Analysis of Mystical Concepts in the Poetic Works of Persian-Language Poets of Palestinian Resistance

Abstract

Palestinian resistance literature constitutes one of the most significant fields of contemporary literature, in which occupation, displacement, martyrdom, identity, freedom, and perseverance are closely intertwined with religious, emotional, and symbolic elements. In Persian poetry concerned with Palestine, these themes are frequently connected with the mystical heritage of Persian literature, creating a spiritual layer in the poetic representation of resistance. The present study aims to analyze the major mystical concepts reflected in the poetic works of Persian-language poets of Palestinian resistance and to explain their role in the semantic, symbolic, and aesthetic structure of these works. The study employs a descriptive-analytical approach and focuses on the conceptual and interpretive reading of mystical themes, images, and symbols in resistance poetry. The findings indicate that love, martyrdom, annihilation, subsistence, spiritual journey, patience, trust, contentment, unity, light, flight, and return are among the most prominent mystical concepts in these poems. Love moves beyond an individual emotional experience and is reconstructed as devotion to homeland, Jerusalem, freedom, and collective ideals. Martyrdom is closely associated with the mystical concepts of annihilation and subsistence, transforming physical death into spiritual continuity and enduring presence in collective memory. Resistance is also represented as a form of collective spiritual journey characterized by suffering, trial, perseverance, and hope. Symbols such as blood, flowers, light, birds, the sky, the road, and dawn play a central role in linking political experience with mystical meaning. Overall, mysticism in Persian-language Palestinian resistance poetry is not a marginal or decorative element; rather, it functions as a fundamental mechanism for interpreting suffering, martyrdom, hope, and liberation. Through this process, the Palestinian experience transcends the boundaries of a purely political issue and becomes an ethical, human, and spiritual experience.