Comparison of the Stories by Sheikh Sanan Hasan al-Marani and Sheikh Sanan Attar Nishaburi

Fariduddin Attar (540 AD), the well-known Iranian poet and Hassan Amrani (1949 AD), the famous Moroccan poet, are two prominent poets in world literature. In their works, both of them invoked and intervened a mystic character referred to as Sheikh Sanaan and each of them depicted the great value of love and affection through that old character. In the current research, two texts with two different languages and the same themes and topics are analyzed. The first text is the story of Sheikh Sanaan by Fariduddin Attar, and the second text is the story of Sheikh Sanaan by Hassan Al-Amrani. Due to the significance of the aforementioend issue, the present research, which is based on the French school in the field of comparative literature and is formed in a descriptive and analytical way, seeks to compare and analyze these two work and attempts to present some similarities and differences according to the essence of the original work. The findings of the research indicate that the predominant similarity between these two works is the purposeful choice of the signifier of Sheikh Sanaan's story which is placed in the title of the two poems, the plurality of worship, and disciples of Sheikh Sanaan. Among the differences, the way of dreaming and the quality of love, the advice of disciples and the difference in structural analysis can be noticed. 
Introduction:
To date, Arabic and Persian languages and their literature have been addressed to have the highest level boundry with each other and both have been highly influenced by each other. One of the important subsets of this interaction and influence is the use of symbolic stories. The story of Sheikh Sanan Attar and Marani are referred to as the examples of this exchange in Persian and Arabic poetry.
Among the Persian language poets, Attar is one of the prominent poles of mysticism and sufism, and his works are among the most significant literary works of the 6^th and 7^th centuries. Mantegh Al-Tayr is addressed as the most famous among all his works. This is because he has collected the consequence of his mystical thoughts and has underpinned all of the Iranian mystic schools of thought in this book. In this way, the works of this mystic have met with a great reception in the world, so it have been translated into many different languages of the world. Mantegh Al-Tayr of Attar, with the exception of Jalal Al-din Maulvi's Masnavi, can be matched with no other work in the literature of mystical poems in the Islamic world. This book has anecdotes, the longest and most famous of which is Sheikh Sanan
Amrani is one of the contemporary poets of Maghreb country and one of the poets whose poetic achievements are associated with Sufi experiences. Precisely, one of the most obvious attributes of his poetry is the mystical tendency. Among Amrani's poetry collections, "Saatik Balsif Valaqhavan" is considered to be his most valuable poetry collection. This is because he was able to present valuable meanings in his poetry. One of the most prominent poetic poems of Amrani, which was influenced by the famous poem of the story of Sheikh Sanaan Attar, is “The Story of Sheikh Sanaan and We Live with Sayyidah Al- Qasr” in 1994.
Amrani divided Sanaan's story into six cycles. In the first and second sections, he has drawn the traits of Sheikh Sanaan’s character, and in the third section, Sanaan's great fear of sedition and his mournings because of his longing for heaven have been discussed. In the other parts, from the dream of Sanaan’s drowning in blood to the dream of cloak in the desert and the star that he replaced these dreams alongside the dream of Sanaan Attar, who was prostrating a Christian girl, has been mentioned. He expressed this dream and what he meant was drowning in blood is facing the seditions of this world. Finally, he talked about the dream of Ghazaleh, which caused him to get rid of rust and dirt and reach the high levels of mysticism.
Method:
The presence of Sheikh Sanan's name in the title
By looking at it from this point of view of an imperative poem "Hakaya Al-Sheikh Sanaan wama Jari Le Ma Seyida Al-Qasr", explicit connection with the story of Sheikh Sanaan Attar will be noticed. Therefore, the audience is facing a text whose structure is based on the ancient mystical, since the mentioned title has an inductive feature and indicates the connection between the new and old texts.
Being a disciple of Sheikh
Sheikh Sanan had a high position in mysticism and had many followers and students. He had spent fifty years of his life in worship and austerity. Through this asceticism and worship, he gathered four hundred pupils around him and guided them. Everyone who entered the circle of his devotion did not rest from austerity and worship, and when he dreamed that he was prostrating on the lap of the beautiful person, he lost his peace and aims and, followed by that, the disciples all decided to travel with him from the Kaaba to Rome.
Amrani also mentioned that there were many disciples for Sheikh Sanan who all followed his path and obeyed him. Sheikh also guided his disciples and taught them the wisdom of igniting in the holy essence of God. The comparison of the mentioned examples is indicative of the claim that Amrani also paid attention to the influence of Sheikh Sanan Attar on this topic and was also influenced by him in this respect.
Attention to the topic of repentance
It is clear that the theme of repentance in both poetic texts is not to leave a sin. In Attar's poem, the disciples, after observing sheikh’s condition (who was fallen in love while he had not yet committed any sin), ordered him to do penance. In Amrani's poem, Sanaan was afraid of sedition (sedition is the symbol of a woman - from God) He asks to cover him with the repentance, while he had not committed any sin.
Attention to the conversation
There are two types of Conversation in Amrani's story. In a part of Amrani's story, there is a dialogue that includes the words of Sanaan with his disciples, and in another part the monologue, it appears in the form of hadis-e nafs. This occurs up to a level that the reader get doubtful whether the words are from the poet or they are from Sheikh Sanaan. Therefore, it can be concluded that Amrani was also influenced by Attar's way of speaking in his Poems.
Results and Discussion:
A comparative study of two anecdotes testifies to this principle that Amrani had access to the original poems by Attar and tried to compose it in Arabic. However, it must be stated that his work has more of an imitation rather than innovation. Sheikh Sanan's character follows the same path that he followed with Attar a few centuries ago. He experiences whatever he experienced in Attar's poem. However, in the new dimension, new features have been found which are worthy of consideration.
The comparison of the two stories indicates that Amrani order of calling Sheikh Sanaan and applying his story to themes such as multiplicity of worship, many disciples, love, repentance, the symbol of women, etc., has benefited from Attar. One of the most important and main elements that appear in the story of Sheikh Sanan of these two poets is love and affection. Both stories revolve around love and drowning in it. Attar and Amrani have brought the story of Sheikh Sanan to express the value of love and its superiority over disbelief and faith. This is because love is an alchemy that causes purity and refinement of the soul and opens the eyes of the truth leads to freedom from self-view and self-worship.
Differences can also be observed in the two stories, such as the Sheikh's dream, the quality of love, and the advice of disciples; In Attar's poem, Sanaan dreams of a Christian girl and falls deeply in love with her to the point where he loses his faith and becomes an unbeliever, and in Amrani's poem, Sanaan dreams of a deer, which leads to reaching levels of mysticism.
Conclusion:
According to the above-mentioned information, it can be concluded that literature is not formed in a vacuum and any text can imitate and rewrite the previous texts. This principle also applies to the story of Sheikh Sanan Amrani. Since Amrani, after the passage of several centuries, rewrote the story and recreated the character of Sheikh Sanan of Attar Nishabouri, his influence is included in the field of comparative literature and the subset of the French school of thought.