Examining Sana’i’s Mystical Contradictions Based on Croce’s Aesthetic Theory

Abstract

The mystical poetry of Hakim Sana’i of Ghazna, as one of the foundational pillars of Persian Sufi literature, is deeply interwoven with paradoxes and seemingly contradictory propositions that challenge formal logic. This study, aiming to reinterpret these contradictions as the apex of Sana’i’s artistic power, employs a descriptive-analytical approach within the framework of Croce’s aesthetic theory of “intuition-expression.” Accordingly, the central paradoxical themes—such as self-denial, love, and annihilation (fanā)—were extracted and analyzed in two domains: “intuition” (raw mystical experience) and “expression” (its artistic formulation) in Sana’i’s Hadīqat al-Haqīqa. The findings demonstrate that Sana’i’s artistry lies in the “successful expression” and mastery of these tumultuous intuitions within a cohesive and aesthetically pleasing artistic form. Through the force of language, he casts contradictory content into a firm mold and triumphs over semantic disorder. Consequently, contradiction in Sana’i’s poetry is not a logical deficiency, but rather the “raw material” of art that attests to the victory of “expression” over “intuition,” and to the poet’s ability to transform conflict into a lasting and influential artistic object.