A Persian Sufi Poem

Vocabulary and Terminology: Concordance, frequency word-list, statistical survey, Arabic loan-words and Sufi-religious terminology in ?ar?q-ut-ta?q?q (A.H. 744)

Bo Utas

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351672535
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book, first published in 1978, treats methods of describing the total and special vocabularies of a given text and demonstrates a procedure of description of the vocabulary of the Sufi Mathnavi poem ?ar?q-ut-ta?q?q, composed in the middle of the fourteenth century. The book gives a complete concordance, also indicating inflexional forms, and a complete frequency word-list of this New Persian text. The word-lists are followed by a statistical survey of the general vocabulary, the Arabic loan-words and the Sufi-religious terminology.

VI. THE SUFI-ŔELIGIOUS VOCABULARY

A. DEFINITION OF SUFI-RELIGIOUS TERMS

Ṭarīq ut-taḥqīq is partly an ethico-religious, partly a Sufi didactic poem. Its Sufi terminology is to a great extent identical with its general religious terminology. It seems impossible to separate the two. In this investigation they will be studied together under the designation Sufi-religious terminology or vocabulary.

An exact delimitation of a terminology of this character is probably impossible. Previous investigators in this field (see below) have generally avoided taking a direct stand on this difficult problem. The terminological nature of certain words has been taken for granted, which means that the process of selection of the terms has been directed by intuitive criteria. This may lead to acceptable results for most purposes, but the aims of the present study being to a certain extent quantitative and statistical, it has been judged necessary to establish explicit criteria for the selection of terms. In order to keep the focus on the terminology actually in use in the discussed text (as opposed to possible occurrences in the text of a generally current Sufi-religious terminology), it was desirable to find criteria which are relatively independent of external factors. The set of criteria established for this purpose is described below. The given definitions are far from being incontestable and should be considered as tentative, but once established they have been applied as strictly as possible. This has doubtless led to a number of cases where the inclusion or exclusion of a word seems peculiar, but for quantitative reasons it has been necessary to make a choice in each case and to base that choice on the explicit criteria only.

The main criterion is the “religious charge” of a word. This is taken to mean the use of a word in a religious context, so that it has either a positive or a negative sense religiously – in opposition to words/uses relating to worldly affairs or neutral religious circumstances, considered to have the religious charge zero. A word is considered a Sufi-religious term if it is found to be used with a religious charge once or more than once in the text. In combinations of words through iḍāfah or other close grammatical ties, only one of the words in a religiously charged expression is generally considered a term. The other word/words is/are considered to be only “coloured” by the charge of the term in question.

It will be noticed (see further Chapter VI.D.) that the terms tend to occur in pairs, either antithetically (“antonyms”, generally positive with negative) or correlatively (“paronyms”, positive with positive or negative with negative) or, but seldom, synonymously.¹ This quality is used as a supplementary criterion for the selection of terms, so that the occurrence of a word in apparent antonymity, paronymity or synonymity with a word otherwise defined as a term will quality this word, too, as a term.

Only nouns and adjectives are included, with the exclusion of proper names, titles, compound words containing a proper name or title, quotations in Arabic and compound words held together with Arabic grammatical devices. Arabic duals, broken plurals and elatives and Persian comparative and superlative forms are counted as separate words and are given separate entries in the list of terms (with reference to the ground form entry).

These rules lead to a number of consequences that may seem less fortunate. A number of words that obviously belong to the religious sphere are excluded from the “terminology” under investigation. The most important of those words are the following:

ʿamal, action

ʿālam, world

ʿīsī (ʿīsā), Jesus

ajal, hour of death

alast, the Primal Convenant

arsalnā, “We sent” (i.e. the wisdom of the Prophet)

asfal us-sāfilīn, the lowest hell

auṣāf, attributes

ādam, human being, Adam

āfarīniš, creation

bātin, inside, internal

bīm, fear

but-kadah, idol-temple

čār-yār, the four (first) caliphs

daʿvat, invitation, propaganda

dil-sūxtah, bereaved

fadāʾil, virtues

fasād, corruption

fiṭrat, nature, creation

gūr, grave

hayūlā, matter

habīb, Muhammad

hašr, resurrection

ḥāl, state

ḥujjat, proof

iblīs, Iblis (Satan)

i

bāt, affirmation

jahd, exertion

Jānn, genii (pi. of 3inn) .

jilvah, manifestation

jismānī, corporeal

kaʿbah, Kaaba

kalām, word (of God, the Koran)

ṭilism, spell

kalīm, Moses

kasb, acquisition

kaun, existence

kaunain, the two existences

kāʿināt, created beings

kull, all, universal, universe

kun, “be!” (i.e. creation)

lauḥ, (the guarded) tablet

maḥšar, the last judgment

majbūr, constrained

majrūḥ, wounded

makān, place, space

makārim ul-axlāq, the noblest virtues

xāṣ ul-xāṣ, the super-elect

manzil, halting-place

maqām, station

Masīḥ, Messiah

masjid, mosque

Miḥnat, probation

mumkināt, contingencies

munazzah, exempt, pure

murīd, disciple

muxtār, free (in one’s action)

nafy, negation

Nušūr, resurrection

qaḍā, (God’s) decree, fate

qahr, (conquering) force

qiyāmat, resurrection

rāhib, monk

rūzgār, fortune, age

rūzī, daily bread, lot

subḥānī, “glory to me”

sūrah, Sura

šarr, evil

tasnīm, Tasnim (fountain in Paradise

ṭavāf, circumambulation

umīd, hope

ū, He (i.e. God)

valīyu’llāh’, friend of God, saint

vaqf, endowment

vaqt, time

vājib ul-vujūd, the necessary being

xair , good

xalīl, Abraham

xalq, creation, creatures

xarābāt, tavern

xāliq ul-xalq, the Creator

xātam, seal (of the prophets)

xirqah, patched (Sufi) frock

zamān, time

ẓāhir, outside, external

On the other hand, a number of ad-hoc compositions like falak pāyah, malak-sāyah, xujastah-pai, xujastah-qadam, and long compounds like bī-mi

l-u-šibh have been included.

Another difficulty is found in the fact that only separate words are counted and treated. Compound concepts, like ʿaql-i kull (universal reason), ʿuqūl-i ūlā (first reasons), nafs-i kull (universal soul) and nafs-i ammārah (commanding soul), are mentioned only under the main word (ʿaql, ʿuqūl, nafs, etc.) in the list of terms.

Metaphoric use of words and compound expressions also presents some difficulty. Generally, metaphors, images and similes are treated in the same way as other words and groups of words with regard to their religious charge. Thus, e.g., bādah-yi šauq (148) gives only šauq as a term, bādah az jām-i maʿrifat (381) only maʿrifat, bādah … a-z xum-i tahqīq (430) only tahqīq, luqmah az sufrah-yi ṭarīqat (445) only ṭarīqat, mai zi-xum- xānah-yi ḥaqīqat (445) only ḥaqīqat, luqmah az sufrah-yi balā (673) only balā, mai zi-xum-xanāh-yi riḍā (673)only riḍā, and mai-i viṣāl-i qidam (430) both viṣāl and qidam (based also on other occurrences).

This means that metaphors and images not used independently cannot be included in the terminology, while independent metaphors may be conceived of as religiously charged. But in such cases the word occurs in a complete and integrated sense in which the metaphoric use is scarcely obvious, as e.g. dad, dadī, dil-sitān, dil-šikasta...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• I. INTRODUCTION
• II. CONCORDANCE
• III. FREQUENCY WORD-LIST
• IV. STATISTICAL SURVEY OF THE GENERAL VOCABULARY
• V. THE ARABIC LOAN-WORD VOCABULARY
• VI. THE SUFI-RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY
• VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• APPENDIX: Critical text of Ṭarīq ut-taṬqīq