Revisiting the Shaṭḥiyyāt of Bayazid: Applying the Semiotic–Semantic Model to the Understanding of the Shaṭḥiyyāt of Bayazid Bastami

Abstract

Shaṭḥiyyāt, as the most prominent manifestations of ecstatic mystical discourse, transcend the boundaries of conventional language and constitute the most direct expressions of a mystic’s revelatory experiences. A review of the scholarly literature concerning the shaṭḥiyyāt of Bayazid Bastami reveals that most studies have focused on content-based interpretation, the elucidation of mystical dimensions, or the theological acceptance or rejection of these statements. Comparatively little attention has been devoted to examining the linguistic–semantic mechanisms and discursive systems that generate these extraordinary forms of expression. This theoretical gap motivated the present study to employ a discursive semiotic–semantic framework in order to revisit and analyze the process of meaning production within the shaṭḥiyyāt of Bayazid. The central research question concerns the discursive mechanisms and semiotic–semantic functions through which Bayazid’s shaṭḥiyyāt have generated their seemingly paradoxical yet profound semantic system. The study hypothesizes that shaṭḥiyyāt should not be understood as isolated and irrational utterances; rather, they operate within a dynamic discursive system through processes such as suspension, intense opposition, and semiotic–semantic tension. Functioning as indexical and manifestational signs, they facilitate a transition from conventional meanings toward the domain of the sacred. This study adopts a descriptive–analytical methodology and focuses on textual examples drawn from the shaṭḥiyyāt attributed to Bayazid Bastami. The findings indicate that Bayazid, through a heterogenizing approach and by employing semiotic–semantic processes of aesthetic formation and rupture from the conventional world, advanced mystical discourse to the threshold of semiotic disintegration and established a unique event-based order in which language liberates itself from the erosion of meaning. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that shaṭḥ is more than a form of linguistic audacity; it constitutes an epistemological mechanism for expressing the unknowable through the dismantling of the existing semiotic system.