Discourse Analysis of Refutation Treatises on Sufism in the Safavid Era

Abstract

AbstractThe contradictory and multidimensional relationship between Shi’ism, Sufism and monarchy in the Safavid period has led to the formation of particular discourses, propositions and discursive actions in that era. This relationship has been formed around the quest for socio-political legitimacy with the aim of stabilizing a desirable discursive order. The religious refutations by the Sufis and Shia clergy could be considered as political and ideological media aimed at challenging the political and social legitimacy of the rival discourse. In this paper, we attempt to investigate the way Persian refutations encountered Sufism during Safavid era with discourses about Sufism. This analysis is done at two textual and meta-textual levels. In textual analysis, using critical linguistic tools, we sought to identify the persuasive techniques and argumentative propositions deployed for confronting Sufism, and in meta-textual analysis we attempted to investigate the historical structures which affected the authors' approach and the relationship of the texts with effective historical mechanisms. From this perspective, it seems that the authors of refutations attempted to alienate the discourses of Sufism and reproduce the ideological distance between Sufism and Shi’ism by deploying certain strategies such as defaming the elites' reputation and decontextualizing the teachings of Sufism. The major discursive proposition of these treatises is the denial of any historical and epistemological relationship between Sufism and Shi’ism. The moderate approach of some elites of that era in criticizing Sufism can also be considered an attempt to stabilize the desired discursive order by dividing Sufism into two positive and negative poles.

Keywords

• sufism
• safavid era
• refutation writing
• critical discourse analysis
• shia clergy