Dreams and Visions in Islamic Societies

4. Dreaming the Elixir of Knowledge: How a Seventeenth-Century Poet from Herat Got His Name and Fame

CHAPTER 4 Dreaming the Elixir of Knowledge How a Seventeenth-Century Poet from Herat Got His Name and Fame Derek J. Mancini-Lander This chapter examines the narration of dreams as a key instrument of knowledge transmission in the training of an early seventeenth-century poet, ˜Abd Allåh Bihisht¥ Harav¥, who was born and raised in the city of Herat during the Safavid era. Bihisht¥’s mid-seventeenth-century masnav¥ (long poem in rhymed couplets), N¶r al-Mashriqayn (“The Light of the Two Easts”),1 describes the cities the author visited in the course of his travels; however, it also contains an autobiographical account of his rise to fame as a poet, focusing explicitly on his training and coming into knowledge. At the heart of this account is a dream, which, according to Bihisht¥’s narrative, plays a pivotal part in his education. When the poet speaks of his education he alludes to several classes of knowing: His emphasis is not simply on the acquisition of intellectual knowledge, but rather on a combination of intellectual knowledge, technical know-how, knowledge of ethical behavior, and above all, the kind of understanding that is necessary for devotion to one’s masters, and through them, to the Imåms, and ultimately to God. According to the narrative, it is his dream that seals this bundle of noetic material and ultimately allows him to become an eloquent and prestigious poet. Moreover, his account makes explicit the connection between knowledge and status within a “society” of poets. In focusing on this single case study of a poet’s process of coming to know, I aim to prompt a new discussion, not only about 77 78 Derek J. Mancini-Lander the character of knowledge transmission among poets in the early modern Persianate world, but also about the role that dreams and their narration may have played in transmitting knowledge among all vocations and circles of affiliation in the Persianate context, of which poets were one. Most importantly, continuing the work of Jonathan Berkey and Michael Chamberlain, who have pioneered the study of knowledge as social practice in premodern Islamic societies, I aim to use this case study on dreams as an opportunity to reconsider the ways in which we think about the concept of knowledge in vocational training, and particularly its entrenchment in the social practices and ritualized activities that surrounded the process of learning and attaining status in Islamic societies. Attention to such practices should help us shift our understanding of Islamo-Persianate learning away from exclusively propositional forms of knowing (knowing that) to practical forms of knowing (knowing how). From early on in Islamicate societies dreams were understood to function as one of the only channels of access to divine knowledge for ordinary Muslims, a means of communication that was analogous, although not equivalent, to the kind of contact associated with prophecy itself.2 As such, dreams were understood to sanctify and render authoritative the claims of the dreamer. Accordingly, as many contributors to this volume note, since premodern times dreams presented Muslims with a powerful means of acquiring authority and leadership in highly competitive environments. In the Safavid period, dream narratives appear at pivotal moments in all varieties of texts, including biographical works, travel writings, memoirs, and histories.3 We also find documentary materials, such as ijåzåt (licenses) and vaƒåyå (testaments), in which dreams are presented as playing a pivotal role in the transmission of esoteric and nonordinary kinds of knowledge.4 These types of sources reveal that dreams and their narration were not only valuable tools for social competition among the highest echelons, they also proved to be key for less powerful members of society, such as craftsmen or local preachers. For these folk, the acquisition of knowledge and authority was as critical as it was for princes and great shaykhs and was no less contentious.5 Accordingly, adepts of any given vocation often cited dream experiences as the source of their superior knowledge or skill and as both the cause and proof of their preeminence. The authors of all manner of sources report that at crucial moments in their training or initiation, young apprentices and pupils in almost every vocation (from sovereigns to handicraftsmen) encountered prophets or saints who transmitted vital (sometimes secret) knowledge to them in their 79 Dreaming the Elixir of Knowledge dreams.6 In such literature from the Safavid period...