YUSRIA: Tracing ‘Sensible Metaphors’: Pictograms in the Manuscript Transmission of al-Sha’rani’s (d. 973/1565) al-Mizan al-kubrá

This talk explores the use of visual metaphor by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī (d.1565) in his al-Mīzān al-kubrá. In this work, al-Shaʿrānī lays out a theoretical justification — rooted in Sufi assumptions — commending the validity and equal orthodoxy of the four Sunni schools of law and their origins in a single source. To help conduct seekers along the path of apprehending the basis of this theory, al-Shaʿrānī follows the practice of his masters in presenting a series of pictograms as “sensible metaphors” which through contemplation manifest concepts situated on an otherwise unseen, higher plane of profound reality.