The Name of the Key: Al-Sakkākī’s Literary Craftsmanship and Pragmatic Poetics in Miftāḥ al-ʽUlūm

Within the plethora of works on al-balāghah (Muslim eloquence), Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī’s (d. 1229) Miftāh al-ʽulūm is one of those that have extensively deserved scholars’ attention, being unanimously elected as a steppingstone for the discipline’s canonization. While providing close readings on how concepts and theoretical frameworks are organized within this work, literary review insists on isolating the Miftāḥ from the rest of al-Sakkākī’s production, accounting for the blurring details on the author’s life as both locksmith and scholar, and his gloomy penchant to cultivate sciences and occultism. Conversely, in the light of the author’s background knowledge in practical crafts and interest in al-ʽulūm al-gharibah (mysterious sciences), I argue the Miftāḥ as an unexpected backdoor overlooking the workshop where the relationship between crafts and literary/rhetorical investigations, speculative thought / language practice, sciences / wonder, can be observed through two principal axes of research. I try first to see how craftsmanship was used terminologically, thematically, and graphically as a source of inspiration within this text, attempting to reconstruct the realms of logic and practice in the spirit of marvel. In this sense, harmonizing balāghah's reasoning with the modern theory of illocutionary acts [Austin, 1962; Fassi Fehri 1982, Ghersetti, 1998], I will reflect on al-Sakkākī drawings in the shape of key traced in the Miftāḥ as a door of access to his world where visual communication espouses the alphabetical one to boost effects, provide methodical paths for analysis, enact reactions, in other words, “make things with words.” My second perspective looks keenly upon the madrasah kalāmiyyah (theological speculative trend) and how it arises in the Khawarizm region - we find the indirect influence of an urbanized context, with its more sophisticated grasp of craft techniques, on what could best be defined as literary craftsmanship. In this, I refer to the methodologically-inspired development of a contextually-based, conscious, and revolutionary speculative and scientific ability which enabled al-Sakkākī to explore, analyse, and employ his languages and literary traditions as powerful tools - so as to provide new literary conceptualization, models, and perspectives whilst also harmonizing a secular, progress-driven mentality with more unorthodox forms of critical thinking.