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CHAPTER 6 The Amorous Lyric as Mystical Language Union of the Sacred and Profane W ith discussions of vision and beauty now behind us, we proceed to study the pertinence of these phenomena to the amorous lyric, an artistic form favored by Ibn ‘Arabi, ‘Iraqi, and other Muslim mystics. The phrase “amorous lyric” aims to be an equivalent for certain versified genres used by both saints, lyrical forms concerned with love. Very often, mystics did not create new genres to convey their experiences , working instead within established genres. Such is the case, for example, in Sufi exegetical undertakings, where esoteric commentators employed an existing genre—the tafsir—as a medium for their insights.1 So too did the amorous poem, whether from the Arabic nasib or from the Persian ghazal, find itself a new medium for the expression of love enhanced by gnostic awareness. In this process, lyric poetry acquired new meaning, even if form did not always reflect this change. Needless to say, the poems of Ibn ‘Arabi as well as ‘Iraqi are shaped by the long poetic traditions that precede them. References to many of the images and motifs of the pre-Islamic nasib as well as the ‘Udhri tradition of amatory verse can be found in Ibn ‘Arabi’s Tarjuman al-Ashwaq. The influences of the nasib on Sufi poetry, handled quite ably in Jaroslav Stetkevych’s analysis of Ibn al-Farid as well as in the writings of Emil Homerin and (especially in the case of Ibn ‘Arabi) Michael Sells, need not be discussed here.2 Similar to Ibn ‘Arabi, following the path laid down by other Persian -speaking Sufi poets before him, ‘Iraqi makes use of themes and tropes from the courtly ghazal and qasidah, from which the poet has ultimately inherited his oft-used image of wine, for example. The concern here, however, is to view these poems not diachronically, as the culmination of various poetic traditions, but rather functionally , as an expression of the vision of love in Sufism. In that regard, juxtaposing the poetry of Ibn ‘Arabi, which derives from the Arabic literary tradition, with the poetry of ‘Iraqi, which derives mainly from the Persian literary tradition, allows us to push these formative factors temporarily into the background, focusing for now on one feature shared between them: poetry about human beauty with far-reaching spiritual significance. Hence the concern here is almost exclusively for matters of theme and imagery, not poetic form. It is hoped that through this method an important question can then be addressed: Why would amorous verse, often blatantly sensual in its The Amorous Lyric as Mystical Language 121 depictions, become the main artistic medium for the vision that has been hitherto described? That poetry has historically dominated the Islamic arts does not suffice to explain “mystic” affinity for amorous poetry. Rather, there is a homogeneity in aim and experience that renders love poetry such an able medium for the gnostic. The Methodology of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Commentary: Hermetic or Aesthetic? The method of this study has been to consider, up until now, the vision of the mystics at hand and the function of the human form in this vision and, currently, to apply this vision to the poetry shaped by their perceptive experience. Such has been the case because to do otherwise, to engage in mistaken analogies about amorous Sufi poetry, might cause one to misconstrue the poetry of these mystics as somehow distinct from their vision and their claims to gnostic meaning as somehow disingenuous .3 Such misinterpretations indeed occurred in Muhyi al-Din’s own lifetime, serving as the impetus for his commentary on his Tarjuman al-Ashwaq. When two of his disciples requested that Ibn ‘Arabi write his commentary, they did so because, in the words of Ibn ‘Arabi, “they had heard one of the jurists of Aleppo deny that this [collection of poems] resulted from divine secrets and that the Shaykh [Ibn ‘Arabi] dissimulates so that [the poetic collection] is ascribed to propriety and religion.”4 Of course, the familiarity of these pupils with Ibn ‘Arabi’s work and their offense at these suggestions itself signifies that the original collection of poems without commentary served as an elucidator of spiritual realities. The title of the work, moreover , which literally means “the interpreter of desires,” is perhaps enough of an indication of the collection’s aim. Yet more than simply a defense, the commentary on the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq also underscores the visionary dimensions of...

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