The Path of God's Bondsmen from Origin to Return (Merd al-ebd men al-mabda el'lnad).

A Sufi Compendium by Najm al-Dn Rz, known as Dya by Hamid Algar; Ehsan Yarshater Review by: Hermann Landolt Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 107, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1987), pp. 803-805 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603342 . Accessed: 31/08/2013 14:30
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Reviews of Books
with Islam, or with certain forms of it. Where Hodgson
( Venture 1:187) struggled sensitively with difficult moral issues

803

raised by Muhammad's military measures, Robinson writes simply, "In Medina he quickly became a ruler wielding political and military as well as religious authority . . . [bringing a faith and a book] which pointed the way to a life which was vastly superior to the paganism which it replaced; he had also by means of warfare and wise alliance led the expansion of his community" (p. 22). Toward the end of the book, an idealization of the traditional past becomes particularly pronounced, e.g., "They [the
new cities in which Muslims live] are places . . . where a

Western unsociability may begin to replace the warm companionship of the quarter" (p. 216). Modernization and secularization are consistently devalued, cultural Islam subordinated to pietistic Islam. Ben Bella "paid no more than lip service to Islam" (pp. 160-61). In Russia, "For Muslim believers, as opposed to those who were merely [italics mine] Muslim by culture, the development of the revolution was even more of a disaster" (p. 148). "A glance at the elite culture of this world [of secularized Westernizing states] reveals how far Muslim minds had been seduced by Europe" (p. 163). " . . . within these nation states the damage wrought
by European power was much greater.... The cold breath

of materialism withered support for their [the true Muslims'] spiritual vision in the hearts of men" (p. 157). Sympathetic understanding has been a necessity for the "rehabilitation" of Islamic studies; but for the rehabilitation (ours as well as the field's) to be complete, sympathetic understanding must be applied consistently and tempered with the same kind of thorough and responsible consideration and discussion of difficult issues that characterizes the study of other civilizational complexes. What might be called "tough love" must become a sign of intellectual respect and respectability. A great civilization needs no apology, but it does demand serious and unflinching attention.
MARILYN R. WALDMAN OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

The Path of God's Bondsmenfrom Origin to Return (Mersad al-'ebdd men al-mabda' eld'l-nacdd). A Sufi Compendium by Najm al-Din RdzT,known as Ddya. Translated from the Persian, with introduction and annotation by HAMID ALGAR. Pp. x + 531. (Persian Heritage Series, Number 35. Ed. by EHSAN YARSHATER.) Delmar, New York: CARAVAN BOOKS. 1982. The post-classical period of sufism has seen not only the emergence of the orders, but was also a time of increased

intellectual activity and of a literary production which, at least in terms of its influence upon the later ages, was certainly no less "classical" than that of the "Golden Age." This influence was neither confined to established lines of tarTqah-affiliation, nor was the message uniform. If, as Professor Algar writes in his introduction to the work under review, sufism is "the inner dimension of Islam" and the period under consideration its "second youth," there is also something to be said for its capacity to absorb quite divergent ideas and trends. There is a difference, for example, between the speculative mysticism of Ibn 'Arab! (d. 638/ 1240)-soon to appeal to the philosophically minded in general-and the conservative outlook of a Sufi shaykh like Abli Hafs 'Umar Suhraward! (d. 632/ 1234). The Mirsdd ul-'Ibdd of Najm al-Din Razi (known as Dayah, 573-654/1177-78-1256) is not only a Sufi classic in the above sense, but also a widely acclaimed masterpiece of Persian prose. As was recognized by its modern editor, Dr. Muhammad Amin RiyahT, whom Algar follows, Dayah wrote the Mirsdd in two slightly different versions: there is a "dervish recension," which was completed soon after Dayah's arrival (on his flight from the Mongols) in Kayseri in Ramadan 618/October 1221, and there is a "royal recension," which Dayah dedicated to 'Alad' al-Din Kayqubad I at the suggestion of AbU Hafs 'Umar Suhraward! (whom he had met in the same year 618 A.H. in Malatya), and which was completed on the Ist of Rajab 620/31st July (not: "August"!) 1223 in Sivas. Riyahi's edition (Tehran: B.T.N.K., 1352 A.H.S./ 1973), on which Algar's translation is based, is certainly far superior to any of the previously available prints.' Oddly enough, however, it does not provide a consistent text on the basis of the editor's own distinction between the two "recensions." Thus, Parts I and II of the book (corresponding to pp. 25-122 in Algar) give the "royal recension," whereas the rest follows basically the "dervish recension"; and while this can be helped by having recourse to Riyahi's introduction and apparatus criticus, there is no way of telling which is which from the Algar translation. Occasionally, this confusion creates problems. For example, on p. 8 of Algar's introduction, we are told that "in the present work [Dayah] also mentions having been in Cairo and Damascus in the year 600/1204" and are referred to p. 429 of the translation for evidence. There, however, neither Cairo nor the year 600 are mentioned, simply because this bit of information is given only in the "royal recension," which has not been followed in this part of the book.

' Among other things, it disproves my earlier argument (cf. Der Islam 50, 1973, 30 and Marmazdt-i Asadi, introd. p. 29) concerning Ibn 'Arabi's technical terms in the Mirsdd (old ed. pp. 174ff.).

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804

Journal of the American Oriental Society 107.4 (1987)

Kubraw! legend (recorded in the 15th century) has it that Kubra once uttered the imprecation: "May he die in the river!"-Baghdadd having shown arrogant behaviour-and even though the disciple repented subsequently and the master duly forgave him, the curse evidently came true. This, Algar believes, would explain Davah's silence concerning Kubra "as a sign of resentment at Kobra's fatal imprecation" (sic, p. 10). On the other hand, Algar also suggests (ibid.) that Baghdadi may have been a victim of the "maleficent influence" at the court of the "philosopher" Fakhr al-Din RazY, meaning the celebrated Ashcarite theologian (d. 606/1209), whose "cerebral approach to religion" (dixit Annemarie Schimmel) has often been mistakenly interpreted-quite unfairly, in fact-as a sign of his supposed hostility to sufism. Moreover, this "hostility" of the "philosopher" would have provoked, according to Algar (p. 19), some of the vigour of Dayah's frequent outbursts against "the philosophers." It should however be pointed out that Dayah's own hostility against "the philosophers, materialists, naturalists, metempsychosists, antinomians, and heretics"-"heretics" being Algar's translation for ismd'lfyvdn(!)-is quite patent (p. 384) and seems to be deeply rooted. If a target has to be named for these attacks, the ishrdqi philosopher Shihab al-Din Yahya SuhrawardT(put to death on the orders of Saladin in 587/1191) would probably make a better candidate, especially as Dayah refers with obvious satisfaction to the killing of "famous philosophers in these recent times" (not translated on p. 382, "royal recension" only), and does not fail to mention Saladin's charitable institutions for the Sufis as a model for the pious king (pp. 429f.). In any case, the "philosophy" (hikmat) which Dayah anathematizes in the Mirsdd (pp. 379ff.) as "unbelief by investigation," describing it as a "disaster" having appeared in "roughly the last twenty years," and whose proponents he depicts as claiming a divine message from Gabriel, would seem to fit Suhrawardi's hikmat al-ishrdq far better than Fakhr Razl's dialectical kaldm. As for Ddyah's silence concerning Kubra, one may as well venture that he sensed a certain similarity between the latter's teaching and Suhrawardi's ishra-q,and therefore did not particularly care to be associated with "the founder of the Kobravi order." In short, while the introduction is by no means uninteresting or unentertaining, it cannot be said to meet the standards one would normally expect. By contrast, as far as the translation is concerned, Algar deserves our gratitude for what is on the whole an admirable work of precision and readability. Given its length, there are very few passages indeed which would call for some critical comment. A few samples may be listed here: P. 74, 17f. "God desired Himself when He desired us" (repeated on p. 255, 12-13) is hardly a correct translation of the KharaqanTdictum as given in Riyahi's text (Ci-rd khwast kih md-rd khwast), which may however be corrupt. Parallels

Given the importance of the Mirsdd as a "Sufi Compendium" and its popularity all over the Eastern part of the Islamic world, which Algar amply demonstrates, its content receives remarkably sparing comment in the introduction, although this is compensated to an extent by some of the notes to the translation. Especially Dayah's peculiar doctrine of the soul and the five "subtle centers of perception" (cf. p. 18 and the lengthy note on pp. 134ff.) would have deserved more systematic treatment.3 Much more space is devoted, instead, to the history of the Kubrawi order, to which Dayah is said to have been "affiliated" (p. 2). Since Dayah never mentions the eponym of that order, Najm al-Din Kubra (d. 618/ 1221),4 and is himself never mentioned as a link in its initiatory chain, having left no known disciple, the importance accorded by Algar to that chain seems somewhat out of proportion. It is of course true that Dayah received his Sufi education from Kubra's disciple Majd al-Din Baghdadi,5 whom he frequently quotes as his master, and from whom the main line of the then nascent Kubrawi order derives its affiliation. It is also a fact that Dayah's writings strongly influenced major representatives of that line by the end of the 7th/ 13th century. Contrary to other disciples of Kubra, Baghdadd was like Dayah himself a man of extremely orthodox Sunni persuasion as well as of courtly connections. Algar reports that "the immediate cause for his death is reputed to have been a secret liaison with Torkan Kdtuin,the mother of the K arazm" (p. 9), seems however inclined to give preference to two other, mutually exclusive versions of BaghdadT's "death in the Oxus": On the one hand,

2 Add to the references given on p. 20: Ibn Abi JumhUr al-Ahsad', MujIT Mir'at al-Munji, Tehran, 1329/1911. For an analysis, see my article in Eranos 46-1977 (Frankfurt am Main, 1981), pp. 175-204, on "Stufen der Gotteserkenntnis und das Lob der Torheit bei Najm-e Rzi (ob. 654/1256)." 4 As was shown by Fritz Meier in his introduction to Kubra's Fawdaihal-Jam-l (Wiesbaden, 1957), to which Algar refers, Kubrawi sources tell Kubra's life-story in two completely contradictory versions, none of which deserves preference over the other. Algar nevertheless gives only one version (which is also the one adopted by E. Berthels in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam), without mentioning the other. 5 From Baghdadak in Khwarazm. The date of his death is given by Algar as having occurred in 616/1219 on p. 3, but in 607/1210 on p. 9 (the latter is more likely to be correct). Whether he was actually "drowned in the Oxus on the orders of the ruler of Kiarazm"(Algar, p. 9) is far from certain. See now the discussion in Nasrollah Pourjavady, "Rabitah-i Fakhr-i Razi ba Mashayikh-i SUfiyah," Macdrif iii, 1 (July, 1986), pp. 29-80, especially 46-50.

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Reviews of Books
found in other sources (e.g., Isfarayini, Le Revelateur des Mysteres, Lagrasse, 1986, pp. 176 and 208) as well as the context in Mirsdd suggest that the meaning is rather something like this: "It is He who desires us (in the first place) when we desire Him," or: "Desire is His, when we desire." P. 191, 26f. "by virtue of God's permanence" should read: "by virtue of God's making it permanent" (bi-ibqd9, not b& baqd'). P. 263: The poem quoted here is only part of a longer piece, another part of which is found on pp. 436ff. In fact, the second verse on p. 263 is exactly the same in the Persian as the last verse on p. 437, but the translation differs substantially in the two cases, and neither seems entirely correct. I would propose: "It is in the very center of desire that we trace out this circle, for we go with our heads ever rotating like the compass." P. 302, 6-7: "dispenses man from all need other than God, causes him to abide in God" translates mughnN-imubqi of the text (p. 308, 13), but mufnY-imubqYwould seem to be a reasonable conjecture, given that mumft-i muhyi immediately follows in the text. As for the poem on the same page, see Hellmut Ritter, Das meer der seele, Leiden, 1955 (2nd ed. 1978), pp. 541ff.; also Isfarayini, Le Revelateur, pp. 70 and 111. Zih Id nuqat bartar ddn means either: "Know it to be somewhat higher than 'no' (of the formula 'no god but God')," or: "Know it to be higher than 'the un-pointed one' (i.e., the formula 'no god but God' as a whole)," but not: "Know it to be higher than the point of 'no'." Incidentally, Hamadani's Tamhiddt was not, of course, published in "Ahvdl va dsdr" (same error on p. 77, note, and in the bibliography on p. 502), but in Musannafdt, ed. CAfif 'Usayran, Tehran, 1341 A.H.S.
HERMANN LANDOLT MCGILL UNIVERSITY

805

Steppe im Staubkorn. Texte aus der Urdu-Dichtung Muhammad Iqbals. Trans. and commentary By J. CHRISTOPH BURGEL. Pp. 194. Freiburg: UNIVERSITATSVERLAG FREIBURG, SCHWEIZ. 1982. Paper, Fr. 38. This new addition to the growing literature on the philosopher-poet of Pakistan, unlike many earlier ones, cannot be defined as a selection of the poet's work merely translated and explained. The author, one of the best Iqbal experts in the West, does not yield passively to the crushing weight of Iqbal's religio-political thoughts. He rather takes up the challenge and enters into a debate with the poet to refute the latter's views in several instances. The book is divided into 10

chapters, preceded by an introduction on Iqbal's life and work plus "some remarks on Iqbal's style and rhetorical tools" (pp. 15-32). Each chapter is devoted to one important subject (Islam, Man, Nature, etc.) and consists of a brief foreword of up to 3 pages and several relevant texts, each explained separately and occasionally criticised. In addition to the literal translation, a number of the poems are also offered in a second, metric one which imitates the original's form but renders its content freely in a more beautiful style. Among these poetic renderings there are 16 ghazals and 24 quatrains included in chapter 10. This anthology thus presents, within its given limits, a cross-section of Iqbal's main ideas on some of his typically favoured topics, accompanied, in relevant passages, with a response from the author. The chapters on Islam, Europe, and State and Society are particularly interesting because of Iqbal's controversial views on these sensitive issues. Iqbal was, if not the earliest, indeed intellectually the strongest and oratorically the most eloquent Muslim to "declare war" on the West in this century. Being well equipped with the knowledge of European philosophy, he was able to present his thoughts and anti-materialisticrationalistic, "Urislamic" feelings in a language and style which, unlike the hadith- and tafsir-oriented tone of his predecessors, guaranteed him an enthusiastic reception in the East as well as a friendly audience with deep sympathy in the West. His ideas are now spreading among ever widening circles of a younger generation of Muslims, particularly in Pakistan and Iran where his poetry can be read in his own original languages and its beauty enjoyed. However, a correct understanding of his message requires readers to rise to the level of his intellectual capacity. Those who are tied up in a complex of religious prejudices and nationalistic emotions would rather tend to misunderstand him as a preacher of hatred and discord. The reaction to his appeal, combined with political circumstances, has placed wide segments of radical Muslims on a course of offensive behaviour and pushed the Western exponents of his works into an often apologetic position. As the best example of the former group the late 'Ali Sharicati may be remembered whose book Md va Iqbdl (Majmuca-ye Athar 5, Europe, n.p., n.d.), which elaborates at great length on Iqbal's concepts of man, society, socialism, Christianity, the fate of Islamic nations, and other crucial subjects, is replete with extreme expressions of disdain for the West. The present book, BUrgel'santhology, remains within the boundaries of an objective presentation of 164 of Iqbal's poems in a smooth and enjoyable German. A few examples from Burgel's remarks against disputable arguments of Iqbal may be useful to quote here. To Iqbal's statement, "I condemn this cursed religious and social sectarianism in the name of . .. him who has brought to mankind the final message of freedom and equality" BUrgel responds: "No one who knows history can easily

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