! ! Being!and!Believing!in!Buddhism!and!Islam! ! ! Rafal!Stepien! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Submitted!in!partial!fulfilment!of!the! requirements!for!the!degree!of! Doctor!of!Philosophy! Graduate!School!of!Arts!and!Sciences! ! ! ! COLUMBIA!UNIVERSITY! ! 2015! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ©!2015! Rafal!Stepien! All!rights!reserved! Abstract! Being!and!Believing!in!Buddhism!and!Islam! Rafal!Stepien! ! The! overall! thesis! of! this! dissertation! may! be! summed! up! as! the! position! that! Mawlāna! Rūmī!and!Nāgārjuna!both!eschew!any!and!all!epistemological!positions!(beliefs)!so!as!to! abandon!any!and!all!ontological!positionality!(being).!To!this!end,!my!argument!is!arranged! into!two!chapters!dealing!respectively!with!these!two!authors.! ! In! the! chapter! on! Rūmī,! following! a! review! of! the! relevant! Western! and! Persian! literature! (§2.2.),! and! prior! to! diving! in! to! Mawlānā’s! disavowal! of! any! and! all! selfZ positionedness,!I!firstly!focus!on!nationalist!positions!through!an!examination!of!some!of! the!ways!in!which!various!exclusivist!nationalist!interests!have!competed,!and!continue!to! compete,! to! appropriate! Mawlānā! for! ends! quite! anathematic! to! his! own! ecumenical/multivalent! approach! (§2.3.1.).! I! thus! attempt! to! demonstrate! that,! far! from! giving!voice!to!any!specifically!Persian!or!Iranian!nationalist!identity,!Rūmī!and!his!poetry! have! been! appropriated! by! not! only! Iranian! but! also! Afghan! and! Turkish! nationalist! discourses!as!means!to!assert!their!own!ideological!agendas.!I!then!take!a!closer!look!at! Mawlānā’s!own!conceptualization!of!identity!(§2.3.2.).!Drawing!on!selected!passages!from! the!Masnavī,!I!attempt!to!demonstrate!that!Jalāl!alZDīn’s!notion!of!identity,!particularly!of! the! nationallyZconstituted! kind,! remains! steadfastly! untied! to! sectarian! affiliations,! and! thereby!undermines!the!appropriative!nationalist!efforts!adumbrated!theretofore.!! ! In!succeeding!sections,!I!develop!the!bulk!of!my!argument!by!examining!the!means! whereby! Mawlānā! Rūmī! develops! his! own! mode! of! discursive! instability! so! as! to! reject! positionality! of! any! kind.! Following! a! survey! (§2.4.1.)! and! critique! (§2.4.2.)! of! existing! theoretical!elaborations!of!apophasis!as!inadequate!to!Rūmī’s!case!,!I!specifically!study!the! multiple!authorial!identities!enacted!by!Rūmī!in!his!eponymous!Masnavī!to!negate!his!own! affirmations,! and! thence! even! those! negations,! in! multifolded! dynamism,! and! thereby! convey!the!paradoxical!truth!of!selfZsubsistence!in!selfZannihilation!(baqāʾ+andar+fanāʾ)!by! which!to!disavow!any!self’s,!and!any!belief’s,!bids!at!selfZassertion!through!selfZdefinition.! Rather! than! speaking! through! kataphatic! avowal,! logical! demonstration,! or! doctrinal! proclamation,! Mawlānā! adopts! apophatic! discursive! strategies! –! whereby! he! speaks! through!negation!(§2.5.1.)!,!negation!of!negation!(§2.5.2.)!and,!ultimately,!the!negation!of!all! binary!affirmations!and!negations!in!multifolded!dynamism!(§2.5.3.)!–!so!as!to!deny!the!ego! the!definitive!affirmation!it!seeks.!By!thus!elaborating!a!fully!fleshedZout!investigation!of! the! dynamic! interplay! of! personified! presence! and! authorial! absence! at! work! in! the! Masnavī,! I! develop! an! original! understanding! of! this! mystic’s! highly! charged! and! profoundly!ambiguous!relationship!to!his!own!subjectivity,!and!thereby!to!any!subjectively! affirmed! doxastic! position.! We! will! thus! see! that! Mawlānā! eschews! even! his! own! belief! system! as,! ultimately,! inadequate! in! the! face! of! what! I! call! the! constitutively! polylectic! nature!of!reality!(§2.6.).!In!so!doing,!I!provide!a!Sufi!perspective!on!the!issue!of!identity!that! both! challenges! prevailing! intellectual! presuppositions! and! opens! the! way! for! a! further! appreciation!of!Rūmī’s!unique!contribution!to!Persian!literature.!As!such,!it!is!my!hope!that! the!ultimate!conclusions!of!this!chapter!provide!an!alternative!approach!to!the!scholarly! study!of!mystic!poetics,!while!shedding!light!upon!the!various!masks!of!identity!itself.!! ! My!concern!in!the!chapter!on!Nāgārjuna!is!with!his!efforts!to!express!ultimate!truth! (paramārtha3satya)! in! the! conventional! garb! of! language! (vyavahāra3satya+ or! saṃvṛti3 satya).! I! focus! on! Nāgārjuna’s! use! of! the! catuṣkoṭi! or! tetralemma! in! his! major! work,! the! Fundamental+ Verses+ on+ the+ Middle+ Way! (Mūlamadhyamaka3kārikā)! to! make! a! number! of! interZrelated!propositions.!Put!briefly,!I!interpret!the!Nāgārjunian!catuṣkoṭi!to!constitute!an! exhaustive! and! tetrāletheic! āssertion! aimed! at! “the! abandonment! of! all! views”! (sarvadṛṣṭiprahāṇāya)!I!understand!to!be!the!distinctively!Nāgārjunian!means!of!attaining! nirvāṇa,!and!thus!the!overZarching!aim!of!Nāgārjuna’s!philosophical!enterprise!as!a!whole.! ! Following! a! methodologically! oriented! introductory! section! (§3.1.),! I! describe! the! tetralemma!as!neutrally!as!possible!(§3.2.1.),!and!thence!go!on!to!delineate!three!prevailing! means!whereby!(predominantly!Western)!scholars!have!sought!to!‘rescue’!Nagarjuna!from! the!evident!illogicality!that!the!tetralemma!entails!(§3.2.2).!Apart!from!contextualizing!my! position! within! the! existing! body! of! scholarship! on! Nāgārjuna’s! thought,! my! subsequent! criticisms!(§3.2.3.)!of!these!logicalist!attempts!at!interpreting!the!catuṣkoṭi!adequately!clear! the! ground! for! my! own! reading.! In! avowing! the! irreducibly! soteriological! ends! of! Nāgārjuna’s! thought! as! a! whole,! this,! my! own! reading,! is! more! closely! aligned! to! some! interpretations!proposed!by!ChineseZlanguage!exegetes.!I!thus!go!on!to!provide!a!summary! of!these!latter!(§3.3).!Following!this,!I!detail!my!reading!proper,!according!to!which,!firstly,! the!tetralemma!is!to!be!taken!in!tetrāletheic!(as!opposed!to!dialetheic)!terms!(§3.4.).!In!the! final! sections! of! this! chapter,! I! introduce! this! tetrāletheic! reading! of! the! tetralemma! in! support!of!my!main!point!regarding!the!abandonment!of!all!views!or!‘view!of!no!view’.!The! fact! that! Nāgārjuna! begins! and! ends! his! major! work! with! calls! for! the! cessation! and! abandonment!of!all!views,!coupled!with!the!fact!that!time!and!again!throughout!the!MK!he! uses!the!catuṣkoṭi!to!survey!and!reject!all!possible!positions!on!a!given!topic,!leads!me!to! conclude!that!this!wholescale!cessation!or!abandonment!must!in!fact!be!Nāgārjuna’s!aim!as! the! author! of! the! MK.! I! argue! for! this! interpretation! on! the! basis! of! a! close! reading! of! Nāgārjuna’s!text,!in!support!of!which!I!survey!the!MK!and!Nāgārjuna’s!other!philosophical! works! for! evidence! bolstering! my! reading! (§3.5.).! Cherry! picking! a! few! verses! here! and! there! in! support! of! my! interpretation! while! ignoring! the! formal! structure! of! the! literary! text!of!the!MK!as!a!whole,!however,!would!be!all!too!facile!a!method.!As!such,!I!then!argue! (§3.6.)!that!the!text!as!a!structured!whole!is!oriented!towards!just!such!abandonment!of!all! conceptuality,!and!the!concomitant!transcendence!of!all!notions!of!selfhood.!In!the!course! of! my! exposition,! I! have! occasion! to! engage! with! several! debates! very! much! alive! in! contemporary!scholarship!on!Nāgārjuna,!and!as!such!to!make!what!I!hope!is!something!of! an!original!contribution!to!them!by!proposing!a!reading!that!is!both!textually!justified!and! philosophically!interesting.! Table&of&Contents& & Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................................!iv& Dedication.......................................................................................................................................................!viii& Language&Matters........................................................................................................................................1& 1.&Introduction..............................................................................................................................................7& 1.1.!Full!Pages:!Nāgārjuna!and!Mawlānā!Rūmī..................................................................!7! 1.2.!Empty!Pages:!Linji!and!Ibn!alDʿArabī..............................................................................!12! 1.3.!Apologia!and!Explanans.......................................................................................................!17! 2.&Mawlānā&Rūmī&and&the&Polylectic&Polyphony&of&the&Masnavī......................................30! 2.1.!Introduction............................................................................................................................................!30! 2.2.!Literature!Review.................................................................................................................................!43! 2.2.1.!Western!Literature!on!Rūmī..........................................................................................!43! 2.2.2.!Iranian!Literature!on!Rūmī............................................................................................!48! 2.3.!Rūmī,!Balkhī,!Mevlevī!and!the!Ambiguities!of!Identity........................................................!58! 2.3.1.!The!Many!Nations!of!Mawlānā.....................................................................................!60! 2.3.2.!The!Nationless!Mawlānā.................................................................................................!73!