Legitimizing the “Pir” Figure and Its Link to the Dominant Discourse of the “Prophet’s Sīra” in Asrār al-Tawḥīd and Maqāmāt-i Zhinda Pīl: A van Leeuwenian Analysis

Document Type : Persian Research Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature. Semnan University. Semnan. Iran

2 PhD student in Persian Language and Literature, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

Abstract

Sufi maqāmāt and manāqib literature, by presenting a supra-human image of Sufi masters, provides a fertile ground for processes of legitimation. Drawing on the persuasive power of language on the one hand, and aligning these figures with the Prophet’s sīra on the other, such texts represent Sufi shaykhs as social actors. This descriptive–analytical study, grounded in Theo van Leeuwen’s critical discourse analysis, examines the strategies used to legitimize the “pir” figure and their connection to the dominant discourse of the Prophet’s sīra in Asrār al-Tawḥīd and Maqāmāt-i Zhinda Pīl. The findings show that the legitimation of the “pir” in imitation of the Prophet’s sīra appears in both works under three broad categories: mythopoetic narration, moral evaluation (analogy), and authorization. Subcategories include attributed karāmāt (miraculous deeds), adherence to the Prophet’s traditions, the spiritual genealogy of the path (the donning of the khirqa), the archetype of practice, and related devices. Overall, Asrār al-Tawḥīd proves more successful than Maqāmāt-i Zhinda Pīl in constructing a legitimate portrait of Abū Saʿīd Abū al-Khayr, as against that of Aḥmad-i Jām. This is both because the central figure of the former work lends himself to such representation, and because the author skillfully transforms motifs from the Prophet’s sīra into lived, affective experience, making fuller use of the mechanisms associated with that sīra.

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