Unity and diversity: intentional multidimensionality in Persian Sufi language and the method of decoding it

Jalal al-Din Rumi and Muhammad Hafez Shirazi are two of the great mystics, Sufis, writing in Persian in the 13th and 14th century. Their poetry is still an essential part of the Turkish and the Persian religious and cultural settings. The objectives of this article are to suggest a method for analyzing the poetry of Rumi and Hafez within the discipline of History of religions. The various combinations of symbols, symbolic clusters, together create a totality from which parts are taken and combined in various ways in the poems. Seldom all of them are there together, but reading some poems with various themes gives the whole combination of symbols, which has been used by the poet. It gives the picture of a Sufi setting, where the essential thing is the path to the unity with God. With it goes the Persian identity indicated in the garden of roses symbolizing paradise, kingship, justice, prosperity, the love of nature etc. Only in combination do these symbols point to the complex situation of the Persian Sufis.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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