Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (81 page)
206
Bayrimānī,
al-Jawāb al-maṭlub
, fol. 174b. Ḥusayn al-Baytimānī(d. 1762), who was an acquaintance of Bakr, composed a commentary on this poem, entitled
al-Jawab almatlub ʿan sharh mawwal al-shaykh Ayyūb
. It is very unlikely that Bakri did not know who composed the poem.
207
See Murādī
, Silk al-durar,
3 : 30-38.
208
The idea, recurrent in for example Schimmel’s
Mystical Dimensions of Islam,
that the Naqshbandī mystics were opposed to the idea of the unity of existence is untenable. Several prominent mystics of the order subscribed to the idea; see Algar, “A Brief History of the Naqshbandī Order,” 21.
209
See his
Iḍāḥal-dalālātf ī samāʿal-ālāt and Ghayat al-maṭlūbf ī maḥabbat al-maḥhub
.
210
Nābulusī,
Dīwān al-haqāʾiq
2:134.
211
Nābulusī,
Dīwān al-haqāʾiq,
1: 202.
212
Nābulusī,
Dīwān al-haqāʾiq,
1: 87. The “spirit of essences” (
Rūh al-dhawāt
) is presumably the Perfect Man, who—as mentioned earlier-is “the spirit of the universe” (
Rūḥ al-‘ālam
). The “most comprehensive attribute” (
atamm al-ṣifāt
) is presumably existence, which in one sense is an all-embracing attribute and in another sense is identical to God; see Izutsu,
Sufism and Taoism
116.
213
Nābulusī,
Sharḥ Dīwīn Ibn al-Fāriḍ
, I: 70.
214
Nābulusī,
Dīwān al-ḥaqāʾiq
, 1:148. The tradition is rejected by Shawkānī,
al
-
Fawāʾid al-majmūʿah,
275 (tradition 275), and more mildly assessed by al-Qāri’ al-Harawī (
al-Asrār al-marfū’ah,
416-17) as a variant of the acceptable saying: “Seek the good from handsome countenances.”
215
Trimingham,
The Sufi Orders in Islam,
212 (note1).
216
Schimmel,
Mystical Dimensions of Islam
, 286; Schimmel, As
Through a Veil
, 46.
217
Nābulusi,
Ghāyat al-maṭlub
, 1.
218
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb,
52.
219
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 93-117. For some of the traditions on which Nābwusī relies, see Munāwī,
al-Fayḍ al-qadīr
, 1: 483 (tradition 964), 5:325 (tradition 7469), 6:420 (tradition 9864).
220
Munāwī,
al-Fayḍ al-qadīr,
6 : 212 (tradition 8985).
221
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 92.
222
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 40.
223
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 80, 82.
224
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 73-76. For similar ideas among earlier mystics, see Ritter,
Das Meer des Seele
, 452, 477.
225
Nābulusī,
Dīwān al-ḥaqā‘iq
, 1:270. The first quotation is from the above-mentioned Qurʾanic passages.
226
Nābulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 80-82; Nābulusī,
Dīwān al-ḥaqā‘iq
, 2:132. For the traditions, see Munāwī,
al-Fayḍ al-qadīr
,1: 514 (tradition 1041), 3:517 (tradition 4172).
227
On Rūmī and Ḥusām al-Dīn, see Nībulusī,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 149; Schimmel, As
Through a Veil,
92-94.
228
Murādī,
Silk al-durar
, 4:25.
229
Nābulusī,
Khamrat bābil
, 53-54. In the last line, Nābulusī is alluding to the dogma that someone who loves Muhammad-the Prophet—does not deserve to be confined to hell-fire. Note, however, that the line loses much of its force unless we suppose that the portrayed beloved is also called Muhammad.
230
al-Ghazzī, Kamāl al-Dīn,
al-Wird al-unsī,
fol. 58a-b.
231
Unless otherwise indicated, information on ‘Aydarūsī is taken from Jabartī,
Ajāʾib al-āthār,
2:27-34.
232
See ‘Aydarūsī,
Tanmīq al-asfār,
161-62.
233
Aydarūsī,
Tarwīḥ al-bāl,
118.
234
Aydarūsī,
Tarwīḥ al-bāl
, 50.
235
According to Ibn ‘Arabī, man is called
insān
(which in Arabic also means pupil of the eye) “because God sees His creatures through man.” See Izutsu,
Sufism and Taoism
, 227; and Nicholson,
Studies in Islamic Mysticism
, 155-56.
236
‘Aydarūsī,
Tanmīq al-asfār,
205-6.
237
The practice of indicating the name of the beloved by acrostics was common at the time. See, for instance, Nābulusī,
Khamrat bābil,
223; al-Ḥafnī, Yusuf,
Dīwān,
fol. 34b and fol. 36b; ‘Ushārī,
Dīwān,
520 and 534.
238
The Light of Muhammad was considered to be the first “determination” (
ta ‘ayyun
) of God, and the principle from which the universe was formed. See Nicholson,
Studies in Islamic Mysticism,
103-21; Izutsu,
Sufism and Taoism,
236-38.
239
‘Aydarūsī,
Tanmīq al-asfār,
23.
240
‘Aydarūsī,
Tanmīq al-asfār
, 102.
241
Knysh,
Ibn ‘Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition,
87ff., 209ff., 263ff.
242
al-Ghazzī, Najm al-Dīn,
al-kawākib al-sāʾirah,
1:203-4 (on Zakariyyā al-Ansārī); Ibn Ábidīn,
Radd al-muḥtār
, 3:294 (who cites the opinion of Suyūṭī and Pashazade); Winter,
Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt,
163-64.
243
The completion of the mosque and the first Friday prayer there, attended by Sultan Salīm himself, are described by the contemporary chronicler Ibn Tūlūn,
Mufākahat alkhillān
, 2:79-80.
244
On the Wahhabi condemnation of Ibn al-Fāriḍ and Ibn ‘Arabī, see
Majmū ‘at alrasā’ il
, 1:47. On Ibn al-Amīr’s condemnation, see Ibn al-Amīr,
Dīwān,
168-69.
245
The few scholars who continued to criticize Ibn ‘Arabī were by the eighteenth century clearly treated as mavericks. See Jabartī,
ʿAjāʾib al-āthār,
1:313 ; al-Umarī, Yāsīn,
Ghāyat al-marām,
384.
246
Nābulusī,
Sharḥ Dīwān Ibn al-Fāriḍ,
1:29.
247
Sha’rānī,
al-Anwār al-qudsiyyah,
1:46.
248
Sha‘rānī,
al--Anwār al-qudsiyyah,
2:137.
249
See Sha‘rānī’s comments on what he called
al-waḥdah al-muṭlaqah
in his
Laṭāʾif al
-
minan,
1:23, and
al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā,
2:42. On the later “interpolations” in Ibn ‘Arabī’s works, see
Laṭā’if al-minan,
1:42, 2:29.
250
Sha’rānī
, Laṭāʾif al-minan,
2:29.
251
Sha’rānī,
Laṭā’if al-minan,
2:103.
252
Nabulusi,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb,
22.
253
Nabulusi,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb,
79.
254
Ghazzī,
al-Wird al-unsī,
fol. 136a.
Chapter Three
1
Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2:211.
2
Bürgel, “Die beste Dichtung ist die lügenreichste,” 35.
3
See the representative discussion in ‘Alwān al-Ḥamawī,
‘Arā’is al-ghurar,
75ff.
4
See, for example, the Shāfi‘ī jurists Ibn Hajar,
Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj,
7:193; al-Ramlī, Shams al-Dīn,
Fatāwā,
3:169—70; Qalyūbū,
Ḥāsbiyah,
1:177; the Ḥanafī jurists Ḥaṣkafī,
al
-
Durr al-mukhtār,
1:298 (with the glosses of Ibn ‘Ābidīn) ; the Ḥanbalī jurist Buhūtī,
Kashshāf al-qinā‘,
1:266; the Mālikī jurists Dardīr,
al-Sharḥ al-ṣaghīr,
1:289; Nafarāwī,
al-Fawākih al-dawānī,
2:367. Apparently, only a few Malīkī scholars still left it open whether women had to veil their faces (see the glosses of Ṣāwī in Dardīr,
al-Sharḥ al-ṣaghīr,
1 : 289).
5
Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2:6; Ibn Hajar,
Taḥrīr al-maqāl,
63.
6
Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2:5.
7
Ibn Hajar,
Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj,
7:199.
8
Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2:141.
9
‘Alwān al-Ḥamawī,
‘Arā’is al-ghurar,
99.
10
Ibn Hajar,
Taḥrīr al-maqāl.
64; Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2 : 6; ‘Alwān al-Hamawī,
‘Arā’is al-ghurar,
175.
11
Ibn Hajar,
Tahrīr al-maqāl,
63—64; Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2 : 6; Ramli, Khayr al-Dīn,
Fatāwā
, 1:65 ; Ibn ‘Abidīn,
Radd al-muḥtār
, 5:233.
12
‘Alwān al-Ḥamawī,
‘Arā’is al-ghurar,
106.
13
Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir,
2:141; Ibn Hajar,
Taḥrīr al-maqāl,
63.
14
This was the position of’Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī on music; see his
Īdāh al-dalālāt,
72—73; see also al-Ghazzī, Kamal al-Dīn,
al-Wird al-unsī,
fol. 167b—168a.
15
Ibn ‘Allan,
Dalīl al-fäliḥīn,
8:137.
16
al-Qawl al-mu
ʿtabar fī bayān al-nazar;
Nabulusi also polemicized against the position of Nawawī in
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb,
23—41
(al-faṣl al-thānū: fī bayān ḥukm al-nazar ilā alwujūh al-ḥisān
).
17
Nabulusi,
Ghāyat al-maṭlūb
, 38—39.
18
al-Ghazzī, Kamal al-Dīn,
al-Wird al-unsī,
fol. 167a—b. Nābulusī’s attitude here is consistent with his stand on the traditional duty of “commanding the right and forbidding the wrong,” which he in effect neutralizes by stressing the need to avoid a self-righteous preoccupation with the faults of others; see Cook,
Commanding the Right 325—28
.
19
This applies to jurists of the Ḥanafī and Mālikī schools of law. The Ḥanbalī and Shāfiʿī jurists held that the face was not taboo during prayer, but was taboo to unrelated men. See the discussions cited in note 4 to chapter 3, above.
20
Shaykhzāde,
Majma
ʿal-anhur
, 1:81; Ḥaṣkafī,
Durr al-muntaqā
, 1:81; Ibn Nujaym,
al-Baḥr al-rāʾiq,
1
:
284; Ibn ʿĀbidīn,
Radd al-muḥtār
, 1:298.
21
Nabulusi,
al-Qawl al-muʿtabar,
fol. 187a.
22
Ibn Hajar,
al-Zawājir
, 2:143; in fact, premodern Arabic zoology knew of animals who practiced
liwāṭ
or were afflicted with
ubnah;
see Pellat, “Liwat,” 777a (citing
alḤayawān
of Jāḥiẓ).
23
Zurqānī,
Sharḥ al-mukhtaṣar
, 1:88 (with the glosses of Bannānī); Kharāshī,
Sharḥ al-mukhtaṣar
, 1:155 (with the glosses of ʿAdawī); Dardīr,
al-Sharḥ al-ṣaghīr
, 1: 144—45 (with the glosses of Ṣāwī); Dardīr,
al-Sharḥ al-kabīr
, 1:106 (with the glosses of Dasūqī).