International Society for Iranian Studies

A Persian Sufi Poem: Vocabulary and Terminology by Bo UtasReview by: Annemarie SchimmelIranian Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3/4 (Summer - Autumn, 1979), pp. 305-306Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310327 .

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A Persian Sufi Poem: Vocabulary and Terminology. By Bo Utas. Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series No. 36. London and Malmo: Curzon Press, 1977. 294 + 54 pp.

Annemane Schimmel

A few years ago, Bo Utas published a useful critical investigation into a mathnav7 ascribed to Sana'i, the tariq at-tah)qiq, which, as he could prove on the basis of 24 man- uscripts and five printed editions, is the work of Ahmad-i Nachchavani. In this new study, the Swedish scholar returns once more to the same poem, this time aiming at a descrip- tion of the vocabulary. He takes up the recent linguistic studies, such as Osmanov's Wordlist, and offers a complete concordance of all Persian words (the category "word" is first defined); it comprises 2,159 entries. Rank/frequen- cy relations are illustrated in tables and graphs, and the quantitative result of the Arabic loanword vocabulary, which is one of the two major subjects of this study, is compared with results of previous word counts in neo-Persian. But I think that it was known even before the invention of the computer that the Arabic vocabulary of neo-Persian texts is largely determined by the topic. A particularly inter- esting, and to me the most important, part of the book is the statistics of the Sufi vocabulary with approximately 600 entries; however, I was not able to fully understand why so many key terms that are typical of Sufi texts--from alast to v3jib al-vujud--are excluded. Utas rightly stresses the inherent tendency of dichotomy in the Sufi terminology (which is found already in the oldest Arabic texts and gives Sufi poetry, up to Iqbal in our century, its specific fla- vor). A list of antonyms if given, and the most frequent placements of key terms in the verse--either in the rhyme of in a rhythmically important foot--are discussed. As for Cadam, one instance in Rumi is cited; the concept of Cadam

Annemarie Schimmel is a Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture at Harvard University.

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belongs to the most protean words in Maulana's terminology (vd. my Triumphal Sun, pp. 239-44) and would deserve a spe- cial study. Utas then compares the Sufi vocabulary of the tarlq at-ta1qlq with the terms offered in the studies of Massignon, Nwyia, Nicholson, and others, and thus provides the student with a good tool for further research in the de- velopment of terminology. A critical text of the farlq at- ta4qlq is given as an appendix.

"A Persian Sufi Poem" is a useful, carefullyprepared book that offers everything that can be expected from a com- puterized approach to Persian poetry. But what about the art of the poet who, after all, does not write his verse with a view to statistics? The poet is a human being who (as much as Persian poetry follows strict conventions) en- joys inspiration at times, and fails at times in his attempts to convey his experiences. As Maulana Rumi says: "Have you ever plucked a rose from R-O-S-E?"

A Survey of Persian Handicraft: A Pictorial Introduction to the Contemporary Folk Arts and Art Crafts of Modern Iran. Edited by Jay Gluck and Sumi Hiramoto Gluck; Teheran, New York, London, Ashiya (Japan); Survey of Persian Art; 1535/ 1977. 416 pp.

Samuel R. Peterson

The latest of the sequels to the milestone in Irani- an art studies published in 1938-39, A Survey of Persian Art (edited by the late Arthur Upham Pope), A Survey of Persian Handicraft is one of several attempts in recent years to give Iranian handicrafts scholarly consideration.

Samuel R. Peterson is Assistant Professor of Islamic Art at Arizona State University.

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