Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19، number In Volume 9، December 2026 ، issue Number 127

Cognitive Stylistics of Metaphor in ʿAql-e Bidār by Sultan Bahu: An Approach Based on Islamic and Persian Rhetoric and the Theory of Lakoff and Johnson

Atta-ul-Kareem undefined , Gholamreza Mastali Parsa (Author in Charge)

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Persian treatise ʿAql-e Bīdār by Sultan Bahu (1039–1102 AH), a Qādirī Sufi of the Punjab in the age of Aurangzeb, has been studied mainly through Sufi historiography and manuscript studies, while its linguistic mechanism has received little attention. This study identifies the treatise’s metaphorical system, assesses the contribution of each source domain to its mystical discourse, and compares it, as a single case study, with one named work of Persian Sufi prose, the Kashf al-Maḥjūb.

METHODOLOGY: A mixed qualitative–quantitative approach rests on Islamic and Persian rhetoric and on layered stylistics, with Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a complementary tool. The corpus is the critically edited text of the treatise (34,840 lexical tokens). Metaphorical units were identified with a three-stage criterion adapted from the Pragglejaz Group, grouped into seven source domains, and classified by an explicit rule into structural, ontological and orientational types. The distribution of domains was tested with a chi-square goodness-of-fit test; the first-ranked domain was compared with the second by a two-sided binomial test with effect sizes.

FINDINGS: A total of 2,438 metaphorical units (7% of the corpus) were identified. “Alchemy and Wealth” is the most frequent domain (639 instances; 18.3 per thousand words), followed by “Light and Vision” (445; 12.8) (ratio 1.44; p and lt; 0.001; Cohen’s h = 0.18). Structural mappings account for 69.9% of units, ontological mappings for 18.2% and orientational mappings for 11.9%. The overarching mapping KNOWLEDGE IS WEALTH and the subordinate mapping THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE IS AN ALCHEMIST were identified. The word ʿaql (48 instances) is rare compared with ʿilm (350)

CONCLUSION: In ʿAql-e Bīdār the stage-by-stage journey schema is subordinated to the alchemy schema and reduced to instantaneous transmutation, which is the treatise’s principal stylistic marker. The comparison with the Kashf al-Maḥjūb suggests that the two texts differ less in which domains they use than in how systematically and in what position they use them. The results are limited to this treatise and are not generalized to Persian Sufi prose as a whole.

Keyword
Sultan Bahu , ʿAql-e Bīdār , cognitive stylistics , conceptual metaphor , Sufi prose