^ISDOM OF THE EAST

THE PERSIAN MYSTICS
JALALU'D-DIN RUM!

BY

F.

HADLAND DAVIS

" AUTHOR OF IN THE VALLEY OF STARS " THERE IS A TOWER OP SILENCE

"!

LONDON

STREET JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE
1912

ALL RIGHTS

TO
A. T. K.

THIS LITTLE BOOK OF EASTERN WISDOM
IS

LOVINGLY INSCRIBED

" OUR

JOURNEY

is

TO THE ROSE-GARDEN OF UNION jALA"LU'D-DfN PREFACE to thank Mr. R. A. Nicholson for kind and generous permission to use selections from his Dwani Shamsi Tabriz, and

I

DESIRE his also his publishers, the Cambridge Press. I am deeply indebted to Mr. E. H. Whinfield for

allowing me to use quotations from his rendering I of the Masnavi (Triibner's Oriental Series). also cordially

thank Mr. John Hastie for giving permission to quote a few passages from the " " Festival of Spring late Rev. Professor Hastie's (James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow). The poems quoted from this volume are entitled : "Thy Rose," "I saw the Winter weaving," " " Love sounds the Music of the Spheres," The " The Beloved All in Souls Love-moved," and All the other translations from the lyrical All." poetry of Jalalu'd-Din Rumi are by Mr. R. A.

me

Nicholson.

To

these gentlemen,
7

and

to those

8 I have left PREFACE unnamed, I tender

my warmest thanks my for their help, sympathy, and interest in " attempt to popularise the wisest of the Persian
Stiffs."

F.
LONDON,
January
22, 1907.

HADLANB

DAVIS.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I.

11
. .
.

ORIGIN OF SUFHSM.

.11
14

II.

III.

IV. V.

THE EARLY SUFIS THE NATURE OF SUFIISM THE INFLUENCE OF SUFIISM ANALYSIS OF THE RELIGION OF LOVE
. .

.

.

-20 .27
.
.

31

THE LIFE AND WORK OF JALILU'D-DIN KtiMf 34
I.

LIFE
SHAMSI TABRIZ
. .

II.

.

.

34 36

III.

IV.

THE STORIES OP AL-AFLAKI AND THE DEATH OF JALALU'D-DIN RUM! 38 THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF JALALU'DDIN RUMI'S POETRY 40
.

.

.

.

-

" " SELECTIONS FROM THE DIVANI SHAMSI TABRIZ 44

SELECTIONS FROM THE "MASNAVI"

.

.

68
101

APPENDIX

:

A

NOTE ON PERSIAN POETRY

.

EDITOBIAL NOTE of this series is a very object of the Editors desire above all things that, one. definite They in their humble way, these books shall be the

TEE

ambassadors of good-will and understanding between East and West the old world of Thought and the new of Action. In this endeavour, and in their own sphere, they are but followers of the highest example in the land. They are confident that a deeper knowledge of the great ideals and lofty philosophy of Oriental thought may help to a revival of that true spirit of Charity which neither despises nor fears the nation of another creed and colour.
L.
S.

CRANMEK-BYNGK A. KAPADIA,

NOBTHBROOK SOCIETY,
21,

CBOMWBLL ROAD,
KENSINGTON, S.W.

INTRODUCTION

I.

THE OKIQIN OF SumsM or Persian

A MONG the Mohammedans Sufiism,
JLAis

The mysticism, " is derived from $uf, word Siifi meaning wool" When a little Persian sect at the end of the as tasawmf.

known

eighth

century A.D. broke away from the orthodox Muslim religion, and struck out on

an independent path, they ignored costly robes and worldly ostentation, and clad themselves in a white wool garment. Hence they were " wool wearers," or Sufis. as
Prof.

known

gives four theories to the origin of Sufiism, viz. (1) Esoin regard teric Doctrine of the Prophet. (2) Reaction of
:

Edward

G,

Browne

*

the

Aryan mind against a Semitic

religion.

(3)

Neo-Pktonist influence. (4) Independent origin. Neither of the four theories altogether satisfies the learned professor,
*

and very certain
L

it

is

A

Literary Hitiory of Persia, vol.

U

12

NEO-PLATONISM

that the last-mentioned theory is of very little Prof. Browne seems in favour of a. " " spontaneous growth existing in various forms, under various names throughout the civilised account. world;

all this is not very tangible Moreover, we must bear in mind that the Neo-Platonist philosophers paid a visit to the Persian court in the sixth century A.D., and founded a school there in the reign of Nushirwan. It is highly probable, therefore, that these seven philosophers, forced to leave their homes through the tyranny of Justinian, who forbade the teaching of philosophy at Athens, should

but after

evidence.

have had considerable influence upon a few of the more thoughtful Persians, find that this theory evidence. is We

shall

now

borne out by internal

Let us ism. briefly

study the tenets of Neo-Platonin the

The Neo-Platonists believed as the Source of all things.

Supreme was the

Good it Self-existent,

generated

from

itself.

Creation

reflection of its

own

Being.

was permeated with God. ally non-existent, a temporary and ever-moving shadow for the embodiment of the Divine. The Neo-Platonists believed that by ecstasy and contemplation of the All-Good, man would rise to that Source from whence he came. These points Nature, therefore, Matter was essenti-

bear directly upon the Sufi teaching.

They form a broad outline of the tenets of

NEO-PLATONISM AND STJFIISM
Siifiism.

13

The

Sufis,

from temperamental and

other causes, elaborated these ideas, gave them a rich and beautiful setting, and, what is all-

important, built about them one of the most interesting phases of mystical poetry the world has ever known, and this particular phase may be said to date from the twelfth century A.D. Thus, I think, it will be readily admitted that the Sufis certainly owed something to the Neo-

The cry for the Beloved was in their hearts before the Greek philosophers came but Neo-Platonism appealed to their Oriental minds.
Platonists.
;

It

was a stepping-stone

across the river of their

particular spiritual tendencies, and they trod thereon, and proceeded to lay down other stones across the stream. I have pointed out

the similarities between this particular Greek and Persian belief. There was, however, one very important difference. The Neo-Platonist's conception of God was purely abstract, the Sufi's essentially personal, as far as the early Sufis were concerned. We shall consider other influences which were brought to bear upon Sufiism

a little later on. There is a very great difference between the early Sufiism and the elaborate additions that followed as an evolutionary matter of course. In brief, then, Neo-Platonism was the doctrine A quotation from the letter of of Ecstasy.
Plotinus to Placcus

on Ecstasy

will still further

14

THE EARLY SUFIS
:

show the similarities between this Greek and Persian teaching "The wise man recognises the idea of the Good within him. This he develops by withdrawal into the Holy Place of his own soul. He who does not understand how the soul contains the Beautiful within itself, seeks to realise beauty without, by laborious production.
;

His

aim should rather be to concentrate and simplify, and so to expand his being instead of going out into the Manifold, to forsake it for the One, and so to float upwards towards the Divine Fount of Being whose stream flows within

him."
Tliis is

Sufiism in prose.

The

Sufis turned the

same conception into

poetry.

II.

THE EARLY

STJFIS.

the

HASHIM (ob. 150 A.H.) was the first to bear name of Sufi, while Dhu'1-Nun-al-Misri

(245 A.H.) may be said to have given Sufiism its permanent shape. Rabi'a, of Basra, was the

woman to join the sect, and her saintliness and wise sayings have been preserved by Faridu'dDin 'Attar. One day a great sickness fell upon Babi'a, and on being asked the reason for it " she replied I dwelt upon the joys of Paradise and therefore my Beloved has chastened me." first :

RABI'A

15

remark on the subject is given as follows The bonds of wedlock have descended upon me. I am not my own, but my Lord's, and must not be
:

Rabi'a did not believe in earthly marriage. Her "

unfaithful

that

devil,

me of " she replied My no time to hate him." Rabi'a was a
:

to Him." 'Attar when Rabi'a was asked

informs us she hated the love to God leaves also if

woman

much independence

of thought, ethical rather

than metaphysical in her remarks, and strongly opposed to outward ceremonials. She is said to have died at Jerusalem, 753 A.D. It was at

Ramla, in Palestine, that a Christian nobleman built a convent (Khangah) for the Sufis. Thus in the early days the sect defied their Prophet's condemnation of monkery by building an abode The Sufis were for members of the order. strongly opposed to the idea of free-will or distinct and self-existent personality apart from the Beloved. The orthodox Muslim's idea was The Sufis have always precisely the reverse. made the Koran their text-book. With infinite ingeniously quote therefrom, and their own explanations when necessary. No doubt there were political reasons for adopting this method of concealing heterodox ideas under the cloak of orthodoxy. shall see, however, as the sect grew and that these still further broadened its views, clever compromises did not prevent the appearlicence they still more ingeniously add

We

16

BAYAZ1JJ

ance of martyrs among their number in the future. By the end of the second century of the Hijira the Sufis were a much-respected religious order. In the following century Quietism had not only changed to Pantheism, but Pantheism had kindled a belief that Beloved and lover were identical. The step was inevitable and at this

was that Sufiism became essentially and it became more mystical as years mystical, advanced. About this time, viz., the beginning of the third century A.H., we come across two interesting Sufis who seem to have been the prime movers in this new development, by name Bayazid and Mansur al-Hallaj. Concerning the saint Bayazid an interesting story is told in the Fourth Book of the Masnavi. The saint surprised his disciples one day by " juncture it

saying:

Lo,

I

myself

There

is

no God beside

am God Almighty. me worship me "
;
!

thinking their Master was beside himself, told him, when the strange ecstasy had disciples, The

passed, replied !

said. Bayazid promptly do so again straightway slay me " His disciples accordingly sharpened their " knives. Once more Bayazid cried out Within vesture is naught but God, whether you seek my Him on earth or heaven." The disciples, horror-

what he had
"
If

:

I

:

struck at his remarks, straightway plunged their knives into Bayazid's body. But their blades

MANSUR AL-HALLAJ

17

were turned back against their own throats, so that they died. He explained to the few disciples, who had not struck him, that the ecstasy he had been experiencing annihilated " His form is vanished, he is a mere mirror." self,

The

faces in that mirror

struck him saw their own and so wounded themselves, and not Bayazid, whose soul had left the mirror of his body and was one with the Beloved. Perhaps the life of Mansur al-Hallaj is even more interesting. Whether he was a mere disciples still

who had

adventurer or genuine exponent of Sufiism is open to controversy among modern Sufis. It will be perfectly safe to describe him as either

a

saint or a vagabond. He was possibly both extremes to suit the necessities of a very exciting and eventful career. He was born in the close of the ninth century A.D., and was said to perform many miracles, such as raising the dead to life, and drawing gold and flowers from the air. According to his own belief he could write verses equal to those of the Koran. He went " " one better than the superman theory, however, and called himself God, and his disciples Akbar was called after the various prophets.

from

God, but deification in this case did not sound his own trumpet ; it sounded from the " See Akbar trumpet of an enthusiastic poet
:

and you

see

God."

Al-Hallaj

visited

India

for the purpose of studying magic,

and there

18

MANSUR AL-HALLAJ

saw the celebrated Rope Trick, on that occasion performed by a woman, a point of considerable interest.* This mystic-adventurer wrote fortysix books, and certainly gained considerable influence over the lower classes by his many He is said to have disputed signs and wonders. the necessity of making a pilgrimage to Mecca by stating that by occult practices it could be performed equally well in any room. On a certain occasion, however, we cannot help but admire Al-Hallafs wit and aptitude. One day he stretched forth an empty hand and produced from the air an apple, which he asserted he had plucked from Paradise. One of his witnesses disputed his assertion, because this particular apple was maggot-eaten, and therefore not of " Divine origin. Al-Hallaj at once replied It is because it hath come forth from the Mansion of Eternity to the Abode of Decay: therefore to its heart hath corruption found its
:

way

"

!

Al-Hallaj, on account of his various heretical teachings, was imprisoned and subjected to all manner of cruelties. Bravely he went forth

to the place of crucifixion. For four days he nailed on a cross .on both sides of the Tigris. From these tortures he was finally released. Ten

was

years later he
* "

was executed,

telling his disciples

Among

Occult Review,

the Adepts and Mystics of Eindostan."

The

December, 1C05.

TWO EARLY MYSTICS
:

19

he would return to them in thirty days, and " Prom exultantly reciting poetry, he cried His own cup He bade me sup, for such is hospi" A comment of his on Sufiisnfc-a very tality " ironical one was That which is mine, for
! :

by God

never distinguished for a moment " Yet another between pleasure and pain " The way characteristic saying of his was to God is two steps one step out of this world and one step out of the next world, and lo " Whatever were you are there with the Lord the faults of Al-Hallaj, and they were many, at least it may be said of him that he was a brave man. With all his fanaticism, his absurd indisI
!

:

:

I

!

cretion and love of conjuring, he left much behind of permanent value to the Sufis. The Government, in those days, did all in its power to restrain the publicity of his books; but a light that was never for a moment set under a bushel cannot be hid; the very attempt to obliterate it is in itself the cause for a keener persistent search. century of the Hijira we may note Abu4-Khair as the first to give Sufiism politic

and more
In the

fifth

and Iman Ghazali as the first to a metaphysical basis. At this time we give find in Sufi books many terms borrowed from the Neo-Platonists. Books on ethics, as well significance, it

as poetry, ideas. now became impregnated with

Sufi

20

THE NATURE OF SUFIISM
III.

THE NATURE OF

STJFIISM

The so that

Stiffs

are folk who have preferred God to everything, God has preferred them to everything. DHU' L-NUN.*

there are eight Paradises the other in ascending " The .highest is called The Garden of stages. Eden." All are lovely gardens full of luxuriant flowers and trees, amid which gleam the domes and minarets of gorgeous palaces, rich with faith IK the Islam arranged one within

^

precious stones, where the departed are feasted and entertained by beautiful houris. All the Paradises are watered by rivers, such as the

Kevser, the Tesnim, and the Selsebil. The great tree grows in the its highest Paradise branches fall into the seven other gardens.f This brief description will be sufficient to show the nature of the Muslim heaven. That it was a

Tuba

;

glorified creation of the earth in eight degrees is

evident. physical. 1.

It

was sensuous rather than metaThe five worlds of the Sufis are
:

2.
3.

The Plane of the Absolute The "Relatively Invisible." The "World of Similitudes."

"

Invisible

"

* For further extracts from Stifi writers see A Historical the Origin and Development of Stiflism, f .

*

t See History of Ottoman Poetry,

by E. G. W. Gibb,

'

vol.

i.

THE FIVE PLANES
" The Visible World (or the plane "Form, Generation and Corruption"). " 5. The World of Man."
4.

21 of "

These Five Planes are often regarded as Three : the "Invisible," the "Intermediate," and the " " " Visible Visible," or yet again as simply the " ee and Plane of the Invisible." Above the " Absolute Invisible is an infinity which we " might, perhaps, compare with Dante's Spaceless

Empyrean."

The Sufis regarded the existence of the soul as pre-natal. Moreover that the full perception of Earthly Beauty was the remembrance of that Supreme Beauty in the Spiritual world. The body was the veil but by ecstasy (HAl) the soul could behold the Divine Mysteries. As Avicenna, in his poem on the soul, has written :
;

Lo, it was hurled Midst the sign-posts and ruined abodes of this desolate world. It weeps, when it thinks of its home and the peace it possessed, With tears welling forth from its eyes without pausing or rest, And with plaintive mourning it broodeth like one bereft O'er such trace of its home as the fourfold winds have left.

Creation was regarded as the output of the The visible world and all therein was a reflection of the Divine, an ever-changing scene full of the Spirit of God. The following
All-Beautiful.

beautiful

poem

of

will illustrate the Sufi's conception of the

Jami, from Yusuf-u-Zulaykhd, Beloved

22

JAMI

and His significance and relationship to His world of lovers :
No
mirror to reflect Its loveliness, Its locks ; the morning breeze Ne'er stirred Its tresses ; no collyrium Lent lustre to Its eyes ; no rosy cheeks

Nor comb to touch

O'ershadowed by dark curls like hyacinth, . Nor peach-like down were there. To Itself it sang of love
.

.

In wordless measure.

By

Itself it cast

The die of love. ... One gleam fell from It on the Universe And on the angels, and this single ray
Dazzled the angels, till their senses whirled Like the revolving sky. In diverse forma Each mirror showed it forth, and everywhere Its praise was chanted in new harmonies.

The

spirits who explore the depths Of boundless seas, wherein the heavens swim Like some small boat, cried with one mighty voice, " "

Praise to the Lord of all the universe 1 His beauty everywhere doth show itself, And through the forms of earthly beauties shines . Obscured as through a veil. . Where'er thou seest a veil, Beneath that veil He hides. Whatever heart Doth yield to love, He charms it. In His love The heart hath life. Longing for Him, the soul * Hath
.

victory.

Man

was a fragment

was, therefore, a part of God, because he of the Whole ; or, better still, he
* Translation

by

Professor B. G. Browno.

HAFIZ

23

was a divine emanation.* The Sufi recognised this fact, and his supreme desire was to be reunited with the Beloved. His difficulty, however, was to bear in mind that his worship should ever be of God, and not of God's many beautiful forms. Love came into his heart, and he endeavoured to recognise that earthly objects, however dear and beautiful they might be, were but lanterns where God's Light shon& through. Here it must be readily admitted that Sufiism often fails. The Sufi poets were

much

given to excessive laudations of physical beauty, and we often find, with all the toleration and ingenuity we can bring to bear, that some of Hafiz's lines are no more spiritual than Anacreon's, to whom he has been compared. We have a

number
;

words with a strictly Sufi meanwould not be wise to strain the ing analogy of earthly love too far and say that everything that Hafiz wrote was spiritual. The Sufi poets, for the most part, wrote about the Love of God in the terms applied to their beautiful women, for the simple reason that no one can write the celestial language and be understood at the same time. Is it to be wondered at that of Sufi it but

the Sufis, still remembering their old love-songs, their old earthly delights in women dear to them,
* Compare the Alexandrian doctrine of Emanations. Also J&mi's Law&i'h. Translated by E. H. Whinfield and

Murza Muhammad Kazvmi.

24

THE MEANING OF SUFI WORDS

should find it difficult not to apply such names, such ideas even in their love of the One Beloved ? Take those expressions literally and many of them are sensuous, but consider them as brave,

fraught with much spiritual and you at once annihilate the prejudice and come very near understanding We need not fly to Mrs. of Sufiism. meaning strong strivings,

fervour, after God,

Grundy and seek shelter under her hypocritical wing when some really devout and sincere Sufi " " or sings about calls God the Eternal Darling the Beloved's curls. In studying Sufiism from poetry we must always remember that Eastern poetry is essentially erotic in expression, but just as essentially symbolic in meaning. We must also bear in mind and this point must have had its influence upon Stifiism that the Muslim's reward for having lived a good life, according to the teaching of Mohammed, was that he should enjoy an eternal liason with
Sufi

lovely touris.

may be questioned that if the earthly object Love was a mere passing shadow of God, the man who loved that object was equally And again, how can God be the insignificant.
It

of

All-One when, according to the Sufi thesis, divided Himself into creation ? The part is not equal to the whole. These questions are easily answered. The stars shine in the sky, and on the bosom of the sea without diminution.

He

THE VOICE OF LOVE
;

25

Let the sea pass away, and the star-shadows but the stars are still there. pass away too So when the world shall pass away it will only be the Humanity.

shadows we call be there, and we shall still be there because we came alone from Him. There was a Voice that sounded in men and women, in mountains and in seas, in the fading of

innumerable will still

God

beasts of the jungle and the swinging of the It was the Voice of Love, the great stars. beckoning in the Hereafter to which all things must go. That Voice to the Sufi was God calling

His

lovers into one chamber, one

feast.

Jami has expressed the
:

mighty lovefinality of Love

in the following lines
Gaze,
till

Gazing out of Gazing

Grew to BEING Her I gaze on, She and I no more, but in One
Undivided Being blended. All that is not One must ever Suffer with the Wound of Absence And whoever in Love's City Enters, finds but Boom for One, And but in ONENESS Union.

;

The Rev. Professor W. E. Inge, in Christian Mysticism, has brought a good deal of adverse criticism to bear upon Sufiism. He remarks: "The Sufis, or Mohammedan Mystics, use erotic language very freely, and appear, like true Asiastics, to have attempted to give a sacramental or symbolic

26

ADVERSE CRITICISM

The same

character to the indulgence of their passions." " writer accuses Emerson of playing

with pantheistic Mysticism of the Oriental type,"

and goes on to compare him with the Persian Sufis on account of his self-deification. This critic, in his desire to defame the Sufis, states that they are among the most shocking and that state

blasphemous of the mystics, because they believe is present with them even in their

earthly life. This, however, is no teaching of the Sufis, and, rightly considered, we cannot even except the sayings of Bayazid already referred to, because here he undoubtedly denies all claim

human personality, admitting God only, ^/-deification is no teaching of the Sufis. As the Buddhist's belief in Nirvana was a state only to be reached by degrees, after much striving and severe discipline, so was the fusion of the Beloved and His lover a belief and a beautiful hope far out on the spiritual horizon. Hadj to interesting book With the Pilgrims Mecca, briefly touches upon this sect and " mentions^seven stages in the spiritual growth of the Sufi, and not an arrogant proclamation to Khan,

in his

of Deity
Sufi's

ascending another point in favour of this argument. "For the love that thou would'st find demands the sacrifice of self to the end that the heart m