Abstract
Poetry before and after Sanai is drastically different in all poetic forms. Not even the most famous Persian poets such as Attar, Hafiz or Mevlana Rumi had such an influence on literature. Sanai is innovative in writing all kinds of poetry and is unique in the history of Persian literature for founding Gnostic literature. Although Sanai's Hadiqa al-Haqiqa is his greatest masterpiece both in terms of scope and influence on later poets, the story of the spiritual journey of Seyr al-Ibad has attracted more attention from scholars of the world literature. The reason for this interest is the similarity of Sanai's allegorical story with other world literary works such as Dante's Divine Comedy, Ma'arri's Risala al-Ghufran and the story of the heavenly journey of Prophet Muhammad, i.e. the story of mi'raj. Sanai wrote Seyr al-Ibad in about 700 verses in the city of Sarakhs. Sanai dedicated this book to his friend Muhammad ibn Mansur Sarakhsi, the judge of Sarakhs. The last 260 verses contain a eulogy to Sarakhsi. In this paper, we will try to investigate the importance of Sanai's poetry in the development of Islamic mystical literature, and to determine how influential Seyr al-Ibad is in this respect.
Published Version
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