A Comparative Study of Tābe‘eh in Classical Persian and Arabic Poetry Based on Jungian Analytical Psychology

Abstract

Classical Persian and Arabic poetry traditionally regarded poets as possessing a supernatural assisting spirit known as Tābe‘eh, believed to inspire poetic creation or convey knowledge of the unseen, and poets themselves were often perceived as majnūn (possessed or mad due to jinn influence). The present study, conducted with an emphasis on the importance of interdisciplinary research in general and the relationship between literature and psychology in particular, seeks to demonstrate the hypothesis that Tābe‘eh in classical Persian and Arabic poetry corresponds, from the perspective of Jungian analytical psychology, to Jung’s concept of the Anima. Accordingly, the specific objective of this article, employing a comparative and evaluative approach through descriptive–analytical methodology and grounded in the American school of comparative literature, is to examine the concept of Tābe‘eh in classical Persian and Arabic poetry based on the propositions of Jungian analytical psychology. The findings indicate that Tābe‘eh corresponds to several essential attributes of the Anima, including inner wisdom and guidance, obscurity and elusiveness, manifestation in dreams and visions, association with darkness, and most notably, its inspirational function. The results further suggest that Tābe‘eh should not be interpreted as an external unknown entity—described in ancient sources as a devil or a helpful jinn—but rather as an integral component of the poet’s psyche and collective unconscious, more precisely as the feminine dimension of the poet’s own psyche. This conclusion reaffirms the longstanding belief that poets receive inspiration from the realm of the unseen; within the framework of Jungian analytical psychology, this “unseen realm” is understood as the poet’s collective unconscious. This finding once again confirms the universality, primordial nature, and instinctual character of archetypes, and provides a productive foundation for interdisciplinary studies, which constitute one of the principal domains of comparative literary research.