Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:11:57.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sanāʾi’s Hadiqat al-haqiqeh: Between Narrative and Non-narrative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Parisa Zahiremami
Parisa Zahiremami*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper explores the unity of the Hadiqat al-haqiqeh, a medieval mystical didactic work composed by the twelfth-century Persian poet Sanāʾi. It provides one possible reading from the text by following the link between some of the major themes discussed in its chapters. By doing so, the paper first challenges the common view of the work as a fragmentary, non-narrative text, and second it draws attention to the synthesis of political ethics and Sufi didacticism as a possible starting point in the interpretation of the work. It also highlights the possibility—and necessity—of further scholarly inquiry into the Hadiqeh, regardless of issues caused by its complex textual history.

Keywords

SanāʾiHadiqat al-haqiqeh va shariʿat at-tariqehUnityChapterThemeIntellectIdeal RulerLove
Type
Hermeneutics and Religious Texts
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 3-4 , July 2021 , pp. 485 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author is indebted to colleagues Dr. Arshavez Mozaffari, Dr. Shuntu Kuang, Dr. Francesco Pica, and John Theodore Good for their help. Special thanks to Dr. George Leube and also to the anonymous reviewers and the editors of Iranian Studies, Dr. Ali Gheissari and Dr. Cameron Cross, whose advice and support enriched the present study. Dr. Gheissari and Dr. Cross went above and beyond to provide me with important sources during the difficult time of COVID-19. My gratitude also goes to Dr. Shafique N. Virani, without whose support this project would not have been possible.

References

ʿAbbāsi, ʿAbd al-Latif. Sharh-e ʿAbd al-Latif ʿAbbāsi bar Hadiqeh-ye Sanāʾi Musammā be Latāyef al-hadāyeq. Ed. Yusofi, Mohammad Reza and Mohammadi, Mohsen. 2 vols. Vol. 1. Tehran: Enteshārāt-e Āyin-e Ahmad, 1387/2008.Google Scholar
Abrahamov, Binyamin. Divine Love in Islamic Mysticism: The Teachings of al-Ghazâlî and al-Dabbâgh. Routledge Curzon Sūfī series. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003.Google Scholar
Adamson, Peter. Al-Kindī. Great Medieval Thinkers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Adamson, Peter. Philosophy in the Islamic World: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions, no. 445. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Askari, Nasrin. The Medieval Reception of the Shāhnāma as a Mirror for Princes. Studies in Persian Cultural History, no. 9. Leiden: Brill, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
al-Balkhi, Shaqiq. “Adab Al-ʿibādah.” In Trois Oeuvres Inedites de Mystiques Musulmans, ed. Nwiya, P., 17–22. Beirut: Dār al-Mashreq, 1982.Google Scholar
Boylston, Nicholas John. “Writing the Kaleidoscope of Reality: The Significance of Diversity in 6th/12th Century Persian Metaphysical Literature: Sanāʾī, ʿAyn al-Quḍāt and ʿAṭṭār.” PhD diss., Georgetown University, 2017.Google Scholar
Chittick, William C. “Love in Islamic Thought.” Religion Compass 8, no. 7 (July 2014): 229–238. doi: 10.1111/rec3.12112Google Scholar
Chittick, William C. “Reason, Intellect, and Consciousness in Islamic Thought.” In Reason, Spirit, and the Sacral in the New Enlightenment: Islamic Metaphysics Revived and Recent Phenomenology of Life, ed. Tymieniecka, Anna-Teresa, 11–35. Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue, no. 5. Dordrecht: Springer, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rūmī. SUNY Series in Islamic Spirituality. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Clinton, Jerome W. “Esthetics by Implication: What Metaphors of Craft Tell Us about the ‘Unity’ of the Persian Qasida.” Edebiyat 4, no. 1 (1979): 73–96.Google Scholar
Corbin, Henry. Avicenne et le récit visionnaire: Étude sur le cycle des récits Avicenniens. Paris: Berg International, 1979.Google Scholar
Davidson, Herbert A. Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of the Human Intellect. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
De Bruijn, J.T.P. Of Piety and Poetry: The Interaction of Religion and Literature in the Life and Works of Ḥakīm Sanā’ī of Ghazna. Publication of De Goeje Fund, no. 25. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983.Google Scholar
De Bruijn, J.T.P. “The Stories in Sanâʾî’s Faxri-nâme.” In Pand-o sokhan: Mélanges offerts à Charles-Henri de Fouchécour, eds. Balaÿ, Christophe, Kappler, Claire, and Vesel, Živa, 79–93. Tehran: Institut français de recherche en Iran, 1995.Google Scholar
De Fouchécour, Charles-Henri. Moralia: Les notions morales dans la littérature Persane du 3e 9e au 7e/13e siècle. Synthèse/Éditions Recherche Sur Les Civilisations, no. 23. Paris: Éditions recherches sur les civilisations, 1986.Google Scholar
Ernst, Carl W. “Ruzbihān Baqlī on Love as Essential Desire.” In God Is Beautiful and He Loves Beauty, Festchrift in Honour of Annemarie Schimmel Presented by Students, Friends, and Colleagues on April 7, 1992, eds. Giese, A. and Burgel, J.C., 181–189. Bern: Peter Lang, 1994.Google Scholar
Ernst, Carl W. “The Stages of Love in Early Persian Sufism: From Rābiʿa to Ruzbihān.” In Classical Persian Sufism: From Its Origins to Rūmī, ed. Lewisohn, Leonard, 435–455. London: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publication, 1979.Google Scholar
Farrokhi Sistāni, Abu al-Hasan ʿAli b. Julugh. Divān-e Hakim Farrokhi Sistāni. Ed. Dabir-Siyāqi, Mohammad. Tehran: Eqbāl, 1335/1956.Google Scholar
Foruzānfar, Badiʿ az-Zamān. Ahādis wa qesas-e Masnavi: Talfiqi az du Ketāb-e “Ahādis-e Masnavi” wa “Maʾkhaz-e qesas wa tamsilāt-e Masnavi.” Ed. Dāwudi, Hosayn. Tehran: Moʾasseseh-ye Enteshārāt-e Amir Kabir, 1381/2002.Google Scholar
al-Ghazāli, Mohammad b. Mohammad. Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment: Kitāb al-maḥabba wa’l-shawq wa’l-uns wa’l-riḍā: Book XXXVI of the Revival of the religious sciences, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn. Trans. Ormsby, Eric. Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2011.Google Scholar
Griffel, Frank. Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Gutas, Dimitri. “The Empiricism of Avicenna.” Oriens 40, no. 2 (2012): 391–436. doi: 10.1163/18778372-00402008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harryman, Carla. “Introduction: Non/Narrative.” Journal of Narrative Theory 41, no. 1, Non/Narrative (Spring 2011): 1–11. doi: 10.1353/jnt.2011.0095CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillmann, Michael C. Unity in the Ghazals of Hafez. Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures, no. 6. Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1976.Google Scholar
Sinā, Ibn. Resāleh fi al-ʿeshq. Ed. as-Saddiq, Hosayn. Damascus: Dār al-Fekr, 2005.Google Scholar
Janssens, Jules. “Al-Ghazālī between Philosophy (Falsafa) and Sufism (Taṣawwuf): His Complex Attitude in the Marvels of the Heart (ʿAjāʾib Al-Qalb) of the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn.” The Muslim World 101, no. 4 (October 2011): 614–632. doi: 10.1111/j.1478-1913.2011.01375.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janssens, Jules. “Al-Ghazālī’s Mizān al-ʿamal: An Ethical Summa Based on Ibn Sīnā and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī.” In Islamic Thought in the Middle Ages: Studies in Text, Transmission and Translation in Honour of Hans Daiber, eds. Akasoy, Anna and Raven, Wim, 123–137. Leiden: Brill, 2008.Google Scholar
Janssens, Jules. “Al-Ghazzālī’s Tahāfut: Is It Really a Rejection of Ibn Sina’s Philosophy?” Journal of Islamic Studies 12, no. 1 (2001): 1–17. doi: 10.1093/jis/12.1.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janssens, Jules. “Ibn Sīnā: A Philosophical Mysticism or a Philosophy of Mysticism?” Mediterranea 1, no. 1 (March 2016): 37–54.Google Scholar
Johnson, Kathryn V. “A Mystic’s Response to the Claims of Philosophy: Abū’l Majd Majdūd Sanā’ī’s Sayr al-‘Ibād Ilā’l-Ma‘ād.” Journal of Islamic Studies 34, no. 3 (Autumn 1995): 253–295.Google Scholar
Karamustafa, Ahmet T. Sufism: The Formative Period. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Lewis, Franklin D. “Reading, Writing and Recitation: Sanāʾī and the Origins of the Persian Ghazal.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1995.Google Scholar
Lingwood, Chad G. Politics, Poetry, and Sufism in Medieval Iran: New Perspectives on Jāmī’s Salāmān va Absāl. Studies in Persian Cultural History, no. 5. Leiden: Brill, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lumbard, Joseph E.B. “From Ḥubb to ʿIshq: The Development of Love in Early Sufism.” Journal of Islamic Studies 18, no. 3 (2007): 345–385. doi: 10.1093/jis/etm030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marlow, Louise. “Surveying Recent Literature on the Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes Genre.” History Compass 7, no. 2 (March 2009): 523–538. doi: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00580.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massignon, Louis. Essay on the Origins of the Technical Language of Islamic Mysticism. Trans. Clark, Benjamin. South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Massignon, Louis. The Passion of Al-Ḥallāj: Mystic and Martyr in Islam. Trans. Mason, Herbert. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Mowlavi, Jalāl ad-Din. Kolliyāt-e Shams yā Divān-e Kabir. Ed. Foruzānfar, Badiʿ az-Zamān. 10 vols. Vol. 2. Tehran: Sepehr, 1363/1984.Google Scholar
McGann, Jerome J. A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Meisami, Julie Scott. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meisami, Julie Scott. Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry: Orient Pearls. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morewedge, Parviz. “The Neoplatonic Structure of Some Islamic Mystical Doctrines.” In Neoplatonism and Islamic Thought, ed. Morewedge, Parviz, 51–75. Studies in Neoplatonism: Ancient and Modern, no. 5. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Murata, Sachiko. The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Ghobādiyāni, Nāser-e Khosrow. Divān-e Ashʿār-e Hakim Naser-e Khosrow Gobādiyāni. Ed. Minovi, Mojtabā and Mohaqqeq, Mahdi. Vol. 1. Tehran: Dāneshgāh-e Tehran, 1353/1974.Google Scholar
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines: Conceptions of Nature and Methods Used for Its Study by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, al-Bīrūnī, and Ibn Sīnā. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Ganjavi, Nezāmi, The Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance. Trans. Meisami, Julie Scott. World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Austin. “Poetry and Pedagogy: The Homiletic Verse of Farid ad-Din ʿAṭṭār.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2017.Google Scholar
ar-Rāzi, Najm ad-Din Abu Bakr ʿAbdollāh b. Mohammad. Marmuzāt-e Asadi dar mazmurāt-e Dāwudi. Ed. Shafiʿi-Kadkani, Muḥammad Rezā. Tehran: Moʾasseseh-ye Motāleʿāt-e Eslāmi, Dāneshgāh-e McGill Shoʿbeh-ye Tehran, 1352/1973.Google Scholar
ar-Rāzi, Shams ad-Din Mohammad b. Qays. al-Moʿjam fi maʿāyir-e ashʿār al-ʿajam, Edited by Qazvini, Mohammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. Ed. Mohammad Taqi Modarres-e Razavi. Tehran: Ketabforushi-ye Tehran, 1288/1909.Google Scholar
Sanāʾi Ghaznavi, Abu al-Majd Majdud b. Ādam. Divān-e Sanāʾi Ghaznavi. Ed. Modarres-e Razavi, Mohammad Taqi. Tehran: Sanāʾī, 1380/2001.Google Scholar
Sanāʾi Ghaznavi, Abu al-Majd Majdud b. Ādam. Hadiqat al-haqiqeh. Ed. Yāhaqqi, Mohammad Jaʿfar and Zarqāni, Sayyed Mahdi. 2 vols. Vol. 1. Tehran: Sokhan, 1397/2018.Google Scholar
Sanāʾi Ghaznavi, Abu al-Majd Majdud b. Ādam. Hadiqat al-haqiqeh wa shariʿat at-tariqeh. Ed. Razavi, Mohammad Taqi Modarres-e. Tehran: Dāneshgāh-e Tehran, 1374/1995.Google Scholar
Sanāʾi Ghaznavi, Abu al-Majd Majdud b. Ādam. Masnavi-hā-ye Hakim Sanāʾī. Ed. Razavi, Mohammad Taqi Modarres-e. Ganjineh-ye Motun-e Irāni, no. 67. Tehran: Dāneshgāh-e Tehran, 1348/1969.Google Scholar
Schimmel, Annemarie. “Eros-Heavenly and Not So Heavenly in Sūfī Life and Thought.” In Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam, eds. Lutfi, Afaf and Marsot, Sayyid, 119–141. Malibu: Undena Publications, 1979.Google Scholar
Shafiʿi-Kadkani, Mohammad Reza. Tāziyāneh-hā-ye solūk: Naqd wa tahlil-e chand qasideh az Hakim Sanāʾi. Tehran: Āgāh, 1372/1993.Google Scholar
Sohrawardi, Shehāb ad-Din Yahyā. Majmūʿeh-ye Mosannafāt-e Shaykh-e Eshrāq. Ed. Nasr, Hossein and Corbin, Henry. Vol. 3. Tehran: Pazhūheshgāh-e ʿOlum-e Ensāni wa Motāleʿāt-e Farhangi, 1373/1994.Google Scholar
Treiger, Alexander. Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazālī’s Theory of Mystical Cognition and Its Avicennian Foundation. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East, no. 27. London: Routledge, 2012.Google Scholar
Ziai, Hossein. “The Source and Nature of Authority: A Study of al-Suhrawardi’s Illuminationist Political Doctrine.” In The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Muhsin S. Mahdi, ed. Butterworth, Charles E., 304–344. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Zumthor, Paul. Essai de poétique médiévale. Poétique. Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1972.Google Scholar
Zumthor, Paul. La lettre et la voix: De la littérature médiévale. Poétique. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987.Google Scholar
Zumthor, Paul. Speaking of the Middle Ages. Trans. White, Sarah. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.Google Scholar