THE SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF MIRROR IN THE MYSTICAL POEMS AND THE REFLECTION IN ISLAMIC ART.

• Author: Alibabaei, Golnar

1. Introduction

   The most basic aspect of the mirror is appearing. Mirror as a brilliant tool displays the face and appearance of every individual to him or her, it reflects the light and it is lit without having any light by itself. These two important features cause the mirror to have a great effect on the human spirit and subconscious, up to the point that it can reflect divine attributes. The poets of Persia have created mystical themes, inspired by the sincerity, brilliance, honesty of the image and other characteristics of the mirror.

   Mirror was normally used by its real meaning by Persian poems, however with the prevalence of Sophistic beliefs in the Persian poems since 6th century, mirror contributes to the new themes in which the glossy and sincere nature of mirror indicates refining the soul and it is considered as a symbol of mystic's heart, in other words 'mirror' has a fixed and certain role in the Persian love poems, that is related to the dreaming power and artistic awareness of the poet. The symbol supports a wise life that takes the hand of sense, heart, thought and soul of human and takes him or her up to the borders of excellency, then finally refrains humbly and courteously.

   In this level, Allah himself teaches and himself gets things (the truth) be learnt from bottom of heart. The mystics consider the things and the whole world like a mirror and know the world of contradictions under the governing of the unique God and to look at the truths of the world with edification. The mirror is the symbol of purity and brilliance of the human soul as Hafez the great poet has said in his Ghazal no. 320, "Thou the drinker of the king's party, have no hatred in heart, as it is a magical mirror to show the world's every part."

   In this regard if a human's cup of existence is lit by the light of awareness and wisdom, and the heart is refined from the color of duplicity and becomes clear, everything will be mirror-like in the thoughts of the follower and will reflect the unique truth. It seems this has been reflected in the Islamic art. This reflection can be observed in symmetricity of pottery motifs, calligraphy, carpet motifs, Tazhib, and especially Islamic painting and architecture. Some pictures with frames inside, with a mirror-like rhythm--as if various times are mixed--display several manners and times simultaneously. This trend has existed as a model in the mirror-work of Islamic architecture and as an ornamental aspect has displayed the mystical feature of the mirror to show various things with various images, therefor the present research intends to discover if the mystical approach of poets toward the mirror's nature and secret have been reflected in the Islamic art and the mystical role of mirror in this art? Since no such a research has been carried out before, the present research is considered significant, from the point of view of mystical theme of mirror and its reflection in the Islamic art, point of view.

2. The research method

   The present research has been carried out by a descriptive-analytical method accompanied by library study and utilizing electronic resources. The present research has been compared with several samples of mystical poems with the theme of mirror and paintings of Islamic art, from the mystical aspects of mirror points of view. Also, some paintings and mirror-work of Imam Reza, Hazrat-e-Masoume and Shah-e-cheragh holy shrines have been studied to observe the harmony between the mirror theme in mystical poems and nature of mirror-work art in Islamic art of Iran.

3. Research history

   The study about mirror, in papers such as "Mirror and Harp in Molana's speech" by Maryam Mosharraf (2004), published in the magazine called "The Persian Language & Literature" reviewed the symbolic application of the mirror in the Molana's poems and also the paper "The Unity in Existence: Experience, Interpretation, Exemplification" by Ghasim Kakayi (2001), published in the quarterly magazine of "Religious Thoughts" analyzed the relation between the experience and interpretation of the unity in existence with the mystics' world of exemplifications.

   "The appearance of the mirror in the mystical literature", a paper by Ghadamali Sarrami (2009), published in the exclusive quarterly publication of mystics, "The symbol of mirror in Molana's speech" a paper by Amin Roshan (2007) published in the "Religions & Mystics" has reviewed the mirror symbol as the expression of divine secrets in Molana's poems. Books such as "The conquest of Mecca" by Ebn e Arabi, has dealt a lot with the unity of existence and exemplification.

   The book "Endless secrets of the mirror" by Ali Babaei (2011) from Mola publications has dealt with the secrets of mirror in the world of cognition, wisdom and Mystics. Papers such as "Brilliant vision in the contemporary illustration", by Marjan Mortazavi and Khashayar Ghazizadeh (2010), printed in "Negareh" magazine, have given a classification to brilliant vision in illustration. "Comparative study of visual indicators in Iranian mirror-work and art of photo collage", by Reza Pourzarrin and Asghar Javani (2014) was published in the Fine arts gazette dealt with similarity between the aesthetic indicators between mirror-work and photo-collages.

   Another paper is "The review of Mirror-work art wisdom in the Islamic architecture" by Nahid Taghavi (2015). In the first International Conference on Human, Architecture, Civil Engineering and City which dealt with mirror-work among the modern architectural elements, and lastly was the book called "Islamic architectures ornaments" by Mohamad Yusef kiani (1997) from Miras-e-farhangi publication which defined the position of "Mirror" in architecture.

4. Semiotics & understanding the symbols in the literature

   A symbol means the representative and appearing (Dehkhoda dictionary 1995: 77). It is a secret word, pointing, mystery, hint, enigma, indicator, covert cue, special indicator from which something is understood (Pournamdarian 1995: 1). The word 'Namad' together with the secret and embodiment are equivalents for the word 'symbol' (Hosseini 1990: 39), Symbolism is blending the two worlds of Sensible and Divine in the artistic embodiment (Sarfi 2003: 177). The extreme symbolism in its nature is a kind of belief in the other world (Pournamdarian 1985: 10).

   The mystical poems also have deep extreme symbolism, as the mystics believe that everything in the sensible world has a divine principle and eternal model, the materialistic world is a presentation or a shade of the spiritual world (Sarfi 2003: 166).

5. Mirror symbol

   Mirror is a reputable symbol in the world. In Plato's 10th book of The Republic, Socrates defines art as a mirror that reflects the real world. To Plato's opinion, as the world is like a mirror to reflect the truths of the Mesal world (imaginational world), Art is like a mirror to show the facts of the real world (Mosharraf 2004: 82).

   The exemplification of the mirror of which the first written form was transferred to us via Plato's works, was completed in the following centuries by another philosopher called Plotinus. He was an heir to the Plato's idealistic philosophy, with intuition themes put an artistic color to Plato's beliefs, and made it increasingly apt for developing mystical language and viewpoints (Mosharraf 2004: 83). Borkhart adopted 'mirror', among the rich treasure of symbols and secrets of mysticism. To him, mirror was more appropriate than any other symbol to define the nature of mysticism and its cognitive characteristic (Kamalizadeh 2013: 77). to clarify this by going through the mirror entries, we review its mystical inside.

6. The reflection

   In the poets' mystical speech, mirror can be symbol of three things: the mirror to the people, the mirror to Allah and mirror to oneself, also ones' heart at the mirrorlike level is ready to accept the oracular forms (Mosharraf 2004: 98). Omran Sabi in a debate with Imam Reza says (Towhid Sadoogh: 434-435): if you learn about the holy nature of the creator by looking at the creature, then either of them shall be inside the other, and as this is impossible for them to enter the other therefore this reasoning is not utilizable for proving the existence of creator.

   Imam argues that neither of them enters the other. However, you see yourself in the mirror and it shows you despite the fact that neither you are in the mirror nor it is inside you, so how is it you recognize yourself in the mirror. Omran responds "by the light that is situated between me and the mirror". The meaning of mirror in the mystics is the form of 'mirror' as the nature of it (Nasiri 2010: 35-36). The reflection means that what exist in the origin, is re-displayed in the mirror of self, such as appearing of the image in the mirror, self is a means of observing the faces against the existing origins. Hafez has a nice poem about the reflection:

   the beauty of your face as reflected in the mirror, created numerous pictures in the mirror of my dreams all the beauty of the sweetheart's image, is a glow of the cupbearer S face reflected on the wine (Hafez book of poems, ghazal no.111) The mystical aspect of reflection embodies forms such as the human face through the light of forms, in fact presents a symmetric and corresponding aspect as a hint to find out about the light. Reflection is in fact the symmetricity made possible via the mirror and light in order for the spectator to observe another form of the thing in the mirror.

   Shahab-eddin Sohrevardi in the Wisdom of Khosravani, p. 44 believes that the divine beauty by its nature intends to display its face in the world's mirror, therefor the world is in fact same as "Negar" or the image of the eternal beauty (Sarrami 2009: 50).

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