from different angles hence the present article concentrates on the relationship between deed and its reward attempting to compile, classify, and analyze his ideas on this issue.In general, he puts forward the following concepts: Indestructibility of deeds, definite reward in return for deeds, unity of deed and reward, the relationship between suffering and spiritual seizure with misconduct, visualization of deeds, dreadful mistaken deeds, inadequacy of deed for attainment of the truth (non-action), the inevitable spreading of traces of deeds, and finally an act without expectation of a reward.

This article aims at discussing the main concepts in Masnavi. An analysis of the content is also offered from the point of view of Molla Sadra’s three principle and Mowlana’s Gnosticism.

Islamic Gnostic tradition whose principles and teachings are well portrayed in the works of Moslem mystics is central to our cultural heritage and religious identity. Revision of such works in order to discover its potentialities at a time when globalization and dialogue among civilization are of prime importance, is a commitment laid on the shoulder of great scholars. In this article Mowlana’s thoughts are revised to find the footprints of a new theory in the field of comparative religious studies, that is inner unity of religions which is based on the separation of religious law, and the mystic path encountered often in his works. Insisting upon the main principle of ‘unity of existence’ he regards the inner contents of religions far superior to their outward surface. The unifying thought of Mowlana in this regard is expressed sometimes based on the multiplicity of forms and unity of essence, and sometimes is based upon the unity of truth and difference in views.

Mowlana’s ghazal is at such heights that one cannot find anything like it neither before nor after his time. A structured poem, made rich in vertical arrangement, achieved unity and coherence through use of narration, allegory, and metaphor. However, the strength of Mowlana’s ghazal lies in music. Despite having unity of meaning and rhythm, imaginative colorful themes a kind of inconsistency is found underlying its texture. This article attempts to cast light on those instances.

Man inherits the sciences and mystical intimations of his ancestors, yet rare is found a soul who could reveal the recorded knowledge in his collective unconscious and individual consciousness within tens of thousands of lyric ghazals and attract all people from different walks of life with his theosophic ideas and spiritual compositions. From what is understood by the content of Masnavi, the most important source in composing it is Koran and Islamic mystical intimations. Though Mowlana had a wealth of approaches and manuals to draw upon for his sufi practice, his theosophy and mysticism, one should look directly to his immediate formative influences his father, Baha Valad, his mentor Borhan-al Din Mohaqeq of Termez, and Shams Tabrizi to learn more about how and what he learned and taught. All that makes Masnavi a prism through which different modes of thoughts, Islamic, Persian, Greek, Indian, semitic, etc are reflected. The purpose of this article is to present points of similarity regarding various issues such as God, Salek, compatibility, love, and first abode in Plato, Baha Valad, and Mowlan’s thoughts.

Man is the ultimate end in creation although ranked as the last. In Mowlana’s view, although fruit is produced from a tree, yet the ultimate purpose of the tree is its fruit. However, entangled in the nitty gritty of the material world he has remained ignorant of his spiritual truth. The purpose of creation is the manifestation of God’s attributes, and actions hence man is the embodiment of such manifestation. The seeker of God must die to self before he can shine with the divine light. After putting out the fires of ego, the divine light of the soul shines through, when burnished of all its rust, the mirror of the soul perfectly reflects the attributes of God. By bringing such stories as Merchant and the parrot, Mowlana illustrates that the ultimate end of the Mystic path is this conscious death. This annihilation in the Beloved’s being facilitates the union. In this station, if the mystic wishes to give voice to his most intimate experience, his saying would come out as the ‘shath’, the ecstatic utterance and only a true mystic could perceive that state. In this stage, the traveler reaches an ecstatic state completely intoxicated and bewildered faced with the glory of God. Although in Mowlana’s view the melody which is inside the Perfect man, is the reflection of the eternal melody and Hallaj’s words were in fact the resonance of his own chords of existence which experienced selflessness, he was not, but the truth was. Mowlana believed that what the mystic attains in this ascent is total absorption in God and must not be confused with the incarnation of a spirit in a body because in this stage, the mystic merges in God, the part partakes the whole and not becoming whole.

With the advent of empirical methods and through the senses, based on the traditional epistemology, man was able to recognize the objects as they existed and understand their reality. After Kant’s theory of epistemology was widely accepted by the public, it became apparent that direct knowledge, is the consequence of the interaction between mind and Ain(quintessence).We cannot arrive at reality in its entirety, we can only recognize it by the way it seems to appear. Factors such as subject and object are involved. In other words we are dealing with phenomena and not with noumena. It seems that in the Post modern age due to the advent of new epistemology, the waning power of sciences and empirical methods, fading of dogmatism and verification in sciences, and being content with mere falsification, the way is paved for mystical schools to invite and encourage man towards intuitive understanding. Pseudo religions, modern spiritualities, Gnostic systems alongside monotheistic and other forms of religions, each strive to find a market to attract adherents. Some of these doctrines are under the influence of mystical traditions which in the course of history for the sake of their survival, broke away from the main tradition and sought another path. Some others have at their roots the needs of modern man for space and spiritual thought free from religious and non religious presumptions. This article is an attempt to compare and investigate the final stage of the mystic way based on the teachings of three Gnostic systems namely, Buddhism, Indian mysticism, and Mowlana’s gnosticim.

Mowlana as a social critic is a subject which has seldom been dealt with. Also rare, is searching after political and critical ideas in his mystical and lyrical works, however his understanding of Gnosticism and philanthropic humane thought leaves no doubt in accepting his all encompassing character and ideology. Therefore, it seems only natural when he speaks of human salvation and peaceful life based on consciousness and spirituality should he reproach oppressive power, cruel dictatorship as major obstacles on the way. In this article attempt is made to investigate and analyze Mowlana’s critical stance with respect to the problem of power and government in Masnavi.

Robai as a poetic genre is known to be originated in the Persian language. Since this genre normally deals with a single concept and has meter of its own, its employment in contrast with other poetic genre is less encountered in the Persian language.Among his prolific poems, Mowlana has composed quatrains with utmost mastery and skill. This article is concerned with issues such as death, life after death, and Mowlana’s views regarding these subjects are provided.

The growth of industry and modernism not only transformed the life of man but also influenced the realm of Art and Literature to a large extent. Appearance of Minimalism as a movement in the field of storytelling is the consequence of such influence. The writer employs the minimum number of diction in order to tell a story with a simple plan. Although Minimalism is a new genre in the west, but in the vast realm of Persian Literature there are numerous instances which totally corresponds with the features of a minimalistic story.Maqalat Shams Tabrizi holds great significance not only in terms of content, religious and mystical instructions but also in terms of storytelling. The most significant characteristics of the accounts and anectodes in Maqalat are the fact that they are succinct, laconic and concise, have attractive themes, without excrements which make them fall in complete accordance with the minimalistic features of storytelling. Analysis of such stories in Maqalat based on those features is the purpose of this article.

According to Faridun b. Ahmad Sepahsalar’s treatise, which provides us with the oldest and most reliable biographical source that we possess of Mawlana, he was born in (A. H. 604). The late Abdulbaki Golpinarli, the outstanding lecturer at the university of Istanbul and a great authority on Mawlana, relying on evidence in Fihe-ma-fih and a verse from Divan-e Shams cast doubt on the authenticity of that date and places the date of birth 24 years prior to his date of death. Some scholars also confirmed his view, however on the basis of evidences and discussions presented in this article this view is unacceptable therefore, the foremost authority in this regard is Sepahsalar’s account, believed by the majority since antiquity.