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«IZVESTIYA IRKUTSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA». SERIYA «POLITOLOGIYA. RELIGIOVEDENIE»
«THE BULLETIN OF IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY». SERIES «POLITICAL SCIENCE AND RELIGION STUDIES»
ISSN 2073-3380 (Print)

List of issues > Series «Political Science and Religion Studies». 2025. Vol 51

The Sufi Interpretation of One Beit Hafiz in the Context of the Muslim Hagiographic Tradition

Author(s)
L. E. Ismoilov
Abstract
In the ideological history of Sufism, the question of the spirit’s independence in relation to the body, their ratio and interrelation had a special significance. The interaction’s formula of spirit and body helps in revealing a few arising phenomena and circumstances related to Sufism, for example, the illness of a Sufi, the perception of spring holidays, going to a deserted place and so on. The object of the study of this work was the analysis of one beit (a unit of Persian poetry, verse) of the Persian poet Hafiz Shirazi, who died in 1389. Beit was inserted into a leaf of a Muslim hagiographic work (manakib) called “Jodat-ul-oshiki” (“The Wide Road of those who Love the Truth”). This poetic unit was dedicated to the Kubravian Sheikh Kamal el-Din Hussein Khorezmi, who died in 1551. The work itself was written in 1565–1566. The semantic meaning of this verse in the context of a hagiographic plot is the search for a beloved (ma'shuk) by a lover (oshik). This search is carried out in a rather expressive form. It is worthy of note that in both poetic and hagiographical texts, the terms soul (chon) and chonon (beloved) appear in the images of the lover and the beloved, that is, the soul seeks the truth. In his search, the lover goes through a number of stages of love in spiritual and physical meaning. In particular, he will find himself in various geographical spaces, such as a desert, a mountain, green meadows and so on. Such a picture, poetically described by Hafiz, emerges in a prose hagiographic work, for example, in “Jodat-ul-oshikin”. While interpreting the aforementioned beit, other ghazals of the poet were analyzed in parallel, which ideologically introduced new nuances into the overall picture and supplemented the final judgment. In general, they developed the idea of a basic beit describing the difficulties of comprehending the Truth.
About the Authors
Ismoilov Lutfullo Eshonovich, Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor, Department of Oriental, African and Islamic Studies, Institute of International Relations, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, 18/1, Kremlyovskaya st., Kazan, 420111, Russian Federation, e-mail: ismoilov-62@mail.ru
For citation
Ismoilov L.E. The Sufi Interpretation of One Beit Hafiz in the Context of the Muslim Hagiographic Tradition. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2025, vol. 51, pp. 147-157. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2025.51.147 (in Russian)
Keywords
Sufism, spirit, body, search, truth, love, lover, Persian poet Hafiz.
UDC
297″15″
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2025.51.147
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