Awhad al-Din Kermani
Awḥad al-Dīn Ḥāmid ibn Abi ʾl-Fakhr Kirmānī[a] (died 21 March 1238) was a Persian poet and Ṣūfī mystic.
Kirmānī studied under Rukn al-Dīn al-Sijāsī and joined the ṭarāʾiq (orders) of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Abharī and Abū Najīb al-Suhrawardī.[1] He traveled from Kirmān through Azerbaijan, Iraq and Syria and met many leading mystics and philosophers of the day, including Shams al-Dīn Tabrīzī, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, ʿUthmān Rūmī, Saḍr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī.[1][2] In Damascus, he met Ibn ʿArabī, who exercised a great influence on his ideas. He ended his life a teacher in Baghdad, where he was rewarded by the caliph al-Mustanṣir in 1234/1235. He probably died on 21 March 1238.[1]
Kirmānī's writings belong to the tradition of shāhidbāzī, seeing divine beauty in earthly things.[1] He was criticized for the homoerotic nature of some of his writings.[3] He is the author of Mathnavi Misbāhu'l-arvāh ("the lantern of souls"), which is an allegorical pilgrimage through imaginary towns, bearing some affinity to Dante's Divine Comedy.
Notes[edit]
- ^ Also Awḥad-al-Dīn Kermānī or Shaikh Abu Hamid Auhadeddin Kermani.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d B. M. Weischer (1986). "Kirmānī, Awḥad al-Dīn Ḥāmid b. Abi ʾl-Fakhr". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 166. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
- ^ Z. Safa (2011 [1987]), ""Awḥad-al-Dīn Kermānī"" at Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 2, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Lloyd Ridgeon (2012), "The Controversy of Shaykh Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī and Handsome, Moon-Faced Youths: A Case Study of Shāhid-Bāzī in Medieval Sufism", Journal of Sufi Studies, 1 (1): 3–30, doi:10.1163/221059512x617658.
Further reading[edit]
- E. G. Browne. A Literary History of Persia, Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 1928. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
- Lloyd Ridgeon. Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī and the Controversy of the Sufi Gaze. Routledge, 2017. doi:10.4324/9781315165004
- Jan Rypka. History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company, 1968. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K