Mystical Elements in Judeo-Persian Literature

Subject Areas : Christianity

Mansour Motamedi ¹ (Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Study of Religion and Mysticism, Ferdosi University, Mashhad, Iran)
Maryam Poursadeqi ² (M.A., Department of Comparative Study of Religion and Mysticism, Ferdosi University, Mashhad, Iran)

Received: 2013-12-25 Accepted : 2014-02-16 Published : 2014-07-23

Keywords: Judeo-Persian, Šahzādeh va Ṣūfī, ‘Emrāni’s Sāqi Nāmeh, Shāhin Shirazi’s Musā Nāmeh, Simān-Ṭov Melammed,

Abstract :

The Jews have an enduring presence in Iran. They invented Judeo-Persian language in order to have a kind of writing relationship witheach other. Actually this is Persian language written in Hebrewalphabet. The oldest documents of this kind date back to the 8th centuryCE. There are numerous Judeo-Persian works including: interpretationof Old Testament, Hebrew grammar and lexicon, halakhah, midrash,poetry, stories and proverbs, magic, letters and legal documents. Inthese works we can not only trace some common terms of Islamictheology and jurisprudence, but also observe the remarkable influenceof Sufi terms and teachings on Judeo-Persian language, especially theinfluence of mystic poets such as Ḥāfeẓ, Sāʻdi, ʻAṭṭār, Neẓāmi, Rūmiand … . The present article, firstly introduces Judeo-Persian poets whohave used Islamic mystical elements in their poems, then, studies theseelements under six headings: mystical terms, Sufi approaches, Sufisymbols, anti-sufism, pro-sufism, stages of achieving the Reality(sharīʻt, ṭarīqat, ḥaqīqat). Also, it intends to demonstrate the influenceof Islamic Mysticism on the works of Jewish Persian poets.