An Analysis of the History of Safavid Sufism and Shi'ism in Bahr al-Asrar Masnavi

Abstract

Sufism and Shi'ism in Iran's history has been discovered before any land and many Shia mysticism are Iranians directly or indirectly create great works in this field. One of the greatest thinkers of Iran's mysticism in the early Qajar period was Muhammad-taghi Mozafar Kermani known as Mozafar-ali Shaah who was disciple of Moshtagh-ali Shah. Bahr al-Asrar interpretation is a mystical interpretation written by Surah al-Hamd in Masnavi which takes about 4,000 distiches as it expresses the issue of existence based on the philosophy of Ibn Arabic and the learning of Surah al-Hamd, then, it identifies the guardianship of Imam Ali (AS), a basic condition of Islamic mysticism to access eternal bliss. The poet in this Masnavi, after expressing Surah al-Hamd in twenty Bahrs, expresses the unity of existence, appearance, and inner meanings of Islam, and divides faith and mysticism into seven rounds and calls it the Seven Periods. The poet expresses his views as he expresses the Periods, the rise of Shi'ism and Sufism (mysticism) from the beginning of Islam until the advent of the Promised. This study tried to investigate and criticize Muzafar-ali Shah's beliefs in the roots of Sufism and Shi'ism and the expression of Seven Periods as well as his views about the Taghieh that is one of the most important principles of Shi'ism.

Keywords

• Sufism
• Shi'ism of Safavi
• Muzafar-ali Shah
• Bahr al-Asrar