Translating sufism.

• Author: Von Schlegell, Barbara R.
• Position: Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and Theological Writings - Book Review

RECENT TRANSLATIONS OF SUFI WORKS

ISLAMIC MYSTICISM, OR SUFISM (Arabic tasawwuf), from the ninth century A.D. until the last two hundred years, was the one cultural and intellectual constant that bound together elite and common Muslims throughout the Islamic world. With the curious exception of the Twelver Shi""i Safavid empire, controversies about certain Sufi doctrines and practices never put a halt to its attraction for scholars and state officials. Far from being an alternative to "mainstream Islam," or an escape from it, it was elaborated in vocabulary and institutions as an inherent part of Islam, by scholars who became specialists in the Islamic "science" ([ilm.sup.[subset]]) of Sufism. For almost a century of scholarship now, however, Sufism has been treated in Western literature as being contested continually by Islam and, in part because Sufis are viewed as being at odds with legalistic, orthodox Muslims; they are favored accordingly by many writers, who perhaps find comfort in their presence as fellow outsiders. (1) But the growing number of p opular Sufi works in English--often pasteurized versions of venerable orientalist translations of original Sufi words--miss altogether the inescapable historical and ideological foundation of Sufism: Islam itself. (2)

The last two decades have also seen a special interest in the changing landscape of late Sufism. A "Neo-Sufi" thesis proposes that eighteenth-century Sufis shifted their doctrines and practices from union with God to union with the figure of Muhammad. Yet whatever other criticisms of Neo-Sufism there are to be made, the implication that Muhammad is not important as a Sufi model and mystical being in early Sufism is especially questionable. (3) It is a great accomplishment of Sells' Early Islamic Mysticism that it makes the Islamic and Muhammad-centered nature of Sufi texts clearer than any anthology in the field to date.

In his introduction to Early Islamic Mysticism, Sells divides early Sufi phenomena into four periods. The book is concerned primarily with the first three: 1) the [Qur.sup.[contains]]-an and pre-Sufi spirituality, seventh to eighth centuries; 2) the emergence of Sufism and the time of the early masters, eighth to tenth centuries; and 3) the formative period of Sufi literature, tenth to eleventh centuries.

Other recent academic writings have worked to correct the view of Sufism as "counter." [to legalistic] "culture." At the same time, as the work under review shows, efforts to de-mystify Sufism, and to portray it at work as but one among many social forces in Islamic history would be going too far in another direction. It would divert attention away from the truly surprising and creative thought of the early Sufis.

An impressive number of book-length translations of Sufi literature from Sells' final period--4) the age of [Attar.sup.[subset]], Rumi, and Ibn [Arabi.sup.[subset]], eleventh to thirteenth centuries--have been done in the last decade or so and should be mentioned here. Among the books now available in English are many popular and scholarly translations of Rumi (including W. Thackston's new translation of The Discourses and, most recently, F. Lewis' study with translations, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West) along with several fine translations of selections and entire works of Ibn [Arabi.sup.[subset]] (by W. Chittick, J. Morris, G. Elmore, and others). Rumi and Ibn [Arabi.sup.[subset]] are the best-known Sufis in this period, but translations of many other tenth to thirteenth-century Sufis have been done.

In addition to the "greats" from the early periods translated by Sells in the book under review, there are translations available now of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. ca. 932 A.D.), (4) Ibn Sina (d. 1037) as mystical thinker, (5) and of Abu [Sa.sup.[subset]]id b. Abi Khayr's (d. 1049) teachings. (6) Fresh translations of al-Ghazali (d. 1111), as well as some newly rendered into English, are enriching the study of Sufism. (7) A near contemporary of al-Ghazali, [Ayn.sup.[subset]] al-Qudat al-Hamadhani (d. 1132) has recently been made accessible in English for the first time. (8)

A single publishing house, Al-Baz Publications, now has six translations of the work of [Abd.sup.[subset]] al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166), done by M. Holland, including the Fath alrabbani and the Ghunyah li-talib tariq al-Haqq, while the Cambridge Islamic Texts Society has published To-sun Bayrak's translation of al-Jilani's Sirr al-asrar in l992. (9) Whereas most writers in the past tended to remove Sufis from mainstream Islam, al-Jilani, a magnet of hagiography and eponym of turuq branches down to modern times, had his Sufi credentials severely criticized in a scholarly publication. Based on the fact that twelfth-century biographers describe al-Jilani as a faqih, and not in explicitly Sufi terms, J. Chabbi claimed that al-Jilani's reputation as a mystic was invented, and is late. (10) She did not question the authenticity of his published Arabic writings, however. Although they are not "visionary recitals," al-Jilani's works, as is clear from the English translations, definitely belong to tasawwuf.

Four new translations expand the English Sufi library of the illuminationist thought of Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi "al-Maqtul" (d. 1191). H. Ziai has edited and translated his Book of Radiance and, with J. Wal bridge, his Philosophy of Illumination. (11) Suhrawardi's Hayakal al-nur was "interpreted" by Tosun Bayrak as The Shape of Light in 1998 and W. Thackston has edited, translated, and provided a parallel Persian-English text of his The Philosophical Allegories and Mystical Treatises. (12) There has even been a book-length translation by V. Cornell of the work of Abu Madyan (d. 1198), the North African shaykh whose name has usually appeared solely as a footnote in analyses of Ibn [Arabi.sup.[subset]]'s career. (13) And finally, as one more in this wealth of English books by Sufis from the era before Rumi, C. Ernst has translated the extraordinary diary of Ruzbihan Baqli (d. 1209). (14)

Current scholarship and serious contributions by translators have made early Sufism considerably more accessible than it had been before. (15) Still, for the three very early periods, Sells' book and a briefer offering by C. Ernst are the only new anthologies of Sufi writings since M. Smith, R. Nicholson, and A. J. Arberry. (16)

SELLS' WORK IN ARABIC LITERATURE AND SUFISM

Michael Sells has made it a major part of his life's work to breathe new life into Arabic classics for English readers interested in poetry and mysticism. He has translated and analyzed pre-Islamic poetry in articles and in his book Desert Tracings: Six Classical Arabian Odes (1989). In a number of articles and chapters for edited volumes, and especially in his monograph Mystical Languages of Unsaying (1994), Sells, in an engagement with comparative religionists, has contributed his perspectives on Arabic mystical texts. As one example, the first truly fresh translation of the last [juz.sup.[contains]] (thirtieth portion) of the [Qur.sup.[contains]]an since A. J. Arberry was published by Sells in 1999 (Approaching the [Qur.sup.[contains]]an). More recently, Sells issued his Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn [Arabi.sup.[subset]] and New Poems (2000) and has co-edited The Literature of Al-Andalus. (17)

Early Islamic Mysticism

Since publication in 1996, it has stood successfully the test of college and university classrooms. It contains passages that are translated with aching beauty and clarity. Sells' translations of pre-Islamic poetry, some of which reappear here, are well known. In Early Islamic Mysticism (hereafter EIM) he also tackles prose with equal ingenuity. A few illustrations: [Ja.sup.[subset]]far al-Sadiq is quoted in reference to the [Qur.sup.[contains]]anic verses about Muhammad's encounter with God during the [Mi.sup.[subset]]raj, "When the lover draws as near to his beloved as is possible, he is overcome by utter terror. Then the truth treats him with complete gentleness because nothing but complete gentleness can endure utter terror" (p. 84). Bistami calls out to God, "You have created your creation without their knowledge and have adorned them with faith without their will. If you don't help them, who will?" (p. 238). Muhasibi describes the arrogance that comes with conceit as "a particular anxiety a person has that he not be lorded over, along with a love of lording it over others" (p. 189). On the subject of "the moment," Qushayri's master al-Daqqaq recites:

Just as the people of fire when their skin is well roasted have prepared for their wretchedness new skin No one truly dies who finds rest in dying To truly die is to live your death (p. 101). For those who remember God after sinning, the [Qur.sup.[contains]]an promises, in Sells' translation:

For them is a reward of forgiveness from their lord and gardens with rivers flowing underneath eternal there

fine is the recompense for those whose deeds are fine (3:136, p. 86).

Sells has provided introductory sections to all of the chapters which, taken together, would stand alone as an excellent guide to early Sufism, for both academic and general readers. (18) Among the benefits of the book is...