The History of the Ideas of “Absence” and “Presence” in the Khafīfīyya Order in Shiraz

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Tehran Institute of Human Sciences

2 Master of islamic history, Alzahra University, Tehran

Abstract

The Khafīfīyya Order is attributed to Ibn Khafīf, Sūfī of the fourth century AH (882/982) who lived and died in Shiraz. Absence (ghaybah) and Presence (ḥoḍūr) are basic ideas in the Ibn Khafīf's school and there is nothing left but brief statement of this attribution to Ibn Khafīf, the founder of the Khafīfīyya Order which has been briefly mentioned in the sources. Since no independent research has been done on Ibn Khafīf's social approaches, the main concern of this article is to examine the reason for the importance of the mentioned ideas in Ibn Khafīf's thought and how its meaning is inferred in this way. In this research, using Chandler's semiotic approach, the ideas of "absence/ presence" upon this method will be investigated. The results of this study show that IbThe Khafīfīyya Order is attributed to Ibn Khafīf, Sūfī of the fourth century AH (882/982) who lived in Shiraz. The concepts of Absence (ghaybah) and Presence (ḥoḍūr) are central ideas in Ibn Khafīf's school. However, the existing literature provides only a brief mention of this attribution to Ibn Khafīf, the founder of the Khafīfīyya Order. Given the lack of in-depth study on Ibn Khafīf's social approaches, this article seeks to elucidate the significance of mentioned ideas within Ibn Khafīf's intellectual framework and expound on the interpretation of their meanings. This research adopts Chandler's semiotic approach to delve into the ideas of "absence and presence" within context. The findings of this study reveal that Ibn Khafīf endeavored to show isolation and seclusion as different and sometimes even contradictory acts of abstinent (tark) from worldly matters.n Khafīf tried to show isolation and seclusion as different and even contradictory acts of abstinent (tark) from the world.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  •  

    • Aṭṭār, Shaykh Fariduddin (1996). Taẓkirat al-Awliyā. Translated by Abdolwahhāb Qazvini. Tehran: Milād Publication.
    • Baqlī Shirāzī, Ruzbahān (2001). Abhar Al-'Asheghin.Translated into Persian by Javād Nourbakhsh. Tehran: Yaldā Qalam Publishing.
    • Baqlī Shirāzī, Ruzbahā Sharḥ-e Shaṭḥiāt (1965). Edited by Henry Corbin. Tehran: Iran-France Institute.
    • Chandler, Daniel (2007). Semiotics: the basics. Routledge.
    • Chittick, William C (2010). Sūfīsm: A Short Introduction. Translated into Persian by Jalil Parvin. Tehran: Hekmat Publishing.
    • Cragg, Kenneth (1976). The wisdom of the Sūfīs. London: Sheldon Press.
    • Daylamī, Abū Al-Hassan Ali ibn Mohammad (1984). Sīrat al-shaykh al-kabīr ibn al-Khafīf. Edited by Annemarie Schimmel. Translated into Persian by Rukn al din Yahyā ibn Junayd Shirāzī. Tehran: Bābak Publication.
    • Daylamī, Abū Al-Hassan Ali ibn Mohammad (2011). Kitāb ʻaṭf al-alif al-maʼlūf ʻalá al-lām al-maʻṭūf. Edited by Jean Claude Vadet. Qazvin: Sāyeh Gostar Publishing.
    • Geeraets, Dirk (2010). Theories of lexical semiotics. Oxford University Press.
    • Hujwīrī, Abū Al-Hasan Ali ibn Uthmān (2006). Kashf ul Maḥjūb. Edited by Reynold A. Nicholson. Translated into Persian by Mahmoud Abedi. Tehran: Sorush Publication.
    • Ibn Jawzī, Abū Al-Faraj (1990). Talbis Iblis. Translated into Persian by Alireza Zekāvati Qaregozlu. Tehran: Dāneshgāhi Publication Center.
    • Ibn Khafīf, Abū 'Abd Allah Muhammad (1984 a). "Al-Mu'taqid" In Sīrat al-shaykh al-kabīr, by Junayd Shirāzī, edited by Annemarie Schimmel. Tehran: Bābak Publication.
    • Ibn Khafīf, Abū 'Abd Allah Muhammad (1984 b). "Waṣiat" In Sīrat al-shaykh al-kabīr, by Junayd Shirāzī, edited by Annemarie Schimmel. Tehran: Bābak Publication.
    • Isfahānī, Abū Na'eem (2005). Tahdhib Heliat Al-Owliā. New Andalus (Darolandelus Jadida) Publishing House.
    • Izutsu, Toshihiko (1999). Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur'an. Translated into Persian by Fereidoon Badreii. Tehran: Farzān rooz.
    • Jāmī, Abd Al-Raḥmān (n.d). Nafaḥāt al-Uns: Biographies of the Sūfī Saints. Translated by Mehdi Tohidipour. Mahmoudi Bookstore.
    • Junayd Shirāzī, Mo'īn al-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim (1949). Shadd al-izār fī ḥaṭṭ al-awzār ʿan zuwwār al-mazār. Edited by Mohammad Qazvini and Abbass Eqbal. Tehran: Navid Publishing.
    • Kalābāzī, Abū Bakr (1994). Al ta'aruf li madhhab ahlul taṣawwuf. Edited by A j Arberry. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khā
    • Karamustafa, Ahmet (2007). Sūfīsm: the formative period (the new edinburgh Islamic survays). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    • Kiani Javadi, Mohsen (1990). The history of Monastery (Khānqāh) in Iran. Tehran: Tahoori.
    • Kraus, Ed., and Louis Massignon (2011). Akhbār Al Hallāj. Translated by Omid Hallā Tehran: Jāmī Publication.
    • Massignon, Louis (2011). The Passion of Al-Hallāj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam. Translated into Persian by Seyyed Ziā ul-Din Dehshiri. Tehran: Jāmī Publication.
    • Ma'ṣūm Alishāh, Muhammad Ma'ṣūm Shirāzī (n.d).Tarā'eq al-Haqāyeq. Translated into Persian by Mohammad Jafar Mahjoob. Tehran: Bārāni Library.
    • Meier, Fritz (1999). "A book of etiquette for Sūfīs." In Essays on islamic piety and mysticism, by Fritz Meier, edited by Bernd Radtke, translated into English by John O'kane, 49-92. Leiden: Brill.
    • Minorsky, Vladimir (1955). Abu Dulaf travels in Iran. Cairo: Cairo University.
    • Mojtabaei, Fathollah (2020), "Ibn Khafif", Tehran: Center for Iranian and Islamic Studies, The center for the great Islamic encyclopedia: https://cgie.org.ir/fa/article/223054/ابن-خفیف, Access: 6.1.2023.
    • Nasafī, Aziz-al-Din (2003). Zobdeh al-Haqāyeq. Edited by Haqverdi Nā Tehran: Tahoori Publication.
    • Nicholson, Reynold A (1979). Sūfīsm: The Mysticism of Islam. Translated into Persian by Mohammadreza Shafiei Kadkani. Tehran: Toos Publication.
    • Palmer, Frank Robert (1988). semiotics. Translated into Persian by Kourosh Safavi. Tehran: Markaz Publication.
    • Qushayrī, Abd Ul Karim (1966). Al-Risāla al-Qushayrīyya (Qushayrī's Epistle). Edited by Badi'ozzamān Forūzā Tehran: Book translation and publishing corporation.
    • Rashād, Muhammad (1974). Khafīf-I Shirāzī.
    • Suhrawardī, Sheikh Shahābuddin Umar (1996). Awārif Ul Ma'ārif. Translated into Persian by Abū Mansūr ibn Abd al-Mo'men Isfahāni Ansārī. Tehran: Science and Culture Publication.
    • Sulamī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (1975). Tabaqāt al-Sūfīyya. Edited by Nour Al-Din Shariba. Cairo: Al-Azhar Mosque.
    • Tritton, A.S (1951). Islam: belief and practices. London: Hutchinson and co-publisher.
    • Tūsī, Abū Naṣr Al-Sarrāj (2003). Al-Luma' fi L Taṣawwuf. Edited by Raynold Nickelson. Translated into Persian by Mehdi Mohebati. Tehran: Asātir Publication.
    • Vadet, Jean Claude (1993). L'Esprit Courtois en Orient Dans les Cinq Premiers Siècles de l'Hégire. Translated into Persian by Javād Adīdī. Tehran: Dāneshgāhi Publication.
    • Zarkoob Shirazi, Mu'eenuddin Ahmad (1931). Shirāznāmeh. Tehran: Farhang Iran Institute.
    • Zarrīnkūb, Abdolhossein (1983). Donbāleh Jostojū Dar Taṣawwūf I Iran. Tehran: Amir Kabir Publication.
    • Zarrīnkūb, Abdolhossein (2009). Arzesh I Mīrath I Sūfīyya. Tehran: Amir Kabir Publication.

    Articles

    • Abbasi, Rushain (2020). "Did Premodern Muslims Distinguish the Religious and Secular? The Dīn–Dunyā Binary in Medieval Islamic Thought." Journal of Islamic Studies31, no. 2: 185-225.
    • Akbarī, Zeinab, and Farzān Sojūdī (2014). "Critical Analysis of the Discourse of the Stages of the Sūfī Elders." Journal of Classical Literature, no. 4.
    • Alāgheh, Fātemeh (2000). "Sharaf Al-Foqarā" Philoshophy and Speech: Knowledge 46: 98-132.
    • Bargnīsī, Kāzem, and Fātemeh Alāgheh (1999). "Faḍl ul-Taṣawwuf al al-Madhāhib" Philoshophy and Speech: Knowledge 43 and 44: 51-80.
    • Mostafavī, Rezā, and Nedā Shajarī (2020). "The Social Pathology of Sūfī Asceticism from Saadi's Perspective." 2: 83-99.
    • Sobieroj, Felorian (1997). "A new source for Ibn Ḫafīf's biography. Ibn Ḫafīf's Vita in Ibn ‛Asākir's Ta'rīḫ Dimašq." Journal of the history and culture of the Islamic orient (Published by De Gruyter September 29, 2009) 74: 305-335.
    • Sobieroj, Florian (1998). "Ibn Khafīf's Kitāb al-Iqtiṣād and Abū al-Najīb al-Suhrawardī's Adāb al-murīdīn: A comparison between two works on the training of novices." Journal of semitic studies 43, no. 2: 327-345.
    • Tāherī, Fātemeh, and Maryam Pākdel (2019). "An analysis of poverty on mystical prose texts until the 7th century A.H." Textual criticism of Persian literature 42: 111-125.
Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History
Volume 14, Issue 35
July 2023
Pages 169-189

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 14 July 2022
  • Revise Date: 15 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 27 February 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics