The Preaching Poet: Three Homiletic Poems by Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār

Summary

When I was preparing this paper I came across a statement which expresses quite adequately the point I intended to make:

Form and content in discourse are one; once we understand that verbal discourse is a social phenomenon-social throughout its entire range and in each and every of its factors, from the sound image to the furthest reaches of abstract meaning. (Bakhtin 1990: 219)

Bakhtin was referring to the modern novel, a form of literature far removed from the classical Persian poetry which is our present concern. Yet the formulation of his idea that the social function should be a major factor in our attempts to understand the form and meaning of literary texts postulates a general validity. It is therefore worthwhile to try to see what help it may give us when we apply it to a quite different kind of discourse. The aim is here to examine three texts, written by one poet, from the point of view of their function as homilies.

The phrase “homiletic poetry” suggested itself to me when I was looking for a term more appropriate to the religious poetry of Sanā’ī than either “ Ṣūfī” or “mystical,” which are commonly used with reference to this poet's works (De Bruijn 1983: 164–182). There were two considerations which induced me to look for an alternative. The first was of a contextual nature. The qualification “ Ṣūfī,” though convenient as a general label for the varied tradition of Persian poetry concerned with mystical ideas and ethics,1 seemed to be too closely linked with a specific social context to be meaningfully applicable to Sanā’ī's poetry. Its use would moreover confirm the established view of this poet as a prominent Ṣūfī shaykh, an image of his historical personality which was contradicted by the results of my biographical research. There were sufficient indications to conclude that Sanā’ī did not really belong to any of the Ṣūfī communities of his age, but was closely linked to a different social group, equally concerned with the spiritual life but in a wider context of relationships with the community of believers as a whole, namely Muslim scholars belonging to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence who were also active as preachers.