Passion Before Me, My Fate Behind: Ibn al-Farid and the Poetry of Recollection

Introduction

Introduction ˜Umar Ibn al-Fāriḍ is the most famous Arab poet within Islamic mysticism. He was a master of the Arabic poetic tradition, composing verse in a number of forms including the quatrain, the ghazal, the ode (qaṣīdah), and wine ode (khamrīyah). Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry is lyrical and complex, as he explores mystical feelings and themes relating to the quest of a devoted lover to regain union with his lost beloved. Ibn al-Fārid’ṣ poems, with their intricate style and elegant beauty, have moved generations of Muslims, and for centuries, he has been admired and imitated as an Arab poet and venerated as a Muslim saint. Life When ˜Umar Ibn al-Fāriḍ died in 632/1235, he was an established poet and a respected teacher. Several of his students left brief biographical notices on him, and these earliest sources agree that ˜Umar was born in Cairo on the 4th of Dhū al-Qa˜dah 576/1181. He was the son of Abū al-Ḥasan ˜Alī ibn al-Murshid ibn ˜Alī, and a descendent of the Sa˜d tribe of Arabia. His father ˜Alī ibn al-Murshid migrated to Cairo from Hama prior to ˜Umar’s birth, probably to serve in the judiciary of the Ayyubid dynasty, which had replaced the Shī˜ī Fatimids in 568/1171.1 The Ayyubid sultan, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin, r. 566–89/1171– 93) established several Sunni law schools in Cairo together with a khānqāh, a residence and chantry for as many as three hundred Sufis. In his attempts to promote Sunni Islam, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn also appears to have favored non-Egyptian scholars to fill many legal positions, perhaps to ensure their loyalty to him, and this may have brought ˜Umar’s father to Cairo.2 There, ˜Alī ibn al-Murshid served as a women’s advocate (fāriḍ) in legal proceedings, thus ˜Umar’s eventual title Ibn al-Fāriḍ, “son of the women’s advocate.” ˜Alī ibn al-Murshid was a member of the Shāfi˜ī law school and was respected for his religious knowledge.3 1 2 PASSION BEFORE ME, MY FATE BEHIND ˜Alī ibn al-Murshid oversaw ˜Umar’s education in the religious sciences and in Arabic language, literature, and poetry (adab). ˜Umar also studied the traditions of the prophet Muḥammad (ḥadīth) with the noted traditionalist of Damascus Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim ibn ˜Alī Ibn al-˜Asākir (d. 527/1203). Early sources also note that Ibn al-Fāriḍ was, like his father, a member of the Shāfi˜ī law school, and that he undertook the study and practice of Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, composing poetry on the Sufi path (˜alā ṭarīqat al-taṣawwuf). Unfortunately, his students do not record any information regarding Sufi masters or books that he may have consulted. Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s earliest biographers add that he went on pilgrimage to Mecca, where he lived and studied for a time, after which he returned to Cairo. There, he supported himself by teaching ḥadīth and poetry at the Azhar congregational mosque. ˜Umar Ibn al-Fārid died on the 2nd of Jumādā I 632/1235, and was buried at the foot of Mt. Muqatṭạm in the Qarāfah, the large cemetery north east of Cairo.4 The early, brief sketches of Ibn al-Fāriḍ by his students may be fleshed out by an influential later source, the Dībājah (“The Adorned Proem”). Composed by the poet’s grandson ˜Alī (fl. 735/1334), this work is an introduction to the Dīwān Ibn al-Fāriḍ, ˜Alī’s definitive collection of his grandfather’s poetry. However, the Dībājah must be used with caution, for the work is clearly a hagiography of a saintly life, not a factual biography of a grandfather who had probably died before ˜Alī was born. Still, ˜Alī provides important information regarding Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s family by noting that Ibn al-Fāriḍ was married and had at least two sons, Kamāl-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 689/1290) and ˜Abd al-Raḥmān, and an unnamed daughter, who was ˜Alī’s mother. ˜Alī also relates many stories about his grandfather, ordering them in such a way as to portray Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s progress along the mystic path from a religiously naive youth to a spiritually realized Sufi master and divinely...