Part 39 (1/2)
Driver of the dun-red camels that amidst acacias bide, Soft and sofa-like thy saddle from the long and weary ride!
Blessings on thee, if descrying far-off Tu?ih at noonday, Thou wilt cross the desert hollows where the fawns of Wajra play, And if from 'Uray?'s sand-hillocks bordering on stony ground Thou wilt turn aside to ?uzwa, driver for Suwayqa bound, And ?uwayli”s willows leaving, if to Sal' thou thence wilt ride-- Ask, I pray thee, of a people dwelling on the mountain-side!
Halt among the clan I cherish (so may health attend thee still!) And deliver there my greeting to the Arabs of the hill.
For the tents are basking yonder, and in one of them is She That bestows the meeting sparely, but the parting lavishly.
All around her as a rampart edge of sword and point of lance, Yet my glances stray towards her when on me she deigns to glance.
Girt about with double raiment--soul and heart of mine, no less-- She is guarded from beholders, veiled by her unveiledness.
Death to me, in giving loose to my desire, she destineth; Ah, how goodly seems the bargain, and how cheap is Love for Death![744]
Ibnu 'l-Fari? came of pure Arab stock, and his poetry is thoroughly Arabian both in form and spirit. This is not the place to speak of the great Persian ?ufis, but ?usayn b. Man?ur al-?allaj, who was executed in the Caliphate of Muqtadir (922 A.D.), could not have been omitted here but for the fact that Professor Browne has already given an admirable account of him, to which I am unable to add anything of importance.[745] The Arabs, however, have contributed to the history of ?ufiism another memorable name--Mu?yi'l-Din Ibnu 'l-'Arabi, whose life falls within the final century of the 'Abbasid period, and will therefore fitly conclude the present chapter.[746]
[Sidenote: Ibnu 'l-'Arabi.]
Mu?yi 'l-Din Mu?ammad b. 'Ali Ibnu 'l-'Arabi (or Ibn 'Arabi)[747]
was born at Mursiya (Murcia) in Spain on the 17th of Rama?an, 560 A.H. = July 29, 1165 A.D. From 1173 to 1202 he resided in Seville. He then set out for the East, travelling by way of Egypt to the ?ijaz, where he stayed a long time, and after visiting Baghdad, Mosul, and Asia Minor, finally settled at Damascus, in which city he died (638 A.H. = 1240 A.D.). His tomb below Mount Qasiyun was thought to be ”a piece of the gardens of Paradise,” and was called the Philosophers' Stone.[748]
It is now enclosed in a mosque which bears the name of Mu?yi 'l-Din, and a cupola rises over it.[749] We know little concerning the events of his life, which seems to have been pa.s.sed chiefly in travel and conversation with ?ufis and in the composition of his voluminous writings, about three hundred in number according to his own computation. Two of these works are especially celebrated, and have caused Ibnu 'l-'Arabi to be regarded as the greatest of all Mu?ammadan mystics--the _Futu?at al-Makkiyya_, or 'Meccan Revelations,' and the _Fu?u?u 'l-?ikam_, or 'Bezels of Philosophy.' The _Futu?at_ is a huge treatise in five hundred and sixty chapters, containing a complete system of mystical science. The author relates that he saw Mu?ammad in the World of Real Ideas, seated on a throne amidst angels, prophets, and saints, and received his command to discourse on the Divine mysteries. At another time, while circ.u.mambulating the Ka'ba, he met a celestial spirit wearing the form of a youth engaged in the same holy rite, who showed him the living esoteric Temple which is concealed under the lifeless exterior, even as the eternal substance of the Divine Ideas is hidden by the veils of popular religion--veils through which the lofty mind must penetrate, until, having reached the splendour within, it partakes of the Divine nature and beholds what no mortal eye can endure to look upon. Ibnu 'l-'Arabi immediately fell into a swoon. When he came to himself he was instructed to contemplate the visionary form and to write down the mysteries which it would reveal to his gaze. Then the youth entered the Ka'ba with Ibnu 'l-'Arabi, and resuming his spiritual aspect, appeared to him on a three-legged steed, breathed into his breast the knowledge of all things, and once more bade him describe the heavenly form in which all mysteries are enshrined.[750] Such is the reputed origin of the 'Meccan Revelations,' of which the greater portion was written in the town where inspiration descended on Mu?ammad six hundred years before. The author believed, or pretended to believe, that every word of them was dictated to him by supernatural means. The _Fu?u?_, a short work in twenty-seven chapters, each of which is named after one of the prophets, is no less highly esteemed, and has been the subject of numerous commentaries in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.
[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Perfect Man.]
Curiously enough, Ibnu 'l-'Arabi combined the most extravagant mysticism with the straitest orthodoxy. ”He was a ?ahirite (literalist) in religion and a Ba?inite (spiritualist) in his speculative beliefs.”[751] He rejected all authority (_taqlid_). ”I am not one of those who say, 'Ibn ?azm said so-and-so, A?mad[752] said so-and-so, al-Nu'man[753] said so-and-so,'” he declares in one of his poems. But although he insisted on punctilious adherence to the letter of the sacred law, we may suspect that his refusal to follow any human authority, a.n.a.logy, or opinion was simply the overweening presumption of the seer who regards himself as divinely illuminated and infallible.
Many theologians were scandalised by the apparently blasphemous expressions which occur in his writings, and taxed him with holding heretical doctrines, _e.g._, the incarnation of G.o.d in man (_?ulul_) and the identification of man with G.o.d (_itti?ad_). Centuries pa.s.sed, but controversy continued to rage over him. He found numerous and enthusiastic partisans, who urged that the utterances of the saints must not be interpreted literally nor criticised at all. It was recognised, however, that such high mysteries were unsuitable for the weaker brethren, so that many even of those who firmly believed in his sanct.i.ty discouraged the reading of his books. They were read nevertheless, publicly and privately, from one end of the Mu?ammadan world to the other; people copied them for the sake of obtaining the author's blessing, and the ma.n.u.scripts were eagerly bought. Among the distinguished men who wrote in his defence we can mention here only Majdu 'l-Din al-Firuzabadi ( 1414 A.D.), the author of the great Arabic lexicon ent.i.tled _al-Qamus_; Jalalu 'l-Din al-Suyu?i ( 1445 A.D.); and 'Abdu 'l-Wahhab al-Sha'rani ( 1565 A.D.). The fundamental principle of his system is the Unity of Being (_wa?datu 'l-wujud_). There is no real difference between the Essence and its attributes or, in other words, between G.o.d and the universe. All created things subsist eternally as ideas (_a'yan thabita_) in the knowledge of G.o.d, and since being is identical with knowledge, their ”creation” only means His knowing them, or Himself, under the aspect of actuality; the universe, in fact, is the concrete sum of the relations of the Essence as subject to itself as object. This pantheistic monism puts on an Islamic mask in the doctrine of ”the Perfect Man” (_al-Insan al-Kamil_), a phrase which Ibnu 'l-'Arabi was the first to a.s.sociate with it. The Divine consciousness, evolving through a series of five planes (_?a?arat_), attains to complete expression in Man, the microcosmic being who unites the creative and creaturely attributes of the Essence and is at once the image of G.o.d and the archetype of the universe. Only through him does G.o.d know Himself and make Himself known; he is the eye of the world whereby G.o.d sees His own works. The daring paradoxes of Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's dialectic are ill.u.s.trated by such verses as these:--
He praises me (by manifesting my perfections and creating me in His form), And I praise Him (by manifesting His perfections and obeying Him).
How can He be independent when I help and aid Him? (because the Divine attributes derive the possibility of manifestation from their human correlates).
For that cause G.o.d brought me into existence, And I know Him and bring Him into existence (in my knowledge and contemplation of Him).[754]
Thus it is the primary function of Man to reveal and realise his Divine nature; and the Perfect Men, regarded individually, are the prophets and saints. Here the doctrine--an amalgam of Manichaean, Gnostic, Neo-platonic and Christian speculations--attaches itself to Mu?ammad, ”the Seal of the prophets.” According to Moslem belief, the pre-existent Spirit or Light of Mu?ammad (_Nur Mu?ammadi_) became incarnate in Adam and in the whole series of prophets, of whom Mu?ammad is the last. Mu?ammad, then, is the Logos,[755] the Mediator, the Vicegerent of G.o.d (_Khalifat Allah_), the G.o.d-Man who has descended to this earthly sphere to make manifest the glory of Him who brought the universe into existence.
But, of course, Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's philosophy carries him far beyond the realm of positive religion. If G.o.d is the ”self” of all things sensible and intelligible, it follows that He reveals Himself in every form of belief in a degree proportionate to the pre-determined capacity of the believer; the mystic alone sees that He is One in all forms, for the mystic's heart is all-receptive: it a.s.sumes whatever form G.o.d reveals Himself in, as wax takes the impression of the seal.
”My heart is capable of every form, A cloister for the monk, a fane for idols, A pasture for gazelles, the pilgrim's Ka'ba, The Tables of the Torah, the Koran.
Love is the faith I hold: wherever turn His camels, still the one true faith is mine.”[756]
The vast bulk of Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's writings, his technical and scholastic terminology, his recondite modes of thought, and the lack of method in his exposition have, until recently, deterred European Orientalists from bestowing on him the attention which he deserves.[757] In the history of ?ufiism his name marks an epoch: it is owing to him that what began as a profoundly religious personal movement in Islam ends as an eclectic and definitely pantheistic system of philosophy. The t.i.tle of ”The Grand Master” (_al-Shaykh al-Akbar_), by which he is commonly designated, bears witness to his supremacy in the world of Moslem mysticism from the Mongol Invasion to the present day. In Persia and Turkey his influence has been enormous, and through his pupil, ?adru 'l-Din of Qoniya, he is linked with the greatest of all ?ufi poets, Jalalu 'l-Din Rumi, the author of the _Mathnawi_, who died some thirty years after him. Nor did all those who borrowed his ideas call themselves Moslems. He inspired, amongst other mediaeval Christian writers, ”the Illuminated Doctor” Raymond Lull, and probably Dante.[758]
CHAPTER IX
THE ARABS IN EUROPE
It will be remembered that before the end of the first century of the Hijra, in the reign of the Umayyad Caliph, Walid b. 'Abd al-Malik (705-715 A.D.), the Moslems under ?ariq and Musa b. Nu?ayr, crossed the Mediterranean, and having defeated Roderic the Goth in a great battle near Cadiz, rapidly brought the whole of Spain into subjection. The fate of the new province was long doubtful. The Berber insurrection which raged in Africa (734-742 A.D.) spread to Spain and threatened to exterminate the handful of Arab colonists; and no sooner was this danger past than the victors began to rekindle the old feuds and jealousies which they had inherited from their ancestors of Qays and Kalb. Once more the rival factions of Syria and Yemen flew to arms, and the land was plunged in anarchy.
[Sidenote: 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man, the Umayyad.]
Meanwhile 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man b. Mu'awiya, a grandson of the Caliph Hisham, had escaped from the general ma.s.sacre with which the 'Abbasids celebrated their triumph over the House of Umayya, and after five years of wandering adventure, accompanied only by his faithful freedman, Badr, had reached the neighbourhood of Ceuta, where he found a precarious shelter with the Berber tribes. Young, ambitious, and full of confidence in his destiny, 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man conceived the bold plan of throwing himself into Spain and of winning a kingdom with the help of the Arabs, amongst whom, as he well knew, there were many clients of his own family. Accordingly in 755 A.D. he sent Badr across the sea on a secret mission. The envoy accomplished even more than was expected of him. To gain over the clients was easy, for 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man was their natural chief, and in the event of his success they would share with him the prize. Their number, however, was comparatively small. The pretender could not hope to achieve anything unless he were supported by one of the great parties, Syrians or Yemenites. At this time the former, led by the feeble governor, Yusuf b. 'Abd al-Ra?man al-Fihri, and his cruel but capable lieutenant, ?umayl b. ?atim, held the reins of power and were pursuing their adversaries with ruthless ferocity. The Yemenites, therefore, hastened to range themselves on the side of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man, not that they loved his cause, but inspired solely by the prospect of taking a b.l.o.o.d.y vengeance upon the Syrians. These Spanish Moslems belonged to the true Bedouin stock!
A few months later 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man landed in Spain, occupied Seville, and, routing Yusuf and ?umayl under the walls of Cordova, made himself master of the capital. On the same evening he presided, as Governor of Spain, over the citizens a.s.sembled for public wors.h.i.+p in the great Mosque (May, 756 A.D.).