This study examines the Persian philosophical treatise Goshāyish-nāmeh by Shams al-Dīn Moḥammad Kīshī through the lens of cognitive semantics, exploring how “knowledge” is metaphorically conceptualized within this didactic text. The primary objective is to identify and analyze the cognitive-linguistic mappings associated with the target domain of “knowing and knowledge” based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Adopting a qualitative descriptive-analytical design, the critical edition of Goshāyish-nāmah served as the textual corpus. Metaphorical expressions related to the concept of knowledge were identified through in-depth textual analysis and qualitative content analysis, and subsequently categorized according to their underlying source domains. Qualitative examination of these metaphorical mappings reveals that the conceptualization of knowledge in this treatise is organized around two central conceptual metaphors: KNOWLEDGE IS VISION and ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE IS A JOURNEY. The interplay between these two metaphors enables the author to articulate the gradual progression from sensory perception to rational apprehension as a purposeful movement toward cognitive clarity. The findings demonstrate that ontological and structural mappings, alongside the image schemas of PATH and CONTAINER, serve an explanatory and didactic function in this Persian text, rendering abstract epistemological concepts tangible and accessible to scholarly readers.
1. Introduction
The post-Mongol Ilkhanid era (1256–1335 CE) in Iran witnessed a flourishing of philosophical treatises written in Persian. This linguistic shift aimed to liberate rational sciences from restrictive Arabic terminology, making epistemological concepts accessible to Persian speakers. Among the prominent figures of this era was Shams al-Dīn Moḥammad Kīshī, whose didactic treatise, Goshāyish-nāmeh (The Book of Unveiling), explores the soul’s evolution from sensory perception to intellectual intuition. Traditional studies of such texts adopt historical approaches, tracing ideas within established schools like Peripateticism or Illuminationism (Jokar, 2011; Pourjavady, 2020). However, this overlooks the cognitive mechanisms authors employed to render abstract concepts tangible. While recent research has applied cognitive approaches to mystical texts (Hajiannezhad & Babaei, 2024; Hashemi, 2015), philosophical prose remains underexplored. Addressing this gap, the current study investigates the macro-metaphors Kīshī employed to conceptualize knowledge, analyzing how these mappings structurally elucidate complex epistemological relations.
2. Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), initially proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999). According to this framework, metaphors are not mere rhetorical or poetic devices but fundamental cognitive mechanisms. They involve systematic mappings from a concrete, sensorimotor “source domain” to an abstract “target domain.” Cognitively, articulating abstract philosophy in a natural language necessitates relying on these embodied, sensorimotor capacities. CMT posits that human thought processes are largely metaphorical, and analyzing these linguistic mappings reveals the underlying conceptual structures used to comprehend complex abstract phenomena.
3. Method
This qualitative, descriptive-analytical study is situated within the framework of cognitive semantics. The corpus comprises the complete Persian text of Goshāyish-nāmeh, utilizing Jokar’s (2011) critical edition. Data analysis followed the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) developed by the Pragglejaz Group (2007). This protocol involved three systematic steps: 1) textual coding to extract linguistic expressions denoting perception, intellect, and ignorance; 2) contrasting the contextual abstract meanings of these units with their basic, physically grounded sensorimotor meanings to identify metaphorical usage (e.g., the physical state of “darkness” mapped contextually to “ignorance”); and 3) clustering the identified metaphors based on shared source domains to map their ontological and structural correspondences.
4. Findings and Conclusion
The data analysis reveals that Kīshī’s epistemological framework relies on two central, complementary macro-metaphors. The first is KNOWLEDGE IS VISION, an ontological metaphor conceptualizing “knowing” as “seeing” and “ignorance” as “darkness.” The treatise explicitly seeks “deliverance from the darkness of ignorance,” mapping the intellect onto the physical eye (the “eye of the heart”) and ultimate truth as forms reflected in a mirror. The second is ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE IS A JOURNEY, a structural metaphor using a SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema. The learner is an active traveler starting from the physical body (source), traversing the soul’s faculties (path), to reach spiritual intuition (goal), with base desires acting as obstacles.
In conclusion, the text’s explanatory power emerges from the deep interaction of these schemas, encapsulated in the title Goshāyish (Opening)—implying both opening the path and opening the eyes. Progressing on the journey away from sensory origins is the prerequisite for cognitive clarity. These conceptual metaphors transcend embellishment; they dictate the text’s logical framework, enabling Kīshī to seamlessly synthesize the Peripatetic tradition (senses as the knowledge origin) with Illuminationist philosophy (knowledge as luminous intuition) into a cohesive developmental continuum.
5. Results
The cognitive-linguistic analysis of Goshāyish-nāmeh demonstrates that Kīshī structured his core epistemological arguments strictly on embodied experiences, specifically visual and spatial schemas. Theoretically, these findings strongly corroborate the concept of “embodied cognition” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999), illustrating that even highly abstract classical philosophy is deeply rooted in human sensorimotor experiences. Methodologically, the results establish that applying cognitive linguistics to classical didactic treatises uncovers hidden conceptualization mechanisms. This complements traditional historiography by revealing how the concrete vocabulary of the Persian language was efficiently harnessed to make complex epistemological doctrines cognitively accessible.