The Existential Breath of al-rahmn and the Munificent Grace of al-rahm: The Taf sir Srat al-Ftiha of Jam

and the School of Ibn c Arab!

Sajjad H. Rizvi
UNIVERSITY O F E X E T E R

Interpretation is an act of appropriation in which the interpreter assimilates, adopts and comprehends a text on the horizon of his or her existence. Learned Muslims throughout the ages have sought ways in which they can assimilate the word of God to their world and lived existence, to make sense of the word in the light of their own experience, that is mediated and to an extent determined by their training and their language. The venerable tafsr traditions are rich and varied because different thinkers and practitioners of the Islamic humanities have attempted to understand and explicate the text through their own expertise. Within this rich array of explanations lies the important genre of Sufi exegesis on the Qur'an. The characteristic of this genre exemplifies 'interpretation through the self, a mode of explicating the divine text through the encounter with the Sufi's experience of other modalities through which the divine is manifest in this world. The Sufi approaches the text as a multi-layered network of meanings that come to life when they trigger responses in the soul, when they find the cognate 'switches' that God has placed in their primordial selves. The Sufi is thus the juxtaposition of divine texts, an inscribed text upon whose heart the revealed text is similarly inscribed, existing within the wider cosmos that is the greater book of God. Key narrative texts attributed to the Prophet and saints indicate this: from the text that insists that every Qur'anic aya has an exterior (z,ahr) and interior (batn) meaning and levels of the interior that lead from the point of commencement (hadd) to the point of rising (matlac or muttalac) to existential understanding, to the famous wisdom saying that knowledge of God lies in knowledge of the self {man corafa nafsahu fa-carafa rabbahu)} The quest for understanding both key divine texts, the Qur'an and the self, begins with a dual apperception of the basmala and the opening sura, the Ftiha of the Qur'an, and the recognition of the self as an expiration of the breath of the Merciful (al-nafas al-rahmni). Intellectual traditions in classical and post-classical Islam refer to this conglomeration as the three 'realities' {haqiq)\ the Sufi exegetical tradition, on the other hand, considers them to be the three divine books that demand explanation, interpretation and assimilation.2 At the heart of Sufi hermeneutics of the text lies an appreciation of the homologies between the inscribed Book of God (kitb Allah), the

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book of the cosmos {kitb fqi) and the book of humanity {kitb anfus) as theophanies of the divine that could only be amenable and comprehensible through a sympathy that recognised truth: the key text for this realisation was Q. 41:53, We shall show them Our signs on the horizons (al-fq) and in their souls (anfusihim) until it becomes clear to them that He is the Real. This approach provides for a holistic hermeneutics of the text in which the boundaries of the text and the limits of the hermeneutic circle are constantly tested and transgressed. The apparent literal meaning of the text is the inspirational genesis of interpretation but the boundary between text and interpretation is constantly shifting and the limits to the interpretative enterprise constantly iterating through 'points of rising' on the horizons of the Sufi's experience, seeking to move beyond it. This is not the place to provide an extensive introduction to Sufi taf sir, let alone the larger process of interpretation.3 Nor I am attempting a new explanation of Sufi hermeneutics of the Qur'an. My opening comments are merely an attempt to contextualise the method that I am attempting to apply to the study of a particular Sufi exegesis from the early modern period, and my intention in this paper is rather more humble: to introduce cAbd al-Rahmn Jm (d. 898/1492), a pre-eminent poet-theologian of the school of Ibn cArab (d. 638/1240) and a prominent Khwjagm (Naqshband) Sufi, and demonstrate how his reading of the basmala is an illustration of one of the key ideas of this Sufi school, namely the metaphysics of mercy.4 The Tmrid 9th/15th century was a liminal period, both in the cultural and political sense of being on the threshold of the great 'gunpowder' empires and the cultural spheres of Safavid-Mughal-Shbanid Central and South Asia, a boundary that traces a limit but also reveals the possibilities of what lay beyond, and in the religious sense in which Sunn and Shc affiliations were not as rigidly demarcated as they became after the Safavid conquest of Iran and Khurasan. Jm's role as interpreter and communicator to those cultural successor spheres is critical as indeed was his staunch Sunnism that did not fail to betray aspects of philo-Shcism.5 Jm's explanation of the basmala allows one to demonstrate the inter-textual interpretation of the three divine books as ontological facts and as executors and recipients of divine mercy. The wider point that I wish to make is fairly clear and, I would venture, uncontroversial: one cannot understand any aspect of the tafslr tradition without taking into consideration both the training of the commentator and the other intellectual disciplines in which he made contributions. Therefore one cannot make sense of Jm's subtle and interesting commentary on the Ftiha without appreciating his other works in theology and philosophy, in particular his mystical and philosophical explanations of the nature of divine mercy.

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Exegeses on this particular sura abound (one need not spend too much time perusing catalogues of printed works or manuscripts to realise this), and Jm is neither a particularly well-known nor perhaps the most significant exegete of the school of Ibn c Arab - his tafslr only covers the Ftiha and the first hizb of Srat al-Baqara and comprises an average of one hundred or so folios of a smallish size. One should also point out that there is no systematic study of the exegetical tradition of the school of Ibn cArab and I hope that one corollary of this study may be some pointers in this direction. But there are other reasons that obviate his choice: his commentary is the most systematic attempt in the pre-Mughal-Safavid-Ottoman period to provide an extensive exegesis of the metaphysics of mercy located within an explanation of the basmala and goes far beyond two important precursors: cAbd al-Razzq al-Kshni (d. 736/1336), the pre-eminent commentator and exegete of the school of Ibn c Arabi whose Tawllt al-Qurn still retains its fame as the 'tafslr of Ibn c Arabi', and Khwja Yacqb Charkh (d. 851/1447) whose Persian exegesis from the Khwjagni tradition Tafslr-i kalm-i rabbon remains popular in Naqshband circles and deserves to be better known in the academic study of Sufi tafslr.6 Such a study will provide a useful comparison from the mature period of the school to the early work of Ibn cArabi's step-son Sadr al-Din al-Qnawi (d. 673/1274) whose own commentary on the Ftiha, entitled Icjz al-bayn, is a magisterial account of the three divine books: the Qur'an, the human and the cosmos.7 Contextualising Sufi thought is of critical significance: one should not expect writers and thinkers to express themselves outside of time and without their intellectual and cultural context.8 Exegetical traditions develop and change over time once new concerns, training, and intellectual vigour impact on the exegetical process. The commentary of Jm is thus of its time and signals a step within the wider scholastic turn in the school of Ibn cArabi. However, before turning to the Qur'anic basmala and the explication of the metaphysics of mercy, let us begin with another divine book: the man himself - Jm.
c

Abd al-Rahmn Jm and the school of Ibn c Arabi

Lovers of Persian poetry and Persian culture, not least in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, do not need any introduction to Jm. A figure who looms like a colossus over the cultural and intellectual heritage of the Persianate world from the late Timrid period onwards, Jm's intellectual contributions are significant and well-known. His poetry was and is popular; his many theological works became the object of study and careful commentary in the culture of the madrasa; and his important grammatical commentary al-Fowid al-Diyiyya on the classical al-Kfiya of Ibn al-Hjib (d. 646/1249) was the central school-text of the madrasa curriculum from Samarqand to Istanbul to Khayrbd, in the seminaries of Safavid Iran as well as in the curriculum of the Dars-i Nizmi initiated in 12th/18th century India. A famous Persian poet, a significant figure at the Timrid court of Herat and

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a subtle and learned theologian, he was a major figure of the 9 /15 century in the Islamic East and had a lasting influence on Persianate Islam in particular. A number of modern studies have been devoted to him in Persian (and even in Arabic) but there remains very little written on him in European languages, at least in the last half-century or so. This neglect of a major post-classical figure of the Islamicate and Persianate world is, unfortunately, only too representative of the state of research in Islamic and Persian studies. Nur al-Dn (originally cImd al-Din) cAbd al-Rahmn ibn Nizm al-Dn Ahmad ibn Shams al-Dn Muhammad Dasht,11 whose affiliation name {nisba) and pen-name was Jm, was born in Kharjird in the district of Jam near Herat in Eastern Khurasan, present-day Afghanistan, on 23 Shacbn 817 (7 November 1414). The sources on his life are numerous and because of his central role and function at the Timrid court of Herat, it is possible to construct a detailed biography.12 First, his own works provide extensive evidence for his life. His theological and philosophical works were often commissioned or dedicated to significant figures (including rulers), dated and located. His biographical works, such as his major compendium of Sufi hagiographies Nafaht al-uns min hazart al-quds, commissioned by his friend Mir c Al-Shr Nav (d. 907/1501) and completed in 883/1478 provides examples of his interactions with contemporary Sufis.13 His poetry is replete with dates, allusions and addresses to patrons and friends. His first major poetical work, the first in a series of seven masnaviyyt collectively entitled Haft awrang, silsilat al-zahab (The Golden Chain') was dedicated to the ruler of Herat, the Timrid sultan Husayn Byqar (d. 911/1506), around 875/1470. His second poetic epic, Saloman u Absl, was dedicated in 885/1480 to the q-Quynl ruler Yacqb (d. 896/1490). The third epic entitled Tuhfat al-Ahrr ('Gift for the Free'/'Gift for Ahrr') was dedicated in the following year to Khwja cUbayd Allah Ahrr (d. 896/1490) and the Khwjagni Sufi order. The fourth, entitled Subhat al-abrr ('The Rosary of the Pious'), dated 887/1482, continued the taste for Sufi themes and was also dedicated to Byqar. The fifth, Ysufu Zulaykh, took up the Qur'anic story of Joseph, embellishing it with tropes from the Sufi tradition; completed in 888/1483 and dedicated to Byqar; this remains perhaps the most famous of all his works. The sixth masnavl, Layl u Majnn, retold the old Bedouin story of doomed lovers and was completed in 889/1484. The final instalment of the heptad recounted another famous myth, the Alexander romance Khiradnma-yi Iskandar and was completed in 890/1485 for his patron Byqar. The Haft awrang is a major source for his intellectual biography, and provides numerous citations of his friends, patrons and disciples, and allows us to understand how Jm used poetry to popularise ideas that he expresses elsewhere in prose works. His other collections of poetry, the three dlvn-h of his ghazaliyyt and other poetic compositions are rather neatly entitled Ftihat al-shabb ('Commencement of Youth', completed in 884/1479), Wsitat al-ciqd ('Midlife', completed in 894/1489) and Khtimat al-hayt ('Culmination of Life', completed in

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895/1490). Poetic expressions are an important category of source material for the construction of biography, often neglected by students of intellectual and cultural history. Given the significance of Timrid Herat as a cultural centre, Jmi's literary and intellectual contributions are all the more striking. Jmi's correspondence {munshat) with prominent figures of the time, not least the major proto-Naqshbandi/Khwjagni Sufi master cUbayd Allah Ahrr, and the courtier Mir c Al-Shr Navi, is well-preserved and became a model for epistolatory literature in Central Asia and India in the early modern period. The second cluster of sources on his life are the earliest poetic tazjcirt that stress the significance of Jm as a poet whose style was often regarded nostalgically in the modern period as the last vestige of the greatness of the classical tradition, soon to be diluted and corrupted by the new obscurantist, un-aesthetic and 'difficult' sabk-i hindi. The third set of sources includes historical and hagiographical accounts of those who met or knew him.17 Perhaps most prominent on this list is the continuation {takmila) of his Nafaht al-uns by his student and disciple cAbd al-Ghafur Lari (d. 912/1507) which was written shortly after his death some time around 900/1494 on the request of his son Ziy al-Dn Ysuf.18 His prominent disciple and friend, the courtier c Al-Shr NavDi wrote Khamsat al-mutahayyirln in Chaghatay Turkic about the circle of Jm, and included a brief notice in his poetical tazjcira, Majlis al-nayis, also written in Chaghatay Turkic.19 His praise for his friend and mentor is appropriately hyperbolic: 'as long as the world is, its inhabitants will not be unaware
20

of the results of the luminous mind of this great personage.' Other testimonies include the Bburnma, the memoirs of the Timrid prince and the first Mughal emperor of India, Bbur (d. 937/1530), who described Jm as a foremost scholar of Herat at the court of Sultan Husayn Byqar: 'In esoteric and exoteric knowledge, there was no one like him at that time. His fame is such that it is beyond the need of description.'21 The famous historian Khvnd Mir (d. 941/1534), who was born in Herat, described his influence in Habib al-siyar, stating that 'the rays of his perfect learning light up the world like the sun, and his innumerable works in every category are too well known to need introduction'.22 Hyperbolic praise was also heaped upon him by contemporary historians of Herat such as Mucn al-Dn Muhammad Isfizri (d. 899/1493^) and Sayyid Asl al-Dn cAbd Allah Vciz (d. 883/1478-9).23 Within the Sufi tradition, an important memoir from what was becoming the Naqshband tradition is the hagiographical Maqmt-i Jml by his disciple cAbd al-Vasic Bkharzi (d. 909/1504), which provides an extended hagiography that stresses the miraculous nature of Jmi's intellectual and spiritual abilities.24 A more sober Sufi prosopography that focuses on the mystics of Herat is the Majlis al-cushshq of Amir Kaml al-Dn Husayn Gzurghi, a confidant of Sultan Husayn Byqar.25 The most important Sufi source is that of Jmi's hamzulf0Ali Safi Kshifi (d. 939/15323) in his major study of the nascent Naqshband order Rashaht-i cayn al-hayt.

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Finally, from the poetical tazkira genre is the famous account of his contemporary Dawlatshh Samarqandi (d. 890/1494) in his renowned Tazkira-yi shucar\ completed in 892/1487, closely followed by a younger contemporary, the Safavid prince and sometime governor of Herat in the early 10/16 century, Sm Mrza, who wrote his Tuhfa-yi Sml around 957/1550, about the time when Jmi's works, poetic and prosaic were becoming famous and starting to be copied in manuscripts around the Persianate world.27 Dawlatshh is the first source to mention Jmi's exegesis, which he claims was taking up much of his time then and hence was in progress: we know that he never completed the task. cAl Saf and later Sm Mrza follow Dawlatshh in discussing the exegesis and stating that it was incomplete, beginning with the exegesis of the Ftiha and culminating with the exegesis of aya 40 of Srat al-Baqara, roughly the first hizb of one juz (one-thirtieth) of the Qur'an. This state of incompletion does not necessarily suggest that Jm had any intention of writing a complete exegesis; his earlier contemporary Husayn Vciz-i Kshifi (d. 910/1505), cAl Safi's father, wrote two exegeses, one complete and the other
28

mainly focused on the Ftiha. Jmi's family was originally from Dasht, a neighbourhood in Isfahan, and it was his grandfather Shams al-Dn Muhammad who migrated to the environs of Herat. His first teacher and mentor was his father Nizm al-Dn Ahmad, a learned man who frequented the company of Sufis such as Bah al-Dn cUmar Abardihi and Fakhr al-Dn Lristni.29 From the paternal line, Jmi was a descendent of Muhammad al-Shayban (d. 189/805), companion and disciple of Abu Hanifa (d. 150/765), the
30

eponymous 'founder' of the Sunn Hanafi legal school. At an early age, the family moved to Jam, where in 822/1419 Jm met Khwja Muhammad al-Bukhri known as Prs (d. 822/1419) who was on his way to perform the Hajj.31 He later recounted his fleeting encounter with the disciple of Naqshband: As one had learnt that he would be passing by the town of Jam - and according to some this was either at the end of Jumada I or the beginning of Jumada II [822/mid-late June 1419] - my father with a group of his friends and intimates went forth from the town to meet him, and at that time I was barely five years old. One of those friends told me that he carried me on his shoulders so that I could see [Prs' s] luminous countenance beyond the crowd. He turned around and bestowed upon me a sweet smile. It is now 60 years later but the purity of his luminous countenance remains before my eyes and the pleasure of the blessed vision of him in my heart. Through this encounter of sincerity, belief and desire, I grew to love the Khwjagn. Jm thus claimed that his later affiliation to the order was a result of this miraculous look of compassion that he received from an old and dying shaykh.

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A few years later, perhaps around 830/1427, the family moved to the city of Herat. There Jm continued his studies in the elementary subjects of language, logic and rhetoric with his father and with Mawln Junayd at the Madrasa-yi Bzr-i Khsh.33 As a teenager, he also embarked on the study of the intellectual disciplines of rational theology, philosophy and the exact sciences with Khwja Shams al-Din Muhammad Jjarmi and Khwja c Ala3 al-Dn c Ali Samarqandi, himself a student of the famous philosopher Sayyid cAl Jurjni (d. 822/1419).34 He proceeded to Samarqand to study the sciences, especially astronomy, with the leading thinkers of his time, Qzizde Rumi and cAl Qshji, who marvelled at the precocious and talented young man.35 (This visit may have been undertaken in 838/1435, partly with the intention of avoiding the plague then prevalent in Herat.36) In Samarqand, Jm
37

also continued his study of Hanafi fiqh with Fazl Allah Samarqandi. He then returned to Herat in 856/1452 and, as a trained scholar, began to teach and write
38

works. Jm took the Sufi way in around 857/1453, adopting as his master the Khwjagni shaykh Khwja Sacd al-Dn Kashghar (d. 860/1456).39 This placed him in a spiritual lineage that connected him to one of the eponymous founders of the Khwjagni order, Khwja Bah al-Dn Muhammad al-Bukhri, known as Naqshband (d. 791/1389), through three links: Kashghar - his master Khwja Nizm al-Dn Khmsh (d. ca 853/1449)40 - his master Khwja cAla3 al-Din cAttr (d. 802/1400)41 - his master Naqshband.42 After Kashghar's death, he adopted a most prominent Khwjagni shaykh of his time, cUbayd Allah Ahrr, as his mentor,43 meeting him in Samarqand at the beginning of 870/1465 and again when the latter visited Herat in the same year.44 Jm played a pivotal role in establishing the Tariq-i Khwjagn in Herat, assisting his master Kashghar in his sessions at the main Friday mosque and at the Madrasa-yi Ghiysiyya and, after his death in 860/1456, he encouraged his successor Shams al-Dn Muhammad Rji (d. 904/1499) to perpetuate the line.45 Herat was thus the centre for the propagation of what became known as the Naqshband order. Through Jmi's links to Ahrr in Samarqand, he became a central conduit for the two main branches of the order in the pre-Mughal period. The sanctity of Herat and its surrounding part of Khursn and the role of the order in promoting it was amplified from 884-5/1480 when the shrine of cAl ibn Abi Tlib was 'discovered' in Balkh. The order, and Jm himself, played an important role in authenticating it. He also played a political role in implementing orthodoxy and attacking heresy. When the Nurbakhsh Sufi Shh Qsim Fayzbakhsh (d. 919/1513^1) visited Herat on the invitation of Byqar, he preached and held court; Jm challenged his 'heretical' ideas and, according to Bakharz, defeated him in disputation.47 Nurbakhsh sources, naturally, present the disputation in a different light.48

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Jm died on Friday 17 Muharram 898/9 November 1492 in Herat after an illness lasting four days.49 His funeral and mourning ceremonies were organised by Sultan Husayn Byqar and were attended in large numbers by the elite and populace of Herat and Khursn.50 He was survived by his son Ziy3 al-Dn Ysuf (d. 919/1513), for whom he had written the belles-lettrist anthology Bahristn in 892/1486 and al-Fawid al-Diyiyya in 897/1491, and by his disciple cAbd al-Ghafur Lari (d. 912/1507). For our purposes, the most significant biographical detail concerning Jm is his attachment to the work of Ibn cArabi and his espousal of the 'school of Ibn c Arabi'. William Chittick is perhaps the one scholar who has done the most to promote the study of the 'school' of Ibn cArabi, although he is keen to caution the use of the phrase: practitioners of the school were not 'mere commentators' and had clear differences in style and content with the master.51 There is one important distinction between the allusive, 'spiritualised intelligence' of the work of the master and the more systematic, disseminatory and even philosophical style and content of his
52

followers. The process of creating a 'school' centred upon commentary traditions on the twin pillars of Ibn c Arabi's doctrine, namely the Fusus al-hikam and al-Futht al-Makkiyya, and had reached its apogee in the 10/16 century.53 Jmi had already provided a vigorous philosophical defence of the master's metaphysics, in particular an exposition of his central doctrine of monorealism {wahdat al-wujd), the postulation that only the divine essence and its manifestations that comprise the totality of the cosmos exist, and had written a number of commentaries and works expounding the doctrine of the master including a partial commentary on the Qur'an. His contribution had a lasting effect in the Islamic East, in Persianate contexts, especially in Central Asia, Iran and the Indian subcontinent precisely because he was seen as a spokesman for the school of Ibn c Arabi and a thinker who completed and culminated the scholastic turn of the school.54 In fact, in Central Asia, he was seen as a more influential and significant thinker than Ibn c Arabi himself, perhaps due to the notoriety that the Andalusian master had acquired; about one hundred years after his death, the poetaster cAbd al-Nab Fakhr al-Zaman Qazvn wrote:55 People of distinction regard him [Jm] to be the equal of Shaykh Muhy'1-Dn [ibn] cArab and the scholars of Central Asia regard him to be his better in the science of mysticism. In the Islamic West, and in Arab Sufi contexts, the Egyptian cAbd al-Wahhb al-Shacrni (d. 972-3/1565) was the main influence and populariser who focused on the non-philosophical exposition of the doctrine; his al-Yawqlt wa'1-jowhir remains a masterful summation of al-Futht al-Makkiyya. Jmi's own engagement in the school of Ibn cArabi was extensive. The very last work he wrote in 896/1491 was an influential Arabic commentary on the Fusils

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which followed his earlier Arabic and Persian mixed commentary, completed in 863/1459, on Ibn cArabi's own summary of the Fuss entitled Naqd al-nuss fi sharh naqsh al-Fuss.51 Both are significant works but especially the former since it was widely cited and represented his mature thought and recognition of his expertise in the field. It reflects his deep attachment to the thought of the Andalusian master
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and the Fuss. In the prcemium, he wrote: I devoted much time to its study [the Fuss] and meditated upon it but did not find a master who would grant me its benefit by glossing its difficulties nor a guide who could direct his disciples to unveil its knots. So I set forth for all its commentaries and considered them keys to the gates of its understanding and studied them one after another and returned to them again and again until I decided to fix my opinion of what I had selected from them that assisted me to resolve its explanation and sufficed me to understand its meanings. I added to that what came to my mind in my study of it and what my states and moments permitted. What this passage reveals further is Jmi's understanding of the hermeneutics of the school of Ibn cArab. The disclosure of a text requires first and foremost the mediation of a spiritual master initiated into the meanings of the text. Second, a text may be understood to a certain extent through reading its commentaries. Finally, a true disclosure of meaning only comes about on the horizon of one's experience of the text as a result of the spiritual rank and station of the interpreter. His Arabic treatise in philosophical theology al-Durra al-fkhira fi tahqlq madhhab al-Sfiyya wal-mutakallimln wa'l-hukam3, completed in 886/1481, is an extended rational defence of the metaphysics of Ibn cArabi aimed at philosophers, a project that was well underway in the school.59 He also wrote a short and elegant Persian treatise expounding the doctrine of monorealism entitled Lavih, rather grandly dedicating it to the Shc Qar Quynl ruler of Herat, Jahnshh (d. 872/1467), in 870/1465.60 Through his other Persian works, he popularised the thought of Ibn c Arabi and played an important role in the dissemination of his doctrine. The Tariq-i Khwjagn (later famous as the Naqshband order) is often assumed to have been hostile to the thought of Ibn cArab mainly due to the famous critique of monorealism posited by the Naqshband shaykh Ahmad Sirhind (d. 1034/1624).61 However, a number of predecessors of the order exhibited a deep attachment to the ideas of the Sufi master and it is in this context one ought to understand the role of Jm, a prominent master of the order, in the propagation and dissemination of the doctrine of the school of Ibn cArab. Khwja Muhammad Prs (d. 822/1419), who Jm met when he was a child,62 wrote an important Persian commentary on the Fuss, and his Fasi al-khitb is a repository of Sufi teachings from the school of Ibn

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Arabi.63 Jmi's compilation of the sayings of Prs entitled Sukhann-i Khwja Prs includes many sayings from the Ibn cArabi tradition.64 Jmi's own spiritual preceptor Sacd al-Dn Kashghar betrayed the influence of the Sufi master as well: his Risla-yi tavajjuh is replete with notions from the school and demonstrates a clear enunciation of the doctrine of monorealism:65 Know that you are absolutely non-existent and know that God alone absolutely exists ... You only have existence annexed through the rays from the sun of the divine essence ... In reality, you do not possess existence ... Only God truly is existence. Jmi's companion and his second spiritual mentor cUbayd Allah Ahrr had a deep attachment to the thought of the school of Ibn c Arabi. A partial commentary on the Fuss is attributed to him and, when Jm visited him in Tashkent in 873/1469, he sought elucidation of difficult passages in the Futht.66 Jmi's colleague and the spiritual successor to Kashghar in Herat, Khwja Shams al-Din Muhammad Rji (d. 904/1499) likewise had a deep affinity to the thought of Ibn cArab.67 Jm developed this tendency and thus became a major focus for the dissemination of the doctrine of Ibn cArab, and was consulted by his contemporaries, including the Bahmanid vizier from the Deccan, Mahmud Gwn (d. 889/1484), who carried out an extensive correspondence with him on matters commercial and spiritual.68 In matters concerning Ibn cArab, Jm even went beyond sectarian differences. He sat at the feet of the Shc Kubrav Sufi Sayyid Ahmad Ll3i Darband (d. 912/1506) in Tabriz in 878/1473 because he was a renowned teacher of the Fuss, and spent time at his khnaqh, Darvishbd.69 Later when he was writing his own commentary on the Fuss, he had hoped to show it to Ahmad Lli for his approval but never did (or perhaps never had the opportunity).70 Jmi's attachment to the school was thus deep, entirely representative but also complex. From the book of humanity, having considered his life and his role within two traditions, we now turn to the book of the cosmos as he understood it. Existence and Mercy The ontology of mercy is a critical theme throughout the work of Ibn cArab. However, for our purposes, I want to examine aspects of the doctrine of mercy that is expounded in Fuss al-hikam and its commentaries, in particular the commentary of Jm. Focusing on the doctrine of mercy in the Fuss as a means for elucidating the basmala makes perfect sense; for some time now scholars have been insisting on the deeply Qur'anic nature of the text, arranged as it is around the wisdom associated with Qur'anic prophets.72

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Before examining the metaphysics and relating it to the exegesis, one ought to point out that the earliest exegeses make it quite clear that there is a distinction between the two names of mercy in the basmala: al-rahmn is more general than al-rahlm as the early exegete Muqtil ibn Sulaymn (d. 150/767) states, the former entails a greater and more wide-ranging compassion {ariqq), the former is the Compassionate One and the latter is the One who deigns to act compassionately.73 Thus the former name is an absolute state of the divine while the latter is a volitional state. Put in different terms, al-rahmn is an intensive proper name exclusive to God while al-rahlm is homonymously shared with others.74 The most common formulation that remains popular was to gloss that God is 'the source of mercy for the whole of His creation, and the giver of mercy for His believing servants', as Zayd ibn cAl (d. 122/740) put it.75 Finally, it is commonly said in the exegetical tradition that God is al-rahmn in this world and al-rahlm in the afterlife.76 This is exemplified in a narration attributed to the Prophet:77 God, Mighty and Majestic, possesses 100 mercies, one of which He sent down to the earth to divide among the whole of His creation so that they might be merciful to one another and show compassion. He retained the remaining 99 for Himself to exercise over His servants on the Day of the Resurrection. The exegeses of the school of Ibn c Arabi and the Tariq-i Khwjagn did not broadly differ from this: Yacqb Charkhi in his Tafslr-i kalm-i rabbnl states that al-rahmn provides existence and sustenance to all creatures while al-rahlm gives salvation to those who deserve it.78 But what these traditions do is that they extend the meaning of mercy to include an ontological dimension. This aspect is already present in the early tawll of Sadr al-Dn al-Qnaw. He considers the role of the two names as functioning within the cosmology of the manifestation of the One in the universe. The location of the names of mercy, before and after the formula of praise for God, is an allusion to the complementarity between praise and the act of giving thanks and the reception of grace and mercy.79 Al-rahmn is the proper name that indicates the absolute being and the source of all existence, and as such acts upon all things. Mercy is existence itself and the act of being merciful is the bestowal of
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existence. Al-rahlm is a specific name to recipients of special grace but as the particular, it is subsumed in the universal. Al-Qnawi argues that the two names engender two chains of emanative existence flowing from the One, differentiated by
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their objects of mercy. This duality does not violate the non-duality of the godhead and the nature of reality articulated in the school of Ibn c Arabi. Mercy, like existence and many other fundamental concepts and things, is a singular reality to which we ascribe multiplicity. God's mercy is undifferentiated considered in itself; but deployed to objects of mercy, it is differentiated into the functions of al-rahmn and al-rahlm}2 The ontological turn of the school in its approach to mercy is thus

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signalled early on as is the strong impression of the language of mercy from the Fuss. In the following generation, this trend developed with the first major and complete exegesis of the school. cAbd al-Razzq al-Kshni (d. 736/1336) in his Tawllt al-QurDn wrote:
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The Source of Mercy is the One who overflows [i.e. outpours] existence and perfection on all things according to the requirements of His wisdom and the ability of receptacles to accept it; this is with respect to the origins of existence. The Giver of Mercy is the One who overflows spiritual perfection to those specified by humanity with respect to the culmination of existence. This short passage illustrates three themes: the association and equivalence of existence and mercy, the distinction between the two names expressed in the duality of universality and particularity, and the concept that the difference between the two names expressed two types of relationship with the One; the descending order of existence from the One to the cosmos that brings about existence as we perceive and experience it and the ascending order of existence that folds up that realm and returns it to the One. The commentary of al-Kshni's disciple Dwd al-Qaysari (d. 751/1350) on this phrase makes it more explicit and accessible:84 The name 'Source of Mercy' has a comprehensive rank over all things including the other divine names ... The mercy of being-the-source-of-mercy is a mercy common to the people of this world and the afterlife and encompasses the believers and the non-believers, the obedient and the disobedient with existence, sustenance and so forth. The name 'Giver of Mercy' also has a comprehensive scope. [However], the mercy of being-the-giver-of-mercy is specific to those existents to whom the command of God extends. It is perfection that is appropriate to the ontological preparation of each one of them. Therefore, we begin to discern the role of the exegesis in the explication of the cosmology of the school. We can summarise the doctrinal approach in the following manner. Ibn cArabi's doctrine articulates three approaches to the exegesis of mercy: first, the absolute sense of mercy as a synonym for the bestowal of existence to all things; second, the role of mercy in the graded unfolding of the cosmos; third, the division of mercy into four divisions of that pertaining to the divine essence and that pertaining to the divine attributes and further into the general and the specific. This last fourfold division can be seen as a reflection of the fact that there are four names

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of mercy mentioned in the Ftiha. Ultimately, however, there are two main divisions of mercy: the 'gratuitous gift' of mercy/existence associated with al-rahmn which Ibn c Arabi calls imtinn, and the obligation of mercy to the spiritualised associated with al-rahlm which the master calls wujb. Explanation of this doctrine requires study of the two main chapters of the Fuss in which mercy is central: the fass on Solomon which is described as the 'wisdom of being-the-source-of-mercy' {hikma rahmniyya), and the/<m on Zechariah. First, mercy is not merely an emotive attitude or compassion {riqqat al-qalb) in some formulations but an ontological fact of bestowing existence.85 Pathos and emotions as human properties are attributes of imperfection or absence and cannot be applied to God. Being merciful as a divine attribute is equivalent to the process of giving existence. This bestowal arises because God overflows with munificence {al-jd), a theme common in Neoplatonic writings whether pre-Islamic or Islamic. Existence is thus the overflowing of mercy to all things.87 Jm explains this further:88 'Know that the mercy of God encompasses everything as a mercy both in reality and in possibility' means that the mercy of God is existence that comprehends everything, encompassing everything with respect to the existence specific to it, and with respect to the possible properties that follow this existence, such as knowledge and ability, and that depend upon its preparedness for existence that follows its existence in (divine) knowledge that precedes its existence in reality ... There is no doubt that the overflowing is an existential fact that demands existence, which is mercy. If it were not annexed to mercy, wrath itself would not be realised; so it is preceded by being-the-source-of-mercy. The absolute overflowing of existence is mercy. Because even the divine names and divine wrath are things, ontological facts that do not exist in our world but exist in the mind of God, mercy extends to them and envelops them as well. In fact, the first thing that mercy extends to is mercy itself and that self is what the tradition calls 'the breath of the Merciful' {al-nafas
on

al-rahmnl). In Chapter 198 of the Futht, which is devoted to the concept of the breath of the Merciful, Ibn c Arabi explains the link between mercy and the bestowal of existence.90 'The breath of the Merciful' is the process through which existence is manifest in the cosmos, and how one can see the process of divine mercy acting upon itself, as it says in the Fuss. Elsewhere, in Chapter 558, he explains how that breath encompasses everything by bestowing existence upon all things.91 Second, mercy plays a critical role in the unfolding of the cosmos. Ibn cArabi says

The Existential Breath of al-rahman and the Munificent Grae of al-rahim Every thing seeks existence from God. Accordingly, God's mercy extends to and covers everything. For God, by the very mercy which He exercises upon it, accepts that thing's desire to exist and brings it into existence. This is why we assert that the mercy of God extends to everything both in reality and in possibility {caynan wa-hukmon).

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The process of existentiation or 'the act of mercy' is as follows.93 Divine mercy acts upon itself, pre-empting the desire for essences to come into existence and this self is 'the breath of the Source of Mercy'. This entity then acts mercifully towards the divine names and brings forth archetypes or essences of things {acyn thbita) in the mind of God or in the divine names itself. At this level, the act of outpouring mercy is called 'the most holy overflowing' {al-foyd al-aqdas). Mercy in the divine names then acts further endowing those essences with existence such that mercy brings forth into existence the cosmos or the things in their actual existence. This second stage of overflowing is called 'the holy overflowing' {al-fayd al-muqaddas). The terminology and systematic nature of the cosmogony expounded by Ibn cArab, central to which is the key notion of mercy, was the subject of much scholastic vigour in the centuries after the Andalusian master. Third, there is a fourfold division of mercy.94 The first division reflects the duality of the two names in the basmala', the former pertains to the divine essence and the unfolding of the breath of the Source-of-Mercy and the latter pertains to the divine attributes and the Giver-of-Mercy. Each of these in turn has a general {cmm) and a specific {khss) aspect. Each of them relates to different recipients of mercy ranging from the divine names themselves to the spiritual elite in the afterlife. For example, the specific aspect of the mercy pertaining to the divine essence is divine providence {al-cinya) while the specific aspect of the mercy pertaining to the divine attributes is the mercy of perfection bestowed upon the spiritual elite. However, the most important aspect of the division of mercy relates to the two aspects of gratuitous gift associated with al-rahmn and obligation associated with al-rahlm. Ibn cArabi explains: Mercy is of two kinds: the mercy of the gratuitous gift and the mercy of obligation corresponding to the name al-rahmn and al-rahlm respectively. God exercises mercy as a gratuitous gift under the name of al-rahmn, while He obligates Himself [to requite] under the name al-rahlm. This kind of obligation, however, is part of the gratuitous gift and so al-rahlm is contained within al-rahmn. God has prescribed for Himself mercy (Q. 6:12) in such a way that mercy of this kind may be extended to His servants in reward for the good works done by them individually ... This kind of mercy is an obligation upon God with

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Journal of Qur'anic Studies which He has bound Himself towards those servants and the latter rightfully merit this kind of mercy by their good works.

Abd al-Razzq al-Kshni in his Istilht al-Sfiyya summarises the position of the master by providing definitions of the two divine names associated with mercy and of the two sub-definitions of mercy that are central to the doctrine in the Fuss, namely bestowing grace of mercy and the necessitation of mercy {al-imtinn wa!-wujb).9 'The Source of Mercy' {al-rahmn) is a name for God considered in the totality of the names that are in the divine presence, and from which existence flows forth bestowing perfections on all contingent beings. 'The Giver of Mercy' {al-rahlm) is a name for Him considered with respect to two flows of spiritual perfection bestowed upon the people of faith such as gnosis and unity. 'The bestowing grace of mercy' is the act of being a source of mercy {al-rahmniyya) demanded by bounties that precede works and encompasses all things. 'The necessitation of mercy' is the act of being a giver of mercy {al-rahlmiyya) promised to the pious and the virtuous as in His saying and I shall prescribe it for those who are pious (Q. 7:156) and surely the mercy of God is close to the virtuous (Q. 7:56). [This mercy] is included within the bestowing grace because the promise of it to one who acts is pure giving. In another work on definitions attributed to al-Kshni entitled Latif al-iclm fi
_
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ishrt ahi al-ilham, the equation of mercy and existence is made more explicit: 'The Source of Mercy' is the name for the form of divine existence and is an expression for the totality that obtains when the divine names are manifest to themselves from the interiority of the divine essence. 'Original mercy' {al-rahma al-asliyya) means existence because it [existence] is the origin of every mercy and the source of every bounty ... 'The bestowing grace of mercy', that is preceding [mercy], is so called because God bestows it freely upon creatures without their deserving it and it precedes their works which would render them deserving ...

The Existential Breath of al-rahmn and the Munificent Grace of al-rahlm 'The necessitation of mercy' means that mercy specific to the pious and virtuous people since God has made it incumbent upon Himself to be merciful to them as a grace and a bestowal but not as an obligation upon Him.

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The two-fold division of mercy, divided into the free gift {al-imtinn) and obligation {al-wujb), is a central doctrine enshrined in the Fuss itself and later expounded in detail from the earliest commentary.98 It is also clear in the Futht: God says, 'My mercy embraces all things.' It is either a gratuitous gift or obligatory. There are servants whom it embraces as a property of obligation, and there are others whom it embraces as a property of gratuitous gift. But the root is the divine gratuitous gift, bounty and the bestowal of blessing since at first there was no engendered existence to deserve it. Hence the very manifestation of engendered existence derives from gratuitous gift. While exegetes found narrative interpretations to explain the reason for the use of two names of mercy in the divine Book, the school of Ibn cArabi constructed an elaboration ontological and cosmological scheme that demonstrated the intimate connection in their work and outlook between the exegetical process and the spiritualised, speculative enterprise of explaining the cosmos. From the book of the cosmos and its exegesis in the school of Ibn c Arabi, we therefore turn finally to the actual divine Book and its exegesis of mercy in the work of Jm. Jmi's Exegesis on the basmala The Arabic exegesis of Jm is hardly attested in the secondary literature and yet
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there are more than 40 manuscripts of it around the world. The present paper relies upon MS India Office Islamic 842, a codex that is a majmca of the kulliyyt (complete non-poetical works) of Jm in which the exegesis of the Ftiha is between folios 3v to 9v inclusive.101 The codex is dated Rabic 1960/February-March 1553 and is thus the second oldest copy extant.102 The exegesis, according to the earliest witnesses, is supposed to be among Jmi's last works, partly accounting for its rather incomplete nature. But the approach and basic interpretation provided in it was already present in an exegetical poem 'on the meaning of the divine names al-rahmn and al-rahlm' {matlac: hast ism-i vujd-i haqq rahmn, ba-ictibr al-cumm lVl-acyn\ metre: khafif) contained in his first masnav Silsilat al-zjahab which dates from between 873/1468 and 877/1472, that is up to twenty years prior to the formal (Arabic) exegesis.103 In this previous poem, he distinguishes between the names in the following manner. Al-rahmn is the proper name of the divine being insofar as it gives existence to all things, manifesting the Qur'anic modality of divine mercy encompassing all things. Although it seems that the term with respect to the

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attribute of mercy entails an analogy between the divine and the created, there is no analogy: al-rahmn can only be predicated of God. This verse clarifies Jmi's theological commitments to the Ashcari school in his rejection of any analogy between Creator and created, as well as his adherence to the singular reality of the divine to the exclusion of all other that he grasps from the teachings of Ibn cArabi. Al-rahlm, on the other hand, is a more particular name. It is a proper name for God but it represents a particular relationship of the one who makes things necessary (i.e. gives them existence). It bestows upon seekers the portion of existence and perfection that they require and that is appropriate to them. As a name denoting an attribute, it does entail some form of analogy insofar as a merciful individual responding to another's need indicates a more intensive form of that mercy enacted by the divine. The actual exegesis on the Ftiha formally extends this earlier commentary and makes the metaphysics of mercy more explicit. The prmium {khutba) already contains within it a brief exegesis in which the question of the two aspects of mercy is raised:104 He is the Source of Mercy {al-rahmn) through His general, comprehensive existence {li-wujdihi al-shmil al-cmm) and the Giver of Mercy {al-rahlm) through His perfect and complete munificence {li-jdihi al-kmil al-tmm). His mercy of being-the-source-of-mercy {rahmatihi al-rahmniyya) is general for all existent things, and His mercy of being-the-giver-of-mercy is specific to whomsoever He wishes however He wishes. Thus far, this is fairly standard and not much different to al-Kshni. It delineates the distinction between the two names, ascribing universality to the former and particularity to the latter. It also demonstrates a stylistic feature that some students have noted, namely that the prmium of a work often indicates the genre and the content of the work that follows the formulaic amm bacd.m Jm then goes on to say that he had considered for some time the need to write a comprehensive and complete esoteric exegesis. As we have seen above, he often states in the prmium of his works that he perceived a need to write such a work and does not use the rather common 'response to a request' reason for writing a work. Since Jm was composing his taf sir towards the end of his life when he was already well known and respected, it would seem that the introductory remarks explaining the need for the work can be seen as an affirmation of his scholarly significance and credentials for writing it and also as a sign that the contents that follow are worthy of study and reflection. The exegetical order that he follows is what one expects of the genre. After the standard consideration of the importance of the Ftiha and its excellences (fadU), on seeking refuge {isticdha), he moves to the exegesis of the

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text.1 6 As we have seen, any discussion of the doctrine of mercy in the Ftiha requires an explanation of the two divine names in the basmala and then the two divine names in the third aya. Drawing on the traditions of the exegetical community, he begins his exposition of the names in the basmala by examining their morphology and their linguistic meaning.107 Al-rahmn follows the paradigm fa cln and acts as a name of similitude. Al-rahlm, on the other hand, is an intensive following the paradigm fa , just as the divine names, 'the Hearing' and 'the Seeing', are on the same paradigm with the sense that God sees and hears in a manner that transcends that of human perceivers.108 Both have as their root meaning compassion. However, for him, the names mean more than an emotive compassion. The first name indicates an act whose end is to bestow without conditions (the gratuitous gift of imtinn) and the second is to bestow bounties that are intended and deserved (the volitional bestowal of wujb). He then presents some thoughts on the complementary nature of the two names: the former reflects union and is more comprehensive because it encompasses the existents of this world and the afterlife, the latter reflects separation and refers to God's mercy to His believers in this world.109 The use of the Sufi terminology of the school of Ibn cArabi is already striking. In this vein, he quotes the famous narration that we encountered above, namely that that God is al-rahmn in this world and al-rahlm in the afterlife.110 However, he complicates the interpretation by indicating the interpntration of the two names with respect to the realms of this world and the next by citing the preliminary supplicatory phrase attributed to the Prophet: al-rahmn of this world and the afterlife and al-rahlm of them both ...'. He completes his commentary on these names by referring to the views of the mystics,
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which he endorses: Mercy is existence, if one considers it with respect to its own individuality [it is al-rahmn]. But if considered with respect to its individuality and its attachments [to objects of mercy], than it is al-rahlm. The former is the act of existentiating mercy, but the latter, by virtue of its attachments to other than itself, to things that in themselves are privative, is a limited and particular relationship. A Khwjagni Sufi contemporary of Jm uses a similar metaphysical language, drawing explicitly on the terminology of the school, to explain the significance of the theophanies of the two names of mercy within the cosmogonie and cosmological scheme of the school of Ibn cArab. Khwja Nicmat Allah Nakhchivni known as Shaykh cAlvn glosses the names in the basmala in his exegesis entitled al-Fawtih al-ilhiyya wa'l-maftlh al-ghaybiyya which he completed in Tabriz in 902/1496:

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Journal of Qur'anic Studies Al-rahmn denotes the unitary essence {al-dht al-ahadiyya) considered with respect to its manifestations upon the pages of the book of existence and their transformations into the vestments of necessity and contingency {al-wujb wa!-imkn) and their descent from the stage of unicity to the stage of multiplicity and their being determined as individuals whether considered in the mind or existing in reality, and their taking on the colours of the worlds of being and becoming.

Thus far this name is responsible for the bestowal of existence in its different unfolding stages and manifestations. For Shaykh cAlvn, the second name is concerned with the return, the eschaton beyond space and time: Al-rahlm denotes the unitary essence considered with respect to its unity after having become multiple and its union after its separation (jamHh bacda tafrlqih) and its folding after its spreading out and its raising after its falling and its abstraction after its determination. Returning to Jm, the exegesis of the names in the third aya of the Ftiha reflects the real deployment of the doctrines of the school of Ibn c Arabi. Jm says: God manifests Himself through the forms of the permanent archetypes by His most holy overflowing (faydihi al-aqdas). God in this consideration to the totality of His overflowing and its application is al-rahmn; with consideration to His individuating [other things] He is al-rahlm. The order is significant as it indicates an existential order: first bestowing mental existence to the forms in the mind of God and then bringing them into actual existence. He then quotes the famous theologian and Sufi Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazli (d. 505/1 111) from his work Jawhir al-Qurn on the significance of the repetition of names. In the passage from Chapter Twelve on the meaning of the Ftiha, al-Ghazli glosses the two names of mercy:115 Do you imagine that this is repetition? There is no repetition in the Qur'an, for repetition is defined as that which does not contain any additional benefit. The repetition is not real but rather it is meaningful because the names actually mean different things in the basmala and then in the third aya. The two names of mercy are therefore not actual synonyms. The names in the aya lie between the mention of God as 'Lord of the cosmos' {rabb al-clamln) and as 'Possessor of the Day of Judgement' {mlik yawm al-dln). The first name therefore reflects God as the One who is merciful for the creatures of the cosmos which 'He has created in the most perfect, varied and most excellent form'.116 The second name refers to God's mercy

The Existential Breath of al-rahmn and the Munificent Grace of al-rahlm 11 at the end of time at the Judgement when His mercy extends to deserved bounties and favours.117 Thus the names in this context refer in the first instance to the origins of existence {al-mabda0) and in the second to the end of the cosmos {al-macd). Shaykh cAlvn similarly draws on the significance of the meaningful repetition of the names of mercy in the later aya by comparing the function of al-rahmn as the free and undiscriminating principle for the procession of existence, to use Neoplatonic language, and al-rahlm as the volitional instrument of the reversion of the cosmos to the One: Al-rahmn is the principle in this world that creates by spreading the shade of its most beautiful names and lofty attributes over the mirrors of reflected non-existence including the entire cosmos, its visible and unseen parts, its befores and afters without any discrimination. Al-rahlm is the one who reverts everything in the afterlife by folding up the heavens of the names and the earth of base nature and from whom issues the beginning and to whom is the end. Concluding Remarks What this brief survey of Jmi's thought and exegesis reveals is the striking difference from the short but allusive style of al-Kshni and other Sufi exegetes. Jmi's exegesis, somewhat like that of his predecessor Charkhi, contains the standard elements of interpretive style: discussion of language, syntax and morphology, citation of authority whether in the shape of narrations or previous scholarly sources. At the same time, the exegesis goes beyond the parameters of standard exoteric commentary and exhibits the 'ontological turn' of his intellectual heritage. Significantly, the taf sir demonstrates his training as an acute thinker of the school of Ibn cArabi who uses the terminology of the school and the metaphysics of mercy that is central to the school to make sense of the divine names of mercy in the Ftiha. The exegetical act imposes upon the text not only the training of learning of the exegete steeped in his scholastic tradition but also alludes to understanding from years of his spiritual training as a practising Sufi. One would expect that further study of the remainder of the taf sir would sustain and extend this conclusion and would indicate, without a shadow of doubt, that a true and full understanding of the exegesis of a thinker like Jm requires not only familiarity with exegetical techniques, but also the Sufi metaphysics expounded in the text and commentaries of the Fuss al-hikam. The deeply Qur'anic nature of that text will force students to revert to its study, after some time devoted to the Futht, and necessitate our close reading of exegesis in the tradition of Ibn c Arabi alongside the Fuss cycle of texts. Such a holistic reading will not only reveal the influence of exegesis upon the received text and its interpretation, but also be entirely consonant with the tradition

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that did not mark clear boundaries within the hermeneutical enterprise between the disciplines of hikma, tasawwuf and tafslr, and between the understanding of the inscribed Book of God, the book of the cosmos and the book of humanity.

NOTES An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference on The Qur'an: Text, Interpretation and Translation, 10-12 November 2005 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I am grateful to the participants for their valuable comments and discussion, and to Marianna Klar and Helen Blatherwick for their judicious advice. As ever, I remain responsible for the arguments advanced in this paper. 1 There is an extensive literature of citations of these texts. For some representative ones that are relevant, see Ibn cArab, al-Futht al-Makkiyya (4 vols. Cairo: Blq, n.d.), vol. 2, p. 500, and vol. 3, p. 198; cf. William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn cArabVs Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 344-6; [al-Kshni], Tafslr Ibn cArabi (2 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 2001), vol. 1, p. 24. 2 For an excellent introduction to this concept, see Sachiko Murata, The Tao of Islam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992). 3 For some useful surveys of Sufi tafslr and hermeneutics, consult the relevant sections in Muhammad al-Dhahab, al-Tafslr wa'1-mufassirn (Cairo: Dar al-Macrif, 1961); Ignaz Goldziher, Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974); M. Ayz, al-Mufassirn: haytuhum wa-manhajuhum (Tehran: Vizrat-i Farhang va Irshd-i Islrn, 1373 Sh/1994); Alan Godlas, 'Sufi tafsir: A Survey of the Genre', available at http://www.uga.edu/islam/suftaf/tafsuftoc.html; Suleyman Ate, sari tefsir okulu (Ankara: Ankara University, 1974); Paul Nwyia, Exgse coranique et langage mystique (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1970); Gerhard Bwering, 'The QurDn Commentary of al-Sulamf in W. Hallaq and D. Little (eds), Islamic Studies Presented to Charles J. Adams (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991), pp. 41-56; Gerhard Bwering, 'The Scriptural "Senses" in Medieval Sufi Qurn Exegesis' in J.D. McAuliffe et al (eds), With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 346-65; various authors, art. 'Exegesis' in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 9, pp. 116-25; Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Falsafat al-ta3wll: dirsa fi tawll al-Qur3n cinda Muhyl al-Dln Ibn 'Arabi (Beirut: Dar al-Wahda, 1983); Pierre Lory, Les commentaires sotriques du Coran aprs c Abd al-Razzq al-Qshn (Paris: Les Deux Ocans, 1980). 4 On this Central Asian Sufi order, see Hamid Algar, art. 'Nakshbandiyya' in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn, vol. 7, pp. 934-6; Hamid Algar, 'Naqshbandis and Safavids' in M. Mazzaoui (ed.), Safavid Iran and her Neighbours (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003), pp. 1-48; Marc Gaborieau, A. Popovic and T. Zarcone (eds), Naqshbandis: Cheminements et situations actuelles d'un ordre mystique musulman (Paris and Istanbul: Editions Isis, 1990); Dina LeGall, A Culture of Sufism: Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World 1450-1700 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004); Jrgen Paul, Die politische und soziale Bedeutung der Naqsbandiyya in Mittelasien im 15. Jahrhundert (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1991). 5 Within the guise of a study of his pilgrimage, I hope to examine this point in greater detail in a forthcoming paper. 6 cAbd al-Razzq al-Kshn's tafslr has been repeatedly printed as Tafslr Ibn cArabi, most recently in two well-produced volumes fraught with errors (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 2001). I have supplemented readings from the following Tmurd era MS British Library Or. 6351 entitled Tawllt al-Qurn. For a study of this commentary, see Lory, Les commentaires sotriques du Coran aprs cAbd ar-Razzq al-Qshn. For Khwja Yacqb

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Charkhi's Tafslr-i Kalm-i Rabbani, I have consulted two manuscripts: MS British Museum Or. 9490 dated 960/1553, a beautifully ornate and complete work in naskhl and nastacllq; and MS India Office Islamic 754, dated 6 Jumada II1089/26 July 1678 which is in a rougher hand and has the first half of the prmium missing. On Charkh and his tafslr, see Hamid Algar, art. 'Carkf in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 4, pp. 819-20; C.A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibiographical Survey Volume I Part I (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1970), p. 9. There are older lithographs of the exegesis, such as the one produced in Lahore in 1331/1913, and a new partial edition has been published (Istanbul: Yildiz, 1991). Other works of Charkh that are important for the later Naqshband order include Risla-yi unsiyya, ed. and tr. M. Nadhr Rnjh (Lahore: Zhid Bashr, 1983); Risala-yi Abdliyya, ed. M. Nadhr Rnjh (Islamabad: Iran-Pakistan Research Institute, 1978). 7 There is no critical edition of this text nor any serious engaged studies. The standard edition was produced in Hyderabad by Osmania Oriental Publications in 1947. 8 The social and linguistic conventionalism of Quentin Skinner's approach to intellectual history appeals to me. See his collected articles on method in Visions of Politics Volume I: Regarding Method (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). 9 The simple fact that there are numerous manuscripts in the Persianate world of this work (and even in the Dar al-Kutub and al-Azhar collections in Cairo) attests to its popularity. The Kfiya was the main grammatical text studied in Timrid Iran - see Maria Subtelny and Anas Khalidov, 'The Curriculum of Islamic Higher Learning in Timrid Iran in the Light of the Sunni Revival under Shh-Rukh', Journal of the American Oriental Society 115 (1995), pp. 210-36, p. 226 passim. Jm's significance in Central Asia is attested in a number of biographical and poetical works such as Sultan Muhammad Mutrib Samarqandi (d. 1040/1631), TazJrat al-shucar3, ed. Asghar Jnfad (Tehran: Mrs-i Maktb, 1377 Sh/1998), p. 355, p. 425 inter alia: Mutrib refers to him using the standard honorific for an important Sufi master hazrat-i makhdm and hazrat-i haqiq-panhl. On the significance of Jmi's text in India, see Jamal Malik, Islamische Gelehrtenkultur in Nordindien. Entwicklungsgeschichte und Tendenzen am Beispiel von Lucknow (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), pp. 523-9; Ab'l-Hasant Nadv, Hindustan kl qadlm darsghen (Azamgarh: n.p., 1971), pp. 92ff; G.M.D. Sufi, al-Minhaj: Being the Evolution of Curriculum in the Muslim Educational Institutions of India (New Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyyat-i Dilli, 1977), pp. 70ff; Sayyid cAbd al-Hayy, 'Dars-i Nizrnf, al-Nadwa 6 (1909), pp. 7-14. On Jmi's influence in India, see Javd Sharf, 'Jm dar Shib-i Qrih' in Hasan Ansha (gen. ed.), Dnishnma-yi adab-i Farsi: dar Shib-i Qrih (4 vols. Tehran: Intishrt-i Vizrat-i Farhang va irshd-i Islmi, 1375 Sh/1996), vol. 1, pp. 834-42; Tawfq Subhn, Nighl bih trlkh-i adab-i rsl dar Hind (Tehran: Intishrt-i Shr-yi Gustarish-i Zabn va Adab-i Farsi, 1377 Sh/1998), p. 21, p. 84, p. 112, p. 121, pp. 135-8, p. 163. 10 cAli-Asghar Hikmat, Jml (Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1320 Sh/1941) remains a classic and the basis for many later studies including A.J. Arberry's chapter in Classical Persian Literature, reprint (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1994), pp. 425-50 which is wholly derived from it. Another classic account is Edward Browne, A History of Persian Literature Volume III - Under Tatar Dominion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924), pp. 507-48. Recent brief literary judgements include cAbd al-Husayn Zarnnkb, 'Jml, crifi Jm' in B-krvn-i Hilla (Tehran: Intishrt-i cIlm, 1370 Sh/1991), pp. 287-90; cAbd al-Husayn Zarnnkb, Sayrl dar shicr-i Farsi (Tehran: Intishrt-i cIlm, 1371 Sh/1992), pp. 98-100; Dhabh Allah Safa, Trlkh-i adabiyyt dar Iran (8 vols. Tehran: Intishrt-i Firdows, 1364 Sh/1985), vol. 4, pp. 347-68. Two recent critical studies which are excellent are: Alokhon Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml (Tehran: Mirs-i Maktb, 1378 Sh/1999); Najb Myil Hirav, Jml (Tehran: Tarh-i Naw, 1377 Sh/1998).
c

11 On Jm as 'cImd al-Din', see Lari (d. 912/1507), Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, ed. Al-Asghar Bashr Hirav (Kabul: Anjuman-i Jm, 1343 Sh/1964), p. 39; Dr Shikh

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(d. 1659), Safinat al-awliy3, tr. into Urdu by Muhammad cAl Lutf (Karachi: Nafs Academy, 1986), p. 115; Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, p. 105; Hirav, Jml, p. 31. 12 Professor Hamid Algar of Berkeley informs me that he is at the moment writing such a work that will provide an intellectual biography located within the cultural and historical context of the nascent Naqshband order in Central Asia. 13 Jmi, Nafaht al-uns, ed. M. cAbid (Tehran: Intishrt-i Ittilct, 1370 Sh/1991). The work contains over 600 biographies including a fair number of his contemporaries. For a discussion of the work within the genre of Sufi hagiographies, see Jawid Mojaddedi, The Biographical Tradition in Sufism (Richmond: Curzon Press, 2001), pp. 151-80. 14 On the milieu, see Maria Subtelny, 'The Poetic Circle at the Court of the Timrid Sultan Husain Baiqara and its Political Significance' (Harvard University: unpublished PhD dissertation, 1979); Terry Allen, Timurid Herat (Wiesbaden: Rickert, 1983). 15 Nma-h va munsha3t-i Jml, ed. A. Urunbaev and A. Rahmanov (Tehran: Mirs-i Maktb, 1378 Sh/1999); cf. Ahrr, Majmca-yi Mursalt: The Letters of Khwja cUbayd Allah Ahrr and His Associates, ed. A. Urunbaev, tr. J. Gross with introductory material, Brill's Inner Asian Library, 5 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002). It was a key text for the training of an administrator {munshl) - see Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'The Making of a Munshi', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24 (2004), pp. 6172; various authors, 'Vzha-yi munsha3t', Kitb-i mh {trlkh va jughrfiya) 3:8 (2000), and 5:3-4 (2002). 16 Such a literary judgement, though widely shared by Iranian critics in the 13/19 and 14/20 centuries, is beginning to lose favour. Most recently Paul Losensky, Welcoming Fighnl: Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1998), has argued that in fact Jmi is a pivotal figure whose style actually prefigures the Mughal-Safavid one. 17 For a brief and usual discussion on some of these sources, see Hirav, Jml, pp. 310-12. 18 As cited previously, Lri, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, ed. cAl Asghar Bashr Hirav (Kabul: Anjuman-i Jm, 1343 Sh/1964). 19 Nav% Meclisun-Nefyis, ed. . Eraslan (2 vols. Ankara: Atatrk Kultur, Dil ve Tarih Yksek Kurumu, Trk Dil Kurumu, 2001). The Majlis were quickly translated into Persian, of which there are three versions: the first and perhaps the most influential was translated by Muhammad Fakhr Hirav in 928/1521-2 as Latyif-nma; the second was translated by Shh Muhammad Qazvn for the Ottoman Sultan Selim in 927/1520 as Hasht-Bihisht; the third version was translated later in the 10/16* century by Shah-cAl and is attested in MS British Museum Add. 104. 20 Latyif-nma in cAl-Shr Navi, Majlis al-nafyis, Persian ed. cAl-Asghar Hikmat (Tehran: Bank-i Milli, 1323 Sh/1944), p. 56. 21 Baburnama, tr. Wheeler M. Thackston (New York: The Modern Library, 2002), p. 212. The original Chagatay text was probably called Vaqyic - for the full critical edition, see Bbur-nma (Vaqyic), ed. E.J. Mano (2 vols. Kyoto: Syokado, 1995-6), or Bburnma: The Chagatay Turkish Text with cAbd al-Rahlm Khn-khnn 's Persian Translation, transcription, ed. and tr. Wheeler M. Thackston (3 vols. Cambridge, Massachussetts: Harvard University, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, 1993). For discussions, see Stephen Dale, 'Steppe Humanism: The Autobiographical Writings of Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, 1483-1530', International Journal of Middle East Studies 22 (1990), pp. 37-58; and 'The Poetry and Autobiography of the Babur-nama\ Journal of Asian Studies 55 (1996), pp. 63564.

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22 Khwnd Mir, Habib al-siyar, d. M. Dabr-Siyaq (4 vols. Tehran: Intishrt-i Khayym, 1362 Sh/1983), vol. 4, pp. 337-8; Habib ul-Siyar. The Reign of the Mongol and the Turk Part Two: Shahrukh Mirza to Shah Ismail, tr. W.M. Thackston (Cambridge, Massachussetts: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, 1994), pp. 51920. 23 Mucn al-Dn Muhammad Isfizri, Rawzt al-janntfi awsfmadlnat Hirt, ed. M. Kzim Imm (Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1338 Sh/1959), pp. 25-9; Vciz, Maqsad al-iqbl-i sultniyya wa-marsad al-ml-i Khqniyya, ed. Najb Myil Hirav (Tehran: Intishrt-i Bunyd-i Farhang-i Iran, 1351 Sh/1972), pp. 101-2. Incidentally, the latter in his account of Kashghar, Jmi's spiritual preceptor, seems to be one of the first to describe the Sufi order as Naqshband when he describes their spiritual way as that of the khwjagn-i Naqshbandiyya (p. 90). 24 cAbd al-Vsic Nizmi Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, ed. N. Myil Hirav (Tehran: Nashr-i Nay, 1371 Sh/1992). ' 25 Kaml al-Dn Husayn Gzurghi, Majlis al-cushshq, ed. Ghulm-Riz TabtabDi-Majd (Tehran: Intishrt-i Zarrn, 1375 Sh/1996). 26 Fakhr al-Dn cAl 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, ed. cAl-Asghar Mucnyan (2 vols. Tehran: Bunyd-i Nikkri-yi Nriyni, 1977). I have also consulted the following Naqshband and other Sufi sources that tend to follow the account in Rashaht: MS India Office Islamic (British Library) 698 Rawzat al-slikln of cAl ibn Mahmud Abvard Krni, an important early history of the order focusing on the biographies of the branch leading up to Ahrr and especially the Transoxianan Sufi cAl al-Din Qhistni (d. 892/1487), a disciple of Kashghar; MS Bibliothque Nationale (Paris) supplment persan 1418 Silsila-nma-yi Khwjagn-i Naqshband of Muhammad ibn Hasan Qazvn, fol. 14v-16r; MS India Office Islamic (British Library) 1426 Trlkh-i gharlba of Ab'l-Muhsin Muhammad Bqir ibn Muhammad CAH, dated 947/1540-1, fol. 159v-174v are on Jm and include an extensive account of his Hajj (fol. 164r-167v); MS India Office Islamic (British Library) 1647 Majrna0 al-awliy3 of Sayyid cAli-Akbar Husayni Ardistni completed in 1043/1633 for the Mughal Emperor Shhjahn, an extensive collection of Sufi hagiographies of all orders in which the entry on Jmi is at folio 410r-413r; and al-Kawkib al-durriyya Cal,l-Had3iq al-wardiyya fi ajl al-sda al-Naqshbandiyya of Shaykh cAbd al-Majd Khan (d. 1317/1899-1900) (Damascus: Dar al-Bayrti, 1997), pp. 464-8. Many other Naqshband Mujaddid sources from India tend to overlook Jmi as he did not take many disciples and most spiritual lineages go through the Samarqand Naqshbandis, either through Ahrr or Khwja Ahmad Ksni Dihbd (d. 948/1542). The Herat branch, associated with Jm and which became dominant in Tabriz, was suppressed by the Safavids; when they conquered Herat in 1510, they destroyed the tomb of Jmi - see Algar, 'Naqshbandis and Safavids', p. 25; Said Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 112-13. 27 Dawlatshh Samarqandi, Tazjdrat al-shtfar3, ed. Muhammad Ramazn, reprint (Tehran: Intishrt-i Khvar, 1366 Sh/1987), pp. 362-8; Sm Mirz Safav, TazJra-yi Tuhf-yi Sml, ed. Rukn al-Din Humyn-Farrukh (Tehran: Intishrt-i cIlmi, 1347 Sh/1968), pp. 143-52. 28 The complete exegesis is Mavhib-i cAliyya y Tafslr-i Husayni, ed. Sayyid Muhammad Riz Jalli Nini (4 vols. Tehran: Intishrt-i Iqbl, 1329 Sh/1950), and the shorter one on the Ftiha is Javhir al-tafsir (li-tuhfat al-Amir): tafslr adabl, cirnl, Hurfi, ed. Javd c Abbas (Tehran: Mirs-i Maktb, 1379 Sh/2000); cf. Storey, Persian Literature, p. 10.

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29 Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, p. 49; Hirav, Jml, p. 32. 30 Lari, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, p. 40; cAli 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 334; Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, p. 95. 31 Ln, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, p. 35; Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, p. 50. 32 Jmi, Nafaht al-uns, pp. 397-8. 33 Lari, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, p. 11; cAl 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 235; Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, p. 51. 34 Lari, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, p. 11; cAli 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 236; Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, p. 52; Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, pp. 113-14. 35 cAli 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, pp. 236-7; Hirav, Jml, pp. 34-5. 36 Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, p. 118; Hirav, Jml, p. 16. 37 Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, p. 122. 38 Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, p. 129; Hirav, Jml, p. 36. 39 Jmi, Nafaht al-uns, pp. 408-10; Lari, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, p. 12; cAl 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 239; Hirav, Jml, p. 35; Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, p. 129; Hamid Algar, art. 'Sacd al-Dn Kashghar' in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn, vol. 8, p. 704. 40 Jmi, Nafaht al-uns, pp. 404-7. 41 Jmi, Nafaht al-uns, pp. 394-6. 42 Jmi, Nafaht al-uns, pp. 389-94; Necdet Tosun, Bahaeddin Naksbend: Hayati, Grsleri, Tarikati (Istanbul: Insan Yayinlan, 2002). 43 J.M. Rogers, art. 'Ahrr, Kvja' in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 1, pp. 667-70; JoAnn Gross, 'Authority and Miraculous Behaviour: Reflections on Karmt Stories of Khwja c Ubaydullh Ahrr', in L. Lewisohn (ed.), The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism, reprint (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), pp. 159-71. Most early Naqshband biographical sources such as c Al 'Safi' Kshifi's Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt are mainly hagiographies of Ahrr. 44 Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, pp. 116-17; Hirav, Jml, pp. 40-1. 45 Hamid Algar, 'Naqshbandis and Safavids', pp. 24-6. Jmi also wrote a work on the order: Sar-rishta-yi tarlq-i Khwjagn, ed. cAbd al-Hayy Habb (Kabul: Anjuman-i Jmi, 1343 Sh/1964). 46 R.D. McChesney, Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480-1889 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 30, 34-5; cAbd al-Ghafr Lari, Trlkhcha-yi Mazr-i Sharif, ed. . Myil Hirav (Kabul: Anjuman-i Tarkh vaAdab, 1350Sh/1971). 47 Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, pp. 191-4. 48 Qaz Nur Allah Shstari, Majlis al-mu3minin, ed. S. Ahmad (2 vols. Tehran: Kitbfurshi -yi Islmiyya, 1975), vol. 2, pp. 148-9; cf. Shahzad Bashir, Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nrbakhshlya between Medieval and Modern Islam (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003), pp. 178-86. 49 Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jml, p. 137; Hirav, Jml, p. 60. 50 Lari, Takmila-yi Nafaht al-uns, p. 42; cAli 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 282; Bkharzi, Maqmt-i Jml, p. 265; Khwndamir, Habib al-siyar, ed. M. Dabr-Siyaq (4 vols. Tehran: Kitbkhna-yi Khayym, 1333 Sh/1954), vol. 4, p. 338; Hirav, Jml, p. 61.

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51 William Chittick, 'Ibn cArabi and His School' in S.H. Nasr (ed.), Islamic Spirituality II: Manifestations (New York: SCM Press, 1991), pp. 49-79; William Chittick, 'The School of Ibn cArabf in S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman (eds), History of Islamic Philosophy (2 vols. London: Routledge, 1996), vol. 1, pp. 510-23; James Morris, 'Ibn cArabi and His Interpreters', Journal of the American Oriental Society 106 (1986), pp. 751-2; Michel Chodkiewicz, 'The Diffusion of Ibn cArab's Doctrine', Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn cArabi Society 9 (1991), pp. 36-57. For a discussion of the contested legacy, see Alexander Knysh, Ibn cArabi and the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), and the critical review by James Morris in Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn cArabi Society 27 (2000), pp. 75-81. 52 For some introductions and discussions of this important distinction, see James Morris, The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn cArabi's Meccan Illuminations (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2005); James Morris, 'Ibn cArabi's "Esotericism": The Problem of Spiritual Authority', Studia Islamica 71 (1990), pp. 37-64; James Morris, '"Except His Face ...": The Political and Aesthetic Dimensions of Ibn cArab's Legacy', Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn cArabi Society 23 (1998), pp. 1-13; Chodkiewicz, 'The Diffusion of Ibn c Arab's Doctrine'. 53 While I will be drawing upon the Fuss and its commentaries, which are considered internally by the tradition to be authentic works of the master, there are some who argue that the work has been corrupted by extensive interpolations. See, for example, Mahmud Ghurb's extensively annotated edition and the preface to Sharh Fuss al-hikam min kalm al-Shaykh al-Akbar (Damascus: Matbacat Zayd Ibn Thbit, 1985) - for a critical assessment, see the review by Michel Chodkiewicz in Studia Islamica 63 (1984), pp. 179-82. Interestingly, the authorship of the Futht has never been impugned mainly because of the 71 samct inscribed on the famous autograph Konya manuscript of the text, and yet in comparison to the 122 commentaries and paraphrases of the Fuss, there are barely a handful of commentaries on the Futht and none of them can be claimed to be complete. See Michel Chodkiewicz, 'Une introduction la lecture des Futht Makkiyya' in Chodkiewicz et al (eds), Les Illuminations de la Mecque (Paris: Albin Michel, 1997); Chodkiewicz, 'The Futht Makkiyya and its commentators' in L. Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism II (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1999), pp. 219-32. 54 William Chittick, 'The Perfect Man as the Prototype of the Self in the Sufism of Jmi', Studia Islamica 49 (1979), pp. 139-42; William Chittick, 'Notes on Ibn al-cArabi's Influence in the Subcontinent', Muslim World 82 (1992), pp. 218-41. 55 Fakhr al-Zamm Qazvn, Tazkira-yi maykhna, ed. A. Gulchn-Macan (Tehran: Intishrt-i Hikmat, 1362 Sh/1983), p. 103; cf. Hirav, Jml, p. 279. 56 There are numerous popular printings of this text: cf. Chittick, 'Ibn cArab and His School', p. 59; Michael Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt: Studies in the Writings of cAbd al-Wahhb al-Shacrnl (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1982). 57 Jmi, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, d. CA. Al-Husayn al-Darqwi (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 2004); Naqd al-nussfi Sharh naqsh al-Fuss, ed. W. Chittick (Tehran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1977). For Chittick's translation of the original text, see 'Ibn c Arab's Own Summary of the Fuss: The Imprints of the Bezels of Wisdom', Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn cArabi Society 1 (1982), pp. 30-93. 58 Jmi, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, p. 39. 59 AI-Durra al-fkhira, ed. . Heer (Tehran: McGill Institute of Islamic Studies, 1980); The Precious Pearl, tr. N. Heer (Albany: State University Of New York Press, 1979). 60 Lavih: A Treatise on Sufism, ed. and tr. E.H. Whinfield and M.M. Kazvn, reprint (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1978); Lavyeh: Les jaillissements de lumire, ed. and tr.

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Y. Richard (Paris: Les Deux Ocans, 1982). For a new translation and discussion by Chittick, see Sachiko Murata, Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light (Albany: State University Of New York Press, 2000), pp. 113-210. On Jahnshh's brief hegemony over Khursn, see H. Roemer, 'The Successors of Timur' in P. Jackson and L. Lockhart (eds), The Cambridge History of Iran Volume 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 114-16; John E. Woods, The Aqquyunlu (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 1999), pp. 74-85. 61 Muhammad cAbd al-Haqq Ansri, Sufism and Sharlcah: A Study of Shaykh Ahmad SirhindVs Attempts to Reform Sufism (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1986); S.A.A. Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India (2 vols. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983), vol. 2, pp. 208-14; but see Y. Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindl (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1971), and Hamid Algar, 'Reflections of Ibn cArabi in early Naqshband tradition', Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn cArabi Society 10 (1991), pp. 45-66. Interpretation of the 'Naqshband reaction' which Sirhindi supposedly manifests has been tempered by David Damrel, 'The "Naqshband Reaction" Reconsidered' in D. Gilmartin and B. Lawrence (eds), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2000), pp. 176-98. 62 cAli 'SafT Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 244. 63 Sharh-i Fuss al-hikam, ed. J. Misgarnizhd (Tehran: Iran University Press, 1366 Sh/1987); Fasi al-khitb, ed. J. Misgarnizhd (Tehran: Iran University Press, 1381 Sh/2002) I consulted MS British Museum Or. 9495, dated 909/1503^1; cf. Algar, 'Reflections of Ibn c Arabi in Early Naqshband Tradition', pp. 46-9. It is worth noting that the attribution of the commentary to Prs is not uncontroversial. The text in fact seems to overlap extensively with the commentary attributed to the Kubravi Sufi Sayyid cAl Hamadan (d. 787/1385) - see Najib Myil Hirav, 'Chahr nazar pirmn-i chahr sr mansb bih Sayyid cAl Hamadan', Danish 11 (1366 Sh/1987), pp. 90-116. 64 Edited by Marijan Mole as 'Quelques trait Naqshbandis', Farhang-i Irn-zamln 6 (1337 Sh/1958), pp. 294-303. 65 Risla-yi tavajjuh, MS British Museum Or. 13744, 20v-22r, dating from the 12*/18 century. 66 cAl 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, pp. 249-50; Muhammad al-Rakhwi, al-Anwr al-Qudsiyya fi manqib al-sda al-Naqshbandiyya (Cairo: Matbacat al-Sacda, 1344/1925), p. 152; Algar, 'Reflections of Ibn cArab in Early Naqshband Tradition', p. 51; Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without a Shore, tr. D. Streight (Albany: State University Of New York Press, 1993), p. 5. 67 cAl 'Safi' Kshifi, Rashaht-i cAyn al-hayt, vol. 1, p. 351. 68 Mahmud Gawn, Riyd al-insh3, ed. Shaykh Chnd (Hyderabad: Osmania Oriental Publications, 1948), pp. 19-23, pp. 152-7, pp. 167-72, pp. 207-11, pp. 227-32, pp. 300-4, pp. 365-6; Nma-h-yi dastnavlsl-yi Jml, ed. N.M. Hirav (Tehran: Intishrt-i cIlm, 1367 Sh/1988), pp. 215-17, pp. 221-8, pp. 267-8, pp. 680-4; cf. K.A. Nizami, 'The Naqshbandiyyah Order', in Nasr (ed.), Islamic Spirituality II, p. 174. 69 N.M. Hirav, 'Jmi va mashyikh-i ShT, Nma-yi Nigristn 2:5 (spring 1375 Sh/1996), pp. 65-70; Ibn al-Karbal% Rawzt al-jinn wa-jannt al-jinn, ed. J. Sultan al-QurrDi (2 vols. Tehran: Bungh-i Tarjuma va Nashr-i Kitb, 1349 Sh/1970), vol. 2, p. 151. Lli was a disciple of Sayyid cAbd Allah Barzishbdi (d. 872/1468) who had contested the Kubravi mantle of Khwja Ishq Kuttalni with the messianic Sayyid Muhammad Nrbakhsh (d. 869/1464) and had signalled the Zahab Shc turn in the Kubravi lineage - see Bashir, Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions, pp. 47-55.

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70 Ibn al-Karbal3i, Raw at al-jinan wa-jannat al-jinan, vol. 2, p. 110; Hirav, J ami, pp. 2712. 71 See the best treatment in Toshihiko Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp. 116-40. 72 For a most recent example, see Ronald Nettler, Sufi Metaphysics and QurDanic Prophets: Ibn cArabl's Thought and Method in the Fuss al-hikam (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2003); cf. Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without a Shore, especially Chapter Four. Ibn cArab did write Qur'anic works: his large mainly non-extant exegesis al-Jamc wa'l-tafsll fiasrr macnl al-tanzll; icjz al-bayan fi'l-tarjama can al-Qurn, which has been published by Mahmud Ghurb based on a unicum that ends in the second sura; and Ishrt al-Qurn. Meditation upon the Qur'an is central to most of his works and hence Mahmud Ghurb has collated exegetical passages from his various works and published them in four volumes entitled al-Rahma min al-rahmn fi tafslr wa-ishrt al-Qurn (Damascus: Matbacat Zayd ibn Thbit, 1989). 73 Tafslr Muqtil ibn Sulaymn, ed. A. Fand (3 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 2002), vol. l,p. 24. 74 Jr Allah al-Zamakhshari (d. Sunn Muctazil, d. 538/1144), al-Kashshf can haq3iq al-tanzll wa-cuyn al-aqwll (5 vols. Beirut: al-Dr al-clamiyya, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 41; Abu c Al al-Fadl al-Tabris (Shc Muctazil, d. 548/1154), Majmac al-bayn (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Aclam, 1995), vol. 1, p. 54; Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabtab'i (Shic, d. 1402/1982), al-Mlzn fi tafslr al-QurDan (20 vols. Beirut: MuDassasat al-Aclami, 1973), vol. 1, pp. 18-23. 75 Zayd ibn cAl, Gharlb al-Qurn, ed. Sayyid Muhammad Jawd al-Husayni al-Jalli (Qum: Daftar-i Tablight-i Islmi, 1997), p. 120; cf. al-Tabar (Sunn, d. 311/923), The Commentary on the Qurn, tr. J. Cooper (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 56. 76 Al-Tabris, Majmac al-bayn, vol. 1, p. 54; cf. M. Ayoub, The Qur'an and its Interpreters (2 vols. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), vol. 1, p. 43. For a discussion of the duality of the terms in an Ashcari work of the 6 /12th century, see Georges Anawati, 'Rahman et Rahim dans les LawamV al-bayyinat de Fakhr al-Din al-Razi' in Michael Marmura (ed.), Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), pp. 63-77. 77 Al-Tabris, Majmac al-bayn, vol. 1, p. 54; cf. Ayoub, The Qur'an and its Interpreters, vol. l,p. 44. 78 Charkh, Tafsr-i Kalm-i Rabbani, MS British Museum Or. 9490, fol. 4r. 79 Qunaw, Icjz al-bayn fi tawll Umm al-Qurn (Hyderabad: Osmania Oriental Publications, 1949), p. 200. 80 Qnawi, Vjz al-bayn, p. 205. 81 Qnawi, Vjz al-bayn, p. 201. 82 Qnawi, Vjz al-bayn, p. 202. 83 Al-Kshni, Tafslr Ihn cArabi [siel] (2 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-cIlmiyya, 2001), vol. 1, p. 27; cf. Lory, Les commentaires sotriques du Coran aprs cAbd ar-Razzq al-Qshn, pp. 169-70. 84 Al-Qaysari, Sharh tawll al-basmala in Rasaci, ed. Mehmet Bayraktar (Kaysen: Bykcehir Belediyesi Kultur Yayinlan, 1997), p. 199. 85 Mercy is commonly described as riqqat al-qalb in the exegetical traditions. For an example contemporary to Jm, see Kshifi, Javhir al-tafsir, p. 3. 86 On the super-abundant goodness of the Neoplatonic One and its activity, see Lloyd Gerson, Plotinus (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 2 2 ^ 1 . On the reception of the idea in early Islamic

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Neoplatonism, see Cristina D'Ancona Costa, Recherches sur le Liber de Causis (Paris: Vrin, 1995). 87 Ibn cArabi, Fuss al-hikam, ed. CA. cAffi (Cairo: Dar al-Macrif, 1947), p. 177; al-Kshni, Sharh Fuss al-hikam (Cairo, 1321/1903), p. 222. 88 Jmi, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, pp. 421-2. 89 Ibn cArab, Fuss al-hikam, p. 177. 90 Ibn cArabi, al-Futht al-Makkiyya, Blq edition, vol. 2, p. 399; cf. William Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn cArabVs Cosmology (Albany: State University Of New York Press, 1998), pp. 69-70. 91 Ibn cArabi, al-Futht al-Makkiyya, Blq edition, vol. 4, pp. 255-6; cf. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, pp. 329-31. 92 Ibn cArabi, Fuss al-hikam, p. 177; cf. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, p. 118. 93 Ibn cArabi, Fuss al-hikam, p. 177; Jmi, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, pp. 422-3. 94 Jm, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, p. 425; cf. Sadr al-Dn al-Qunaw, Kitb al-Fukk, ed. Muhammad Khwjavi (Tehran: Intishrt-i Mawl, 1371 Sh/1993), pp. 270-1. 95 Ibn cArabi, Fuss al-hikam, p. 151; Jmi, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, p. 431; cf. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, p. 122. 96 cAbd al-Razzq al-Kshni, Istilht al-Sfiyya, ed. A. Sprenger, reprinted in A Glossary of Sufi Technical Terms (London: The Octagon Press, 1991), pp. 146-7 (my translation). 97 cAbd al-Razzq al-Kshni (attr.), Lata3if al-iclm fi ishrt ahi al-ilhm, ed. Majd Hdizda (Tehran: Mirth-i Maktb, 1379 Sh/2000), pp. 292-3. 98 Sacd al-Dn Farghan (d. 695/1296), Mashriq al-darrl, ed. S.J. shtiyni (Tehran: Iranian Islamic Academy of Philosophy, 1979), p. 551; Dwd al-Qaysari, Sharh Fuss al-hikam, ed. S.J. shtiyni (Tehran: Intishrt-i cIlm va Farhang, 1375 Sh/1996), pp. 91113; cf. Murata, The Tao of Islam, pp. 107-8; 99 Ibn cArab, al-Futht al-Makkiyya, Blq edition, vol. 3, p. 93; cf. William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, p. 130. 100 Al-Fihras al-shmil li'1-turth al-1Arabi al-Islml al-makhtt, culm al-Qur3n: makhttt al-tafslr (Amman: MuDassasat l al-Bayt, 1987), vol. 6, pp. 1774-9, mentions 32 and another ten or so are in Turkish libraries. It is quite possible that there are many others in India. I am currently preparing a critical edition of Jmi's exegesis on the Ftiha along with a fully annotated translation and study of the text. This will be based on five of the oldest manuscripts: (in chronological order) MS Istanbul University Library 1285, dated 958/1551; MS India Office Islamic 842, dated 960/1553; MS Istanbul University Library 2682, dated 963/1556; MS Kitbkhna-yi cUmml-yi yat Allah al-Marcashl 6744, dating from the 10/16 century; and MS Bratislava University Library (Basagic collection) TF 73, dated 1001/1592-3. I will supplement readings from two further manuscripts that include the remainder of his exegesis: MS Princeton (Garrett-Yahuda Collection) 1397 and 2397, both dating from the 12 /18 century. The study of Sufi exegesis and textual hermeneutics requires the availability of reliable edited texts and I hope that my work can contribute to that wider project. 101 Kulliyyt of his works (both poetical and non-poetical) seem to have been in circulation from living memory of him after his death. The earliest exemplar is MS Uzbek Oriental Academy 1331, dated 908/1502-3, but this does not contain his exegesis - see Afsahzod, Naqd va barrasl-yi sr va ahvl-i Jam, pp. 146-8. 102 Jmi, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 9v.

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103 Jm, Macnavl-yi Haft Awrang, ed. Alokhon Afsahzod (Tehran: Mirs-i Maktb, 1378 Sh/1999), vol. l,p. 144. 104 Jmi, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 3v, 11. 2-3. 105 For a useful discussion, see Steven Harvey, 'The Author's Introduction as a Key to Understanding Trends in Islamic Philosophy' in R. Arnzen and J. Thielmann (eds), Words, Texts and Concepts Cruising the Mediterranean Sea (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), pp. 15-32. 106 Jm, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 3v-5r. 107 Jmi, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 6r, 11. 10-13. 108 Jm, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 6r, 11. 21-2. 109 Jm, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 6r, 11. 15-18. 110 Jm, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 6r, 1. 18. 111 Jm, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 6r, 1. 19. 112 Jm, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 6r, 11. 23-5. 113 Nicmat Allah ibn Mahmud Nakhjuwan, al-Fawtih al-ilhiyya wa'l-maftlh al-ghaybiyya, reprint (2 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Rikbi, 1999), vol. 1, p. 18. He may have been a disciple of Ahrr - see Algar, 'Naqshbandis and Safavids', p. 8. 114 Jmi, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 7r, 11. 15-17. 115 Al-Ghazli, Jawhir al-Qur'n, ed. R. Rid Qabbni (Beirut: Dar Ihy3 al-cUlm, 1985), p. 65; The Jewels of the Qurn, tr. M. Abul Quasem (London: Kegan Paul International, 1983), p. 67. 116 Jmi, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 7r, 11. 20-1. 117 Jmi, Tafslr al-Ftiha, fol. 7r, 11. 21-2. 118 Nakhjuwan, al-Fawtih al-ilhiyya, vol. 1, p. 18.

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