Persian Literature

Persian Literature

Criticism and historical evaluation of nine stories of Attar Neishabouri's Tazkira Al-Awliya

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Hamidreza Fahandezhsaadi 1
Abdolreza Seif 2
1 Department of Persian language and literature. faculty of literature and human science. university of Tehran. Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran. Tehran, Iran.
10.22059/jpl.2023.357386.2163
Abstract
The authenticity of some of the contents of mystical texts, especially the books that focus more on the biographies and sayings of Sufis, has always been the subject of discussion. Discussions and criticisms will increase when they are supposed to use the narrations of such books in compiling historical details and facts. One of these books is Attar's Tazkira al-Awliya, which, although it is one of the first books in Persian that deals with the sayings and anecdotes of Sufis and has a unique prose, its statements cannot be trusted in absolute terms. In this essay, after an introduction about Tazkira al-Awliya, due to the occurrence of historical errors in books of tazkira and authorities will be discussed, and then nine of the propositions of this book will be examined and criticized from a historical perspective, and the audience will find out that the story of Imam Sadiq in the meeting of Mansour Davanighi is influenced by the interpretation of the story of the miracle of Prophet Moses with the magicians, which is given in Tafsir Beizawi. Abu Hazem Madani had no connection with Abu Hurairah and it is difficult to consider him as one of the "Tabe’in" elders. Abdullah Mubarak died before Fozayl Ayaz and it is not possible that he said anything in mourning the death of Fazil Ayaz. Bayazid Bastami's discipleship with Imam Sadiq was once again investigated and rejected. Imam Shafi'i was never a disciple of Malik Dinar. Imam Shafi'i was the predecessor of Ahmad Hanbal. It is not possible that Abdullah Mubarak went to visit Ahmad Hanbal. None of the caliphs of the time have fallen to the ground with the curse of Sufyan Thori. The youth of Shaqiq Balkhi was not comparable to the reign of Ali Ibn Isa Mahan.
Keywords
Tazkira al-Awliya
historical error
reasons
deletion of documents
name similarity
making genealogy
Tashif
Subjects
 
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