Rumi and the hermeneutics of eroticism / / by Mahdi Tourage.

• Superior document: Iran studies, v. 2
• Author: Tourage, Mahdi.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Iran studies ; v. 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (274 pages) :; illustrations
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This is the first systematic examination of the esoteric significance of the bawdy tales and explicit sexual passages present in Rūmī’s (d. 1273) Mathnawī , a masterpiece of medieval Perso-Islamic mystical literature and theosophic teachings. Using the relevant features of postmodern theories as strategic conceptual tools, and drawing on the recent interpretations of medieval kabbalistic texts, it is a fascinating examination of the link between the dynamics of eroticism and esotericism operative in Rūmī’s Mathnawī . In some of these bawdy tales, the phallus is used as an esoteric symbol. The book concludes that these tales are used primarily to communicate esoteric secrets, particularly when this communication is contemplated along gender lines, mediated through erotic imagery, or expressed in sexual terms.

Table of Contents

The Bawdy tales of the Mathnawi in the context of Persian mystical poetry -- The nexus between esotericism and eroticism -- Phallocentric esotericism in the tale of the slave girl who satisfied her sexual urges with her mistress's donkey -- The phallus and the subject -- The hermeneutics of eroticism -- Visions of esoteric secrets in two miniature paintings of the Mathnawi's Bawdy tales.