1 The ulema 2 and the early Sufis alike initially opposed a rephrasing of the human–divine relationship, known to be a servant–master bond, as a lover–beloved one ( Pourjavady 2008/9: 22–31). The transition of ‘love’ ( ‘ishq in Persian), which was predominantly used in the first centuries after Islam to signify physical, sensual human-to-human attachments, to the context of Sufi poetry happened only after much reluctance. The vocabulary, imagery and ideas shared by erotic and Sufi poetry allowed for ambiguity of expression on the part of the poet, and simultaneously resulted in enduring controversies among readers regarding the genuine meaning of the poems. The rhetoric of carnal and divine love is so inextricably intertwined for Ghazzālī and for the many premodern literati who enacted this commonly used concept that the ambiguity of the two becomes innate to the poetic tradition.įrom the eleventh century onward a repertoire of terminology that was initially developed for lyrics was substantially drawn on to express the Sufi concept of ‘divine love’. c.1136), wherein the mystic author writes: ‘I established several chapters … on the truths and states and intentions of love in a manner that there is no delegation neither to the creator nor to the created’ ( 2012/13: 2).
The ambiguity between earthly love and heavenly desires, which extends to both levels of creation and reception, is visible in the preface to the celebrated twelfth-century treatise on love, Savāniḥ by Ahmad Ghazzālī (d. These themes are not always distinguishable. Lyric poetry is the vehicle not only for romantic themes, but also for mystical Islamic (Sufi) expressions, as well as other content. While such classifications have been criticised (Lewis 2006: 121–122), it is still useful to delimit the scope of the study to the lyrical tradition, although the rhetorics of the beloved, among other lyrical features, had already developed within the time and alongside the literary forms that preceded the dominance of the lyrics. In visiting the question of the beloved, the prime arena of study is the lyric genre, which is assumed to dominate Persian poetic production from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.
The period of classical Persian poetry is considered to stretch from 900 to 1500 CE.