4 - Dreaming of the Prophet

Summary

Chapter Four examines dreams and visions as tools of legitimation and offers a typology of dreams and visions that emerges in Persian local histories. It contextualizes dreams and visions in the framework of Persian and Arabic historical writing as well the Qurʾan and hadith, or reports of what the Muhammad said or did. Persian local and regional histories evidence a move to bypass genealogical affirmation and instead claim affirmation through dreams as an alternative investment of power. Claims of investments of power by pivotal characters – including the Prophet Muhammad, pre-Islamic prophets, and holy men – create alternative avenues to genealogical legitimacy gained through descent from the ahl al-Bayt (family of the Prophet) and Companions of the Prophet and the subsequent generation (sahaba and tabiʿun). Such connections to divine or prophetic authority occur through dreams or waking visions. The dreamscape of the city’s denizens was a vibrant dimension of the medieval city, and dreams and visions formed a liminal space where information about the sacred was transmitted. This chapter engages with the arguments, evidence, and theoretical frameworks about sainthood and dreams proposed by scholars of mysticism, who have generally been more attuned to the literary significance of dream narratives than positivist historians.