Classical Literature in the Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages as a Supranational Poetical System

Our world is in an ever-worsening crisis. The Muslim world especially is in a difficult situation because it is engaged in conflict at several fronts: it is simultaneously exposed to an aggression of several western countries, as well as to devastating inter- Muslim wars, leading it to a complete chaos and destruction. At a time of this utter destruction, increasing phobias and dehumanisation of our world, every attempt at finding a strong hold for its humanisation and integration as a successful unity in differences is precious. Research and presentation of culture – thus, literature as well – in the period of late classicism of the Muslim world can be a very functional means to achieve this goal. In that sense, it is always beneficial to emphasise that one of the main reasons for a dramatic crisis in the Muslim world is that it has brought the Text (The Qur’an) out of the Context (reality).

The problem does not rest in the Text itself; rather, one of the main causes of the crisis is the incorrect relationship of the Muslim contemporariness towards the Text. For, in the Muslim world, the Qur’an – as the pivotal Text of its faith, culture and history – has created and motivated the Muslim society as a subject throughout history, and for as long as Muslims had understood it correctly, they had been planetary successful. Consequently, I am of the opinion that it is useful, for the purpose of understanding the contemporariness, to observe the successful past/history of the Muslim world in various aspects.

In other words, the crisis is generated also by a wrong interpretation of the past of the Muslim world, where differences are given primacy and are transferred into dramatic contemporary conflicts. Opposite to that, in the classical period of what we call Oriental-Islamic culture, the Muslim society was the enlightened, thus, a creative subject that was enlightened and to a certain extent culturally homogenised by its Text. As such, the subject acted very creatively also in contact with other cultures (Ancient Greek culture, Indian culture in Sanskrit, the Pahlavi culture, etc.) and it decisively contributed to what is known as the European Renaissance upon which the European culture rests.