PART I
កÄFIáș IN THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL, LITERARY AND MYSTICAL MILIEU OF MEDIEVAL PERSIA
Prolegomenon to the Study of កÄfiáș
1 â Socio-historical and Literary Contexts: កÄfiáș in ShÄ«rÄz
Leonard Lewisohn
CitĂ© de lâamour
When កÄfiáș was born in the city of ShÄ«rÄz some time between 710/1310 and 720/1320,1 the cultural epoch into which our poet stepped was one of the richest in all human history. As the second leading cultural capital (after Tabriz) of medieval Persia, the artistic, intellectual and literary brilliance of fourteenth-century ShÄ«rÄz under Muáșaffarid rule is perhaps best comparable to fifteenth-century Florence under Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici. The poets and philosophers who thrived in this intellectual centre of south-western Fars easily rival the likes of Marsilio Ficino, Botticelli, Michelangelo and Pico de Mirandelo, who were to fill the capital city of Italian Tuscany a century later. For several centuries, throughout all the domains of the Islamic world, ShÄ«rÄz had been renowned as House of Knowledge (dÄr al-âilm),2 the city vaunting its learned theologians, eloquent preachers, pious ascetics, ecstatic Sufis, erudite scholars, specialist theologians, great calligraphers, famous scientists and adept hommes de lettres. Many of the natives of the city still figure as the central pillars of classical Islamic civilization. Shaykh RĆ«zbihÄn BaqlÄ« (d. 606/1210), one of the greatest exponents of paradoxical expression and certainly the most original author of works on Sufi erotic theology, had flourished there a century before កÄfiáș. SaâdÄ« of ShÄ«rÄz, the greatest romantic and humanist poet in the Persian language, had died in 691/1292, less than a generation before កÄfiáșâs birth, while the Illuminationist (IshrÄqÄ«) philosopher Quáčb al-DÄ«n ShÄ«rÄzÄ« (d. 710/1311), author of the encyclopaediac work Durrat al-tÄj li-ghurrat al-DubÄj, had walked its streets a few years before he was born.
This city of âSaints and Poetsâ, as Arthur Arberry called it,3 was especially famous for its colleges and seminaries, its Sufi centres (khÄnaqÄhs) and mosques, many of which had large accompanying gardens and possessed properties attached by charitable bequest to their grounds. The presence of these institutions, even if their administrators were often than not corrupt,4 lent the town a peculiar sacred ambience in the popular imagination. In ShÄ«rÄz â claimed the fourteenth-century Morrocan world traveller Ibn BaáčáčĆ«áča, who visited the city during កÄfiáșâs life â the QurâÄn is chanted more beautifully than anywhere else in the Muslim world. The city was also like Florence in being both hotly decadent and a hotbed of religious fervour,5 with prayer assemblies, QurâÄn study classes, Sufi sĂ©ances for samÄâ, lecture halls full of preachers calling the populace to repent their sins, recluses and ascetics (zuhhÄd) down every corner and alley,6 vignettes of which appear everywhere in កÄfiáșâs verse.
The city also prided itself on vast cemeteries with mausoleums of its saints. âIn ShÄ«rÄz one thousand Sufi masters and saints or more are foundâ, boasted SaâdÄ« in a poem describing the city in the thirteenth century, âaround whose head the Kaâba continuously circumambulatesâ.7 The most interesting work on ShÄ«rÄzâs necropolis was a work penned by Junayd-i ShÄ«rÄzÄ« in កÄfiáșâs lifetime called The Thousand Mausoleums, a guidebook landmarking all the important tombs as sites of visitation for travellers, adding in as an extra feature a backdrop account of the cityâs famous quarters.8 This work provided a veritable tourist guide to the sacred sites and shrines of ShÄ«rÄz,9 and for visitors who flocked there from all over Islamdom gave âthe impression that the whole of ShÄ«rÄz consisted of pious Sunnisâ.10 Among these holy sites, the tomb of the Sufi master Ibn KhafÄ«f of ShÄ«rÄz (d. 371/982), renowned for his ascetic prowess, was the most popular spot of weekend visitation for the populace of the city, second only to ShÄh ChirÄgh, the tomb of Aáž„mad ibn MĆ«sÄ, brother of the Shiâite ImÄm âAlÄ« al-RiážÄ, slain in 220/835.11 Ibn BaáčáčĆ«áča describes how TÄsh KhÄtun, the mother of SuláčÄn AbĆ« Isáž„Äq ÄȘnjĆ« (reg. 743/1343â753/1353: the ruler of ShÄ«rÄz when កÄfiáș was a youth), paid homage to âthe ImÄm, the Pole, the Saint, AbĆ« âAbduâllÄh Ibn KhafÄ«f, known to them as the Shaikh, ensampler of the whole land of Fars...