عنوان

The tavern of the manifestation of realities:

TLpq1447023341

انگلیسی

The tavern of the manifestation of realities:

[Thesis]

Hajnalka Kovacs

The "Masnavi Muhit-i azam" by Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil (1644--1720)

M. Alam

The University of Chicago

2013

273

Ph.D.

The University of Chicago

2013

My dissertation provides an introduction to the poetry and mystical thought of Mirza Abd al-Qadir Bedil (1644-1720), perhaps the foremost representative of the so-called "Indian style" of Persian poetry, through the study of his first long narrative poem, Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am ("The Greatest Ocean," 1667). In this poem, composed in the form of a saqinamah (poem to the cupbearer), Bedil illustrates, with the symbolism of wine, the Unity of Being behind the multiplicity of the phenomena. I discuss the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am from generic, thematic, and stylistic points of view, applying the dual approach of close reading of the poem and intertextuality. I argue that Bedil redefined the bacchanalian saqinamah genre by giving the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am a well-defined structure which is rooted, on the one hand, in traditional Islamic cosmology, and in Ibn al- Arabi's system of metaphysics, on the other. In this context I examine how the conventional elements of the saqinamah genre and stories and discourses of both Islamic and Indic origin are integrated within the conceptual framework of the poem. In particular, I discuss Bedil's adaptation of the tale of King Lavana, a tale that originates in the popular Hindu philosophical work Yogavasisht[dotbelow]ha. I argue that in the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am, in keeping with the emphasis in the saqinamah genre on the transformation of the self, the tale of King Lavan[dotbelow]a serves to underscore not so much the notion that the world is an illusion and a mental construct as the need for purifying the heart so that it can reflect the One Reality. Finally, I show how Bedil deployed the convention of meditations on the art of speech/poetry to address, by way of a unique, poetic approach to Ibn al- Arabi's ontology, the dilemma of the ontological necessity of speech versus the epistemological problem of the ineffability of Reality. The dissertation establishes the Muh[dotbelow]it[dotbelow]-i a ́z[dotbelow]am not only as a unique transformation of the saqinamah genre in the late Mughal period but also a highly original poetic treatment of a synthesis of the theoretical Sufism of Ibn al- Arabi's school and ideas derived from the Indian religious and cultural milieu. With this work I aim to fill one of the many lacunae in Bedil studies, as well as to contribute to the growing literature of the critical reappraisal of the Safavid-Mughal poetry.

Bidil, `Abd al-Qadir

Language, literature and linguistics

Masnavi Muhit-i a`zam

Mystical thought

Poetry

Social sciences

Hajnalka Kovacs

M. Alam

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y