Indefinable mysticism : Sufism in the Persian cultural style

The theme of this presentation is "indefinable mysticism." It follows the trail of the elusive mystical style that defined the identity of certain Muslim figures in the Persian world: some are commonly known as Sufis (including Ahmad Ghazali, Ruzbihan Baqli, Attar, and Rumi), whilst others are not commonly agreed as such (for example, Firdausi, Khayyam, Nizami, Sa'di, and Hafiz). For the purposes of the presentation, this elusive mysticism will be rendered as the "Persian mystical tradition" or "Persian love tradition," details of which can be gleaned from a selection of medieval Sufi literature. It is argued that ultimately, this tradition is based on a developed framework of culture and language that helped shape the experience of Sufism in the region to its distinctive form in the Persian cultural style.