میراث معنوی ابوالحسن خرقانی در آینه شعر عرفانی فارسی

Abul-Hasan Kharghani's Spiritual Legacy in the Mirror of Persian Sufi Poetry

Abstract

This research investigates the presence and significance of Abu al-Hasan Kharqānī (d. 425/1033), one of the most eminent Sufi masters of the Khurasanian School, in the corpus of classical Persian poetry. Kharqānī, a disciple in the spiritual lineage of Bāyazīd Bastāmī, is remembered as a saint of profound mystical insight and as a symbol of humility, self-annihilation, and boundless generosity. His aphorisms preserved in Nūr al-ʿUlūm, along with narratives recorded in hagiographical works such as ʿAṭṭār’s Tadhkirat al-Awliyāʾ and Jāmī’s Nafahāt al-Uns, profoundly influenced later Persian poets. The present study aims to explore how his image and teachings were remembered, reinterpreted, and poetically stylized from the 12th to the 15th century. Methodologically, the article follows a textual-analytical approach. It first reconstructs Kharqānī’s spiritual personality on the basis of primary sources, highlighting his ascetic ideals, his radical notions of divine love, and his humanitarian ethos epitomized in the dictum, “Whoever comes to this house, give him bread without asking about his faith.” It then traces the echoes of these themes in major poets of the Persian tradition. Sanāʾī of Ghazna (d. 1131), in his Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqa and lyrical poetry, portrays Kharqānī as a paradigm of self-denial and spiritual ecstasy. ʿAṭṭār (d. 1221), who devotes an entire chapter to him in Tadhkira, transforms his anecdotes into allegories of mystical truth and moral exemplarity. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 1273) refers to Kharqānī repeatedly in the Mathnawī and Dīwān-i Shams, where he is often invoked as a representative of ecstatic love and unmediated intimacy with God. In the Timurid period, Jāmī (d. 1492) continues this tradition in Nafahāt al-Uns, embedding Kharqānī’s memory in the canon of saintly figures celebrated by both poetry and prose. The analytical section of the study shows that Kharqānī’s image in poetry was not static but dynamic, constantly reshaped by different poets to serve their own mystical visions. For Sanāʾī, he represents the renunciation of worldly attachments; for ʿAṭṭār, he is an emblem of ecstatic paradox and divine intoxication; for Rūmī, a forerunner of universal love and annihilation in God; and for Jāmī, a bridge between the formative generations of Khurasanian Sufism and the later systematic tradition of the Naqshbandiyya. Through these poetic appropriations, Kharqānī became a timeless archetype of the Sufi saint whose presence transcended local boundaries and whose influence shaped the very language of Persian mysticism. The findings suggest that the mention of Kharqānī in Persian poetry is not merely anecdotal or hagiographical but deeply symbolic. His figure embodies central themes of Persian Sufism: fanāʾ (annihilation of the self), ʿishq (divine love), faqr (holy poverty), and khidmat (service to humanity). His legacy demonstrates how Persian poets turned historical Sufi figures into enduring spiritual symbols, thereby ensuring their continued relevance across centuries. In conclusion, Abu al-Hasan Kharqānī’s remembrance in Persian poetry illustrates the inseparability of mystical thought and poetic imagination in Persian literary culture. His enduring presence across diverse poets and periods underscores the continuity of the Persian Sufi tradition, in which biography and poetry intersect to articulate the ideals of divine love, humility, and spiritual transformation.