Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 59 | 2023
Research Article | Notes on ‘Ḏulfaqār of the Intellect’ and Islamising Manichaeism

Notes on ‘Ḏulfaqār of the Intellect’ and Islamising Manichaeism

Abstract

The present essay aims at elucidating the imagery of the New Persian fragment in Manichaean script M 786, dealing with the lament of the Anima Viva entrapped in the material world. The poetical text is a remarkable sample of the Manichaean language and its strategy of literary concealing, by means of Islamic and Crypto-Manichaean mixed expressions, such as the ‘Ḏulfaqār of Intellect’, which is related (I suggest) to the Living Spirit. Within this fragment, a series of funerary terminologies have also been employed, denoting the captivity of the Soul into the Matter, to describe the pain of the human existence and the yearning for salvation, provided by the gods.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Feb. 10, 2023 | Accepted: May 9, 2023 | Published Aug. 29, 2023 | Language: it

Keywords Literature and poetical imagery • Islamicate Manichaeism • Early new Persian • Manichaean alphabet • Manichaean texts

Copyright © 2023 Andrea Piras. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/01/007


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