Analysis of the Application of Eliade’s Mythical View in Safvat al-Safa by Ibn-e Bazaz Ardabili

A descriptive-analytical critique of Ibn-e Bazaz Ardabili's Safvat al-Safa applies Mircea Eliade's theory of myth, which treats myth as sacred, exemplary, and repeatable. The hero, Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, achieves trans-human conditions by transforming sensory experience into religious experience, halting his profane existence and entering a world of light through supernatural forces. His mythical sanctity resembles archetypal divine models. Examples of Eliade's mythical times and places appear in the text. Through austerity, Sheikh Safi gains religious power, illumination, and inner self-recognition. His initiation involves hard tests and confined spaces representing rebirth, leading to divine manifestation (tajalli) and spiritual ascension where he meets angels.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Applying descriptive-analytical research method, the present study critiques and analyzes Ibn-e Bazaz Ardabili’sSafvat al-Safa based on the mythical view of Mircea Eliade. From the perspective of Eliade, myth is the most important from of real, sacred, and communal thinking and for this reason it is exemplary and repeatable. In myth, the hero achieves trans-human conditions by transforming the sensory experience into religious experience. The religiousness of this experience means that the individual’s existence in the profane world is halted, and he enters a world of light through supernatural forces. As a result, through applying religious experience, he can replicate mythical events. According to the mythical model of Eliade, the mythical sanctity of Sheikh Safi, Safvat al-Safa’s hero, resembles the gods’ archetype and primordial models. The examples and components of mythical times and places of Mircea Eliade are also evident in Safvat al-Safa. As Sheikh Safi uses a religious experience, he replicates the mythical events, and conforming to religious man’s example, he achieves a sense of religious power through austerity. Through this, he reaches illumination and inner self-recognition and his heart gets ready to accept the facts. At the stage of acquiring secret knowledge and being honored with initiation (tasharuf), the hard tests, and the compact and confined places for learning mystical mysticism are somehow representative of the embryonic world and rebirth. The hero reaches the divine manifestation (tajalli) through the stages of mystery-learning and initiation, and by his spiritual flight or ascension meets the angels face to face. Several examples of mythical models and repetitions are observed in the mystical experience of Sheikh Safi al-din Ardabili in Safvat al-Safa.