Explaining the Intellectual and Cultural Origins of Misogyny and the Praise of Women in Rumi’s Masnavi-ye Ma'navi and Sa'di’s Bustan: A Hermeneutic Approach

Abstract

Women constitute one of the most significant human elements in classical Persian literature, and their representation in the works of major literary figures, particularly Rumi’s Masnavi-ye Ma'navi and Sa'di’s Bustan, has consistently attracted scholarly attention. This study aims to provide a hermeneutic examination of the origins of misogyny and the praise of women in these two works and seeks to explain the intellectual, cultural, and social factors influencing the representation of women. The study employs a descriptive-analytical method, drawing on a hermeneutic approach and content analysis to collect and examine the relevant textual material. The findings indicate that Rumi’s and Sa'di’s attitudes toward women are neither unilateral nor absolute; rather, within the historical and cultural context of the thirteenth century CE, they present a dual image of women. In passages characterized by the praise of women, women are commended in their roles as mothers and virtuous wives and are portrayed as embodiments of loyalty, compassion, love, moral upbringing, and familial tranquility. At times, particularly in Rumi’s mystical thought, woman is transformed into a symbol of truth, divine love, and spiritual perfection. Conversely, certain verses and narratives, influenced by the patriarchal discourse of the poets’ contemporary society, associate women with characteristics such as deceit, weakness, intellectual deficiency, or being a source of discord and temptation. A hermeneutic analysis of these two works demonstrates that many such judgments originate in the cultural horizon and social presuppositions of the period and do not necessarily represent the poets’ final or absolute views of women. Accordingly, misogyny and the praise of women in the Masnavi and the Bustan should be understood as the product of an interaction between the authors’ mystical and ethical worldviews and the cultural and social conditions of their time.