Visualizing the soul: Diagrams and the subtle body of light (jism laṭīf) in Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī’s The Mirror of Souls (Mirʿāt al-arwāḥ)

IF 0.7 0 RELIGION

Critical Research on Religion Pub Date : 2021-05-13 DOI:10.1177/20503032211015299

Eyad Abuali

引用次数: 1

Abstract

Light is a discursive tool that Sufis have drawn upon over the centuries in order to elucidate systems of thought and practice. In medieval Islamic thought, light was closely associated with the soul as well as conceptions of sight and the eye. It also occupied an important place in cosmology. By the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries, Sufis began to consider notions of light more systematically, creating close correspondences between vision, cosmology, and anthropology within Sufi thought. This coincided with the increased production of complex diagrams in Sufi texts. This article shows that these developments were interrelated. By analyzing Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī’s (d. 587/1191) diagrams alongside his theories of light with respect to the nature of the soul and body, it demonstrates that the theory of the soul as light played an important part in shaping Sufi thought, practice, and visual culture.

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灵魂的可视化:Shams al- d n al- daylam的《灵魂之镜》(Mir - āt al-arwāḥ)中的图表和光的精微体(jism laṭīf)

光是苏菲几个世纪以来用来阐明思想和实践体系的一种话语工具。在中世纪的伊斯兰思想中，光与灵魂以及视觉和眼睛的概念密切相关。它在宇宙学中也占有重要地位。到了十二世纪和十三世纪，苏菲开始更系统地考虑光的概念，在苏菲思想中创造了视觉、宇宙学和人类学之间的紧密对应。这与苏菲文本中复杂图表的增加不谋而合。这篇文章表明，这些发展是相互关联的。通过分析Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī（D.587/1191）的图解以及他关于灵魂和身体性质的光理论，表明灵魂作为光的理论在塑造苏菲思想、实践和视觉文化方面发挥了重要作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Critical Research on Religion RELIGION-

CiteScore

1.50

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0.00%

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期刊介绍： Critical Research on Religion is a peer-reviewed, international journal focusing on the development of a critical theoretical framework and its application to research on religion. It provides a common venue for those engaging in critical analysis in theology and religious studies, as well as for those who critically study religion in the other social sciences and humanities such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and literature. A critical approach examines religious phenomena according to both their positive and negative impacts. It draws on methods including but not restricted to the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Marxism, post-structuralism, feminism, psychoanalysis, ideological criticism, post-colonialism, ecocriticism, and queer studies. The journal seeks to enhance an understanding of how religious institutions and religious thought may simultaneously serve as a source of domination and progressive social change. It attempts to understand the role of religion within social and political conflicts. These conflicts are often based on differences of race, class, ethnicity, region, gender, and sexual orientation – all of which are shaped by social, political, and economic inequity. The journal encourages submissions of theoretically guided articles on current issues as well as those with historical interest using a wide range of methodologies including qualitative, quantitative, and archival. It publishes articles, review essays, book reviews, thematic issues, symposia, and interviews.