Sufism and Travel Literature: Soul Captivity in ??jj Sayy??’s Knowledge-Seeking Journey in Safarn?mah-i ??jj Sayy?? bih Farang
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper explores Sufi method of being enlightened through deep reflection in reading a Persian travelogue written by ??jj Sayy?? entitled, Safarn?ma?-i ??jj Sayy?? bih Farang (SHS). After introducing the author and the travelogue background, this study presents the concepts of captivity awareness, knowledge and ignorance which become the basis of the journey in SHS. It then proceeds to the discussion on taming the soul through six ways; physical hardship, renunciation (zuhd), poverty, loneliness, illness and the experience of near death in order to escape the idiocy imprisonment. Finally, this paper explains the journey of freedom in SHS according to the framework of Sufi concepts about human conditions in an odyssey towards God. In conclusion, high level of captivity awareness enhances motivation to seek for an escape path from mind or conceptual captivity. Within the site of travel, the “purification” process of imprisoning the soul is enhanced and it provides a path towards the exceptional kind of liberation.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Al-Qushayri, Abu ‘l-Qasim. 2007. Al-Qushayri’s epistle on Sufism (translated by A.D. Knysh). Reading: Garnet Publishing.
Avery, P. 1998. Foreword. In An Iranian in nineteenth century Europe: The travel diaries of Ha?jj Sayya?h, 1859–1877, Sayy??, Mu?ammad ?Al?, 11–13. Maryland: IBEX Publishers.
Chittick, W.C. 1989. The Sufi path of knowledge: Ibn al-?Arabi’s metaphysics of imagination. New York: State University of New York Press.
Cyprian, R. 2012. The Persian Sufis. Oxon: Routledge.
El-Ariss, T. 2013. Trials of Arab modernity: Literary affects and the new political. New York: Fordham University Press.
Ferdowsi, A. 1982a. ??jj Sayy??. In Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 5, 556–560. New York: Columbia University.
______1982b. ??jj Sayy??. In Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 6, 561. New York: Columbia University.
______2015. ??jj Sayy??: Fashioning a self by exploring the world. Middle East Review of IDE JETRO 2(2): 122–137.
Pedersen, C.V. 2012. Pre-modern and early modern Persian literature: Written while travelling? Persian Literary Studies Journal 1(1): 75–86.
Rastegar, K. 2007. Literary modernity between the Middle East and Europe. London: Routledge.
Sayy??, Mu?ammad ?Al?. 1967. Kha?irat-i ?ajj Sayya?: Ya Dawrah-yi Khawf va Va?shat (Ed. Sayy??, Hamid). Tihran: Gulkar.
______1984. Safarnama?-i ?ajj Sayya? bih Farang (Ed. Dihb?sh?, ?Al?). Tihran: Nashr-e Nashir.
______1998. An Iranian in nineteenth century Europe: The travel diaries of Ha?jj Sayya?h, 1859–1877 (translated by M.N. Deyhim). Maryland: IBEX Publishers.
Shah, I. 1990. Sufi thought and action. London: Octagon Press.