Document Type : applied research
Author
Ph.D, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
Abstract
Mystical language, contrary to the view that regards it as autonomous or homogeneous, emerges in texts such as ʿAbhar al-ʿĀshiqīn by Rūzbahān Baqlī Shīrāzī through the intersection and coexistence of heterogeneous and diverse discourses. This language draws simultaneously on the Qur’an and Hadith, jurisprudence and theology, literature and popular culture, the mystic’s personal experience, and Sufi terminology. It can therefore be argued that, in certain instances, mystical language constitutes a site where distinct languages, with different historical backgrounds and systems of valuation, coexist and interact, with each potentially reshaping the meaning of the others. The significance of this issue becomes more apparent when such coexistence extends beyond vocabulary and the terminology associated with each linguistic domain to the discursive level and to different semantic horizons, thereby engaging the deeper layers of the text.
ʿAbhar al-ʿĀshiqīn, which possesses a distinctive mode of mystical writing, does not employ a straightforward or homogeneous language. Indeed, an understanding of the text depends, to a considerable extent, on recognizing the discourses from which Rūzbahān’s language draws. The text therefore incorporates Qur’anic language, mystical terminology, juridical expressions, shathic discourse, narrative forms of speech, and even certain words that may at first appear incompatible with or remote from the mystical domain. Consequently, when a juridical expression occurs alongside shathic language, or when a concept derived from everyday experience or commonly accepted usage is employed to describe a sacred experience, the source of meaning can no longer be attributed solely to the original position of that element. Once incorporated into Rūzbahān’s language, such an element enters a new network and, in relation to other voices and discourses, acquires a different or, at the very least, multilayered meaning.
Methodology
This study adopts an analytical-interpretive approach based on purposive sample selection, and its theoretical framework is grounded in two key concepts in Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of discourse, namely dialogism and heteroglossia. The units of analysis consist of selected passages from ʿAbhar al-ʿĀshiqīn in which more than one discursive horizon participates in the construction of mystical meaning. Accordingly, the basis for selecting the samples is not merely the presence of words or expressions belonging to different domains, but rather the relationships that these elements establish with one another within the textual context.
The selected passages were chosen according to three criteria. First, passages in which distinct social or epistemic discourses, such as Qur’anic, juridical, mystical, shathic, and other identifiable forms of discourse, coexist within a shared discursive space. Second, passages in which interaction, displacement, opposition, or semantic tension emerges among these discourses, such that their presence is not merely evidentiary or ornamental. Third, passages in which Rūzbahān’s utterance takes shape in relation to a preceding utterance or to another voice, so that its meaning cannot be fully understood without considering this dialogical relationship. Accordingly, the selected samples represent instances in which the mechanisms under investigation can be observed with the greatest clarity, rather than necessarily being passages characterized by the greatest lexical diversity.
Findings
For a systematic and coherent analysis, eight passages were selected from ʿAbhar al-ʿĀshiqīn that display dialogic and heteroglossic features. All eight passages were examined, analyzed, and interpreted according to the same methodological approach. The analysis first identified and examined the multiple discourses present in each selected passage. Each passage contains several discourses, some of which occasionally come into conflict because of their different origins; once brought together within the mystical text, these discourses may enter into opposition or semantic tension with one another. The analysis then turned to the different voices present in the text, examining the nature of each voice and its relationship to the corresponding discourse. Among the voices identified were those of the lover, the mystics, the ascetics, gamblers, and merchants. Metaphors and symbols were also identified and interpreted from the perspective of Bakhtinian heteroglossia and dialogism.
Conclusion and Discussion
The analysis of the selected passages shows that Rūzbahān’s language goes beyond the mere transmission of mystical experience and becomes a site where multiple voices, contrasting tones, heterogeneous discourses, and symbols and metaphors originating from different domains intersect and come into tension. From this perspective, ʿAbhar al-ʿĀshiqīn offers a notable example of a text that moves beyond homogeneous and uniform linguistic forms and adopts a structure in which the coexistence of different languages is visible at the surface, while tensions among these languages operate beneath it.
The analysis of the selected passages further demonstrates that, in this work, Rūzbahān brings together the shathic language of the mystics, poetic and symbolic language, colloquial tones, informal modes of expression, and highly elaborate rhetorical forms. This coexistence of voices not only enriches the aesthetic texture of the text but also elevates mystical experience from the level of individual and subjective experience to an intertextual level. By incorporating diverse vocabularies, tones, and styles into the mystical texture of his work, Rūzbahān thus creates an interdiscursive structure that can be effectively illuminated through a Bakhtinian analysis of heteroglossia.
The analysis also reveals that Rūzbahān’s mystical language possesses a form of discursive dynamism that prevents it from being confined to rigid and monologic forms. For this reason, ʿAbhar al-ʿĀshiqīn can be understood as a multilayered and interdisciplinary text in which philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, and mysticism interact with one another. This feature demonstrates that one-dimensional readings cannot fully account for the complexity of the text.
It can therefore be concluded that mystical language, contrary to the common assumption, is not necessarily uniform or homogeneous; rather, it can serve as a site where multiple voices and heterogeneous discourses converge, interact, and enter into dialogue.
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