‘Ishq and the Literary: Exploring Rūmī’s Mathnawī as a Sufi Text
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2016
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Melbourne Authors
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Asia Institute
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PhD thesis
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Open Access
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© 2016 Dr. Sirin Yasar
Abstract
Although there has been a bourgeoning corpus of studies on Rūmī in terms of his mystical ideas, there has been till present, very little attention paid to the literary aspects of his works – especially the Mathnawī as his narrative magnum opus. This thesis explores Rūmī’s Mathnawī to understand how it functions in the broader context of Sufism and literary production. Its approach is twofold: first, it provides a close literary reading of select passages from the Mathnawī through generic, rhetorical and narrative constructs; and second, delineates its broader theological/epistemological contexts. Therefore, through its emphasis on literary form, this thesis identifies how the Mathnawī’s literary structures both relate to, and are informed by Rūmī’s Sufi thought – specifically his ontology of ‘ishq (passionate love). Thus, adopting a literary approach to Rūmī’s works, the present study explores questions relating to the literary form of Rūmī’s Mathnawī such as: genre, function, the Mathnawī’s intertextuality with the Qur’ān, the complexities surrounding the Sufi notion of authorship, meaning and hermeneutics, as well as Rūmī’s specific notion of the “ideal reader” as a potential wayfarer on the Sufi path of ‘ishq. Finally, this thesis employs close-analysis to a specific tale from the Mathnawī (The King and the Handmaiden) in order to explore how Rūmī attempts to transform his readers through specific narrative structures. This thesis concludes that by the very act of producing the Mathnawī, Rūmī was effectively participating in the textualisation of his Sufi path of ‘ishq. In this sense, the present thesis addresses the kinds of strategies employed in Sufi writing to convey mystical ethos and content, to shape religious subjectivity in distinctive ways, or even to influence the cosmos through specialised acts of reading and writing such as the act of consuming and producing literature. The present study does not simply contribute to the niche field of Rūmī studies, but also draws attention to how consideration of its topics may change the way we think about Sufism and literary studies more broadly, as well as contributing to the broader field of world literature. A study of this kind is not only valuable in its contribution to a deeper understanding of Sufism within the field of Islamic studies, but also because analysing Rūmī’s particular works through an explicitly literary scheme may help in developing more nuanced and relevant descriptions of mystical or sacred literatures.
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love, ishq, Rumi, Sufi, Sufism, hermeneutics, Mathnawi, Masnavi, Mesnevi, Mawlana, Mevlana, Mawlawi, Mevlevi, literature, form, Qur’an, Islam, meaning, tariqah, text, narrative, genre, didactic, author, reader, aql, ruh, qalb, fana, baqa, hal, maqam, self, ego, nafs, salik