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Magic in Classical Persian Amatory Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

A. A. Seyed‐Gohrab
A. A. Seyed‐Gohrab*
Affiliation:
Leiden University
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Extract

jamālat muᶜjiz-i ḥusn ast līkan

ḥadī-i ghamzihat siḥr-i mubīn ast

The Belief that Persia is the Center of Magic has been Deeply ingrained in Western culture. In fact, the generic term for magic is derived from the name of the Zoroastrian priests, the magi, and Persia has been depicted from antiquity up to the present age as the ancient fountainhead of magic and wonders in Western literature. When in the second century B.C.E. the young philosopher Apuleius of Madaura married a woman fifteen years older because of her wealth, he was suspected of having used magic.

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Articles
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Iranian Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , Winter 1999 , pp. 71 - 97
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Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1999

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Footnotes

1.

This paper was written at Leiden University as part of Ph.D. research project no. 200-50-022 (Theory and Practice of Love:…) with the financial support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). An abridged version of this paper was presented at the Second Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies in Bethesda, Maryland. I would like to thank J.T.P. de Bruijn, K. Banak, A.L.F.A. Beelaert (Leiden University), and A. Gilᶜadi (Haifa University) for their critical reading of drafts of this essay. I am also grateful for the invaluable comments of the editors of Iranian Studies.

References

2. For the etymology of the term “magi” see G. Gnoli, “Magi,” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics; also compare Boyce, M. and Garnet, F. A History of Zoroastrianism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991), 511ff.Google Scholar

3. Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, ed. Schäfer, P. and Kippenberg, H.G. (Leiden: Brill, 1997), vii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Ibid., vii-viii.

5. M. Boyce, op.cit., 511-12.

6. Ibid., 512.

7. The use of magic to attain the beloved occurs frequently in Persian romances. In Firdawsi's Shāhnāmah, after the trial of Siyavash, Sudabah prepares sorcery to restore her love relationship with Kai Kavus. The nature of the sorcery remains unclear: “Her heart became again so brimmed with love for him / that she did not remove her glance from his face // She made once again secretly a sorcery / for the king of the world.” All further citations from the Shāhnāmah are taken from The Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) vol. 2, ed. Khaleghi-Motlagh, D. (New York: Mazda Publishers, 1990), 239.Google Scholar

8. See, for instance, Firdawsi's description of Tahminah in the Shahnamah: “Her soul was wisdom and her body pure life / (as if) you would say that she had no portion of the earth.” Vol. 2,122.

9. Dihlavi, Jamali-yi Mirᵓāt al-maᶜānī (The Mirror of Meanings) in Maᶜārif 11, nos. 1&2 (November, 1994) 24.Google Scholar Shabistari, Shaykh Mahmud Gulshan-i rāz, ed. Mujahid, A. & Kiyani, M. (Tehran: Ma Publishers, 1371/1992), 77-8.Google Scholar

10. The Koran: 44:54; 52:20; 55:56, 70-72; 56:22; See A.J. Wensinck and Ch. Pellat, “Ḥūr,” Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI). Also compare F. Meier, “Baha'-l Walad: Grundzüge Seines Leben und Seiner Mystik” in Ada Iranica (1989), 244-60. For a Sufi view on the meeting of the beloved in Paradise see Pourjavady, N. Ruᵓyat-i māh dar āsimān: bar-rasi-yi tārīkhī-yi liqā'allah dar kalām-i taṣsavvuf (The Moon's Vision in the Sky: A Historical Investigation on Encountering God in Sufi Discourse), (Tehran: Markaz-i Nashr-i Danishgahi, 1375/1996), 163-84.Google Scholar

11. Muhammad Taqi Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir b. Ḥaqq al-yaqīn (Tehran: Qa'im Publishers, n.d.), 476-77.Google Scholar For a discussion of these creatures see also Bertels, Y.E. Taṣawuf va adabiyyāt-i taṣavvuf, Persian translation by Izadi, S. (Tehran: Amir Kabir Publishers, 2536), 111-35.Google Scholar Bertels quotes an anecdote from ᶜAfif ad-Din al-Yafiᶜi's (698-769/1298-1367) Rawż al-rayāḥīn. Bertels discusses houris within the context of the Zoroastrian belief in dāya-niyā, i.e. that man's soul will meet the personification of his deeds in the form of a beautiful young woman. Also compare F. Vahman, “A Beautiful Girl,” Acta Iranica (1985), 665-73.

12. See J.T.P. de Bruijn, “parī EI; and Bahman Sarkarati, “Parī: taḥqīqī dar ḥāshiya-yi usṭūra-shināsī-yi taṭbīqī” (“Fairy: A Study on the Margin of Comparative Mythology”) in Nashriyāt-i Dānishkadah-i Adabiyāt wa ᶜUlūm-i Insānī (1350), nos. 97-100, 1-32Google Scholar, who gives an elaborate etymological description of the word as well as its occurrence in Zoroastrian and Middle Persian texts. Also compare A. D. H. Bivar, “A Persian Fairyland” in Acta Iranica (1985), 25-42, and Christensen, A. Essai Sur la Démonologie Iranienne (Koebenhavn: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1941), 60 ff.Google Scholar

13. The Persian verb parīdan, ‘to fly’ also derives from parī.

14. For the use of magic in pre-Islamic Persia see, A.J. Carnoy, “Magic,” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

15. Sudabah uses magic not only to enchant Kavus and Siyavash, but she also consults a zan jādū asking her to make a sorcery: “There was a woman with her behind the quarters / who knew much magic, knotting and sorcery.” See, The Shahnamah. vol. 2, 228.Google Scholar

16. The Shahnamah, vol. 5, 236ff.Google Scholar For the image of jādū in Firdawsi's epic see Abadi Bavil, M. Āᵓīn-hā dar Shāhnāmah. (Tabriz: Tabriz University, 1350/1971), 71-110.Google Scholar

17. In the same way that hideous characters are made to resemble demons and ghouls, the beauty of the female beloved in Persian romances is almost without exception a reflection of parī or a ḥūrī.

18. See Dabir Siyaqi, Muhammad “Chihra-yi zan dar Shāhnāmah” in Firdawsī va Shāhnāmah: majmūᶜa-yi sī-u shish guftār, ed. ᶜA. Dihbashi (Tehran: Mudabbir Publishers, 1370/1991), 123-63Google Scholar; for a comprehensive study of women in the Shāhnāmah, see, Khaleghi Motlagh, Djalal Die Frauen im Schahname: ihre Geschichte vend Stellung uter gleichzeitiger Berücksichtigung vor- und nachislamischer Quellen (Freiburg: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1971).Google Scholar

19. For a discussion on Zal's descent see, J.W. Clinton, “The Story of Sam and Zal,” Ada Iranica, (1990), 39.

20. For a short discussion on the nature of the Sāmnāmah see, J.T.P. De Bruijn, “Sām,” EI. As B. Sarkarati has pointed out, marriages between human beings and parīs and dīvs occur in Pahlavi literature. The mythical king Jamshid sleeps with a parī and his sister with a dīv, from whose copulation wild beasts and Negroes came into existence. See Sarkarati, op.cit., 17-18. Mawlana Rumi also tells a story about the marriage between a human being and a fairy. See Masnavī-yi maᶜnavī, ed., M. Istiᶜlami (Tehran: Zavvar Publishers, n.d.) vol. 6, lines 2983ff.Google Scholar

21. Nizami compares almost all of his female protagonists to a parī. In the detailed description of Shirin, she is described as a daughter of a parī: “A parī's daughter, no it was a moon/fish / under her veil, she was the owner of the crown.” See Khusraw va Shīrīn, ed. Sirvatiyyan, B. (Tehran: 1366/1987), 142.Google Scholar

22. Southgate, M.S. Iskandarnamah: A Persian Medieval Alexander Romance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), 77, 79, 81, 85.Google Scholar

23. E. Ullendorff, “Bilḳīs,” in EI. For the romance of Solomon and Bilqis see Abu Bakr ᶜAtiq Nayshaburi, Qiṣaṣ-i Qurᵓān-i majīd, ed. Mahdavi, Y. (Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1347), 285-93.Google Scholar In Maybudi's Kashf al-asrār, Bilqis is portrayed as the queen of the fairies. The story of Bilqis and Solomon is told in the Koran (27:20ff). For a thorough analysis of this legend, see Lassner, J. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).Google Scholar

24. M. Maᶜdankan, Nigāhī bi dunyā-yi Khāqānī (Tehran: Nashr-i Danishgahi, 1375/1996), 280-81.Google Scholar

25. The angels and parīs in Persian miniature paintings are modeled on the flying figures in the spandrels of the grotto at Taq-i Bustan. For a description of these creatures, see Soucek, Priscilla P. “Farhād and Ṭāq-i Būstān: The Growth of a Legend,” Studies in Art and Literature of the Near East in Honor of Richard Ettinghausen, ed. Chelkowski, P.J. (New York and Salt Lake City: NYU Press and the Middle East Center, University of Utah, 1974), 31.Google Scholar

26. The Shahnamah. vol. 1, 23.Google Scholar

27. The philosopher Nasir Khusraw, who devotes a chapter to fairies in his Jāmiᶜ al-ḥikmatain, equates fairies to angels. In his view, there are two kinds of fairies: a) angelic and b) demonic. See Kitāb Jamiᶜ al-hikmatain (Le Livre Réunissant les deux Sagesses), ed. Corbin, H. and M. Muᶜin (Teheran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1984), p. 140.Google Scholar

28. Nizami-yi Ganjavi, Laylā wa Majnūn, ed. A.A. Asgharzada and F. Babayov (1965), 17. All. further citations are from this edition.

29. Chach is the medieval name of the city of Tashkand (Tashkent), the capital of Uzbekistan. Chach was famous for its bows.

30. A Roman coin of silver or gold.

31. Faramarz b. Khudadad b. ᶜAbdullah al-Katib al-Arjani, Samak-i ᶜAyyār. vol. 1, ed. Natil-Khanlari, P. (Tehran: Agah Publishers, 1362/1983), 8.Google Scholar This kind of detailed description of the ideal beloved can also be found in medieval European literature. See, for instance, Geoffrey of Vinsauf's description of feminine beauty in his Poetria Nova, translated by Kopp, J.B. in Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts, ed. Murphy, J.J. University of California Press, 1971), 54-55.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., 9.

33. Nizami uses the same vocabulary to describe Shirin. See Khusraw wa Shīrīn, chapter 17:30ff.

34. Sometimes the gazelle brings the prince to a treasure or a mysterious place. See, for instance, Nizami's Haft-paykar, in which a gazelle brings Bahram Gur to a cave.

35. Examples of how a fairy conjures up a beautiful palace occur in Khaju-yi Kirmani's Humāy wa Humāyūn.

36. Other synonyms of the parī-zadah such as parī-giriftah, “seized by a fairy,” parī-dīdah, “seen by a fairy,” and parī-khwāndah, “summoned by a fairy,” occur frequently in classical Persian literature.

37. In the Shāhnāmah (vol.2, 122)Google Scholar, when Tahminah sees Rustam for the first time, she tells him: “I am the only daughter of the king of Samangan / the physician of lions and leopards.” In contrasting the healing aspect of the beloved to the inability of the earthly physicians, Majnun, the lover of Layla, says: “If all human physicians search for a remedy for me / except the words of Layla nothing would heal me.” See, Ghazali, A. Sawāniḥ (Aphorismen über die Liebe), ed. Ritter, H. (Istanbul: 1942), 3.Google Scholar

38. In both romantic and lyrical poetry, as soon as the lover meets the beloved, reason leaves him.

39. Other terms such as dīv-dīda, dīv-zada, and dīv-girifta are also frequently used.

40. Th. Nöldeke, “Arabs,” Encyclopaedia, of Religion and Ethics, 670. In pre-Islamic Arab poetry, the beloved's altering states are compared to a ghūl, “ghoul,” which assumes each time a new image. See, for instance, the qaṣīda by Kaᶜb b. Zubayr translated in Sells, M.A. Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miᶜraj, Poetic and Theological Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1996), 64ff.Google Scholar In Walibi's Dīvān, several references are made to Layla's demoniacal and magical power. See Khairallah's, A. brief analysis Love, Madness and Poetry: An Interpretation of Majnun Legend (Beirut and Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1980), 90, 47.Google Scholar

41. M. Southgate, op.cit., 79.

42. After falling in love, Ramin is described in the following way: “All of a sudden, he was neither alive nor dead / between these two states, he was a walking person.” See ad-Din Gurgani, Fakhr Vīs wa Rāmīn, ed. Mahjub, M.J. (Tehran: Ibn Sina, 1337/1959), 65.Google Scholar

43. See Dols, M.W. Majnun: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, index under epilepsy. Also compare Giffen, L.A. Theory of Profane Love Among the Arabs: the Development of the Genre (New York: NYU Press, 1971), 108.Google Scholar

44. Fakhr ad-Din Gurgani, Vīs wa Rāmīn., 66.

45. This phrase, “new moon,” which is used several times in the poem, has become an expression in Persian and means that the new moon increases a man's madness.

46. Paintings were used in medieval Islam for magical purposes. For a discussion on this theme see Rosenthal, F. Four Essays on Art and Literature in Islam (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971), 9.Google Scholar

47. The term nayrang designates “the operation of white magic, comprising prestidigitation, fakery and counter fakery, the creating of illusions and other feats of sleight of hand.” See T. Fahd, “Nīranḏj,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. In folktales, pictures are thought to be of magic origin. See Bürgel, J.C. The Feather of Simurgh: The “Licit Magic” of the Arts in Medieval Islam (New York: New York University Press, 1988), 122ff.Google Scholar

48. The word rang-āmīz also means a conjurer as Sana'i has used it in one of his ghazals: “ᶜājizam bā chashm-i rangāmīz-i u / garcha az ṣad gūnah rang āmīkhtam,” “I am powerless before her color-blending eyes / although I have blended a hundred sorts of colors.”

49. See The Shahnamah, vol. 3, 127ff.Google Scholar

50. The role of the nurse as a sorceress also occurs in Samak-i ᶜAyyār and Mawlana Ahli-yi Shirazi's short romance Siḥr-i ḥalāl (Licit Magic). See Kulliyyāt-i ashᶜār, ed. Rabbani, H. (Tehran: Sana'i Publishers, 1344/1965), 645.Google Scholar In the former romance, the nurse of the fairy, who enchants Khurshidshah, is a conjurer (jādū) and her name is Shirvana. Gurgani's nurse is also a sorceress to which there are many references: “As Ramin's eye fell on the sorceress, his eyes were sure / that a better sorceress than the nurse did not exist.” (Vis wa Rāmīn, 82) “The nurse was always hard of heart and unfriendly / her nature was always that of a sorcerer and she robbed the souls.” (Ibid., 89) “You do know more sorcery than anyone else / therefore you can think of many solutions.” (Ibid., 91) “While laughing, the nurse, the conjurer, said / ‘You are very eloquent in speech,’” (Ibid., 92) “She [Vis's mother] entrusted me [Vis] to the hands of a sorceress like you / who is devoid of shame, consciousness and justice.” (Ibid., 95) Such referent es to the nurse continue to the end of the poem.

51. For an analysis of the nurse's character, see George Morrison, “Flowers and Witchcraft in the ‘Vis o ramin’ of Fakhr ud-Din Gurgani,” Ada Iranica (1974), 249-59.

52. Vis wa Rāmīn, 77.

53. Ibid., 93.

54. Ibid.,105.

55. Ibid., 106.

56. Other compounds related to magician, jādū, and the beloved are as follows: jādū-zan, ghamza-yi jādū, jādū-band, jādū-parast, jādū-farīb, jādū-nasab, jādū-nihād, jādū-yi Bābul, jādū-yi Hārūt-vash. Hafiz often refers to the beloved's magical eyes. The following is only one example: “O heart, safeguard your faith from her conjuring eyes / because the magic of her brow has shot with the intention of plundering // What game will the conjuring eye of the beloved play again / for we have based our principle upon the amorous flirtation of the conjurer // The breeze of your curly locks makes me drunk all the time / the talisman of your conjuring eyes ruins me every moment.” For more references consult Coorreale, D.M. The Ghazals of Hafez: Concordance and Vocabulary (Rome: 1988)Google Scholar, under Chashm.

57. For the image of the hindū in Persian love poetry see A. Schimmel, ‘Turk and Hindu: A Literary Symbol,” Acta Iranica (1974), 243-47. The same article is expanded by Schimmel under the title: “Turk and Hindu: A Poetical Image and its Application to Historical Fact” in Islam and Cultural Change in the Middle Ages (Proceedings of the Fourth Levi Delia Vida Conference), ed. Vryonis, S. Jr. (Wiesbaden 1975), 107-26.Google Scholar For a succinct description of the beloved in Persian literature, see J.T.P. de Bruijn, “Beloved,” Encyclopaedia Iranica; also see Pourjavady, N. “Tīr-i ᶜāshiqkūsh” in Nashr-i dānish, 15, no.4 (June-July, 1995) 4-11.Google Scholar

58. See Khalil Shirvani, Jamal Nuzhat al-majālis, ed. Riyahi, M.A. (Tehran: Maharat Publishers, 1375/1996), 460.Google Scholar For the link between the blue eye and the evil eye see Ph. Marcais, “ᶜAyn,” EI.

59. Harut is the name of an angel who, together with another named Marut, having severely censured mankind before the throne of God, was sent with him down to earth in human form to judge of the temptations to which man is subject. They could not withstand them: they were seduced by women, and committed every kind of iniquity for which they were suspended by their feet in a well in Babylon where they were to remain in great torment. They are said to be the teachers of magic to man. Steingass, F. A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary (London: 1982)Google Scholar, under Hārūt.

60. Dīvān -i Ḥakīm Sanāᵓī-yi Ghaznawī, ed. Razavi, Mudarris Tehran: 1362/1983, 801.Google Scholar

61. Dīvān, 809.

62. Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Natil Khanlari, P. (Tehran: Kharazmi, 1362/1983), vol. 1, 128Google Scholar, ghazal 56.

63. Ḥāfiẓnāmah (Tehran: ᶜIlmi and Farhangi Publishers, 1375/1996), vol. 1, 300.Google Scholar

64. Zanqīnamah, ed. Afshar, I. (Tehran: Khaja Publishers, 1372/1993), 106.Google Scholar

65. See E. Shakurzada and M. Omidsalar, “Čašm-zakhm,” in EI

66. See Rowson, E.K. A Muslim Philosopher on the Soul and its Fate: Al-ᶜĀmirī's Kitāb al-amad ᶜala'l-abad (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1988), 123.Google Scholar ᶜAmiri devotes chapter 12 of his book to various types of magic.

67. Vis wa Rāmīn, 257.

68. Laylā wa Majnūn, 161.

69. Ibid., 124. For the evil eye in Nizami's works, see Rypka, J. “Der böse Blick bei Nizâmî,” in Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher vol. 36 (1965), 397-401.Google Scholar

70. Spooner, B. “The Evil Eye in the Middle East,” in The Evil Eye, ed. Maloney, C. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), 79.Google Scholar

71. Lailī Majnūn: A Persian Poem of Hātifī (Calcutta: Printed and Sold by Manuel Cantopher, 1788), 27.Google Scholar

72. ᶜAyn al-kamāl is used for an eye believed to have the power of killing by its glance. The famous Arabic expression alludes to this fact: “May God prevent the fatal eye from seeing thee.” See E.W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, part 5, 2216 and part 6, 2423. See also Browne, E.G. A Literary History of Persia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902), vol. 1, 452, n. 5Google Scholar; vol. 4, 117, n.2. Among the Persian poets, Khaqani makes comparatively extensive use of ᶜayn al-kamāl. See M. Maᶜdankan, op. cit., 264.

73. In the Dīvān-i kabīr, Mawlana devotes a ghazal (no. 1112) with the maṭlaᶜ, “dar chaman ā'īd wa bar bandīd dīd / tā nayuftad bar jamāᶜat har naẓar” to the theme of evil eye: “Come to the meadow and shut your eyes / so that no glance may fall on the assembly // I have suffered losses; I have received blows / from the eye of any despicable person // By her blow, we have received the evil eye.” Also Shaykh Saᶜdi of Shiraz often forewarns his reader not to look at the eyes of the beloved: “If you want security, do not cast your glance on the eyes of the beauties / And if you do so, bid farewell to your rest and safety.” (Ghazaliyyāt, 11) Again in another poem, the poet sings: “If you want security, stitch your eyes from the glances of the beauties / if you practise love, traverse the spread of good name.” (Ghazaliyyāt, p. 122)

74. Vis wa Rāmīn, 66.

75. Ibid., 84.

76. Ibid., 112.

77. See Chydenius, John Love and the Medieval Tradition (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1977), 42.Google Scholar

78. Dū risāla-yi ᶜirfānī dar ᶜishq, ed. Afshar, I. (Tehran: Manuchihri Publishers, 1359/1980), 95.Google Scholar

79. Dīvān, ed. Iqbal, A. (Tehran: Islamiyya Publishers, 1318/1939), 185, line 4417.Google Scholar

80. See J.T.P. De Bruijn, “ Maḏjnūn Laylā” and “ Khamsa,” EI. Also compare Krachkovski, I.Y. “Die Frühgeschichte der Erzählung von Maçnun und Laylain der arabischen Literatur,” German trans, by Ritter, H. Oriens (1955) vol. 8, no. 1, 1-50Google Scholar; Chelkowski, P.J. Mirror of the Invisible World: Tales from the Khamsa of Nizami (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), 66-68.Google Scholar

81. In the Persian love stories occurring in the Thousand and One Nights, the lover, usually a prince, does anything to conquer a princess. For a discussion about the dynamism of the Persian lover in these stories, see Gerhardt, M.I. The Art of Story-Telling: A Literary Study of the Thousand and One Nights (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1963), 123f.Google Scholar

82. See A. Khairallah, op.cit., 138.

83. Ibid., 74-75.

84. For the liver as the organ in which sorrow is situated see the consolation treatises for bereaved parents. A. Gilᶜadi discusses al-Sakhawi's treatise in his article entitled, “‘The child was small … not so the grief for him’: Sources, Structure and Content of al-Sakhawi's Consolation Treatise for Bereaved Parents” in Poetics Today 14 (1993), 367-86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

85. For the magical appearance of the beloved in the form of a gazelle, see Bürgel, J.C. “The Lady Gazelle and her Murderous Glances,” in Journal of Arabic Literature 20 (1989), 1-11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Although this article investigates mainly the topoi of the beloved as a gazelle in Arabic literature, it is also useful for students of Persian literature.

86. For an analysis of this line, see Daneshwari, Abbas “Symbolism of the Rabbit in the Manuscript of Warqa wa Gulshah,” in Essays in Islamic Art and Architecture in Honor of Katharino Otto-Dorn, ed. Daneshvari, A. (Malibu: Undena Publications, 1981), 21ff.Google Scholar

87. M. Southgate, op.cit., p. 89.

88. For a discussion on pīr-i mughān, see Murtadavi, M. Maktab-i Ḥāfiẓ yā muqaddima bar Ḥāfiẓ-shināsī (Tehran: Ibn Sina, 1344/1965), 278-87.Google Scholar

89. Dīvān-i Khāqānī, ed. Sajjadi, Z.D. (Tehran: Zavvar, 1318/1939), 491.Google Scholar

90. For the use of this imagery by Mawlana Rumi see, Schimmel, A. The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddin Rumi (New York: New York University Press, 1993), 137f.Google Scholar

91. Farid ad-Din ᶜAttar, Tazkirat al-auliyāᵓ ed. Ritter, H. (Tehran: Manuchihri Publishers, 1370/1991), 92.Google Scholar

92. For the effect of the magical circle, see T. Fahd, “Nīranḏj,” EI; also consult A.E. Crawley, “ Magical circle,” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. This is an informative essay on the notion of the magical circle in various cultures.

93. See T. Fahd, “ Istinzāl,” E1; also compare Ritter, H. Das Meer der Seele: Mensch, Welt und Gott in den Geschichten des Fariduddin ᶜAttar (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1955), 621f.Google Scholar This kind of magical procedure belongs to the science of nīranjāt and occurs in various genres of literature including cosmographical works. In his ᶜAjāᵓib al-makhlūqāt, Tusi recounts the following story: “It is reported that ᶜIzz ad-Dawla was a sagacious man and a powerful sovereign who knew the science of nīranj. He had purchased a slave-girl to whom his heart was attached. He built a wooden house in which he spent the night with her. He closed the door while the guards were watching outside. One night, when he awoke, he could not find the girl. All doors were shut. He sat down and waited to see. At dawn, he saw the girl and said: ‘Where have you been?’ She answered: ‘A dervish came and took me with him.’ He said: ‘Inform me if he comes again.’ Another night the dervish appeared and stole the girl. The girl called ᶜIzz al-Dawla and he caught the dervish, saying to him: ‘Who are you?’ The dervish answered: ‘I am a person who knows the science of nīranj.’ ᶜIzz al-Dawla said: ‘Teach me this science so that I give this slave-girl to you.’ He taught him the science and he gave the girl to him.” See Ahmad Tusi, Muhammad b. Mahmud b. ᶜAjāᵓᶜib al-makhlūqāt ed. Sutudah, M. (Tehran: Nashr va Tarjuma-yi Kitab, 1345/1966), 485-86.Google Scholar

94. The formula reads as follows: ᶜaẓamtu ᶜalaykum, “I adjure you.” See T. Fahd, “Siḥr,” EI.; also see M. Omidsalar, “čarm,” in Encyclopaedia Iranica.

95. Ilāhīnāmah, ed. Ritter, H. (reprinted Tehran: Khaja Publishers, 1368/1989), 76.Google Scholar

96. For an extensive discussion on the lower soul consult Najm ad-Din Daya, Mirṣād al-ᶜibād, ed. Riyahi, M.A. (Tehran: Scientific & Cultural Publications Company, 1992), 343-407.Google Scholar

97. Ilāhīnāmah, 76. Here ᶜAttar refers to the Koran 89:28.

98. Ibid., 77.

99. Ibid., 88-89.

100. Manavī-yi maᶜnavī, ed. M. Istiᶜalami (Tehran: Zavvar Publishers, 1372/1993),” vol. 4, lines 2113ff.Google Scholar

101. A Critical Edition of the Divan of Muhammad Shirin Maghribi, ed. Lewisohn, L. (Tehran: Institute of Islamic Studies, 1993), 229.Google Scholar

102. See Manavī-yi maᶜnavī. vol. 4, lines 3114ff.Google Scholar For the source of this story see, Furuzanfar, D.Z. Maᵓākhiẕ-i qiṣaṣ wa tamīlāt-i manavī, (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1347/1968), 204-5.Google Scholar

103. Most probably Mawlana is referring here indirectly to the Koranic verse “I seek refuge from the evil of those who blow on knots” (113:4).

104. A similar case of untying the hairs is recounted in Mawlana Jamali-yi Dihlavi's hagiography Sayr al-ᶜārifīn in which Shaikh Farid ad-Din Masᶜud is bewitched by a sorcerer. For an English account of this event see, Ivanow, W. “A ‘Witch-Case’ in Medieval India,” Journal & Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 19, NS (1923) 43-50.Google Scholar

105. For a more comprehensive commentary on this story, see ᶜA.H. Zarrinkub, Baḥr dar kūza: naqd wa tafsīr-i qiṣṣah-hā wa tamīlāt-i manavī. (Tehran: ᶜIlmi, 1368/1989), 422ff.Google Scholar

106. Intihānāmah, ed. Khazanadarlu, M.A. (Tehran: Rawzana, 1376/1997), 3.Google Scholar

107. See Maghribi, op.cit., 447ff. Also compare Amir Husaini Haravi's Kanz al-rumūz, in Maᶜārif 5, no. 1 (July 1988), 133, line 171.Google Scholar

108. Razi relies on this metaphor extensively in his Miᶜyār al-ṣidq fī miṣdāq al-ᶜishq, edited by Tafazzuli, T. as Risāla-yi ᶜishq va ᶜaql (The Treatise of Love and Reason) (Tehran: Bungah-i tarjumah wa nashr-i kitab, 1345/1966)Google Scholar, see esp. p. 95.

109. There is no systematic study on magic in Persian folklore. L.P. Elwell-Sutton's attempt in his “Magic and the Supernatural in Persian Folk-Literature” which appeared in ACTES, 11 (September 1970): 189-96Google Scholar, is somewhat abortive and does not touch on the importance of this art in Persian folk literature.