Revisionist discourse and the portrayal of Islamic mysticism in Turkish literature : the case of Elif Shafak's Forty Rules of Love

Abstract EN

At time when the image of Islam is maculated by hostility, bigotry and – oftentimes- brutality, Turkish novelist Elif Shafak steps up a with The Forty Rules of Love, a novel which juxtaposes the controversial bond between thirteenth century poet and mystic Djalel Eddine Al-Rumi and the ascetic Shams I-Tabrizi on the one hand, with the present-day romance of Ella and Aziz Zahara on the other, unearthing thus the highly esoteric Islamic tradition of Sufism.

However, by seeking to shed light on the centrality of spirituality in the philosophy of Sufism, and its ability to mend most existential crises across times and civilizations, the author created a climate for ambiguity which triggers questions as to whether The Forty Rules of Love is meant to be a mere historical fiction, in which history is accurately presented and the true philosophy of Sufism is unbiasedly depicted, or rather a revisionist narrative, where the primary objective of the author is to vehicle her fictional narrative in a historical setting.

Along this line of thought, the present paper aims at addressing the issue of how much “revisionist dramatization” does The Forty Rules of Love entail, to what extent the real lives of the historical characters, namely Rumi and I-Tabrizi, are attended to, and more importantly, how authentic is the philosophy of Islamic mysticism the author presents.