The Hafezean Inheritance

Either the introverted piety extolled in Matthew 6: 1-18 continued to be extolled by--and practiced among--groups of Jewish and Gentile pietists for centuries or, in the alternative, it was revived in 9th century Nishapur. Either way, it became a mark of certain Muslim pietists (the Malamatiyya) at that time and place and it (or its ideals) were part of the Hafezean inheritance in 14th century Shiraz.

Hafez, for his part, returned to the polemical mode of the Jewish believers in Jesus, taking to task the Sufis whose piety was put on public display.

In the history of ideas, family resemblances (conceptual affinities or continuities) matter more than direct, institutionally facilitated, ideational transmission. As Plato understood, ideas are immortal. What Plato resisted was the notion that such immortality did not also entail immutability. And he was right to be troubled by this "paradox." For, ultimately, the historian of ideas has to face the Ship of Theseus problem.