From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn al-Farid, His Verse, and His Shrine.

• Author: Radtke, Bernd
• Position: Review

By TH. EMIL HOMERIN. Columbia: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS, 1994. Pp. xii + 162. $39.95.

Ibn al-Farid (576/1181-632/1235) is renowned as the author of the Khamriyya and the Ta iyya al-kubra, two of the most celebrated odes of Islamic mysticism. He has repeatedly attracted the attention of Orientalists, among others Nicholson and Nallino. His grave, which is located in Cairo, is believed to have miraculous powers: not so much due to the deceased's poetical qualities but because of his reputation as a miracle-working saint. This is the focus of Homerin's book. He deals with the question of how it could happen that a poet with mystical tendencies was transfigured into a full-fledged mystic and a saint. And still one step further: how did something like "canonization" of a particular personality take place in medieval Egypt? Specifically, how did this process proceed with regard to the example of Ibn al-Farid?

Answers to these questions are presented in four chapters preceded by an introduction (pp. 1-14, notes pp. 99-101 - was it absolutely necessary to use endnotes?): "Metamorphosis" (pp 15-32, notes pp. 101-7); "Sanctification" (pp. 33-54, notes pp. 107-14); "Controversy" (pp. 55-75, notes 114-24); "Disjunction" (pp. 76-92, notes pp. 124-32). There then follows an epilogue (pp. 93-97, notes pp. 132-33), a glossary of Arabic names and terms (pp. 135-41), a selected bibliography (14355) and indices (pp. 157-62).

Chapters one and two trace Ibn al-Farid's metamorphosis, which can be observed in the relevant literature, from a poet, adib, and muhaddith to a Sufi and a gnostic poet. The earliest sources (al-Mundhiri, Ibn Khallikan, as well as al-Safadi) know Ibn al-Farid primarily as a poet and religious scholar. The tendency to transfigure his life into one of a Sufi is noticeable at the end of the thirteenth century. This is in part due to his relative Sibt ibn al-Farid, as well as to Abd al-Ghaffar al-Qusi, who died in 1309. In addition, his poetry became the object of commentaries of the monistic school of Ibn al- Arabi. In this connection the commentators al-Farghani, al-Kashani, al-Qaysari, and Af if al-Din al-Tilimsani are mentioned. Ibn al-Farid was made into an adherent of Ibn al- Arabi and was also meant to have met the founder of the Suhrawardiyya, Abu Hafs Umar al-Suhrawardi.

Hence it was almost inevitable that, as described in chapter three, his persona be drawn into the...