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I Avicenna and Islamic Allegory Islamic allegory represents a vast body of literature. It encompasses diverse genres-romance, "visionary recital," exegesis, debate (muna~ara), and fable. And its encoded "messages" stem from such varied disciplines as philosophy, mysticism, theology, political theory, and social and political satire. Despite this diversity in form and content, Islamic allegory is the product of a cohesive literary tradition. Writers of allegories belonged to a cosmopolitan class of Muslim elites who shared a common, often multilingual , educational background in the religious, intellectual, and literary sciences. One has only to note the frequency and ease with which individual scholars or writers moved throughout the Islamic world, as testified to by the peripatetic lives of such figures as Muhyi d-Din ibn 'Arabi (d. 638/1240)or Ialal ad-Din Rumi (d. 672/1273),or to consider the significant degree of cultural interaction in which, for example, the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mogul elites engaged, to appreciate the extent of the cultural homogeneity that reigned throughout the Soc-year period (from the 4th/loth to the rzth/rxth centuries) in which Islamic allegory flourished.' Composers of allegories were eminently aware that they participated in a unified literary tradition. They were intimately versed in the major contributions of their predecessors and frequently were influenced by, reacted against, or interacted with earlier works. As a result, the tradition as a whole displays a high measure of literary and intellectual self-consciousness and intertextual reference.> Few figures contributed as significantly to this tradition of allegory as the prominent Muslim philosopher, Abu 'Ali l-Husain ibn Sini (Avicenna, 370/980-428/1037). He stands close to its historical starting point, and he exerted an enormous influence on its later development, both as the creator of an authoritative philosophical system and as an important practitioner of the genre. Indeed, his literary activities encompassed all aspects of allegory. He composed several prominent narratives (Ifayy ibn Yaq~anJ Risdlat at-tair, Salaman and Absal) that are significant in themselves and exerted a profound influence on later proponents of the genre." He wrote 4- Introduction interpretive allegory or allegoresis, including the Mi(raj Nama and short commentaries on selected verses or chapters of the Qur'an." Finally, Avicenna 's allegories were themselves the subject of exegesis, receiving frequent attention from later philosophers, theologians, and mystics." The Study of Premodern Islamic Allegory Despite the existence of a coherent tradition of allegory from relatively early times, there has been a profound lack of modern scholarly study of Islamic allegory. No general historical survey exists, even in the form of a straightforward bibliographical description, that endeavors to chart the linguistic, temporal, and geographical parameters of the field. General literary historians, such as E. G. Browne and Jan Rypka for Persian literature or E. J. W. Gibb for Ottoman poetry, note the allegorical nature of individual works and at times provide interpretive decoding of allegories, but they do not address the concomitant historical or theoretical issues in any direct fashion. Even such recent contributions as the volume edited by Ehsan Yarshater, which contains commendable chapters on various genres-epic, lyric, romance-and essays on individual major figures-Ni~ami, Sa'di, Hafiz-s-docs not discuss the genre of allegory per sc." Although the present scope of our knowledge renders any attempt at a comprehensive survey premature, it is nonetheless possible to identify prominent landmarks around which future research should be organized. One such landmark is The Book of Kalila and Dimna by Ibn al-Muqaffa' (d. 139/756). This is a narrative of seminal significance, for it introduces into Islamic literature a genre of beast fable that has already attained a high degree of self-consciousness and sophisticated self-reflection. The book begins with three introductions that narrate the history of the work and of its transmission from the time of its supposed composition by the Indian sage Bidpai until its. translation from Pahlavi into Arabic by Ibn alMuqaffa '. Significant from the perspective of the history of Islamic allegory is that these introductions are replete with directives about how the book was formulated by a philosopher for the benefit of intellectuals ((uqala/) who should seek in it the secrets of wisdom (al-IJikma). Although Kalila and Dimna largely falls into the genre of political and moralistic allegory, a rationalist tradition of "double meaning" is obviously wellrepresented here." Another landmark of allegory is The Treatises of the Brethren of Sin- [3.134.104.173] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 17:19...

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