A stylistic review of a mystical treatise

Abstract

Amongst the many valuable manuscripts in Dr. Asghar Mahdavi‘s esteemed library, there is an important Persian mystical treatise, widely believed to date back to the 5^th or 6^th /11-12 centuries. Due to some lacunae both at the beginning and at the end of this manuscript and because no other copy of it has been found, neither the title nor the author of the treatise is known. The treatise is assumed to have been a written version of some mystic’s discourses, being in the same vein as other Sufi verbal teachings. The study of this work demonstrates that its author was a learned mystic,of the type of such personalities as Ahmad Ghazali and Ayn al-Qozat, who was, in addition to a knowledge of the Qor’an, Tradition, science of Shari’a, acquainted with Sufi experiences; that is, whatever he said resulted from his own direct experience.
Some of the linguistic peculiarities of the treatise, extensively discussed in the present article, indicate that it is very old, substantiating the conjecture that it is a 5^th-6^th century text. However, other features such as the high frequency of Arabic words and expressions reveal the treatise somewhat more recent, bringing it closer to the 7^th century texts.