Symbolism in Ibn Sina's Work: Interpretation of Initiation Stories

The aim of this thesis is to interpretate the stories The Living, son of the Vigilant, The Bird and Salaman and Absal, written by one of the greatest scholars of medieval Islamic East, Ibn Sina (980-1037). Unlike his philosophical and medical writings these stories have a different character and create a coherent narrative cycle. Based on their themes, narrative methods and symbolism they should be in my opinion called initiation stories. The main aim of this dissertation is thus to verify this hypothesis by means of the hermeneutic interpretation. These stories, read as a coherent cycle, show typical features of initiation genre: the hero can't find his way, his existential condition makes him desperate, he is consumed by strong desire for reaching a higher ontological degree, meets an initiator, goes through initiation rites of passage, crosses the border between the uninitiated and initiated space, reaches the final initiation through symbolic death. The interpretation of each of Ibn Sina's three writings reveals an inner coherence of the stories: The Living, son of the Vigilant focuses on the motive of an initiator-guide and the description of the stages on the initiation way leading upwards, The Bird tells in an emotional way about the state preceding the initiation and then concentrates on..