چکیده :
بیان مسئله: مجالس‌العشّاق (تألیف 909 ق.) یکی از تذکره‌های مهم و کهن زبان فارسی است.
تعدد دست‌نویس‌های آن، که به بیش از هشتاد نسخه می‌رسد، بیانگر ارزش و اهمیت آن نزد پیشینیان است.
با این وصف، در میان معاصران بیشتر به‌سبب محتوای نامتعارف آن و انتساب عشق مجازی به اولیا و بزرگان عرفان نقدهایی بر آن نوشته شده است.
روش: هدف ما در این مقاله ارائة نظریة عشق در مجالس‌العشّاق با تمسک به رویکردی تحلیلی و متن‌محور و گوشة چشمی به متغیرهای برون‌متنی خواهد بود.
در کانون ادبی ـ عرفانی هراتِ قرن نهم، دو جریان مرتبط با عشق وجود داشته است؛ نخست، جریانی که ناظر بر انحراف جنسی و انحطاط اخلاقی است و غالباً در جهان بیرون از متن جریان داشته است و ما برای نامیدن آن از استعارة جریان سیاه عشق مجازی بهره می‌بریم و دیگر جریانی که عمدتاً در جهان متن دیده می‌شود و ناظر بر عشق به زیبایی و صور جمال الهی است.
ما برای نامیدن این جریان از استعارة عشق مجازی سفید بهره گرفتیم.
یافته‌ها و نتایج: این تحقیق نشان می‌دهد نظریۀ عشقی مجالس‌العشّاق، از نوع جمال‌شناسی الهی و عشق‌ورزی به آن جمال در آینة صور زیباست؛ اما مفصل‌بندی نادرست این جریان عشقی و آمیختن آن با انحراف‌های جنسی که در جهان خارج از متن متداول بوده، سبب شده است در ذهن پژوهشگران تصور نادرستی از این کتاب ارجمند شکل بگیرد.
مسئلة اصلی مقالة حاضر به چالش کشیدن همین ذهنیّت‌های افراطی و تفریطی است.
majalis al-ushshaq written in 909 ah is one of the most important and ancient tazkeras in persian language.
the multiplicity of manuscripts, which reach more than 80 copies, shows its value and importance for the present men of letters and the predecessors.
nevertheless, it has been criticized by our contemporaries mostly because of its unusual content and attribution of carnal love to the saints and the great mystics and poets of persian literature.
thus, researchers have published articles that have led to its rejection and denial.
the textual analysis of this work, as well as research and contemplation in the contextual groundwork of its creation of the work, in the literary-mystical center of herat in the 9th century led us to find two branches related to love at that time.
there were two streams that we labeled as the black and white streams in this article by using the metaphor of colors, the black current showed sexual perversions and moral degeneration and the white current revealed love of beauties and the different forms of divine beauty in all levels of creation.
our research showed that the theory of love related to majalis al-ushshaq was a kind of divine aesthetics and falling in love with that beauty in the mirror of beautiful faces, but the incorrect articulation of this white love current and its incorporation into the opposite discourse, namely common sexual perversions, which the work itself might have been written to oppose it, by researchers have led to form a negative view of the work and as a result its gradual rejection from the history of persian literature.
introduction
majalis al-’ushshāgh (909 ah) is one of the most important and old tazkeras in persian literature.
the multiplicity of its manuscripts, which reach more than one hundred copies, shows its value and importance to our predecessors.
however, it has been criticized by many contemporaries for its unconventional content and attribution of carnal love (ešgh-e majāzi) to some mystics.
our aim in this article was be to present the theory of love in majalis al-’ushshāgh by relying on an analytical and text-based approach and paying little attention to extra-textual variables.
in the literary-mystical center of 9th century herat, there were two currents related to love.
first, the current that oversaw sexual perversion and moral degeneration often flew in the world outside the text; we used the metaphor of "the current of black love" to call it.
the other current was mainly seen in the text world and referred to the love of beauty and different forms of divine beauty.
we used the metaphor of "the current of white love" to call this flow.
this research showed that the love theory of majalis al-’ushshāgh was of the type of divine aesthetics and love for that beauty in the mirror of beautiful faces.
however, the incorrect articulation of this flow of love and its combination with sexual perversions that are common in the world outside the text had caused the researchers to form a misconception of this venerable book.
therefore, the main issue of the present article was to challenge these extremists and deviant mentalities.
research background
previous research has generally addressed the ethical issues of majalis al-’ushshāgh.
some have considered the book to be fabricated because some of its contents and the love presented in it have not corresponded to their views.
some other researches have dealt with the issue of book designing.
since the book has several illustrated manuscripts, it provides the necessary materials for researches in the fields of islamic art and book decoration.
theory of love
in this section, the following questions are raised: what was meant by love in general and carnal love (ešgh-e majāzi) in particular in majalis al-’ushshāgh? can we talk about love theory? does this work have a systematic look at the concept of love? and does it have a theoretical framework for its discussions?
conceptual review
to find an answer to these questions, the concept of love and its possible definitions were discussed here in majalis al-’ushshāgh.
it turned out that the meaning of love in this book was the same concept that the islamic mystics had considered of this word and they had presented it in their writings like munes al-'ushshāgh
the author used mystical meanings to define love.
according to him, love flew in everything and wherever there was beauty, love followed it.
love, beauty, and sorrow are three eternal creations of god.
after the death of adam, it was manifested in zuleikha, yusuf, and ya’qub.
these three elements are constantly seeking to return to their eternal oneness.
wherever there is beauty, there is a mirror for that eternal beauty and this mirror is in human beauty in its perfection.
the requirements of carnal love (ešgh-e majāzi)
this bipolar life of love and beauty and sorrow before and after the descent shows two kinds of love: one is a real love (divine love/ ešgh-e haghighi) and the other is carnal love (ešgh-e majāzi).
there are two possible interpretations of what is called majāz here: in a permissible interpretation, it is a thing against the truth and in another sense, it is a way and a bridge to cross the truth.
in carnal love (ešgh-e majāzi), both impressions are taken into account.
in other words, human beauty is a mirror of divine beauty and has no independent truth, while both loves have the same extents.
the unreal truth (majāzi) can draw the lover to that true beauty.
confrontation of two discourses
at the same time with the creation of majalis al-'ushshāgh, we face two currents, both of which have the titles of love.
one is purely earthly love mixed with sexual and moral perversions and the other is pure love far from lust.
evaluation of the book and analyzing its descriptions, metaphors, signs, and meanings showed that the love expressed in it was a kind of pure mystical love and it seemed that the author intended to distinguish his desired love from the deviant currents of the time.
conclusion
in the minds of some scholars, a false image of carnal love (ešgh-e majāzi) and the book of majalis al-'ushshāgh, which introduced this type of love had been formed in such a way that some had even considered the book to be fake.
this article tried to extract all the manifestations, definitions, descriptions, and metaphors of love in majalis al-'ushshāgh via a qualitative research method in order to reach the love theory of the book.
our research revealed that the love presented in this book was a follow-up to the mystical love of works, such as savāneh al-'ushshāgh, munes al-'ushshāgh, lamaāt, and a kind of plato's symposium.
in this work, love was found to be constructive and unifying and a path to true love (divine love/ešgh-e haghighi).
although under the influence of the cultural atmosphere of the time, in terms of gender, boys’ lovers are many in the books, there are also some examples of love for women.
this shows that love in its absolute state has been meant by the author, not for promoting sodomy as they have considered beauty to have different types and have often referred to its auditory type, love has varied types and is present in all beings, such as the love of magnets for iron.