Visualizing Sufism

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Islamicate Intellectual History
studies and texts in the late medieval
and early modern periods

Editorial board

Judith Pfeiffer (University of Bonn)

Shahzad Bashir (Brown University)
Heidrun Eichner (University of Tübingen)

volume 10

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/iih

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 Visualizing Sufism
Studies on Graphic Representations in Sufi Literature
(13th to 16th Century)

Edited by

Giovanni Maria Martini

leiden | boston

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Part of the publication costs of this book were generously funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung as part of a
two-year (2019–2020) individual research grant named “Shīrīn Maghribī: A Key Agent in the Transmission
of Mystical Knowledge in 14th to 17th Century Sufi Networks” (research grant no. AZ 40/Fs/18).

Cover illustration: Second circle about the manifested aspect of Existence and the manifested aspect
of Science (dāʾira-yi duvvum dar ẓāhir-i wujūd va ẓāhir-i ʿilm) in Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī, Jām-i
jahān-namā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Pertev Paşa 606, dated 1063/1653, fols. 130b-131a).

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov

lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022049295

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill‑typeface.

issn 2212-8662
isbn 978-90-04-51608-3 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-51609-0 (e-book)

Copyright 2023 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink,
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Contents

Acknowledgements vii
List of Plates ix
Notes on Contributors xv

Introduction 1
Giovanni Maria Martini

1 Diagrams and Visionary Experience in al-Būnī’s (d. 622/1225) Laṭāʾif

al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf al-ʿulwiyyāt 16
Noah Gardiner

2 Illustrating the Forms: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Images in al-Futūḥāt

al-Makkiyya 51
Ali Karjoo-Ravary

3 Visualizing the Architecture of the Universe: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240)

Diagrams in Chapter 371 of the Meccan Openings 125
Sophie Tyser

4 Reading and Reciting the Qurʾan: Calligraphic Spaces in Saʿd al-Dīn

Ḥamūyeh’s (d. 649/1252) Kitāb al-Maḥbūb 155
Elizabeth R. Alexandrin

5 Use of Diagrams in the Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī Manuscripts, and Possible

Links between the Ḥurūfī ‘Verbal’ and the Bektashi Visual
Iconographies 192
Orkhan Mir-Kasimov

6 Shīrīn Maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) Visual Sufism: Diagrams, Intellectual

Networks, and the Transmission of Spiritual Knowledge in 14th Century
Tabriz and beyond 231
Giovanni Maria Martini

7 “Sensible Images”: Pictograms in the Manuscript Transmission of ʿAbd

al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 973/1565) al-Mīzān al-kubrā 263
Evyn Kropf

Index 299

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Acknowledgements

My gratitude goes first and foremost to Prof. Judith Pfeiffer. She was the first
to believe in this line of research by giving me the opportunity to work on a
project entitled “Visual Sufism. A Case Study from 14th Century Tabriz: Shīrīn
Maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) Short Metaphysical Treatises” at the Alexander von
Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate Intellectual History that she leads at the Uni-
versity of Bonn. It is also at the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate
Intellectual History, and thanks to funds made available to me through this
institute, that I had the opportunity to organize an international workshop
entitled “Visualizing Sufism 1200–1600,” held on May 14, 2018. It is from the ori-
ginal research prepared and presented by the conveners during that workshop
that the present volume resulted. For this reason, I am pleased to thank here
the esteemed colleagues and dear friends who participated in that encounter.
They include a few who, for different reasons, did not take part in this multi-
authored book, but whose research on Sufi diagrams is moving forward suc-
cessfully, and whose published or forthcoming results are very important to
build the scholarship on this topic. They are Elizabeth R. Alexandrin, Noah
Gardiner, Side Emre, Ali Karjoo-Ravary, Evyn Kropf, Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Eliza
Tasbihi, and Sophie Tyser. During the workshop, I had the opportunity to take
advantage of the great synergy amongst the colleagues who were present at the
AvH Kolleg in that period, contributing to the success of the event. In addition
to the director, Prof. Judith Pfeiffer, they are Carlos Berbil Ceballos, Maxime
Durocher, Josephine Gehlhar, Mohammad Gharaibeh, Şevket Küçükhüseyin,
and Oguzhan Mentes. In those days, it was also a pleasure to receive the sup-
port of my esteemed colleague and friend, Luca Patrizi. I would also like to
thank another esteemed colleague and office mate whom I had the great pleas-
ure to meet at AvH Kolleg, Osman Demir, for his advice and help at a particular
stage in the preparation of this publication. My research on the theme of Visual
Sufism, and in particular on the works of Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī, contin-
ued while I was a visiting research fellow at the Centro studi sul mondo islamico
(Center for the Study of the Islamic World) at the University of Naples L’Ori-
entale, thanks to a project sponsored by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, entitled
“Shīrīn Maghribī: A Key Agent in the Transmission of Mystical Knowledge in
14th to 17th Century Sufi Networks” (az 40/F/18). The Gerda Henkel Founda-
tion also generously contributed to cover part of the expenses associated with
the publication of this book. Special thanks go to the library institutions that
preserve the manuscripts containing the images discussed in this volume and
to their staffs for kindly providing us with the photographic illustrations repro-

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viii acknowledgements

duced herein and especially for their dedication in caring for these fragile, pre-
cious and unique historical documents. I thank the art director Mariano Fazzi
for his help in preparing the drawings in plates 1.1–7, and Angela Pitassi and
Anne Roberts who have patiently read and copy-edited selected parts of the
manuscript of this book. My special thoughts go to my loved ones who have
never failed to support me far beyond the long and laborious preparation of
this book.

Giovanni Maria Martini

Lucca, 18 February 2022

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Plates

1.1 Celestial-spheres diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80,
fol. 11b; BnF 2658, fol. 13b; BnF 2657, fol. 9a) 19
1.2 Alif-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 29b; BnF 2657,
fol. 26b. The leaf of BnF 2658 on which this figure should be is missing) 22
1.3 Rāʾ-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 43b; BnF 2658,
fol. 52b; BnF 2657, fol. 39b) 31
1.4 Ṭāʾ-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 56b; BnF 2658,
fol. 75a; BnF 2657, fol. 52b) 36
1.5 Hāʾ-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 41a; BnF 2658,
fol. 48b; BnF 2657, fol. 37b) 38
1.6 Shīn-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 60b;
BnF 2658, fol. 82a; BnF 2657, fol. 57a) 40
1.7 ʿAyn-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 61b; BnF 2658,
fol. 84a; BnF 2657, fol. 58b) 44
2.1 [Ship]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1846,
fol. 91b) 56
2.2 Table ( jadwal) of the Natural Properties of the Letters (ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥurūf ) [of the
Arabic Alphabet]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1847, fol. 60a) 57
2.3 The Form of the Shape of the Species (al-ajnās) and Types (al-anwāʿ) without
Intending to Encompass them All, for Even the Types have their own Types
until They Reach Another Type, just as They End in the Species of All Species.
Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1848,
fol. 47b) 58
2.4 The Issue of Circularity (dawriyya), and This Is Its Image. Ibn al-ʿArabī,
al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1848, fol. 55b) 59
2.5 [The Path (al-ṣirāṭ)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1848, fol. 155b) 60
2.6 [Circle of the Prophets (al-nabiyyūn), the Truthful (al-ṣiddīqūn), the Witnesses
(al-shuhadāʾ), and the Righteous (al-ṣāliḥūn)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1855, fol. 110b) 61
2.7 [Grid Containing Eighty-Three of the Most Beautiful Names of God—First
Part]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1859,
fol. 81a) 62
2.8 [Grid Containing Eighty-Three of the Most Beautiful Names of God—Second
Part]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1859,
fol. 81b) 63

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2.9 The Horn. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1860, fol. 76b) 64
2.10 [Unfurled Scroll]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1860, fol. 148a) 65
2.11 Outward of the Divine He-ness and Its Inward (ẓāhir al-huwiyya al-ilāhiyya wa-
bāṭinu-hā). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1861, fol. 58a) 66
2.12 The Rope and The Bucket. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1861, fol. 96a) 67
2.13 [“Two bows or closer” (Q. 53:9)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul,
Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1862, fol. 126a) 68
2.14 [Ascents and Descents of Paradise and Hell]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1864, fol. 73b) 69
2.15 Possibility. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1868, fol. 87a) 70
2.16 Perfect Human Being (insān kāmil). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1868, fol. 95b) 71
2.17 [Real (ḥaqq), Separation ( faṣl), and Creation (khalq)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1868, fol. 111a) 72
2.18 [The Two Paths (al-najdayn)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul,
Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 83b) 73
2.19 The Cloud and What It Contains Until the Throne of the Sitting. Ibn al-ʿArabī,
al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 90a) 74
2.20 The Throne of Sitting, the Footstool, the Two Feet, the Water upon Which Is the
Throne, the Air Which Upholds the Water, and the Darkness (right)—The
Sphere of Black Satin (al-Aṭlas), the Gardens, the Roof of the Starry Sphere, and
the Tree of Ṭūbā (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 90b–91a) 75
2.21 The Starry Sphere, the Domes of the Heavens and What They Settled Upon: The
Earth, the Three Pillars, the Support Through Which God Upholds the Dome,
Minerals, Plants, Animals, and Humans (right)—The Earth of Mustering and
the Entities and Levels It Contains, the Throne of Division and Decree and Its
Bearers, and the Rows of Angels (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 91b–92a) 76
2.22 Hell, Its Gates, Its Waystations and Its Descents (right)—The Presence of the
Divine Names, the World, the Hereafter, and the Isthmus (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī,
al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 92b–93a) 77
2.23 The Dune of Vision and of the Hierarchy of Creation within It (right)—The
Entirety of the Cosmos and the Ordering of Its Layers, of Spirit and Body, and of
High and Low (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 93b–94a) 78

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plates xi

2.24 The Distant [House] (ṣūrat al-Ḍurāḥ). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 111a) 79
2.25 The Love of Generosity (ḥubb al-kirāma), the Love of the Slave (ḥubb al-ʿabd),
and the Love of Solicitude (ḥubb al-ʿināya). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1874, fol. 60a) 80
3.1 [The Two Paths (al-najdayn)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul,
Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 83b) 128
3.2 Form (ṣūra) of the Cloud and What It Contains Until the Throne of the Session.
Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870,
fol. 90a) 138
3.3 Form of the Throne of the Session, the Footstool, the Two Feet, the Water upon
Which Is the Throne, the Air Which Sustains Water, and the Darkness (right)—
Form of the Ultimate Sphere, the Paradisiacal Abodes, the Surface of the
Sphere of the Fixed Stars, and the Tree of Ṭūbā (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 90b–91a) 141
3.4 Form of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, the Domes of the Heavens and on What
Rests upon Them: The Earth, the Three Elements, the Pillar by Which God
Sustains the Dome, the Mineral Realm, the Vegetal Realm, the Animal Realm,
and Man (right)—Form of the Land of Gathering and the Entities and Degrees
It Contains, the Throne of Separation and Judgement and Its Bearers, and of
the Rows of Angels (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 91b–92a) 143
3.5 Form of Hell, Its Doors, Its Abodes and Its Descending Levels (right)—Form of
the Presence of the Divine Names, the Lowest World, the Hereafter, and the
Intermediary World (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 92b–93a) 148
3.6 Form of the Dune of the Vision and of the Degrees of Creation within It
(right)—Form of the Entire World and of the Hierarchy of Its Spiritual and
Corporal, High and Low Layers (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 93b–94a) 149
4.1 Front-piece and title page. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Bursa,
İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, ms Orhan 638) 156
4.2 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb
al-Maḥbūb (Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, ms Ar. 4159, fol. 14a) 168
4.3 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-
Maḥbūb (Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, ms Orhan 638,
fol. 12a) 169
4.4 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-
Maḥbūb (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, ms Nuruosmaniye 2577,
fol. 10b–11a) 170

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xii plates

4.5 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (portion). Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh,
Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, ms Yeni Cami 726, fol. 27a;
photo by Elizabeth R. Alexandrin) 171
4.6 Qurʾānic ‘constellations’ as a set of points (nuqaṭ). Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Fawāʾiḥ
al-jamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-jalāl (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, ms Şehit Ali Paşa
2800, fol. 15b) 172
4.7 The Fourth Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb
al-Maḥbūb (Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, ms Ar. 4159, fols. 96b–97a) 181
4.8 The Fourth Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-
Maḥbūb (Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, ms Orhan 638,
fols. 118b–119a) 182
5.1 Text framed with letters (twenty-eight Arabic and four Persian letters). Faḍl
Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72,
fol. 108a) 198
5.2 Small circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 140a) 199
5.3 Text inscribed in a circle. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 143a) 200
5.4 Small circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 165b) 203
5.5 Small circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 167b) 204
5.6 Circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 188b) 206
5.7 Big circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 239b) 208
5.8 Complex circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel,
Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 327b) 210
5.9 Circular diagram. Anonymous Ḥurūfī manuscript titled Ḍavābiṭ-i Jāvidān (ms
Basel, Basel University Library M vi 65, fol. 10a) 212
5.10 Circular diagram consisting of fifteen concentric circles. Anonymous Ḥurūfī
manuscript titled Kitāb Maḥabbat Allāh (ms Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, Pers. 140, fol. 73a) 214
5.11 Rectangular diagram. Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī, Kitāb-i Mīzān (ms Tehran, Malek
National Library and Museum Institution 6226, fol. 3b) 215
5.12 Unfinished draft of the “maternal” lines of the human face. Faḍl Allāh
Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72,
fol. 134b) 219
5.13 Human figure as composed of letters and inscriptions. Dervish Murtaḍā, Durr-i
Yatīm (Ottoman Turkish adaptation of the Jāvidān-nāma) (ms Princeton,

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plates xiii

Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special

Collections, Manuscripts Collection, Islamic Manuscripts, Third Series no. 254,
fol. 327a) 220
5.14 Human face as composed of inscriptions (Algar, “Horufism,” Encyclopaedia
Iranica, fig. 1, from Besim Atalay, Bektaşilik ve Edebiyatı, facing p. 36. Compare
with Malik Aksel, Türklerde Dinî Resimler, fig. 66, p. 113) 222
5.15 Human face as composed of inscriptions (Private collection. Compare with
Malik Aksel, Türklerde Dinî Resimler, p. 92) 224
5.16 Human figure as composed of inscriptions (Private collection. Compare with
Malik Aksel, Türklerde Dinî Resimler, p. 93) 225
5.17 Human figure as composed of letters and inscriptions (Malik Aksel, Türklerde
Dinî Resimler, p. 98) 226
5.18 Human figure as composed of letters and inscriptions (Malik Aksel, Türklerde
Dinî Resimler, p. 114) 227
6.1 Diagram of the Circles about the Corporeal and Spiritual Realms. ʿAbd al-
Raḥīm Bazzāzī, Risālat al-Dawāʾir fī al-mulk wa-l-malakūt (ms Istanbul,
Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Pertev Paşa 606, fol. 134a) 246
6.2 Circular Diagram (dāʾira) Concerning [the Relationship between] Unity
(Aḥadiyyat), Oneness (Vaḥdat) and Unicity (Vāḥidiyyat). Shīrīn Maghribī, Jām-i
jahān-namā (ms Manisa, İl Halk Kütüphanesi, 45 Hk 2936, fol. 3a., dated
864/1459) 252
6.3 [Circular Diagram (dāʾira) Concerning [the Relationship between] Unity
(Aḥadiyyat), Oneness (Vaḥdat) and Unicity (Vāḥidiyyat)]. Sayyid Shāh Gul
Ḥasan Qalandar, Mirʾāt al-waḥda, al-maʿrūf ba Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (completed
in 1877) (ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Shaṭṭār Ṭāhir, Shabīr Brādarz, Lahore 2003,
p. 471) 253
6.4 Circular diagram of the Unity of the Essence (Dāʾira-yi aḥadiyyat-i dhāt). Sayyid
Shāh Gul Ḥasan Qalandar, Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (completed in 1877) (ed. Mīnār
Buk, Hyderabad, s.d.) 255
6.5 Circular diagram of the Unity of the Essence (Dāʾira-yi aḥadiyyat-i dhāt). Sayyid
Shāh Gul Ḥasan Qalandar, Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (completed in 1877) (ed.
Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Shaṭṭār Ṭāhir, Shabīr Brādarz, Lahore 2003, p. 305) 256
7.1 Colophon, marginal annotations, strike-through, annotated paste-overs, etc.
visible at the close of the autograph exemplar of al-Mīzān al-kubrā (al-Mīzān
al-Shaʿrāniyya in title piece). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul,
Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, copied in Egypt in 966/1559,
fol. 190b) 268
7.2 Comparison of pictograms in the recognized autograph ms Istanbul,
Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fols. 25b–26a (above) and ms
Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Laleli 1228, fols. 32b–33a (below), a copy

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xiv plates

taken either directly from the autograph or from a careful intermediary.

al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā. 269
7.3 Pictograms from al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā appropriated for an Ottoman
prayer compendium (ms Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, or. oct. 1602, dated
1119–1121/1707–1709, fols. 38b–39a) 270
7.4 Pictogram of the Presence of Revelation (ḥaḍrat al-waḥy), branching off it or
from it all legal judgments. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul,
Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, copied in Egypt in 966/1559,
autograph, fols. 22b–23a) 276
7.5 Pictogram of the Tree (right) facing Pictogram of the Spring and Watercourses /
Circle (upper left) and Pictogram of the Net (lower left). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān
al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, copied in
Egypt in 966/1559, autograph, fols. 23b–24a) 278
7.6 Pictogram of the Spring and Watercourses / Circle and Pictogram of the Net. al-
Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Aşir Efendi
124, Egypt? 1023/1614, fol. 32a) 279
7.7 Pictogram of the Sea (upper right) and Pictogram of the Accounting / Weighing
(lower right) facing the Pictogram of the Bridge (left). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-
kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, Egypt
966/1559, autograph, fols. 24b–25a) 281
7.8 Pictogram of the Sea (upper right) and Pictogram of the Accounting / Weighing
(lower right) facing the Pictogram of the Bridge (left). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-
kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Atıf Efendi 1076, Egypt?
1055/1646, fols. 43b–44a) 282
7.9 Pictogram of the Gate (right) facing Pictogram of the Domed shrines by the
River of Life (left) in autograph exemplar. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms
Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, Egypt 966/1559,
fols. 25b–26a) 284
7.10 Pictogram of the Gate (right) facing Pictogram of the Domed shrines by the
River of Life (left), each incorporating Qurʾanic verses. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-
kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 995, Egypt?
1034/1625 fols. 36b–37a) 285
7.11 Pictogram from a manuscript witness of al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya. al-Shaʿrānī, al-
Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya (ms Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Vollers 850, i,
copied 12th/18th century, fols. 26b–27a) 292

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Notes on Contributors

Elizabeth R. Alexandrin
is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religion, and
Senior Fellow at St. John’s College, University of Manitoba (Canada). She holds
a Ph.D. from the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University (2006). Her first
monograph is Walāyah in the Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī Tradition, State University of New
York Press (2017). Supported by sshrc funding (Canada), she is co-editing a
critical edition of Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh’s Kitāb al-Maḥbūb, with Paul Ballanfat,
Galatasaray University, to be published by E.J. Brill. Her current book project
focuses on dreaming and sleeping in 13–14th-century Muslim societies, with a
particular focus on Kubrawī Sufi texts and treatises, and with relevance to body
histories.

Noah Gardiner
is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Caro-
lina. His research is on Sufism, cosmology, the occult sciences, and manuscript
culture in the late-medieval Arabic speaking Mediterranean, especially with
regard to the science of letters and names (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ), a.k.a.
“lettrism.” He is currently working on two monographs, one on the Sufi arch-
lettrist Aḥmad al-Būnī and the other on the Cairo-centered occult renaissance
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries c.e. that reshaped Islamicate thought
and culture for centuries after. He is also co-founder of the international work-
shop “Islamic Occult Studies on the Rise,” which helps cultivate emerging schol-
arship on the Islamicate occult sciences and related topics.

Ali Karjoo-Ravary
is the Richard W. Bulliet Assistant Professor of Islamic History at Columbia Uni-
versity. His work lies broadly at the intersection of intellectual, social, and visual
histories of premodern Islam. His publications have been featured in multiple
venues, including the Journal of Sufi Studies and mavcor Journal. His current
book project looks at Sufism, kingship, and poetry in the late medieval Per-
sianate world. Before joining Columbia, he was the Josephine Hildreth Detmer
and Zareen Taj Mirza Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Bucknell Uni-
versity. He completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and has been
a fellow at the Bard Graduate Center and the Wolf Humanities Center.

Evyn Kropf
MSc (2009) is Librarian for Middle Eastern and North African Studies & Reli-
gious Studies and Curator of the Islamic Manuscripts Collection at the Uni-

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xvi notes on contributors

versity of Michigan Library. As a specialist of Islamic codicology and Arabic

manuscript culture, she has published several contributions including “Recall-
ing Alikurna: “‫ ”ليكور يا‬Countermarked Paper among Scribes in the Late 19th
Century Ottoman Levant” in Anne Regourd (ed.), The Trade in Papers Marked
with Non-Latin Characters: Documents and History (Brill 2018).

Giovanni Maria Martini

PhD (2014) is a Research Fellow at the University of Naples L’Orientale and a
member of the erc Project The European Qur’an (EuQu). From 2015 to 2018
he was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford and at the Alexander
von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate Intellectual History at the University of
Bonn. In 2019 he was awarded a two-year individual research grant by the Gerda
Henkel Foundation. His primary areas of interest are the history of Sufism, the
history of the occult sciences in the Islamicate world, and Qurʾanic Studies.
His publications include the book ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī between Spiritual
Authority and Political Power (Brill 2018).

Orkhan Mir-Kasimov
is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Previ-
ously, he lectured at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and the National
Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (inalco) in Paris and
worked at various research centres in France and Germany, including the Insti-
tute for Advanced Study of Nantes and the Free University of Berlin. He was
the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship in 2009 and
2010. Since 2020, he is the series editor of the Ismaili Texts and Translations
Series published by the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He has pub-
lished many journal articles and book chapters on various aspects of Islamic
mysticism and messianism, focusing on the late medieval and early modern
periods. He has edited and co-edited several volumes and authored Words of
Power: Hurufi Teachings between Shiʿism and Sufism in Medieval Islam (2015)
and Christian Apocalyptic Texts in Islamic Messianic Discourse (2017).

Sophie Tyser
is a PhD candidate in Islamic Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études
(ephe) in Paris. She received a ma in Arabic language and literature from the
Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (inalco), as well as a
ma in Historical, philological and religious sciences of the ephe. She was pre-
viously a doctoral fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate
Intellectual History of the University of Bonn. Her research interests include
classical Islamic thought and Sufism, with a particular focus on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s
work.

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Introduction
Giovanni Maria Martini

This volume gathers a number of studies on a theme as vast and complex as it is

little studied, or rather not studied in an organic and comprehensive way. This
is the use of graphic representations, in most cases in the form of diagrams,
within Sufi literature.1 ‘Visual Sufism’—the neologism I have chosen to indic-
ate this phenomenon—is a broad and multifaceted topic, which lends itself
to being addressed from various points of view and suggests a multidisciplin-
ary approach.2 The material form possessed by the diagrams and figures under
analysis, subject to innumerable variants within the manuscript and printed
tradition of the texts, traced within works that are largely still unpublished, is
a matter of Codicology, Philology, and Art History, particularly of the Art of the
Book. The meaning and the employment of those same figures, on the other
hand, fall under various headings in the Intellectual History and History of
Ideas, and in the History of Religions and Philosophy, as well as in apparently
very different disciplines such as Cognitive Sciences. This collective volume,
which is the final result of a workshop entitled “Visualizing Sufism 1200–1600,”
held in May 2018 at the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate Intel-
lectual History at the University of Bonn, offers an attempt to study the visual
materials contained in Sufi literature as a significant object of scholarly invest-
igation and to do so from a broad perspective. This approach includes looking
at the meanings of these figures according to each single author and at the use

1 On this subject there exist some isolated studies that take into consideration in a more or less
direct way one or another representation, or group of representations, contained in a given
text of Sufism, or used by a single author, but there is no organic study that has as its main
object such graphic elements. To my knowledge the only general survey of graphic repres-
entations in Sufism, which is introductory in nature and a useful starting point, is an article
by Ahmet T. Karamustafa titled “Cosmographical Diagrams,” in The History of Cartography,
Volume 2, Book 1: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, eds. James
B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 71–
89. For studies on the use of graphic representations in Sufism, or on related topics, see the
Selected Bibliography at the end of this introduction and the bibliographies in the various
chapters of this volume.
2 In coining this neologism I was inspired by the title of the book by the Hebraist Giulio Busi,
Qabbalah visiva (Turin: Einaudi, 2005) in which the scholar examined graphic materials of
a similar character in the Jewish mystical tradition. ‘Visual Sufism’ is, like any definition, an
imperfect and limited term, but at the same time it has the great virtue of being simple and
synthetic, therefore convenient and useful for the purpose of communication.

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2 martini

and diffusion of visual elements in Sufi texts as being a complex socio-cultural,

structured phenomenon resulting from and reflecting changes and evolution
in the historical context. This trend is also investigated as being the result of the
circulation of ideas in specific scholarly networks, and not as the semi-casual
result of the contingent needs and individual reflections of the single authors.
At the same time, the volume emerges as the largest corpus of research on (and
samples of) visual materials selected from a vast amount of primary Sufi texts,
many of which are unpublished, therefore otherwise not easily available to the
reader. The hope is that the critical mass of visual and written documentation,
as well as the reflections on the topic of visualization in Sufi literature elabor-
ated from different angles by a number of scholars, can make of this volume
a sound basis upon which further research in the same field, or in neighbor-
ing ones, can move forward. Another of the objectives of this collective work is
to contribute to dispelling some preconceptions that still survive, for example
about the alleged absence of graphic elements in Sufi literature and, more gen-
erally, about the disinterest or even insusceptibility of mystical experience to
any form of representation.3 The presence of visual components is already
observed in an early Sufi treatise composed between the 9th and the 10th cen-
turies such as the Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn of al-Ḥallāj (Nwya 1972) and the works of
Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī in the twelfth (Alexandrin 2012).4 The trend inaugur-
ated by these isolated cases will then become more and more common from the
thirteenth century onward. Such a new trend is well represented by the several
Sufi scholars addressed in this volume, who employed diagrams in numerous
works, some of which achieved great and widespread fame and were extremely
influential. It is also useful to bear in mind that the authors analyzed in these
pages constitute only a sample and by no means do they exhaust the list of Sufi
thinkers who used depictions in their works between the thirteenth and six-
teenth centuries. Having recourse to diagrams is also observed in Sufi literature
produced in a later period, for example in India, within the intellectual milieux
of brotherhoods such as the Shaṭṭāriyya, Khalwatiyya, Qādiriyya, Chishtiyya
and Naqshbandiyya amongst others (see e.g. Behl 2012, 236–246; Hermansen
1988 and 1992; Speziale 2007; Giordani 2012; Ventura 2019; Fārūqī 1957), not to

3 See for example the following remarks: “The literature of Islamic mysticism, vast in size and
scope, is on the whole devoid of graphic elements. Given the unsusceptibility of mystical
experience to any form of ‘representation,’ such a reluctance by mystics to translate inner
experiences onto the plane of visual expression is hardly surprising.” in Karamustafa, “Cos-
mographical Diagrams,” 83.
4 Other cases exist besides those of al-Ḥallāj and al-Daylamī. Some diagrams for example are
present in al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (al-Ghazālī 1388, 351, 1112 and 1113).

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introduction 3

mention the role played by graphic elements in the West, for example in the
Bektashiyya (cf. Mir-Kasimov, Chapter 5; De Jong 1989).
This brief introduction is not the appropriate place to go into detail as to
this question, which deserves to be properly addressed, yet it is at least import-
ant to mention that the visual expression (of which the figures presented in
this volume are just but one mode of manifestation) is indeed one of the most
important mystical dimensions of Islam. Here, it is mostly a matter of defining
what a visual expression is, but even at first glance it appears clear that mystical
discourse in Islam, as in other contexts, was and still is filled with and partially
constituted by visual elements. The fact that these visual elements are often
presented and described in written accounts and not physically drawn should
not be misleading with regard to the important role visualization plays in the
mystical experience. These elements include (but are not limited to) the sym-
bolism of light, the tremendous role played in Sufi thought by concepts such as
ʿālam al-khayāl and ʿālam al-mithāl,5 the role of visions and dreams as favored
means of spiritual communication and learning in the mystical experience,
not to mention the important part played by the science of letters and literal
symbolism in Sufi thought and in the Islamicate occult and esoteric culture in
general. What are, in fact, letters, in the end, if not figures? We are reminded of
this concept in many lettrist speculations by numerous authors, since there are
basically two directions that speculation on letters can take in the Islamicate
intellectual discourse in addition to their original phonic value: one is numer-
ological (since each letter of the Arabic alphabet has a numerical value), and
the second is visual (based on the shapes of the various letters); moreover, these
aspects are sometimes intertwined in the authors’ speculations (cf. Gardiner,
Chapter 1; Alexandrin, Chapter 4; Mir-Kasimov, Chapter 5). Viewed from such
a perspective, even the separation from ‘written’ and ‘drawn’ becomes ambigu-
ous, as a text composed of words and letters might also appear and could be
identified in a drawing, which is an image and a visual expression. Islamic civil-
ization has well demonstrated, through some of the most peculiar outcomes of
its artistic developments, especially calligraphy, how easy it is to cross the bor-
der separating writing from drawing.
The subject matter of this publication cannot exempt me from at least men-
tioning, obvoiusly without any claim to exhaustiveness, the question of how the
graphic materials contained in Sufi literature relate to the history of Islamic art
of the book. Although, in this edited volume, the discussion of images in Sufi
texts is approached especially from the point of view of Intellectual History
and the History of Ideas, in it are also included insights and considerations

5 Rendered by Henry Corbin as “Imaginal World” and “Subsistent Images” (Corbin 1997).

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4 martini

related to the Art of the Islamic Book, and certainly with regard to the History
of the Islamic Manuscript Tradition. This is especially true of Kropf’s contribu-
tion (Chapter 7), fostered by her expertise and specific interests in the fields of
codicology and preservation, but a focus on the material and artistic aspects
of manuscripts, the use of color, and the layout and distribution of figures is
also encountered in other chapters (e.g. in chapters 2 and 3). The theoretical
considerations of some of the examined authors on the role and function of
images in texts can also be of specific interest to art historians. Following the
classification of the elements that contribute altogether to constitute the Art
of the Book suggested by Oleg Grabar (Gruber 2010, Foreword), the graphic
materials contained in Sufi works fall into the broad category of illustrations
(taṣwīr).6 In the majority of cases they are geometrical illustrations. These
characteristics make most of the images in Sufi literature somewhat akin or
similar to those contained in scientific texts—such as mathematics, geometry,
mechanics, astronomy and geography7—rather than to the figurative repres-
entations found in other kinds of works, especially literary ones. Even this
simple observation is worthy of interest, for it connects to the idea that Sufism
was considered, and intended to be considered by its adherents, as a “science”
(ʿilm) in dialogue with other sciences (particularly philosophy, alchemy, theo-
logy, cosmology), albeit a science of a peculiar and personal character in that
it was allusive (ishārī), inspirational (ilhāmī), and intuitive (kashfī); and that
the development of the use of visual elements in Sufi literature was therefore,
at least to some extent, a component of the broader process of legitimiza-
tion and adoption of an organized scientific-philosophical language by Sufi
thinkers (see infra). From this point of view, the present volume is, therefore,
also a sort of complement, necessarily partial, to the studies and repertories
that specialists have been dedicating to painting in Arabic and, more gener-
ally, Islamic scientific manuscripts. Having made this general observation on
the characteristics of the majority of the illustrations encountered in Sufi lit-
erature, it is nevertheless important to mention that beginning from a certain
period—difficult to establish with certainty at the present time—in some Sufi
circles, both Western (Bektashiyya in Ottoman territories) and Eastern (Shaṭ-
ṭātiyya, Qādiriyya and other brotherhoods in India), we witness a fascinating
phenomenon of anthropomorphization of the graphic materials encountered

6 Indeed this term in conjunction with the related word ṣūra (pl. ṣuwar), is explicitly used by
most Sufi authors who use diagrams. Cf. infra in this volume.
7 It is no coincidence that Karamustafa’s pioneering survey of diagrams in Sufism was titled
Cosmographical Diagrams and that it was commissioned for a history of cartography (Kara-
mustafa 1992).

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introduction 5

in the texts (see Mir-Kasimov, Chapter 5 and Martini, Chapter 6; see also De
Jong 1989, Ernst 1999, Speziale 2007 and in general the bibliographies of the
two aforementioned chapters). In this particular sub-genre of representations
of Visual Sufism, the early and dominant abstract geometric type is diluted by
assuming a figurative character, giving rise to a wide spectrum of solutions:
cases in which geometry and figuration coexist in balance, others in which
figuration takes over. This phenomenon has interesting implications not only
from the point of view of the History of Islamic Art, but also from that of
Islamicate intellectual History, since the object of this process of anthropo-
morphization, in many cases, are aspects of the divinity (Aḥadiyya, Wāḥidiyya,
Ḥaqīqa Muḥammadiyya, etc.) and their interrelation (cf. Chapter 6) or, again,
some divine names. We are therefore confronted, at least to a certain extent,
with anthropomorphic representations of God in Islamic context, which put
us in front of an exceptional outcome, both from an artistic and intellectual
point of view, which does not seem to be found so explicitly in other forms of
Islamic art, and which deserves to be further investigated. Still, with regard to
the same subject, it is useful to observe the important role of mediation and
bridging played in this process by calligraphic art.8 Often it is, in fact, through
the elaboration of the shapes of the letters of the Arabic alphabet that the
process of anthropomorphization, zoomorphization and, more generally, the
transition from abstract-geometric representation to figurative representation
takes place.9 The illustrations—both diagrammatic and non-diagrammatic—

8 Cf. Schimmel 1990, esp. p. 110 ff. and p. 133ff. Schimmel writes that “the tendency to equate
human figures with letters developed logically out of the art of calligraphy” (p. 110). This state-
ment is certainly correct for the Islamic period, which we are interested in here. But wishing
to speculate, accepting the well-known hypothesis that at the historical origin of the shapes
of the letters of the Proto-Sinaitic script, from which the alphabets of the Semitic languages,
including Arabic (as well as Greek, via Phoenician), would be derived, there were simplified
forms of some Egyptian hieroglyphs, we could conceive the transition from letters to figures
that we witness in Islamic art and culture as an ideal closing of the circle with respect to the
very origins of alphabetic writing: from figures to letters; from letters to figures.
9 The intermediation of calligraphy in the process of transforming abstract geometrical forms
into human figures is not only done through the pure graphic medium, but also through a fur-
ther intermediary, naturally suited to connect letters (written text) and figures, namely poetry.
I refer to the very extensive use that poets of the “Islamic languages” have made of the letter
forms of the Arabic alphabet to describe in particular the physical features of the beloved.
For as Safadī writes “as for comparing human limbs with letters, the poets have done that fre-
quently” (quoted in Schimmel 1990, 134). For a rich selection of very interesting specimens of
this kind of poetry, in various languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, etc.), see again Schimmel
1990, especially Chapters iii and iv. Very pleasing is the picture of the ideal beloved of Per-
sian poets as made up from letters elaborated, if I do not misinterpret, by Schimmel herself
(p. 142).

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6 martini

contained in Sufi literature, thanks to the very close relationship that binds
them to the written text, as all the studies collected in this volume clearly show,
confirm that “text and images must be seen as complementary expressions of
a highly specific, even personalized, conception,”10 and that it is oversimplify-
ing, if not downright misleading, to study the images contained in a book in
isolation from the text, as instead was the case for a long time in studies of
Islamic art (cf. Contadini 2007, 3–16). This statement, in fact, turns out to be
particularly true for Visual Sufism, insofar as the latter presents a peculiar char-
acteristic that is not encountered so widely and systematically in other genres
of Islamic illustrated texts: namely the fact that in the majority of cases the
original author of the illustrations is the very same author of the text (this is
confirmed for many of the authors studied in this volume, including al-Būnī,
Ḥamūyeh, Maghribī, the latter’s disciples, Shaʿrānī; but see above all the striking
case of the holographic manuscripts of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
discussed in Chapters 2 and 3).11 Among the many considerations to which
the illustrations of Sufi manuscripts lend themselves from the point of view
of Islamic art of the book, I would like to mention here, en passant, an aspect
that, as far as I am aware, has not yet been the subject of specific study. This
is the fact that some evidence suggests that these illustrated works, origin-
ally conceived by their authors without any explicitly decorative and aesthetic
aim, but rather with pragmatic and explanatory intent, in close relation with
the doctrinal content of the written text, in some cases and with the passing
of time become instead perceived, and were copied and enjoyed specifically
for their peculiar aesthetic aspect, that is, the presence of figures, suggest-
ing how blurred the border between artistic and intellectual appreciation of
a text is. In order to illustrate this point, I will mention the fortune of the prose
works of the Sufi scholar and poet Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī (d. 810/1408),
which possess the peculiar characteristic of all being illustrated by diagrams,
relying on the survey I conducted on several dozens of manuscript copies of
them in order to prepare a critical edition. Some interesting exemplars from
this census emerged from an artistic point of view, which I can only mention
here, and which I hope to present more fully elsewhere.12 For example, a copy
of Maghribī’s most famous work, the Jām-i jahān-namā (“The World-Showing
Cup”), is found added as an appendix to a monumental codex of more than

10 Contadini 2007, 9.
11 This, too, is an aspect of the phenomenon of Visual Sufism that would merit further study,
perhaps through the collaboration of an art historian and a historian of Sufism.
12 For further information on this author and his works refer to Martini, Chapter 6.

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introduction 7

eight hundred folios, containing dozens of works, mostly of Persian mystical

poetry (beginning with Rūmī’s Mathnawī), richly illuminated and decorated in
the first part, transcribed by a professional copyist, and certainly belonged to
a member of the aristocracy.13 Maghribī’s work, by a different hand than the
rest of the collection, added at the end of the codex, is nevertheless carefully
noted in the beautiful index, richly decorated and illuminated, organized in
forty-eight medallions, which occupies two full pages of the manuscript. From
where did the interest in this very brief writing of a few pages and the desire
to add it to this precious codex come? I believe that the presence of diagrams,
rendering it an unusual text, could have played a certain role in the choice of
the editor. Other cases, after all, seem to suggest that the presence of diagrams
ignited the interest of professional copyists and wealthy patrons. Of the Jām-
i jahān-namā and other Maghribī’s works, I signal other aesthetically valuable
copies inserted in a large unitary codex, artistically coherent, transcribed, it
would seem, by a single copyist, containing almost exclusively works related
to Sufism, about forty in number, in prose and poetry.14 The copy of the Jām-i
jahān-namā reflects the general style of the majmūʿa: an illuminated and decor-
ated title, a refined mise-en-page, its text enclosed in a gilded frame on all pages
and, even more significant for the present discussion, gold used to draw the
diagrams. A third case, which aroused my curiosity, consists of a manuscript in
which another fine and precious copy of the Jām-i jahān-namā, with key texts
written in gold and diagrams very carefully and skillfully drawn in golden, red,
and black ink, is bound together with what apparently appears to be a Mon-
golian syllabary (risāla-yi khaṭṭ-i mughūlī).15 What could have been the reason
for bringing together these two texts totally unrelated to each other in terms
of content? The aesthetic aspect of both—the syllabary with its peculiar lay-
out, gilded titles, original text in a foreign alphabet in black ink, and interlinear
phonetic transcription in Arabic script in red; the fine copy of Maghribī’s work
just described—may have been decisive in my opinion. Another example is a

13 ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Ayasofya 4792. Some colophons are dated from
813–816 (1410–1414), the copy of the Jām-i jahān-namā, however, is by another hand and is
not dated, and is probably a few years later. The copyist of the entire majmūʿa, excluding
the work of Maghribī, the last one, appears to be a single person. He signs himself Asʿad b.
Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Kātib (fols. 545, 596a, 801a), and informs his reader that the copy
was executed in Shiraz (fol. 801).
14 ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Halet Efendi 800. The entire codex would appear
to have been transcribed by the same copyist between 1042 and 1044 (1632–1635). This
manuscript, as well as all the others reported in these brief notes, needs to be examined
accurately.
15 ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Lala İsmail 138. The copy of the Jām-i jahān-namā
is dated to the end of 869 (1465).

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precious copy of another one of Maghribī’s prose works which is also accom-
panied by diagrams. As in the case of the Jām-i jahān-namā, this is a short text,
which is given here maximum prominence by presenting it individually, in a
graceful, small-format manuscript.16 In this case, too, the artisans of the book
made extensive use of gold: in a florilegium in combination with blue ink in
the ʿunwān, in the frames of all the pages, but above all in the highly accurate
design of the diagrams. The result (and concept behind it) is a little solitaire:
the conciseness of the work, enriched with illustrations, made it suitable for
this purpose. Examples of this type are abundant. I end this brief inventory by
citing an important document for the transmission of Maghribī’s prose works,
the manuscript Oslo, Schøyen Collection 5350.17 The manuscript was copied by
a professional scribe, who signed himself (and made some transcription errors
due precisely to his lack of expertise regarding the technical subject matter
dealt with in the texts), and did so for a political personality, as is evident from
some of the verses he dedicated to his patron, as well as from the statement at
the beginning of the book.18 The artistic nature of the manuscript is made evid-
ent by the presence of fourteen diagrams. In this case too, the question arises
as to whether the patron for whom the manuscript was intended was inter-
ested exclusively in the doctrinal contents of works (a possibility that should
not be dismissed a priori, given the coherence of the texts contained in the
majmūʿa), or whether the presence of illustrations contributed, as I suggest, to
attract his interest. Certainly the peculiarities of the manuscript from the codic-
ological and artistic point of view have played a role in the contemporary age
in the choice of its current owner to acquire it for his important and valuable
collection;19 just as this same aesthetic aspect may have played a role in the pre-

16 ms Istanbul, Millet Yazmar Eser Kütüphanesi, Ali Emiri Arabi 1033, 23 fols., dated 891
(1486). The work in question is entitled al-Durr al-farīd fī maʿrifat marātib al-tawḥīd (“The
Unique Pearl about the Knowledge of the Degrees of God’s Oneness”). For some notes on
the same, see Chapter 6.
17 Some images of the same are visible on the website of the Schøyen Collection: https://​
www.schoyencollection.com/23‑religions/living‑religions/23‑‑13‑islam/sufism‑kabbalah/
muhammed‑shirin‑maghribi‑ms‑5350 (accessed 16/12/2021). For an analysis of the work of
Maghribī al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya contained in this manuscript, of some of the diagrams it
contains, and for further references to the codex, see Martini 20211. See also in this volume
Chapter 6.
18 The copyist signs ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Murād al-Ardabīlī (fol. 6a). On the first page it is stated
that the present manuscript was part of the library of Amīr Shujāʿ al-Dīn Ḥamza Beg.
The latter in the website of the Schøyen Collection is identified as the Amīr Shujāʿ al-Dīn
Ḥamza Beg, son of Ḥamza b. Qara ʿUthmān (see the webpage cited in the previous note),
but this identification needs to be ascertained.
19 One of the numerous cases that reminds us of the close relationship between collecting

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introduction 9

servation of the manuscript through the centuries, unintentionally favoring the

process of transmission of knowledge: the manuscript, in fact, preserves one of
the only two currently known copies of a work by Maghribī that had long been
thought to be lost; it is the only one of the two copies in which diagrams are
present, and it is also the older of the two, thus proving to be indispensable for
the knowledge of the work in question.20 I would also like to bring attention
here to another aspect of the phenomenon of Visual Sufism that might be of
interest to historians of Islamic art, as well as to the history of ideas. It is related
to the sensitive issue concerning aesthetic theory, or rather its alleged absence,
in Islamic context.21 This is precisely to signal the development of a more or less
embryonic aesthetic and cognitive philosophy relating to the perception and
fruition of images by some of the Sufi thinkers who composed illustrated texts,
of which there are some interesting examples in this volume as well, especially
in the chapters devoted to Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240), and to a lesser extent to
Maghribī (d. 810/1408) and al-Shaʿrānī (d. 973/1565), and which are also found
in other authors, among which it is worth mentioning the fourteenth-century
Persian Sufi thinker Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. after 785/1385), who, as a great user of
diagrams in his works, seems to explain, more fully than others, some of the
cognitive processes that underlie the use of images, justifying it also by virtue
of the innate propensity of the human soul towards sensible forms.22 Some-

and art history, and of their mutual interaction and influence, also with regard to Islamic
Art (cf. Contadini 2007, 3).
20 This is the work entitled al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya, on which see the references given in foot-
note 17.
21 Summarizing some main points of the scholarship on the subject, Contadini observed that
“there are a handful of historical texts that record the lives of various esteemed artists or
generically trace the development of a particular branch of Islamic painting […] and there
are also scattered statements about visual beauty in scientific and philosophical works,”
that “Islamic art history has had to be elaborated in the absence of an indigenous the-
ory,” that “there is no coherent body of work that treats of the nature, purpose or stylistic
parameters of artefacts,” and that “it remains the case that there is next to nothing that
clearly elucidates how or indeed if any presumed aesthetic values of the Muslim world
were theorised” (Contadini 2007, 3 ff.).
22 Relevant passages from Āmulī’s Qurʾanic commentary in which the author explains the
reasons for his use of diagrams are translated in Giovanni Maria Martini, “Note sul Sufismo
visivo: rappresentazioni grafiche a supporto della realizzazione spirituale nel Taṣawwuf,”
El Azufre Rojo 9 (2021): 69–94. Eliza Tasbihi presented a paper titled “Esoteric Delibera-
tions on Visionary Unveiling: Mystical Knowledge From Ḥaydar Āmulī’s Naṣṣ al-nuṣūṣ fī
sharḥ al-Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam,” discussing some of the diagrams contained in Āmulī’s comment-
ary of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Bezels of Wisdom, at the workshop “Visualizing Sufism 1200–1600.” On
this subject see Eliza Tasbihi, “Visionary Perceptions through Cosmographical Diagrams:
Mystical Knowledge from Ḥaydar Āmulī’s Naṣṣ al-nuṣūṣ fī sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam,” Journal
of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 69 (2021): 31–81.

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10 martini

what paradoxically, the markedly intellectual and conceptualizing perspective

of Sufi scholars regarding the use of figures in some of their texts could have
favored the theorizing processes over a purely artistic approach to images. In
any case, given the dearth of Islamic sources on these topics, the reflections one
encounters scattered here and there in the works of Sufism could be a useful
complement to the already known and widely discussed sources, and provide
new material for studies on aesthetics in the Muslim world.
As mentioned, the topic and the materials that fall within the scope of visual
Sufism are vast as well as ill-defined, due to the fact that the corpus of represent-
ations contained in Sufi works is mostly uncatalogued. This situation derives
from a number of reasons, in addition to the one, already mentioned, that
the representations contained in Sufi texts are to date a subject studied only
sporadically and in a fragmentary way. Among these is that Sufi literature is an
immense production, spanning more than a millennium of history across con-
tinents, from Africa to East Asia; that this vast literary production is written in
numerous languages; and that a large part of the texts involved are unpublished
and in manuscript form. These problems suggest that a survey and study that
can be said to be at least minimally exhaustive is unlikely to be carried out by a
single scholar, but rather requires the collaboration of a group of experts who
can take advantage of the various areas of expertise necessary to work in geo-
graphic, historical, linguistic and cultural areas so different from each other. For
these same reasons, the present volume, despite representing the most extens-
ive effort undertaken so far on the subject of Visual Sufism, cannot and should
not be considered either comprehensive nor conclusive, but rather a witness of
the potentialities inherent in the study of this subject, and as a spur for further
research in the same field.
Among the most significant questions awaiting to find precise answers, there
is certainly that of the genesis and chronology of this matter. In order to clarify
it, a general survey of the materials involved, in which this book is fully inserted,
seems to be a premise equally useful and necessary. What is the relationship
between the depictions found in Sufi literature and those encountered in the
same and earlier periods in cognate disciplines, including philosophical, theo-
logical, alchemical, and hermetic texts, and with those produced by specific
mystical movements in the Islamicate context (see e.g. Mir-Kasimov, Chapter 5,
on the question of the graphic materials contained in Ḥurūfī, Nuqṭavī, and Bek-
tashī literature)? And why does the use of graphic representations in Sufism,
in spite of some noteworthy precedents, seem to establish itself only after a
certain period, i.e. from about the 13th century onwards? How does this nov-
elty relate to major changes in the sociopolitical and intellectual history of this
period? It can be suggested that two interrelated elements played some role

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introduction 11

in the establishment of visual media in Sufism. One is the wide dissemina-

tion, reception, and influence on later authors of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240)
oeuvre, who used graphic representations and diagrams in numerous of his
texts (cf. Karjoo-Ravary, Chapter 2; Tyser, Chapter 3). This is also suggested by
the fact that many later ‘Akbari’ authors are among the main users of diagrams
(cf. e.g. Martini, Chapter 6; Kropf, Chapter 7). The role of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s work in
the process of diffusion of graphic elements in Sufi literature had already been
observed, for example by Karamustafa, who seems, however, to have exagger-
ated its scope when he writes that “the few cosmological diagrams that can be
located in the [Islamic mystical] literature all bear the indelible stamp of Ibn
al-ʿArabī.”23 Ibn al-ʿArabī’s function needs to be contextualized. Although it is
accurate to say that the ‘Sheikh al-Akbar’ played a key role in the diffusion of
diagrams in Sufi literature (also thanks to the works of many later authors who
decided to include visual elements in their treatises under the influence of his
works), it would be a simplification to see in Ibn al-ʿArabī the unique initiator of
this new trend as the result of independent personal reflection developed in a
vacuum. Ibn al-ʿArabī, despite his towering personality, exceptional oeuvre, and
the immense influence that his works exercised in shaping the subsequent his-
tory of Sufi thought, was a child of his time. In this regard, in a sense, it could
be suggested that Ibn al-ʿArabī’s greatness if, on the one hand, it can be seen
in his exceptionality and uniqueness, at the same time it is constituted pre-
cisely by his ability to anticipate and epitomize the trends of the era in which he
flourished. As this volume attempts to show, although Ibn al-ʿArabī was indeed
most influential, he was not, however, the only Sufi scholar of his generation
to make extensive use of diagrams. Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. 622/1225) and Saʿd al-
Dīn Ḥamūyeh (d. 649/1252), to whom two chapters of the book are dedicated
(Gardiner, Chapter 1; Alexandrin, Chapter 4), are significant and prestigious
contemporary examples of this trend, suggesting that Ibn al-ʿArabī’s deliber-
ate use of diagrams was not simply the result of his personal elaboration, but
also the result of a common tendency of the time and of particular ideas that
were circulating, possibly further developed within a specific milieu represen-
ted by Sufi intellectual networks to which these scholars belonged (cf. Martini,
Chapter 6). The second element to take into consideration, regarding the rising
of the visual medium in Sufism starting from a certain historical period, is the
slow process that will lead Sufism to present itself and be conceived as a sci-
ence in conversation with other disciplines within the intellectual debate, in
particular with philosophy, adopting and reframing concepts and terminology,

23 Karamustafa, “Cosmographical Diagrams,” 83.

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12 martini

giving life to what is often referred to as ‘Philosophical Sufism.’ From this point
of view, the increased use and diffusion of diagrams within Sufi literature in
the late-medieval and early-modern period can be read as a reflection of the
philosophical-scientific language that was in the process of being established
in Sufism.24 As premised, there are suggestions here, and the role of these ele-
ments (i.e. the influence of Ibn al-ʿArabī and the rise of a new ‘philosophical’
language in Sufism) in the establishment of the graphic medium in Sufi literat-
ure needs to be demonstrated more appropriately.
Another question that awaits thorough and comprehensive investigation,
including a comparison with older materials such as those taken into consid-
eration in this volume, is the evolution of Visual Sufism in the later period, in
the modern era and up to contemporary times. Far from fading away in fact,
this visual mode of expression has continued to spread and assert itself in dif-
ferent contexts over the centuries, reaching the present day (see e.g. Behl 2012,
236–246; Hermansen 1988 and 1992; Speziale 2007; Giordani 2012; Ventura 2019;
Fārūqī 1957; De Jong 1989; Janson, Tol and Witkam 1995), in many cases varying
with new and original results in both the formal aspects and the contents of the
representations, including the fascinating question of the relationship between
abstract geometric diagrams and figurative and anthropomorphic ones (cf. e.g.
Mir-Kasimov, Chapter 5; Martini, Chapter 6).
The questions touched upon by the issue of Visual Sufism are not confined
to those mentioned so far. Consider, for instance, the potentialities represented
by the study of the variants of the graphic apparatuses in the manuscript tradi-
tion from the point of view of Philology and the Art of the Book (cf. e.g. Kropf,
Chapter 7; Martini 20211), or of the resurfacing of identical or closely related
diagrams in works by authors who lived in regions and periods very distant

24 This element, too, had already been keenly observed by Karamustafa: “Even mysticism,
however, is not impervious to philosophical speculation, and whenever philosophiz-
ing tendencies manifest themselves and mystics begin to subject ‘ineffable’ mystical
experiences to systematic scrutiny, there may also emerge the need for graphic illustra-
tion.” Karamustafa, “Cosmographical Diagrams,” 83. This explanation and interpretation,
however, does not seem to work for all types of representations observed in Sufi texts, and
things (especially spiritual things), as often happens, tend to escape easy classifications.
Next to graphic representations with a marked explanatory and didactic character, that
aspire to clarity and whose rational reading is relatively easy, there are representations that
seem instead to be built on principles that are in some ways opposite: enigmatic diagrams,
intentionally not immediately intelligible, in which every possibility of rational interpret-
ation seems precluded, giving way to another type of fruition, perhaps an intuitive and
non-discursive meditation. See for example the already mentioned figures in al-Ḥallāj’s
Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn (Nwya 1972) or those drawn by al-Daylamī or Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh (on
which see Alexandrin, Chapter 4).

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introduction 13

from each other as far as intellectual history is concerned (cf. Martini, Chapter
6). Among the many that could still be mentioned, the last aspect on which I
would like to dwell goes beyond the studies on Islam in the strict sense, enter-
ing the field of comparative studies. That is, the possibility of confronting the
graphic materials present in Sufi literature, and the relative theoretical elabora-
tions of the authors, with comparable graphic outcomes observable in mystical
and religious phenomenology in most cultural contexts across the world. This
is regardless of whether we assume direct contacts or cases of osmosis between
what is found in Sufism and other spiritual traditions, which in any case is not
to be excluded a priori, at least in some cases. In this sense, a fascinating yet
unexplored line of research concerns potential contacts or instances of cul-
tural osmosis that may have took place between visual Sufism and Kabbalah.
This possibility is suggested by the fact that the earliest examples of graphic
elements appear in works by Kabbalist masters who operated in an Islamicate
cultural context in which Arabic represented an important language of cultural
transmission. It seems that the earliest known examples of graphic accom-
paniment to a Kabbalistic text appear in al-Andalus in the middle of the 13th
century, in the work of Yaʿaqov ben Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen (d. ca. 1270) entitled Sefer
ha-orah (Book of Illumination) (Busi 2005, 110ff.) The possibilities of interac-
tion are certainly not limited to this single case. Many of the masters of Visual
Kabbalah actually flourished in Spain in a cultural context theoretically favor-
able to the occurrence of some form of osmosis. These include, for example,
Yehudah ben Nissim ibn Malka, a late thirteenth-century thinker who wrote
the Uns al-gharīb, an exegetical collection in Judeo-Arabic, or the far more fam-
ous Abulafia (Busi 2005, 137–140 and 141–155).25 That of possible similitudes, or

25 Exposure to and engagement with Arabic-Islamic sources also characterized the Roman
Jewish community of the 13th century, made up of discerning and innovative readers who
hired translators from Provence and Spain, who in Rome translated from Arabic many
masterpieces by al-Fārābī, Avicenna, and Averroes. The first dated documents of Kabba-
lah that have come down to us were copied in Rome, in the 1380s, and in them there are
some drawings. According to Busi, these are rather complex representations that suggest
an already mature tradition, derived from previous models (Busi 2005, 125ff.). Busi him-
self suggests a parallel, in the scientific-philosophical field, between some ideas of the
neo-Platonic thinker, mathematician, astronomer and translator from Arabic Avraham
ben Ḥiyya (d. ca. 1136) and his contemporary and countryman Ibn al-Sīd of Badajoz (444–
521/1052–1127), author of the Book of Circles (Kitāb al-Ḥadāʾiq), a work that contains an
explanatory diagram and that was translated into Hebrew and enjoyed considerable suc-
cess in the later Jewish tradition, both philosophical and cabbalistic (Busi 2005, 74n159).
Busi also mentions Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Book of the Production of Circles, writing that “the formal
origin and possible influence on Jewish mysticism of the designs used by the Sufi master
Ibn ʿArabī in his Kitāb Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir al-iḥāṭiyya remains to be clarified.” (ibidem, trans-
lation mine).

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14 martini

even contacts and osmosis, between the graphic outcomes of these two mys-
tical traditions is, as we said, a hypothesis at the moment not substantiated by
documentary evidence, and yet fascinating and worthy of being taken into con-
sideration. These and more are the horizons open by the study of Visual Sufism.
Preliminary and essential work on which to base further research remains the
census and the study of the corpus of images contained in the immense mys-
tical literature of Islam. This book is intended to be a contribution in this dir-
ection and an encouragement for future research in this area.

Selected Bibliography

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Reading of Mystical Ideas. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Alexandrin, Elizabeth R. 2012. “Witnessing the Lights of the Heavenly Dominion
Dreams, Visions and the Mystical Exegeses of Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī.” In Dreams
and Visions in Islamic Societies. Edited by Özgen Felek and Alexander D. Knysh, 215–
231. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Behl, Aditya. 2012. Love’s Subtile Magic. An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379–1545.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Contadini, Anna, ed. 2007. Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manu-
scripts. Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Corbin, Henry. 1973. “La science de la balance et les correspondences entre les mondes
en gnose islamique d’après l’euvre de Ḥaydar Āmolī.” Eranos Jahrbuch 42:79–162.
Corbin, Henry. 1980. “Le paradoxe du monothéisme.” Eranos Jahrbuch 45:69–133.
Corbin, Henry. 1998. Alone with the Alone. Creative Imagination in the Sūfism of Ibn
ʿArabī. With a new preface by Harold Bloom. Translated by R. Manheim. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
De Jong, Frederick. 1989. “The iconography of Bektashiism. A survey of themes and
symbolism in clerical costume, liturgical objects and pictorial art.” Manuscripts of
the Midle East 4:7–29.
Ernst, Carl W. 1999. Teachings of Sufism. Boston-London: Shambala.
Fārūqī, Abū al-Ḥasan Zayd. 1957. Manāhij al-sayr va madārij al-khayr. Qandahar: ʿAbd
al-Ghaffār va pisarān.
al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. 1388–1390/1969–1971. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn. Cairo: Dār al-Shaʿb.
Giordani, Demetrio. 2012. “Stages of Naqšbandī Sulūk in Šāh Abū Saʿīd Muǧaddidī’s
Hidāyat al-ṭālibīn.” Oriente Moderno 92, no. 2:393–417.
Gruber, Christiana, ed. 2010. The Islamic Manuscript Tradition: Ten Centuries of Book
Arts in Indiana University Collections. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Hermansen, Marcia K. 1988. “Shāh Walī Allāh’s Theory of the Subtle Spiritual Centres

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(Laṭāʾif): A Sufi Model of Personhood and Self-Transformation.” In Journal of Near

Eastern Studies 47, no. 1:1–25.
Hermansen, Marcia K. 1992. “Mystical Paths and Authoritative Knowledge: A Semiotic
Approach to Sufi Cosmological Diagrams.” Journal of Religious Studies and Theology
12:52–77.
Hussain, Ali. 2019. The Art of Ibn al-Arabi: A Collection of 19 Drawings from the Greatest
Master of Sufism. Privately published.
Janson, Aad, Roger Tol and Jan Just Witkam. 1995. Mystical Illustrations from the Teach-
ings of Syaikh Ahmad al-Qusyasyi: A Facsimile Edition on Paper and cd-rom of a
Manuscript from Aceh (Cod. Or. 2222) in the Library of Leiden University. Leiden:
Indonesian-Netherlands Cooperation in Islamic Studies-Legatum Warnerianum in
the Library of Leiden University.
Karamustafa, Ahmet T. 1992. “Cosmographical Diagrams.” In The History of Carto-
graphy, Volume 2, Book 1: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian
Societies. Edited by James B. Harley and David Woodward, 71–89. Chicago-London:
The University of Chicago Press.
Martini, Giovanni Maria. 20211. “al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya by Shīrīn Maghribī (d. 810/1408):
A Recently-Discovered Cosmological Treatise in Persian of the School of Ibn al-
ʿArabī.” Oriens 49:35–94.
Martini, Giovanni Maria. 20212. “Note sul Sufismo visivo: rappresentazioni grafiche a
supporto della realizzazione spirituale nel Taṣawwuf.” El Azufre Rojo 9:69–94.
Murata, Sachiko. 2004. “The Unity of Being in Liu Chih’s ‘Islamic Neoconfucianism’.”
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 36. Avilable online at: https://ibnarabiso
ciety.org/liu‑chih‑islamic‑neoconfucianism‑sachiko‑murata/
Murata, Sachiko and Chittick, William C. 2009. The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi: Islamic
Thought in Confucian Terms. Cambridge, Mass.: Published by the Harvard University
Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute.
Nwyia, Paul sj. 1972. “Ḥallāǧ. Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn.”Mélanges de l’Université St. Joseph 47:185–
238.
Schimmel, Annemarie. 1990. Calligraphy and Islamic Culture. London: I.B. Tauris & Co
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Speziale, Fabrizio. 2007. “Il simbolismo mistico del volto umano nel trattato (in urdu)
Sūrat-i maʿlūma-yi ṣuwari ʿilm di Karīm Allāh ʿĀshiq.” Journal Asiatique 295, no. 2:
439–459.
Tasbihi, Eliza (2021). “Visionary Perceptions through Cosmographical Diagrams: Mys-
tical Knowledge from Ḥaydar Āmulī’s Naṣṣ al-nuṣūṣ fī sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam.” Journal
of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 69:31–81.
Ventura, Alberto. 2019. Lo yoga dell’Islam. Roma: Edizioni Mediterranee.

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 chapter 1

Diagrams and Visionary Experience in al-Būnī’s

(d. 622/1225)Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf
al-ʿulwiyyāt
Noah Gardiner

Around the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, a discipline known as “the

science of letters and names” (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ), which had been cul-
tivated for some time in the Islamicate west, was introduced to the central
Arab-Islamic lands by Sufi émigrés such as the Andalusian Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-
ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) and the Ifrīqiyan Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. 622/1225
or 630/1232–1233). The science, often referred to as “lettrism” in recent schol-
arship, is a discourse on the relationship between divine speech and mani-
fest existence that assigns central cosmogonical roles to the divine names and
the letters of the Arabic alphabet. It has occult-practical components as well,
including specially crafted invocatory prayers (adʿiya, awrād, etc.), talismans
bearing matrices of letters and numbers (awfāq, s. wafq), and various letter-
based divination techniques. Originally confined to esotericist Sufi circles, the
science was widely popularized among Muslim intellectuals and elites of the
eighth/fourteenth and ninth/fifteenth centuries, exercising significant influ-
ence on Islamic thought and culture for centuries after.1
Al-Būnī’s Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf al-ʿulwiyyāt (The Subtleties of the Allu-
sions regarding the Superior Letters), completed in Cairo in 622/1225, is his

1 On the history of lettrism up to and including to al-Būnī, see Denis Gril, “The Science of Let-
ters,” in The Meccan Revelations, ed. Michel Chodkiewicz (New York: Pir Press, 2004), 103–219;
Pierre Lory’s various essays on the topic collected in the volume La science des lettres en islam
(Paris: Editions Dervy, 2004); Michael Ebstein, Mysticism and Philosophy in Al-Andalus: Ibn
Masarra, Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ismāʿīlī Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2014); Jean-Charles Coulon, “La
magie islamique et le «corpus bunianum» au Moyen Âge” (PhD diss., Paris iv—Sorbonne,
2013), and various works by the present author. On the spread and development of lettrism
in the centuries after al-Būnī, see Matthew Melvin-Koushki, “Of Islamic Grammatology: Ibn
Turka’s Lettrist Metaphysics of Light,” al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 24 (2016): 42–113; Matthew Melvin-
Koushki, “Early Modern Islamicate Empire: New Forms of Religiopolitical Legitimacy,” in The
Wiley-Blackwell History of Islam, ed. Armando Salvatore and Babak Rahimi (Malden: Wiley-
Blackwell, 2017), 353–375; İlker Evrim Binbas̨, Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran: Sharaf
al-Dīn Alī Yazdī and the Islamicate Republic of Letters (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2016).

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 17

main opus on the letters.2 Intended for fellow Sufi esotericists, the text is highly
allusive and sometimes deliberately obscure. One of the most striking features
of the work is its rich array of tables, letter-number matrices, and other graphic
elements, including a series of complex diagrammatic figures associated with
individual letters of the Arabic alphabet.3 al-Būnī suggests throughout the work
that contemplation of these letter-diagrams facilitates knowledge of other-
wise incommunicable wonders and secrets of the malakūt, the multilayered
mesocosmic realm of angels and other subtle entities often evoked in Sufi lit-
erature.4 Some are also claimed to have occult powers in the world when ritu-
ally prepared as amulets, providing for the protection, provision, and spiritual
advancement of the adept.
This essay investigates a number of these letter-diagrams, considering the
types of information they convey, their relationship to the main text of the
Laṭāʾif and other sources, how they were taught and transmitted, and how they
were intended to be used. On the basis of the text and various aspects of the
Sufism and manuscript culture of the period, I argue that these figures were not
merely visual schematizations of al-Būnī’s cosmological ideas. Rather, I con-
tend, they were intended as vehicles for visionary experience of the spiritual
realities they represent, a praxis grounded in al-Būnī’s interwoven doctrines of
the human being as a microcosm of the creation and the cosmogonic power
of the hierarchy of living saints. My arguments rely in part on the concept

2 Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf al-ʿulwiyyāt survives in at least twenty-two manuscript copies.

Unless otherwise noted, all citations of the text in this article refer to my readings of Bib-
liothèque nationale de France ms arabe 2658, with certain passages checked against Berlin
Staatsbibliothek ms oriental Folio 80. BnF 2658 was copied in 809/1406. It contains elements
suggesting it was copied from an autograph manuscript, and an audition certificate (samāʿ)
copied from the exemplar that records al-Būnī having presided over a reading of the work in
622/1225. Berlin or. Fol. 80, copied in 669/1270, appears to be the oldest surviving copy, but is
in a difficult hand and lacks transmission certificates. In executing in collaboration with art
director Mariano Fazzi my own digital renderings of the diagrams, included with this article,
I have also drawn on Bibliothèque nationale de France ms arabe 2657, which was copied in
Mecca in 788/1386. Dietrich notes the existence of a Cairene lithograph of the work dated
1307 ah, though the present author has not seen it; ei2, s.v. “al-Būnī, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b.
ʿAlī b. Yūsuf al-Ḳurashī al-Ṣūfī Muḥyī ’l- Dīn.” More recently, Jean-Charles Coulon includes a
transcription of the work in “La magie islamique,” iii/64–180, though with numerous errors.
For a more detailed discussion of the mss, see Noah Gardiner, “Esotericist Reading Com-
munities and the Early Circulation of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad Al-Būnī’s Works,” in Islamicate
Occultism: New Perspectives, ed. Matthew Melvin-Koushki and Noah Gardiner, special issue
Arabica 64, nos. 3–4 (2017): 405–441.
3 al-Būnī includes diagrams for the following letters, in the following order: Alif, Bāʾ, Sīn, Mīm,
Hāʾ, Rāʾ, Ḥāʾ, Nūn, Yāʾ, Qāf, Ṭā, Jīm, Dāl, Ṣād, Shīn, ʿAyn, Zāʾ (which he calls Zay), Wāw.
4 On the malakūt, see T.J. de Boer and L. Gardet, “ʿĀlam,” ei2.

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of “graphicacy,” a culturally acquired skill for interpreting diagrams and other

graphical figures. I propose that al-Būnī’s Sufi audience in Egypt likely had little
or no previous exposure to diagrams like these, which claim to illustrate the
invisible workings of the cosmos, and that he was consciously introducing a
special variety of graphicacy to his audience as a previously undisclosed spir-
itual technology.

∵
In a previous article, I have discussed the important place of astrology in Laṭāʾif
al-ishārāt, demonstrating that al-Būnī’s is an esotericist approach that claims to
reveal the bāṭin of that science.5 Affirming God’s sovereignty over the creation,
he interprets the apparent powers of the stars as the efflux of the divine names
and the continuous flow of God’s creative speech, with the additional twist that
the Sufi saints and adepts are recognized as among the main conduits through
which these forces are channeled to the world—a function of their exceptional
purity and connectedness to the divine. With all that in mind, he does not deny
the usefulness of astrological reckoning and indeed employs elements of astro-
logy in the rituals he describes.
One of the first diagrams in the Laṭāʾif shows the cosmos as a nested series
of celestial spheres (Figure 1/Plate 1.1).6 It is a thoroughly conventional cosmo-
graphical image for the period, except that al-Būnī also assigns letters to each of
the spheres, indicating that the forces emanating from the heavens are insep-
arable from the letters of God’s speech. The astrological elements of al-Būnī’s
lettrism are essential to understanding the talismanic and precatory practices
he discusses; however, they represent only a portion of his teachings in the
Laṭāʾif on the powers of the letters and the saints. The letter-diagrams, dis-
cussions of which take up far more of the Laṭāʾif than the material related to

5 Noah Gardiner, “Stars and Saints: The Esotericist Astrology of the Sufi Occultist Ahmad al-
Buni,” Journal of Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 12, no. 1 (2017): 39–65.
6 The figures published in this study are my own renderings of the diagrams based on mater-
ial gathered from three witnesses: Berlin ms Or. fol. 80, BnF ms arabe 2658, and BnF ms
arabe 2657. The diagrams pose considerable editorial difficulties, including issues of illegib-
ility, major variations in the texts of the labels, and varying spatial arrangements within the
diagrams. As such, these figures must not be taken as “corrected” editions of the diagrams or
as entirely faithful renderings of them as they appear in one manuscript or another. Neither
have I attempted any sort of critical apparatus to note variations, as such a thing would be far
too immense for the present venue. As for my glosses of the texts of the labels, they are just
that, and they sometimes suffer from the aforementioned difficulties. In short, those wish-
ing to conduct further research on these diagrams should certainly consult the manuscripts
rather than relying exclusively on what is presented here.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 19

astrology, pertain to the higher reaches of al-Būnī’s vision of the ongoing pro-
cess of cosmogony and the power of humanity therein.

plate 1.1 Celestial-spheres diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 11b;
BnF 2658, fol. 13b; BnF 2657, fol. 9a)

Key to Plate 1.1

1. Sphere of the intellect ( falak al-ʿaql), alif and ʿayn.
2. Sphere of the dais (al-kursī), bāʾ and fāʾ.
3. Sphere of Saturn (al-Zuḥal), jīm and ḍād.
4. Sphere of Jupiter (al-Mushtarī), dāl and qāf.
5. Sphere of Mars (al-Mirrīkh), hāʾ and rāʾ.
6. Sphere of the sun (al-Shams), wāw and sīn.
7. Sphere of Venus (al-Zuhara), zāʾ and tāʾ.
8. Sphere of Mercury (al-ʿUṭārid), ḥāʾ and thāʾ.
9. Sphere of the moon (al-Qamar), ṭāʾ and khāʾ.
10. Sphere of heat (al-ḥarāra), yāʾ and dhāl.
11. Sphere of air (al-hawāʾ), kāf and ẓāʾ.
12. Sphere of water (al-māʾ), lām and ghayn.
13. Sphere of the earth (al-ukra), mīm and shīn.

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20 gardiner

14. Sphere of the tablet (al-lawḥ), ṣād.

15. Sphere of the pen (al-qalam), nūn.
16. The world as disposed by the letters (ʿālam al-taṣrīf bi-l-ḥurūf ).

Central to al-Būnī’s ideas on the saints is the notion of al-ʿālam al-insānī (“the
human world”), a primordial, macrocosmic Adam whose creation is inextric-
able from that of the universe. The introduction to Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt includes an
account of the creation of Adam in which the letters are “sown” (gharasa) into
him at the four levels of his being: intellect (ʿaql), spirit (rūḥ), soul (nafs), and
heart (qalb)/body ( jism, fiṭra)—these corresponding to four main planes or
worlds through which the cosmos comes into existence: intellect, spirit, univer-
sal soul, and material world.7 Such ideas stem in part from Sufi understandings
of Adam having been endowed with God’s form (ṣūra) through imbuement
with all the names of God, setting him above the angels. Muslim Neoplatonic
thought of earlier periods on the macrocosm/microcosm relationship obvi-
ously informs this idea as well, though al-Būnī’s immediate inspiration was
almost certainly the Andalusian mystic Ibn Barrajān’s (d. 536/1141) doctrine of
the “universal servant” (al-ʿabd al-kullī), an “initial, all-comprehensive reality”
occupying “an intermediate station between God and the world of creation,”
conceptualized as the human form writ large.8 Humans, microcosmic instan-
tiations of this macrocosmic Adam, within whom are combined the heights of
the divine spirit and the depths of materiality, have a unique potential to gather
together the knowledge and power of all the outer and inner levels of existence.
For al-Būnī, as for some other Sufi thinkers, the members of the hierarchy of liv-
ing saints are those in whom this potential has been fully awakened, such that

7 al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 5a–b. For a transcription, translation, and more detailed discussion of
this account of Adam’s creation, see Noah Gardiner, “Esotericism in a Manuscript Culture:
Aḥmad al-Būnī and His Readers through the Mamlūk Period” (Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Michigan, 2014), 191ff. There and in my Stars and Saints article, I have sometimes used
al-Būnī’s designations of these worlds or planes as “the first world of invention” (ʿālam al-
ikhtirāʿ al-awwal) = the intellect, “the second world of invention” (ʿālam al-ikhtirāʿ al-thānī) =
the spirit, “the first world of origination” (ʿālam al-ibdāʿ al-awwal) = the soul, and “the second
world of invention” (ʿālam al-ibdāʿ al-thānī) = the body/material world. I have dispensed with
that rather clunky terminology in this essay.
8 Yousef Casewit, The Mystics of Al-Andalus: Ibn Barrajān and Islamic Thought in the Twelfth
Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 173–174. See Casewit p. 171 for his
argument that this is also the source of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s concept of the “perfect man” (al-insān
al-kāmil). For a brief overview of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s views on this topic, see William Chittick,
“Microcosm, Macrocosm, and Perfect Man in the View of Ibn al-ʿArabī,” Islamic Culture 63,
nos. 1–2 (1989): 1–11. The ideas of these western Muslim mystics also bear a striking resemb-
lance to the Jewish Kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon, one of many reasons that the
historical relationship between lettrism and Kabbalah bears examination.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 21

they act “to preserve the cosmic order and ensure the distribution of spiritual
influence between the heavenly and physical worlds.”9 As we will see, the unit-
ive powers with which humanity is endowed have important implications for
the understanding and use of the letter-diagrams.
The first of the letter-diagrams belongs, unsurprisingly, to alif, a letter about
which al-Būnī has a great deal to say throughout the text. As the first letter of the
alphabet, he links it particularly to the world of the intellect, the first emana-
tion from the godhead. The numerical value of alif is one, and much of al-Būnī’s
thinking on it relates to the mystery of multiplicity contained within oneness.
He thus states that all of the other letters, and indeed all of creation, exist in
potentia within the alif qua intellect. This theme also prevails in his statement
presenting the diagram for alif (Figure 2/Plate 1.2):

This is the figure of the alif and how God arranged in it the parts of the
cosmos, natural and devotional, superior and inferior, of the malakūt and
of the mulk. Whoever realizes what is in its hidden and apparent essence
will ascend to the rank of the heirs [of the prophets, al-wārithūn; i.e. the
saints]. And whoever realizes what is in its apparent and hidden worlds,
God will make all beings to serve him and make him to serve His word.
That is the relationship of the bliss of the garden which he bestows upon
the saints, the ones near to God.10

9 Paul Fenton, “The Hierarchy of Saints in Jewish and Islamic Mysticism,” Journal of the
Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 10 (1991): 12. Some of the major studies on Islamic sainthood
are Michel Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine
of Ibn ʿArabī, Golden Palm Series (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1993); Bernd Radtke,
John O’Kane, and al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Mysticism: Two
Works by al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī (London: Curzon, 1996); Vincent Cornell, Realm of the
Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998);
Gerald Elmore, Islamic Sainthood in the Fullness of Time: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Book of the Fab-
ulous Gryphon (Leiden: Brill, 1999); Richard McGregor, Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval
Egypt: The Wafāʾ Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn ʿArabī (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2004); Scott Kugle, Sufis and Saints’ Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality, and Sacred
Power in Islam (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007); Shahzad Bashir,
Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam (New York: Columbia University Press,
2011).
10 Fa-hādhā shakl al-alif wa-kayfa rattaba Allāh taʿālā fī-hi ajzāʾ al-ʿālam al-ṭabīʿī wa-l-dīnī
wa-l-ʿulwī wa-l-suflī wa-l-malakūtī wa-l-mulkī fa-man taḥaqqaqa bi-mā fī dhāti-hi al-bāṭina
wa-l-ẓāhira artaqā ilā darajat al-wārithīn wa-man taḥaqqaqa bi-ʿawālimi-hi al-ẓāhira wa-l-
bāṭina akhdama Allāh taʿālā la-hū al-akwān wa-akhdama-hu kalāmi-hi wa-tilka al-nisba
naʿīm al-janna allātī ilay-hā nāl al-awliyāʾ al-muqarrabīn. al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, Berlin ms or.
Fol. 80, fol. 30a (the Alif diagram and this section of the text are missing from BnF ms
Arabe 2658).

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22 gardiner

plate 1.2 Alif-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 29b; BnF 2657,
fol. 26b. The leaf of BnF 2658 on which this figure should be is missing)

Key to Plate 1.2

1. The [divine] utterance from which is the essence of the superior world and the inferior
world, subtle and dense (al-iṭlāq ʿan-hū dhāt al-ʿālam al-ʿulwī wa-l-ʿālam al-suflī al-laṭīf wa-
l-kathīf ).

2. The first is the sphere of the intellect (al-awwal falak al-ʿaql).

3. The second is the sphere of the spirit.
4. The third is the sphere of Saturn.
5. The fourth is the sphere of Jupiter.
6. The fifth is the sphere of Mars.
7. The sixth is the sphere of the sun.
8. The seventh is the sphere of Venus.
9. The eighth is the sphere of Mercury.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 23

10. The ninth is the sphere of the moon.

11. The tenth is the sphere of heat.
12. The eleventh is the sphere of air.
13. The twelfth is the sphere of water.
14. The thirteenth is the sphere of the earth.
15. Material (mādda) of the world of the creation (ʿālam al-khalq).
16. Material of the world of the command (ʿālam al-amr).
17. Interior (bāṭin) of the tablet.
18. Interior of the pen.
19. Rank of the soul (rutbat al-nafs).
20. Rank of the upright ones (al-ṣiddiqīn).
21. Domain of the lordly circle (muḥīṭ al-dāʾira al-rubūbiyya).
22. Rank of unification (al-tawḥīd).
23. Domain of the form of the image (shakl al-ṣūra).
24. Domain of the world of dominion and witnessing (al-mulk wa-l-shahāda).
25. Domain of the world of the malakūt and certainty (al-malakūt wa-l-yaqīn).
26. Rank of the martyrs (al-shuhadāʾ).
27. Rank of the alms (al-zakawāt).
28. Rank of the established followers (al-atbāʿ al-qāʾimīn).
29. Rank of the inheriting poles (al-aqṭāb al-wārithīn).
30. The utterance from which is the essence of the devotional world (al-iṭlāq ʿan-hū dhāt al-
ʿālam al-dīnī).
31. The first station is the book (al-maqām al-awwal al-kitāb).
32. The second station is the revelation (al-waḥy).
33. The third station is the conveyance (al-tablīgh).
34. The fourth station is knowledge of the book (al-ʿilm bi-l-kitāb).
35. The fifth station is action according to the book (al-ʿamal bi-l-kitāb).
36. The sixth station is contemplation of the book (al-tadabbur fī al-kitāb).
37. The seventh station is reflection on the book (al-tafakkur fī al-kitāb).
38. The eighth station is the greater purity (al-ṭahāra al-kubrā).
39. The ninth station is the lesser purity (al-ṭahāra al-ṣughrā).
40. The tenth station is the obligatory prayers (al-ṣalawāt al-mafrūḍa)
41. The tenth station is the rank of the tithing (rutbat al-zakāh).
42. The eleventh station is the rank of the fasting (al-ṣiyām).
43. The twelfth station is that of the pilgrimage (al-ḥajj).
44. Rank of the purified ones and the prophets (al-aṣfiyāʾ wa-l-anbiyāʾ)
45. Rank of messenger-prophecy (al-risāla).
46. Rank of the gnostics (al-ʿurafāʾ).
47. Rank of the leaders (al-nuqabāʾ).
48. Rank of prophetic uprightness (al-istiqāma al-nabawiyya).
49. Rank of the poles (al-aqṭāb).
50. Rank of the conveyance (al-tablīgh).
51. Rank of the substitutes (al-abdāl).
52. Rank of the nobles (al-nujabāʾ).
53. Rank of the worshippers (al-ʿubbād).
54. Rank of the struggle (al-jihād).
55. Rank of the saints [friends] (al-awliyāʾ).
56. Rank of the laborers (al-ʿummāl).

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24 gardiner

57. Rank of the pilgrimage to the house of God (al-ḥajj ilā bayt Allāh).
58. Interior of the reality (bāṭin al-ḥaqīqa).
59. Rank of the knowing inheriting poles (al-aqṭāb al-ʿālimīn al-wārithīn).
60. Rank of the intimate knowing followers (al-atbāʿ al-ʿālimīn al-muqarrabīn).

Despite the intrinsic oneness of alif, the viewer will immediately notice that
the figure consists of not one but two vertical columns (i.e. alif shapes), each
formed of two circles joined by an axis. Each axis forms a sentence beginning
with the horizontal word al-iṭlāq (“the [divine] utterance”) and then reading
down the vertical text of the axis. The one on the right thus reads “The [divine]
utterance from which is the essence of the superior world and the inferior
world, subtle and dense”;11 and the left “The [divine] utterance from which is
the essence of the devotional world.”12 The righthand column is segmented
with thirteen labels, running from the “sphere of the intellect” ( falak al-ʿaql)
at the top, to the “sphere of the spirit” ( falak al-rūḥ) in the second position,
and thence down through the seven planetary spheres and four elemental
spheres. The left-hand column is segmented with an identical number of labels,
described as “stations” (maqāmāt) rather than “spheres,” i.e. stages of spiritual
attainment, according to well-known Sufi usage. The uppermost station is that
of “the book” (al-kitāb, i.e. the Qurʾan and/or its transcendent archetype); the
second is prophetic revelation (al-waḥy); the third is the conveyance of revela-
tion (al-tablīgh); the fourth through seventh are various modes of engagement
with the book; the sixth and seventh are the greater and lesser purification rites;
and the final four are the fundamental Islamic rituals of prayer, tithing, fasting,
and pilgrimage. The various other labels clustered at the base and head of each
column mostly refer to various ranks of saints within the hidden hierarchy: “the
gnostics” (al-ʿurafāʾ), “the leaders” (al-nuqabāʾ), “the poles” (al-aqṭāb), etc. The
vertical labels to the sides of the columns also refer to saints, e.g. the “rank of the
inheriting poles” (rutbat al-aqṭāb al-wārithīn), the successive heads (“poles”) of
the hierarchy of saints who are the inheritors of the spiritual authority of the
prophets.13
The column on the right clearly represents the creation and structure of the
cosmos as a series of emanations from the godhead. God’s “utterance” gener-

11 al-iṭlāq ʿan-hū dhāt al-ʿālam al-ʿulwī wa-l-ʿālam al-suflī al-laṭīf wa-l-kathīf. All texts from
the diagrams are given in Arabic script in the renderings of them that accompany this
study. References to the mss are included therein.
12 al-iṭlāq ʿan-hū dhāt al-ʿālam al-dīnī.
13 These terms for various types of saints and their interrelations in the hierarchy are dis-
cussed at length in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s voluminous writings on sainthood and in many earlier
sources. Discussions of them can be found in some of the works listed in footnote 9, supra.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 25

ates the cosmos, as in the Qurʾanic topos kun fa-yakūn, “God says Be! and it
is.”14 The column on the left, according to the sentence that is its axis, shows
the creation of “the devotional world” (al-ʿālam al-dīnī), the sphere of religious
contemplation and ritual. But because we know that alif is one, we are clearly
intended to understand the two columns as in some sense representing the
same thing. That is, it is incumbent upon the practitioner to meditate on ways
that the hierarchical structure of the macrocosmic universe is identical or iso-
morphic to that of the world of human religious endeavor.
One solution emerges without much difficulty. The ranks of saints clustered
mainly around the left-hand column make it clear that al-Būnī adheres to ideas
of the hierarchy of living saints as the divinely sanctioned order of religious
authority, and the inclusion of the vertical labels on both axes mentioning the
“poles” (aqṭāb) of the hierarchy emphasizes that the saints play a cosmic role
as well. Thus the cosmic and devotional hierarchies are fundamentally inter-
twined expressions of the divine command. This conclusion might have been
intuitive to al-Būnī’s early Sufi readers in Egypt, who were no doubt famil-
iar with the notion that the saints safeguard the continued existence of the
cosmos—as in, to take just one example from the classical Sufi literature, al-
Hujwīrī’s (d. ca. 465/1071–72) claim that the higher ranks of saints circumnav-
igate the universe each night to ensure no imperfections arise in it.15
What else might they have deduced in meditating on the diagram? Like
much medieval Sufi literature, al-Būnī’s writings are highly allusive and evocat-
ive, conveying ideas through densely packed references—often implicit rather
than explicit—to other texts and discourses rather than through systematic
argument or explication. This quality extends to the diagrams, and often to the
relationship of the diagrams to the body of the text. For example, while the cre-
ation of the cosmos is apparently a downward process from the godhead, based
on the direction of the sentences that form the axes, other elements of the dia-
gram suggest ascent, such as some of the labels describing the “poles,” the texts
of which mostly flow upward.16 al-Būnī also mentions the ascent of the adept in
his introduction to the diagram quoted above, just as he likens spiritual attain-
ment to a process of ascent throughout the Laṭāʾif and his other works. This
notion of ascending spiritual masters, combined with the heavenly spheres

14 Q 2:116–118, 3:46–48, 3:58–60, 6:72–74, 16:39–41, 19:34–36, 36:81–83, 40:67–69.

15 ʿAlī b. ʿUthmān al-Hujwīrī, Kashf al-mahjūb, trans. Reynold Nicholson, An early Persian
treatise on Sufism (Havertown: Gibb Memorial Trust, 2014), 228.
16 As with all the diagrams, there are significant variations between manuscripts. Suffice to
say that in most cases, most of the aqṭāb labels in a given rendition of the alif-diagram
have the text moving upward.

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of the righthand column, ineluctably evokes the Prophet’s ascent to the heav-
ens (miʿrāj), the classic prototype for Sufi visionary narratives, even though the
miʿrāj is not mentioned.17 Things named in the diagrams often escape mention
in the text too, such as the various ranks of saints that feature so prominently
in the alif-diagram, most of which are nowhere discussed in his comments on
alif or elsewhere in the work. Other evocative but unexplicated elements of
the diagram are similarly left for readers to explore, such as the implied rela-
tionship between the element of fire and the obligatory prayers, which occupy
the tenth sphere/station respectively, or that between the “station of contem-
plation of the book” on the left and the sphere of the sun on the right. al-Būnī’s
injunction to discern the bāṭin of the figure all but demands meditation on
such correspondences, and the practitioner presumably would draw not only
on the Laṭāʾif in doing so, but on whatever share of the great intertext of the
Sufi tradition that they could muster.
Would it have been obvious to al-Būnī’s early readers in Egypt how they
were to go about interpreting and otherwise interacting with this and the other
letter-diagrams? A useful concept in thinking about the use of diagrams is that
of “graphicacy.” As historian Ildar Garipzanov has discussed, the term origin-
ates in modern education theory and cognitive psychology to denote “a specific
intellectual skill” for “understanding and deciphering … such graphic media as
charts, graphs, and maps.”18 Implicit in the term is the idea that graphic fig-
ures can convey information or concepts that other forms of communication
cannot, or at least can do so more efficiently. Much like literacy and numeracy,
graphicacy is culturally-specific, changes over time, and is not evenly socially
distributed; that is, some groups within a given society are more “graphicate”
than others.19 The history of graphicacy in Arabic-Islamic manuscript culture
has not been much assayed (perhaps not at all under that heading), but suf-
fice it to say that, in al-Būnī’s period, the use of diagrammatic figures seems
to have been rare outside of a few specialized discourses, e.g. medicine, geo-
metry, and astronomy.20 Certainly the literature of the medieval Sufi tradition

17 On Muḥammad’s miʿrāj and its place in Sufism, see B. Schrieke et al., “Mirādj,”ei2, and the
extensive list of primary and secondary sources given there; James Morris, “The Spiritual
Ascension: Ibn ʿArabī and the Miʿrāj, Part i,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 107
(1987): 629–652, and Part ii of the article in the same journal, volume 108 (1988): 63–77;
Bernd Radtke, “The Ascent to God and the Return from Him in Islamic Mysticism,”Ishraq:
Islamic Philosophy Yearbook 3 (2012): 98–107.
18 Ildar Garipzanov, “The Rise of Graphicacy in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,”
Viator 46 (2015): 1–22.
19 Ibid., 2–3.
20 A detailed exposition of this argument is beyond the scope of this brief paper. I would

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 27

is predominantly non-graphic, leaving aside such rarities as the crude figures in

al-Ḥallāj’s Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn. Indeed, the closest parallels to al-Būnī’s figures—
though still quite different—are found in some of the works of his fellow lettrist
Ibn al-ʿArabī,21 with whom al-Būnī shared an important teacher.22 This suggests
that they were both building on a graphic tradition specific to the western-
Islamicate mystical circles whence they came, which regularly engaged with
materials alien to the classical Sufi tradition.23 Thus, they may have been
inspired by diagrammatic representations of higher planes of existence in the
Jabirian alchemical corpus, the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ, Ismaʿili treatises, or per-
haps even Jewish Kabbalistic tracts.24 Egyptian Sufism under the Ayyubids,

suggest, however, that it is the Mamluk era, particularly in the eighth/fourteenth and
ninth/fifteenth centuries, that was the watershed period in the development of Arabic-
Islamic graphicacy among a wide audience, with various types of charts, tables, and dia-
grams (along with other innovations in mise-en-page) becoming used in a wide variety of
works.
21 The most detailed study of some of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s diagrams of which I am aware is Elmore,
“Islamic Sainthood in the Fullness of Time,” 574–588. A number of his figures have also
been gathered in Ali Hussain (ed. and trans.), The Art of Ibn al-Arabi: A Collection of 19
Drawings from the Greatest Master of Sufism (self-published by the editor, 2019, isbn 978–
1–79298–196–8). Dunja Rašić’s The Written World of God: The Cosmic Script and the Art of
Ibn ʿArabī (Oxford: Anqa, 2021) promises to be an excellent addition to this area of inquiry,
though it unfortunately was not available prior to this article being finalized.
22 This was the shaykh of Tunis ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Mahdawī (d. 621/1224). On al-Būnī’s rela-
tionship with him, see Noah Gardiner, “Esotericism in a Manuscript Culture: Aḥmad
al-Būnī and His Readers through the Mamlūk Period” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Michigan, 2014), 226–233. On Ibn al-ʿArabī’s, see Gerald Elmore, “Shaykh ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz
al-Mahdawī, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Mentor,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 121 (2001):
593–613.
23 On the non-Sufi sources of western-Islamic mystical thought, see Ebstein, Mysticism and
Philosophy and Casewit, Mystics of al-Andalus. See especially pp. 57–90 of the latter for
a detailed discussion of the distinction between western mystical thought and that of
the classical Sufi tradition, and of their gradual merger beginning in the sixth/twelfth
and seventh/thirteenth centuries. al-Būnī is unfortunately missing from Casewit’s dis-
cussion, as he must be considered to have been an important contributor to that mer-
ger.
24 For a number of examples of such diagrams in Jabirian and Ismaʿili sources, see Ahmet
Karamustafa, “Cosmographical Diagrams,” in Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and
South Asian Societies, ed. James B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1992), ii/71–89. Karamustafa’s article is groundbreaking; however, insofar
as he relies on late manuscripts or printed editions of such works, questions remain as
to whether such diagrams were original to those texts or added as glosses by actors of
later periods. On Kabbalistic diagrams, which seem to have become popular in roughly
the same period and much the same environs as those in which Ibn al-ʿArabī and al-Būnī
came to maturity, see Marla Segol, Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah: The Texts, Com-

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28 gardiner

however, was far more intellectually conservative,25 such that it is unlikely that
al-Būnī’s early readers were highly graphicate, and even less so that they were
familiar with diagrammatic figures that claimed to represent the metaphysical
heights of the cosmic order. al-Būnī, I would argue, is aware of that fact, and
takes steps within the Laṭāʾif to cultivate graphicacy in his readers as a praxis
for spiritual attainment, one that builds on notions of the human capacity to
mirror and comprehend the whole of creation.
What did this special form of graphicacy entail? Throughout the Laṭāʾif and
his other works, al-Būnī amasses a dense web of associations among the letters,
names of God, Qurʾanic entities (God’s throne, dais, pen, etc.), prophets, astro-
logical entities (planets, zodiacal signs, lunar mansions), plants and animals,
the parts of the human body, etc. This is in keeping with the analogism that
underlies all of his thinking, whereby everything in the “great chain of being”
that is the cosmos is interconnected through sympathetic “relations” (nisab, s.
nisba), subtle connections that transcend the limits of physicality.26 The letter-
diagrams are a key site where al-Būnī primes these webs of associations to
resonate and generate meanings, but the practitioner must actively particip-
ate in this process. In the case of the alif-diagram, the duality of the figure
compels those contemplating it to infer connections between the macrocosm
and microcosm, between the cosmic hierarchy and that of the saints, etc. The
graphicacy al-Būnī seeks to instill entails the active discernment and forging of
such connections. As we will see, for him this requires more than mere rumina-
tion on the figures, but rather their active visualization in the imagination, the
faculty often conceived of in Sufi thought as the perceptive organ of the heart
and a bridge to planes of existence beyond the manifest.

mentaries, and Diagrams of the Sefer Yetsirah (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
I should stress that the possibility of Kabbalistic influence is pure speculation at this
stage.
25 On the largely conservative nature of Ayyubid-era Egyptian Sufism, see Nathan Hofer, The
Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173–1325 (Edinburgh [Scotland]:
Edinburgh University Press, 2015).
26 “Analogism” is intended here in Phillipe Descola’s sense: “a mode of identification that
divides up the whole collection of existing beings into a multiplicity of essences, forms,
and substances separated by small distinctions and sometimes arranged on a graduated
scale so that it becomes possible to recompose the system of initial contrasts into a dense
network of analogies that link together the intrinsic properties of the entities that are dis-
tinguished in it.” Philippe Descola, Beyond Nature and Culture, tr. Janet Lloyd (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 2013), 201. For the classic treatment of such modes of
thought in European intellectual history, see Arthur Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A
Study of the History of an Idea (Cambridge: Harvard up, 1964).

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 29

∵
Following the discussion of alif, al-Būnī proceeds through the letters in an idio-
syncratic order, producing diagrams for many but not all of them.27 The sixth
letter he addresses is rāʾ, and his discussion of the letter and its diagram offer
further important clues to the intended use of these figures. The concept of
al-ʿālam al-insānī again plays an important role, particularly in relation to the
plane of the universal soul, which for al-Būnī is the world of images underlying
and giving form to manifest reality, as in what Henry Corbin called the mundus
imaginalis in his readings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and others.28 al-Būnī also includes
instructions for rendering the rāʾ-diagram as an amulet, and these too cast light
on his conception of the nature and role of the letter-diagrams.
In the discussion of rāʾ that precedes the diagram, al-Būnī associates the let-
ter alliteratively with the concepts of the rūḥ (“spirit”), raḥma (“mercy”), risāla
(“messenger-prophecy”), and God’s ʿarsh (“throne,” rāʾ being the middle letter
of the word).29 Making much of the well-attested ḥadīth qudsī, “When God
had finished the Creation, He wrote over His throne, My mercy precedes My
anger,”30 al-Būnī asserts that the words of this inscription were the first to flow
from God’s pen (al-qalam)—an entity linked elsewhere in the text to the world
of the spirit (ʿālam al-rūḥ), the second of the four main planes of his emanative
cosmos. The act of creation is an act of mercy, an efflux of the vivifying divine
spirit that brings the cosmos into being, also bringing into being all the spir-

27 For the order of the letter-diagrams see footnote 3, supra.

28 This concept is developed throughout much of Corbin’s extensive corpus. The most con-
cise formulation is perhaps Henry Corbin, Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginary and
the Imaginal (Ipswich: Golgonooza Press, 1972). For more recent, less fiercely idiosyn-
cratic approaches to these ideas in the works of Ibn al-ʿArabī and other thinkers, see
Samer Akkach, “The World of Imagination in Ibn ʿArabī’s Ontology,” British Journal of
Middle Eastern Studies 24, no. 1 (1997): 97–113; L.W.C. van Lit, The World of Image in
Islamic Philosophy: Ibn Sina, Suhrawardi, Shahrazuri and Beyond (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
up, 2018).
29 Interpreting the significance of the letters via alliteration, i.e. through words that begin
with or include the letter, is quite common in the classical Sufi tradition. See, for example,
the discussion in Gerhard Böwering, “Sulamī’s Treatise on the Science of Letters (ʿIlm
al-ḥurūf ),” in In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arabic Culture, Stud-
ies Presented to Ramzi Baalbaki on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday, ed. Bilal Orfali
(Leiden: Brill, 2012), 339–397. In the Laṭāʾif, al-Būnī merges such alliterative readings
with the distinctly cosmological lettrist tradition of the Islamic west. On the distinction
between these traditions, see Michael Ebstein and Sara Sviri, “The So-Called Risālat al-
Ḥurūf (Epistle on Letters) Ascribed to Sahl al-Tustarī and Letter Mysticism in al-Andalus,”
Journal Asiatique 299, no. 1 (2011): 213–270.
30 Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnad, no. 9633.

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30 gardiner

its (arwāḥ) that animate the created things. This of course brings to mind the
breathing of God’s spirit into Adam, and, in turn, the role of the divine spirit in
delivering God’s word to the prophets.31 al-Būnī does not directly mention the
first prophet here, but he does aver that risāla, too, is an act of mercy, imply-
ing that it brings order and sustenance to the creation. The attentive reader
would note that in the alif-diagram, the sphere of the spirit on the righthand
column correlates to the station of prophecy on the left, and there is no doubt
that al-Būnī intends for the reader to actively seek out such connections across
diagrams.
The rāʾ-diagram (Figure 3/Plate 1.3) amplifies these motifs of mercy, spirit,
etc. while also introducing elements not addressed explicitly in al-Būnī’s dis-
cussion of the letter. It consists of a double-ringed circle intersected by an axis
with smaller circles at either end and various lobes to either side. According
to the labels, the main circle represents both the movement of the spirit and
the divine throne. It encompasses all parts of the cosmos, functioning as the
limen between the uppermost metaphysical realms and the celestial spheres.
The spirit traverses and conjoins these realms, and it similarly weds the human
cosmos (al-ʿālam al-insānī) to the sublunary world of elemental composition
(ʿālam al-tarkīb), thus establishing the existents (al-akwān), i.e. all the things
that exist in the manifest world. As is often pointed out in discussions of God’s
mercy, raḥma is from the same root as raḥim (“womb”), and the womb-like
nature of the life-giving throne-circle is obvious. As for the axis, it is structured
much like one of the columns from the alif diagram and perhaps should be
taken as the alif in “rāʾ” when the latter is spelled out. Its uppermost circle is
labelled as containing “an image of a human (ṣūrat ādamī) upon a dais (kursī)
of eight steps, and in his hand is a book in which …”;32 this is followed by a
string of letters or numbers that varies between manuscripts but in all cases
is undecipherable (at least to the present author), so that the contents of the
book are a mystery. Earlier in the Laṭāʾif, however, al-Būnī adduces an account
of Adam receiving a Book of the Alphabet (Kitāb al-Muʿjam) from God, a proto-
scripture with one letter of the alphabet per leaf, and other elements in the
diagram suggest that this is the book in question, as discussed below. The axis,
as it extends downward, is labelled “the connection of the spiritual light to
the entirety of the inferior world.”33 The lower circles and the various lobes to
each side of the axis refer to the realms of animal and vegetal life, as well as
to the minerals (which were commonly thought to be quasi-living substances

31 Q 15:29.
32 Hāhunā ṣūrat ādamī ʿalā kursī thamāniya adrāj wa-bi-yadi-hi kitāb fī-hi …
33 Ittiṣāl al-nūr al-rūḥī bi-l-ʿālam al-suflī kulli-hi.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 31

growing inside the earth). The existence of these is regulated by the passage
of the spiritual/celestial “hours” (al-saʿāt al-mulkiyya al-rūḥiyya and al-saʿāt al-
falakiyya), i.e. the circulation of the celestial spheres that shapes the manifest
world of generation and decay, a power that is implied to be imparted by the
curvilinear—i.e. rāʾ-shaped—motion of the spirit. Finally, in the circle at the
base of the axis is a label that reads: “In this circle is an image of an animal.
I think it is a bull or a lion. Of the essences of the spirit[s], it is their wicked-
ness.”34

plate 1.3 Rāʾ-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 43b; BnF 2658,
fol. 52b; BnF 2657, fol. 39b)

34 Wa-fī hādhihi al-dāʾira ṣūrat ḥayawān aẓunnu-hu thawr aw asad dhawāt al-rūh [al-arwāḥ]
huwa sharru-hā. Berlin ms or. Fol. 80 has al-rūḥ; BnF 2658 has al-arwāḥ.

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32 gardiner

Key to Plate 1.3

1. The outpouring (al-ifāḍa) ×2.
2. This rāʾ-circle is the circle of the spirit, and it encompasses all parts of the world. By
another interpretation it is the circle of predetermination, and it encompasses all parts
of the world, superior and inferior. It is also the circle of the throne, in accordance with
the secret of the rāʾ, as it encompasses the world of all the existents (hādhihi al-dāʾira
al-rāʾiyya hiya dāʾirat al-rūḥ wa-aḥāṭat bi-ajzāʾ al-ʿālam wa-hiya dāʾirat al-qadar bi-iʿtibār
ākhar wa-aḥāṭat bi-ajzāʾ al-ʿālam ʿulwiyya wa-sufliyya wa-hiya ayḍan dāʾirat al-ʿarsh bi-sirr
al-rāʾ wa-hiya al-raḥma kayfa aḥāṭat bi-ʿālam al-akwān ajmaʿatan).
3. Here is the image of the higher world connected to the celestial spheres, and the spirit
inundates it by the secret of rāʾ (hāhunā ṣūrat al-ʿālam al-ʿulwī al-muttaṣal bi-l-aflāk wa-
min sirr al-rāʾ fāḍat ʿalay-hi al-rūḥ).
4. Here are the images [image?] of the human world connected to the world of composition,
and from here the spirit inundates it (hāhunā ṣuwar [ṣūrat?] al-ʿālam al-insānī al-muttaṣal
bi-ʿālam al-tarkīb wa-min hāhunā fāḍat ʿalay-hi al-rūḥ).
5. Here is an image of a human upon a dais of eight steps, and in his hand is a book in which
[undecipherable letter-number string] (hāhunā ṣūrat ādamī ʿalā kursī thamāniya adrāj
wa-bi-yadi-hi kitāb fī-hi …).
6. From it [the human image on the dais] essence (ʿan-hā dhāt).
7. The connection of the spiritual light to the entirety of the inferior world (ittiṣāl al-nūr al-
rūḥī bi-l-ʿālam al-suflī kulli-hi).
8. The second line is the [???] emanation (al-khaṭṭ al-thānī al-fayḍ ???).
9. The second line is the second spirit (al-khaṭṭ al-thānī al-rūḥ al-thānī).
10. Rank of the celestial hours that organize the world of the animal (rutbat al-saʿāt al-
falakiyya al-mudabbira li-ʿālam al-ḥayawān).
11. Rank of the angelical spiritual hours that organize the world of the vegetal, inferior are
its species and types. Here too is the site of the superior generative metals (rutbat al-saʿāt
al-malakiyya al-rūḥiyya al-mudabbira li-ʿālam al-nabātāt al-sufliyya jinsi-hā wa-nawʿi-hā
ayḍan hahunā maḥall al-maʿādin al-takwīnāt al-ʿulwiyya).
12. Here is the level of all the animals, meaning the bestial animals. From the second line is a
connection to the spirit (hahunā martaba al-hayawān ajmaʿatan aʿnī al-hayawān al-bahīmī
wa-min al-khaṭṭ al-thānī ittiṣāl bi-l-rūḥ)
13. Here is the level of the plants in all their species and types. The spirit inundates it from
the second line (hahunā martaba al-nabāt kulli-hā jinsi-hā wa-nawʿi-hā wa-min al-khaṭṭ
al-thānī fāḍat ʿalay-hi al-rūḥ).
14. In this circle is an image of an animal. I think it is a bull or a lion. Of the essences of the
spirit[s], it is their wickedness (Wa-fī hādhihi al-dāʾira ṣūrat ḥayawān aẓunnu-hu thawr aw
asad dhawāt al-rūḥ [al-arwāḥ] huwa sharru-hā).

The human figure in the circle atop the axis would seem to be the macrocos-
mic Adam/human cosmos whose creation is also the world’s. The dais (kursī)
of eight steps on which he stands presumably relates to the plane of the uni-
versal soul (al-nafs al-kulliyya, ʿālam al-nafs), the third of the four main planes
in al-Būnī’s scheme, associated throughout the text with the divine kursī.35 The

35 Q 2:256, 38:33; also Cl. Huart and J. Sadan, “Kursī,” ei2.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 33

eight steps likely relate to the eight angels who bear the throne,36 whom al-Būnī
associates with the letters of the alphabet as they function on that plane.37 In al-
Būnī’s contribution to hylomorphism, these eight angels of the letters are said
to shape the ethereal forms/images (al-ṣuwar al-nafsāniyyāt) that give form to
the created things, as he discusses earlier in the Laṭāʾif.38 The identification of
this dais with the world of the soul is supported by the reference in the diagram
to the juncture of al-ʿālam al-insānī and “the world of composition” (ʿālam al-
tarkīb), i.e. the plane where the four elements are composed into existents in
accordance with the forms/images. This is the genesis of the animal, vegetal,
and mineral entities mentioned in the figure, a process over which the macro-
cosmic Adam with his book—presumably the Book of the Alphabet—presides.
One way to understand the roles of the letters in al-Būnī’s four-plane model
of the cosmos is that they exist as the constituent parts of divine thought in
the intellect, of divine speech/breath in the world of the spirit, of image/form
in the universal soul, and of matter in the manifest world. I would suggest
that, for al-Būnī, the imaginal world of the universal soul is the place where
the letter-diagrams really exist to be seen and interacted with—they are the
becomings-image of the letters of God’s speech on their way to materializa-
tion, to use a Deleuzian turn of phrase. As such, they are to be understood as
immensely powerful in shaping the manifest world, at least for those adepts
who can reach back to the power of the macrocosmic Adam.
Following the diagram and just prior to the end of the section on rāʾ, al-Būnī
includes comments on contemplative and amuletic uses of the diagram along
with the promised results of those applications. His terse guidelines for con-
templation are as follows:

He who meditates (taʾammala) upon the secret of rāʾ and how God or-
dered its inscription in the tablet-world (al-ʿālam al-lawḥī) will witness
the wonders of the handiworks of God most high and discern (ʿabara
ʿalā) the secret of the spirit: how it was established in accordance with

36 Q 69:17.
37 The letters are distributed among the angels in order of their numerical values accord-
ing to the Western system of abjad, though unevenly: Alif comprises the entire name of
the first angel and Bāʾ-jīm-dāl that of the second, with the remaining six names being
four letters each, ordered according to their values in the western system of abjad, i.e.
Hāʾ-wāw-zāʾ-ḥāʾ, Ṭāʾ-yāʾ-kāf-lām, Mīm-nūn-ṣād-ʿayn, Fāʾ-ḍād-qāf-rāʾ, Sīn-tāʾ-thāʾ-khāʾ, and
Dhāl-ẓāʾ-ghayn-shīn. al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 9a–b. On the western and eastern abjad systems
see note 43, infra. Ibn Barrajān held some similar views about the cosmogonic role of the
throne-bearing angels, though without the letter associations; see Casewit, Mystics of al-
Andalus, 282–283.
38 Al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 9a.

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34 gardiner

the divine command by the secret of issuing ordinances (al-taḥkīm) and

took the form of a sphere encompassing all the superior and inferior parts
of the cosmos.39

This prescription for meditation indicates a contemplative-visionary practice.

The verb taʾammala denotes both careful consideration and focused looking,
and the verb shāhada (“to witness”) suggests an outcome of a visual/visionary
nature. But what did this contemplative use of the diagrams look like in prac-
tice? Did the practitioner hold or prop the codex open to the appropriate leaf to
stare at it? Was meditation on the images done in groups, as many Sufi spiritual
practices—and medieval reading practices—were? Many early “readers” of al-
Būnī’s work, some of them illiterate, would have encountered the work only in
group settings, hearing rather than reading the text.40 How did listeners access
the diagrams?
As discussed by Evyn Kropf elsewhere in this volume, the Egyptian Sufi and
scholar ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 973/1565) al-Mīzān al-kubrā, itself a
work replete with instructive diagrams, includes an account of his illiterate
Sufi master drawing a diagram on a wall with a stick to illustrate his response
to a query about the relationship between the schools of law.41 I would argue
that a shaykh teaching the Laṭāʾif would have done something similar to al-
Shaʿrānī’s, restricting his pictorial efforts to the basic geometrical shapes of the
diagrams while reciting the textual components and probably adding his own
exposition. Literacy is not a precondition for graphicacy in such a setting, as
listeners could memorize the relatively simple shapes along with the texts of
the labels and/or the images the labels describe. Indeed, the likely physical

39 BnF ms arabe 2658, fol. 52b, immediately beneath the figure-fol. 53a. Man taʾammala
sirr al-rāʾ wa-kayfa rattaba Allāh wadʿa-hā fī al-ʿālam al-lawḥī shāhada ʿajāʾib maṣnuʿāt
Allāh taʿālā wa-ʿabara ʿalā sirr al-rūḥ wa-kayfa qāmat bi-l-amr li-sirr al-taḥkīm wa-stadārat
falakan muḥīṭan bi-ajzāʾ al-ʿālam ʿulwiyya wa-sufliyya. al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 52b. This concept
of God’s command being expressed as ordinances (s. ḥukm) which manifest in circu-
lar/cyclical form is another element of Ibn Barrajān’s thought adapted by al-Būnī. See
Casewit on Ibn Barrajān’s concept of “cycles of determination,”Mystics of al-Andalus, 283–
288.
40 As I have discussed elsewhere, paratexts in some early copies of the Laṭāʾif indicate that
al-Būnī himself employed the practice of “audition” (samāʿ)—reading a text aloud to a
group of listeners—in promulgating this and other of his works to his followers, and later
teachers of the work can be assumed to have sometimes done the same; Gardiner, “Eso-
tericist Reading Communities,” 424–436.
41 See Evin Kropf, chapter seven in this volume, entitled “‘Sensible Images’: Pictograms in the
Manuscript Transmission of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 973/1565) al-Mīzān al-kubrā,”
291.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 35

constraints on reproducing the diagrams in group settings are one indication

that, with regard to contemplation, the imagination of the practitioner was the
main medium on which these figures were to be inscribed. This is suggested
in a roundabout way by the tentative note regarding the denizen of the low-
est sphere, “I think it is a bull or a lion,” hinting that al-Būnī himself received
a vision of the diagram in the ʿālam al-nafs which he then struggled to capture
on the page. Certainly the description of the human figure on the dais evokes a
picture in the mind’s eye—or the heart’s eye, as it would more likely be phrased
in Sufi discourse.
Another diagram discussed later in the Laṭāʾif, that of the letter ṭāʾ (Fig-
ure 4/Plate 1.4), further suggests that the diagrams were meant to be visualized,
and is thus worthy of a brief digression. The figure is graphically simple: just
a circle with text in the center and more text around its perimeter. The cen-
ter text describes an image (ṣūra) of a peacock with four wings with nine ṭāʾ-s
on each—an image said to resemble the angels. It goes on to emphasize that
only the “people of the inner meaning” (ahl al-bāṭin) will understand its secret,
ṭāʾ being one of the letters of God’s name al-bāṭin (“the hidden”). It concludes:
“Upon each wing is that which arises from among the worlds, God willing.” This
last sentence clearly relates to the secrets of the throne, pen, dais, and tablet
mentioned in the perimeter text as being upon each wing, the four of which
correspond to al-Būnī’s four main worlds. The perimeter text ends by mention-
ing: “Upon the breast is the secret of the celestial spheres, and the back is the
divine command (al-amr).” The minimalist nature of the figure all but demands
imaginative visualization, particularly as the mention of the peacock’s “back”
endows it with three-dimensionality, while the “God willing” in the final sen-
tence of the center text indicates that success in doing so is not guaranteed. A
true member of the ahl al-bāṭin will presumably see the angelic peacock hov-
ering before him, but this is a practice, a skill to be learned and developed. This
ability to translate the diagram on the page into such a vision in the heart’s eye
is, I would argue, the essence of the special variety of graphicacy al-Būnī seeks
to instill.
Returning to the rāʾ-diagram, al-Būnī’s guidelines for inscribing it as an amu-
let also speak to the internalization of the figure:

He who writes it [rāʾ] on a parchment after eight days of fasting, [main-

taining] cleanliness, dhikr, and [the state of] sincerity, and writing with it
‘Our Lord (rabbu-nā), give us good in this world and good in the hereafter’
and every [other] verse in the Qurʾan with [the phrase] ‘Our Lord’, as well
as this figure and image, with the verses above the image in a circle around
it, and carries this inscription, God will not inflict the dread of poverty

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36 gardiner

plate 1.4 Ṭāʾ-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or.

80, fol. 56b; BnF 2658, fol. 75a; BnF 2657, fol. 52b)

Key to Plate 1.4

1. In its center is an image of a bird known as the peacock, except that it has four wings. This
means that the peacock multiplies images of the angels, who resemble this image. Upon
each wing are 9 ṭāʾs. No-one will understand the secret of the ṭāʾ except for the people of
the inner meaning by means of [spiritual] realization, because it does not appear except
in His name al-bāṭin and His name al-ṭāhir and His name al-ṭayyib. Upon each wing is
that which arises from among the worlds, God willing (wa-fī wasaṭi-hi ṣūrat ṭāʾir yuʿraf
bi-l-tāwūs illā anna la-hu ajniḥa arbaʿa wa-huwa aʿnī al-ṭāwūs akthara ṣuwar al-malāʾika
shabīha bi-hādhihi al-ṣūra wa-ʿalā kull janāḥ 9 ṭāʾāt wa-lā yafham sirr al-ṭāʾ illā ahl al-bāṭin
bi-l-taḥqīq li-anna-hu lam yaẓhar illā fī ismi-hi al-bāṭin wa-ismi-hi al-ṭāhir wa-ismi-hi al-
ṭayyib wa-ʿalā kull janāḥ mā qāma bi-hi min al-ʿawālim in shāʾa Allāh).
2. Upon the first wing is the secret of the throne ( fa-l-janāḥ al-awwal ʿalay-hi sirr al-ʿarsh).
3. Upon the second wing is the secret of the pen (wa-l-janāḥ al-thānī ʿalay-hi sirr al-qalam).
4. Upon the third wing is the secret of the dais (wa-l-janāḥ al-thālith ʿalay-hi sirr al-kursī).
5. Upon the fourth wing is the secret of the tablet (wa-l-janāḥ al-rābiʿ ʿalay-hi sirr al-lawḥ).
6. Upon the breast is the secret of the celestial spheres (wa-l-ṣadr ʿalay-hi sirr al-aflāk).
7. The back is the command (wa-l-ẓahr al-amr).

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 37

within him, and God will ease the sensory constraints for him and make
clemency and mercy manifest in his interior.42

In making the amulet, the practitioner bodily enacts the cosmogonic process
the diagram describes. A reflection of the macrocosmic Adam, his vegetal reed
pen (al-qalam being an avatar of the spirit, as noted above) inscribes God’s
mercy and lordship in mineral ink on animal-hide parchment. The instructions
for the material fabrication of the amulet can also be taken as an analog for
the work of imagination its contemplation requires, the care, labor, and time
required to make the physical amulet paralleling the construction of the fig-
ure in the heart’s eye. As for the “magical” action of the amulet, it is directed
entirely at the practitioner: the removal of fear, an easing of the sensory con-
straints that prevent access to the imaginal world of the soul, and the filling of
his interior (bāṭin) with divine mercy.
Of the other letter-diagrams that include instructions for rendering as amu-
lets, some are more outward-directed in their effects. The amulet based on
the diagram for the letter hāʾ (see Figure 5/Plate 1.5), for example, draws on
the powers of the angels named in the figure to afford the practitioner who
inscribes it on a silver signet ring “protection from the devil and the oppres-
sion of men.”43 Whatever the specifics, the function of the diagrams-made-
amulets is always to ensure the practitioner’s ability to pursue their path toward
spiritual attainment, thereby making themselves more perfect conduits of the
divine command. Ultimately, then, the amuletic and contemplative uses of the
letter-diagrams are entirely aligned.

42 Fa-man kataba-hā fī raqq baʿda ṣawm thamāniya ayyām wa-ṭahāra wa-dhikr wa-ikhlāṣ wa-
yaktubu maʿa-hā {rabba-nā āti-nā fī al-dunyā ḥasanatan wa-fī al-ākhira ḥasanatan} wa-kull
aya fī al-Qurʾān fī-hā rabbu-nā wa-hādhā al-shakl wa-l-ṣūra wa-ʿalā al-ṣūra al-ayāt dāʾiratan
bi-hā ḥāmil hādhihi al-maktūba lā yaḥdutha Allāh fī bāṭini-hi khawf al-faqr wa-yayasir
Allāh ʿalay-hi al-asbāb al-ḥissiyya wa-yaẓhur fī bāṭini-hi al-rāfa wa-l-raḥma. al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif,
fol. 53a. The internal quote is from Q 2:201.
43 ʿIsma min al-shayṭān wa-l-ẓulma min al-uns.

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38 gardiner

plate 1.5 Hāʾ-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80, fol. 41a; BnF 2658,
fol. 48b; BnF 2657, fol. 37b)

Key to Plate 1.5

1. This circle is a link to the circle of the determining powers from which emanates every
world from among the worlds, the superior and the inferior, the universal and the partic-
ular. By God, one who stands behind them [i.e. the angels named in the figure] is surroun-
ded (hādhihi al-dāʾira hiya nisbat dāʾirat al-maqādīr allatī min-hā tastamidu kull ʿālam
min al-ʿawālim al-ʿulwiyya wa-l-sufliyya wa-l-kulliyya wa-l-juzʾiyya wa-Allāh man warāʾi-
him muḥīṭ).
2. World of the [divine] reality (ʿālam al-ḥaqīqa).
3. [n.b. that nos. 3 and 4, which seemingly are meant to be read from the center outward,
present numerous variations and other difficulties across manuscripts, such that what is
represented here is effectively a collection of editorial guesses.] The hidden world of the
throne separated in the world of the pen in the luminous extrusion (ʿālam al-ʿarsh al-bāṭin
al-munfaṣil bi-ʿālam al-qalam bi-l-istimdād al-nūrī).
4. The manifest world of the throne connected to the world of the pen in the luminous extru-
sion (ʿālam al-arsh al-ẓāhir al-muttaṣil bi-ʿālam al-qalam bi-l-istimdād al-nūrī).

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 39

5. Connection of the lights (a) to the images and forms; (b) to the encompassing world of
the dais (ittiṣāl al-anwār a: bi-l-ṣuwar wa-l-ashkāl; b: bi-ʿālam al-kursī al-muḥīṭ).
6. World of the tablet (ʿālam al-lawḥ).
7. World of the images (ʿālam al-ṣuwar).
8. World of the intellectual emissions (ʿālam al-inbiʿāthāt al-ʿaqliyya).
9. World of the spiritual emissions (ʿālam al-inbiʿāthāt al-ruḥiyya).
10. World of Gabriel (ʿālam Jibrāʾīl).
11. World of Michael (ʿālam Mīkāʾīl).
12. World of Israfil (ʿālam Isrāfīl).
13. World of Azrael (ʿālam ʿAzrāʾīl).
14. Ranks of the dispositive angels from the intellect (marātib al-amlāk al-mutaṣarrifīn min
al-ʿaql).
15. Ranks of the dispositive angels from the dais in the world of the images (marātib al-amlāk
al-mutaṣarrifīn min al-kursī fī ʿālam al-ṣuwar).

∵
We have already seen that the rāʾ-diagram is an image of the divine throne (al-
ʿarsh), portrayed as the all-encompassing outermost sphere of the cosmos from
which God’s mercy flows inward. The final two figures addressed in this paper
belong to the other two letters of the word ʿarsh, ʿayn and shīn, and are also
representations of the throne. Appearing one after the other in the text, these
figures, along with al-Būnī’s commentary on them, speak further to the vision-
ary nature of the diagrams while also enacting dizzying shifts of cosmological
perspective. I argue in what follows that these shifts of perspective are inten-
ded to compel the practitioner to resolve the multiple cosmic visions of the
diagrams into a whole, and to gain thereby an experiential understanding of
al-Būnī’s conception of human participation in cosmogony.
Much of al-Būnī’s introductory commentary on shīn revolves around its
numerical value of 1000—this in accordance with the western system of abjad
values to which he adheres throughout his oeuvre.44 This makes it the highest-
value letter in the alphabet and, in that sense, the final letter. The numerical
relationship of 1000 to one causes shīn to resonate with alif, which is associ-
ated with the intellect and the throne, such that shīn can be seen as the fullest,
lowest extension of the alif as it unfolds into cosmos. This is one of many ideas

44 Indeed, one of the surest ways to identify pseudo-Bunian texts is their frequent reliance
on eastern abjad values. The western values are as follows: alif = 1, bāʾ = 2, jīm = 3, dāl = 4,
hāʾ = 5, wāw = 6, zāʾ = 7, ḥāʾ = 8, ṭāʾ = 9, yāʾ = 10, kāf = 20, lām = 30, mīm = 40, nūn = 50, ṣād
= 60, ʿayn = 70, fāʾ = 80, ḍād = 90, qāf = 100, rāʾ = 200, sīn = 300, tāʾ = 400, thāʾ = 500, khāʾ =
600, dhāl = 700, ẓāʾ = 800, ghayn = 900, shīn = 1000. The eastern system differs in that sīn
= 60, shīn = 300, ṣād = 90, ḍād = 800, ẓāʾ = 900, and ghayn = 1000, with the other values
remaining the same.

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40 gardiner

rendered visible in the shīn-diagram (Figure 6/Plate 1.6). The figure shows the
throne as three circles (perhaps meant to recall the three curves in the let-
ter) in an overlapping vertical stack. The overlaps define five regions, with only
the third/middle region partaking of all three circles. The three circles are the
worlds (ʿawālim) of the three letters of the word ʿarsh, the top circle that of
ʿayn, the middle that of rāʾ, and the bottom that of shīn. Functioning as a sort
of Venn diagram trés avant la lettre, the labels in the five regions defined by the
overlapping circles describe the interactions of these letter-worlds.

plate 1.6 Shīn-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80,
fol. 60b; BnF 2658, fol. 82a; BnF 2657, fol. 57a)

Key to Plate 1.6

1. This is the world of the ʿayn written in the secret of the throne, and it is the first mani-
festation revealed by the lights of the existents of the malakūt from among the luciform

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 41

secrets (hādha ʿālam al-ʿayn al-marsūm fī sirr al-ʿarsh wa-huwa awwal mubādī mā tajallā
li-l-anwār al-akwān al-malakūtiyyāt min al-asrār al-nūrāniyyāt).
2. This is the world of the rāʾ casting down upon the shīn and receiving from the ʿayn the
secret of might and the secret of mercy, and it is that which is in the manifestation of the
jabarūt-al, thronal descenders[?] (hādhā ʿālam al-rāʾ al-mulqī ʿalā al-shīn al-mutalaqqī ʿan
al-ʿayn sirr al-ʿizza wa-sirr al-raḥma wa-huwa mā fī mubādī al-tanzīlāt[?] al-ʿarshiyyāt al-
jabarūtiyyāt).
3. This is world of the shīn receiving from the reality of the rāʾ and the reality of the ʿayn,
and it, in this third level, is cast from the first of the worlds of the expansive dais, that
which is the first world of the highest malakūt. And that is in accordance with what
is in it from the secret of the particularized nūn. The nūn in the world of gathering is
linked to his/its heart, and in the world of extension is linked to everything emanat-
ing from the jabarūt-al world. Everything emanating from all the worlds of the dais is
a letter emanating from a letter (hādha ʿālam al-shīn al-mutalaqqī ʿan ḥaqīqat al-rāʾ wa-
ḥaqīqat al-ʿayn wa-huwa fī hādhihi al-martaba al-thālitha mulqī ʿan awwal ʿawālim al-kursī
al-wāsiʿ alladhī huwa awwal ʿālam al-malakūt al-aʿlā wa-dhālika bi-mā fī-hi min sirr al-
nūn al-tafṣīlī fa-l-nūn fī ʿālam al-jumla nisbat qalbi-hi wa-fī ʿālam al-tafṣīl nisbat kull yast-
amidu bi-l-ʿālam al-jabarūtī kull yastamidu min kull ʿawālim al-kursi ḥarf yastamidu min
ḥarf[?]).
4. This is the secret of the shīn in the inferior world and how the superior realities are con-
joined with the realities of the inferior dispositive forces, and what lights are from them
(hādha sirr al-shīn fī ʿālam al-suflī wa-kayfa ittaṣalat ḥaqāʾiqu-hā al-ʿulwiyya bi-ḥaqāʾiq
taṣārīfi-hā al-sufliyya wa-mā ʿan-hā min al-anwār).
5. This is the secret of rāʾ and how it connection in the inferior world is contemplated[?]
from the center of the world of the great throne. As for the ʿayn, it has no relation to the
inferiors. Do you not see that there perdured in it no site for descent/revelation? (Hādha
sirr al-rāʾ wa-kayfa tadabbara[?] ittiṣāla-hā fī al-ʿālam al-suflī min awsaṭ ʿālam al-ʿarsh al-
ʿaẓīm wa-ammā al-ʿayn fa-lā nisba la-hu fī al-sufliyyāt a-lā tarā anna-hu lam yabuq la-hu
maḥall fī al-tanzīl).

The first and uppermost region, which is the part of the circle of ʿayn that over-
laps with neither of the others, is described as the world of the ʿayn in which
the first of the “luciform secrets” (al-asrār al-nūrāniyyāt) manifest (tajallā).
The second region, created by the overlapping of the circles of ʿayn and rāʾ,
is the world of the rāʾ receiving the secrets of might (al-ʿizza) and mercy (al-
raḥma) from the ʿayn and transmitting them downward to the shīn. In doing
so it is the vehicle of the forces descending from the jabarūt; this is the realm
of divine lights metaphysically prior to the malakūt, and for al-Būnī it may be
synonymous with the world of the spirit. The third region, a horizontal vesica
piscis that participates in all three circles and is the visual focus of the diagram,
is the world of the shīn. Gathering from the “realities” of the worlds above it
(ḥaqīqat al-rāʾ wa-ḥaqīqat al-ʿayn), it marks the highest levels of the malakūt,
here identified with the world of the divine dais (al-kursī). In other words, this
seems to be the imaginal ʿālam al-nafs discussed previously, where the light of
divine speech/spirit manifests in the images/forms forged by the angels of the

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letters.45 Mention is made here of the “particularized nūn” (al-nūn al-tafṣīlī),

which here relates to the final nūn in shīn. For al-Būnī, particularization is part
of the process of the descent of being from the godhead whereby God’s univer-
sal commands are made manifest as particularized entities, events, etc. Nūn is
also the letter he associates most strongly with the divine pen,46 and the idea
here seems to relate to the pen transforming divine speech/light into the letter-
based images of the world of the soul. The fourth region, which partakes of
the circles of rāʾ and shīn, is described as “the secret of the shīn in the inferior
worlds” (sirr al-shīn fī al-ʿawālim al-sufliyya). It is promised that the adept will
see here how the superior realities become dispositive powers (taṣārīf ) in the
inferior worlds, i.e. the morphological forces of manifest existence. The fifth
region is located only in the circle of shīn, but it is described as the secret of rāʾ
conveying the forces of the throne into the inferior worlds. It is also noted here
that the world of the ʿayn has no corresponding relation to the inferior worlds:
“Do you not see that there perdures no site of descent/revelation for it?”47 In
other words, the highest and lowest parts of the throne have no unmediated
contact.
In the conclusion to the shīn section following the diagram, al-Būnī asserts
that only “one who contemplates the meaning of this shape and understands
its secrets will learn that which is revealed from among the lights of the throne
and what among them connects to the inferior world.”48 He then links the
shīn and its diagram alliteratively to shahāda (“witnessing”), emphasizing the
personal, visual/visionary experience that awaits the practitioner who contem-
plates the figure (wajadta li-l-shahāda shuhūdan wa-mushāhadatan). Finally, he
returns to the point that the lights of the world of the ʿayn do not reach into
the inferior realm at the base of the figure, i.e. the manifest world, noting that
the exception to this is the revelations made to the prophets and the “elites
among the believers” (khawāṣṣ al-muʾminīn) who are the “people of witness-
ing” (ahl al-shuhūd). The horizontal vesica piscis at the center of the figure is

45 The description ends with a cryptic statement made more difficult by variations across
manuscripts: either “The world of the dais is a letter emanating from a letter” (ʿālam
al-kursī ḥarf yustamadd min ḥarf ) or “The world of the dais is a part emanated from
a part” (ʿālam al-kursī juzʾ mustamadd min juzʾ). The meaning in either case, I think, is
that the world of shīn is one of particularized entities rather than the lights of the higher
worlds.
46 See Figure 1 (Plate 1.1), when nūn is assigned to the pen. This association is perhaps due to
the disconnected nūn at the head of Sūrat al-Qalam (Q 68:1).
47 A-lā tarā anna-hu lam yabiq la-hu maḥall fī al-tanzīl.
48 Wa-hādhā al-shakl man tadabbara maʿnā-hu wa-fahama asrāra-hu ʿalama mā tajallā min
anwār al-ʿarsh wa-mā yattaṣil bi-l-ʿālam al-suflī min dhālika. al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 82a.

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 43

perhaps the image of the opened eye of the adept’s soul, partaking of the lights
of the thronal ʿayn (“eye”) and thus becoming the conduit between the lights
and the inferior world. In sum, after the prophets, it is only those spiritual elites
capable of attaining to the world of shīn who can witness the higher realities.
Contemplation of the figure is given as a means of achieving this ecstasy of
witnessing, of being caught up into the higher reaches of the throne amidst
the angels.
Immediately following the section on shīn is that on the letter ʿayn and its
diagram. In the commentary, al-Būnī dwells largely on ʿayn’s numerical value
of seventy. Because seventy is a multiple of seven, the letter is linked to the
seven heavens and earths of Qurʾanic cosmography. The number also links the
letter to the hadith that were it not for the “seventy veils of light and dark-
ness” concealing God’s face, the sight of it would destroy all who looked upon
it.49 Because ʿayn is the first letter of ʿarsh, the letter is also intimately asso-
ciated with the throne. The diagram (Figure 7/Plate 1.7) portrays the throne
and the cosmos it incubates as the multi-part instantiation of the divine com-
mand or decree (amr). The main structure is a circle in which is a series of six
semi-ellipses that define seven regions within the circle. The whole is bisected
vertically by an axis formed by the words “the world of the [divine] command”
(ʿālam al-amr). The uppermost region is labeled: “This is the world of the ʿayn
which encompasses the world of created things in all its particulars (tafṣīlan),
and it is the secret of the throne.”50 The labels in the lower six regions describe
each as a world in some relation to the ʿayn of al-ʿarsh. The second through
fourth regions are the worlds of the pen, footstool, and tablet respectively,
each of which is “encompassed by the ʿayn” (muḥīṭ bi-hi al-ʿayn) by virtue of
a “secret,” e.g. the “secret of the nūn” (sirr al-nūn) which determines the world
of the pen. The sixth region represents “the world of the seven celestial spheres,
which are encompassed by the secret of the thronal ʿayn like the egg encom-
passes the yolk.”51 As for the seventh region, it is “the dwelling place of the
[divine] command” (mustaqarr al-amr), the manifest world as the culmina-
tion of the emanations of the elemental and celestial spheres, the angels, the
imaginal forces of the dais, and various other powers of the higher planes of
existence.

49 al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 83a. A great number of variations of the hadith are extant. They gener-
ally begin: Inna li-Llah sabʿīn ḥijāban … Many variants have the number of veils at 70,000
rather than 70.
50 Hādhā ʿālam al-ʿayn al-muḥīṭ bi-ʿālam al-akwān tafṣīlan wa-huwa sirr al-ʿarsh.
51 Hādhā ʿālam al-aflāk al-sabʿa al-muḥīṭ bi-hā sirr al-ʿayn al-ʿarshī ka-iḥātat al-bayḍ bi-l-ṣufra
[or al-ṣafra, though one would expect ṣafār; the form is unusual, but the meaning is clear].

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44 gardiner

plate 1.7 ʿAyn-diagram. Aḥmad al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Berlin Or. 80,
fol. 61b; BnF 2658, fol. 84a; BnF 2657, fol. 58b)

Key to Plate 1.7

1. The world of the command (ʿālam al-amr).
2. This is the world of ʿayn encompassing the world of the existents particularizingly. It is
the secret of the throne (hādha ʿālam al-ʿayn al-muḥīṭ bi-ʿālam al-akwān tafṣīlan wa-huwa
sirr al-ʿarsh).
3. This is the world of the pen encompassed by the ʿayn through the secret of the nūn that is
the interior of the pen in extension (hādha ʿālam al-qalam al-muḥīt bi-hi al-ʿayn min sirr
al-nūn alladhī huwa bāṭin al-qalam ʿalā al-tafṣīl).
4. This is the world of the dais encompassed by the ʿayn by means of the superior thronal
secret emanated upon the world of the dais (hādha ʿālam al-kursī al-muḥīṭ bi-hi al-ʿayn
bi-l-sirr al-ʿarshī al-ʿulwī al-mufīḍ ʿalā ʿālam al-kursī).
5. This is the world of the tablet encompassed by the thronal ʿayn by means of the previously
inscribed nūn-al secret (hādha ʿālam al-lawḥ al-muḥīṭ bi-hi al-ʿayn al-ʿarshī bi-l-sirr al-nūnī
al-mutaqaddim rasmi-hi).

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 45

6. This is the world of the seven celestial spheres encompassed by the secret of the thronal
ʿayn like the eggwhite surrounds the yolk (hādha ʿālam al-aflāk al-sabʿa al-muḥīṭ bi-hā sirr
al-ʿayn al-ʿarshī ka-iḥāṭa al-bayāḍ bi-l-ṣufra).
7. This is the world of the globes that are the composed elemental centers, encompassed by
the celestial spheres by means of the secret of the ʿayn (hādha ʿālam al-ukar al-marākiz
al-ʿunṣuriyya al-tarkība al-muḥīṭ bi-ha al-aflāk bi-sirr al-ʿayn).
8. This is the dwelling place of the [divine] command that causes to dilate the elemental
globes, the spheres of the circle and the subjected angels, the image-producing dais,
and the preserved tablet in accordance with [divine] predetermination and the luci-
form pen that bears the secret of the command. It is the dwelling place of the images
and the superior spirits and the jabarūt-al tablets that are the signs of the absolutes.
Here are the secrets of the trellised gardens, and from them arises the [divine] mercy
established at the bottommost ends of existence, superior and inferior (hādha mustaqarr
al-amr alladhī yamuddu al-ukar al-ṭabīʿiyya wa-yamuddu al-aflāk al-dāʾira wa-l-amlāk al-
musakhkhara wa-l-kursī al-taṣwīrī wa-l-lawḥ* al-maḥfūẓ li-asbāb al-qadar wa-l-qalam al-
nūrānī al-ḥāmil bi-sirr al-amr wa-huwa mustaqarr al-ṣuwar wa-l-arwāḥ al-ʿulwiyyāt wa-l-
alwāḥ al-jabarūtiyyāt ishārāt al-muṭlaqāt wa-hahunā asrār al-jannāt al-maʿrūshāt wa-ʿan-
hā ṣadarat al-raḥma al-turtaba fī ākhir al-wujūdāt al-ʿulwiyyāt wa-l-sufliyyāt).

In the commentary that follows the figure, al-Būnī provides what amounts to a
guided meditation on the figure, including instructions about which elements
to focus on and the phenomena one will witness:

The relation (nisba) of what goes on in the circle is the relation of that
which is between the throne and the soil (al-tharā), and thus that which
is between every relation among the superior relations (al-nisab al-ʿulwiy-
yāt). It is made clear to you that the thronal ʿayn encompasses the es-
sences of the created things. Pay close attention to the secret of the com-
mand: How it descends from the uppermost to the bottom and returns
from the bottom to the uppermost to begin again. How it is one, and how
the emanation of the entirety of all the cosmos is from it. How it is one in
itself while the cosmos is multiple with regard to its planes and its types
of compositions. How the people of the right take from it a command
that conjoins them to God the highest, while the people of the left [take
from it] a command that distances them from God the highest, while He
is one in His essence. This is the secret of His saying: ‘It is Allāh who has
created seven heavens, and of the earth the like thereof. The command
comes down among them, that you may know that Allāh is powerful over
all things’ (Q 65:12).52

52 Fa-qad tabayyana la-ka iḥāṭat al-ʿayn al-ʿarshī bi-dhawāt al-akwān wa-anbah ilā sirr al-
amr wa-kayfa nazala min ʿulūw ilā sufl wa-rajaʿa min sufl ilā ʿulūw ʿawdan ʿalā badʾ wa-kayfa
huwa wāḥid wa-kayfa istimdād al-ʿālam kulli-hi ajmaʿi-hi min-hu wa-huwa wāḥid fī nafsi-

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46 gardiner

In visualizing the figure, then, it is as if one is standing on the soil and gaz-
ing at the seventh heaven, the six others partially visible beyond its horizon.
Following al-Būnī’s guidance, one is to see the continuous motion of efflux and
return, of unity producing and encompassing multiplicity, of the obedient and
disobedient portions of humanity being reabsorbed into the godhead or lost to
the churn. If, as discussed earlier, we can imagine a teaching-shaykh tracing a
diagram on the wall or in the dust on the floor while discussing its contents, al-
Būnī’s directives suggests that he might also verbally guide his disciples as they
contemplate a figure in the heart’s eye.
The diagrams of ʿayn, rāʾ, and shīn offer radically different visions of the
throne, different perspectives. How can they be resolved? Consider the rāʾ and
shīn diagrams, for example. It may be the case that the upper circle of the
rāʾ-diagram with the human figure on the dais is the same cosmic location
as the eye-shaped vesica piscis of the shīn diagram; that is, the place whence
the lights of the spirit and the superior worlds connect to the material below,
in which case insān (human) takes its alternate meaning as “pupil” too. Has
the macrocosmic Adam on the dais in the rāʾ-diagram disappeared from that
of shīn because the practitioner, attaining to the position of witness to which
al-Būnī promises access through the diagram, merges with Adam in the ima-
ginal world of the soul? In contemplating the figure of ʿayn, by contrast, the
first and highest letter of the throne, we seem to stand outside and view it as
a totality that is at once a unity and a multiplicity. But why do we view it from
beneath? Is it the perspective of one who has returned from his own miʿrāj? I
ask these questions not because they can be satisfactorily answered in an aca-
demic essay, but rather because al-Būnī implicitly lays the task of asking and
answering such queries before the practitioner. The diagrams, the graphicacy
required to internalize them, and al-Būnī’s comments in the text are a scaffold-
ing from which to begin the process of visionary ascent in search of answers
beyond the surface of the page.

hi wa-l-ʿālam al-mutaʿaddid min ḥaythu aṭwāri-hi wa-anwāʿ tarākībi-hi wa-kayfa akhadha

min-hu ahl al-yamīn amran yuwaṣṣilu-humu ilā Allāh taʿālā wa-kayfa ahl al-shamāl amran
yubaʿʿidu-humu ʿan Allāh taʿālā wa-huwa wāḥid fī dhāti-hi wa-dhālika sirr qawli-hi {Allāh
allādhī khalaqa sabʿ samāwāt wa-min al-arḍ mithla-hunna yatanazzal al-amr baynahunna
li-taʿlamū anna Allāh ʿalā kull shayʾ qadīr} (Q 65:12). al-Būnī, Laṭāʾif, fol. 84b. al-Būnī here
weaves together various Qurʾanic statements on the divine throne. His use of al-tharā (“the
soil”) is a reference to Q 20:5–6, “The Merciful Who is established above the throne / To
Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth (al-arḍ) and what is beneath
the soil (al-tharā)”; and the quote above ends with almost the entirety of Q 65:12 on the
seven heavens, no doubt presuming that the reader would fill in the final part of the verse:
“And God has encompassed all things in knowledge.”

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diagrams and visionary experience in al-būnī 47

∵
In concluding, let us return for a moment to the celestial spheres diagram (Fig-
ure 1/Plate 1.1). Aside from the letters appended to it, it is, for the period, a
common-sense picture of the cosmos, one that even non-graphicate members
of al-Būnī’s audience were likely able to grasp with a minimum of exertion. One
could even suppose that it activated their potential for graphicacy by straight-
forwardly representing familiar cosmological concepts in visual form. Begin-
ning from the alif-diagram, however, the figures would have been sources of
consternation and wonder, signposts of a mysterium tremendums et fascinans.
al-Būnī, I would argue, is counting on a sense of wonder to spur practitioners to
engage with the diagrams, to pursue the visionary praxis that doing so entails.
Over the course of the Laṭāʾif, al-Būnī guides the audience through a series
of visions keyed to the letters. The audience’s part in this process in anything
but passive. Rather, it is upon them to exercise the unifying capacity of their
soul—the great inheritance from Adam—and its organ, the imagination, to
resolve the multiplicity into a whole, a cosmos. Their participation in this pro-
cess is vital to al-Būnī’s message in that it mirrors, or even contributes to, the
most vital function of the hierarchy of saints, making and remaking the cosmos
so as to vouchsafe its continuing existence. In this, as with the esoteric astrolo-
gical material, the Laṭāʾif is at once a radical assertion of the awesome gnostic
power of the saints and an invitation to taste of it.
Finally, although the diagrams are contained in a book, contemplating them
was not intended as a bookish exercise, a puzzle for a lone scholar (the severe
limitations of such an approach are obvious from this paper). Rather, like other
Sufi spiritual exercises, work with the diagrams was meant to be done under
the guidance of one’s shaykh and in the company of fellow aspirants. Dhikr,
supererogatory fasting, and other regimens are regularly called for in associ-
ation with the diagrams, and their rendering as amulets can be understood as
one of various embodied practices for forging connections between the invis-
ible and visible worlds. Thus, even though much of the content of the Laṭāʾif
would have been alien to al-Būnī’s early readers in Egypt, he intended for it
to be taught, learned, and used in much the same ways that the Sufi tradition
had long been transmitted and internalized. This is vital to consider not only
with regard to understanding the conditions under which the Laṭāʾif and its
diagrams were encountered in their historical context, but also as pertains to
whether or not the diagrams ever succeeded in engendering the sort of vision-
ary experiences for which al-Būnī aimed. I would posit that the subjectivities
produced within late-medieval Sufi collectives were likely to be quite suscept-
ible to such experiences—certainly more so than is the case for those of us

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48 gardiner

laboring under the cognitive constraints of modern thought. In other words,

did the diagrams actually work in permitting some Sufis of the period to wit-
ness the wonders of the malakūt? The answer is probably yes.

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 chapter 2

Illustrating the Forms: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240)

Images in al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya

Ali Karjoo-Ravary

Introduction

On a winter night in 627/1231, the Andalusian Sufi Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad

Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) was finishing a chapter on one of the names of God,
“the Clear” (al-mubīn). After explaining that the names of God correspond to
forms, he wrote that he was overcome by a vision of spreading white light on
a red backdrop in the night sky. This vision was so important to him that he,
uncharacteristically, gave the date in both the Hijri and Julian calendars:

As I was writing this section on the fourth of Rabīʿ ii in the year 627, con-
current with the eve of Wednesday, the twentieth of February (ṣubāṭ),
I saw, in the actual world ( fī al-wāqiʿa), the Outward of the Divine He-
ness and its Inward reality in a verified witnessing the likes of which I had
never seen before in any place … and I illustrated (ṣawwartu-hā) its like-
ness/image (mithālan) in the margin just as it was, so whomever illustrates
it should not change it.1

Until 2010, all published editions of the text, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (“The Mec-
can Openings”), transmitted the image incorrectly (Plate 2.11), failing to capture
the looped triangle and the stylized “huwa” (“He” in Arabic, referring to God’s
Essence) within it.
While the role of images and the imaginal in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s metaphysics is
well-studied, his theory of visual representation is obfuscated by a faulty pub-
lication history and lack of attention to his own recension of the Futūḥāt.2

1 The first edition to transmit it faithfully simply scanned the image. Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad
ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb (Cairo: al-Majlis
al-Aʿlā li-l-Thaqāfa, 2013), 6:309 and Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-
Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al. (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā, 1329/
1911), 2:449.
2 The most detailed academic analysis of these images is Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Archi-

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52 karjoo-ravary

This is despite the fact that his use of visual representation was the begin-
ning of a long-lasting tradition of Sufi visual representation, and the theories
he articulated were of importance to multiple fields of intellectual and artistic
production.3 For Ibn al-ʿArabī, visual representation is independent of but com-
plementary to the prose of the Futūḥāt, and he identifies it with God’s teaching
through “image/similitude” (mathal) in the Qurʾan. These images are signific-
ant even in their rough details, and he writes that they carry an efficacy that
changes from hand to hand and which is wholly reliant on their shape and
look. Visual representation, he argues, is one “form” (ṣūra, a word that also
means image) among many (include “textual” forms like prose, poetry, etc.),
and each form contains an articulation of reality that is unique to it. In so doing,
he plays with the ambiguity of the Arabic words for form, ṣūra, and likeness,
mithāl/mathal, both of which also mean image, to tie visual representation into
the Prophetic tradition (sunna) and establish it as a part of the Shariʿa, which
in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s usage refers to the revealed sources of Islam, the Qurʾan and
Hadith. After detailing this theory, this article will consider the totality of the
visual representation of the Futūḥāt in reference to both the narratival con-
text of each image as well as the larger sequence of images throughout the
text. Through this, it aims to show that Ibn al-ʿArabī uses geometric and formal
continuity between these images to illustrate an unarticulated “three journeys,”
each from origin to return.4 This is an interpretive choice that is not meant to
be definitive. Rather, I hope to encourage creative engagement with this tra-
dition of visual representation so as to fully consider the ramifications of the
independence yet complementarity of image and text—instead of subjecting
image to text, what does image say that remains unarticulated in text? That
this approach is merited should be clear through the obvious cycling from one

tecture in Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State Uni-
versity of New York Press, 2012), though they occasionally appear in the secondary literature.
While discussing some of the images, it uses different adaptations of these diagrams and
maps as the basis to talk broadly about the cosmology of Islamic architecture. It does not
consider the roles of these images in the Futūḥāt and does not mark departures from Ibn
al-ʿArabī’s recension.
3 The notion of Ibn al-ʿArabī as the beginning of an entire school of visual representation is
from Ahmet T. Karamustafa, “Cosmographical Diagrams,” in The History of Cartography, Vol. 2:
Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, eds. James B. Harley and
David Woodward (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 83.
4 The notion of three journeys is elaborated in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s al-Isfār ʿan natāʾij al-asfār, a text
that can shed more light on these images in a future analysis. On the three journeys in al-Isfār
see William C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1998), 406n10, and Aboueleze Balkis, “Le voyage dans Kitâb al-isfâr ʿan natâʾij al-asfâr d’Ibn
ʿArabî : entre finitude et absolu,” Cahiers d’études hispaniques médiévales 30 (2007): 185–195.

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to many, from point to circle, and from high to low that runs throughout the
sequence of the images. All of this, I argue, is used by Ibn al-ʿArabī to imprint
the perspectival nature of reality unto the reader until they can “see with two
eyes,” an eye that negates and an eye that affirms, the identity of the cosmos
with the Real (al-ḥaqq) itself. His goal in turning to visual representation, like
the rest of his work, is to transform and expand the reader’s imaginal capacity
until they “see things as they are,” that is, see with the singular vision of the
Real, who is “the Sight of the Cosmos” (baṣar al-ʿālam).

1 The Images of the Futūḥāt and Their Reception

Ibn al-ʿArabī wrote the Futūḥāt twice, a first draft that was completed in 629/
1231 and a revision that was completed in 636/1238.5 While the first recension in
no longer extant, the complete thirty-seven volumes of the second recension
are held in Istanbul’s Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi. Written in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s
own hand, the second recension provides the best vantage point for studying
his approach to visual representation.6 This is particularly important as many
of these images have been altered throughout their reception history.
There are twenty-eight images in the entirety of the manuscript’s thirty-
seven volumes.7 Ibn al-ʿArabī uses verbs from the root r-s-m, meaning to etch,
design, or draw, or ṣ-w-r, meaning to form, shape, or make, to describe the act
of drawing these images. He describes the images with the words ṣūra, from
the aforementioned root, meaning form or image, and mithāl, a word meaning
image as well as likeness, semblance, and even simile.
Ibn al-ʿArabī uses the latter term to connect his use of visual representa-
tion to the Qurʾan, where the root m-th-l is used frequently associated with

5 For a comprehensive account of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s autographs and holographs see Stephen
Hirtenstein, “In the Master’s Hand: A Preliminary Study of Ibn ʿArabi’s Holographs and Auto-
graphs,” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 60 (2016): 65–106; and Jane Clark and
Stephen Hirtenstein, “Establishing Ibn ʿArabī’s Heritage,” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi
Society 52 (2012): 1–32.
6 The earlier edition exists in fragments and copies. The Konya manuscript can be found in
Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1845+. The published editions are not reliable when it comes to these
images. Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, mss Istanbul, Türk
ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi, Evkaf Müzesi 1845+. One of the volumes (9) and the last or first
pages of several other volumes are not in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s hand, but as there does not appear to
be any visual representation associated with those sections, it does not bear significantly on
the present study.
7 He does mention, though, that nine of these images are “faces” or “aspects” (wujūh) of a single
image.

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the process of God’s teaching, for instance Q 29:43 “These are the images that
God strikes for humanity; none grasps them save the knowers.” This serves to
entrench his use of visual representation in the sources of Islam, a strategy that
he bolsters in image 5 (Plate 2.5) where he reproduces an act of visual represent-
ation that is found in Muḥammad’s sunna. In the relevant hadith, Muḥammad
traced a set of lines in the sand to represent “the straight path,” the middlemost
line flanked on each side by lines that angle away from the center. By transmit-
ting the image, Ibn al-ʿArabī situates his own use of visual representation as an
imitation of the Prophet.
The first distinction among the images in the text is the hand in which they
are written. Fifteen are clear and made using tools like a compass or straight
edge while the rest are drawn without the aid of a tool. Fifteen also occupy
a full page or occur within the main text of the narrative, while thirteen are
marginal. Ibn al-ʿArabī alerts the reader to all but one of the marginal images
by specifying that he has drawn them “in the margin” ( fī al-hāmish). The only
marginal image that he does not reference is image 15, though the particular
passage is itself a discussion of image and likeness. In the thirty-seven volumes
of the Futūḥāt, each called safar in Arabic, the majority of the visual represent-
ation is found in the twenty-sixth volume where nine consecutive images are
found in the middle of the chapter. The placement and order of these images
is offered in Table 2.1.
While a full study of the reception of these images is beyond the scope of
this paper, it must be noted that a preliminary exploration of some later cop-
ies of the Futūḥāt found no copy that transmits these images without changing
them. There seem to be multiple traditions of transmission, for instance, Nuru-
osmaniye 2502 and Ayasofya 1974 (held at the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul)
and Arabe 1333–1335 (held at Bibliothèque nationale de France), are heavily
adorned copies likely for royal or elite consumption whose adaptation and
elaboration of some of the images are near identical to each other (but not
the holograph).8 All editions that I have seen transmit the nine consecutive
maps, with significant variations, but miss several of the smaller images. Even
those written in a careful scholarly hand only occasionally extend that care

8 Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye

Kütüphanesi, Nuruosmaniye 2502; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Ayasofya 1974; ms
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 1333–1335. For a similarly adorned manuscript
that was for royal consumption but whose images are part of a different reception history, see
Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ms Istanbul, Turhan Valide
Sultan Kütüphanesi 187.

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table 2.1 Organization of images in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Futūḥāt

Image 1 Safar 2 Chapter 8 Marginal Plate 2.1

Image 2 Safar 3 Chapter 17 Body Plate 2.2
Image 3 Safar 4 Chapter 47 Body Plate 2.3
Image 4 Safar 4 Chapter 48 Body Plate 2.4
Image 5 Safar 4 Chapter 64 Body Plate 2.5
Image 6 Safar 11 Chapter 73 Marginal Plate 2.6
Image 7 Safar 15 Chapter 177 Body Plates 2.7 & 2.8
Image 8 Safar 16 Chapter 188 Marginal Plate 2.9
Image 9 Safar 16 Chapter 198 Marginal Plate 2.10
Image 10 Safar 17 Chapter 198 Marginal Plate 2.11
Image 11 Safar 17 Chapter 198 Marginal Plate 2.12
Image 12 Safar 18 Chapter 260 Marginal Plate 2.13
Image 13 Safar 20 Chapter 297 Body Plate 2.14
Image 14 Safar 24 Chapter 360 Marginal Plate 2.15
Image 15 Safar 24 Chapter 360 Marginal Plate 2.16
Image 16 Safar 24 Chapter 360 Marginal Plate 2.17
Image 17 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Marginal Plate 2.18
Image 18 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.19
Image 19 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.20 right
Image 20 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.20 left
Image 21 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.21 right
Image 22 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.21 left
Image 23 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.22 right
Image 24 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.22 left
Image 25 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.23 right
Image 26 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Body Plate 2.23 left
Image 27 Safar 26 Chapter 371 Marginal Plate 2.24
Image 28 Safar 30 Chapter 471 Marginal Plate 2.25

to the images.9 The copyist’s choice to be careful always conveyed their own
understanding of how these images should be transmitted within the con-
straints of their medium and material situation. In other words, larger paper
meant more images on the same page, or access to red and gold ink allowed

9 For unadorned editions that clearly transmit some images see Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn
al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ms Istanbul, Milli Kütüphanesi Beyazid 3745 and ms Oxford,
Bodleian Library, Digby Or. 24–26.

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plate 2.1 [Ship]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1846,
fol. 91b)

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plate 2.2 Table ( jadwal) of the Natural Properties of the Letters (ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥurūf ) [of the
Arabic Alphabet]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1847, fol. 60a)

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plate 2.3 The Form of the Shape of the Species (al-ajnās) and Types (al-anwāʿ) without
Intending to Encompass them All, for Even the Types have their own Types until
They Reach Another Type, just as They End in the Species of All Species. Ibn al-
ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1848, fol. 47b)

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plate 2.4 The Issue of Circularity (dawriyya), and This Is Its Image. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-
Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1848, fol. 55b)

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plate 2.5 [The Path (al-ṣirāṭ)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1848, fol. 155b)

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plate 2.6 [Circle of the Prophets (al-nabiyyūn), the Truthful (al-ṣiddīqūn), the Witnesses
(al-shuhadāʾ), and the Righteous (al-ṣāliḥūn)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1855, fol. 110b)

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plate 2.7 [Grid Containing Eighty-Three of the Most Beautiful Names of God—First
Part]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1859,
fol. 81a)

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plate 2.8 [Grid Containing Eighty-Three of the Most Beautiful Names of God—Second
Part]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1859,
fol. 81b)

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plate 2.9 The Horn. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1860,
fol. 76b)

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plate 2.10 [Unfurled Scroll]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1860, fol. 148a)

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plate 2.11 Outward of the Divine He-ness and Its Inward (ẓāhir al-huwiyya al-ilāhiyya
wa-bāṭinu-hā). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi,
ms 1861, fol. 58a)

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plate 2.12 The Rope and The Bucket. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul
Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1861, fol. 96a)

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plate 2.13 [“Two bows or closer” (Q. 53:9)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istan-
bul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1862, fol. 126a)

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plate 2.14 [Ascents and Descents of Paradise and Hell]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1864, fol. 73b)

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plate 2.15 Possibility. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1868,
fol. 87a)

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plate 2.16 Perfect Human Being (insān kāmil). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul,
Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1868, fol. 95b)

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plate 2.17 [Real (ḥaqq), Separation ( faṣl), and Creation (khalq)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1868, fol. 111a)

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plate 2.18 [The Two Paths (al-najdayn)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf
Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 83b)

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plate 2.19 The Cloud and What It Contains Until the Throne of Sitting. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-
Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 90a)

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plate 2.20 The Throne of Sitting, the Footstool, the Two Feet, the Water upon Which Is the Throne, the
75

Air Which Upholds the Water, and the Darkness (right)—The Ultimate Sphere of Black Satin
(al-Aṭlas), the Gardens, the Roof of the Starry Sphere, and the Tree of Ṭūbā (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī,

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al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 90b–91a)
 76

plate 2.21 The Starry Sphere, the Domes of the Heavens and What Rests upon What They Settled Upon:
The Earth, the Three Pillars, the Support Through Which God Upholds the Dome, Minerals,
Plants, Animals, and Humans (right)—The Earth of Mustering and the Entities and Levels It
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Contains, the Throne of Division and Decree and Its Bearers, and the Rows of Angels (left).
Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 91b–92a)

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77

plate 2.22 Hell, Its Gates, Its Waystations and Its Descents (right)—The Presence of the Divine Names,
the World, the Hereafter, and the Isthmus (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istan-

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plate 2.23 The Dune of Vision and of the Hierarchy of Creation within It (right)—The Entirety of
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the Cosmos and the Ordering of Its Layers, of Spirit and Body, and of High and Low (left).
Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 93b–94a)

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plate 2.24 The Distant [House] (ṣūrat al-Ḍurāḥ). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 111a)

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plate 2.25 The Love of Generosity (ḥubb al-kirāma), the Love of the Slave (ḥubb al-ʿabd),
and the Love of Solicitude (ḥubb al-ʿināya). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya
(Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1874, fol. 60a)

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further elaboration. These points are noteworthy because Ibn al-ʿArabī himself
only used red ink when offering the nine consecutive maps, though it has long
faded, and he writes of the same images that, if he had room, he would draw
them as a single image. Some later transmitters likely took these textual indica-
tions as an opportunity to creatively adapt these images. Furthermore, it should
be noted that the notion of faithful transmission of image is contingent on cul-
tural specificity and, before the age of mechanical reproduction, would have
operated on a basis different than the transmission of certain types of text. In
fact, in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s own theory of visual representation, the effects of a shape
change from hand to hand, therefore necessitating the adaptation of an image
by every scribe into a form of their own.
The publication history has also had a troubled relationship to the images
of the Futūḥāt. Early editions suffered from technical difficulties in relation
to printing images as well as a lack of access to the second recension. The
19th century saw at least two published editions of the Futūḥāt, products of
royal patronage in Cairo, whose images were based on a manuscript tradition
that departs from the holograph in significant ways.10 These editions were later
improved by a team led by the famed Algerian scholar ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī

10 The first published edition of the Futūḥāt was printed at the Būlāq press (al-Maṭbaʿa
al-Amīriyya) in Cairo in four volumes between Dhū l-Ḥijja 1269/October 1853 and Muḥar-
ram 1274/August 1857: Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, 1st ed. (Cairo: Maṭbaʿa Būlāq,
1269–1274/1853–1857) University of Toronto—Robarts Library, https://archive.org/details/​
alfutuhatalmakki01ibnauoft/page/771/mode/2up. Accessed 14 February 2022. The first
volume is dedicated to ʿAbbās i (d. 1270/1854) of the Muḥammad ʿAlī dynasty and involved
an editing team led by the poet, scholar, and statesman, Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad b.
Ismāʿīl (d. 1274/1857). The next three volumes, produced respectively in Shawwāl 1270/July
1854, Dhū al-Qaʿda 1272/July 1856, and Muḥarram 1274/August 1857, are dedicated to Saʿīd
Pāshā (d. 1279/1863) and were edited by Aḥmad Abū Muṣliḥ al-Fīshāwī with the help of
Aḥmad al-Ibyārī. The volume ends with a short biography of Ibn al-ʿArabī by a member
of the editorial team, Muḥammad Qiṭṭa al-ʿAdwī. This edition was reprinted in 8 volumes
(two volumes for each original volume) at the same press, in Jumādā ii 1293/July 1876: Ibn
al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, 2nd ed. (Cairo: Maṭbaʿa Būlāq, 1293/1876) Early Arabic
Printed Books-bl: Religion and Law, tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/DQPtG0. Accessed 14 Febru-
ary 2022. This version was dedicated to Khedive Ismāʿīl (d. 1312/1895), who had recently
purchased the Būlāq press as a royal possession. The head editor of this project was
Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Dusūqī (d. 1300/1883), who wrote that he aimed to correct
the mistakes of the first edition. This version also includes a short biography of Ibn al-
ʿArabī from al-Maqqarī’s (d. 1041/1632) Nafḥ al-Ṭīb. For a guide to all of these, including
links, see Julian Cook and Claude Addas, “Six Printed Editions of al-Futūḥāt al Makkīyah:
a brief survey by Julian Cook and Claude Addas,” The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society, https://​
ibnarabisociety.org/futuhat‑al‑makkiyya‑printed‑editions‑claude‑addas/ (retrieved Feb-
ruary 14 2022).

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(d. 1300/1883), whose later life in exile gave him access to the second recension
which he used for this project. The project outlived him and was completed
in 1329/1911, and while it still makes significant departures from the holograph,
the images were edited to appear closer to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s own images.11 Yet this
edition still takes deep liberties with some of the images and should not be
considered a reliable source for the Futūḥāt’s visual representation.
It was only in the late 20th and early 21st century that attempts at critical
editions began to pay more attention to the images of the text. The first of
these was attempted by Osman Yahia (d. 1418/1997), who published fourteen
volumes between 1972 and 1992, covering less than half of the text, before his
death. Yahia was precise when presenting the few images that fell in his edition
and offered alternative images from the manuscript tradition in footnotes. The
first complete critical edition by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, first published
by the Ministry of Culture in Yemen in 2010 and then republished, with edits
(including of images), in 2013 by the Supreme Council of Culture in Egypt. This
is the edition that is referenced throughout this paper, but because it still has
difficulty transmitting some of images of the Futūḥāt, our focus remains on the
images that are in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s own hand.

2 Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Theory of Visual Representation

The contemporary bifurcation between text and image does not translate
clearly into the past, wherein the conventions of a given literary tradition and
the practical realities of writing could either close or widen the gap between
the two. Furthermore, visual representation predates writing (itself a form of
visual representation), and the persistence of certain forms in its long history
has given those forms a type of universality despite their continued contex-
tual specificity.12 This contextual specificity differs from person to person, as

11 It was completed under the guidance of Muḥammad al-Zuhrī al-Ghamrāwī in 1329/1911

at Cairo’s Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā Press through the patronage of a Kashmiri
merchant from Mecca, Fadā Muḥammad al-Kashmīrī, and his associates: Ibn al-ʿArabī,
al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, (Cairo: Maṭbaʿa Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā, 1329/1911)
Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, https://archive.org/details/Al‑Futuhat
Al‑makkiya/Guz1/mode/2up. Accessed 14 February 2022. The most significant corrections
happened in the sequence of nine maps. Of these, this edition is still easily accessible and
was reprinted in Beirut several times since 1968. A nine-volume edition was published in
1999 with indices under the editorial guidance of Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn of Dār al-Kutub
al-ʿIlmiyya.
12 See James B. Harley and David Woodward, The History of Cartography. Volume 1: Car-

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each interprets and gives meaning to visual representation based on their own
knowledge and perspective.13 A cleverly crafted image, then, can draw on a
reader’s expectations to induce particular realizations.
Ibn al-ʿArabī upholds the independence of visual representation without
placing it in a dichotomous relationship with text. He points out that all visual
communication is, in fact, shapes and forms. He makes this clear early, in
Chapter 17, in the middle of a discussion of how “symbols (rumūz) and allusions
(talwīḥāt)” are a distinct form of communication.14 He distinguishes between
different types of letters/words (ḥurūf ), classifying them as written (raqam-
iyya), vocalized (lafẓiyya), and recalled (mustaḥḍara), and explains that expres-
sions in each category have a power corresponding to the mechanics of their
articulation. Vocalized and “recalled” words (meaning those that can and are
called to the faculty of imagination, that is, they are memorized) are limitless,
the former remaining in the phenomenal world, forever echoing, and the lat-
ter remaining in the soul/imaginal world. Written words, on the other hand,
are finite, and remain effective for only as long as the series of shapes (ashkāl)
that are perceived through sight remain. He thereby distinguishes what is writ-
ten from not only the sounds and meanings that letters signify, but even the
internalization of those very shapes through memory. Each shape has a power
that is exercised on the soul of whomever sees it through a specific spirit (rūḥ)

tography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1987) and Karamustafa, “Cosmographical Diagrams,” 71–89.
As mentioned before, Karamustafa points out that the tradition of Ibn al-ʿArabī and his
students incorporate more cosmographical diagrams than many other Islamic textual tra-
ditions. For specific examples of earlier visual representation in Arabic, see Emilie Savage-
Smith and Yossef Rapoport, Lost Maps of the Caliphs: Drawing the World in Eleventh-
Century Cairo (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018); chapters 1–2 are particular per-
tinent for the visual background of the nine sequential images contained in the Futūḥāt
(Images 18–26/Plates 2.19–23). For illustration in general, particularly in relation to (sci-
entific) scholarship see Eva Hoffman, “The Beginnings of the Illustrated Arabic Book: An
Intersection between Art and Scholarship,” Muqarnas 17 (2000): 37–52. That illustration
was, from an early date, associated with scholarly and scientific works is an important
point for reading the Futūḥāt, which doesn’t style itself as a purely “Sufi” text, but rather
an exposition of all knowledge and a harmonization of the intellectual, transmitted, and
experiential sciences (in the broadest sense of the term). In this respect, it helps to place
it in conversation with broader cosmological debates, see particularly Liana Saif, “From
Ġāyat al-ḥakīm to Šams al-maʿārif : Ways of Knowing and Paths of Power in Medieval
Islam,” Arabica 64, nos. 3–4 (2017): 297–345, 322–326.
13 On how one interprets based on one’s foreknowledge, and the general relation between
seeing and cognition, see Richard L. Gregory, Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing (Prin-
ceton: Princeton University Press, 2015).
14 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 1:573.

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84 karjoo-ravary

that governs the shape, and whose existence is tied to its continued presence in
the actual world. If that shape is altered in the actual world, the spirit is imme-
diately changed. If it is erased, that spirit dies. To clarify this power of visual rep-
resentation, he offers image 2, a table ( jadwal) of the natural properties of the
letters (ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥurūf ) of the Arabic alphabet (Plate 2.2), complaining in the
process that he had come across many incorrect versions of it before.15 He then
explains that since the table is written, its efficacy is in keeping with its shapes,
and that their “act (ʿamal) differs with the differences of pens/hands/scripts
(aqlām).” He even writes that, if these letters are combined, creating a different
shape, their act, efficacy, and governing spirit again change. In other words, his
table is only accurate in the visual plane and in the specific way that he has
written; once copied in a different hand, its qualities change. If differences in
shape transmit different effects, we should not suppose that there is anything
arbitrary in the details of these images. Their subtlest aspects are meant to be
transmitted to the reader who, upon studying and recalling them, incorporates
not only Ibn al-ʿArabī’s knowledge, but even his own hand, into his or her ima-
gination.
Ibn al-ʿArabī further explains the independence of visual representation
from other forms of representation at the end of Chapter 371 in volume 26,
where the bulk of the Futūḥāt’s visual representation is located. Here, he offers
the aforementioned nine consecutive maps depicting “the order of coming into
being” (tartīb al-ījād). After presenting the nine images, he writes that “we will
now talk about every form (ṣūra) of it in another form (ṣūra) in regards to
what the situation is in and of itself, in nine chapters ( fuṣūl) just as we drew it
(rasamnā-hu) in nine faces (wujūh) of form-giving (al-taṣwīr). We didn’t place it
in order (al-tartīb) to set priority (al-taqdīm) or posterity (al-taʾkhīr), but rather
speech (al-kalām) about it clarifies what is prior or posterior to it, or what is
undifferentiated (al-mujmal) or differentiated (al-mufaṣṣal).”16 After offering
lengthy prose explanations of this order, he follows with a sermon in rhymed
prose and a qaṣīda poem, changing the order of cosmological features each

15 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1847 59b–60a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 1:577–578. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 1:188–190.
It is fruitful to compare his attitude in this section to that of his contemporaries who also
used visual representation, see Noah Gardiner, “Esotericist Reading Communities and the
Early Circulation of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad Al-Būnī’s Works,” Arabica 64, nos. 3–4 (2017):
405–441. See also Lisa Alexandrin, “ ‘Witnessing the Lights of the Heavenly Dominion’:
Dreams, Visions and the Mystical Exegeses of Shams al-Dīn al-Daylamī,” in Dreams and
Visions in Islamic Societies, ed. Ozgen Felek and Alexander Knysh (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 2011), 215–231.
16 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:328.

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time. He explains this change, writing that “our verses in this regard take a dif-
ferent path (ṭarīqa) when compared to the first configuration,” meaning the
earlier sequence of images.17 This, he explains, is because ranking and order are
a matter of perspective, and what appears as ranked above from one perspect-
ive can be ranked below from another perspective. In fact, all of being is “ranked
above as well as ranked below ( fāḍilan wa-mafḍūlan).” When looked at from the
perspective of totality, “this results in equilibrium (musāwā), as if one could say
there is none ranked above or below, only noble, perfect, and complete being
without any deficiency (wujūd sharīf kāmil tāmm lā naqṣa fī-hi).”18 It is only
for those who have “unveiled the affair as it is” to understand that the “order
of the cosmos (tartīb al-ʿālam) has varied pathways (mutanawwiʿ al-masāq), in
the oration (khuṭba) it has an order that is not in the poem (manẓūm), and so
on in the rest of the chapter.”19 Even literary forms, which also have their own
visual form in the Arabic manuscript tradition, are their own perspectives on
reality.
For Ibn al-ʿArabī, all written communication is primarily visual but subject
to different forms (ṣuwar/ṣūra), ranging from prose (nathr), poetry (naẓm),
rhymed prose (sajʿ), and image/illustration (mithāl).20 Each of these forms are
complementary to but independent of the others, and reality is articulated and
ordered in each in a unique way. For this reason, the independence of visual
representation is not only worthy of consideration, but intended, as it offers, for
Ibn al-ʿArabī, a perspective on reality that cannot be expressed through other
forms.
The last major feature of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s theory of visual representation is
his awareness of how the medium in which forms appear effects and limits
representation. Before starting the sequence of nine images, he writes that
“the place of the images of the shapes (mawḍiʿ ṣuwar al-ashkāl) gets tighter
here, without expanding in the way we want so that we could create a single
composition (tashkīl); if it did expand, it would have been clearer to the one
who sees it.”21 This articulation of the limits of the physical codex invites us
to consider the strategies he used to deal with these limitations as well as
potentials of the codex that are lost in an age of digital reproduction. In this
regard, for instance, it is clear that Ibn al-ʿArabī experienced the codex as a

17 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:368.

18 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:369–370.
19 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:370.
20 That is, when seen as written communication, when they are recited and heard or remem-
bered, they also have properties in keeping with the medium of air or the imagination.
21 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:319.

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86 karjoo-ravary

three-dimensional object that could be manipulated, and he frequently used

curved or reversed script (such as in image 4, 20, or 23, this latter correspond-
ing to Plate 2.22 right) to incite the reader to turn the codex, thereby imparting
a sense of dynamism to an otherwise static image.

3 The Images of the Futūḥāt

It is imperative that we consider the visual representation of the Futūḥāt in

light of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s argument that every “form” has an order unique to it. For
this reason, in addition to paying attention to each image, it is also important
to consider the overarching sequence of the images, just as attention has been
given to the overarching structure of the text itself.22 What follows is an intro-
duction and analysis of all the images in the Futūḥāt, their relationship to each
other, and the significance of the order in which they appear within the narrat-
ive. As mentioned before, I argue that they follow an unarticulated overarching
sequence that illustrates three journeys, building on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s own writ-
ings, wherein he indicates that “there are three journeys, without any fourth
that the Real has affirmed—a journey beginning at Him, a journey to Him, and
a journey in Him.”23 My intention here is not to be definitive but rather to har-
vest a portion of the full interpretive possibilities that the sequence of images
offers in order to approach a sense of what “unarticulated” meaning they con-
tain, as well as to encourage further creative engagement with this aspect of
the visual history of Islam.
I have divided images 1–6 into the first journey (Plates 2.1–6), images 7–16
into the second journey (Plates 2.7–17), and images 17–28 into the third journey
(Plates 2.18–25). The first cycle starts with a formal “opening” that leads into the
letters that are articulated on God’s breath, follows the unfolding of Being, and
ends in a rooting of visual representation in Muḥammad’s message and its rela-
tion to the degrees of return to God from the perspective of human becoming.
The second cycle begins with the names of God and how their imaginal forms
are encountered in the phenomenal world, emphasizing that the return is the
process of realizing that the line between the Real and creation is itself ima-
ginal, and that ultimately, everything is both Real and not Real. The third cycle,

22 An excellent starting point to thinking about the larger structure of the text is James
W. Morris, “Introduction” in The Meccan Revelations, ed. Michel Chodkiewicz (New York:
Pir Press, 2002), 17–20.
23 This is from Isfār ʿan natāʾij al-asfār and is quoted and translated by William C. Chittick in
Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 406n10.

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illustrating the forms 87

marking the journey in God, appropriately situates the journey from origin to
return within God, ending with the realization that creation is the reflection
of the Real, the One who sees and is seen. In this respect, creation is the out-
pouring of God’s self-love and humans are enveloped in that love from every
direction. In each of these journeys, the images cycle from smaller illustrations
to bigger ones and then end again in smaller ones, itself another way of mark-
ing the journey from Unseen to Seen. In this regard, I will also make note of
formal continuity between these diagrams, which I argue is intentional though
admittedly hard to prove. All of this is but one interpretation, but one whose
viability, I hope, is clear in the discussion that follows.

4 The First Journey

Image 1
The first image in the Futūḥāt begins a theme that runs throughout Ibn al-
ʿArabī’s use of visual representation—image is the primary mode through
which one must understand the revealed sources of Islam, the Qurʾan and
the Hadith, particularly when they appear illogical or irrational. Only through
image and the imaginal, which are capable of gathering opposites into a single
vision, can one understand that the apparent meaning of revelation is com-
pletely true and correct even as it appears contradictory to reason. The image,
a marginal drawing in Chapter 8, “On Knowledge of the Earth made from the
Remainder of Adam’s Clay, that is, the Earth of Reality” (Plate 2.1), occurs in
a section devoted to explaining such a hadith, “Honor your paternal aunt, the
Palm Tree, for she was created from the same clay as Adam.”24 This section iden-
tifies this paternal aunt with an entire “earth” separate from and larger than our
own cosmos.
Among the vivid images in this section, including peoples and lands made
of saffron, inverted cities, and fruits the size of our entire earth, the only thing
he illustrates is a rough schematic of a ship that was used on that earth (Plate
2.1). He explains that the oceans of that world were made of a liquid dust

24 ms Istanbul Evkaf Müzesi 1846 91b–92a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 1:411–417. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 1:126–130. This
hadith occurs in none of the standard sources, but was commonly circulated in the medi-
eval period onwards. One early occurrence is in the exegetical work attributed to Ibn Abī
Ḥātim al-Rāzī in his interpretation of Q 19:25, which mentions date palms. Ibn Abī Ḥātim
al-Rāzī, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Riyadh: Maktaba Nazār
Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, 1417/1997) 1:2405–2406.

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upon which rock-like objects floated through something like a magnetism. The
people of that world shaped these rocks into cylinders and used them to run
their ships. The semi-arched hull of the ship leads into a triangular bow. The
stern is flanked by two cylinders that jut out of the sides where they would pre-
sumably spin. The bow, the stern, and the two cylinders are all labelled. The
stern is not enclosed by a line because, he explains, that ocean’s water does not
splash, allowing the deck to be completely level with the sea.
The occurrence of the Futūḥāt’s first image in one of its most vivid sections
is likely not an accident, rather, it seems that Ibn al-ʿArabī uses the active state
of his readers’ imagination to introduce visual representation into his narrat-
ive.25 In this regard, its formal features must contain a significance beyond the
text. As the opening image, the image of a line that opens upwards draws on
“opening” as theme, termed fatḥ in Arabic. As a fatḥ, it calls to mind not only
the Futūḥāt as a text (“The Meccan Openings”) but also the first chapter of
the Qurʾan, al-fātiḥa (“the opening”). The formal similarity to the miḥrāb of a
mosque, the empty prayer niche towards which the ṣalāt is performed, orients
the reader’s imagination towards Being-as-Image. When read in tandem with
the narrative, the image of a ship marks a departure, embarking on an ima-
ginal journey with the vivid descriptions of the section, all of which activate the
reader’s imagination and stretch its boundaries until it can break past the lim-
its of earthly logic and thereby reflect on a world beyond paradise, with its own
people, religions, cities, and norms. The image of the ship thereby becomes a
vessel that prepares the imagination, a voyage that will bolster and be bolstered
by the narrative, but which ultimately also speaks a language that is independ-
ent of the narrative. The triplicity in the diagram is also of note, where one
point extends out in two lines that lead to three, two black lines and the hid-
den line in the middle. In Ibn al-ʿArabī’s metaphysics, triplicity is the root of all
creation, the product of the marriage between two things.26 As a beginning, it
also represents the beginning of all beginnings, the breath of God within and
through which the cosmos is articulated, and in this vein, the similarity to an
open mouth is noteworthy.

25 For another interpretation of this section, particularly in relation to poetry and its capa-
city to transmit realities, which sheds further light on the relation of the aforementioned
textual “forms” to one another, see Claude Addas, “The Ship of Stone,” Journal of the Muhy-
iddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society, 19 (1996): 5–24.
26 Triplicity is an important theme in Islamic cosmological literature, see Sachiko Murata,
The Tao of Islam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 151–152.

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illustrating the forms 89

Image 2
The second image is the previously discussed table, “the Natural Properties
of the Letters” (Plate 2.2). As Ibn al-ʿArabī’s discussion has already been con-
sidered, we will only take into consideration its visual features. Note the con-
tinuity from the previous image, the triangle at the top now extends down,
encompassing the letters of the Arabic alphabet which, for Ibn al-ʿArabī, are
the very fabric of creation.27 The numbers progress from the previous image,
one to three has led to four, and each of the four extends down into an array of
seven, for a total of four sevens, the twenty eight letters of the Arabic alphabet.
Four becomes the underlying principle at every level of creation, from the four
ruling properties (hot, cold, dry, wet, written above each triangle at the top, in
that order, from the right) all the way down to the four elements of the earth
(fire, water, air, earth, which will appear in the next image). Seven, as the com-
bination of three and four, marks the number of the “Imams of the Names,”
the leading names of God on which all other names rely.28 When we read this
image as the continuation of the previous image, which marked progression
from one to three, the arrays of seven can be added on to reach ten, the decad
which, building on Pythagorean symbolism, marks the completion of the first
sequence of numbers and the opening of unity to limitless diversity—from
what he calls “the Unity of the One” to “the Unity of Manyness” that allows
diversity.29
Note also that the letters of the Arabic alphabet (in the abjad order) in the
first row, starting from the right, alif, bāʾ, jīm, dāl, all incorporate shapes from
the previous image, whether from the straight lines that jutted out from the
side or the curving and bending shapes of the hull, as if each is now a ship
that prepares the faculty of the imagination to receive the visual effect of what
it sees and will see throughout the text. These continue from right to left in
each row, identifying each letter with a particular ruling property as identi-

27 On the letters as the building blocks of the cosmos see William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path
of Knowledge (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 128–129. On their cor-
respondence to the levels of creation see William C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God,
xxix–xxxii.
28 This relationship from triplicity to seven, eight, and beyond is found in many parts of
Ibn al-ʿArabī’s work, see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 228–229. On Pythagorean
number symbolism in Islam, see Seyyed Hossein Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cos-
mological Doctrines (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), 47–51. For a comparative and
accessible approach to number symbolism, see Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of
Numbers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), particularly 18–19. On the four elements,
see Murata, The Tao of Islam, 135–139.
29 Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 168–173.

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90 karjoo-ravary

fied at the top. Ibn al-ʿArabī uses a script here that differs from the rest of the
manuscript in its dotting. Only letters that occur after the third row from the
top have dotting, even if traditionally some of the letters at the top (like ba
and jīm) would be dotted and some later (like sīn or mīm) would not. This
could mark the gradation from unity at the top towards multiplicity at the
bottom. Since the dot is also an image of unity itself, it also marks the move-
ment from one dot to many dots, one beginning to many beginnings, just as
the apex of the top triangles moves from a dot to a knot from right to left. In
keeping with his aforementioned theory of visual representation, these shapes
are meant to transmit their ruling properties to the reader’s sight and, if they
accept them, imagination, where they will take on a life and activity of their
own.

Image 3
The next image (Plate 2.3) occurs in Chapter 47 in the midst of a discussion of
the relationship of a circle to its circumference. The image’s long label reads:
“the form of the shape of the species (al-ajnās) and types (al-anwāʿ) without
intending to encompass them all, for even the types have their own types until
they reach another type, just as they end in the species of all species.”30 Ibn
al-ʿArabī explains that circularity itself has multiple dimensions and trajector-
ies, and that every circle leads to multiple other circles in order “to distinguish
between the Being that is Necessary through Itself and between the possible
thing.”31 This image, corresponding to the decad, shifts from the line, triangle,
and quadrilateral to circular representation. The numerical progression here
from the previous image is also evident: the four of the previous image now
expands in eight directions for a total of twelve circles emanating from the cen-
ter, the first circle (or thirteenth if we shift perspective).
The image, drawn with a compass and centered on the page, continues the
visual progress of the images through the four points that form the apex of
the arches to the sides of the center circle, themselves formed from the over-
lap of the first four circles that emanate from the center. The center circle is
labelled “the Presence,” the four lines that come out of its circumference are
each labelled “relation.” These four lines are the radii of four other circles that
are labelled clockwise “life,” “knowledge,” “desire,” and “power.” These are the
four primary names (out of seven) and are now connected to the previously

30 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1848 47b–48a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 2:66–68. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 1:260–261.
For a translation and discussion of this see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 229–230.
31 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 2:67.

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illustrating the forms 91

mentioned cycles of four that started with hot, cold, dry, and wet on the pre-
vious image. The radii of these circles form the radii of other circles that read
clockwise “the pillar of fire,” “earth,” “water,” and “air,” the extension of the Nat-
ural Properties from the previous image. Four smaller circles are formed in the
corners of the diagram, reading clockwise again “the Intellect,” “Nature,” “the
Dust,” and “the Soul.” The powers of the first four primary names are disclosed
into each of the elements with which they are associated: life is disclosed in
fire, knowledge in earth, desire in water, power in air.32 The four smaller circles
in each corner combine four of the larger circles and contain six sections. Thus,
for example, in “intellect,” fire, earth, life, and knowledge meet. These combin-
ations reflect active and receptive pairs. Intellect acts upon the soul, soul acts
upon nature, and nature acts upon the Dust.
This is the first image where Ibn al-ʿArabī’s takes full advantage of the phys-
ical codex and uses the directionality of the script to force the reader to move
the book in a circle, emphasizing that these images are meant to be experi-
enced as objects, a feature that will remain consistent throughout.33 By using
script in such a way, Ibn al-ʿArabī emphasizes one of the main points of his
cosmology—reality is perspectival, and even the embodied act of reading is its
own perspective. By changing the direction of text, he alerts the reader to how
perspective shapes and limits their vision.
The semblance to a flower seems intentional as the self-disclosures of Being
are oft-described through the metaphor of a blossoming flower, and when read
in tandem with the previous image, can be seen as the cycle of the spade, the
seed, and the flower. In other words, the first image corresponds to the spade
which opens the earth, but is empty. The letters in the second image, riding on
the spade, correspond to seeds (or roots) that are planted in the open earth.
This image, third in the sequence, marks the blossoming of those seeds, the
flower of manifest being and the first image to incorporate the phenomenal
world. One becomes ones which become many. The reader’s imagination is
expanded until it realizes that the unfolding of being is not the relationship of

32 For an in-depth analysis and break-down of this diagram as well as its symbolism, see
Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam, 74–79. For more on these rela-
tionships in Sufi cosmology see Sachiko Murata, The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009), 243–244. Ibn al-ʿArabī gives a dif-
ferent version of this list elsewhere, reflecting again the importance of perspective and
form in how these connections are drawn out.
33 This reflects the use of calligraphy on other three dimensional objects in the material his-
tory of Islamicate societies. See Margaret Graves, Arts of Allusion: Object, Ornament, and
Architecture in Medieval Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 126–138.

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the center to one circumference, but of a center that produces infinite centers
and circumferences.

Image 4
The next image shifts from circular multiplication to cyclical progression from
origin to return. The image (Plate 2.4), centered on the page and drawn with
compass and straight edge, occurs at the beginning of Chapter 48 in a discus-
sion of cause and effect. It is labelled “the issue of circularity (dawriyya), and
this is its image.”34 His goal in this section is to show the interrelationship and
interdependence of God, the cosmos, and humanity. Having reached the low-
est points of the journey from origin to return, the image steps back four from
twelve, resulting in eight divisions. The circle, shaped like a ring, reads counter-
clockwise, and necessitates the reader’s interaction with the physical book. By
turning the book to read the image, the image moves as it is seen and commit-
ted to the imagination, allowing Ibn al-ʿArabī to convey dynamism within the
constraints of his medium. He further cements this point by writing that there
is no beginning point to this circle.
From the top right quadrant it reads, “the revealed paths (sharāʾiʿ) differ in
relation to the divine relationships (al-nisab al-ilāhiyya),” meaning that the dif-
ferent religions of each prophet differ in accord with the names of God. The
next two sections are labelled “the divine relationships differ in relation to the
states (al-aḥwāl)” and “the states differ in relation to the times (al-azmān),”
referring to how the states of humanity change with time, influencing how
they call out to God. Next, “the times differ in relation to the movements (al-
ḥarakāt),” identifying the progression of time with the movement of cosmic
and celestial bodies. This movement is then connected to God in the next quad-
rant, labelled “the movements differ in relation to the turnings of attention
(tawajjuhāt),” meaning the turning of God’s face towards a thing.35 Ibn al-ʿArabī
writes that these turnings are the root of all difference and differentiation in
the cosmos and without them, everything would move in the same manner
and with the same speed. The next label, “the turnings of attention differ in
relation to the goals (maqāṣid),” refers to the reasons why God wants a thing

34 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1848 55b–56a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 2:80–84. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 1:265–266.
It should be noted that, in this volume, Ibn al-ʿArabī switches between the paper he nor-
mally uses and paper that appears to be tinted slightly pink. While it is interesting that he
switches the paper between this and the previous image, to my eyes, his use of the two
papers does not seem to be anything beyond practical necessity.
35 The Arabic word for attention comes from the same root as the word for face/facing.

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to exist. This is followed by “the goals differ in relation to the self-disclosures

(al-tajalliyyāt),” bringing the discussion back to the continuous self-disclosure
of God, which, in the last quadrant, ties the circle back to the beginning: “the
self-disclosures differ in relation to the revealed paths.”
Ibn al-ʿArabī leaves a hollow center that emphasizes the ring-like nature
of the image, calling to mind the “turning spheres” of the heavens and high-
lighting the image’s relationship to time.36 The text in each box is doubled
so that each top line reads “x differs” and every bottom line reads “in accord
with the differences of y.” All the boxes mirror their direct opposites, raising
the possibility of another layer of correspondence between the cycles, namely
between “divine relationships” and “turnings of attention,” between “states”
and “goals,” between “self-disclosures” and “times,” and between “movements”
and “revealed paths.”
The formal continuity of this image with the previous one lies in the eight
surrounding points in the previous image, four at the end of the straight lines
labelled “relation” and four at the center of the smaller circles, which have, in
a sense, been pulled out to the edges of this circle to create its eight quadrants.
The contrast of the empty center of this image with the full center of the pre-
vious image imparts a sense of shifting perspective, and whereas the previous
image seemed floral this image appears solar in its symbolism. Note also that
this image and the previous one are on the same side of the bi-folio and close
enough in the same volume that the reader can flip back and forth between
them, visualizing their relationship and even imagining the former image in
the empty center of the latter, thereby imagining two types of movement (from
center to circumference and around the circumference).

Image 5
The fifth image (Plate 2.5) occurs in Chapter 64 “On Knowledge of the Resur-
rection, its Way-stations, and the Quality of the Rising (baʿth).”37 Eschatology
is a major feature of the Futuḥāt’s visual representation and, as a journey all
humanity must eventually make, its correct visualization is of utmost import-
ance to Ibn al-ʿArabī. This particular image is “the Path” (al-ṣirāt), the bridge
that rises from the Earth of the Resurrection to the walls of paradise, which he
identifies with the fourth waystation of the Resurrection and he will represent

36 The relationship of this image to human society and the passage of time is clearer in the
text, where Ibn al-ʿArabī ends the section by offering the circle of justice, which envisions
human society as a similar interrelated cycle, in poetic form.
37 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1848 155b–156a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 2:212–214. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 1:315.

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again in image 22 (Plate 2.21 left). He roots the image in Q 6:153, “This is my
straight path, so follow it …” writing that, “when the messenger of God recited
this verse, he drew a line, then drew lines next to it like this,” referring to image
5 (Plate 2.5).38 His discussion continues to talk about how humanity will be
divided into those who will fall off the Path into the punishment of hell, those
whose punishment is simply trying to cross the bridge, and those who cross it
successfully.
The shift from a representation of all “revealed paths” to the particular path
of Muḥammad, appropriately placed near the end of this journey (as the Seal
of the Prophets), roots visual representation in Muḥammad’s Shariʿa, comple-
menting Ibn al-ʿArabī’s interpretation of mathal in the Qurʾan as visual rep-
resentation. Note here that he not only refers to the hadith, but also repro-
duces the act it refers to, infusing the text with the Prophetic presence while
also situating his own visual representation in a chain reaching back to the
Prophet.
Outside of its discursive meaning, the image is, in a sense, a reduced version
of the upper half of the previous image. The text, circles, and quadrants have
disappeared and only the lines that vertically fall from the upper curve remain.
Numerically, there are seven lines here, one step closer to unity from the previ-
ous eight.

Image 6
The next image (Plate 2.6), the last in this journey, shifts to a circle split into
four quadrants (four steps closer to the origin). The image’s formal continu-
ity with the previous image is in the straight lines of the cross that mark the
body of the circle, which together bring the circle back into focus. Situated in
Chapter 73, it is part of a larger discussion of the ranks of humanity and the
Qurʾanic “friends of God” (Q 10:62), a term which includes groups that are not
equal, but are interdependent. He again uses a circle (like image 4/Plate 2.4) to
illustrate such a relationship.
The circumference of this circle consists of curved Arabic script that marks
four ranks of human beings, reading counterclockwise from the upper right
“the Prophets (al-nabiyyūn), the Truthful (al-ṣiddīqūn), the Witnesses (al-shu-

38 This is a reference to a hadith in Sunan ibn Māja, Book 1, Bāb 1, Ḥadīth 11. There is another
hadith, found in Bukhārī, Tirmidhī, and Ibn Māja, wherein the Prophet also draws a square
in the sand. See Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book 81, Bāb 4, Ḥadīth 6493 and Sunan al-Tirmidhī,
Book 33, Bāb 22, Ḥadīth 2642, and with different wording Sunan ibn Māja, Book 38, Bāb 27,
Ḥadīth 4372.

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hadāʾ), and the Righteous (al-ṣāliḥūn).”39 This is taken from Q 4:69, “Who-
ever obeys God and the Messenger is with those whom God has blessed—the
Prophets, the Truthful, the Witnesses, the Righteous—what beautiful compan-
ions are they.” There is an ascent in station from the lower right quadrant to
the upper right quadrant, visually arguing that the end of Prophecy is right-
eousness, and all the Prophets are righteous, even if not all the righteous are
prophets.
As a representation of the furthest limits of human becoming, which itself
is a further allusion to the Qurʾanic verse about creation’s final homecoming,
we reach the end of our hypothesized first journey. As a cycle, this journey
began in Him, with the formal opening of being and its articulation through
the shapes of the Arabic alphabet, moved to the circular and cyclical process of
hierarchical differentiation that marks creation, then switched to the specific
language of Islam, rooting visual representation in the Sunna while ending in
the goal of human becoming, friendship with God. This friendship is most per-
fectly embodied in the person of the Prophet. In other words, this first journey,
by resulting in the ultimate guide, is the means through which the second jour-
ney, the journey to God, is possible.

5 The Second Journey

Image 7
Image 7 is a use of text as image that is lost in most published editions of
the Futūḥāṭ, including the most recent edition. Situated in Chapter 177, Ibn
al-ʿArabī offers eighty three of “the most beautiful names of God” (Q 59:24),
collected from the Qurʾan and Hadith, writing that this is as “it was transmit-
ted from our shaykhs from their shaykhs” (Plates 2.7–8).40 These names are
arranged in a grid that is situated on two sides of the same folio and, despite
the page break, the grid reads horizontally and diagonally in both directions.

39 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1855, 110b–111a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 4:330. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:26–27.
40 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1859, 80b–82a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sul-
ṭān al-Manṣūb, 5:553. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:302–303.
Elsewhere he talks about the ninety-nine names, see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God,
173–175. I admit that this is the hardest section to present as an image because, like any
other premodern text in Arabic script, scribes play with spacing to mark changes in types
of text frequently. There are some places in the Futūḥāt where Ibn al-ʿArabī plays with
text in a similar way, such as in Safar 5 (ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1849, fols. 101a–102b),
but after going through the manuscripts several times I still believe that this particular use
is meant to function as a type of visual representation.

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This recalls the multidirectional and circular nature of reality and serves as a
tool for committing these names to the imagination, encapsulating them in a
form that can be recalled when needed.
To receive the totality of the “most beautiful names” as they are configured
in the revealed sources of Islam prepares the reader for another journey, now
from the perspective of Muḥammad’s specific revelation. This is the journey to
God, wherein the revealed book opens the cosmic book to help the seeker see
that the phenomenal world is nothing but the names of God, the “meanings”
behind the “forms” of the world. In this regard, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s preservation of
the “form” of this transmission at the expense of textual continuity serves to
incorporate the reader into the same chain. The reader’s receipt of this form
connects them visually to the Prophet through Ibn al-ʿArabī preparing them
for their second journey. Thus, the next four images are concrete visual mani-
festations of metaphysical realities.

Image 8
The next image is found in Chapter 188, “On Knowledge of the Station of Vis-
ions, that is, Glad Tidings,” and it is of “the Horn,” (Plate 2.9) which is the means
through and the place in which creation happens.41 He plays on the linguistic
similarity between the horn that marks the Day of Resurrection, al-ṣūr, and
“form” (ṣūra) to establish it as an image of everything other than God, repres-
enting the totality of the imaginal world where forms can be seen.42 God, as
“the Real,” blows into it from the bottom and all worlds appear in its body until
reaching, at the top, the corporeal world where forms are constantly enter-
ing and leaving.43 The image of God blowing on the horn recalls not only
the aforementioned horn of the day of Resurrection but also the “Breath of
the All-Merciful,” a key concept in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s cosmology. He also iden-
tifies the Breath as the first existent thing and the place of creation where
things come to be as “words” or “letters” (ḥarf ), articulations on the breath of
God.
As a depiction of the entirety of the imaginal world, it is also where every
articulated name and entity acquires an image. In this regard, its continuity
with the previous image emerges, the horn is the medium through which the

41 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1860, 76b–77a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 6:113. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:375–380.
42 For more on the Imaginal World see Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 112–121.
43 For more on the horn and an interesting adaptation of this diagram, see Chittick, The Sufi
Path of Knowledge, 14–16.

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previous array of the names of God take form. While the names, inasmuch as
they belong to God, are prior to all existent things, they penetrate the forms of
the horn and constitute the very makeup of the imaginal world. Every name,
in this regard, has an imaginal form that is instantiated in concrete existence
through the breath that blows through the horn. Note also that the previous
array in image 8 ended with a shorter row that leaned to the right, and this
depiction of the horn similarly shortens in width towards the lower right.

Image 9
After representing the entire cosmos as the imaginal world, the next three
images all relate to imaginal forms of the names of God. The first of these
occurs appropriately in Chapter 189, “On Knowledge of the Breath,” where Ibn
al-ʿArabī explains the relationship of God’s engendering command to the afore-
mentioned “Breath of the All-Merciful.”44 The cosmos, he explains, is nothing
but “the words of God,” but while these words all have the same relationship
to the Breath, they differ from each other in relation to their own excellence
(tafāḍul). He cites the example of the Qurʾan, writing that while all scriptures
are the words of God, the Qurʾan is the most excellent among them, and even
within the Qurʾan, some parts are more excellent than others. Chief among
these “more excellent” words is the first half of the Muslim testimony of faith,
“there is no god but God,” which is the declaration of unity (tawḥīd). Ibn al-
ʿArabī comments on thirty-six different ways this testimony is articulated in
the Qurʾan. Image 9 (Plate 2.10) occurs in the twenty-third of these, “declaring
unity through choice” (tawḥīd al-ikhtiyār): “And He is God; there is no god but
He. His is the praise in the first and in the last; His too is the rule and to Him
you will return” (Q 28:70).45 This articulation, he explains, allows for the afore-
mentioned hierarchical differences in the cosmos.46
In keeping with the theme of this cycle, after remarking that God’s wisdom is
not achieved through discursive knowledge, he writes that he was overcome by
a vision while writing this section. The image is a depiction of what he saw—
an unfurled scroll whose ends he couldn’t see. The top label says “width,” the
left label says “length,” and the two remaining labels indicate an empty space

44 The continuity in topic even as the chapters jump forward is further proof that the
sequence of images has a continuity irrespective of the text. For more on the Breath, see
Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 125–127.
45 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1860, 147b–148a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 6:210–213. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:416–417.
46 For a translation and in-depth analysis of this section and image see Chittick, The Self-
Disclosure of God, 192–193.

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between written columns. The unlabeled columns mark where there was writ-
ing on the scroll in the vision, and the labels mark the wide empty spaces
between them.
This image is the first in a series of vivid visionary experiences. He describes
the details of this scroll in the narrative: its width was more than twenty cubits,
its length seemed endless (hence why it is not enclosed in its representation),
when he read it, it looked like white parchment. When he didn’t read it, it
looked like green cloth. And as he looked at it, a voice said to him, “This is a
divine dowry for your wife,” a statement that caused him surprise because she
had not asked for her dowry nor had they divorced, the two conditions where
the giving of dowry would be obligatory in Islamic law. Still, he was overcome
by joy upon hearing that and a piece of green silk emerged from the scroll “as
if it came to be from it.” Within it, there were a thousand heavy gold coins. He
was commanded to distribute the coins to those “with a right to them,” five to
each person, and the first five he extracted were covered in a light brighter “than
the brightest star in heaven.” He then noticed that the scroll was his wife and
that he was lying fully on her, completely supported by her body. He turned to
the writing on the scroll and saw that it was their dowry agreement in rhymed
prose, written in the handwriting of a judge he knew in Aleppo. As he read it,
he returned to his senses and saw that he had finished writing this section in a
way that was identical with his vision. The prominence of his wife in this pas-
sage, he explains, was because she had “a greater share in it” than he did, and
he ends the passage reflecting on his wife’s name, Maryam, its meaning, and
Mary’s role as the bearer of the word of God.
This image, as the imaginal form of the aforementioned expression of
tawḥīd, relates to free choice. Freedom is the means through which hierarch-
ical difference appears in the cosmos as difference is based on excellence, the
result of one’s choices. As an image that shifts from a dowry scroll to a bed to his
own wife, it plays on themes related to free choice in the world. To give a wife
her dowry without divorce “frees” one of the obligation to provide a dowry; and
since it was neither demanded or needed, it was an act relating to freedom. Fur-
thermore, marriage is for Ibn al-ʿArabī (and the Islamic tradition in general) one
of the most crucial aspects of human life, and one wherein human choice plays
a large role.47 The prominence of his wife in this passage and her connection
with Mary plays on notions of macrocosmic marriage, the original and meta-
physical marriages that lead to the world of creation and difference.48 The color

47 The full significance of marriage for the Islamic intellectual tradition, and Ibn al-ʿArabi in
particular, is laid out in Murata, The Tao of Islam, 171–202.
48 See Sachiko Murata, The Tao of Islam, 143–170.

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play of green and white relates to issues of the levels of excellence—green is

the color of the highest station right before prophethood, the station of being
truthful (ṣiddīqiyya, cf. image 6), and white is the color of the name of Allāh
and the highest of the created lights.49
The formal continuity with the previous image is in the open bottom which,
when compared to the open top of the horn, builds on the image of “blowing”
into creation. The use of five rows could relate to the “Five Divine Presences”
(al-haḍarāt al-ilāhiyya al-khamsa)—representing the five “places” where God
can be “found,” (1) Himself, (2) the spiritual, (3) the imaginal, (4) the corpor-
eal, and lastly, (5) the perfect human being.50 In terms of shape, the movement
is from an array that could be followed through multiple lines to a triangle in
the previous image and now a quadrilateral. Furthermore, as an image of mar-
riage and, by extension, sexual union, its similarity to a bedspread comes to
the fore. This is of particularly relevance in this journey which will continue,
in at least the next three images, this conjugal imagery. Since the Names are
the fabric of the actual world, their images must also be concrete and tangible
things.

Image 10
The next image (Plate 2.11) was discussed at the beginning of this study, the
image of the “outward of the Divine He-ness and its inward” (ẓāhir al-huwiyya
al-ilāhiyya wa-bāṭini-hā) which “should not be changed” when copied since it
was based on direct vision. This occurs under his explanation of the name,
“The Clear” (al-mubīn). In the narrative of that section, he further described
the image, writing that he saw it as a white light with eight layers of light,
“four in the direction of spirit, four in the direction of form,” on a spreading
red background whose edges “are not it but are also not other than it.”51 The
color symbolism here relates to the Essence, whose primary manifestation, the
name Allāh, is white and whose reflection is red.52 The fourfold and eightfold

49 For green as the color of ṣiddīqiyya see al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 4:520. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:91; for the inter-
play of white, green, and red light see Michel Chodkiewicz, “The Vision of God According
to Ibn ʿArabi,” The Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 14 (1993): 53–67.
50 William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 5. Of course, five can be many other things
too, like the “Five Descents,” the five “marriage acts” that Ibn al-ʿArabī’s students identified
building on his work and Ibn al-ʿArabī doesn’t specify in a single list. On the Five Descents,
see Murata, The Tao of Islam, 194.
51 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1861, 57b–58a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 6:309. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:444–449.
52 Chodkiewicz, “The Vision of God According to Ibn ʿArabi.”

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layers relate to the creation of the first body and “shape” through which all other
bodies exist, the product of the first cosmic marriage.53
The image is a triangle with a loop in which is written the word “Huwa” (“He”
or “He is”), which is used to indicate God’s essence. The Arabic letter h is writ-
ten in a stylized hand whose two circles are proportioned to be mirror images
of each other. The formal continuity with the previous image is in the progres-
sion of the shape—here we have reached the place of the circle (four in fact),
and even the triangle in this image has a loop. This loop allows another read-
ing for the triangle, the Arabic word “lā,” meaning no/not. The significance of
this is essential to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s cosmology—everything that exists is both “He”
(huwa) and “not He” (lā huwa) and this is the primary way to understand the
totality of the imaginal world.54 This is also how Ibn al-ʿArabī explains visions
of God in general, and is the ultimate manifestation of God’s simultaneous sim-
ilarity and difference from all things.
As alluded to in the explanation of image 9 (Plate 2.10), the imagery of
gardening as creation that was implicit in the first journey (spade, seed, blos-
som) has been replaced with the imagery of marriage in the second journey,
progressing from the bedspread to this image, whose interpenetration imparts
a sense of conjugal union. The vision he has is not just of the Essence, but
how the Essence comes to give birth to the imaginal and corporeal worlds. The
reason this is the imaginal form of “the Clear” is related to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s notion
of the meaning of the sexual act: by uniting two split halves (male and female)
of the original human unity, it is the ultimate means to “see things as they are”
and witness the most complete self-disclosure of God, in both its “inward” and
“outward.”55

Image 11
In the 38th subsection of the same chapter, he shares the imaginal form of the
divine name, “Raiser of Degrees, Possessor of the Throne.”56 In explaining the
“degrees” that God raises, he writes that the image of this name is a bucket and
rope in a well (Plate 2.12). He draws this image in the margin, depicting even the
slackness of the rope and the ring to which the rope is attached. It is labelled

53 On body as anything with at least eight points see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God,
229.
54 Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 116.
55 Murata, The Tao of Islam, 190–195.
56 ms Istanbul Evkaf Müzesi 1861, 95b–96a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 6:360–363. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:468–
470.

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illustrating the forms 101

“the rope” and “the bucket.” The “raising” in this name is towards “nearness to
God,” symbolized by the rope. The imagery of a rope is from a Hadith, “If you
let down a rope, it will fall upon God,” which Ibn al-ʿArabī interprets as mean-
ing that God encompasses everything.57 The bucket represents the “degrees,”
marking the “specific place and portion” of each and every thing. As discussed
earlier, for Ibn al-ʿArabī, all created things are words of God that differ only in
relative excellence, and these words have concrete imaginal forms which allow
the phenomenal world to exist.
The formal continuity from the previous images is in the shifted triangular
shape, whose apex was towards the right in image 8 (Plate 2.9), towards the
left in image 10 (Plate 2.11), and now at the top in this image. The knot has
moved down over the bucket, marking where the rope is tied to it. Its relation
to the theme of the previous two images is also evident—a bucket is a receptive
object, you drop it down to bring water higher. God is both the top and the bot-
tom, while creatures are in between at different stations. The image of entering
and pulling out builds on the conjugal theme of the previous two names, as is
the resulting differentiation from this act of union. The shifting perspectives in
this journey is meant to show that God is both behind, in front, at the bottom,
and at the top of each image and humanity is always in the middle. The jour-
ney to God, as it develops in this cycle, is simply the realization of humanity’s
perpetually intermediate status.

Image 12
The next image occurs at the beginning of Chapter 260, titled “On Knowledge
of Nearness (qurb), which is abiding through acts of obedience. They ascribe
this to and mean by it the nearness of ‘two bows …’ (Q. 53:9) that is, the two arcs
of a circle when it is bisected by a line, ‘or closer.’”58 The image (Plate 2.13), an
obvious referent for the text as a circle bisected by a line, is not mentioned by
Ibn al-ʿArabī with his usual “in the margin.” Its placement, though, is in the mar-
gin directly at the end of the first couplet of the poem that starts the chapter:

When you bisect a sphere with a line there appears

Two bows—this is the nearness of the Real—so take perspective!

57 For this and a discussion of circularity see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 224. The
hadith is found in Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Book 43, Bāb 56, Ḥadīth 3611.
58 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1862, 126a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 6:624. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:558.

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102 karjoo-ravary

The word I translate as “take perspective,” the command form of iʿtibār, can
also mean “take heed” but, in this context, has the sense of take a standpoint,
view, or to cross-over from one place to another. In this regard, it is clear that
this placement is intentional, and it calls the reader to “take perspective” and
then see the image, through which they can contemplate that “nearness” is
a matter of perspective as the Real encloses and permeates all. He starts the
chapter with Q 50:16, “We are nearer to him than the jugular vein,” remark-
ing that this is meant to ascribe nearness to the servant so that they learn
to “be with the Real forever in whatever form He discloses Himself … [they]
never cease witnessing nearness continuously, since they never cease witness-
ing forms within themselves and outside of themselves, and that is nothing but
the self-disclosure of the Real.”59
The formal continuity of the bisected circle recalls the last image of the
previous sequence, image 6 (Plate 2.6), an appropriate allusion to the perfect
human being who is the subject of this section too. It encapsulates the discus-
sion of this entire section, namely that the summation of the conjugal return is
the union of two in one or, rather, the realization that two were never separate
from one. It is a closing of what was open in the previous images and which
will open again in the next, continuing the dynamism of this journey while
reminding that the human is not only situated within the imaginal intermedi-
ate reality, but is it.

Image 13
The next image occurs in Chapter 297 in a discussion of the ascents and des-
cents of paradise and hell.60 The image (Plate 2.14) is drawn without the use of
any tools and takes up a full page. The labels in the image are written from mul-
tiple different perspectives, encouraging the reader to move the book. Keeping
the normal orientation of the page, the upper half represents paradise and the
lower half represents hell. The lines mark stairways, and the descending stairs
of hell descend lower than the ascending stairs of paradise. The point where
the stairs and steps start is not drawn.
The purpose of this map is to illustrate that the people of paradise and hell
end up in their respective places by obeying or rejecting the same things. The
line in the middle of the image is labeled al-Aʿrāf, the mountain-like wall that
separates paradise from hell in the hereafter. Ibn al-ʿArabī connects it with

59 This is Chittick’s translation. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 366. See also Chittick,
The Self-Disclosure of God, 233.
60 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1864, 73b–74a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 7:306. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 2:679–682.

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illustrating the forms 103

Q 57:13, remarking that its “inward is mercy and its outward is chastisement.”
The lines above the wall are the ascending stairs of paradise, and the lines
beneath the wall are the descending steps of hell. Every ascent in paradise has
a parallel descent in hell relating to acts of obedience to God. At the top, from
left to right, the image reads “Ascending Stairs of Faith (al-īmān) in the Hajj,”
“Ascending Stairs of Faith in the Fast of Ramadan,” “Ascending Stairs of Faith in
Alms,” “Ascending Stairs of Faith in the Ritual Prayer,” and the “Ascending Stairs
of the Declaration of Unity of the Highest Paradise (ʿilliyyūn).”61 This marks the
highest part of the diagram at the upper right with the lowest at the lower right.
Thus, each ascending path is also labeled “Descent.” The descending stairs at
the bottom are all labeled “the Descending Stairs of Unfaithfulness (al-kufr)
to it,” where “it” refers to the above act of obedience except for the rightmost,
which reads “the Descending Stair of Ascribing Partners [to God]” (al-shirk).
The leftmost stairs in hell read “Ascent” only, although the other side of the
same line and every other stairwell of hell is labeled “Descending and Ascend-
ing Stairs.”
Ibn al-ʿArabī’s image of paradise and hell are not only inverted but connec-
ted. Were it not for the wall, the paths would lead from the depths of hell to the
heights of paradise. Continuing the conjugal theme, he uses what he calls “the
Mothers,” the obligatory actions of Islam, to show this.62 The formal continuity
with the previous image is in the line of the bucket, which was used to show the
different ranks and degrees of humanity. It has now multiplied with branches
to show the final ranking and degrees based on humanity’s actions, the fruit
of one’s aforementioned “free choice.” Note also the continuity of shape from
image 10 (Plate 2.11), except whereas that triangle’s apex was closed and its end
open, this triangle’s apex is open and its end is closed. This is tied to the role
of paradise and hell as the manifestation of God’s mercy and “mercy mixed
with wrath,” the descending place of His right and left feet, between which
all will find themselves. The image also builds on the previous image (Plate
2.13) whose bisecting line becomes the central line of this image. Just as that
described the situation of the perfect, the ability to see the totality of this image
is also crucial to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s conception of human perfection, which requires
the vision of the totality of God’s face, not just mercy or wrath. In this sense,
the middle line corresponds directly to the perfect human being, a represent-
ation that will be explicitly shown in images 21–22 (Plate 2.21 right and left).
This image is also open to the left, thereby creating a progression from image 8

61 Faith here, of course, means faithfulness to and not simply “belief.”

62 These are also called “the Pillars.”

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104 karjoo-ravary

(Plate 2.9), which was open to the top, image 9 (Plate 2.10), which was open to
the bottom, and image 10 (Plate 2.11), which was open to the right. The open-
ing, the triangle, and its triplicity have travelled full circle, reminding the reader
that the circle never ceases to be present.

Image 14
The last three images in this journey all consider the full meaning of human
intermediacy with the conclusion of the journey to God in the realization
that the journey was in God all along. All three occur in Chapter 360, titled
“On Knowledge of the Waystation of Praiseworthy Darknesses and Witnessed
Lights.” Appropriate to the chapter number, the next image (Plate 2.15) is a
circle that depicts the state of everything other than God: “possibility.”63 In
keeping with basic Muslim theology and philosophy, God is the only Necessary
Being and everything other than Him is only a possible thing. Since the only
“space” for creation is within God, Ibn al-ʿArabī locates possibility in Neces-
sary Being itself. In explaining this, he writes that “possibility is an ocean
whose shores can never be reached” and then offers this image in the mar-
gin.64
This small depiction of a cosmic ocean consists of a center point labelled
“Real,” (ḥaqq), in a stylized script that calls to mind image 10 (Plate 2.11), drawing
together two depictions of the Essence. The center-point here is fully enclosed,
emphasizing that the Essence can never be reached. The center-point of a circle
is also the means through which the circle exists, signifying the relationship
between Necessary Being and everything else. The outermost circle is the word,
“Impossible” (al-muḥāl), written in a stretched out manner that is curved into
a circle. The impossible refers to that which can never achieve being. As the
circumference, the “impossible” not only comes into being through God, but
is also God. The word “possible” stretches across the middle circle, indicating
that humanity, the locus of possibility, is always between two shores of the same
endless reality.
That the stylized “Real” resembles the “He” that was depicted in image 10
(Plate 2.11) helps situate this image in the formal continuity of this cycle, again
using the movement from lines, triangles, and quadrilaterals to the circle to

63 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1868, 86b–87a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 8:520. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:274–275.
64 For a different rendition of this diagram, based on a different recension, and an in-depth
translation and discussion of the whole section see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God,
228. Akkach also discusses a different rendition of this diagram in Akkach, Cosmology and
Architecture in Premodern Islam, 69–71.

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illustrating the forms 105

signify geometric progression as endless journey. Furthermore, the middle line

recalls a barrier, invoking both the Qurʾanic barzakh (the “isthmus” between
two seas in Q 50:19–20 which figures largely in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s work) and the
straight line at the center of the previous image, thereby situating the perfect
human being as the dividing line between the opposing traits of the Real.

Image 15
The next image in the Futūḥāt, in the same chapter, shifts perspective to con-
sider the cosmos as the perfect human being, the ultimate intermediate real-
ity whose being results in the imaginal world (Plate 2.16).65 The image says
“perfect human being” (insān kāmil) on the bottom, and is surrounded by a
semi-circle that calls to mind a key bit. The semi-circle could be read as a styl-
ized Allāh but is unclear. The three lines may also be the bits. The shank of
the key is the perfect human being. Each line represents a desire, the left is
desire for bodies (ajsām), the right is for the spirits (arwāḥ), and the middle
is for images (amthāl). While the left and right desires are described as being
the result of mayl, the Arabic word for desire and inclination, the middle desire
is described as being essential to the perfect human being’s own intermediary
essence.
He connects this image to a “specific meaning” that had been again “un-
veiled” to him, namely, that the perfect human being is the Qurʾanic image
of the “Keys of the Unseen” (mafātīḥ al-ghayb; Q 6:59). In keeping with this
journey, he again gives concrete shape to the language of revelation. The per-
fect human being, as the complete image of God, possesses knowledge and
desire, two of the chief traits of God. With these two traits, the perfect human
being draws the cosmos out of the Unseen like a key that opens a treasure
chest. For this reason, its essence is “the isthmus” or “the imaginal world” as
a whole.
This image uses human intermediacy to reemphasize the primacy of image
and thereby situate visual representation in a larger cosmology and metaphys-
ics. By using the word amthāl, he connects this image to his larger theory of
visual representation as divine pedagogy, recalling the Qurʾanic verse cited
earlier in this study: “these are the amthāl God strikes for humanity; none
grasps them save the knowers” (Q 29:43). Instead of using the image of the
horn, like image 8, it uses the image of a key. Thus, while the horn and the per-
fect human being are the same reality, they take on different imaginal forms

65 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1868, 95b–96a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 8:531. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:279–280.

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106 karjoo-ravary

in keeping with shifting perspective. The continuity with the previous image
can be seen in the circle at the bottom, and it formally resembles features from
previous images, such as the identification of the middle line with the human
situation, but with a different orientation, signaling again shifting perspectives.
In this regard, its formal features also provide another reading of image 10 (Plate
2.11)—a key and a keyhole.

Image 16
The last image (Plate 2.17) in this cycle, in the same chapter, highlights inter-
mediacy from a perspective that stresses the imaginal nature of the difference
between God and creation.66 It consists of a circle divided by a straight line in
the middle, just like image 12 (Plate 2.13, albeit a bit larger and oblong). The text
is written upside down, necessitating turning the manuscript to read it. If one
turns the manuscript, the text reads from the bottom “Real” (ḥaqq), “separa-
tion” ( faṣl), and “Creation” (khalq). This choice to write the text upside down
is intentional, as moving the manuscript forces the reader to again realize that
what appears at the top or bottom is simply a matter of perspective. By this
point, the reader is well aware that the top and bottom are both God, and the
goal is to show that the Real remains the Real and creation remains creation,
even if they are two halves of the same ultimate principle. This builds on the
same notions that were introduced with image 10 (Plate 2.11)—everything is
He, nothing is He.
The formal continuity with the previous images, beyond the obvious reflec-
tion of image 12, lies in the dividing middle line, which was the “perfect human
being” in Image 15 (Plate 2.16). By this point, it is clear that the perfect human
being is the separating barrier, the barzakh, between the Real (unseen) and cre-
ation (seen). As the last image in the second journey, it returns again (after a
cycle of pulling closer and further) to the simplicity of the circle, showing that
unity is not changed by the imaginal barrier, rather, the imaginal barrier is the
very image of God that allows for differentiation within unity. Without it, cre-
ation would remain in nonexistence. The conclusion to the journey to God,
therefore, is seeing what humans really are and where they’ve always been.

66 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1868, 110b–111a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 8:551. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:417–418.

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illustrating the forms 107

6 The Third Journey

Image 17
The next image starts the last cycle, the journey in God, and consists of the
most elaborate visual representations in the Futūḥāt. The goal in this section
is to elaborate what the last cycle ended on: to see things as they truly are, one
needs to see with a sight that simultaneously affirms and negates the identity of
all things with the Real. Only then will one see that creation has never left the
Real. While the complicated nature of these images requires a discussion that
is beyond the scope of this chapter, a consideration of the formal continuity
between them will be offered.67
The goal of the next 11 images, which all occur in Chapter 371, “On Know-
ledge of the Station of a Secret and the Three Secrets that are of the Tablet, of
the Unlettered, and of Muḥammad,” is to teach the reader to always see “with
two eyes,” that is, with both negation and affirmation, until they can realize
that none sees and none is seen but God. He roots this imagery in the Qurʾanic
verses, “Have we not made for him two eyes? A tongue and two lips? And guided
him on the two broad paths (al-najdayn)?” (Q 90:8–10). Ibn al-ʿArabī writes that
these refer to two paths, one which is safe and another that is difficult and full
of danger. Both paths “arise from one root and end in one root,” but the travel-
ers on the difficult path are “blind” and can only perceive their own path. This
is in contrast to the traveler of the safe and easy path who can “see with two
eyes,” perceiving even those on the difficult path, for they see the “ends of all
paths.”68
He illustrates the difference between these two paths in a marginal illus-
tration (Plate 2.18) consisting of two circles that are connected to form an
enclosed shape.69 As the image is unlabeled, it is difficult to ascertain which
path is which, or if the circles or the lines consist of the path. As a quadrilat-
eral and two circles, it clearly resembles many of the previous images we’ve
seen. It could be argued that image 16’s single circle, divided in half, has now

67 These images are also covered by Sophie Tyser in Chapter 3 of this volume entitled “Visual-
izing the Architecture of the Universe: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Diagrams in Chapter 371
of the Meccan Openings,” as well as in Ali Karjoo-Ravary, “Mapping the Unseen: Ibn al-
ʿArabī’s Maps in Chapter 371 of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya,” Journal of Sufi Studies, published
online ahead of print 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956‑12341336.
68 For more on seeing with two eyes see Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 361–364.
69 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, fol. 83b. Most of the publication history has published
another image, though it is unclear where that image is sourced from as it does not appear
in any of the manuscripts previously mentioned.

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108 karjoo-ravary

been stretched out into two circles, signifying the “expansion” of the imaginal
world to allow creation and differentiation. Given the discussion of seeing with
“two eyes,” the images similarity to two eyes seems intentional, and the circles,
rather than the lines, seem more likely to represent the paths. That only those
with two eyes are capable of truly seeing the whole situation, while the “blind”
or “one-eyed” see only partially, is the main theme of this whole journey. In this
regard, the image’s similarity to a candle, a light that allows one to see, is also
noteworthy. The image can also be read as two depictions of the “one root,” the
circle, showing that two paths begin and end in the same place, but differenti-
ate in the middle, that is, in this life.
His discussion about the path, image, vision, and seeing, is again used to root
his visual representation with God’s pedagogy, thereby preparing the reader to
receive the bulk of the Futūḥāt’s images. To further this, he identifies the safe
path with two hadiths, first, the aforementioned depiction of the Prophet draw-
ing his community’s “path” (ṣirāṭ) in the sand (image 5/Plate 2.5), and another
in which Muḥammad says that he has left his community with a “white” or
“bright” path (al-maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ).70 Elsewhere in the Futūḥāt, Ibn al-ʿArabī
identifies this path with the Shariʿa, understood broadly as the revealed sources
and images of Islam, as opposed to independent reasoning (particularly of the
rational philosophers and the schools of law).71 Thus, in another sense, this
image of two paths can also represent one that sees discursively, in an abstract
way, thus stressing transcendence, and another that sees through unveiling and
image, thus stressing similarity and nearness.

Image 18
The next nine images constitute some of the most elaborate visual repres-
entation in the Futūḥāt which we will only partly consider. At this point, Ibn
al-ʿArabī has already covered, both in text and image, the major themes of this
section. What he intends to do here is to offer another perspective, and at the
end of the section he clarifies that the images, as forms (using ṣūra for both),
can be explained through other forms, offering prose, rhymed prose, a qasīda
poem, and an oration as an example of these, each with their own specific
“order” (tartīb). He calls these images “nine faces (wujūh) of visualization/form-
giving (taṣwīr),” remarking that he would have preferred to offer these nine as a
single image. These images make full use of tools like a straight edge and com-
pass, and even use two different ink colors, black and red, though the red has

70 A version of this hadith exists in Sunan Ibn Māja, Book 1, Bāb 6, Ḥadīth 45.
71 Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 7:526–533.

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illustrating the forms 109

significantly faded.72 He provides these “likenesses to make their visualization

(taṣawwur) near to the one who cannot visualize meanings without the striking
of an image/likeness (min ghayr ḍarb mathal),” again following this justifica-
tion with multiple “likenesses/images” that God strikes in the Qurʾan. This, he
writes, will help those “weak of understanding” to draw closer to the way things
are.73
This sequence starts with a depiction of “the Cloud” (Plate 2.19), the place
of creation within God which Ibn al-ʿArabī identifies with the “Breath of the
All-Merciful.”74 It is surrounded by the “Enraptured Angels,” the thirty sections
around the circle, who know only God, except for one (the triangular shape)
who is “the Pen” or “the First Intellect.” This identification of the technical
vocabulary of philosophy with the imaginal language of revelation is one of
Ibn al-ʿArabī’s main goals in this section. By identifying each discursive reality
with a single image, he furthers his own argument that the language of image
is unique and superior in its ability to unite opposites and allow the reader
to “see with two eyes.” This angel, possessing “three hundred and sixty know-
ledges” (hence the circle), sits above a quadrilateral labelled “the Tablet” and
“the Universal Soul.” Within this tablet there are two circles labelled “the two
powers,” corresponding to the two hands of God. This depicts the “first mar-
riage” that produces “Nature,” the smaller quadrilateral in the lower left corner,
divided into the four aforementioned basic qualities: hot, cold, dry, and wet. As
the daughter of the first marriage, Nature is also the mother of the entire world
of possibility, the circle at the bottom labeled, “the Universal Hyle.”
This image contains multiple levels of formal continuity with the previous
images. The two circles at the center recall the two circles of the previous image,
and given the discussion of seeing with two eyes, reinforce the notion that the
root of duality is found within the One itself and it is only through that duality
that any other differentiation is possible. The multiple triangles in the image

72 My deepest gratitude to Kristine Rose-Beers, head of conservation at the Chester Beatty

who confirmed that the faded brown ink could have been red originally, and indicated
that this type of fading, together with the “slight transparency” of the ink is a character-
istic of organic colorants. One example of such an ink would have been made by sumac,
see Claudia Colini, “ ‘I tried it and it is really good’: Replicating Recipes of Arabic Black
Inks,” in Traces of Ink: Experiences of Philology and Replication, ed. Lucia Raggetti (Leiden:
Brill, 2021), 138–141. Ibn Bādīs, according to Rose-Beers, also gives a recipe using lac and
wallflowers which may also have faded over time. Kristine Rose-Beers, e-mail correspond-
ence, June 4, 2021.
73 Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:297.
74 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 90a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:319. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:421.

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110 karjoo-ravary

recall the earliest triangles, both in the first image as well as in the table of the
four qualities that we saw earlier. Like earlier, the sexual imagery here is inten-
tional since this marks the first of a series of unions that bear the cosmos into
being.

Image 19
The next image (Plate 2.20 right) moves into the lower circle of the previous
image and signals this shift in perspective by labelling the outermost circle,
“the aforementioned Universal Hyle.”75 The next circle is labelled “the Univer-
sal Body” and marks the space wherein all tangible bodies, whether subtle or
dense, are located. Within that, there is a circle containing a square, and these
two are labelled “the Throne.” The two lines that connect the larger square with
the smaller one are labelled “the Two Feet,” which is where the first signs of
wrath appear for Ibn al-ʿArabī—before this there was only Mercy.76 They touch
the final square, labelled “the Footstool.” While the previous image had many
shapes that were touching but separate, this image has nested squares within
circles. It conveys a sense of looking down at the Throne from above, implying
that the “Universal Body” surrounds and hangs down into the center. In con-
trast to the previous image, which had the Pen and Tablet merely touching,
this image suggests penetration.

Image 20
Image 19 to image 26 (Plates 2.20–23) each have a facing image whose features
and subjects mirror them. The mirror of image 19, to its left, is image 20 (Plate
2.20 left), which depicts the levels of paradise.77 The rectangle surrounding
the image is labelled “the aforementioned Footstool,” again signaling a shift in
perspective by linking the outermost feature of this image with the innermost
feature of the previous image. The Footstool is thus expanded from a square to a
rectangle, looking downwards at the levels of paradise. These descend from the
outermost circle, “the Sphere of Aṭlas,” which is the “black satin” that encom-
passes the entire cosmos, towards the innermost circle, “the Starry Sphere.” The

75 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 90b. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:320. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:422.
76 This is bound to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s interpretation of the hadith, “My mercy takes precedence
over my wrath,” leading him to deny any place for wrath when referring to the hands of
God. Both hands, right and left, are sheer mercy. Even at this level, he writes that the right
foot is mercy and the left is “mercy mixed with wrath.” Pure wrath does not exist.
77 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 91a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:321. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:423.

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second outermost circle with twelve divisions represents the zodiac, which Ibn
al-ʿArabī calls “the Twelve Imams.”78 Formally, this part of the image recalls the
image of the “Enraptured Angels” at the beginning of the sequence (one turn
of the page away). In relation to that image, the thirty divisions of the three
hundred and sixty degrees of the previous circle result in the twelve divisions
of this section. The next seven circles are the layers of paradise, labelled with
their names as found in the Qurʾan. The two diagonal labels cutting across these
layers mark a special layer of paradise unique to Muḥammad, al-wasīla. Again,
the script is oriented in such a way so as to incite the reader to turn the codex.
The lowest layer is “the Roof of the Starry Sphere.” In other words, the Sphere
of Atlas is the heaven of the Starry Sphere, which is its earth, thereby situating
paradise between the stars and the blackness of the night sky. This also estab-
lishes a relationship wherein every reality is the “heaven” of what is below and
the “earth” of what is above it. Borrowing from the language of a famous hadith,
he writes that the dimensions of the Starry Sphere in relation to the Sphere of
Atlas is like those of a ring lost in a vast desert.

Image 21
Images 21 and 22 depict the same place, but at two different times. Image 21
(Plate 2.21 right), marks a shift in perspective from a top-down view to a hori-
zontal representation of the current situation of earth.79 The outermost circle
that surrounds the whole image marks the twenty-eight tropical mansions of
the Moon, marking the most important stars in relation to earth (a point that
he stresses is only because of the passage of the moon, otherwise these stars
are not more important than other stars). The outermost feature, again, con-
tinues the circular shape seen in image 18 (Plate 2.19) and image 20 (Plate 2.20
left) in this sequence. Numerically, this saw a shift from an outermost circle
divided into thirty to twelve and now to twenty-eight quadrants, the sidereal
month, thereby marking the progress of different types of time. The arcs cor-
respond to the seven heavens (each with a small dot representing their planet),
and the lines beneath them correspond to the seven earths. The innermost
arc is earth, and the five smaller arcs within it are the “Five Progenies,” here
identified from right to left with, “the minerals, the plants, the perfect human
being (centered), the humans, the animals.” The line that runs through the per-
fect human being is labelled, “the Support,” building on the aforementioned

78 Ibn al-ʿArabī was, of course, a Sunni, and he thus remarks that this sphere is the furthest
place those who believe in twelve Imams can reach.
79 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 91b. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:322. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:424.

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112 karjoo-ravary

theme of centering this figure while also identifying them with the greatest liv-
ing “friend of God” in Sufi belief, through whom the heavens and the earth are
maintained.
Beneath the earths, it says from top to bottom, “Water, Air, Darkness.” While
they are below the earths here, Ibn al-ʿArabī earlier remarked that they lie
beneath the Throne and Footstool, building on Q 11:7, “His Throne was on the
water.” He writes that this water is frozen because the air at the edges of the cos-
mos is exceedingly cold, and beyond it, there is nothing but darkness. When
considered in the context of this whole sequence, it imparts the sense that
everything pictured so far is suspended between the Footstool and the water
it rests upon, reemphasizing the intermediacy of creation.

Image 22
Image 22 (Plate 2.21 left) marks the transformation of the heavens and the
earths into the “Earth of the Resurrection” after the Hour.80 The perspective
shifts, with what corresponded to the earths and heavens (the previous image)
now transformed into the large circle in the lower right of the rectangle. The
circle to the left is the lowermost meadow of paradise from which the faith-
ful ascend into paradise proper. The line in the middle is the wall of al-Aʿrāf
that separates paradise from hell and on which death will be slaughtered in
the next world, marked by the small circle in the center of the line. The half
circle at the top is “the Pool” from which the Faithful will drink, and the full
circle to its ri ght is the “Praiseworthy Station” belonging to Muḥammad. The
eight-pointed star at the top represents the Throne of God, which was a quad-
rilateral, but is now depicted in its “descended” form. Ibn al-ʿArabī writes that
with the descent of the Throne, God’s right foot descends into paradise and His
left foot descends into hell. The circle directly below the Throne is “the Spirit”
(al-rūḥ).
The smaller circles to the right and left represent where those whose good
deeds outweigh their bad deeds (to the left of the image corresponding to the
right hand of God) and those whose evil deeds outweight their good deeds (to
the right of the image corresponding to the left hand of God). The imbalance
in the scale is intentional as good deeds weigh more than evil ones. The smal-
ler circle at the bottom corresponds to those who sold God’s signs in life, and
thus the book of their deeds is behind them. The rectangle that encompasses
everything else is labelled “the Earth of Gathering.” The four step shapes are

80 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 92a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:323. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:425.

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labelled “the Safe Ones” (al-āminūn) and refer to those who will be shielded
from the horrors of the Day of Judgment in minbars enveloped with light. The
seven lines around the lower part of the image correspond to the angels of each
heaven, standing in rank at attention.
The whole image mimics the layout of a court, marking the moment where
God will descend as “the King” for judgment. The formal continuity with the
previous image is in the line at the center, a correspondence that is clear when
looking at the bifolio. Just as the perfect human being is the cosmic pillar that
keeps the heavens and the earth from collapsing, in the next world, as men-
tioned previously, perfect human beings are between paradise and hell so that
they may see the totality of God’s face, not just one aspect of it. Note also the
anthropomorphism of this image, with the circles forming the rough outline of
a body, a point that will be further clarified in the coming images.

Image 23
Image 23 (Plate 2.22 right) is an image of hell, which Ibn al-ʿArabī identifies
with the transformed heavens and earths.81 The perspective has shifted into
the lower right-hand circle of the previous image. The center of this image is
its highest point, labelled “The Veil” and “the Heart,” which he identifies with
the locked gates of hell at al-Aʿrāf.82 This innermost circle is veiled and blocked
off, reflecting the relationship of the inhabitants of hell to the higher planes of
being. There are seven levels to hell outside of the inner circle and the small
circles with dots in their centers represent the gates of their walls. The ver-
tical labels are the names of hell from the Qurʾan, repeated twice from edge
to center on each side. The horizontal labels, written in a way that requires
moving the codex, mark the body parts on which God has mandated obedi-
ence, also repeated from edge to center on each side. The top and right labels
are accompanied with an extended text that cuts through the layers reading
“the Outward” (al-ẓāhir) and the bottom and left labels are accompanied with
an extended text that cuts through the layers reading “the Inward” (al-bāṭin).
The text at the top of the vertical column reads “The Outer Levels of the Gates

81 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 92b. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:324. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:426.
82 This label is ambiguous for multiple reasons. Given that the vertical and horizontal
labels are two different sequences, one of the Qurʾanic names for hell and the other of
the parts of the body, I am reading it as two different terms. Al-Ḥijāb, “the Veil,” continues
the Qurʾanic imagery, and al-Qalb, “the Heart,” continues the bodily imagery. At the same
time, ḥijāb al-qalb is a medical term for either the walls of the heart or what separates
the heart from the rest of the chest. I thank my colleague Giovanni Maria Martini for this
observation.

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114 karjoo-ravary

of the Fire” (marātib abwāb al-nār al-ẓāhira) and the text at the bottom of the
vertical column reads “The Suprasensory Levels of the Gates of the Fire” (mar-
ātib abwāb al-nār al-maʿnawiyya). The horizontal labels read “the Parts of Outer
Obligation [to the Law]” (aʿḍāʾ al-taklīf al-ẓāhira) on the left and “the Parts of
Inner Obligation [to the Law]” (aʿḍāʾ al-taklīf al-bāṭina) to the right. The circling
text between the labels around the circumference quotes Q 7:17, where Satan
says, “Then I will come upon them from before them, from behind them, from
their right hands, and from their left hands,” split into four parts starting from
“before them” in the upper right, “behind them” in the upper left, “right hands”
in the lower left, and “left hands” in the lower right. The text that stretches
across the levels diagonally in four sections, reads “the Hypocrite” (al-munāfiq)
in the upper right, “the Lie” (al-kidhb) in the upper left, “the Liar” (al-kadhdhāb)
in the lower left, and al-shirk (“partnering others with God”) in the lower right.
Ibn al-ʿArabī uses this image to argue that hell is nothing more than the
transformed heavens and earth, meaning that images 21–23 (Plate 2.21 right
and left and Plate 2.22 right) show the same place from three different per-
spectives, mapping its progression in the cosmic hierarchy. After the earth’s
transformation into hell, it becomes the inverse of paradise as represented in
image 20 (Plate 2.20 left). For instance, the center of image 20 was its lowest
point, whereas the center of this image is its highest point. The vertical column
in image 20 listed, on both sides, the Qurʾanic names of paradise, and the ver-
tical column in this image lists the Qurʾanic names of hell on both sides, and
the diagonal lines that cut across mimic Muḥammad’s special level of paradise.
The difference is that this image has a full horizontal column (which is meant to
be read as a vertical column, with its own diagonal, once the reader moves the
book). This formally calls to mind the transformed Throne of image 22 (Plate
2.21 left), but whereas it had shifted forty-five degrees in that image, it has shif-
ted ninety degrees in this one. This imparts a dynamism to these images that
marks, in a sense, the passage of time.
The inverse relationship with image 20 (Plate 2.20 left) means that, unlike
image 21 and 22 (Plate 2.21 right and left), this image nests perfectly (in terms
of perspective and formal continuity) inside image 20, envisioning the inverse
relationship between paradise and hell as a concave shape whose top and bot-
tom reflect one another. Furthermore, this mirroring relationship between the
two has already been shown from other perspectives—in image 13 (Plate 2.14),
where the continuity between the two was emphasized, and in image 21 (Plate
2.21 right), where their place in the cosmic balance in relation to the perfect
human being was emphasized. And given the relationship of the two to God’s
hands and feet, it in fact started in image 18 (Plate 2.19), where God’s two hands
(note the formal similarity of two circles on a rectangular plane as well as a rect-

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angle with two diagonals beneath it) marked the beginning of differentiation
and in image 19 (Plate 2.20 right), where we see the first image of the Throne
with two lines marking “the Two Feet,” which then move down and rest in para-
dise and hell.

Image 24
Ibn al-ʿArabī continues in image 24 with another shift in perspective, moving
out from hell to consider the totality of the situation in regards to ontological
and temporal progression (Plate 2.22 left).83 “The Fire” that was just illustrated
in detail becomes the small circle in the lower right. The top of the circle repres-
ents the ontological beginning, starting with the top-most circle labelled “the
Living,” the leader of all Divine Names by virtue of the necessity of life over any
other attribute. Then, horizontally, four more names are depicted from right to
left, “the Knower,” “the Powerful,” “the Desirer,” and “the Speaker.” Once these
are established, they result in the next two vertical names, “the Governor” and
“the Differentiator.” Ibn al-ʿArabī signals the beginning of creation through this
name, leading to the first pair of names, “the Bestower” to the right and “the
Just” to the left. This corresponds to all the other complementary pairs that
mark the difference between the right and left of God—mercy and wrath, gen-
tleness and severity, etc. This is because the Bestower gives without question
and the Just gives only what one deserves.
The differentiation that happens at “the beginning” allows for the birth of
“the Abode of the World,” the large circle in the center, surrounded by “the
Isthmus,” (al-barzakh), marking the intermediary world of images that not only
lies between the non-corporeal and the fully corporeal, but also between this
world and the next.84 The circle that touches the bottom of these larger, nes-
ted circles, reads “the Earth of the Gathering,” as the Day of Judgment is born
of these two and marks when they become one—in other words, there is no
distinction between “Seen” and “Unseen” on that day because, in the words of
Q 50:22, “Your sight that day is piercing.” The events of that day, which accord-
ing to Q 70:4 lasts fifty thousand years, lead to the splitting of creation into “the
Fire” in the lower right and “the Garden” in the lower left. It is important to
emphasize that the uneven nature of the two, with “the Garden” lower down, is
intentional.85 As we have seen in previous images, God is both the top and the

83 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 93a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:325. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:427.
84 On the Isthmus see Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 331–339.
85 A point missed by the entire publication history.

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116 karjoo-ravary

bottom. Hell is closer to the world because it still shares some of its distance
from God, whereas paradise, for Ibn al-ʿArabī, is always a step closer.
It should be clear by now that the abstract anthropomorphism of this image
is in keeping with Ibn al-ʿArabī’s general approach to visual representation.
It also calls to mind the imagery of image 22 (Plate 2.21 left), particularly the
circles marking the books, a correspondence that can be clearly seen when
one pages back to the previous image. The facing image encourages the reader
to associate the two centers with one other, and the association of the center
labelled “the heart” and “the veil” in image 23 (Plate 2.22 right) connects the
present world to those concepts, both as a veil on reality as well as the place
where the heart is still capable of turning. The continuation of the crossing
lines from the previous image coupled with the circles in this image highlight
other unarticulated correspondences—“the Fire,” as the abode of Justice, cor-
responds to the name that is diagonally across from it, not directly above it.
Similarly, “the Garden” sits diagonally across from “the Bestower.” If the two dif-
ferentiating names correspond, as Ibn al-ʿArabī mentioned earlier, to the two
feet of God, and these feet descend into paradise and hell, the image also gives
a sense of God turning, just like the cosmos itself. The orientation of the top
half of the image (above the world) is towards the top, representing the origin,
with the right foot to the right and the left foot to the left, and the orienta-
tion of the bottom (below the world) is towards the bottom, with the right foot
(paradise) on the left and the left foot (hell) on the right. This is a “turning of
the face” from origin to return that imparts a sense of dynamism to the static
image while signifying everlasting change. The open-endedness of this change
is furthered by the depiction of paradise as a step ahead of hell. I use the word
step intentionally, as Ibn al-ʿArabī plays with the similarity between the Arabic
word for “foot” (qadam) and “eternity” (qidam). The image is open towards the
next step: what lies in and beyond paradise, which is described in the hadith as
“what no eye has ever seen.”86

Image 25
Image 25 (Plate 2.23 right) moves deep into the lower left hand circle to a
place in Eden (the highest level of paradise) where vision becomes the primary
means of experiencing reality for most of creation. It is labelled “the image
of the Dune (al-kathīb) and the levels of creation in it.”87 The Dune is a place

86 From a widely reported hadith, for one example see Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book 59, Bāb 8,
Ḥadīth 3280.
87 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 93b. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:326. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:428.

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illustrating the forms 117

in Eden where “God resides” in His citadel as “the King,” accompanied by His
chosen friends. After judgment and intercession are finished, the people of
paradise will be invited to this citadel to see God’s face. The image is meant
to be a map of how that unveiling of God’s face will be experienced, divided
into four sections that mark the differing places of the people in it. The cen-
ter is labelled, “the Essential Gardens” (al-jannāt al-dhātiyya) and is the point
of orientation for each quadrant, which mark the different groups of human-
ity. The right quadrant is labelled “the Messengers” and contains the image of
a pulpit, the top quadrant is labelled “the Prophets” and contains the image
of a throne or chair, the left quadrant is labelled “the Friends” and contains the
image of a footstool, and the bottom quadrant is labelled “the Faithful,” marked
by a straight line that signifies their rows on foot. While there is a hierarchy here,
the distinction between the Messengers and Prophets is less clear than the dis-
tinction between them and the Friends and Faithful. The imagery invokes the
furniture and placement of a mosque, except the orientation is towards the
center, not a qibla wall (similar to the mosque in Mecca, the “house of God” on
earth). While this image marks the moment everyone in paradise will finally
see the face of God, Ibn al-ʿArabī writes that it also marks the moment after
which God’s face will be continuously and constantly unveiled, encompassing
even the people of hell in the second and third unveilings. This is because
with the first unveiling, mercy overcomes all things, even hell and its inhab-
itants.
In terms of formal continuity, many of the shapes in this image, and the gen-
eral sense of a court, reflect image 21, but on a smaller scale. The circular and
simpler nature of this suggests greater intimacy, which is in keeping with the
theme of this image (mercy over justice). The theme of mirroring is continued
as the diagonal lines look like the lines in hell, as a quick turn of the page back
demonstrates.

Image 26
Image 26 (Plate 2.23 left), the last image in this sequence of nine images, is
labelled “the form of the cosmos, all of it, the ordering of its layers, spiritual and
corporeal, high and low.”88 The only label in this image is a series of numbers in
the top left “six and seven and seven and eight.” This adds up to twenty-eight,
the letters of the Arabic alphabet, recalling the notion that the entire cosmos
is articulated on God’s breath as depicted in image 18 (Plate 2.19).

88 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 94a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-
Manṣūb, 9:327. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 3:429.

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118 karjoo-ravary

The primacy of image allows us to read this image in multiple ways, thereby
avoiding the limits that discourse places on perspective. The number of layers,
for instance, depend on how one counts them. There are twenty-three circles
including the center circle, which is itself divided into four quadrants. For these
to add up to twenty-eight layers one would have to include each quadrant in the
numbering as well as the center point, which is a feasible reading. If we follow
the cosmic layering offered in this series, there are two ways of reading this
image—starting from the seven earths counting all the way up to the Univer-
sal Hyle, where all bodies take shape, there are twenty-two layers. This would
mark the center circle with the four quadrants as “Nature” with its four funda-
mental qualities. The center circle would then be “the Tablet,” and the center
dot “the Pen.” One could also read the center as the human on earth, the four
quadrants representing the four elements, then all the layers up to the Cloud.
The ambiguity of this image and these multiple readings are intentional and
are, in actuality, one of the advantages of visual representation over discourse.
Interestingly, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s explanation of this section does not refer to the
image, thereby bringing its visual elements to the fore as the reader is forced
to interpret it in light of the rest of the sequence. In fact, it is its formal con-
tinuity with its facing image that leads to its most profound aspect, an aspect
that is almost completely lost in its reception history. The center of this image is
formally the same as the center of its facing image in “the Dune,” except slightly
rotated. If the culminating point of the previous image was the continuous and
endless unveiling of God’s face, this image of the cosmos is in fact an image of
the cosmos as God’s face. When used as an object of contemplation, the bi-folio
featuring the two facing images reveal two eyes looking back at the reader, sep-
arated only by the line where the codex closes. One eye sees difference rooted in
similarity, the other eye sees only similarity. The reader now sees “two eyes” in
the mirror of the book so that they learn to also see with “two eyes.” Once seen
in such a way, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s explanation of this section opens to the reader. He
writes,

the cosmos is the totality of all forms/images (ṣuwar) that appears in the
Cloud … these ṣuwar are the possible things, and their relationship to the
Cloud is like the relationship of images to a mirror when they appear to
the eyes of someone looking at the mirror. The Real is the sight of the
Cosmos (baṣar al-ʿālam) and He is the one who sees. He is the one who
knows by the possible things, and nothing is perceived except what is in
His knowledge from the forms of the possible things. The cosmos appears
between the Cloud and the vision of the Real, and what appears in it

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illustrating the forms 119

leads to the one who is seeing, and that is the Real, so understand and
know who you are.89

The progression of images now unveils the entire sequence as the reflected
image of God into the cosmos. The two pages gaze back at the reader so that
they realize that they themselves are the reflection in the mirror. This last image
ties the discussion back to image 16 (Plate 2.17), which taught the reader that
the clearest path is to “see with two eyes.” When one sees with two eyes, one
understands that two-ness comes from their own deficiency, for they are the
image in the mirror. Like any reflection in a mirror, they both are and are not
the same as what is being reflected. To think themselves any different would be
to see duality where there is only unity, and the One who looks into the mirror
of the cosmos entertains no duality, His two eyes see as one.

Image 27
Image 27 is the second to last image in the Futūḥāt (Plate 2.24) and is situated
in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s explanation of the aforementioned sequence of nine images,
specifically in his discussion of image 21 (Plate 2.21 right). It is a small marginal
illustration of al-Ḍurāḥ, the heavenly house which Ibn al-ʿArabī places in the
roof of the seventh heaven.90 The earthly Kaʿba, he writes, is a reflection of
this heavenly version. The shape includes the ḥijr which marks the walls of the
original Kaʿba, which today is only marked off by a low wall that is still circum-
ambulated around.
As this image occurs in the section explaining image 21, the reader is sup-
posed to page back when reading. This highlights the formal continuity of the
image—in image 21 the arcs face up towards the heavens, whereas the arc of
this Kaʿba faces down, towards the earth. This illustrates the general principle
that everything below mirrors everything above. When seen through the act of
flipping back and forth, the image transforms into a rectangle with two arcs at
each end. This recalls image 17 (Plate 2.18), the image of the two eyes that pre-
ceded the sequence of nine images. This adds another unarticulated layer to
this journey: since the imaginal world corresponds to the perfect human being,
when one sees with the real two eyes of the cosmos, sight itself becomes the
house of God.

89 Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 9:361.
90 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, 111a.

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120 karjoo-ravary

Image 28
The 28th and final image in the Futūḥāt (Plate 2.25) occurs one hundred
chapters later. It recalls image 14 (Plate 2.15) and like it, depicts the intermedi-
ary status of the human condition. It is situated in Chapter 471, “On Knowledge
of the State of the Pole whose Waystation is ‘Say: if you love God, follow me’
(Q 3:31).”91 Consisting of three concentric circles, its inner circle says “the love
of generosity” (ḥubb al-kirāma), its middle circle says “the love of the slave”
(ḥubb al-ʿabd), and its outer circle says “the love of solicitude” (ḥubb al-ʿināya).
Through it, Ibn al-ʿArabī illustrates that human love, “the love of the slave,” is
encapsulated by two divine loves. “The love of generosity,” the innermost circle,
is the universal bestowal of being from God’s essence, regardless of its recipi-
ent’s worthiness for being, and its outermost circle is “the love of solicitude,”
the love that is a response to the slave’s voluntary love. He connects the first
love to Q 5:54, “He loves them and they love Him,” where the priority of love is
with God, and the second love to Q 3:31, “if you love God, follow me, and God
will love you,” where the priority of love is with the slave. Even in love, the cre-
ative power that lies behind every cycle and beyond, the human remains in its
intermediate position.
Ibn al-ʿArabī ends on love because the third journey has no end, but rather
continues forever to create new worlds. Love is the perfect image of this, for
it is the force that unites two to produce something new. Once one sees with
two eyes, with the seeing of the Real, the journey in God continues with God
forever towards “what no eye has seen.” Like the end of the previous journey,
it ends with a single circle, but instead of a line separating a single circle, it
depicts a series of nested circles. Seen in relation to the totality of these images,
it becomes clear that the ship that set sail in image 1 (Plate 2.1) still sails in
an ocean without shore. The guiding winds of this journey are love, intimately
tied to knowledge in the famous hadith that lies at the core of Ibn al-ʿArabi’s
cosmology, “I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known.” As God is infin-
ite, His love of knowing, which is seeing for Him, continues without end, and
the whole saga of origin to return, depicted in full three times throughout the
order of visual representation of the Futūḥāt, will always continue. This is why
image 28, as the image of love, marks humanity’s final and forever homecom-
ing. Once one learns to see with two eyes, an eye that sees similarity and an
eye that sees difference, one sees God’s face everywhere, since “wherever you
turn, there is the face of God” (Q 2:115). The journeys continue even after two

91 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1874, 59b–60a. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, 10:435. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī et al., 4:102–104.

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become one, except they are characterized with the realization that none sees
and none journeys but God.

Conclusion

Ibn al-ʿArabī’s cosmos is one that is forever subject to perspective, and he roots
his visual representation in the sources of Islam to show the significance of
perspective to its cosmology. He shifts and moves his images until the reader
realizes their own position vis-à-vis the image, so that they will realize the
perspectival nature of reality itself. Rather than offer a single static cosmic hier-
archy, he pushes the limits of how cosmic hierarchy can be articulated in the
physical constraints of the world and its media, exploring how the medium
itself changes that articulation. This allows us to sketch out a theory of visual
representation that emphasizes the minute details of illustration and the influ-
ence of a scribe’s hand on the qualitative affect of an image while taking into
consideration the tools and materials used for that illustration. Furthermore, it
allows us to think of a tradition wherein a simple bifurcation between text and
image does not exist, and instead multiple forms of text and image are all differ-
ent types of visual representation that complement each other while retaining
their own independence. In other words, they can explain each other without
exhaustion because each conveys something that the others can’t. While a clear
theory of visual representation emerges from this, it must still be reiterated
that Ibn al-ʿArabī’s representations are not meant to be systematic, rather, by
denying these forms any finality in perspective he means to break the hold of
any single system. In this sense, when the full force of visual representation is
specific to the hand of its writer, each re-representation is a new perspective.
While attention to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s own recension was the only way we could fully
recover his theory of visual representation, once recovered, it can then be used
to argue that the unfaithfulness of its reception history is not as problematic
as one would assume. Rather, the changing nature of the medium, combined
with the scribe’s hand or the printer’s tools, translate the images to forms that
are appropriate to their media. For this reason, the most interesting afterlives of
Ibn al-ʿArabī’s images are not in its own reception history, but rather in the work
of those scholars who, under his influence, continued the language of visual
Sufism and articulated it from their own perspective.

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 chapter 3

Visualizing the Architecture of the Universe: Ibn

al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Diagrams in Chapter 371
of the Meccan Openings
Sophie Tyser

Introduction1

It is not unusual that the famous Andalusian Sufi master Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn
al-ʿArabī (560–638/1165–1240) had recourse, in his writings, to the symbolism
of geometric figures in order to express realities of physical or metaphysical
nature, insofar as the world is “what exists between the circumference and
the point (al-ʿālam mawjūd mā bayna al-muḥīṭ wa-l-nuqṭa).”2 The depiction
of metaphysical principles through the primary forms of geometry, which is
not unprecedented in the writings of his Sufi predecessors,3 follows on from
an ancient history lying beyond the horizon of Islamic civilization. In Ibn al-
ʿArabī’s work, this geometrical symbolism is translated in a verbal mode, but
sometimes also in a graphic mode in the form of diagrams elaborated by the
Andalusian master himself, and placed either in the margins of his work, or in
the body of the text itself.4 The act of graphically depicting a teaching in order
to facilitate its transmission is not absent from Islamic traditional sources, as
testified by certain ḥadīths attributed to the prophet Muḥammad, interpreting

1 I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Denis Gril for his help and insightful comments.
My thanks also go to Luca Patrizi and Michele Petrone, who generously took time to read this
article, and to the editor of these proceedings, Giovanni Maria Martini.
2 Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā (Cairo: Al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-
ʿĀmma li-l-Kitāb), chap. 15, 2:374.
3 Ḥusayn b. Mansūr al-Ḥallāj, Akhbār al-Ḥallāj. Recueil d’oraisons et d’exhortations du martyr
mystique de l’Islam Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr Ḥallāj, ed. Louis Massignon (Paris: Librairie philo-
sophique Vrin, 1975), 107.
4 On the symbolism of geometric forms in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, see: Alessandro Bausani,
“Note sulla circolarità dell’essere in Ibn al-ʿArabī (1165–1240),” Rivista degli Studi Orientali 56
(1982): 57–74; and Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam: An Archi-
tectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (New York: State University of New York Press, 2006). In
the third chapter of this book, Samer Akkach describes certain of the diagrams which are the
focus of this article (see pp. 113–147).

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126 tyser

the meaning of figures that he drew in the sand to his companions. According
to a ḥadīth known in different forms:

Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh said: “We were with the Prophet—may God grant him
peace and blessings—and he traced a line (in the sand), and then two
lines at his right side and two lines at his left side. Then he put his hand in
the center of the line and said: ‘This is the path of God.’ Then he recited
the following verse: ‘And that this is My path, straight; so do you follow it,
and follow not divers paths lest they scatter you from His path. (Q 6:153)’
”5

This ḥadīth attracted Ibn al-ʿArabī’s attention, who echoed it in his work not
only in textual form,6 and also drew it in the 64th chapter of the holograph
manuscript of his magnum opus, the Meccan Openings (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiy-
ya).7 A graphic representation of this ḥadīth is present in the Kitāb nuskhat
al-ḥaqq as well.8 In the 371st chapter of his work, in which the nature of the
world as a path (ṭarīq) towards the hereafter is emphasized, Ibn al-ʿArabī inserts

5 Ibn Mājah, Sunan Ibn Mājah, ed. Huda Khattab (Riyad: Dār al-Salām, 1428/2007), 1:79 (ḥadīth
nº 11). The same ḥadīth, reported by ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd, appears in a significantly differ-
ent shape in the Musnad of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnad al-imām Ibn Ḥanbal, ed. Shuʿayb
al-Arnaʾūṭ (Beirut: Muʾassassat al-Risāla, 1417/1995), 7:207–208 (ḥadīth no. 4142). Other tra-
ditions have been reported about the Prophet drawing lines or other figures to use them as
transmission medium of a teaching: see al-Bukhārī, al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ, ed. Muḥammad Zuhayr
b. Nāṣir al-Nāṣir (Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najāh, 1422/2001), 8:89 (ḥadīths nos. 6417 & 6418). All
subsequent quotations from the Qurʾan will be taken from Arberry’s translation, sometimes
slightly modified.
6 For example, in chapters 64 ( fī maʿrifat al-qiyāma wa-manāzili-hā wa-kayfiyyat al-baʿth) (cf.
al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, 4:471), 132 ( fī maʿrifat maqām al-istiqāma) (cf.
ibid., 14:295–296), and 318 of the Meccan Openings ( fī maʿrifat manzil nusakh al-sharīʿa al-
muḥammadiyya wa-ghayr al-muḥammadiyya). Cf. ibid., ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb
(Tarim: Wizārat al-Thaqāfa, 1434/2013), 7:527–528.
7 ms. Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi (tiem) 1848, Istanbul, fol. 155b. The diagram is repro-
duced in: al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 64, 4:471. This chapter, as well
as its three preceding chapters and the following chap. 65, have been translated and presen-
ted in French by Maurice Gloton, Ibn ‘Arabî, De la mort à la resurrection (Beirut: Albouraq,
1430/2009). These five chapters, fundamental to understand the eschatological dimension of
Ibn al-ʿArabī’s work, are closely interlinked with Chapter 371.
8 The oldest manuscript preserving the Kitāb nuskhat al-ḥaqq, the ms Sehit Ali Pasa 2813 (Süley-
maniye), foreshadows the beginning of the diagram, see fol. 2b (I am grateful to Maurizio
Marconi who shared with me a digital copy the manuscript). This manuscrit has been copied
in the ms Veliyuddin 1826, used by Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ for his edition of the Kitāb nuskhat al-
ḥaqq which reproduces the diagram: Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb Nuskhat al-ḥaqq, in Rasāʾil Ibn ʿArabī,
ed. Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Intishār al-ʿArabī, 1424/2004), 1:271.

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a small figure reminiscent of this prophetic action of tracing figures in the sand
to illustrate his sayings in the margin of the text (Figure 1/Plate 3.1).9 This min-
imal figure illustrates the two paths (al-najdayn)10 opened to man: the first one
is an immaculate white path with neither crookedness nor curving (ṭarīq sahla
bayḍāʾ muthlā naqiyya lā shawb fī-hā wa-lā ʿiwajan wa-lā amtan), associated with
the white path (al-maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ) mentioned in a famous ḥadīth,11 and the
second one, an arduous path full of dangers. Both paths, as Ibn al-Arabī states,
emerge from the same point (aṣl), and tend towards the same finality (maʾāl):
felicity (al-saʿāda).
If the Meccan Openings are not the only work in which Ibn al-ʿArabī inserts
diagrams, a significant number of them are to be found in Chapter 371, entitled
“On the Knowledge of the Abode of One Secret and Three Secrets Eman-
ating from the Principial Muḥammadan Tablet” ( fī maʿrifat manzil sirr wa-
thalāthat asrār lawḥiyya ummiyya Muḥammadiyya). Among the series of dia-
grams scattered within the Meccan Openings, twelve of them appear in this
chapter which, in addition to the better-known Chapter 198 “On the Know-
ledge of the Breath” ( fī maʿrifat al-nafas), is probably the one that provides
the greatest number of keys of understanding that allow the reader to penet-
rate the complex cosmological edifice of the Andalusian master. Nine of the
twelve diagrams in Chapter 371 sketch the cosmological dimension of the text
and illustrate, in the form of geometric figures according to a common prac-
tice of his time in scientific, philosophical and esoteric literature,12 the levels
of cosmic hierarchy as described in the chapter, ranging from its lowest degrees

9 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 83b.

10 Q 90:8–10.
11 Sunan Ibn Mājah, 1:75–76 (nº 5). In chap. 318 of the Meccan Openings, Ibn al-ʿArabī asso-
ciates the “white path” (al-maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ) to the divine Law (al-sharīʿa) (al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, 7:527).
12 As Ahmet Karamustafa shows in his rich overview of the cosmological diagrams in clas-
sical Islamic literature, there is no shortage of illustrations of the general structure of the
universe in the scientific, philosophical or hermetic literature that precedes the time of
Ibn al-ʿArabī; see: Ahmet T. Karamustafa, “Cosmographical Diagrams,” in The History of
Cartography, Vol. 2, Book 1, Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Soci-
eties, eds. James B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992), 71–89. If the depiction of the world in the form of diagrams is, in fact, relatively
common, it seems, however, to be an unprecedented fact in the Sufi texts, although we can
find some examples of diagrams mostly devoided of a cosmological scope, as evidenced
by the enigmatic figures of al-Ḥallāj’s Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn, or the few figures of al-Ghazālī’s
Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn. On the Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn, see al-Ḥallāj, Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn, ed. Paul Nwyia,
in Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph, 47 (1972): 185–238; 197, 200, 211, 212, 213, 214 and
215. On the Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, see Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (Cairo: Dār
al-Shaʿb, 1388–1390/1969–1971), 351, 1112 and 1113.

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plate 3.1 [The Two Paths (al-najdayn)]. Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul,
Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 83b)

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 129

to the highest degrees of the world of commandment (ʿālam al-amr), yet bey-
ond any spatio-temporal determination. Ibn al-ʿArabī was well aware of this
common practice, since in his monumental work of adab, the Muḥāḍarat al-
abrār, he briefly described a diagram (dāʾira) which drew his attention in the
Secret of secrets (Sirr al-asrār),13 the famous mirror for princes compiled during
the 4th/10th century, which takes the form of a series of letters of political and
ethical nature, addressed by Aristotle to Alexander the Great (Iskandar).14

This article aims to shed light on the teachings carried by Chapter 371’s nine
structural diagrams and on the logic of their sequence within the chapter. After
a succinct presentation of Chapter 371, we will present a few passages of Ibn al-
ʿArabī’s writings highlighting the purpose of diagrammatic representation in
his work. From the example of the nine diagrams, we will attempt to determine
how the visual elements are superimposed on the text, in order to understand
the nature and the role of this particular mode of expression in the Meccan
Openings, which enables to provide form to that which, in essence, has no form.

1 Chapter 371, “On the Knowledge of the Abode of One Secret

and Three Secrets Emanating from the Principial Muḥammadan
Tablet”

Chapter 371 is included in the fourth section of the Meccan Openings, the
“Section of Spiritual Mansions” ( faṣl al-manāzil), which gathers chapters 270
to 383 of the work. In his seminal work An Ocean Without Shore,15 Michel
Chodkiewicz highlights the specific structure of this fourth section and its close
relationship with the Qurʾanic text, in describing the correspondence between
the title and the number of its chapters, named “mansions” (manāzil), and

13 Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb Muḥāḍarat al-abrār wa-musāmarāt al-akhyār (Beirut: Dār al-Yaqẓa al-
ʿArabiyya, 1388/1968), 2:51–52.
14 Ibn al-ʿArabī knew well this book since he wrote, at the request of one of his Andalusī
masters, Abū Muḥammad al-Mawrūrī, a mystical commentary on it: the Kitāb al-Tadbīrāt
al-ilāhiyya fī iṣlāḥ al-mamlaka al-insāniyya. The diagram of the Sirr al-asrār which he
refers to, described by the Pseudo-Aristotle as the quintessence of the book (zubdat hādhā
al-kitāb) and as containing the whole world, has to be meditated with a “true” glance ( fa-
tadabbur-hā bi-naẓar ṣādiq): Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitāb al-Siyāsa fī tadbīr al-riyāsa al-maʿrūf
bi-Sirr al-asrār, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Badawī, in al-Uṣūl al-Yūnāniyya li-l-naẓariyyāt al-
siyāsiyya fī al-islām (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, 1954), 126–127.
15 Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore. Ibn Arabi, the Book and the Law, trans. David
Streight (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1993).

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those of the suras of the Qurʾan. By analogy with the 114 Qurʾanic suras, the
faṣl al-manāzil includes 114 chapters which correspond to the order of the suras
of the Qurʾan in a reversed mode. According to this specific order, Chapter 371
coincides with the 13th sura of the Qurʾan (sūrat al-raʿd), whose second verse
evokes a non-visible pillar (ʿamad), or pillars, according to the common com-
prehension of the verse, in which God raised up the heavens.16 This pillar,
according to Ibn al-ʿArabī, is none other than the Perfect Man (al-insān al-
kāmil), whose existence prevents the seven heavens to fall upon the Earth. As
depicted in the 4th structural diagram of Chapter 371 (Figure 5), to which we
shall come back below, man is the cornerstone of the cosmic tent (al-nuqṭa al-
latī yastaqirru ʿalay-hā ʿamad al-khayma).17 Pivot of the universe, it is for him
that the entire world has been created and around him that the world moves.
There is nothing in this world which is not present within: often described
as the compendium of this world (majmūʿ al-ʿālam), he appears moreover in
Chapter 371 as the very aim of existence (al-ʿayn al-maqṣūda min al-wujūd). If
the order of the world (tartīb al-ʿālam) is the focal point of the chapter, the fig-
ure of the Perfect Man, as ultimate goal of the universe, remains ever-present
in the background.
After an introductory part leading towards the function assigned to the Per-
fect Man, the text is divided into nine sections ( fuṣūl), each connected to a
diagram, in which Ibn al-ʿArabī brings to light the principles of his cosmological
edifice according to a descending logic, starting with the first principles exhaled
by God in His divine breath, to the last wave of the emanation of being: man. As
illustrated by the diagrams, this chapter develops also an eschatological dimen-
sion in focusing on the process of the ultimate evolution of the world and its
reintegration into its principle. On similar grounds to the other chapters of the
faṣl al-manāzil, Ibn al-ʿArabī enumerates one by one, in the final part of the text,
the other sciences relative to the sura around which the chapter is articulated
and into which he did not delve deeper. Indeed, as he mentions in the end of
the second chapter of the faṣl al-manāzil, each chapter contains but a drop of
the ocean without a shore of the Qurʾan.18

16 Allāhu alladhī rafaʿa al-samawāti bi-ghayri ʿamadin tarawna-hā (Q 13:2).

17 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 355, 8:440.
18 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 271, 7:28–29.

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 131

2 The Function of Graphic Symbolism: Pouring Spiritual Realities

into Sensible Molds, and Making the Invisible Visible

Ibn al-ʿArabī’s work, the Book of the Production of Circles (Kitāb Inshāʾ al-
dawāʾir), dedicated to one of his closest disciples, ʿAbdallāh Badr al-Ḥabashī
(d. c. 618/1221),19 is fundamental for understanding his diagrams. In the Meccan
Openings, Ibn al-ʿArabī specifies that in this treatise, he depicted the world and
the two presences (al-ʿālam wa-l-ḥaḍratayn) in figures (ashkāl) to “bring closer”
the one who is capable of imagination to their science (li-yuqarriba al-ʿilm bi-hā
ʿalā ṣāḥib al-khayāl).20 In the beginning of the Kitāb Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir, indeed,
the Andalusian master asserts his will to convey the realities revealed to him
“by pouring them into the mold of sensible representation in order to facilitate
their access to the intimate companion ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Ḥabashī, and to cla-
rify their meaning to the one whose sight is too weak to grasp them and whose
shining stars of meditative thoughts do not navigate in these spheres.”21 Fur-
ther, Ibn al-ʿArabī adds that he inserted circles (dawāʾir) and tables ( jadāwil)
into his written work in order to facilitate the disciple (ṭālib) in terms of access
to their profits ( fawāʾid) and to their spiritual meanings (maʿānī). In visualiz-
ing these figures, Ibn al-ʿArabī specifies, “the disciple will represent in himself
the spiritual meaning (maʿnā) in a materialized form, thereby facilitating its
explicit expression (tushalu al-ʿibāra ʿan-hā) by its integration into the ima-
gination. He who considers (the spiritual meaning in a materialized form) will
then aspire to complete his consideration and thus, to come to know the total-
ity of its spiritual meanings, because sensation (al-ḥiss), once poured into the
mold of form and figure (qālab al-ṣūra wa-l-shakl), is taken with the spiritual
reality. The disciple finds pleasure in it, which provides him with delight, and
this leads him to realize what manifests to him (the vision of) the figure, and

19 About ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Ḥabashī, see: Denis Gril, “al-Badr al-Ḥabashī,” in ei3; and Denis
Gril, “Le Kitāb al-inbāh ʿalā ṭarīq Allāh de ʿAbdallāh Badr al-Ḥabašī. Un témoignage de
l’enseignement spirituel de Muḥyī l-dīn Ibn ʿArabī,” Annales Islamologiques 15 (1979): 97–
164.
20 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 369, 9:261.
21 (Arad-tu an udkhila-hā) fī qālab al-tashkīl al-ḥissī li-yaqraba maʾkhadhu-hā ʿalā al-ṣāḥib
al-walī ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Ḥabashī wa-li-yattaḍiḥa li-man kalla baṣaru-hu ʿan idrāki-hā
wa-lam tasbaḥ darārī afkāri-hi fī aflāki-hā in Ibn al-ʿArabī, Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir, ed. Henrik
S. Nyberg, in Kleinere Schriften des Ibn al-ʿArabī (Leiden: Brill, 1919), 4. The new edition of
the text elaborated by Maurizio Marconi, “Edizione del Kitāb Inšāʾ al-Dawāʾir,” El Azufre
Rojo 5 (2018): 103–134, does almost not differ for the passages of the Kitāb Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir
that we are quoting in this article.

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what is materialized to him by this form. It is for this reason that we have
integrated the spiritual meaning into the representation and the configura-
tion.”22
As highlighted in these passages, the diagrams in the Kitāb Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir
are conceived by Ibn al-ʿArabī as tools for meditation in order to help his dis-
ciple to grasp the metaphysical principles which are formulated in the treatise.
As visual supports, these diagrams aim at inducing the one who visualizes them
to ascend from the sensible level of perception to the imaginative one, and
by means of the imaginative faculty, to reach the spiritual meaning or real-
ity (maʿnā) manifested by the figure.23 For man, as Ibn al-ʿArabī stresses in
Chapter 198 of the Meccan Openings, consists of three aspects (muthallath al-
nashʾa): an interior and spiritual aspect (nashʾa bāṭina maʿnawiyya rūḥāniyya),
an external, sensible and natural aspect (nashʾa ẓāhira ḥissiyya ṭabīʿiyya), and
a median and corporeal aspect, relative to the territory of archetypes (nashʾa
mutawassiṭa jasadiyya barzakhiyya mithāliyya).24 The world of images, mod-
els or archetypes (ʿālam al-mithāl), which lies between the visible world (ʿālam
al-shahāda) and the invisible world (ʿālam al-ghayb), indeed, is the place par
excellence where the spiritual realities appear in sensible molds (ẓuhūr al-
maʿānī fī al-qawālib al-maḥsūsa).25
In Chapter 371 as well, Ibn al-ʿArabī more allusively highlights the purpose
of the diagrams that he inserted into the chapter. These diagrams, according to
him, aim at “bringing (his reader) closer” (wa-qad bayyanā dhālika fī al-ṣūra al-

22 Wa-yataṣawwaru al-maʿnā fī nafsi-hi ṣūratan mutajassadatan tashulu ʿalay-hi al-ʿibāra ʿan-

hā li-quwwat ḥuṣūli-hā fī al-khayāl wa-yaḥriṣu al-nāẓir ʿalā istīfāʾ al-naẓar ḥattā yaqifa ʿalā
kulliyyat maʿānī-hā idh al-maʿnā idhā udkhila fī qālab al-ṣūra wa-l-shakl taʿashshaqa bi-hi
al-ḥiss wa-ṣāra la-hu furja yatafarraju ʿalay-hā wa-yatanazzahu fī-hā fa-yuʾaddī-hi dhā-
lika ilā taḥqīq mā nuṣiba la-hu dhālika al-shakl wa-jussidat la-hu tilka al-ṣūra fa-li-hādhā
adkhalnā-hu fī al-taṣwīr wa-l-tashkīl (Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir, ed. Henrik S. Nyberg, 6). We fol-
lowed Maurizio Marconi in suppressing the particule mā in the last sentence (“Edizione
del Kitāb Inšāʾ al-Dawāʾir,” 7).
23 Mention should be made of the intrinsic link between the imaginative activity and the
act of drawing, expressed by the Arabic word of ṣūra, used to designate both the “form”
and the “drawing.” The word used to designate Seraphiel’s trumpet (ṣūr), mentioned in
the Qurʾan and a ḥadīth, and identified by Ibn al-ʿArabī to the world of archetypes (ʿālam
al-mithāl), derives from the same root. On the notion of “horn of light,” see: William Chit-
tick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (New York: State
University of New York Press, 1989), 122–123.
24 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 198, 6:287.
25 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 311, 7:455. On the notion
of ʿālam al-mithāl, see the classical study by Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the
Sūfism of Ibn ʿArabī (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969).

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mithāliyya al-muqaddima fī hādhā al-bāb ʿalā al-taqrīb), since the function of

images, as well as parables,26 is to “bring closer” the one who visualizes them
to its underlying spiritual meaning or reality. In the first part of Chapter 371,
the Andalusian master formulates, in words which echoe al-Ghazālī’s language,
especially in the Niche of Lights (Mishkāt al-anwār),27 his intention to address
hell and paradise according to the modality of images (amthila), “in order to
facilitate their representation to those who cannot represent the spiritual real-
ities without a parable (mathal), just as God proposed to the hearts the parable
of water descent in the valleys according to their measure,28 and just as He pro-
posed the parable of the light in the niche.29 God has made all of it to facilitate
the access to the spiritual meaning for those who are endowed with poor under-
standing.”30 And further, he adds: “We have shown this in the form of figures to
propose a model (mithāl) to bring those endowed with a reduced understand-
ing closer (al-afhām al-qāṣira), unable to grasp the spiritual realities without a

26 It is difficult to translate the central term here of mithāl, which expresses at the same time
the concepts of ‘model,’ ‘archetype,’ ‘image’ and ‘symbol.’ It derives from the same root
as the term mathal, which designates both the ‘parable’ or ‘allegory,’ and the ‘example.’
Moreover, it designates Man, according to Ibn al-ʿArabī in his al-Iṣṭilāḥāt al-ṣūfiyya. For
Ibn Barrajān, “the similar, the image and the model are one and the same thing (al-mithl
wa-l-mathal wa-l-mithāl huwa nafs al-shayʾ).” Ibn Barrajān, Tanbīh al-afhām, ed. Aḥmad F.
al-Mazyadī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1434/2013), 1:549.
27 The high esteem Ibn al-ʿArabī holds for al-Ghazālī is well-known. On Ibn al-ʿArabī’s refer-
ences to al-Ghazālī, see: Claude Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur. The Life of Ibn ʿArabī
(Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, Golden Palm Series, 1993), 103n36. The second
chapter of al-Ghazālī’s famous Niche of Lights is dedicated to the secret of symbolic repres-
entation (tamthīl) and its laws, to the modality (wajh) in which the spiritual significations
(arwāḥ al-maʿānī) are grasped in the molds of their models (qawālib al-amthila); and to
the correlation between the visible world (ʿālam al-shahāda), “clay of the models” (ṭīnat
al-amthila), and the celestial world (ʿālam al-malakūt) from which the spiritual significa-
tions (arwāḥ al-maʿānī) descend. For the visible world, according to al-Ghazālī, is “a ladder
to the celestial world (mirqāt ilā ʿālam al-malakūt), and following the “straight path” is an
expression of the climbing of this ladder (al-taraqqī).” Indeed, “there is nothing in this
world that does not correspond to a model in the celestial world ( fa-mā min shayʾ min
hādhā al-ʿālam illā wa-huwa mithāl li-shayʾ min dhālika al-ʿālam).” See al-Ghazālī, Mishkāt
al-anwār, ed. Abū al-ʿAlāʾ ʿAfīfī (Cairo: Dār al-Qawmiyya li-l-Ṭabʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1383/1964),
67.
28 Q 13:17.
29 Allusion to the famous verse of Light (Q 24:35).
30 Wa-li-najʿal dhālika kulla-hu fī amthila li-yaqraba taṣawwuru-hā ʿalā man lā yataṣawwaru
al-maʿānī min ghayr ḍarb mathal kamā ḍaraba Allāh li-l-qulūb mathalan bi-l-adwiyya bi-
qadri-hā fī nuzūl al-māʾ wa-kamā ḍaraba al-mathal li-nūri-hi bi-l-miṣbāḥ kull dhālika li-
yaqraba ilā al-afhām al-qāṣira al-amr (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān
al-Manṣūb, chap. 371, 9:313).

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parable, because God has made knowledge that man has of himself but a model
for the knowledge of his lord.”31
As visual metaphors, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s figures aim at leading the one who visu-
alizes them to reach, by means of the analogy, the underlying spiritual realities
of the forms of the figures. In closing, it should be reminded that although Ibn
al-ʿArabī does not associate these diagrams with specific spiritual practices, as
it will be the case in later contexts,32 this ascension from the formal to the
informal is also evoked by the Andalusian master in another context, that of the
spiritual retreat (khalwa). If the aspirant engaged in a spiritual retreat is called
to perform an imaginative invocation (al-dhikr al-khayālī), which consists in
visualizing the letters of his invocation (dhikr), it is only to ascend towards
an invocation beyond all form, which is the invocation of the heart (dhikr al-
qalb).33

3 Tracing the Figure of the Universe

In his Risālat al-Anwār, Ibn al-ʿArabī asserts: “Know that all the paths are spher-
ical and that there is no straight line. But this treatise is too short to address
such issues.”34 If there is one figure that dominates in these nine structural dia-
grams of Chapter 371, it is that of the circle symbolizing the sphere, described
repeatedly in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings as the most excellent form (afḍal al-
ashkāl) and the very symbol of existence.35 As stressed by Ibn al-ʿArabī in
Chapter 371, “the form of the world in its totality is the form of a spherical circle”
( fa-ṣūrat al-ʿālam bi-jumlati-hi ṣūra dāʾira falakiyya). In the circle of existence,
man and his correlate (naẓīr), the First Intellect, coincide insofar as the Intel-
lect, as first being existentiated, is the starting point of the circle; whereas man,

31 Wa-inna-mā dhakarnā hādhā lammā nuẓhiru-hu min al-ashkāl li-ḍarb al-amthāl li-l-taqrīb
ʿalā al-afhām al-qāṣira ʿan idrāk al-maʿānī min ghayr mathal fa-inna Allāh mā jaʿala
maʿrifat al-insān nafsa-hu illā ḍarb mithāl li-maʿrifat rabbi-hi (ibid., 9:317).
32 See: Marcia K. Hermansen, “Mystical Paths and Authoritative Knowledge: A Semiotic
Approach to Sufi Cosmological Diagrams,” Journal of Religious Studies and Theology 12,
no. 1 (1992): 52–77.
33 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 78, 13:364–365.
34 al-Ṭuruq kulla-hā mustadīra wa-mā thamma ṭarīq khaṭṭī wa-ghayr dhālika mimmā taḍīq
hādhihi al-risāla ʿan-hu in Ibn al-ʿArabī, Risālat al-Anwār, ed. Bernd Radtke in Neue krit-
ische Gänge (Utrecht: M.Th. Houtsma Stichting, 2005), 130.
35 About Ibn al-ʿArabī’s vision of the circularity of existence, see: Alessandro Bausani, “Note
sulla circolarità dell’essere in Ibn al-ʿArabī (1165–1240),” 57–74.

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 135

as the last existentiated being (al-mawjūd al-ākhir), is its ultimate point. The
human being, thus, joins the Intellect, completing the circle of existence.36

In Chapter 1 of the Meccan Openings “On the Knowledge of the Spirit” ( fī

maʿrifat al-rūḥ), Ibn al-ʿArabī refers to the movement of the conversion of the
compass (al-birkār) in the drawing of the circle ( fī fatḥ al-dāʾira), bringing the
end of the circle to coincide with its point of origin (nuqṭat al-bidāya). He
returns to the action of tracing a circle in Chapter 47:

Know that insofar as the world is in spherical form, man yearns for his
beginning when reaching his end. It is by Him—may He be exalted—that
we come from non-existence to existence, and to Him that we shall return.
As He—may He be praised—said: “To Him everything shall be returned”
(Q 11:123). He said: “And fear a day wherein you shall be returned to God”
(Q 2:281), and He said: “and unto Him is the homecoming” (Q 5:18, 42:15,
64:3), “and unto God is the issue of all affairs” (Q 31:22). Do you not see
that when you start tracing a circle, you persist in rotating your tracing
until you return to the beginning point, and that then only it becomes a
circle? If it would not be like so, and if our action would result in a recti-
linear line, we would not return to Him, and His saying “to Him you shall
return” would not be true.37

It is in the manner of the architect, before engaging in his work, who draws the
plan or model (mithāl) of what he wants to reveal only once having conceived it
through his mental faculty (dhihn),38 that Ibn al-ʿArabī seems to have drawn the
model of the world. For the world itself, as alluded to in Chapter 4 of the Mec-
can Openings “On the Cause of the Origin of the World” ( fī sabab badʾ al-ʿālam
wa-marātib al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā min al-ʿālam kulli-hi), was created according to

36 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 7, 2:251–252.

37 Iʿlam anna al-ʿālam lammā kāna akrī al-shakl li-hādhā ḥanna al-insān fī nihāyati-hi ilā
bidāyati-hi fa-kāna khurūju-nā min al-ʿadam ilā al-wujūd bi-hi subḥāna-hu wa-ilay-hi nar-
jiʿu kamā qāla ʿazza wa-jalla “wa-ilay-hi yurjiʿu al-amru kullu-hu” wa-qāla “wa-ttaqū
yawman turjaʿūna fī-hi ilā Allāh” wa-qāla “wa-ilay-hi al-maṣīr” “wa-ilā Allāhi ʿāqibatu al-
umūr” a-lā tarā-ka idhā badaʾat waḍaʿa dāʾira fa-inna-ka ʿindamā tabtadiʾu bi-hā lā tazālu
tudīru-hā ilā an tantahiya ilā awwali-hā wa-ḥīnaʾidhin takūnu dāʾira wa-law lam yakun al-
amr ka-dhālika la-kunnā idhā kharajnā min ʿindi-hi khāṭṭan mustaqīman lam narjiʿ ilay-hi
wa-lam yakun yaṣduqu qawlu-hu wa-huwa al-ṣādiq “wa-ilay-hi turjaʿūn” (al-Futūḥāt al-
Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 47, 4:127–128).
38 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 73, 30th question, 12:214.

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136 tyser

a model preserved in the Universal Soul or Well-Guarded Tablet before the

existentiation of the world. The idea of a model of the world that precedes its
physical existence is reminiscent of the correlation between the divine creat-
ive act and the operation of the architect, established by al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111)
in the Book of Wonders of the Heart (Kitāb Sharḥ ʿajāʾib al-qalb) of the Iḥyāʾ
ʿulūm al-dīn. God, compared by al-Ghazālī to the architect who designs and
draws his construction plans on paper before executing them, conceived the
copy or pattern of the world (kataba nuskhat al-ʿālam) preserved in the Well-
Guarded Tablet before creating it according to this same pattern (ʿalā wifq tilka
al-nuskha). The image of the world that has come to existence is perceptible
to the imaginative faculty of man, because, as al-Ghazālī says, “he who looks at
the Heavens and the Earth, and then closes his eyes, sees their image in his ima-
gination as if he were looking at them. If Heaven and the Earth ceased to exist,
and he remains within himself (wa-baqiya huwa fī nafsi-hi), he would still find
their image within himself as if he were contemplating them. His imagination
thereupon leaves a trace in the heart.”39 Al-Ghazālī concludes: “God made your
pupil, despite the smallness of its size, disposed to receive the impression of the
image of the world, the heavens and the Earth in all their greatness. From its
existence in the sensible realm, it gets into an existence in the imagination, and
then into an existence in the heart. You will therefore always perceive but what
reaches you, and if God did not place in your very being a model (mithāl) of the
whole world, you would be unable to perceive the information (that comes to
you) from what is different from you.”40

4 Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Diagrammatic Representation of the Hierarchy

of the World (tartīb al-ʿālam) in Chapter 371

In the legend of the first diagram of this series, Ibn al-ʿArabī points out his
incapacity, due to the narrowness of the space of the drawing, to elaborate a

39 Fa-inna man yanẓuru ilā al-samāʾ wa-l-arḍ thumma yaghuḍḍu baṣara-hu yarā ṣūrat al-
samāʾ wa-l-arḍ fī khayāli-hi ḥattā ka-anna-hu yanẓuru ilay-hā wa-law inʿadamat al-samāʾ
wa-l-arḍ wa-baqiya huwa fī nasfi-hi la-wajada ṣūrat al-samāʾ wa-l-arḍ fī nafsi-hi ka-anna-hu
yushāhidu-humā wa-yanẓuru ilay-himā thumma yataʾaddā min khayāli-hi athar ilā al-qalb
(Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, 1374).
40 Jaʿala ḥadaqata-ka ʿalā ṣughr ḥajmi-hā bi-ḥaythu tanṭabiʿu ṣūrat al-ʿālam wa-l-samāwāt
wa-l-arḍ ʿalā ittisāʿ aknāfi-hā fī-hā thumma yusrā min wujūdi-hā fī al-ḥiss wujūd ilā al-
khayāl thumma min-hu wujūd fī al-qalb fa-inna-ka abadan tudriku illā mā huwa wāṣil ilay-
ka fa-law lam yafʿal li-l-ʿālam kulli-hi mithālan fī dhāti-ka la-mā kāna la-ka khabar mimmā
yubānu dhātu-ka (ibid.).

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 137

unique diagram crystallizing all the components of the diagrams, which would
be more explicit to the one who considers them.41 One should, therefore, not
forget that the nine diagrams he drew are all connected to each other and
should be viewed in reality as one unique and complex diagram.42

4.1 Diagram of “the Form of the Cloud and What It Contains until
the Throne of the Session”
The first diagram (Figure 2/Plate 3.2) illustrates the deployment of the first
levels of the hierarchy of being in the primordial Cloud (al-ʿamāʾ), first invisible
entity (awwal ghayb), until the universal or Prime Matter (al-hayūlā al-kull).43
As Ibn al-ʿArabī explains in Chapter 371, “the form of the world in its entirety
is a spherical circle, and then the forms of the figures are differentiated in this
circle in the form of squares, triangles, hexagons, to infinity, in terms of pro-
priety, not of being (ḥukman lā wujūdan). The angels which revolve around the
Throne have a course only in this circular Cloud in which appeared also the
entity of the Throne.”44

41 Fa-inna mawḍiʿ ṣuwar al-ashkāl ḍayyiq hunā lā yuttasiʿu li-ṣuwar mā nurīdu tashkīlatan
wāḥidatan fa-inna-hu law ittasaʿa kāna abyan li-l-nāẓir fī-hi (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed.
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 371, 9:319).
42 Before inserting the nine diagrams into the body of the text, Ibn al-ʿArabī enumerates
and describes the content of each diagram. We ignore why the content described by the
Andalusian master in the text does not always correspond to the diagrams of the Konya
holograph manuscript, drawn by his own hand. Ibn al-ʿArabī’s description in Chapter 371
does also not correspond totally to the diagrams as they appear in the two first Būlāq
editions of the Meccan Openings, which differ from the diagrams of the holograph manu-
script. According to an unpublished study of Julian Cook and Claude Addas (Claude
Addas & Julian Cook, “Editions of Ibn ʿArabī’s al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya—a brief history—
plus case studies of textual variation,” summarized in: Claude Addas & Julian Cook,
“Six Printed Editions of al-Futūḥāt al Makkīyah. A brief survey,” available at: http://www​
.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/futuhat‑printed‑editions.html), the two first Būlāq editions
of the Meccan Openings are based on numerous manuscripts, including manuscripts
based on the first and the second versions of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s magnum opus. It is only since
the third Būlāq edition that the editors of the text started to focus on the Konya holo-
graph manuscript. It is also on the diagrams of the holograph manuscript, reproduced in
the present article, that we focused our attention.
43 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi 1870, fol. 90a.
44 Fa-ṣūrat al-ʿālam bi-jumlati-hi ṣūra dāʾira falakiyya thumma ikhtalafat fī-hā ṣuwar al-
ashkāl min tarbīʿ wa-tathlīth wa-tasdīs ilā mā lā yatanāhā ḥukman lā wujūdan wa-l-malāʾika
al-ḥāffūn min ḥawl al-ʿarsh mā la-hum sibāḥa illā fī hādhā al-ʿamāʾ al-mustadīr alladhī
ẓahara ayḍan ʿayn al-ʿarsh (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb,
chap. 371, 9:316).

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138 tyser

plate 3.2 Form (ṣūra) of the Cloud and What It Contains Until the Throne of the Session.
Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fol. 90a)

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 139

The all-encompassing circle (al-dāʾira al-muḥīṭa) of the Cloud (al-ʿamāʾ)45

in which the existence entirely unfolds, is divided into thirty parts, represent-
ing the stations of the angels distraught with love (al-malāʾika al-muhayyama),
the close cherub angels (al-karūbiyyūn al-muqarrabūn) which are described
as seeing nothing but God and as ignoring that He created something other
than themselves. Ibn al-ʿArabī specifies that God elected among them one
angel named the First or Universal Intellect (al-ʿaql al-awwal), identified with
the Qurʾanic Pen (al-qalam). Depicted in the form of a triangle, this angel is
the first existentiated being (awwal mawjūd), elsewhere intertwined by Ibn al-
ʿArabī with the Muḥammadan Reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-muḥammadiyya).46 From
the First Intellect emanates the Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyya), identified
with the Qurʾanic Well-Guarded Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūz), depicted in the
form of a rectangle containing two circles, which represent the two faculties
of the Soul (al-quwwatayn): the sapiential faculty (al-quwwa al-ʿilmiyya) and
the practical faculty (al-quwwa al-ʿamaliyya). As highlighted in the text, it is
from the union of the Intellect and the Soul that the degree of Nature (mart-
abat al-ṭabīʿa) proceeds, appearing also here in the form of a rectangle divided
into four parts representing the elementary qualities: the hot (al-ḥarāra), the
cold (al-burūda), the humid (al-ruṭūba), and the dry (al-yubūsa).

4.2 Diagram of the “Form of the Throne of the Session, the Footstool,
the Two Feet, the Water upon Which Is the Throne, the Air Which
Sustains Water, and the Darkness”
The next diagram details the last and most inferior element of the previous one:
the Universal or Prime Matter (al-hayūlā al-kull), identified with the Qurʾanic
notion of dust (al-habāʾ). The Prime Matter that, by essence (li-dhāti-hi), is the
receptacle of forms ( yuqabbilu al-ashkāl), is depicted here in circular form,

45 Described as “a merciful vapor” (bukhār raḥmānī) in Chapter 371, the notion of ʿamāʾ is
drawn from the ḥadīth according to which before creation, “God was in a cloud (ʿamāʾ)
under which and above which there was no air (hawāʾ). Then He created the Throne above
the water.” Associated by Ibn al-ʿArabī to the divine Breath (nafas al-raḥmān) from which
the creation of the whole world proceeds, the Cloud is the “first ramification that appeared
from the root (…); branches have branched out from the Cloud to the end of the world of
command and creation: the Earth (awwal farʿ ẓahara min aṣl (…) tafarraʿat min-hu ashjār
ilā muntahā al-amr wa-l-khalq wa-huwa al-arḍ).” (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz
Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 371, 9:317).
46 In the 6th chapter of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya ( fī maʿrifat badʾ al-khalq al-rūḥānī), Ibn al-
ʿArabī associates the First Intellect with the Reality of Muḥammad, “master of the world in
its totality and first principle which appeared within existence” (sayyid al-ʿālam bi-asri-hi
wa-awwal ẓāhir fī al-wujūd) (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 6, 2:227).

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140 tyser

since the circle is the most comprehensive form insofar as it potentially con-
tains all the others (Figure 3/Plate 3.3 right).47
Through the intermediary of the practical faculty (al-quwwa al-ʿamaliyya) of
the Soul, God gives a shape within Prime Matter to the Universal Body (al-jism
al-kull), represented in the form of a sphere embraced by the Prime Matter’s
sphere. Beneath the Universal Body’s degree, God created the sphere of the
divine Throne (al-ʿarsh), described in Chapter 371 as the “first dense, diaphan-
ous and luminous entity (awwal kathīf shaffāf nūrī) that appeared,” or also as a
“diaphanous, subtle and circular body encompassing the bodies of the world”
(al-jism al-shaffāf al-laṭīƒ al-mustadīr al-muḥīṭ bi-ajsām al-ʿālam). The Throne is
sustained by four angles or pillars (arkān), which correspond to the four prim-
itive elements: fire (al-nār), air (al-hawāʾ), water (al-māʾ), and earth (al-turāb).
From the divine Throne hang the two feet of God (al-qadamān), one set in
Paradise (qadam al-ṣidq) and the other in Hell (qadam al-jabbār), both rest-
ing over the Footstool (al-kursī). Between these two planes of existence of the
Throne and the Footstool, we migrate from the invisible and informal world
to the material world, represented through geometry by the passage from the
circle to the square.

4.3 The Diagram of the “Form of the Ultimate Sphere, the Paradisiacal
Abodes, the Surface of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, and the Tree
of Ṭūbā”
In the Footstool’s cavity ( jawf ), God created a transparent and circular body
divided into twelve sections, associated with the “zodiacal towers” (burūj) of
the eponymous sura’s first verse (Q 85:1), which are detailed in the third dia-
gram of the series (Figure 4/Plate 3.3 left).48
It is between the sphere of the zodiacal towers ( falak al-burūj) or ultimate
sphere (al-falak al-aṭlas), identified with the ninth starless sphere of the Ptole-
maic system, and the sphere of fixed stars (al-falak mukawkab) or sphere of
the mansions ( falak al-manāzil), that Ibn al-ʿArabī locates the eight paradisi-
acal abodes or degrees, depicted in the third diagram. All connected through

47 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 90b. The last three elements mentioned in Ibn al-
ʿArabī’s description of the diagram (the water on which the Throne rests, the air which
sustains water, and the darkness) appear more explicitly in the versions of the diagram
reproduced in the first two editions of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s magnum opus published by Būlāq.
48 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 91a. Among the differences which distinguish this dia-
gram, extracted from the Konya holograph manuscript, from the version of the diagram
reproduced in the two first Būlāq editions, we can observe the addition, in the version of
the two first Būlāq editions, of the three layers of aether (athīr), air and water, covering
the semicircle of the sublunary world.

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 visualizing the architecture of the universe

plate 3.3 Form of the Throne of the Session, the Footstool, the Two Feet, the Water upon Which Is the Throne
141

the Air Which Sustains Water, and the Darkness (right)—Form of the Ultimate Sphere, the
Paradisiacal Abodes, the Surface of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, and the Tree of Ṭūbā (left).

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Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 90b–91a)
142 tyser

a line symbolizing the intercession (al-wasīla), the eight paradisiacal spheres,

from the most superior sphere of Eden (ʿadn) until the sphere of everlasting-
ness (al-maqāma), are located on the surface of the sphere of fixed stars (satḥ
al-falak al-mukawkab). These eight degrees are associated in the text with the
eight doors or body members (the eye, the ear, the tongue, the hand, the stom-
ach, the reproductive organ, the leg and the heart) subjected to Law (taklīf ).

4.4 The Diagram of the “Form of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, the
Domes of the Heavens and of What Rests upon Them: The Earth,
the Three Elements, the Pillar by Which God Sustains the Dome,
the Mineral Realm, the Vegetal Realm, the Animal Realm, and Man”
It is in the cavity of the sphere of the fixed stars, crossed by the course of the
Moon divided into 28 stations (manāzil al-qamar), that the lowest degrees of
universal existence lie. As depicted in the diagram, it is in the form of a dome or
a tent that God created these last levels, in which the lowest level of existence,
the dunyā, is surmounted by the seven heavens mentioned in the Qurʾan, and
described as domes (qubba, pl. qibāb) in the text (Figure 5/Plate 3.4 right).49
The seven Qurʾanic heavens, associated in a common manner with the seven
planetary spheres of the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology, are embedded by
the seven planets illustrated in the diagram: the Moon (al-qamar), Mercury
(ʿuṭārid), Venus (al-zuhra), the Sun (al-shams), Mars (al-mirrīkh), Jupiter (al-
mushtarī), and Saturn (zuḥal). All these spheres are crossed by a vertical line
named the “pillar” (ʿamad), in reference to the invisible pillar of the universe
mentioned in sūrat al-Raʿd (Q 13:2), and which is identified, as we already
mentioned, with the Perfect Man (al-insān al-kāmil) (see above). The line also
crosses the seven Qurʾanic earths,50 surmounted in the diagram by five semi-
circles symbolizing the four kingdoms of the natural world (al-muwalladāt):
the animal kingdom (ḥayawān), the human kingdom (insān), the vegetable
kingdom (nabāt), and the mineral kingdom (maʿdin). At the core of the four
kingdoms lies a “fifth element” which supports the “pillar” of the world: the
Perfect Man (insān kāmil), through whose existence God holds heaven from
falling upon the Earth.51

49 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 91b.

50 Q 65:12.
51 al-Insān al-kāmil ʿamad al-samāʾ alladhī yumsiku Allāh bi-wujūdi-hi al-samāʾ an taqaʿa ʿalā
al-arḍ fa-idhā ẓāla al-insān al-kāmil wa-intaqala ilā al-barzakh hawat al-samāʾ wa-huwa
qawlu-hu taʿālā “wa-inshaqqati al-samāʾu fa-hiya yawmaʾidhin wāhiya” ayy sāqita ilā al-arḍ
(al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 371, 9:313). As illustrated
in this diagram, every man did not achieve perfection, and only the Perfect Man bears
within himself the totality of creation.

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 visualizing the architecture of the universe

plate 3.4 Form of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, the Domes of the Heavens and of What Rests upon
Them: The Earth, the Three Elements, the Pillar by Which God Sustains the Dome, the Min-
eral Realm, the Vegetal Realm, the Animal Realm, and Man (right)—Form of the Land of
143

Gathering and the Entities and Degrees It Contains, the Throne of Separation and Judgement
and Its Bearers, and of the Rows of Angels (left). Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istan-

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bul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 91b–92a)
144 tyser

The lowest degrees of existence, which constitute the visible world (ʿālam al-
shahāda), appear in this diagram as mirroring an empty space. Three elements
are named by Ibn al-ʿArabī, which do not correspond to any geometric figure in
this diagram: water (māʾ), air (hawāʾ), and darkness (ẓulma). These elements
are mentioned in Chapter 61 ( fī maʿrifat jahannam wa-aʿẓam al-makhlūqāt
ʿadhāban fī-hā wa-maʿrifat baʿḍ al-ʿālam al-ʿulwī), where Ibn al-ʿArabī describes
his own vision of hell in which he saw water floating in the air, and his own
soul in the air. Above his soul, he saw the water which was prevented by the air
to descend towards the Earth.52 This water, of course, is not the water found
on Earth, but the celestial water on which the divine Throne rests (Q 11:7),
described in Chapter 371 as solid water (māʾ jāmid) on which the Throne’s four
pillars are placed. According to Ibn al-ʿArabī, this water lies (maqarru-hu) on
cold air (al-hawāʾ al-bārid), which freezes the water. “This air,” specifies Ibn al-
ʿArabī, “is darkness itself (nafs al-ẓulma), which is none other than the realm
of the Unseen, and that only God knows. When the ‘Earth brings forth her bur-
dens’ (Q 99:2) on the Day of Judgement, the visible world will sink into the
darkness which lies under the bridge. On this day, the creatures will be gathered
on the bridge ( jisr) established by God above darkness, and the state of Earth,
‘stretched out’ (Q 84:3), will be altered.” As Ibn al-ʿArabī asserts, however, no
creature will be able to observe the modality of the alteration of Heaven and
Earth (kayfiyyat al-tabdīl fī al-samāʾ wa-l-arḍ),53 “until the world extends to the
earth of Gathering (arḍ al-ḥashr)”: an earth “wherein thou wilt see no crooked-
ness neither any curving” (Q 20:107).
Mention here should be made about one of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Andalusian pre-
decessors, Ibn Barrajān (d. 536/1141), the “Ghazālī of al-Andalus,” who is men-
tioned on various occasions in the Meccan Openings, inter alia in an eschatolo-
gical context.54 The teachings carried by this intermediary diagram in the series
of the nine diagrams of the chapter is reminiscent of Ibn Barrajān’s eschatology,

52 Maurice Gloton, De la mort à la résurrection, 111–112. Commenting the ḥadīth of the cloud
in his Kitāb al-Jalāla, Ibn al-ʿArabī specifies that the cloud is the air which carries the
water, and the water is life from which everything comes (al-jaww al-ḥāmil li-l-māʾ alladhī
huwa al-ḥayāt wa-min-hu kull shayʾ). See Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb al-Jalāla, in Rasāʾil Ibn ʿArabī
(Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1390/1971), 50.
53 The notion of tabdīl refers to the following verse: “Upon the day the Earth shall be changed
(tubadillu) to other than the Earth and the Heavens” (Q 14:48).
54 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 61, 4:369. On the points of convergence
between Ibn al-ʿArabī’s doctrine and that of Ibn Barrajān, see: Denis Gril, “L’interprétation
par transposition symbolique (iʿtibār), selon Ibn Barrajān et Ibn ʿArabī,” in Symbolisme et
herméneutique dans la pensée d’Ibn ʿArabī, ed. Bakri Aladdin (Damascus: Presses de l’Ifpo,
2007), 147–151.

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 145

which foreshadows, in many respects, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s own vision of entangle-

ments between this world and the hereafter. According to Ibn Barrajān, the
visible world is the mirror of the invisible one (mirʾāt al-ghayb), which appears
in the shadow of this world: “God hides (khabbaʾa) the next world in the shade
of this world (ẓill al-dunyāʾ),” which surrounds this world. “It is hidden within
it, yet concealed from us.”55

4.5 Diagram of the “Form of the Land of Gathering and the Entities
and Degrees It Contains, the Throne of Separation and Judgement
and Its Bearers, and of the Rows of Angels”
In the fifth diagram of the series, which illustrates the structure of the eschato-
logical Land of Gathering (arḍ al-ḥashr), where the creatures will be gathered
waiting God’s judgement, Ibn al-ʿArabī provides us with a topography of the
hereafter (Figure 6/Plate 3.4 left).56 The diagram, molded in the general shape
of a cosmic scale (mīzān), in accordance with the Qurʾanic symbolism of the
scale of deeds,57 illustrates the division of the creatures according to the book of
their deeds, in reference to the following verses: “We shall bring forth for him,
on the Day of Resurrection, a book he shall find spread wide open, ‘Read thy
book! Thy soul suffices thee this day as a reckoner against thee.’” (Q 17:14–15)
All those judged, whether destined to Hell or Paradise, will walk over the path
(ṣirāṭ), a narrow bridge described in a ḥadīth as “thinner than a hair and sharper
than a sword.” Stretched on the surface of hellfire, the path is concealed within
hellfire (al-ṣirāt ʿalā matn jahannam wa-ghāʾib fī-hā),58 in accordance with the
following verse mentioned by the Andalusian master in Chapter 371: “Not one
of you there is, but he shall go down to it (Q 19:71).” The bridge,59 symbolized by
a horizontal line in the diagram, is described in the text as extending from the
Earth to the surface of the sphere of the fixed stars. The term indicates, as depic-
ted in the diagram, a meadow located outside of the walls of Paradise, “place of
the banquet” (marj al-janna wa-huwa mawḍiʿ al-maʾduba). The blessed people
of the banquet (ahl al-maʾduba) will feast in this place, described in Chapter 371
as an immaculate white land (darmaka bayḍāʾ naqiyya).

55 Yousef Casewit, The Mystics of al-Andalus. Ibn Barrajān and Islamic Thought in the Twelfth
Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 276.
56 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 92a.
57 Q 7:8–9, 21:47, 23:102–103, 101:6–9.
58 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿUthmān Yaḥyā, chap. 64, 4:476.
59 Ibn al-ʿArabī evokes sometimes not one, but seven bridges stretched out hellfire (ibid.,
p. 446), perhaps in correspondence with the seven doors of Hell depicted in the next dia-
gram.

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As illustrated in the diagram, the point of departure of the path (ṣirāṭ) and
its point of arrival are separated by a perpendicular vertical line symbolizing
the Qurʾanic “peaks” (al-aʿrāf ), that is to say the boundary-wall (sūr) evoked
in the eponymous sura (Q 7:46–48) which separates Hell from Paradise. At
the intersection of the line of the path (ṣirāṭ) and the line of the peaks, a
circle symbolizes the immolation of death (dhabḥ al-mawt), that God will make
appear between Hell and Paradise in the form of a black and white ram (kabsh
amlaḥ).60 At the very end of the path, the pool (ḥawḍ) of prophet Muḥammad,
described in a ḥadīth as quenching the thirst of those drinking from it, awaits
believers in Paradise. During the Day of Judgement, God grants the praised sta-
tion (al-maqām al-maḥmūd) to the Prophet (Q 17:79), which will allow him to
perform intercession for all humanity. All these elements depicted in the dia-
gram are framed by seven rows of angels (ṣufūf al-malāʾika) preceded by the
Spirit (al-rūḥ), the angel Gabriel. The rank of the Prophet, symbolized by a
circle, lies below the Spirit and the Throne of Separation and Judgement (ʿarsh
al-faṣl wa-l-qaḍāʾ), which surmounts all the elements of the diagram. On the
right and the left side of the Throne lie the pulpits of the protected ones (al-
āminūn). As depicted in the diagram, the Throne, on the Day of Judgement,
will not be established on four, but eight pillars, carried by the eight angels
mentioned in the Qurʾan.61

4.6 Diagram of the “Form of Hell, Its Doors, Its Abodes and
Its Descending Levels”
The sixth diagram of the series details the structure of Hell, its degrees (dara-
kāt) mentioned in the Qurʾan, and its doors (Figure 7/Plate 3.5 right).62 As for
the degrees of Paradise (darajāt al-janna), each of the seven infernal gates
corresponds to one of the seven above-mentioned members of the human
body subjected to Law (aʿḍāʾ al-taklīf al-ẓāhira). As Ibn al-ʿArabī specifies, “the
interior of man in this world becomes exterior in the hereafter ( fa-inna bāṭin
al-insān fī al-dunyā huwa al-ẓāhir fī al-dār al-ākhira).”63 The center of the dia-
gram is occupied by the door which veils the heart (al-ḥijāb al-qalb), which is
the place of the invisible within man (mawḍiʿ al-ghayb min al-insān). Described
in Chapter 371 as a paradise surrounded by calamities (makārih), this door (bāb
al-ḥijāb) shall not open until God establishes servitude (al-ʿubūdiyya) within

60 Ibn al-ʿArabī here refers to a ḥadīth recorded in al-Bukhārī, al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ, 6:93 (ḥadīth
nº 4730).
61 Q 69:17.
62 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 92b.
63 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 371, 9:356.

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visualizing the architecture of the universe 147

the judged one. It masks the vision of God (ruʾyat Allāh) and remains sealed to
the veiled inhabitants of Hell.

4.7 Diagram of the “Form of the Presence of the Divine Names,

the Lowest World, the Hereafter, and the Intermediary World”
Ibn al-ʿArabī’s cosmological edifice cannot be grasped without taking into con-
sideration his doctrine of divine Names. The seventh diagram of the series
illustrates the articulation between this world and the hereafter, joined by the
intermediary world (al-barzakh), and the divine Names, whose interaction is at
the origin of the appearance of the world (Figure 8/Plate 3.5 left).64 Just as there
is an order of the world, there is an order among the divine names, which can be
divided into “chiefs” (aʾimma) or “lords” (arbāb), and “servants” (sadana). Seven
principal names (the “mothers of the names,” ummahāt al-asmāʾ), depicted in
this diagram, are the cause of the existence of the world: the Living (al-ḥayy),
the Knower (al-ʿālim), the One who wants (al-murīd), the One who can (al-
qādir), the One who says (al-qāʾil), the Most-Generous (al-jawwād), and the
Equitable (al-muqsiṭ). These names are the “daughters” (banāt) of two other
names: the one who administers things (al-mudabbir) and the one who distin-
guishes them (al-mufaṣṣil).

4.8 Diagram of the “Form of the Dune of the Vision and of the Degrees
of Creation within It”
The eighth diagram of the series illustrates the Dune of the Vision (kathīb al-
ruʾya, kathīb al-mushāhada),65 a dune of white musk (kathīb min al-misk al-
abyaḍ) located at the summit of Paradise in the garden of Eden ( jannat ʿadn),
from which the people destined to Paradise will be able to see God during the
supreme visitation (al-zawr al-aʿẓam) on the Day of Judgment (Figure 9/Plate
3.6 right).66 It is also the sixth and last abode (mawṭin) enumerated by Ibn al-
ʿArabī in his Risālat al-Anwār, which follows the abode of Hell and Paradise.67
Pulpits (manābir), thrones (asirra), and seats (karāsī) are disposed in this place
according to the degrees occupied by the people of the Dune (ahl al-kathīb),
divided into four communities (ṭawāʾif ): the believers, the saints, the prophets,
and the messengers.

64 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 93a.

65 Q 73:14.
66 ms Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, 1870, fol. 93b. Ibn al-ʿArabī describes the Dune more in detail
in chap. 65 ( fī maʿrifat al-janna wa-manāzili-hā wa-darajāti-hā).
67 Ibn al-ʿArabī, Risālat al-Anwār, ed. Bernd Radkte, 56.

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plate 3.5 Form of Hell, Its Doors, Its Abodes and Its Descending Levels (right)—Form of the Presence
tyser

of the Divine Names, the Lowest World, the Hereafter, and the Intermediary World (left). Ibn
al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 92b–93a)

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149

plate 3.6 Form of the Dune of the Vision and of the Degrees of Creation within It (right)—Form of the
Entire World and of the Hierarchy of Its Spiritual and Corporal, High and Low Layers (left).

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Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Istanbul, Evkaf Müzesi, ms 1870, fols. 93b–94a)
150 tyser

4.9 Diagram of the “Form of the Entire World and of the Hierarchy
of Its Spiritual and Corporal, High and Low Layers”
As a synthesis of the eight precedent diagrams, the last diagram of the series
illustrates the entire gradation of universal existence, depicted as a perfectly
storied and organized whole (Figure 10/Plate 3.6 left). It constitutes the visual
support of the last section of the chapter, which provides us several classific-
ations of the degrees of the universe according to different points of view. In
this representation of the world as a whole, the hereafter appears at the very
core of the world.68 As specified in this section, the world, defined as “all that
is other than God” (kull mā siwā Allāh), is none other than the forms accepted
by the Cloud and which appeared in it. These forms, explains the Andalusian
master, are like that appearing in the mirror to the eye of the one who looks
(al-rāʾī), who is none other than God, the glance of the world (baṣar al-ʿālam).
“The world, in sum, appears between the Cloud and the glance of God.”69

Conclusion

As a graphic representation of his cosmological teachings, the figures drawn by

Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Meccan Openings show us to what extent his vision of the
world is anchored in the universe of the Qurʾan and the ḥadīth.70 Indeed, as it
has been often underlined, the focal point of the Andalusian master’s magnum
opus, which can be read as a large commentary of the Qurʾan, is the interpret-
ation of the divine Revelation.71 The data derived from Revelation, however,
does not contradict the knowledge of the astronomers (aṣḥāb ʿilm al-hayʾa). As
Ibn al-ʿArabī asserts in the introductory part of Chapter 371, their observations

68 The shape of the central part of the diagram, indeed, corresponds to the shape of the dia-
gram of the “Form of the Dune of the Vision.”
69 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, chap. 371, 9:461.
70 As Ibn al-ʿArabī emphasizes on this point in the beginning of chap. 371: “the knowledge of
the hierarchy of the world is not the lot of rational judgement (laysa al-ʿilm bi-hi min ḥaẓẓ
al-fikr), but depends on the information of the One who made the creatures and who gave
them their forms.”
71 This is the main idea which runs through An Ocean Without Shore of Michel Chodkiewicz.
As demonstrated by these diagrams, the importance of the ḥadīth in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s uni-
verse must not be neglected. On the influence of the ḥadīth on the Andalusian master’s
doctrine, see: Denis Gril, “Le hadith dans l’œuvre d’Ibn ʿArabî ou la chaîne ininterrompue
de la prophétie,” in Das Prophetenḥadīṯ: Dimensionen einer islamischen Literaturgattung,
eds. Gilliot C. and Nagel T., (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005), 123–144 (trans-
lated into English, “Hadith in the work of Ibn ʿArabī: The uninterrupted chain of prophecy,”
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 50 (2011): 45–76).

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are correct, insofar as God did not transgress the ordinary course of things (lam
yakhriq Allāh al-ʿāda) in determining the movements of the stars in the heav-
ens. Their observations are correct as well as when it comes to the science of
the eclipses (ʿilm al-kusūfāt) and the arrangement of the spheres, nested one
within the other, just as the spiritual paths followed by the travelers (sālikīn).
The astronomers elaborated a possible arrangement of the world (tartīb jāʾiz
mumkin) in virtue of the rational judgement ( fī ḥukm al-ʿaql), but they only
partially grasp the commandment that God revealed to heaven (baʿḍ mā awḥā
Allāh min amri-hi fī al-samāʾ).
The vivid and dynamic figures inserted by Ibn al-ʿArabī into this chapter,
which summarize and condense in visual form the complex cosmological
notions formulated in the text and that the reader of the Meccan Openings is
called to grasp and internalize, offer us an illustration of the porous boundaries
between the spiritual path, cosmology and eschatology in the Andalusian mas-
ter’s vision of the world; and thus provide us with an example, in graphic form,
of his rich and puzzling language. These diagrams not only offer us a dynamic
representation of the unfurling of the universal existence from the primordial
Cloud to man, but also of its ultimate reintegration within its principle in the
description of the posthumous evolution of the world and its eschatological
stages. Designed to help those who visualize them to reach a more immediate
knowledge of the hierarchization of the world and its dissolution, they offer a
graphic depiction of the entanglement of cosmology and eschatology, of this
world and the next. As Chapter 371 underlines, the lower world is but a path
towards the hereafter (ṭarīq li-l-ākhira). At the very core of the world, the here-
after is present in this world here and now, for those who are able to perceive
it.
The perception of the hereafter is also a step of the spiritual journey (miʿrāj),
which is defined in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Risālat al-Anwār as an ascension through the
degrees of existence (marātib al-wujūd). As Michel Chodkiewicz points out, the
ascent of the friend of God (walī), manifestation of the presence of the Perfect
Man in this world, is fundamentally a journey of de-creation.72 The diagrams
in Chapter 371, which Michel Chodkiewicz describes occasionally as “maps” of
the hereafter,73 also depict the direction to follow in order to return to the prin-
ciple. This journey of de-creation is possible insofar as man contains the world:

72 Michel Chodkiewicz, The Seal of the Saints (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1993),
155. As Ibn al-ʿArabī describes it in his Risālat al-Anwār, it is an ascension of dissolution
which follows the order of the degrees of existence (miʿrāj al-taḥlīl ʿalā al-tartīb) (Ibn al-
ʿArabī, Risālat al-Anwār, ed. Bernd Radtke, 118).
73 Ibid., 167.

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“God,” specifies Ibn al-ʿArabī, “created what is exterior to man only to propose
him a model (mithāl), so that he knows that everything which appears in the
world is within man, who is the very aim of existence.”74

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74 Wa-mā khalaqa Allāh al-khārij ʿan al-insān illā ḍarb mithāl li-l-insān li-yaʿlama anna kull
mā ẓahara fī al-ʿālam huwa fī-hi wa-l-insān huwa al-ʿayn al-maqṣūda min al-wujūd (al-
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 chapter 4

Reading and Reciting the Qurʾan: Calligraphic

Spaces in Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh’s (d. 649/1252)
Kitāb al-Maḥbūb
Elizabeth R. Alexandrin

Introduction

One of the extant manuscripts of Saʿd al-Dīn al-Ḥamūyeh’s (d.ca. 650/1253)

Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (The Book of the Beloved), copied on 16th Muharram 753
(February 1352) by Maḥmūd b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Tustarī, is housed in
Bursa’s İnebey Yazma ve Basma Eserler Kütüphanesi (Plate 4.1). At present, one
of the oldest known copies of the Maḥbūb in European manuscript collec-
tions is ms Chester Beatty 4159, which was copied in 15 Shaʿbān 663 (2 June
1265) by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad Māhān al-Simnānī.1 My study
introduces two schemata (i.e., diagrams) included in the manuscripts of the
Kitāb al-Maḥbūb as a point of entry into a topic that is very much open to
debate: how was Ḥamūyeh’s Kitāb al-Maḥbūb first read in the 13th ce? In addi-
tion, some thoughts will be offered on Ḥamūyeh’s reading of the Qurʾan. To
the extent that it is possible at this stage of research, this study speaks to
how the calligraphic spaces in the Kitab al-Maḥbūb intersect with Ḥamūyeh’s
teachings on the rising to visibility of the seal of God’s friends (khātim al-
awliyāʾ).2

1 Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 2 vols. and 3 supplements (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1937–1949), Supplement i: 803.
2 To help to situate Ḥamūyeh vis-à-vis Sufi discussions of walāya, Paul Ballanfat has noted, on
the basis of his research on Ḥamūyeh, that the great-grandson of Ḥamūyeh, Khwāja Ghiyāth
al-Dīn, provides the date for Ḥamūyeh being in Damascus from 634 to 640 (1236 to 1243),
where he met with Ibn al-ʿArabī, after which he came to Tabriz in 641/1241. See Khwāja Ghiyāth
al-Dīn, Kitāb Murād al-murīdīn, ms Tehran, Kitābkhāna-yi Majlis-i shūrā-yi Islāmī 594, and
the article by Sayyid ʿA.A. Mīr-Bāqirī Fard and Zahra Najafī, “Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūya dar Murād
al-murīdīn,” Muṭālaʿāt-i Islāmī 9 (1388): 133–154. Ballanfat also has pointed out that the same
manuscript calls Ibn al-ʿArabī the seal of God’s friends (khātim al-awliyāʾ), using the form of
this expression related to kh-t-m according to Ḥamūyeh, and not Ibn al-ʿArabī. I would like to
thank him for providing these important references. E-mail communication on 10 February,
2016.

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alexandrin

plate 4.1 Front-piece and title page. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser
Kütüphanesi, ms Orhan 638)

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 157

My reflections on the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb’s schemata have a specific starting

point. Shortly after I had worked on this manuscript in the İnebey collection,
I read Rustin Zarkar’s article, “Word as Image,” in which he states, “Thus, cal-
ligraphy functioned as a transmitter of messages as well as ornamentation in
both open and closed spaces.”3 Zarkar’s comment proposes a new perspective
on the art of calligraphy as well as raises some questions on the vantage points
while seeing calligraphy. If Zarkar’s work on the Tunisian street artist el-Seed
prompts us to consider the sensorium of viewing calligraphy in public spaces,
the perspective Belting has taken on optics and “optical theory” draws us back
to medieval and early modern discussions on these interesting issues, and alerts
us to advances in the field of Visual Studies as well as their relevance to the
study of Islamic manuscript cultures and traditions.4 Vision and visualizing, as
situated in medieval Islamic texts, and with their long histories in the Middle
East and Western Europe, places consideration on a sustained gaze or a “rapid
and fleeting gaze,” as well as viewing from a “window” or onto a “horizon.” With
the additional dimensionality of focal points and their relationship with the
viewer’s body, the individual’s inner senses remained key to what comprised
perception as a whole.5
In brief, “word as image” provides a stepping-stone for approaching the Kitāb
al-Maḥbūb’s calligraphic spaces, in particular, spaces inside of a manuscript
demarcated by both Qurʾanic calligraphy and Qurʾanic interpretation. Ḥamū-
yeh’s approach to reading the Qurʾan configures the schemata, the spheres
(dāʾira; pl. dawāʾir) associated with specific Arabic letters (ḥarf ; pl. ḥurūf ), and
how they are presented in written form in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Yet reading the
Qurʾan is much more than reading; in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb, Ḥamūyeh is speak-
ing and hearing, face to face with the Qurʾan.
This chapter outlines some circular and sequenced readings of two sche-
mata from the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb, as examples of calligraphic spaces, employing
frames of Qurʾanic passages and Qurʾanic touchstones, in both reading and
recitation. In my humble opinion, these two schemata give form to one of
Ḥamūyeh’s central questions on the rising to visibility of the beloved (maḥ-
būb) as the friend of God (walī Allāh). To note all too briefly here, some of the
short treatises Ḥamūyeh wrote also explore the “heart of the Qurʾan,” that is,

3 Rustin Zarkar, “Word As Image: Contextualizing ‘Calligraffiti: 1984–2013’ with French-Tuni-

sian Street Artist eL Seed,” accessed February 14, 2022, http://ajammc.com/2013/09/17/word​
‑as‑image‑contextualizing‑calligraffiti‑1984‑‑2013‑with‑french‑tunisian‑street‑artist‑el‑seed/.
4 Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science, transl. Deborah
L. Schneider (Cambridge, MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2011), 4–9.
5 Ibidem.

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158 alexandrin

the Sūra Yāsīn (Q 36), “in the name of God” (bismillāh), and Q 20:14. The word
“Allāh” with the expression, “Indeed I, I am Allāh” (innī anā Allāh) (Q 20:14),
holds a central place in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb and in terms of his commentary
on invocation, in the name of God (bismillāh),6 since it is composed of three
letters “a” (alif ) and two letters “n” (nūn). In double, or in two halves, side by
side, or it could be said, doubled, the two nūn and three alif of Q 20:14 paral-
lel the three parts- syllables- of bismillāh.7 Of course, there are other levels of
discourse and discussion in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. As well, there are other dia-
grams. However, at this stage of my research, in what follows I would like to
give preference to the two schemata framed by the Qurʾanic verses, Q 20:14 and
Q 2:255, in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb.

1 Kitāb al-Maḥbūb

There is a significant gap in the scholarly literature at present, both in terms

of critical editions of Ḥamūyeh’s works and publications on his thought. His
works have not been explored in detail, as either a micro-study of a 13th-century
Sufi thinker, or in terms of 13th-century and post-13th-century mystical messi-
anisms. Almost no attention has been paid to addressing Ḥamūyeh’s corpus as
a whole or in fact, the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. To date only three of Ḥamūyeh’s works
have been edited: the Miṣbāḥ fī al-taṣawwuf,8 Fī ʿulūm al-ḥaqāʾiq, and the Qalb
al-munqalib.9

6 It can be said that Q 20:14 frames both the introduction as well as the first wajh of the Kitāb
al-Maḥbūb. See in particular the set of verses in the introduction. ms 638 Orhan, fol. 2a. In
addition, see the short treatise, Sharḥ Bismillāh. ms 445 Çorlulu Ali Paşa, fols. 1b–13b.
7 I would like to thank Paul Ballanfat for his generous and kind guidance in reading through
these two schemata as well as for his comments on the nūn. Personal communication, June
2018.
8 Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, al-Miṣbāḥ fī al-taṣawwuf, ed. Najīb M. Hiravī (Tehran: Intishārāt-i
Mawlā, 1362 h.sh./1403/1958). Secondary literature on Ḥamūyeh’s Miṣbāḥ is also lacking. This
collection of Ḥamūyeh’s teachings potentially stand as an advanced “primer” for the Maḥbūb.
9 Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Qalb al-munqalib, ed. Najīb M. Hiravī, in Maʿārif 5/2 (1347): 256–288.
The treatise titled Ḥaqīqat al-ḥaqāʾiq is frequently attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, but sometimes
to Ḥamūyeh. See Osman Yahya, Histoire et classification de l’oeuvre d’ibn Arabi: étude cri-
tique (Damascus: Institut français de Damas, 1964), R.G. #217. This treatise, under the title Fī
ʿulūm al-ḥaqāʾiq wa-ḥikam al-ḍaqāʾiq, has been published as a work of Ḥamūyeh in Majmūʿat
al-rasāʾil (Miṣr 1328/1910), 488–498, and also in Ganjīna-yi bahāristān (Tehran 1379/2000),
421–434. It is not, however, contained in the collection of 27 shorter pieces of Ibn al-ʿArabī
published in two parts as Rasaʾil Ibnuʾl ʿArabi (Hyderabad-Deccan, 1948). I would like to thank
Professor Hermann Landolt for his kind and generous assistance with these references to

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 159

Since there is such a significant gap in the scholarly literature, a very brief
summary of the extant manuscripts of the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb has to suffice for
the time being, before turning to the topic at hand.10 The extant manuscripts
of the Maḥbūb number between 202 and 250 folios (equivalent to between
404 and 500 pages).11 The Arabic text is divided into ten introductory chapters,
titled wajh (face), followed by roughly 35 subsections, which commence with
the bismillāh. In the introductory chapters and subsections, the diagrams
(numbering from two to six) give the impression of a distinctive visuality to
the Maḥbūb manuscripts. These diagrams appear consistently in the complete
extant manuscripts, from the earliest to the latest. Furthermore, in terms of the
work as a whole, the majority of the diagrams are only in the introductory sec-
tions of the Maḥbūb.

some of the short treatises by Ḥamūyeh. See Brockelmann. Geschichte der arabischen lit-
eratur, Supplement i: 803; Jamal Elias, “The Sufi Lords of Bahrabad: Sa‘d al-Din and Sadr
al-Din Hamuwayi,” Iranian Studies 27, nos. 1–4 (1994): 53–75, and Saʿid Nafisī, “Khāndān-i
Saʿd al-Dīn-i Ḥamawī,” Kanjkāvīhā-yi ʿilmī va adabī 83 (1950): 6–39, for information about
the unedited works of Ḥamūyeh.
10 I would like to extend much gratitude to the head librarian of İnebey Yazma Eser Kütü-
phanesi, Mr. Osman Nuri, for the permission to reproduce images from ms 638 Orhan.
11 Paul Ballanfat and I are currently preparing for publication a critical edition of the
Maḥbūb and as a second volume, a critical edition of a set of Ḥamūyeh’s short treat-
ises on messianism. The work for this critical edition of the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb is fun-
ded by a sshrc Insight Development Grant, 2018–2022. Having identified at present
more than fourteen extant manuscripts, the critical edition will rely primarily on the
following manuscripts: ms Ar. 4159 Chester Beatty (663ah/1265 ce); ms Carullah 1078
(706 ah/1306 ce), ms Nurusosmaniye (706ah/1306 ce), ms A1418 Topkapı Museum Lib-
rary, Istanbul (718 ah/1318 ce), ms 2058 Ayasofya (736 ah/1335 ce), Süleymaniye Library,
ms 4084/Pm. 153. Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (the information in colophon(s), which also
mentions accounts of Ḥamūyeh’s completion of the Maḥbūb and his death, suggests
between 1335 and 1353ce), and ms 638 Orhan Bursa Genel, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütü-
phanesi (753 ah/1352 ce). These manuscripts date between 1265 ce and 1353ce. A number
of the known manuscripts are incomplete (only one volume extant): ms 726 Yeni Cami
(no colophon), ms 2785 Fatih (701ah/1302 ce, though parts of the manuscript may have
been recopied in Dhū l-Ḥijja 799ah/August 1397ce), ms 1224 Manisa (727ah/1326 ce),
ms 2057 Ayasofya (no colophon), ms 1396 Beyazıt General Collection, listed as Maḥ-
būb al-muḥibbīn wa-maṭlūb al-waṣilīn (nd first volume). The last manuscript mentioned
here, ms 1398 Beyazıt, was not noted previously by other scholars. Other manuscripts
will be consulted for our critical edition of the Maḥbūb: ms 1342 Sehit Ali Pasa, Istanbul;
ms 1096 Carullah Efendi, Istanbul; ms 507 Hekimoǧlu; Microfilm 1170 (of ms 4084/Pm.
153), Markaz-i Iḥyā-i Mīrāth-i Islāmī, 618 pp. (7th ah/13th ce); ms 3253 Dānishgāh (7th–8th
ah/13th–14th ce); ms 3253 (34S), 698 pp. (7th–8th ah/13th–14th ce); ms Sāzmān-i Lughat-
nāma-yi Dihkhudā 52 (9th–10th ah/15–16th ce). I would like to thank Chester Beatty
Library and the Directorate of the Turkish Institute of Manuscripts for their assistance
in obtaining manuscripts and for the permission to use specific folio images in this study.

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160 alexandrin

Following the introductory chapters, and serving as chapter divisions are the
twelve “spheres” (dawāʾir)12 associated with the letters of the Arabic alphabet,
which conveys further the visual dimensions of the Maḥbūb manuscripts. For
example, concerning the letters of the Arabic alphabet, some of the chapter
divisions on the spheres are further divided into sections ( faṣl) as well as
“degrees” (martaba, pl. marātib). In the chapters on the spheres, the Maḥbūb
includes prose and poetry. The work as a whole contains between 83–90 poems,
with each line of verse ending with the same letter, throughout the entire alpha-
bet; that is to say, a substantial body of poetry reinforces Ḥamūyeh’s discussions
of each letter of the alphabet, in connection with the spheres of the letters. It
also contains roughly eight short rhymed verses of four quatrains, with some
poems with lines in both Persian and Arabic.13
Hirschler’s research findings permit for additional reflections on reading and
hearing “books” in 13th-century Muslim societies, holding much relevance for
the part-by-part composition of the Maḥbūb.14 As well, the reception histories
of reading and interpreting Ḥamūyeh’s teachings present in related manuscript
traditions what could be called something like notes on a text or on a teaching;
for example, how the Maḥbūb was often copied in two or three volumes, and
other book formats. For the latter, a number of compiled works (majmūʿa) that
date from 14th-century onward exist in multiple collections in Iran and Turkey,
including notes on the Maḥbūb as well as particular sections from the first half
of the Maḥbūb, interspersed with diagrams.15 The Kitāb al-Maḥbūb, as a book,
was meant to be read and studied, to be held and touched, to have its pages
turned, and to be carefully copied—and it was.
The Maḥbūb’s transmission from Ḥamūyeh has its own unique history and
legacy, even if, for the most part, forgotten at present. In the milieu of formaliz-
ing Sufi orders (ṭarīqa, pl. ṭuruq), near contemporaries remarked on Ḥamūyeh’s

12 ms 2058 Ayasofya, fol. 207b.

13 It is of interest that in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī, Nafaḥāt al-uns min ḥaḍarāt al-quds, ed.
Muḥammad Mahdī Tawḥīdīpūr (Tehran: Maḥmūdī, 1337/1958), 429, some of these poems
are preserved.
14 Konrad Hirschler, The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural
History of Reading Practices (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012), 27–29.
15 Collections in Iran and Turkey, which include notes on the Maḥbūb as well as particular
sections from the first half of the Maḥbūb, such as ms Hudaï Efendi 4792, fols. 200a–202a.
Many other treatises of Ḥamūyeh, such as ms 4393 Bursa Genel, Risālat-i nāṣiḥa, fols. 111b–
119a; ms 1622 Ulu Camii, al-Faṣl fī al-faḍl (103 folios), and ms 1183 Haraççıoğlu, which con-
tains the treatise Kitāb fī ʿilm al-ḥaqāʾiq, plus shorter, untitled writings of Ḥamūyeh (201
folios), exist in collective manuscripts that also include, as catalogued currently, numer-
ous works of Ibn al-ʿArabī and Qūnawī.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 161

inclination for prolonged states of visionary experience and his enjoyment of

music. In different contexts, they questioned his exact association with the
Mongol ruling elite.16 The Ḥamūyeh family, especially Ḥamūyeh’s son, Ṣadr al-
Dīn, figures prominently in hagiographical and historiographical narratives on
the Īlkhān rulers’ conversion to Islam, like Ghāzān Khān, and in ways that point
to the 13th-century fluidity of scholarly circles and religious identities at the
court of the Īlkhāns.17 Indeed, the list of links and lines of relations between
Ḥamūyeh, and those who shaped what we as scholars call Sufism of the 13th ce,
is very long, but two deserve special mention: Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221)
and Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).18
Kubrawī-affiliated authors participated in forming a corpus of Kubrawī Sufi
teachings in the centuries following the death of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, the epon-
ymous founder of the Kubrawī Sufi Order. The Kubrawī Sufi tradition’s corpus
in general, and the collective Qurʾan commentary in particular, alludes to the
importance of a specific selection of Qurʾanic verses for Sufi practitioners to
contemplate and verify mystical experiences against the “touchstone of the
Qurʾan.”19 The Kubrawī authors thereby established a Qurʾanic framework for
understanding “visionary concentration” (himma) and mystical experiences.20
13th–14th-century Kubrawī Sufi works incorporated diverse forms of liter-
ature: written correspondences between masters and disciples, dream diaries,
and Qurʾan exegesis. Arabic and Persian works written by the Kubrawī authors,
such as Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Najm al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Sayf al-Dīn Bākharzī, Saʿd al-
Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Nūr al-Dīn al-Isfarāʾīnī and ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī, exemplify

16 Elias. “The Sufi Lords of Bahrabad,” 58–60 and 70–75; Jāmī, Nafaḥāt al-uns, 428–429.
17 Elias, “The Sufi Lords of Bahrabad;” Charles Melville, “Pādshāh-i Islām: The Conversion
of Sultan Maḥmūd Ghāzān Khān,” in Pembroke Papers, ed. Charles Melville (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990), 179–212; Judith Pfeiffer, “Reflections on a ‘Double Rap-
prochement’: Conversion to Islam Among the Mongol Elite During the Early Ilkhanate,”
in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, ed. Linda Komaroff (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006), 367–
389.
18 See as well, Ḥamūyeh, Risāla fī taṣawwuf, ms Serez 3932, 33b–43b.
19 Paul Ballanfat, “La prophétologie dans le ‘Ayn al-Hayât, tafsîr attribué à Najm Al-dîn
Kubrâ,” in Mystique musulmane. Parcours en compagnie d’un chercheur: Roger Deladrière,
ed. Geneviéve Gobillot (Paris: Cariscript, 2003), 171–364; Jamal Elias, The Throne Carrier
of God (Albany: State University of New York, 1995); Paul Nwyia, “Muqaddimat tafsīr al-
Qurʾān li-ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī (736/1336),” al-Abḥāth 26 (1973–1977): 141–157; William
Shpall, “A Note on Najm al-Dīn al-Rāzī and the Baḥr al-ḥaqāʾiq,” Folia Orientalia 22 (1981–
1984): 69–80.
20 Paul Ballanfat, “Reality and Image in the Tafsīr of Kubrā and Rāzī,” Journal of the Muhy-
iddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 35 (2004), 100–102; Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, La Pratique du Soufisme:
quatorze petits traités, trans. Paul Ballanfat (Nîmes: Editions de l’éclat, 2002), 62.

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162 alexandrin

some of the most striking approaches to Sufi dream interpretation and discus-
sions of visionary experience.21
As Ballanfat, Corbin, Elias, and Molé have studied in depth, Kubrā’s theory of
the body’s subtle centers (laṭāʾif )—the primary loci of dreams, delusions, and
visionary experiences—are correlated with colors and the individual practi-
tioner’s mystical states and stations.22 Yet over time, with the introduction of
new texts and new questions, the model of subtle centers comes to stand as a
particular signature of the Kubrawī Sufi tradition as well as a line of resistance
for particular authors thinking about visionary concentration, dream interpret-
ation, and Qurʾanic touchstones in relation to oneness and unity (tawḥīd).
Significantly, Ḥamūyeh is not situated prominently in the Kubrawī lineage
(silsila) as a teacher (shaykh) in the Kubrawī Sufi order despite receiving a
certificate of training (ijāza) from Kubrā and the acknowledgement of his dis-
cipleship.23 Writing about Ḥamūyeh, two Sufi authors, ʿAzīz al-Dīn al-Nasafī (a
student of Ḥamūyeh) and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī, remarked specifically on
the diagrams and figures in Ḥamūyeh’s works.24 In the Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq, Nasafī
suggests that his teacher’s Ḥamūyeh’s works were “difficult.”25
Additional pointed critiques of Ḥamūyeh’s works appear in Nasafī’s Kitāb
al-Insān al-kāmil, Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq and Kashf al-ṣīrat.26 In the Kitāb al-Insān al-
kāmil and Maqṣad al-aqṣā, Ḥamūyeh’s concepts of the coming of the Lord of
the time (sāḥib al-zamān) and sanctity/friendship with God (walāya) are con-

21 Eyad Abuali, “Words Clothed in Light: Dhikr (Recollection), Colour and Synaesthesia in
Early Kubrawi Sufism,” Iran 58, no. 2 (2020): 279–292; Hartwig Cordt, “Die Sitzungen des
Ala ad-dawla as-Simnani” (Zürich: PhD Diss., University of Basel, 1977), 22, 32–33 and 67,
n. 1.
22 Ballanfat, “La prophétologie dans le ‘Ayn al-hayât”; Elias, The Throne Carrier of God; Nwyia,
“Muqaddimat tafsīr al-Qurʾān li-ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī”; Shpall, “A Note on Najm al-Dīn
al-Rāzī and the Baḥr al-ḥaqāʾiq.”
23 ms 2058 Ayasofya, fol. 215b. Concerning the ijāza from Kubrā, this has been translated
into French by Paul Ballanfat, La pratique du soufisme, 13–14. See ms 2800 Şehid Ali Paşa,
fol. 20b.
24 Jāmī, Nafaḥāt al-uns, 428–429.
25 Muḥammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh, “Intiqād-i kitāb: Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq,” Farhang-i Īrān-zamīn
13 (1344): 298–310.
26 ʿAzīz al-Dīn Nasafī, Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq, ed. Aḥmad Mahdavī Dāmghānī (Tehran: Intishārāt-i
ʿIlmī va Farhangī, 1384/2005), 3–4 and 10; ʿAzīz al-Dīn Nasafī, Le Livre de l’homme parfait.
Kitâb al-Insân al-Kâmil, ed. Marijan Molé (Tehran-Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en
Iran, 1962), 320–321. See also Hermann Landolt, “Le paradoxe de la ‘Face de Dieu’: ʿAzīz-
e Nasafī (viie/xiiie siècle) et le ‘monisme ésotérique’ de l’islam,” Studia Iranica 25 (1996):
163–192; Hermann Landolt, “Saʿd al-Dīn al-Hammūʾī,” in Encyclopedia of Islam. 2nd Edi-
tion, 9:703–704; Marijan Molé, “Les Kubrawīya entre sunnisme et shīʿisme aux huitième
et neuvième siècles de l’hégire,” Revue des Études islamiques 29 (1961): 61–142.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 163

tested in part.27 On the one hand, Nasafī advances a critique about the twelve
friends of God (awliyāʾ Allāh), supposedly proposed by Ḥamūyeh as a teaching
on the “seal,” and how they cannot be shaykhs who train disciples; a statement
that reflects mid-13th to 14th-century concerns with formalizing mystical sov-
ereignties within Sufi orders, “problematizing,” it could be said, Ḥamūyeh as
one of the “twelve disciples of Kubrā.”28 On the other hand, Nasafī’s dream
about the Prophet Muḥammad, Ibn Khafīf and Ḥamūyeh, recorded in the Kashf
al-ḥaqāʾiq, significantly linked “publishing” his own writings to making public
his teacher’s Ḥamūyeh’s esoteric teachings, to be revealed as content through
solely Nasafī himself.29
On the matter of the diagrams again, Hayḍar Āmulī, referencing the Maḥbūb,
claimed that Ḥamūyeh, through using the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf ), and
allusions, by means of spheres (dawāʾir), or without spheres, proposed that the
name of the walī after the Messenger of God (note here: Āmulī means, muṭ-
laqan and muqayyadan pertaining to the “seal” and “sealing”) can only be ʿAlī,
and therefore is related to Mahdī’s identity.30

27 Hermann Landolt, “Nasafi, ʿAziz,” in Encyclopedia Iranica. Available on-line at: http://www​
.iranicaonline.org/articles/nasafi.
28 Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq, 3–4; Kashf al-ṣirāṭ (see Molé, 11–15); Hermann Landolt, “Le paradoxe de
la ‘Face de Dieu’,” 175; Paul Ballanfat, “Les visions des lumières colorées dans l’ordre de la
Kubrawiyya,”pris-ma 19 (2003): 1–44, 8, n. 44. Note that Kashf al-ṣirāṭ, ms 1767 Veliyüddin,
fol. 208ff.; ms 1685 Veliyüddin, fols. 79a–103b, includes additional discussions and critiques
of Ḥamūyeh.
29 ʿAzīz al-Dīn Nasafī, Kitāb al-Insān al-kāmil, Intro, 7–20; 316–322; Maqṣad-i aqṣā, in Gan-
jīna-yi ʿirfān, ed. Ḥāmid Rabbānī (Tehran: [ca. 1973]), 245–246; Kashf al-ṣirāṭ, ms 1685
Veliyüddin; Kashf al-ṣirāṭ, ms 1767 Veliyüddin; Kitāb al-tanzīl, ms 1767 Veliyüddin.
30 Over the years, many scholars of Persianate Sufism have argued that Hamūyeh’s works
reflect Shīʿī leanings because of his messianic views on the “seal of the friends of God”
(khātim al-awliyāʾ), and the identity of the Mahdī. See in particular, Nafisi, 19. For the dis-
cussion by Ḥaydar Āmulī, see Jāmiʿ al-asrār wa-manbaʿ al-anwār, ba inḍimām-i Risālat
naqd al-nuqūd fī maʿrifat al-wujūd/La philosophie schi’ite. Somme des doctrines ésotériques
( Jâmi’ al-asrâr) 2. Traité de la connaissance de l’être (Fî ma’rifat al-wojûd), eds. Henry
Corbin and Osman Yahya (Tehran-Paris: Département d’iranologie de l’institut franco-
iranien de recherche-Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1347/1969),
431: al-walī, a name only applied to ʿAlī; Nasafī, Le Livre de l’homme parfait, 238–239,
312–325: twelve awliyāʾ, the twelfth is the seal/Mahdī; Ballanfat, “Les visions des lumières
colorées,” 8, n. 44; Fritz Meier, “Die Schriften des ʿAzīz-i Nasafī,” Wiener Zeitschrift für der
Kunde des Morgenlandes 52 (1953): 62–63 (Shīʿī Islam and ahl al-bayt questions), 75–76,
137–138.

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164 alexandrin

2 Visualizing the Qurʾan

The diagrams in the first half of the Maḥbūb provide frames for reading. Visu-
alizing would more precisely mean, according to Ḥamūyeh, “everything that
is being opened to be seen” ( fatḥan mubīnan) (Q 48:1), rather than a primary
focus on dream visions, visionary experiences, or other cosmological concerns.
On another level, as discussed in the Maḥbūb, the whole issue of the seal and
of Yasʿā is the process of the realization of unity, of tawḥīd, which means the
accomplishment of God’s love within the beloved (maḥbūb), as seal, through
apparition and disapparition. As Ḥamūyeh explains about this beloved in the
introductory sections of the Maḥbūb, in the tenth wajh: because of God’s gaze
on the beloved, love descends to him, and his soul melts so much that his heart
goes up to his Lord, and “the Real is revealed to him.”31 Likewise the letters of
the Arabic alphabet themselves as well as the diagrams are open to both this
visibility and this melting and dissolving in unity.
It is then possible to suggest that Zarkar’s “word as image” could be extended
to all of the Maḥbūb. In this work, there is no clear and decisive demarcation
between diagram, poetry, and prose, as the poems and quatrains, divided into
two bayts, flow like rivers between the sections of prose and the schemata in
the first half of Maḥbūb and visually unify the second half of this work, espe-
cially with the verses that end on a single letter.
In what now follows in this chapter, some of the primary questions posed
in the Maḥbūb shape the ways of thinking about the diagrams and schemata;
as mentioned earlier, what is rising to visibility in terms of the face (wajh) of
the beloved (maḥbūb), who is the walī of God? What do we know about God’s
heart (qalb), as the walī of God is the heart? Two ways of coming to be seen
are specific to the prophet (nabī) as well as the walī; khurūj, giving an idea of a
face appearing in and among other faces in a crowd, a face coming to be seen
among other faces, and burūz, which would be an appearance coming to the
top of visibility (coming to be seen at the summit of all things).32

31 ms 1078 Carullah, fol. 3a.

32 A term first introduced in Tirmidhī’s consideration of the khatm. See n. 70 and 71. Fur-
thermore, parts of the Maḥbūb are signaled as specifically controversial, on the one hand,
or seen to confirm a philosophical and theological shaping of walāya and the identity of
the seal within Muslim societies on the other, as is the case with Nūrbakhsh (d. 1464ce),
who introduces these terms as elements of his rhetoric to justify himself as the Mahdī.
Nūrbakhsh’s Risālat primarily drew on Ḥamūyeh’s Kitāb fī ẓuhūr khatm al-wilāya (ms 2058
Ayasofya) rather than the Maḥbūb. In terms of the reception of Ḥamūyeh’s teachings, sig-
nificantly, Ḥamūyeh gave no dating on the appearance of the Mahdī in his written works.
He tended to assimilate the seal with the Mahdī; that is, by forming a ternary with Jesus

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 165

On multiple levels of consideration, and step by step, Ḥamūyeh’s Kitāb al-

Maḥbūb presents points of juncture as well as openings in visualizing the
Qurʾan and the words of God, as will be discussed in other sections of this
chapter, with particular reference to Q 20:14. Since very little scholarly liter-
ature exists on the Maḥbūb as well as Ḥamūyeh’s other works, Kubrā’s well-
known work, Fawāʾiḥ al-jamāl (The Flowerings of Beauty and the Perfumes of
Majesty), will be used to set in context Ḥamūyeh’s use of particular concepts,
such as nuqṭa (point) and dāʾira (sphere/circle), even though Ḥamūyeh ven-
tures into different cosmological considerations than Kubrā.33
As Kubrā advances a color theory, which is one that contrasts darkness and
light, he explains the subtle center (laṭīfa) of the heart.34 Witnessing (mush-
āhada) opens up perception (the inner eye) by uncovering what veils it, by
turning the garment of form inside out, at first, and likewise resituating the
centers of perception within the body. The heart is like a sphere (dāʾira) that
is rotating. In reference to a sphere’s movement (ḥaraka), or stillness, in the
example of writing, the root (aṣl) of writing is in a sense, the point as a turning
point (nuqṭa), where and when the pen touches the surface of the page, and
the point (nuqṭa) of the dāʾira of the true heart (al-qalb al-ḥaqq).35 Kubrā, in a
play on the word notes that the heart is called the heart (qalb) because of how
it changes and transforms (taqallub) its colours in relation to “objects” nearby
it.
On another level, one way to consider how senses are changed to other
means of perception is through the example of sleeping. In sleep, the individual
can potentially acquire the visionary knowledge of how “[t]hings have several
levels, one of which is beyond man’s reach.”36 Kubrā explains that if one goes
to sleep after eating, one can still find the taste of food on one’s lips.37 Taste

and Yaʿsā, who is the khātim. Therefore, the Kitāb fī ẓuhūr khatm al-wilāya, is significant
for understanding the transmission of Ḥamūyeh’s teachings in post-13th-century Sufi con-
texts.
33 Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Die Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-ǧalāl des Naǧm ad-dīn al-Kubrā:
eine Darstellung mystischer Erfahrungen im Islam aus der Zeit um 1200 n. Chr., ed. Fritz
Meier (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1963). Abbreviated citation henceforth, Fawāʾiḥ
(Meier edition), 2–3; 6–7; Gerhard Böwering, “The Ascetic Struggle and Mystic Prayer of a
Central Asian Sufi,” Discussion Papers Series, Tokyo Sophia University 3–14 (1987), 15: “Mys-
tical experience has two moments, in Kubrā’s view, contemplation and taste.”
34 Fawāʾiḥ (Meier edition), 2–3; 6–7.
35 Fawāʾiḥ (Meier edition), 66, para. 139.
36 Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Les éclosions de la beauté et les parfums de la majesté [Flowerings of
Beauty and Perfumes of Majesty], trans. Paul Ballanfat (Nîmes: Editions de l’éclat, 2001),
100.
37 Fawāʾiḥ, 18, para. 41.

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(dhawq) changes both existence and being (wujūd), as well as souls, and sub-
stitutes the five senses with other senses. Sleep is “another existence” (wujūd
ākhir); for example, one can do things like talk, walk and arrive at a far-away
land. Sleep is an existence that alludes to a more perfect one, suggestive of the
mystical body’s potentialities.38
According to Kubrā, the quality of createdness may also be explained by
considering the hāʾ of Allāh, the Arabic letter that forms a circle (‫)ه‬. This let-
ter, like the human being, and the shape of the heart, alludes to how the circle
is capable of encompassing everything, while at the same time, points to its
“emptiness.”39 When the individual achieves inner emptiness, his/her existence
is annihilated. Concerning annihilation, Kubrā states:

Annihilation (of self) consists of two annihilations, the annihilation of

characteristics in the characteristics of the Real, which is the annihilation
in singularity ( fardāniyya); and the annihilation of His characteristics in
His essence, which is the annihilation in unicity (waḥdāniyya).40

This is the point, the moment of “One (Aḥad)! One! If he is annihilated in His
essence (dhātu-hu), he endures (= abides) through Him (bi-hi) and he lives
through Him (bi-hi).”41 He/she becomes like a pure lamp of translucent glass
through which the Divine light passes.42
Just as the Fawāʾiḥ address the complex issue of annihilation, as implied in
the work’s title, of equal concern is the “opening” of the chapters of the Qurʾan
and Qurʾanic openings. It also makes sense to consider specific passages from
this work in the context of the practices of dhikr; for example, the breathing in
and exhaling of the pronunciation and recitation of Hū.43 At times the Fawāʾiḥ
demarcates the dynamic process of fanāʾ (annihilation) as two arcs, which
connect the individual and God. This too is the matter of wujūd. As Ballanfat
explains: “… meaning both body and existence, and which refers both to the
egoism of the traveler, of which he must rid himself, and to the ipseity of God,

38 Marjian Molé, “Traités mineurs de Nagm al-Dīn al-Kubra.” Annales islamologiques 4 (1963):
1–78. See 1–13: critical notes on the manuscript traditions connected to the Kubrawī “tra-
dition.” See as well, Najm al-Dīn Rāzī, Kitāb Manārāt al-sāʾirīn wa-maqāmāt al-ṭāʾirīn, ed.
Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ (Cairo: Dār Saʿād al-Ṣabāḥ, 1993), 119–130.
39 Paul Ballanfat. “Reality and Image in the Tafsīr of Kubrā and Rāzī.”
40 Fawāʾiḥ, 36, par. 78; Kubrā, Les éclosions de la beauté, 165.
41 Fawāʾiḥ, 36, par. 78; Kubrā, Les éclosions de la beauté, 165.
42 Fawāʾiḥ, 106.
43 This corresponds to the first part of the word “huwa,” meaning “Him” in Arabic, being a
reference to Allāh.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 167

in which he must annihilate himself.”44 In ways that reflect the points of the
separation as well as the joining of individual letters, Kubrā explains:

The recollection of God (dhikr) flows onto the souls of all of living crea-
tures—their souls ascend or descend. In every breath ascends and des-
cends the name of God, Exalted and Glorious. It is the “h” [aspiration of
the first part of the word huwa = He = Allāh], for the “h” is the ascent of
the treasure house of the heart, and the hāʾ [= the name of the letter]is the
descent of the treasure house of the Throne. The “w” (wāw) [= the second
letter of the word] in the huwa is the name of the soul (rūḥ) because it
is from the servants of the presence of the ipseity (huwiyya), as it obtains
this union (wiṣāl).45

Furthermore, Kubrā theorizes the Sufi practice of contemplation and vision on

three parallel ontological levels, progressing from reading the body, to reading
the Qurʾan, and to reading God’s Creation, and vice versa: “[T]he truth of the
whole thing is that, be that as it may, the heart (al-qalb) longs for the Throne
(al-ʿarsh), the Throne yearns for the heart.”46 His development of visionary con-
centration (himma) into the modalities of Qurʾanic “constellations” places into
context Ḥamūyeh’s schemata, and especially those that frame his discussions
of visualizing letters, the spheres (dawāʾir) and face/aspects (wajh, pl. wujūh).
The subjects of visionary concentration and what rises to visibility feature
in some of the questions and queries posed in the Fawāʾiḥ. One of the most
significant passages for this particular study is as follows: “God, the Exalted
and the Glorious, has written books in the Hidden, some of which are writ-
ten in points (al-nuqaṭ), some with shapes (al-ashkāl), and some with letters
(al-ḥurūf ), but with other than these interpretations (al-ʿibārāt).”47 Let us turn
now to the third schemata in ms Orhan 638 of the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb and think
about how it might have been read (Plate 4.3; cf. also Plates 4.2, 4.4 and 4.5).
As we explore some of the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb’s schemata, Kubrā depicted in
the Fawāʾiḥ, the Qurʾanic “constellations” as a set of points (nuqaṭ), as seen in
the folio image from ms 2800 Şehit Ali Paşa (Plate 4.6). According to Kubrā,
the names of God are inscribed in the hearts of men and women. Are those
nuqaṭ their hearts in actuality? In accordance with the individual’s capacity for

44 Ballanfat, “Reality and Image in the Tafsīr of Kubrā and Rāzī,” 102.
45 Fawāʾiḥ, 65.
46 Fawāʾiḥ, 30; 67, para. 141; Ballanfat, “Reality and Image in the Tafsīr of Kubrā and Rāzī,” 107.
47 Fawāʾiḥ, 33, para. 61: See as well, 53, para. 111; 55, para. 115: “the sphere of the eye”; the
entirety of the spheres is the Great Face (al-wajh al-karīm).

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168 alexandrin

plate 4.2 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh,Kitāb al-
Maḥbūb (Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, ms Ar. 4159, fol. 14a)

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 reading and reciting the qurʾan

plate 4.3 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Bursa,
169

İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, ms Orhan 638, fol. 12a)

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 170

plate 4.4 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Istanbul,
alexandrin

Süleymaniye Library, ms Nuruosmaniye 2577, fol. 10b–11a)

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 171

plate 4.5 The Third Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (portion). Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh,
Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, ms Yeni Cami 726, fol. 27a;
photo by Elizabeth R. Alexandrin)

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172 alexandrin

plate 4.6 Qurʾānic ‘constellations’ as a set of points (nuqaṭ). Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Fawāʾiḥ al-
jamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-jalāl (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, ms Şehit Ali Paşa 2800,
fol. 15b)

visionary concentration and contemplation the names of God drift in and out
of focus in the Heavens. Keeping in mind Zarkar’s comment from earlier, view-
ing the schemata establishes a relation between the inside and outside of the
person “seeing” and reading; that is, reading the letters and words, which in
this case, is a rotating, circular reading in a calligraphic space, and takes place
first of all within the margins of the text, right to left, as well as outside of the
margins of the schemata, back into the main text.
Between the main body of the text and the schemata Ḥamūyeh introduces
structural relations established between spaces and forms, between the spoken
and written, the unarticulated and the articulated, the seen and the unseen, as
well as darkness, shadow, and light. His Qurʾanic hermeneutics point to how
some Arabic letters are linked together or appear separately, and stand alone,
through clear or only indicated meanings to verses from the Qurʾan as well as
the names of God. Let us mention two letters, nūn and alif before turning again
to the image of ms Orhan 638, fol. 12a (Plate 4.3; cf. also Plates 4.2, 4.4 and 4.5).48

48 Meier notes that this diagram appears in the key manuscripts used for his edition, but with

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 173

As in Q 20:14, innī anā Allāh (“Indeed I, I am God”), there are three alif and
two nūn.49 The three alif and the two nūn are parallel to the three syllables
of the bismillāh (“In the name of God”), and are like the form of letters and
the question of form, all of which are doubled, visible in the invisible, hidden
in the apparent (the degrees of existence and witnessing (tartīb of wujūd and
shuhūd)). In the Maḥbūb, as in other works of Ḥamūyeh, “innī anā Allāh” is
linked to, as Ḥamūyeh states, “I am in the nūn, I am in I, I am in the light” (anā
fī al-nūn, anā fī anā, anā fī al-nūr) as well as the doubling of “Indeed I” (innī),
“I” (anā), and “Thou”/“you” (anta).50 As part of Ḥamūyeh’s mystical discourse,
the anta has two potential referents, and at times, simultaneously operates on
these two registers: Allāh as “Thou”; and the familiar and intimate “you.”
As is seen in the second folio image presented here (Plate 4.3; cf. also Plates
4.2, 4.4 and 4.5), the text is related back to the schemata through the reader’s
reading itself, but in a way, Nasafī was correct regarding how difficult Ḥamū-
yeh’s works are! Ḥamūyeh’s works present complex ideas, which Nasafī made
reference to in his own works. We may be further puzzled over Ḥamūyeh’s use
of some of the alphabet. It is in fact not at all a secret alphabet, but rather rep-
resents the extension of particular letters, such as the alif, the yāʾ, ʿayn, sīn,
mīm, rāʾ, and kāf, and how meanings may be linked to the attached letters, the
detached letters, to the name of God, to ḥadīth, and to allusions from Qurʾanic
verses and chapters.
In the third diagram of the Maḥbūb, the “Throne verse” (Q 2:225, ayāt al-
kursī) may be used as a frame for reading. As Ḥamūyeh himself explains, ima-
gine folding in half (two nūn and three alif ) this schemata, and viewing it and
reading it in two halves, as Ḥamūyeh suggests by separating and breaking open
in two parts, one each for the two nūn. In Plate 4.5 it is possible to see how the
third diagram in the manuscript Yeni Cami 726 (Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul)
was specifically designed and created as a fold-out image, but at present, only
one half of the folio with the diagram on it remains. Therefore, picture folding
over one half of the diagram, and then in reading as a circle, the verse in this
order, from the right and left. To aid this reading, below is one translation, with
the key Qurʾanic touchstones in italics:

some variations in the first and third line. See Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Die Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl,
77n2. This diagram is also reproduced in Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Les éclosions de la beauté, 205.
Ballanfat also notes that some manuscript variations exist in terms of this diagram. At the
time of completing this contribution, I did not have a chance to check the manuscripts
myself.
49 Miṣbāḥ, 81; ms 638 Orhan, fols. 12a–13a.
50 Misbāḥ, 122.

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174 alexandrin

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Allah! There is no God
but He, the Living, the Self-subsisting, the Eternal. No slumber can seize
Him, nor sleep. All things in heaven and earth are His. Who could inter-
cede in His presence without His permission? He knows what appears
in front of and behind His creatures. Nor can they encompass any know-
ledge of Him except what he wills. His throne extends over the heavens
and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them,
for He is the Highest and Most Exalted. Allah, the Most High, speaks the
truth.51

Starting from the center of the third diagram, there is one circle, in black ink
(Plates 4.2 to 4.5). Three words are written in black around the central circle:
“Hū,” with the hāʾ inside the circle, and the wāw, outside of the circle; and Allāh,
as the second word, is written twice in black ink. In both instances, the hāʾ of
Allāh is half inside of the center circle. The ligature of the letter “h” curves into
the black ink of the central circle. Three black lines as well as one red line are
coming out of the circle, connecting and tracing three bismillāh, alluding to the
three nuqṭa, and three parts to bismillāh. At another level, an indication is that
the lines (themselves alif ) could be pointing, directionally to the heart, the self,
and the breath, as all of the hāʾ from the bismillāh are inside of the center circle,
shaping circle within circle, and to the three smaller circle-sets, formed of four
circles, with three points in red ink, in the smaller circles, and one red point in
the larger circle.
Returning to the outer circle of this diagram, and starting from the top, like
the notch of the twelfth hour on a clock, and reading what is written on the
right-hand side of the schema, it is written in red, around the black circle:
the form (al-ṣūra); the soul (al-nafs); the face (al-wajh); the Tablet (al-lawḥ);
the loftiest virtues (al-akhlāq al-maʿālā); the names (al-asmāʾ); the essence (al-
dhāt); existence (al-wujūd). Some of the words, starting with the expression
“pertaining to its forms” (li-ṣuwar-hi), begin in black (with ṣ) and then turn into
red, arriving at “characteristics” (al-ṣifāt).52
In turning and viewing the two halves of the diagram, and reading around
on the right side, towards the third hour on the clock, it is written, “there is no
God but God” (lā ilāha illā Allāh). The black line between bism and Allāh points

51 Translation by Kabir Helminski, accessed 12 May 2019: https://sufism.org/origins/quran​

‑islam/quranic‑chapters/ayat‑al‑kursi‑the‑throne‑verse‑from‑the‑quran‑2.
52 See in particular Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh. Maḥbūb al-Qulūb. ms Ar. 4159 Chester Beatty,
Chester Beatty Library, fol. 14a.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 175

to “there is no God but Him” (lā ilāh illā huwa).53 On the right hand side, it is
written, adjacent to the Hū, “The Eternal, He alone” (al-ṣamad waḥda-hu). Par-
allel to the two names of God, “the Living, the Subsisting” (al-ḥayy al-qayyūm),
yet outside of the circle, “the Tablet” (al-lawḥ) is written in red ink.
Directing lines also extend over on the right-hand side, in red ink, circu-
lating around and towards the expression, “the moon sphere from it” (min-hu
al-dāʾira al-qamariyya). Set in a red triangle, on the left-hand side, and writ-
ten in red is al-najmiyya (“the star [sphere]”), and then in another red triangle,
near the black “border-line” going back to the center-circle, with one red point
in the middle, al-shamsiyya (“the sun [sphere]”), as dhurriya (“particle or mote
[sphere]”), as another set of spheres is written under “The Eternal.” Outside
of the circle in black ink, words are written in both black and red inks; in one
instance, half in red and half in black, as in the case of al-asmāʾ = ilā, then in red.
On the left-hand side of the schemata, in red ink, three alif are written on
the central line (perhaps another alif itself), and on right hand-side, again,
three alif, but both halves have circle-sets of three, attached to a larger sphere,
with red points. In the section on “the letter ‘h’ in the sphere of the spheres of
stopping places/stations” (hāʾ fi dāʾira al-dawāʾir al-maḥaṭṭa), Ḥamūyeh sug-
gests that the boundary of the sphere is made visible by the characteristics
and the names of God, helping to explain why those words are written outside
the largest circle and yet remain within almost touching distance of the para-
meter.54 Furthermore, the “spheres concerning (= in) the traveller” (dawāʾir
fī sālik) are the five spheres associated each with najmiyya, qamariyya, and
shamsiyya.55 In actuality “the reality of the nuqṭa of the dawāʾir is the nuqṭa
al-maḥbūbiyya and al-maḥabba.”56 Moving from the edge of the diagram back
to the center of the image, the single red nuqṭa, in the absolute center of the
schemata, points to the heart of God, the walī, the maḥbūb. This central nuqṭa
stands in proximity to the Hū.

53 Notably, in two manuscripts of the Maḥbūb the nuqṭa dot of “b” in bism is outside of the
central circle and in heavy black ink (ms 4084/Pm. 153 Berlin, fol. 12b; ms A1418 Topkapı,
fol. 14b).
54 ms 1078 Carullah 10a; ms 638 Orhan 638, fol. 9a; ms 4084/Pm. 153 Berlin, fol. 9b.
55 ms 638 Orhan 638, fol. 9a; ms ms 4084/Pm. 153 Berlin, fol. 9b. ms 1078 Carullah, fol. 10a: “the
circle of the hāʾ is the circle which encompasses; it is a single circle and it comprises fif-
teen circles in the beginnings and the endings, and it is the place of their rise and descent,
but it is encompassing all. God has organized them into five circles (najmiyya, qamariyya,
shamsiyya, dhawātiyya, dhurriyya) that bring together the fifteen circles (letters), which
are the Davidian circles in which are the heavenly and earthly dwellings that belong to
God and form fifteen dwellings.”
56 ms 638 Orhan, fol. 10b.

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This schemata may be further parsed through the sequenced commentar-

ies Ḥamūyeh presents on it; in the Maḥbūb, it is a commentary that overall is
in three parts. Ḥamūyeh explains that the “sphere of the nūn” is broken open
(inshaqqat), for the letters ḥāʾ, jīm, and lām. In wajh “Eight,” Ḥamūyeh con-
siders how the face was revealed to the beloved by His letters and He revealed
Himself to Him:

God hid in the beloved, by His pre-eternal and phenomenal love (bi-
maḥabbati-hi al-qadīma wa-l-ḥadītha), the truth of the point (al-nuq-
ṭiyya) and the polarity (al-quṭbiyya), and He gave him an allotment
(khiẓan) from these two among the higher meanings and the high ecstas-
ies, making him in reality a pole in the universe of His contemplation, and
a point in the circle of His existence so that the spheres revolve around his
sphere, and in him appear the universes in His encompassing universe by
which he is.57

In relation to the two nūn and the two alif is the nūn of the date palm (al-
nakhl), with reference to Q 28:8–9, and how the infant Moses was pulled
from the river by the family of Pharaoh, then to be raised by the wife of
Pharaoh, as a comfort to her. Ḥamūyeh explores this set of verses from Q 28:8–
9 through the statement, “Indeed, I, I am Allāh, but He. I am the light” (innī
anā Allāh, illā huwa. Anā al-nūr), with his reading on the registers of the let-
ter “n” and saying “I” (two alif and one nūn), as well as the Qurʾanic word-set,
“consolation to the eyes” (Q 28:9, qurrat al-ʿayn).58 Chapter 28 of the Qurʾan
reverberates with the Pharaonic “I” and conceptions of “except for He,” res-
onating with the name of God, appearing and disappearing in unity (taw-
ḥīd).
In what constitutes the second of the two readings, circling back and cross-
ing over, between the diagram and the text, Ḥamūyeh explains again to the
reader, to look at the nuqṭa in the dāʾira, and to divide the two nūn in half. The
two alif then point to the structure that can be seen from them in the reed pen
(qaṣaba), as an allusion to “I am in the light. I.” (anā fī al-nūr anā), which can
be understood as written as a/n-a/n, or in terms of the Arabic, with the dia-
critical marker of ‘a’ ( fatḥa) rather than the second (long and fully vocalized)
alif. The second reading on the nakhl draws into the discussion a hadith about
the Prophet Muḥammad and his companion Bilāl al-Ḥabashī about the taste of

57 ms 1078 Carullah, fols. 3b–4a.

58 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fol. 14a.

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dates, whether sweet (ḥalwa) or bitter (murr):59 the root (aṣl) of the nūn of
“light” (nūr) is the nūn of “descent” (nuzūl) to the nabī and the nūn of the “date
palm” (nakhl), which Ḥamūyeh divides into another two level/stage/degree
(martaba): the stripping away (salkh) and the expansion (basṭ) of the letters
opening all of the “laws” ( jāmiʿ al-nāmūs), with respect to command (ḥukm)
and decree (qaḍāʾ), where the Spirit (rūḥ) travels to God by means of prayer
(ṣalāt): “Indeed I, I am Allāh, Lord of the worlds.” (innī anā Allāh rabb al-
ʿālamīn). The Lord (rabb) of the worlds pertains to another aspect of Allāh and
representations of unity in construct with God’s unity, just as the letter alif is
in itself inside and outside of all letters.60 According to Ḥamūyeh, this speaks
to the martaba of letters that are composed and compiled (murakkaba), and
allude to the permitted (ḥalāl) and the forbidden (ḥarām), between “I” (minn-
ī) and “Thou” (min–ka). As well, between “I” and “you” are both light (nūr) and
shadows (ẓulām).61
The final part of Ḥamūyeh’s sequenced commentary returns to the two nūn
and the one (al-wāḥid). In this context, the letter lām-alif (‫)لا‬, with its two
halves, and the Soul (al-nafs), is visually in between in the schemata, but in
fact, written in red ink, outside of the sphere. What is between the “m” and
the “a” is the soul, directing the opening of seeing to the ʿayn (‫ )ع‬of the sphere
(also written in red, inside of the sphere).62 Pertaining to the nafs, counting
from the letter mīm to the letter alif, are fourteen letters that open the worlds
of souls, thus opening up the sphere in two sections (the two nūn). The nafs is
between alif and mīm, but the two nūn are between the letters hāʾ and mīm.63
In this section, the wajh presents the secret of the five [modes of] seeing (sirr
al-ʿuyūn al-khamsa), as light is connected with the eye (ittiṣāl), in a corollary
relationship with the Tablet and the “trust” (wifāq) of Adam and Muḥammad.64
The letter ʿayn (pl. ʿuyūn) likewise holds the meaning of source; the sources as
well as springs upon the beloved’s heart, which also flow onto the hearts of the
prophets, the friends of God, and the truthful ones (al-ṣiddīqūn).65
Context-wise, in this sphere of the “h,” Ḥamūyeh explains how the dāʾira dur-
riyya and dhawātiyya combines fifteen dāʾira, as the fifteen spheres of Dāʾūd,
making beneficial the heavenly houses (buyūt samāwiyya) and the earthly

59 This seems to be linked to a hadith in Bukhārī (ḥadīth 3:506), narrated by Abū Saʿīd al-
Khudrī, on the quality of good and bad dates.
60 Miṣbāḥ 61.
61 ms 638 Orhan, fols. 10b–11b; ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fols. 14b–15b.
62 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fol. 15b.
63 ms 4084/Pm. 153 Berlin, fol. 16a–16b.
64 ms 4084/Pm. 153 Berlin, fol. 15a–15b.
65 ms 1078 Carullah, fol. 17a–17b: the five sources being raḥmāniyya, subḥāniyya, rubūbiyya,
anāniyya, and aniyya.

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178 alexandrin

houses (buyūt arḍiyya).66 Following these hints, let us return now to the hāʾ
of Hū, which is in the “central sphere” of this diagram. Other letters are writ-
ten inside of this sphere, with and without diacritics (without “points”), such
as nakhl (date palm), and possibly the letters for Throne (kursī). Two nūn and
two alif raise the question, what is “rising/ascending to the Throne” (istawāʾ
ʿalā al-ʿarsh)? Ḥamūyeh’s allusion is: two worlds (al-ʿalamīn) and the name of
God, al-Ḥayy. To the question what is descending (nuzūl), an answer is given:
the secret (sirr of form) of the “I” “I” (anā anā), and how the letters of lām-
alif and mīm bring the wisdom of the two nūn. Seeing and visualizing the two
nūn is opening up the perception of the hāʾ of this sphere.67 In other words, as
Ḥamūyeh explains about visualizing the schemata, when the circle was split
into two halves, two nūn appeared, and when looking at the hāʾ of the circle
and its mīm.68
Looking directly at the letter mīm, written in red ink, stands in directional
relationship to the ʿayn of the dāʾira,69 with the sets of circles. Some of the
smaller circles have nuqṭa, demarcating or outlining empty spaces, in and of
the individual’s heart, in which the letters and names may appear and become
manifest. But what is rising to visibility, to be seen? Ḥamūyeh explains: innī anā,
and specifically the walī and the nabī. As the nūn is split in half (like the entire
schemata of the dāʾira), ascending to the Qurʾanic touchstone, ʿalā al-ʿarsh, are
the word-sets raḥmān and raḥmāniyya, “Muḥammadan” (muḥammadiyya) and
“Aḥmadan” (aḥmadiyya).
In this third sequence of Ḥamūyeh’s commentary, as is mentioned elsewhere
in the Maḥbūb, the two nūn (= dual nūn) refer to the nabī and the walī, hidden
(bāṭin) in the apparent (ẓāhir) and ẓāhir in bāṭin, generally (ʿāmma) and with
specificity (khāṣṣa). Ḥamūyeh’s tafsīr of the “halves” is that one nūn is connect-
ing at the beginning the nabī, and the other, at the end, to the khātim al-awliyāʾ
but all of these halves of the nūn= the two nūn = are one form (ṣūra wāḥida).
The center-most circle, with one point, one central nuqṭa, in red ink, could be
viewed as the two nūn together, side meeting side. In one form the two nūn
are attached to and belonging to nubuwwa and walāya. But when the sphere
is divided, the spheres are broken [into five], like, by allusion to a well-known
prophetic tradition, the splitting of the moon.70

66 ms 638 Orhan, fol. 9b.

67 Miṣbāḥ, 60–61; ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fol. 98b: on the lām-alif ; al-lām; kalām; walī; al-
mawlā al-ʿalā bi-l-alif wa-l-lām. See as well, Princeton Garrett Collection ms 3793Y, fol. 80b,
ln. 12–22.
68 ms 1078 Carullah, fol. 18a.
69 ms 638 Orhan, fol. 15b.
70 ms 638 Orhan, fol. 10b.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 179

3 Dimensionality

It is important to note here before turning to the second schemata introduced

in this chapter that in Tirmidhī’s Sīrat al-awliyāʾ, he describes the gathering (of
the awliyāʾ) (majlis) he saw in a dream, employing the term “in his presence”
(bayna yaday-hi) to describe his proximity. Throughout the Maḥbūb, Ḥamūyeh
himself uses repeatedly this term referring to proximity.71 Visually, the “struc-
tures” of the third and fourth schemata in the Maḥbūb are reminiscent of how
Tirmidhī describes the bridal pavilion (ḥajla) of the “friends of God,” with its
coverings and curtains (ḥujūb).72 The awliyāʾ are the “treasure-houses,” and
safeguard (or veil) the divine deposits of the “divine trust” (amāna). They are
protected under the “cupolas” (as mentioned in a ḥadīth often quoted in Sufi
works, “My friends are underneath my domes; no one knows them but Me”).
In Tirmidhī, the divine deposits are sealed and safeguarded by the “sealer”
(khātam) and the “sealing” (khatm) of walāya. According to Ḥamūyeh, there is a
suggestion that the disclosure of the known and unknown meanings of the uni-
fied name (al-ism al-jāmiʿ) belonging to all of the spheres of the letters shapes
an eschatological horizon. This is a point, however, that requires both further
reflection and explanation. As another consideration, perhaps the schemata
are not cosmological but point to the individual’s potential realizations- seeing
and hearing- through reading and understanding the Qurʾan, the divine book
unlike any other book.
As we approach the fourth schemata in the Maḥbūb (Plates 4.7 and 4.8), we
may also want to ask, does the nuqṭa have dimensionality, and in what ways?
Dimensionality would take into account what constitutes the relationship of
the three points (nuqṭa) shaping the letters sīn and shīn and the three parts

71 See a specific reference to Tirmidhī in Ḥamūyeh’s discussion of “striving” (saʿy), ms 2577

Nuruosmaniye, fol. 19a. The concept of saʿy in Ḥamūyeh’s is of exclusive importance to
the name of Yasʿā, the “seal”; a name which is also an anagram of the name ʿĪsā, as dis-
cussed in part below. In his many works, Ḥamūyeh repeatedly introduces this name Yasʿā
as “seal.” At the Endtime, Jesus and the seal are re-united in the city of Damascus. His
name appears to be discussed in a wide range of Sufi commentary traditions based on the
specific verses that correlate his striving with the figure of Ḥabīb al-Najjār (the beloved
carpenter) (Q 28:20 and Q 36:20). Referring back to the concept of “striving,” see al-Ḥakīm
al-Timridhī, Drei Schriften des Theosophen von Tirmiḏ, 2 vols., ed. Bernd Radtke (Beirut: In
Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1412/1992), 1:28. The passage in Tirmidhī
treats the question of the relationship between the knowledge (ʿilm) of the prophets and
the awliyāʾ. See as well al-Tirmidhī, Drei Schriften, para. 86, p. 62; (English translation), 131.
72 Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism: Two Works by
al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, annotated translation and introduction by Bernd Radtke and John
O’Kane (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996), 19, para. 8.

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of the name of God, but then too the multiple spheres of letters: those letters
with or without nuqṭa, the “sun letters,” the “moon letters,” and the “star let-
ters.”73 Furthermore, the letters in the circles or spheres are often written with
or without nuqaṭ. Underlying all these aspects of dimensionality, it could be
said, remains unity (tawḥīd). Therefore, in reading the fourth schemata from
ms Orhan 638 of the Maḥbūb (Plate 4.8; cf. also Plate 4.7), let us start with
the three points of the sīn/shīn, and then focus on the letter “f” ( fāʾ), the big
circle at the top and in the center. The schema begins with the “f” of al-fātiḥa
(Q 1, “The Opening”), and commences with al-fātiḥa; a requisite of daily prayer
and the devotional acts of daily life. The schema presents visually two parts
of fātiḥa, or double-aspects of this Qurʾan chapter. The first half and second
half of fātiḥa would be ẓāhir/bāṭin. Under the outer edge and on each side
of the central lines of writing (= text) in this schema Allāh is written twice
(doubled). Regarding the bottom of the schema, where Allāh is written forty
times, the forty Allāh (= of Ibrāhīm) are opened by fātiḥa. On the outer edge,
like a canopy, are written two wāw, or sets of wāw and dāl, which would be like
stars and shadows, forming the word, repeated, “shading” or “shadow” (zill).74
Reading around the spheres, right to left, alif is like yāʾ, if with no points, but
then could now be alif, again, like the ẓāhir and bāṭin of the bismillāh. Read-
ing around the spheres, from right to left, the following words and letters are
written in black ink, in the section upside down (right hand side): permissible
(ḥalāl) and forbidden (ḥarām); the “ambiguous verses” (mutashabbihāt); raḥ-
māniyya, and riḍwāniyya; sīn and ʿayn; double wāw. Some words, because of the
middle letter, mim, or ḍād, can be read parallel: raḥmāniyya/riḍwāniyya.
What about the letter hāʾ in this schema? Could it be visualized as an empty
circle, a teardrop, or a drop of water? In the lower right-hand corner and in the
lower left-hand corner, there is a set of points inside of the “h” on right hand side
but not on left hand side. Central lines written: “these are the spheres (dawāʾir)
of going astray (ḍalāl),” and then circulating from this, another line, stating,
“and the form (ṣūra) of lām-alif pertaining to states (aḥwāl),” which is written
again in the prose sections that follow directly after this schema.75
There is a set of lines written around the spheres (seven on each side), “In
his presence, in his presence, it is He that is Thou (you). We are I. Indeed I

73 ms 1078 Carullah, fol. 40a–40b: the properties of letters are three: of the letter, the point,
and the declination; and the properties of prophecy are three: nubuwwa, risāla and
walāya.
74 ms 2058 Ayasofya, fol. 8b: types of spheres, starting with five: sun and moon, and dhawā-
tiyya and dhurriya.
75 ms 638 Orhan, fol. 118b.

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 reading and reciting the qurʾan
181

plate 4.7 The Fourth Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Dublin,

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 182
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plate 4.8 The Fourth Schemata in the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb. Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb (Bursa,
İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, ms Orhan 638, fols. 118b–119a)

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 183

am. Indeed I am and with indeed I am.” (laday-hi laday-hi huwa an anta naḥnu
anā innī innī wa-bi-innī). Describing the spheres, Ḥamūyeh explains: the first of
them is beauty and the last of them is majesty; the apparent of them is perfec-
tion and the hidden of them is natural disposition (khisāl); and the mutawassiṭ
of them is forbidden (ḥarām) and licit (ḥalāl). It establishes state (ḥāl) after
state. The third sphere is the form and the resemblance. The fourth is the car-
rying over (ʿibār) and the likenesses (amthāl). Parallel to the prose that follows
this schema, Ḥamūyeh alludes to the Qurʾan: “And you see they are looking at
you and they do not perceive.”
Following this, continuing a reading that goes from the right-hand side, to
the left, in the next line, circulating around the spheres, Ḥamūyeh writes: “and
the sixth is actions in speech, and the seventh is the gift (ʿaṭāʾ) and the favour
(nawāl) to him, for him, in him, from him, pertaining to him, upon him, with
him, for him, towards him, according to him (ʿinda-hu)”76
As we shift back and forth between the text and the diagram, and regarding
the pronouns above, how does the letter wāw open up seeing (baṣīr), given that
hāʾ split in two looks like two wāw? Rather than dimensionality, is Ḥamūyeh
suggesting determination as relational, in the pronouns that are articulated,
spoken, and written; for example, you- I- He; He as You; or the Thou who is
addressed, and the pronouns such as hū, anā, anta? Huwa as a pronoun is sig-
nificant in Ḥamūyeh’s mystical commentaries on oneness in its two modalities,
aḥadiyya and waḥdāniyya. Image four, is, after all, the dāʾira of lām and alif, and
lām-alif ; as in the previous schema discussed, “but He” (illā huwa), it offers, by
way of another explanation, the relationship of the parallelism of the Muslim
testimony of faith, the shahāda.77 The story of the beloved in Ḥamūyeh’s Kitāb
al-Maḥbūb is often one of separation; that is, the separation of the heart from
representations and appearances of the Lord (rabb) and God (Allāh), and more
generally, separation from unity, while referring back to these two modalities of
oneness (= the two nūn). The alif-lām, two alif unified, and separation or cut-
ting (qāṭiʿ) of the lām and alif, points to both junctures and separations. These
points of juncture and separation are of equal significance in Ḥamūyeh’s mys-
ticism and messianism, especially in his thinking with respect to Muḥammad
and the seal Yasʿā.
Throughout the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb the name “Living” (Ḥayy) is equated with
the heart of the maḥbūb as the beloved. However, what about the earlier
question of the rising apparition (khurūj) of the khātim al-awliyāʾ, Yasʿā? It

76 ms 638 Orhan, fol. 118b.

77 ms Orhan, fol. 118b.

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is important to note here that in the earlier pages of Maḥbūb, Ḥamūyeh dis-
cusses the name of the Messiah (masīḥ), composed (murakkab) together of the
letters mīm-sīn and ḥāʾ-yāʾ; something that could be brought into English as
“touching”–“living” (“mas”–“ḥayy”), the station (maqām) of ʿĪsā and Yasʿā.78 If
the idea of a face or aspect is used to explain this rising to visibility and what
is seen, then Ḥamūyeh is aiming to speak to something about Muḥammad and
‘Īsā in the sense of generality (ʿāmma) at the level of the seal of walāya. In the
case of prophethood, the aspect/face of Muḥammad, is the totality (kulliyāt)
and oneness (waḥda) of perfection and being perfected, as prophethood has
been sealed. It can be said that in the first wajh of the Maḥbūb under discussion
here, the apparition of ʿĪsā is in the scope of Yasʿā. Another dimensional aspect
of the dāʾira of a letter can be seen in the example of the letter “k” (kāf ), as an
interplay of black, white, and shadow.79 These considerations therefore pertain
to the sealing as ʿāmma, whereas regarding the khāṣṣa, the seal is remaining
open.80
In the Maḥbūb, Ḥamūyeh’s circular and sequenced reading about the kāf
and the nūn commences in a section that provides a discussion on how kāf and
nūn do not repeat in the muqaṭṭāʿāt letters at the beginning of Qurʾan chapters.
This section precedes Ḥamūyeh’s words on the “seal” (khātim) as well as a set of
his poems on “my heart” (qalbī, Arabic/dil-am, Persian).81 In this sphere, we can
find al-Ḥallāj and Jirjīs (a lesser known prophetic figure), Muḥammad, the mes-
siah (masīḥ) as ʿIsā, and Yasʿā. As Ḥamūyeh in fact is speaking about another
face of the messiah rising to visibility, one of the hints to reading about his con-
cepts may be linked to the hadith of “I was a hidden treasure” (kuntu kanzan
makhfiyyan) as well as the directionality of the letters and spheres to God and
tawḥīd. In these passages, Ḥamūyeh’s triple-plays on words and letters, such as
khafī/makhfiyyan, parallel to nāẓir, naẓr and manẓūr, can be brought to bear on
this question of rising to visibility; in particular, apparition and disapparition
in tawḥīd. It would be interesting to think of this treasure hidden in the heart
of God, makhfiyyan but not explicitly articulated through the verbal noun of
ikhtifāʾ—hidden, disappeared, disappearance, but not disappearing. Both Ḥal-
lāj (as a friend of God) and Jirjīs are brought to the arriving place (mawṣil) of

78 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fol. 178b.

79 ms 3793Y Princeton Garret Collection, fol. 46a–46b: ʿĪsā and the nuqṭa, with reference to
umm al-kitāb. Other passages in this short treatise seem to suggest that the alif would
be like the ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm between/moving in between nūr and ẓulma and ẓulma and
nūr, and ẓulma is actually mutawassiṭa; like the two seals, in dual, coming out of the dark-
nesses, rising to visibility and unifying two souls as one alif, like a written line, a flat line.
80 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fol. 206b.
81 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fol. 178b.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 185

being killed, pointing again to what appears as directionally ascending towards

the ʿarsh of God; what is carried on the names Compassionate (raḥīm) and Mer-
ciful (raḥmān) in relation to God’s unity, as well as some ṣifāt and dhāt related
to the human being and the prophets.

4 Colours

As noted previously, one of the hallmarks of Kubrawī Sufi thought was colour.
According to Ḥamūyeh, the apparent and hidden are doubled. In these doubled
structures Ḥamūyeh proposes, it remains difficult to determine how he situ-
ates colour per se, with or without dimensionality. In numerous passages, the
Maḥbūb and Ḥamūyeh’s short treatises speak to the white and black spheres
of letters as well as white, black, and red.82 Since this requires more focused
research, at present one example from Maḥbūb will have to suffice. This passage
from the Maḥbūb concerns the alif and the barzakh, and appears in another
sequence of his discussion and commentary on innī anā Allāh. He mentions the
white and black of the lines or threads (al-khayṭ) after considering the writing
and written line (khaṭāʾ and khaṭṭ) of the letter alif as “intermediary” (barzakh
and barzakhī).83 The hint to morning prayer ( fajr) is quite beautiful: khayṭ,
those lines or threads of whites and blacks indistinguishable at the very verge
of daybreak, and the first rays of sunlight rising from the horizon, before the
time of morning prayer, which God’s creation ties to His tawḥīd. Thus there is a
hint in this passage of two whites and two blacks, inside and outside of the writ-
ten black alif on the white of a page, like the threads of khayṭ. In this instance,
Ḥamūyeh’s reference to the zāhir in bāṭin and bāṭin in ẓāhir could be conceived
(= or perceived) as inner and outer whites as well as inner and outer blacks.84
Therefore Ḥamūyeh is directing our thinking, as readers, towards consider-
ing the letters. But then moving in his speaking to questions around the figura-
tion and representation of the Lord and Allāh, both sides and both being a (the)
face as well as appearance (= wāw of huwa and wāḥid), it would not necessar-
ily be because he is self-fashioning his writings as a “letter mysticism.” It is a

82 ms 3793Y Princeton Garret Collection, fol. 56b, ln. 4 ff.: white and black spheres of letters;
letter “d” at the end of names Muḥammad and Dāʾūd. Significantly, in ms 3793Y, fol. 46b:
bayāḍ of al-maghrib; bayāḍ of al-mashraq; red black of soul; three souls; and lastly, ms 638
Orhan, fol. 10b: three colours, black, white; and ms 638 Orhan, fol. 202b: letters, colours,
book, murīd, murād (in relation to the letters kāf and sīn).
83 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fols. 100b; 101a-ff.
84 Misbāḥ, 57.

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turn, moving into other ways of speaking. What requires additional research is
in what ways Ḥamūyeh, in his writings, worked towards speaking against and
across Ibn al-ʿArabī, his most renowned contemporary.85
As this study draws to a close, let us return to the image of the letter hāʾ
as an open circle, a drop of water, or the qurrat al-ʿayn, and raise another set
of questions: was the third diagram from the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb in fact the open,
speaking mouth of the maḥbūb?86 Could we say, between speaking and silence,
that the circular image, like the letter hāʾ, is the open and empty heart of the
maḥbūb, saying or reciting innī anā Allāh? Is this schema in fact the beloved’s
face and open mouth, speaking not necessarily in delirium or ecstasy, but rather
speaking as seeing? Who is speaking? Is “I” between “He” and “you” or “Thou”?
Where do the words come from which are being spoken?
In conclusion, the number of explicit passages on messianism and the End-
time in Ḥamūyeh’s works87 suggest as well as mark another shift in 13th-century
Sufi understandings of the body, cosmology, and eschatology. There is like-
wise a marked absence of particular Sufi concepts- even Kubrawī concepts-

85 I am currently preparing two articles for publication, which develop further some of the
preliminary research presented concerning the written correspondence between Ḥamū-
yeh and Ibn al-ʿArabī, first identified by Molé, and recently edited by Khāmah-Yār, as well
as the short treatises originally attributed to Ibn ʿArabī, such as the Baḥr al-shukr (see Ger-
ald Elmore, review of Rasāʾil Ibn ʿArabī, Journal Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society (2004) 35:109–
115), as these sources provide other considerations of Ḥamūyeh’s meeting with Ibn ʿArabī.
For this exchange of letters, which will form one of my forthcoming publications, see
ms Majlis 594. Ed. Aḥmad Khāma-Yār, “Makātib-i Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥammūʾī,” in Jashn-nāma-i
Ustād-i Aḥmad Ḥussayinī Ashkūrī, ed. Rasūl Jaʿfaryān (Tehran-Qom: Nashr-i ʿIlm/Kitāb-
khāna-yi Takhaṣṣuṣī-i Tārīkh-i Islām va Īrān/Khāna-yi Kitāb, 1392 h.sh./2013), 451–474; ms
Majmūʿa 32, Letter No. 4 (fols. 99–108). Letter No. 4. ucla Library. Special Collections.
Minassian Collection. ms Tehran University 2451. Discussed in Muḥammad Tāqī Dān-
ishpazhūh’s review of Aḥmad Mahdavī Dāmghānī’s edition of Nasafī’s Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq
“Intiqād-i kitāb: Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq.” Some of the preliminary research findings appear in
Elizabeth R. Alexandrin, “Seals and Sealing of Walāyah in Ṣūfī and Shīʿī Texts: The Cases of
al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyah,” in Philosophy and The Intellectual Life in
Shīʿah Islam: Symposium 2015, eds. Sajjad Rizvi and Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (London:
Oxbow Books, 2017), 69–93. ms Kitāb murād al-murīdīn, fols. 7a–b; 8a; 52a For the list of
Ḥamūyeh’s works, see Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh. Kitāb al-maḥbūb, ms 726 Yeni Cami, fol. 1a.
Furthermore, in ms Şehit Ali Paşa 1342, fols. 142–152b, on the first folio of the majmūʿa
states something specific about a treatise of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s in Saʿd’s “hand” (handwriting).
These folios could be Ḥamūyeh’s copy, in his own hand, of either his notes on a work by
Ibn ʿArabī on ʿilm al-ḥurūf, or his notes more generally speaking on Ibn ʿArabī?
86 ms 2577 Nuruosmaniye, fols. 18a–19b.
87 ms 3793Y Princeton Garret Collection, fols. 71b–72a, where Ḥamūyeh speaks about ʿĪsā and
Yasʿā.

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reading and reciting the qurʾan 187

in Ḥamūyeh’s works. There is so much more to be said on these issues, and

especially Ḥamūyeh’s views on messianism and the seal of God’s friends, than
can be discussed at present. Suffice it to say for now, Ḥamūyeh writes inde-
pendently of most 13th-century authors and thinkers on the manifestation of
the seal and the apparition of the Mahdī/Messiah figure, Yasʿā. As Ballanfat has
elucidated in part, and which will form our larger research project, Ḥamūyeh’s
teachings would have a long legacy in the contexts of Timurid and Ottoman Sufi
messianism.88 Perhaps the above-mentioned points offer some suggestions as
to why the majority of the manuscripts of the Kitāb al-Maḥbūb, and Ḥamūyeh’s
other works, are currently located in Turkish manuscript collections, including
ms 638 Orhan, as well as provide some preliminary frameworks for reading and
regarding the dimensionality of schemata in Ḥamūyeh’s works.

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 chapter 5

Use of Diagrams in the Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī

Manuscripts, and Possible Links between
the Ḥurūfī ‘Verbal’ and the Bektashi Visual
Iconographies

Orkhan Mir-Kasimov

Introduction

Let us begin with a short explanation of proper nouns mentioned in the title.
The Ḥurūfī is the name given in some sources to a mystical and messianic
movement founded in the second half of the 8th/14th century by an Iranian
thinker named Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 796/1394).1 Throughout this chapter,
the name Ḥurūfī indicates this specific movement; it is not used with reference
to general use of the ‘science of letters’ (ʿilm al-ḥurūf ) in Islam. The Nuqṭavīs, a
group established by Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī (d. 831/1427–1428), an excommunic-
ated disciple of Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, were an offshoot of the Ḥurūfīs.2 Finally,
the Bektashis were an influential Ottoman dervish order, the eponym of which
was a famous Anatolian saint Ḥājjī Bektāsh Velī (fl. 7th/13th century).3 The Bek-
tashi communities still subsist in Turkey and in Balkans.

1 See Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, “Astarābādī, Faḍl Allāh” and “Ḥurūfiyya,” ei3.

2 See Hamid Algar, “Nuḳṭawiyya,” ei2. The most extensive work on the Nuqṭavīs to date is
done by Iranian scholars such as Ṣādiq Kiyā, Nuqṭaviyān yā Pasīkhāniyān (Tehran: Anjuman-
i Īrān, 1320 sh./1941). More recently, ʿAlī Riḍāʾ Dhakāvatī Qarāguzlū devoted several articles
to the study of the Nuqṭavī history, doctrines and rituals. Most of these articles are conveni-
ently assembled in a single volume: ʿAlī Riḍāʾ Dhakāvatī Qarāguzlū, Jumbish-i Nuqṭavī (Qum:
Adyan Publication, 1383 sh./2004–2005).
3 On the Bektashis, see Suraiya Faroqhi, Der Bektaschi-Orden in Anatolien (vom späten fünf-
zehnten Jahrhundert bis 1826) (Vienna: Verlag des Institutes für Orientalistik der Universität
Wien, 1981), and references there; Ahmet Karamustafa, “Ḳalenders, Abdals, Ḥayderîs: The
Formation of the Bektâşiye in the Sixteenth Century,” in Süleymân the Second and his Time,
eds. Halil Inalcık and Cemal Kafadar (Istanbul: Isis press, 1993), 121–129; Alexandre Popovic
and Gilles Veinstein (eds.), Bektachiyya: Etudes sur l’ordre mystique des Bektachis et les groupes
relevant de Hadji Bektach (Istanbul: Isis press, 1995); Irène Mélikoff, Hadji Bektach: un mythe et
ses avatars. Genèse et evolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie (Leiden: Brill, 1998). Among
recent monographs devoted to the Bektashis are Yuri Averyanov, Хаджи Бекташ Вели и

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 193

Starting from the 9th/15th century, Ḥurūfī doctrines started spreading in

Ottoman mystical milieus.4 The Bektashis played a particularly important role
in the preservation of the Ḥurūfī intellectual heritage.5 It is not entirely clear
whether the Ḥurūfī doctrines were incorporated into Bektashi teachings or
were perceived as unambiguously different from the latter.6 However, it seems
that at least some distinctively Ḥurūfī ideas combined with other doctrinal sub-
stratum found an artistic expression in Bektashi iconography, and more spe-
cifically in characteristic Bektashi calligraphic images representing the human
face and body.7

суфийское братство Бекташийа (Moscow: Marjani, 2011), and Es’ad Coşan, Hacı Bektâş-
ı Velî ve Bektâşîlik (Istanbul: Server Yayınları, 2012). John Kingsley Birge, The Bektashi Order
of Dervishes (London-Hartford: Luzac & Company, 1937), still remains a valuable source of
information.
4 According to Gölpınarlı, this process was most likely initiated by two close followers of Faḍl
Allāh Astarābādī, Mīr Sharīf and Sayyid ʿImād al-Dīn Nasīmī. See Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı, Hurû-
fîlik metinleri kataloğu (Ankara: Türk tarih kurumu basımevi, 1989), 28.
5 Edward Browne, one of the pioneers of Ḥurūfī studies, noted that most of the Ḥurūfī manu-
scripts he was able to obtain were derived from the Bektashi order of dervishes. See his
“Further Notes on the Literature of the Hurufis and their Connection with the Bektashi Order
of Dervishes,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (July 1907): 533–581, 534.
6 To some degree, the Ḥurūfī influence on Bektashism seems undeniable. Preservation of the
Ḥurūfī manuscripts by the Bektashis is one of the signs of this cooperation. However, a
Bektashi dervish informed Birge that members of the Bektashi order clearly distinguished
the Ḥurūfī books from the properly Bektashi sources. On the basis of this and other evid-
ence, Birge concluded that “rather it appears that Hurufiism and Bektashiism are to a certain
degree, and have always been separate systems of doctrine.” See Birge, The Bektashi Order of
Dervishes, 60. This seems to be corroborated by the fact that, in his response to the Ottoman
anti-Bektashi and anti-Ḥurūfī polemics titled Mirʾat al-maqāṣid fī dafʿ al-mafāsid published
in 1293/1876, the Bektashi author Aḥmad Rifʿat refutes the idea that the Ḥurūfīs are part of
the Bektashi order. However, Aḥmad Rifʿat’s argument shows his close familiarity with dis-
tinctively Ḥurūfī ideas, of the origin of which he could difficultly be unaware, and which he
nevertheless ascribes not to Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī but to the prominent Sufi shaykhs such
as Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) or Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī Burūsavī (d. 1137/1725). On the Ḥurūfī-Bektashi
relationships, see also Hamid Algar, “Horufism,”Encyclopaedia Iranica, and Hamid Algar, “The
Ḥurufi Influence on Bektashism,” in Bektachiyya: Etudes sur l’ordre mystique des Bektachis et
les groupes relevant de Hadji Bektach, eds. Alexandre Popovic and Gilles Veinstein (Istanbul:
Isis press, 1995), 41–54. For Aḥmad Rifʿat’s polemical work, in addition to Algar’s articles, see
also Mir-Kasimov, “Takfīr and Messianism: The Ḥurūfī Case,” in Accusations of Unbelief in
Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr, eds. Camilla Adang, Hassan Ansari, Maribel Fierro
and Sabine Schmidtke (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016), 199–202.
7 One example of explicit Ḥurūfī traces in Bektashi iconography is the word ‘Faḍl’ (for Faḍl
Allāh Astarābādī) written into facial features of a Bektashi dervish, accompanied by a couplet:
“Adam is the Table revealing the universe / Faḍl the Real is written on Adam’s face” (Ādam ān
lawḥ-i vujūd-i ʿālam-ast / Faḍl-i ḥaqq masṭūr-i vajh-i Ādam-ast) (Algar, “Horufism,” fig. 1, from
Besim Atalay, Bektaşilik ve Edebiyatı, (Istanbul: Ant yayınları, 1921), facing p. 36; see below,
Figure 14/Plate 5.14).

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194 mir-kasimov

To the best of my knowledge, the visual aspect of the Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī
manuscripts has not been properly explored yet. Therefore, the purpose of this
chapter is to establish a provisional inventory of images, mainly based on the
Ḥurūfī manuscripts, and to assess the paths of possible evolution that link
the Ḥurūfī iconography, either visual or ‘verbal,’ with the Bektashi calligraphic
images. This should be regarded as a preliminary reflection based on limited
manuscript material that was available to the author.8
The human being, the form of the human body and the features of the
human face occupy a central place in Ḥurūfī thought. This anthropocentric
orientation is in line with doctrinal positions of main mystical currents of
Islam. Thus, the concept of Imām in early Shiʿism included the idea that the
Imām was the locus of manifestation (maẓhar) of divine Names and Attrib-
utes, and the knowledge of the letters of the supreme Name of God was part of
Imām’s supernatural knowledge (ʿilm).9 In Ismailism, the Prophets and Imāms
were described as representatives of the hierarchical levels of cosmic Intellects,
and this enabled them to lead the rest of humans towards the most complete
knowledge of God accessible to created beings.10 This function of the Prophets
and Imāms, the link between the metaphysical truths, including the primor-
dial divine Word, on the one hand, and the physical form of the Imām on the
other, was especially emphasized in the Nizari Ismaili theory of Resurrection
(qiyāma).11
Outside the Shiʿi context, the Sufi idea of Pole as head of spiritual hierarchy
(quṭb) expresses the same principle of human form as locus of manifestation of
the knowable aspect of God, also often in connection with linguistic or scrip-
tural dimension of the divinity (divine Names, divine Word, divine Pen (qalam),
divine Writing on Well-Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ)) embedded into
the form of the human body or features of the human face. For example, the

8 The catalogue of the Ḥurūfī manuscripts preserved in the Turkish libraries, written by
Abdülbakı Gölpınarlı, Hurufilik metinleri kataloğu, Ankara 1989 (2nd edition), and an
inventory included in my PhD dissertation, “Etude de textes Hurûfî anciens: l’oeuvre
fondatrice de Fadlallâh Astarâbâdî” (PhD diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris,
2007), 733–769, can provide an idea of the wealth of the Ḥurūfī written heritage.
9 Cf. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Le guide divin dans le shîʿisme original, (Lagrasse: Ver-
dier, 1992), 230–232.
10 Cf. Paul E. Walker, Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī: Ismaili Thought in Age of al-Ḥākim (London-
New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999), 102–103 and 108–117.
11 For the examples from the Ismaili works and their comparison with similar passages from
the Jāvidān-nāma of Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī see Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, “The Nizārī Ismaili
Theory of the Resurrection (Qiyāma) and Post-Mongol Iranian Messianism,” in Intellectual
Interactions in the Islamic World: The Ismaili Thread, ed. Orkhan Mir-Kasimov (London:
I.B. Tauris, 2020), 323–352.

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 195

prominent Naqshbandi master Khwāja Muḥammad Pārsā (d. 822/1419) gives

the following definition of the Pole: “Pole of Poles is Muḥammadan truth, he
is the form of the comprehensive divine name.”12 This definition reflects Ibn
al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) concept of Perfect Human Being (al-insān al-kāmil) as
intermediary between God and created universe and the locus of manifesta-
tion of the divine Word.13
Iranian mysticism of love, the prominent names of which are mystics such
as Aḥmad Ghazālī (d. 520/1126) and Rūzbihān Baqlī Shīrāzī (d. 606/1209), and
poets such as Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. ca. 627/1230), Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273),
and Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī (d. 792/1390), emphasized the beauty of human body and face
as guide to the divine knowledge. The technical vocabulary of Persian mystical
poetry, and in particular names of parts of human body and features of human
face, such as eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, cheeks, moles, hair, lips and teeth, used
to designate manifestation of divine truth revealed in mystical experience, pro-
gressively acquired the quality of what Pourjavady aptly named ‘verbal icono-
graphy.’14 All of these anthropocentric intellectual and mystical lines of thought
might have potentially inspired Ḥurūfī and later more explicit Bektashi icono-
graphy.
Jāvidān-nāma-yi kabīr, Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī’s magnum opus, consistently
describes the human bodily form and the features of the human face as the
most complete manifestation of the 28/32 primary forms, or letters (ḥurūf ) of
the primordial divine Word.15 In other words, although all objects and beings
of the universe are brought into existence by various combinations of these
primary letters, only human form and face contain the complete ‘alphabet’, the
complete set of the 28/32 primary forms, thus being the only full manifestation
of the creative divine Word.

12 Wa-quṭb al-aqṭāb huwa al-ḥaqīqa al-muḥammadiyya wa-huwa ṣūrat al-ism al-jāmiʿ al-
ilāhī. Khwāja Muḥammad Pārsā, Faṣl al-khiṭāb, ed. Jalīl Misgarnizhād (Tehran: Markaz-i
Nashr-i Dānishgāhī, 1381 sh./2002–2003), 662.
13 On Ibn al-ʿArabī’s concept of Perfect Human Being see, for example, Michel Chodkiewicz,
Le Sceau des saints: prophétie et sainteté dans la doctrine d’Ibn Arabî (Paris: Gallimard,
2012), 78–81.
14 Nasrollah Pourjavady, “Origines historiques du développement de l’Imago Dei dans la
poésie mystique persane,” Loqman 8 (1991): 9–26.
15 The series of 28 and 32 primary elements of sound and form are used jointly in the Ḥurūfī
texts, and serve as a basis of the numerical structure of the universe. Together, they pro-
duce number 60, linked to the organisation of time (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in
an hour, etc.) and space (60 minutes in every degree of the heavenly sphere, six times 60
degrees in the sphere). For a more detailed presentation of the relationship between these
two series, see Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Words of Power: Ḥurūfī Teachings between Shiʿism and
Sufism in Medieval Islam (London-New York: I.B. Tauris, 2015), Glossary pp. 437–438.

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This anthropocentric doctrine and, in particular, detailed descriptions of

the features of the human face reflecting the lines of the divine ontological
writing—descriptions which abound in the Ḥurūfī writings—seem to be par-
ticularly appropriate for visual expression. However, with a few exceptions
which will be mentioned later, the manuscripts of the Ḥurūfī works known to
me do not contain any image explicitly representing the human body or the
human face, or any other figurative representation. The only images to be found
in these manuscripts are either diagrams or diagram-like text arrangements
(like text surrounded by the letters of the alphabet, or text written within a
circle). An inventory of these diagrams, mostly from the Jāvidān-nāma-yi kabīr,
with a few examples from other Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī works, will occupy the first
two sections of this chapter.
The diagrams, however, are only remotely related to the verbal anthropo-
centric descriptions found in the Jāvidān-nāma and other Ḥurūfī works. There-
fore, these anthropocentric passages mostly remain at the level of ‘verbal’ icon-
ography, radically different in its nature from the figurative iconography of
the Bektashis. However, some of the Ḥurūfī manuscripts do contain drafts of
images which are closer to the Bektashi visual representations. These images,
which might indicate a missing link between the Ḥurūfī and Bektashi icono-
graphies, will be discussed in the third section.

1 Diagrams in the Manuscripts of the Jāvidān-nāma-yi kabīr

The first group of diagrams are those from Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī’s Jāvidān-
nāma-yi kabīr.16 The Jāvidān-nāma is a bulky work (with manuscripts contain-
ing between 400 and 600 folios), which was regarded as a sacred text by Faḍl
Allāh’s followers. It is written in Persian with some passages in local Iranian
dialect of Astarābād. As would be expected of a sacred text, it was copied very
carefully and most of the diagrams appear exactly in the same order and exactly
in the same parts in all manuscripts of the Jāvidān-nāma known to me.17

16 It seems that Astarābādī was writing this work continuously over a long period of time.
The latest date mentioned in the Jāvidān-nāma is 2 Rabīʿ ii 796 (4 February 1394), which
is only a few months earlier than the date of Astarābādī’s execution in September of the
same year. The oldest manuscript of this work that I was able to consult is ms Istanbul Mil-
let Library, Ali Emiri Farsi 920, completed by ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Ḥusaynī on 17 of Ramaḍān
992/22 September 1584 (colophon fol. 423b).
17 This consistency across the manuscript copies of the Jāvidān-nāma enabled me to use
the diagrams as markers to localize the corresponding passages when comparing four
manuscripts of this work for a partial critical edition. See Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Christian

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 197

Figure 1 (Plate 5.1): Text Framed with Letters (Twenty-Eight Arabic

and Four Persian Letters)18
This text highlights one of the central positions of Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī’s doc-
trine, namely that the human body is the locus of manifestation of the 32 letters
of the divine ontological alphabet. Whoever is able to understand and to dis-
cern these 32 letters in his/her own being, gets the key to the understanding of
all prophetic books and attains the ultimate truth.

Translation:

They [the surrounding letters of Arabic alphabet] are the ultimate truth
(ḥaqīqat) of genies, humans, angels, unbelievers, sinners, prophets, saints,
and of everything that was, is, and will be. When the 32 [letters] and
their ultimate truth manifest themselves in the locus of manifestation of
a certain person, the ultimate truth of everything finds itself manifested
through [that person’s] body. All the vices disappear in such a locus of
manifestation, only virtues subsist. This is the station of “Whose is the
Sovereignty?”19 [Q 40:16] … Whenever the ultimate truth and the being
(hastī) of the 32 words is explained, all the heavenly books find them-
selves explained, and the ultimate truth of them all is disclosed to such a
person.

Figure 2 (Plate 5.2): Small Circular Diagram20

This diagram reflects the idea that love and beauty are the principle of attrac-
tion in the universe. The human form is the most beautiful form in the universe
and the center around which the universe rotates. According to the Jāvidān-
nāma, the Kaʿba symbolizes the human face as the locus of manifestation of
the divine Word. It is for this reason that the Kaʿba became the direction of
prayer for the Prophet Muḥammad.

Apocalyptic Texts in Islamic Messianic Discourse: The ‘Christian Chapter’ of the Jāvidān-
nāma-yi kabīr by Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 796/1394) (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2017). These
included Ali Emiri Farsi 920 mentioned in previous note; Cambridge University Library
Ee. 1.27 (n.d., no mention of the copyist, estimated 9th/15th century); British Library Or
5957 (copied by ʿĪsā b. Kamāl al-Dīn, completed on 18 Dhū al-Qaʿda 1196/25 October 1782,
colophon fol. 481a–b); and Basel University Library M vi 72 (copied by Sayyid Walī, n.d.).
However, there are two diagrams in Ali Emiri Farsi 920 which do not appear in Basel Uni-
versity Library manuscript and are omitted from the inventory below.
18 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 108a. Reproduced by kind permission of the
Universitätsbibliothek Basel.
19 Qurʾanic citations in this paper are mostly in agreement with the translations of Abdullah
Yusuf Ali or Muhammad Pickthal, slightly modified when necessary.
20 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 140a.

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198 mir-kasimov

plate 5.1 Text framed with letters (twenty-eight Arabic and four Persian letters). Faḍl Allāh
Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 108a)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 199

plate 5.2 Small circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 140a)

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plate 5.3 Text inscribed in a circle. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 143a)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 201

Description of the diagram. Center left: letters kāf, ʿayn, bāʾ representing
Kaʿba. Other inscriptions in the circle: “love and beauty” (ʿishq va ḥusn, this
inscription forms the diameter of the circle), “this is the reason of union and
mutual inclination among things” (ashyāʾ rā bā hamdīgar imtizāj va meyl az
īnjā-st, this inscription is found in the left half of the circle); and two ḥadīths:
“God is beauiful and He loves beauty”,21 and “there is a market in the Paradise
[where forms of men and women are sold, and when a man desires a form he
enters there]”22 (the two ḥādīths are found in the right half of the circle).

Figure 3 (Plate 5.3): Text Inscribed in a Circle23

This passage emphasizes another central concept of the Jāvidān-nāma, that
of the “straight path” (ṣirāṭ-i mustaqīm). The “straight path” is identified in the
Jāvidān-nāma with the line of symmetry in the mineral, vegetal, animal, or
human form. This line reveals the divine inscription which is contained in every
existing form and is the ontological principle which brings that form into exist-
ence. The passage seems to state that heavenly spheres and plants, which can-
not act independently, remain in agreement, at all times, with their ontological
principles, while animals and humans possess capacity for independent action
and therefore can, out of ignorance, act in disagreement with their ontological
principles, thus deviating from the “straight path” and committing injustice.
This ignorance is illustrated by the case of Satan, who did not discern the divine
Word written into the bodily form of Adam and did not bow down to him.

Translation:

Consider that humans and animals are certainly the source of disobedi-
ence and corruption within the heavenly spheres. You can see that the
heavenly spheres and the plants with their leaves exist in accordance with
their original nature. Humans and animals also exist in accordance with
the original nature of justice, but when they get involved with nature they
become unjust, and their unjust intentions generate injustice and hell
within the heavenly spheres. Whenever they discover their original nature
and travel the straight path, they reach paradise “thereof the breadth is as

21 Inna Allāh jamīl yuḥibb al-jamāl, For references, see Arent Jan Wensinck, Concordance et
indices de la tradition musulmane, 8 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1936–1969), 1:373.
22 Inna fī al-janna la-sūqan [mā fī-hā shirāʾ wa-lā bayʿu illā al-ṣuwar min al-rijāl wa-l-nisāʾ fa-
idhā ashtahā al-rajul ṣūra dakhala fī-hā]. For this saying, cf. Ḥaydar Āmulī, Tafsīr al-muḥīṭ
al-aʿẓam wa-l-baḥr al-khiḍamm, 4 vols. (Tehran: Nūr ʿAlā Nūr, 1422 sh./2001–2002), 2:130;
Louis Gardet, “Djanna,” ei2, 2:447–452.
23 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 143a.

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202 mir-kasimov

the breadth of the heavens … which is in store for those who believe …”
[Q 57:21], and to “a goodly word as a goodly tree” [Q 14:24]. They reach
the world of creative imagination, that of the detached souls and of the
delightful forms without beginning and without end, which are all in the
form of the straight path. They are thus delivered from the hell. If they do
not reach the straight path, they follow the lapidated Satan, who did not
bow down in front of Adam, and remain eternally in hell.

Figure 4 (Plate 5.4): Small Circular Diagram24

The ḥadīth “God the Most High created Adam in the form of All-Merciful,” usu-
ally combined with “God created Adam in His form”25 is frequently used in
the Jāvidān-nāma in order to emphasize that God created the human form as
locus of manifestation of His Word. However, the meaning of the two concent-
ric circles is unclear.
Description: the diagram consists of two concentric circles. Inscriptions
inside the circles: “God the Most High created” in the inner circle, in the big-
ger circle “the father of mankind and his form” in the lower part and “Adam in
the form of All-Merciful” in the upper part.

Figure 5 (Plate 5.5): Small Circular Diagram26

This passage highlights the symbolism of the Kaʿba which, according to the
Jāvidān-nāma, is the place from where the clay for Adam’s face was taken.27
The Kaʿba is the direction of prayer and the direction in which the faces of the
animals are turned before they are sacrificed and consumed, because Adam’s
face is the locus of manifestation of the divine Word. Turning animals’ faces
in that direction before slaughtering them, and then incorporating them into
the human body by eating them is a salutary action by which the animals
are incorporated into human form and get a chance to be born as human
beings.28

24 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 165b.

25 For these ḥadīths see Daniel Gimaret, Dieu à l’image de l’homme: les anthropomorphismes
de la sunna et leur interprétation par les théologiens (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1997), 123–
142.
26 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 167b.
27 This statement is made with reference to the ḥadīth according to which different parts
of Adam’s body were made of clay taken in different locations, the head of Adam being
made from the clay taken from the place of future Kaʿba. For this ḥadīth see Meir J. Kister,
“Adam: a Study of Some Legends in Tafsīr and Ḥadīth Literature,” Israel Oriental Studies 13
(1993): 113–174, 133–135.
28 For the Ḥurūfī theory of evolution through the food chain, see Mir-Kasimov, Words of
Power, 88–89 and 207–208.

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 203

plate 5.4 Small circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 165b)

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204 mir-kasimov

plate 5.5 Small circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 167b)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 205

Description: two concentric circles, words “Kaʿba” and “face” or “surface”

(kaʿba dīm) written in center. In the space between circles the names of the
prophets (Noah, Moses, and Prophets (anbiyāʾ), Isḥaq, Ismāʿīl, Ibrāhīm,
Muḥammad) are written, then a Qurʾanic verse is written across the outer
circle: “full of blessing and of guidance for all kind of beings” [Q 3:96]. Inscrip-
tion around the outer circle:

All of them [of the prophets] performed the circumambulation around

it [the Kaʿba]. It was necessary that all the prophets turn to the Kaʿba,
[which represents] the Face, in order to worship God [and] to sacrifice.
It was in that direction that Abraham turned the face of Ishmael when
he was going to sacrifice him, otherwise it would have been an impos-
ture. Since Muḥammad and all [other] prophets appeared from the back
[i.e., loins] of Adam, it is in that direction [i.e., direction of Adam’s back]
that they turned [when praying]. The faces of all animals that they ate
were turned in that direction, then they slaughtered and ate them. All
the believers and all the saints circled the Kaʿba for several days, and they
prostrated themselves facing the Kaʿba.

Figure 6 (Plate 5.6): Circular Diagram29

This is the first in the series of 5 diagrams made with 13 concentric circles
representing the spheres of the four natural elements and the nine heavenly
spheres.
Description:
Thirteen concentric circles. Written in center: “Kaʿba ʿarsh lawḥ sidrat al-
muntahā va kursī” (Kaʿba, Throne, [well-preserved] Tablet, Lote-tree of the
Boundary, and Pedestal) (ms mvi72).30 All circles are named: four correspond
to natural elements and nine to the heavenly spheres. Numbered inscriptions,
with the first line starting in the inner circle and going across all the circles,
following lines outside the outer circle.

First (al-awwal): In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

From all the directions, the face should be turned in the direction of the
Kaʿba.
Second: “Messenger Maternal (ummī) Prophet” [Q 7:157], who became
the foundation of the soil of the Kaʿba, since “God the Most High created

29 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 188b.

30 In ms Ali Emiri Farsi 920 only the word “Kaʿba” is found.

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plate 5.6 Circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel Uni-
versity Library M vi 72, fol. 188b)

the head and the forehead of Adam from the soil of the Kaʿba, and [He
created] his chest and his back from the [soil] of Jerusalem, his thighs
from the soil of Yemen and his legs from the soil of Egypt, his feet from
the soil of Ḥijāz and his right hand from the soil of the east and his left
hand from the soil of the west.”
Third [following the line enumerating previous spheres]: Eighth
sphere, which is the sphere of constellations. “By the heaven holding the
constellations” [Q 85:1], and “And the moon: We have measured her man-
sions” [36:39].
Fourth: “Full of blessing and of guidance for all kinds of beings”
[Q 3:96]. Starting with Moses, Jerusalem was the direction of prayer for
all the prophets and, at the beginning, it was also the direction of prayer
for the Messenger, peace be upon him.

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 207

Written across all the circles: “Mother of the Cities, The Black Stone, the dir-
ection of prayer of Abraham, Adam and other prophets, peace be upon them.”

Figure 7 (Plate 5.7): Big Circular Diagram31

This diagram consists of thirteen concentric circles representing the four nat-
ural elements and the nine heavens. It is mainly focused on the idea that the
Kaʿba represents the human face, which is the locus of manifestation of the
divine Word. It also emphasizes the special status of the earth as the central ele-
ment of the universe and the main element in the constitution of the human
body and face. The diagram contains several citations from the Qurʾan and the
ḥadīth, which are amply commented upon in the text of the Jāvidān-nāma.
Description of the diagram. Centre:
“Point of the earth, Adam and Eve”; “Kaʿba is the station of Adam, of his face,
his head, his forehead”; “The Black Stone, and the Covenant which will emerge
when it is broken. This Covenant will have eyes to see and a tongue to speak.
Seven rounds of circumambulation have to be accomplished around it. ‘God
the Most High created Adam in the form of the All Merciful and in His form’
and in ‘the best of molds’ [Q 95:4]. Kaʿba, the Inhabited House, the Temple of
Jerusalem, ‘Lote-tree of the boundary, near it is the Paradise of Abode’ [Q 53:14–
15], ‘In the Well-Preserved Table [Q 85:22]’”; “When I have fashioned him (in due
proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto
him. So the angels prostrated themselves, all of them together, Not so Iblis: he
refused to be among those who prostrated themselves” [Q 15:29–31]; “The Day
that the shin shall be laid bare, and they shall be summoned to bow in adora-
tion” [Q 68:42].
The inscriptions on the periphery of the diagram are mostly Qurʾanic verses
linked to some concepts from the central inscriptions. Concerning Eve (ms
Istanbul Millet Library, Ali Emiri Farsi 920): “Eve is the mother of the prayer,
mother of the Book and mother of the Qurʾan, Adam, Eve and their original
nature.” Concerning Adam (ms Basel University Library M vi 72): “Everything
is part of his body, or connected with his body, or is in his stomach. Everything
turns around the centre of the Earth which is the foundation of the bodies of
Adam and Eve.”

31 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 239b.

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plate 5.7 Big circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel Uni-
versity Library M vi 72, fol. 239b)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 209

Figure 8 (Plate 5.8): Complex Circular Diagram32

This diagram expresses the idea that the universe and time are structured in
accordance with the divine Word and its 28 and 32 aspects. The human face is
the most complete locus of manifestation of the divine Word, and this is reflec-
ted in the fact that the prayer is performed with the face turned in the direction
of the Kaʿba, which symbolizes the face of Adam. The 28 and 32 aspects are con-
tained in the structure of the prayer, in the opening chapter of the Qurʾan, in
the 28 phases of the moon, and in the division of the heavenly spheres into 360
degrees. There is, thus, a shared essential identity between the three entities
expressing the totality of the divine Word, i.e. human being, time and uni-
verse.
Description:
13 circles. Centre: Earth (arḍ). Right: “Mother of the Cities, Kaʿba, the head
and the forehead of Adam.” Left: “The Temple of Jerusalem, the locus of the
chest and back.”
First four circles: “Water, air, fire.”
Between the fourth and the fifth circles:
“‘And He taught Adam the names of all things’ [Q 2:31]. The [human] face
[contains] is the inscription of the 32 divine [letters] without beginning and
without end. God is worshipped in the locus of [Adam’s] head and forehead,
by performing 17, 15 and 11 rakʿat.”
Then text is written in a spiral beginning between the 9th and the 10th circles
and ending between 11th and 12th:

“And We have bestowed upon thee the Seven Twofold (sabʿan min al-
mathānī)” [Q 15:87]: these are in the fourteen inscriptions of the disjoin-
ted letters that appear at the beginning of some of the [Qurʾanic] suras.
“Seven Twofold” also refer to the first sura of the Qurʾan (al-ḥamd), which
must be read in accordance with the numbers of 17 and 11 divine words.
It is also seven heavenly spheres with seven planets, which are 14: “And
We have bestowed upon thee the Seven Twofold.” 14 are above the earth
because the original nature of the face of Adam, peace be upon him,
makes 14 lines appear, and 14 are below the earth. And the sphere of
constellations contains 12 constellations, as God the Most High said: “By
the heaven holding the constellations” [Q 85:1]. And every constellation
[occupies] 30 degrees, which makes 360 degrees, or six times 60 degrees.

32 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 327b.

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plate 5.8 Complex circular diagram. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel
University Library M vi 72, fol. 327b)

Every 60 degrees contain 28 and 32 degrees, and every degree contains 60

minutes, or 28 and 32 minutes, and every minute contains 60 seconds, or
28 and 32 seconds. Every minute and second participates in the division of
the 12 constellations in 28 [sections] in accordance with the phases of the
moon: “And the moon: We have measured her mansions” [Q 36:39]. […]
And the division of all the spheres which are above or below [the sphere
of constellations], of the earth and of everything that is on it is necessarily
in accordance [with the division of the sphere of constellations, includ-
ing] the elementary natures. If there was another heavenly sphere above
the heaven of the heavens, it would also been divided in accordance with
the [proportions of] 28 and 32 [divine words], as the sphere of constella-
tions.

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 211

The inscription “black stone” (ḥajar al-aswad), starting in the center and
crossing circles 1 to 12, marks the beginning of the inscriptions between the
circles.
The Jāvidān-nāma-yi kabīr, the foundational text of the Ḥurūfī doctrine,
contains a set of diagrams, most of which are consistently reproduced in all
known copies of this work. The primary goal of these diagrams seems to be
that of providing a compact summary of the central ideas of the Jāvidān-nāma.
Most of these diagrams are the circular representations of the universe which
emphasize various aspects of the cosmological, anthropological, and epistem-
ological theories discussed in the text. To my knowledge, there is no evidence
of any magical or talismanic use of these diagrams.

2 Diagrams from Other Ḥurūfī and Nuqtavi Texts

Figure 9 (Plate 5.9): Circular Diagram33

This diagram, contained in an anonymous Ḥurūfī manuscript in Persian titled
Ḍavābiṭ-i Jāvidān, emphasizes the distinction between the 28 letters of the
Arabic alphabet and the 32 letters of the Persian alphabet, apparently linking
them respectively to Muḥammad and to Adam. These letters are also associ-
ated with divine omnipresence. An explicit link is made to the human face and
to the name of Faḍl (meaning ‘bounty’ in Arabic).
Description:
Two concentric circles, four words, inna-hu muḥīṭ bi-kull shayʾ (“Truly, He
encompasses everything”), inscribed outside at four points at 90 degrees of dis-
tance from each other. Along the diameter of the inner circle are written 28
letters of the Arabic alphabet; along the inner half of the circle are written the
same letters plus four Persian letters. At the ends of the diameter, in the space
between the inner and the outer circles, is written: “He is the First, Adam” at the
one end, and “And the last, Muḥammad” at the opposite end. At 90 degrees, at
the one end of the space between the circles wa-l-bāṭin (i.e., “interior”) is writ-
ten, on the opposite end: wa-l-ẓāhir (i.e., “exterior”). Between wa-l-ẓāhir and
“He is the First,” “Your lasting unity by fāʾ, by ḍād, by lām” is written in Arabic.
There are also other sayings relevant to the idea of manifestation of the Face
and to the name of Faḍl Allāh. Inside the inner circle, Qurʾanic citations includ-
ing “He established Himself in balance on the Throne” [Q 20:5] and “Everything
will disappear except His face” [Q 28:88].

33 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 65, fol. 10a.

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plate 5.9 Circular diagram. Anonymous Ḥurūfī manuscript titled Ḍavābiṭ-i Jāvidān (ms
Basel, Basel University Library M vi 65, fol. 10a)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 213

Figure 10 (Plate 5.10): Circular Diagram Consisting of Fifteen

Concentric Circles34
This diagram represents the idea of the Seven Twofold (sabʿ min al-mathānī),
with seven double circles around the Kaʿba representing Adam. “Seven Two-
fold” (Q 15:87) is a Qurʾanic expression often used in the Jāvidān-nāma to refer
to the features of the human face, which are the loci of manifestation of the
lines of the divine ontological scripture. The diagram thus also emphasizes the
idea of similarity between the macrocosm and microcosm.
Description:
Kaʿba written in the center.
Writings on the edges:
“Jerusalem is the land of the Resurrection, this can be found in the hadith.”
“Earth, water, air and fire. Seven heavenly spheres with a planet on each
sphere, divided by the line of balance (khaṭṭ-i istivā), produce the Seven Two-
fold. Seven heavenly spheres are thus distinguished from the sphere of constel-
lations, since every heavenly sphere has [only] one planet.”
“The seven heavens and the heaven of constellations are divided in such a
way that [demonstrates that] they are turned towards the world of earth, air,
water and fire which constitute the body of Adam.”
“The [Inhabited] House situated in the heaven represents Adam. It is called
‘inhabited’ because [The Prophet Muḥammad] said: ‘I and [other] prophets,
we are like a building with perfect foundations, with the place for one brick left
open’ until ‘I fill [the place] of that brick, I am the brick’.”35
“The Inhabited [House] is the counterpart of the Kaʿba in the heaven.”

34 ms Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pers. 140, fol. 73a. This is an anonymous and
undated Ḥurūfī manuscript in Persian titled Kitāb Maḥabbat Allāh (fol. 2b).
According to a note added on fol. 1a in a different hand, this manuscript contains Maḥab-
bat-nāma and Amānat-nāma of Sayyid Isḥaq, a successor (khalīfa) of Faḍl Allāh Astarā-
bādī. There exist several (at least six) other manuscripts of this work. In various manuscript
catalogues, it is also attributed to another close follower of Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī, named
ʿAlī al-Aʿlā, as well as to Faḍl Allāh himself.
35 Mithlī wa-mithl al-anbiyāʾ ka-mithl qaṣr uḥsina bunyānu-hu turika min-hu mawḍiʿ labinati
… anā sadadtu (text: asdadtu) [mawḍiʿ] tilka al-labinat (text, added: wa-anā labinat).
The author probably amalgamates different versions of this ḥadīth. For references, see
Yohanan Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Aḥmadī Religious Thought and Its
Medieval Background (Berkeley, Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1989),
53–54; Gimaret, Dieu à l’image de l’homme, 18.

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plate 5.10 Circular diagram consisting of fifteen concentric circles. Anonymous Ḥurūfī
manuscript titled Kitāb Maḥabbat Allāh (ms Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vatic-
ana, Pers. 140, fol. 73a)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 215

plate 5.11 Rectangular diagram. Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī, Kitāb-i Mīzān (ms Tehran, Malek
National Library and Museum Institution 6226, fol. 3b)

Figure 11 (Plate 5.11): Rectangular Diagram36

This is a Nuqṭavī diagram from one of the most important Nuqṭavī texts,
the Kitāb-i Mīzān of Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī (d. 831/1427–1428). Maḥmūd was the
founder of the Nuqṭavī doctrine, and this is clearly indicated in the diagram,
where Maḥmūd is described as “Dot of God” (nuqṭat Allāh). The diagram is a
square with names of the prophets and their relations to the divine Word. Every
angle contains a letter of the word Allāh, the name of a prophet, and the name
of an element of language. Right lower angle, letter alif, Mūsā kalām Allāh; right
upper angle, letter lām, ʿĪsā kalimat Allāh. Upper line center: tashdīd, Ādam

36 Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī, Kitāb-i Mīzān, ms Tehran, Malek National Library and Museum Insti-
tution 6226, fol. 3b. Manuscript undated. Image courtesy of Malek National Library and
Museum Institution in Tehran. My thanks to Marjan Afsharian and Shahram Khodaver-
dian for helping me to obtain the high resolution copy of this image and to secure the
printing permission from the Malek Library.

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kalimāt [Allāh]; left upper angle: letter lām, Muḥammad ḥarf Allāh. Left lower
angle: letter hāʾ, Maḥmūd nuqṭat Allāh.37
The text surrounding the diagram (fols. 2b–3b) explains that the diagram
represents the divine balance (mīzān-i Allāh), which encompasses everything
existent. Every letter of the name Allāh, including the tashdīd over the second
lām, is identified with a prophet and with an element of language. Thus Adam
= tashdīd = words (kalimāt), Moses = alif = speech (kalām), Jesus = lām = Word
(kalima), Muḥammad = lām = letter (ḥarf ), Maḥmūd = hāʾ = dot (nuqṭa). The
text does not discuss the order in which the names are arranged on the dia-
gram, nor does it specify the meaning of the linguistic elements attributed to
the prophets. If we can establish parallels with the Ḥurūfī texts, it can be pre-
sumed that ascription of “words” to Adam is inspired by the Qurʾanic episode
in which God teaches to Adam the “names of all things” [Q 2:31]; the attribu-
tion of “speech” to Moses is based on the episodes in which Moses heard divine
discourse (on the Mont Sinai and from the Burning Bush), as reflected in the
Qurʾan; Jesus’ identification to the Word of God is explicitly Qurʾanic (4:171);
and Muḥammad’s ‘lettrism’ is an allusion to the famous disjointed letters of
the Qurʾan (al-ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa).38 Maḥmūd’s identification with the Dot is,
of course, his own idea.39
Also with reference to the Ḥurūfī context, it is possible to offer an explana-
tion for the order of the linguistic entities and the related prophets. Linguistic
entities progress from complex to simple: the sum of all words, speech, word,
letter, dot. According to the Ḥurūfī works, it is the simple elements of lan-

37 The word Allāh is clearly written only in the expression nuqṭat Allāh. In the lower and
upper right angles it appears rather like ilāh; the word kalimāt in the center is followed
by a sign resembling the ligature lā, and the word ḥarf in upper left angle is followed by
li-Llāh. However, from the surrounding text, it appears clearly that the author discusses
homogenous entities, that is, words, speech, letter etc. of God.
38 Letters and combinations of letters inserted at the beginning of some of the Qurʾanic
suras. These mysterious letters fascinated generations of Islamic thinkers. For general
information, see Keith Massey, “Mysterious Letters,” Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, ed. Jane
Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2001–2006), 3:471–476.
39 In Ḥurūfī texts, it is ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib who is identified with the ontological ‘dot’ of the divine
language, which is the source of all revealed knowledge. See Mir-Kasimov, Words of Power,
70ff. This quality of ʿAlī is often mentioned in relation to the well-known ḥadīth where
ʿAlī says: “All the secrets of God the Most High [are contained] in prophetic books, all
prophetic books are [contained] in the Qurʾān; all that is in the Qurʾān [is contained] in
the Opening chapter; all that is in the Opening chapter [is contained in the formula] In
the name of God (bismi’llāh); all that is in bismi’llāh [is contained in the letter] bāʾ of the
bismi’llāh; all that is in the bāʾ of the bismi’llāh [is contained] in the [diacritical] point
under bāʾ; and I am the point under bāʾ.” Cf. Āmulī, Tafsīr, 1:211, no. 14.

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 217

guage, i.e. letters, that convey the most basic meanings of the metaphysical
divine language. Knowledge of these metaphysical meanings is the key to the
interpretation of the more complex linguistic entities, like words and speech.40
Maḥmūd takes this schema one step further, claiming the knowledge of the
ontological Dot, which is the source of all the letters, probably in an implicit
bid to supersede his master, Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī. Other than Qurʾanic asso-
ciations mentioned above, the choice of the prophets could also reflect the
ecumenical ambitions of Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī. Moses represents Jews, Jesus rep-
resents Christians and Muḥammad represents Muslims. By positioning himself
as the most universal and the simplest linguistic element (the dot, of which
letters, words and larger linguistic entities of all languages are composed),
Maḥmūd Pasīkhānī probably aims at conveying an idea of a universal and
final religion which will bring together the followers of all previous proph-
ets.
To conclude this section, it can be observed that visual representations
found in Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī works other than the Jāvidān-nāma consist mostly
of diagrams similar to those of the Jāvidān-nāma. Their apparent purpose
is to concisely summarize the ideas expressed in the surrounding text. The
Nuqṭavī diagrams reflect the focus on the dot as the primary ontological prin-
ciple of the universe, which is characteristic of the Nuqṭavī doctrine. There is
no trace of calligraphic imagery representing the human face and body in these
manuscripts.

3 From ‘Verbal’ to Figurative Iconography

The absence of the pictorial representations other than the diagrams in the
Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī works is somewhat surprising, because these texts, and
especially the Jāvidān-nāma, contain many passages with detailed descrip-
tions of human face and body. The basic idea behind these passages is that
the form of the human body is unique, it is the only form in the entire universe
that expresses the entire “alphabet” of the divine creative language. Still more
precisely, the lines of divine ontological writing, containing the full set of 28/32
primary letters, are expressed in the seven “maternal” and seven “paternal” lines
of the human face, associated with the lines of hair. The hairline, two lines
of eyebrows, four lines of eyelashes represent seven “maternal” lines, which
express the most basic lines of divine writing shared by all humans independ-

40 Mir-Kasimov, Words of Power, 263 ff. and Glossary, “Return to the origin,” 455–457.

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ently of their age and sex. Seven “paternal” lines, represented by the lines of
the beard and mustache, appear only on the face of adult men. Such descrip-
tions, which can be called Ḥurūfī ‘verbal iconography,’ naturally lend them-
selves to calligraphic representations as result of visualization of the “scrip-
tural” aspect of the human body and face.41 The fact that pictorial represent-
ations reflecting omnipresent ‘verbal iconography’ are almost absent from the
Ḥurūfī works is, it itself, an interesting observation that needs an explana-
tion.42
This issue is all the more intriguing because, in spite of obvious preference
for the diagrams, some Ḥurūfī manuscripts do display drafts or images directly
inspired by anthropomorphic ‘verbal iconography,’ One example is Figure 12
(Plate 5.12),43 which shows what appears as an unfinished draft of the “mater-
nal” lines of the human face. These lines are sketched at the margin of the
folio containing a description of these lines: “It is required to accomplish seven
rounds of circumambulation around the house of the Kaʿba and the black
stone, which symbolize another seven which are the hairline, then eyelashes
under the hairline, and so on.” The drawing on the margin represents exactly
this: a hairline and four lines of eyelashes.
A second example (Figure 13; Plate 5.13) is the human figure composed of
inscriptions which appears at the last folio of the manuscript containing the
Durr-i Yatīm, an Ottoman Turkish adaptation of the Jāvidān-nāma attributed to

41 For an example of description and interpretation of the “maternal” and “paternal” lines of
the human face see Mir-Kasimov, Words of Power, 114–115.
42 It is unlikely that absence of figurative iconography in Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī manuscripts
is explained by the general Islamic legal prohibitions. Muslim figurative art existed well
before Mongol invasions, and flourished during Mongol rule, nourished by cultural ex-
changes across the Pax Mongolica, especially by the influence of Chinese artistic tradi-
tions and techniques. Muslim figurative art, and especially manuscript illustration, con-
tinued developing after Mongol period, under Timurids, Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals.
Exquisitely illustrated manuscripts of Firdawsī’s Shāh-nāma produced across the Islamic
world, starting from the Mongol period, clearly demonstrate this tendency (Shāh-nāma’s
illustrated manuscripts organized according to time and geographical location can be
found on the Cambridge Shahnama project (director Charles Melville) website, https://​
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/shahnama/1, accessed on 19/04/2019). For general refer-
ences related to the development of Islamic figurative art during and after the Mongol
period see, for example, Johan Elverskog, Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road (Philadel-
phia-Oxford: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 162–174, Shahab Ahmed, What is
Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic (Princeton-Oxford: Princeton University Press,
2016), 49ff. Therefore, legal prohibitions do not seem to hinder pictorial representations
at the time when Ḥurūfī and Nuqṭavī manuscripts were produced.
43 ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 134b.

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plate 5.12 Unfinished draft of the “maternal” lines of the human face. Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī,
Jāvidān-nāma (ms Basel, Basel University Library M vi 72, fol. 134b)

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220 mir-kasimov

plate 5.13 Human figure as composed of letters and inscriptions. Dervish Murtaḍā, Durr-i
Yatīm (Ottoman Turkish adaptation of the Jāvidān-nāma) (ms Princeton, Prin-
ceton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections,
Manuscripts Collection, Islamic Manuscripts, Third Series no. 254, fol. 327a)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 221

the Bektashi dervish Murtaḍā.44 The copy was produced by Akçehisarlı dervish
Sulaymān in 1222/1807–1808. The image occupies fol. 327a, and is placed after
the selection of verses (fol. 326a–b) which follows the colophon and which was
added at a later date (in 1273/1856–1857). This date can be taken as the terminus
post quem for the image.
The image represents a human body and face composed of the letters of
the Arabic alphabet (e.g., jīm is the neck, qāf and fāʾ are eyes and eyebrows,
zayn and rāʾ are ears, etc.), words (e.g., the word Allāh is the contour of the
face), and Qurʾanic combinations of disjointed letters (muqaṭṭaʿāt) (e.g., ṭā hāʾ
and kāf hāʾ yāʾ ʿayn ṣād forming sides of the body or arms). It is much more
developed than the sketch of the “maternal” lines of the human face that we
discussed previously. Unlike the previous image, it is not directly supported by
textual evidence. The Jāvidān-nāma of Faḍl Allāh does not specify which let-
ters or combinations of letters correspond to the parts of the human body or to
the features of the human face.45 Still, Figure 13 (Plate 5.13) can be regarded as
a characteristically Ḥurūfī image because it appears as an appendix to a Ḥurūfī
text, and because it reflects some basic points of the Ḥurūfī doctrine, that is, the
idea that the human body and especially the human face represent the totality
of the divine creative alphabet (this could be the purpose of the name Allāh
used as a contour of the human face); and the foundational role of the disjoin-
ted Qurʾanic letters which, according to the Jāvidān-nāma, represent the source
of the divine writing (umm al-kitāb). In this quality, Figure 13 can be regarded
as continuation and development of the tendency towards a transition from
‘verbal’ to visual iconography that would have existed within Ḥurūfī tradition.
However, more evidence is needed to confirm this conjecture.
On the other hand, Figure 13 (Plate 5.13) is close to the Bektashi calligraphic
images (Figures 14–16; Plates 5.14–16),46 representing the human face and body

44 ms Princeton, Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Col-
lections, Manuscripts Collection, Islamic Manuscripts, Third Series no. 254. ms Mevlana
Müzesi Abdülbakı Gölpınarlı Kütüphanesi Yazma Kitaplar Kataloğu, 203, description and
digital copy at the website of Princeton University Digital Library under the title Kitāb-
i Jāvidān-i Durr-i Yatīm ast, http://pudl.princeton.edu/objects/xs55mc12f#page/1/mode/​
2up accessed 12/04/2019). Courtesy of Princeton University Library. My thanks to Russell
Harris for bringing this image to my attention.
45 It is possible that this picture is inspired by some later Ḥurūfī texts which might discuss
correspondences between specific letters and parts of the human body, but I am not aware
of any such descriptions.
46 My thanks to Thierry Zarcone for bringing these images to my attention. They come from
some auction catalogues. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain the references of these
catalogues.

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plate 5.14 Human face as composed of inscriptions (Algar, “Horufism,”

Encyclopaedia Iranica, fig. 1, from Besim Atalay, Bektaşilik ve
Edebiyatı, facing p. 36. Compare with Malik Aksel, Türklerde
Dinî Resimler, fig. 66, p. 113)

as composed of inscriptions. Some of these Bektashi images are unmistakably

inspired by the Ḥurūfism, such as Figure 14 (Plate 5.14), which shows the name
“Faḍl” written into the facial features of a dervish, clearly alluding to Faḍl Allāh
Astarābādī, which is also confirmed in the poetry written under the image.47
Other Bektashi images (Figures 15 and 16/Plates 5.15 and 5.16) do not display

47 See note 7.

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 223

any distinctively Ḥurūfī features and express Bektashi devotion to ʿAlī b. Abī
Ṭālib and to the prophetic family.
What is more, some evidence indicates that Figure 13 (Plate 5.13) is part
of a larger series of images, most likely inspired by the Ḥurūfī ideas, but also
incorporating animal symbolism characteristic of Turkic and especially Bek-
tashi pictorial art. Malik Aksel’s book on Turkic religious images contains two
illustrations which look like variants of Figure 13 (Plate 5.13). The first of these
images (Figure 17/Plate 5.17) is a human figure composed of letters and inscrip-
tions very similar to Figure 13 (Plate 5.13) (the word Allāh as contour of the face,
two ʿayns as cheeks, fāʾ and qāf as eyes and eyebrows, alif as nose, combin-
ations of the Qurʾanic disjointed letters inscribed along arms and legs), but
contains many additional elements, including circular diagrams48 incorpor-
ated into the human figure (unfortunately, illegible on Aksel’s illustration), a
dragon with its tail around the right hand and its head protruding between
the legs of the human figure, a lion at the left hand of the human figure, a
fish under its feet, and two angels carrying inscriptions in round circles at both
sides of its head.49 The second image (Figure 18/Plate 5.18) is less Ḥurūfī and
more Bektashi; it is a human figure covered in inscriptions, but without disjoin-
ted letters on its face and body, with the same animals in the same positions
(dragon, lion, fish), plus a cock, and the same angels carrying inscriptions.50
Unfortunately, Aksel does not provide any information about the dates or the
context in which these images were produced. Figure 17 (Plate 5.17) appears
in the chapter “Human being and cosmos in letters” (Harflerle insan ve evren),
Figure 18 (Plate 5.18) in the chapter “Bektashi calligraphic pictures” (Bektaşi-
likte yazı resim). Further research is needed to determine whether an image
originally rooted in Turkic mysticism (Figure 18/Plate 5.18) with its animal sym-
bolism was progressively adapted to represent Ḥurūfī ideas, with addition of
the disjointed letters (Figure 17/Plate 5.17) and eventual removal of the animals
(Figure 13/Plate 5.13) or, conversely, an originally Ḥurūfī image was progress-
ively deprived of its Ḥurūfī features and transformed into a Bektashi picture.
Figure 13 and related images might thus represent a link between authentically
Ḥurūfī iconography and Bektashi visual representations for which Ḥurūfism
was only one source of inspiration, among many others.

48 Is this an example of connection between the circular diagrams discussed earlier and fig-
urative representations of the human body and face?
49 Malik Aksel, Türklerde Dinî Resimler (Istanbul: Kapı yayınları, 2015; first published in 1967),
98.
50 Ibid. p. 114.

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224 mir-kasimov

plate 5.15 Human face as composed of inscriptions (Private collection. Compare with Malik
Aksel, Türklerde Dinî Resimler, p. 92)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 225

plate 5.16
Human figure
as composed
of inscrip-
tions (Private
collection.
Compare with
Malik Aksel,
Türklerde Dinî
Resimler, p. 93)

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226 mir-kasimov

plate 5.17 Human figure as composed of letters and inscriptions (Malik Aksel, Türklerde Dinî
Resimler, p. 98)

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use of diagrams in the ḥurūfī and nuqṭavī manuscripts 227

plate 5.18 Human figure as composed of letters and inscriptions (Malik Aksel, Türklerde Dinî
Resimler, p. 114)

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228 mir-kasimov

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 chapter 6

Shīrīn Maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) Visual Sufism:

Diagrams, Intellectual Networks, and the
Transmission of Spiritual Knowledge in 14th
Century Tabriz and beyond

Giovanni Maria Martini

Introduction1

When I decided to embark on the study of this subject, which I initially de-
scribed with the neologism “Visual Sufism,” I was counseled by an experienced
colleague and friend, who advised me to begin my research by focusing on a
single, meaningful case study; this was carried out with careful consideration
of the scope and complexity of the issue, enhanced by the fact that it is a little-
explored field.2 It was keeping this advice in mind that during the scrutiny of a
vast manuscript literature, I isolated the figure of Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī
(d. 810/1408), an author who had so far been known and studied mostly for his
Sufi poetry. Maghribī seemed to be an excellent subject of investigation for mul-
tiple reasons. A principal consideration is the fact that in addition to his Song-
book, Maghribī also authored a small number of prose works, in all of which
he systematically employed diagrams, and that none of these works had been
the subject of previous studies. The validity of focusing on Shīrīn Maghribī to
address the theme of Visual Sufism received confirmation in the further discov-
eries I made during the continuation of said research. Among the main findings
is the realization that Maghribī’s prose works received considerable attention

1 The findings presented in this chapter are part of the output of a larger research project on
the Tabrizi Sufi poet and scholar Shīrīn Maghribī, which at different stages received gener-
ous support from two German institutions. These are the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg
for Islamicate Intellectual History at the University of Bonn, directed by Prof. Judith Pfeiffer,
and later on the Gerda Henkel Foundation, which supported the continuation of this line of
research as part of a two-year individual research grant named “Shīrīn Maghribī: A Key Agent
in the Transmission of Mystical Knowledge in 14th to 17th Century Sufi Networks” (research
grant no. az 40/F/18).
2 See Introduction.

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232 martini

from his contemporaries, as wells as later generations of Sufis, attention in

which the presence of diagrams within the texts had played an important role.
Secondly, the fact that the combined study of Maghribī’s prose works together
with a number of previously unknown documents clearly demonstrated that
his systematic practice of employing diagrams was not the product of an indi-
vidual choice of the author, but rather the result of the cultural environment
in which he was operating. In the following pages, I will address the question
of the genesis and consequences, or causes and effects, of Maghribī’s extensive
employment of visual elements in his writings. The focus of this essay will not
be the analysis of the numerous diagrams this author included in the treatises
he authored (a question that I have partially addressed elsewhere and which I
am planning to resume in future studies),3 but an attempt at situating and con-
textualizing the phenomenon of Maghribī’s extensive employment of visual
elements in his writings from the perspective of Islamicate intellectual history.
During my research on Shīrīn Maghribī, initially dictated, as mentioned, by
his noteworthy employment of diagrams, I had the chance to make further
intriguing discoveries about this relatively little-known intellectual. In partic-
ular, I could ascertain the significant role Maghribī played within the School
of Ibn al-ʿArabī, especially in the transmission of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240)
chains of spiritual descent and in teaching, commenting on and disseminat-
ing Ibn al-ʿArabī’s texts and ideas.4 An initial assessment of these questions has
been presented elsewhere and will not be directly addressed here.5 Neverthe-
less, since Maghribī’s involvement in the School of Ibn al-ʿArabī was an aspect
deeply interrelated with his extensive employment of visual elements in his
own works (as I hope it will become clear from the following pages), it is con-
venient to mention this important aspect of his intellectual activity within the
premise of the present study.

3 See Giovanni Maria Martini, “al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya by Shīrīn Maghribī (d. 810/1408): A
Recently-Discovered Cosmological Treatise in Persian of the School of Ibn al-ʿArabī,” in Oriens
49 (2021): 35–94.
4 I am aware that the expression “School of Ibn al-ʿArabī” (or “Akbarian School”) is to a certain
extent vague and imprecise, and therefore questionable. My understanding and usage of it
is in agreement with the general overview of this term made by William C. Chittick in “The
school of Ibn ‘Arabī,” in History of Islamic Philosophy, eds. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver
Leaman (London-New York: Routledge, 1996), 914–915.
5 See Giovanni Maria Martini, “Muḥammad Šīrīn Maġribī (d. 810/1408) as a Key Agent in the
Transmission of Akbarī Silsilas,” in Arabica 68 (2021): 121–170 and Martini, “al-Nuzha al-
Sāsāniyya by Shīrīn Maghribī.” Cf. also Giovanni Maria Martini, “Note sul Sufismo Visivo:
Rappresentazioni grafiche a supporto della realizzazione spirituale nel Taṣawwuf,” in El Azu-
fre Rojo 9 (2021): 69–94.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 233

1 Shīrīn Maghribī’s Prose Works and Their Diagrams

Internal references included in the texts themselves, combined with a list of

Shīrīn Maghribī’s works provided by Ibn Karbalāʾī in the Rawḍāt al-jinān va
jannāt al-janān,6 as well as information derived from other sources, make it
possible to establish with certainty the authorship of three writings as belong-
ing to the Tabrizi Sufi scholar and poet. These three texts are all written in
Persian. The most influential and renowned, because it was the most copied,
read and commented on, is entitled Jām-i jahān-namā,7 that is, the “World-
Showing Cup.” This is also the only one of Maghribī’s prose works to have been
edited.8 The Jām-i jahān-namā is a brief but very dense treatise written in clear
and plain prose on the essential metaphysical question of the self-disclosure of
the divine essence, its successive determinations, the multiple degrees of being,
and the relationship between the unicity of the principle and the multiplicity
of its manifestations. In common with all of Maghribī’s literary production,
this text reflects the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and of the School named after
him. In particular, the Jām-i jahān-namā relates to Saʿīd al-Dīn al-Farghānī’s (d.
ca. 699/1300) famous work Mashāriq al-darārī.9 So far, I have traced about one
hundred manuscript copies of this treatise, as well as numerous commentar-
ies (some of which were widely copied and read in their turn), in addition to
quotes and explicit references to it contained in later independent Sufi works,
testifying to the wide and lasting reception of this text. Although a detailed
history of the reception of the Jām-i jahān-namā, which I intend to undertake
elsewhere, goes beyond the scope of this study, the reader will observe that one
of the main arguments developed in the final part of this paper is based on pre-
liminary observations concerning the dissemination of this text in the Indian
area. The Jām-i jahān-namā contains two diagrams.10

6 Ḥāfiẓ Ḥusayn Karbalāʾī (known as Ibn Karbalāʾī), Rawḍāt al-jinān va jannāt al-janān, ed.
Jaʿfar Sulṭān al-Qurrāʾī, 2 vols., (Tabriz: Intishārāt-i Sutūda, 1383 h.sh./2004), 1:66.
7 The last word of the title can be vocalized either “namā” or “numā.”
8 Abū Ṭālib Mīr-ʿĀbidīnī, Dīvān-i Shams-i Maghribī: Ghazaliyyāt, tarjīʿāt, rubāʿiyyāt, fah-
laviyyāt, Risāla-yi Jām-i jahān-namā, 3rd edition (Tehran: Muʾassasa-yi Intishārāt-i Amīr
Kabīr, 1393 sh./2014; 1st edition, Tehran: Kitāb-furūshī Zawwār, 1358 sh./1979). This edition
is unfortunately inadequate, containing numerous mistakes that in some passages affect
the real understanding of the text. The publication of a critical edition of Shīrīn Maghribī’s
three Persian prose works of certain attribution is planned by the present author.
9 Saʿīd al-Dīn al-Farghānī, Mashāriq al-darārī. Sharḥ Tāʾiyya-yi Ibn-i Fāriḍ, ed. S.J. Āstiyānī
(Mashahd: Cāp-Khāna-yi Dānishgāh-i Firdawsī, 1398/1978).
10 The first diagram will be discussed briefly in the final part of this chapter (Plate 6.2). A
late copy of the second diagram included and discussed by Shīrīn Maghribī in the Jām-i
jahān-namā, drawn on two full pages, was chosen as the cover image of this volume.

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234 martini

The second most diffused of Maghribī’s works, according to the number

of manuscripts I traced, which are about twenty, is entitled al-Durr al-farīd
fī maʿrifat marātib al-tawḥīd (“The Unique Pearl about the Knowledge of the
Degrees of God’s Oneness”). The work addresses the concept of God’s oneness
(tawḥīd) from three different perspectives, the highest of which explains this
notion in relationship with the doctrine of the Unicity of Existence (waḥdat al-
wujūd). Despite the fact that the presence of extant manuscripts of this work
was known to previous scholarship on Maghribī, the text remained unedited
and unstudied. Maghribī endowed this writing with three diagrams.
A third work by Maghribī is entitled al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya fī maʿrifat badʾ
ījād nashʾat al-ʿālam ilā al-ṣūra al-insāniyya, which could be translated as “Sa-
san’s Delight in the Knowledge of the Beginning of the Formation of the World
Culminating in the Human Form.” Earlier scholarship held that this work did
not reach us; however, during my research I identified two manuscript copies
of this treatise. This is a cosmological text intimately interrelated with some
of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s chief cosmological texts, namely Chapter 371 of al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya and the treatise entitled ʿUqlat al-mustawfiz, of which Maghribī’s
work can be described as being simultaneously a Persian translation, an abridg-
ment and a commentary.11 This is also Maghribī’s work containing the largest
number of diagrams, eleven, to which a twelfth that is mentioned within the
text but has not reached us in the manuscripts should probably be added.12
There is a fourth text worthy of being mentioned here, although on the basis
of our current knowledge it cannot be considered with certainty to be a work
of Maghribī. This is a short esoteric commentary of the Fātiḥa (the opening
chapter of the Qurʾān) in Arabic, written in the spirit of the School of Ibn al-
ʿArabī, which makes use of some diagrams. Entitled Mirʾāt al-ʿārifīn fī multamas
Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (“The Mirror for the Gnostics Solicited by Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn”),
this text had success and large diffusion throughout the whole Islamic world,
and displays a complex manuscript tradition in which it is variously attributed
to either Ibn al-ʿArabī, Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī (d. 673/1274) or Shīrīn Maghribī,
although in all probability none of these three scholars was the actual author
of the text.13 Even though probably wrong, the attribution of this treatise to

11 On this work by Maghribī and its links with Ibn al-ʿArabī’s cosmological texts, see Martini,
“al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya by Shīrīn Maghribī.”
12 Several of the diagrams contained in al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya are reproduced in the article
cited above, which also contains an analysis of the relationship existing between some
diagrams drown by Maghribī in al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya and those drown by Ibn al-ʿArabī
in Chapter 371 of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya and ʿUqlat al-mustawfiz.
13 Ibn al-ʿArabī’s authorship of the text was already rejected on the basis of sound arguments

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 235

Maghribī, which is stated in a great number of manuscript copies of it, is note-

worthy for at least two reasons. The first is to stress the inclusion of the Tabrizi
scholar within the School of Ibn al-ʿArabī, to the point of contending with two
towering figures such as these the authorship of a text perceived by later gen-
erations as a short condensate of Akbarian teachings.14 The second is the sug-
gestion that the attribution of the Mirʾāt al-ʿārifīn to Maghribī was favored by
the presence in it of numerous diagrams, which was associated in the cultural
milieus in which this text was copied with the recognition of Shīrīn Maghribī’s
predilection and systematic utilization of visual elements in all of his works. If
this suggestion, indirectly supported by the evidence that the Mirʾāt al-ʿārifīn is
often found copied in the codices together with Maghribī’s authentic works,15
is correct, the traditional attribution of this writing to the Tabrizi Sufi master
would be but a collateral effect and a proof of the recognition of the use of
diagrams as Maghribī’s most distinctive mark by the intellectual community.

2 Socio-Historical Reasons for Shīrīn Maghribī’s Employment

of Diagrams

2.1 Inheritor of a Visual Sufi Tradition and Member of a Visual Sufi

Intellectual Network
A main indication, suggesting that Maghribī’s large employment of diagrams
was the result of the intellectual context and social environment in which he
was operating, is the realization that he was a spiritual and intellectual heir
of some of the most prominent Sufi scholars who employed diagrams in their
writing, and that he was immersed in a cultural environment that was both

by Osman Yahya in his classical study Histoire et classification de l’oeuvre d’Ibn ‘Arabi (Dam-
ascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1964), 388–389, work register nº 475. The same judgment
is restated in the ongoing archive project of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s works undertaken by the Muhy-
iddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society (mias): http://archive.ibnarabisociety.org/archive_reports/works​
_pdf_alpha/475.pdf#page=1&pagemode=none&toolbar=1&navpanes=0 (accessed on #14/
12/2021#). Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnawī’s paternity of the same work is put into doubt by two major
experts of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s foremost disciple. See William Chittick, “Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad
b. Isḥāķ b. Muḥammad b. Yūnus al-Ķūnawī,” The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition 8
(1995): 753–755, 754, and Richard Todd, The Sufi Doctrine of Man. Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī’s
Metaphysical Anthropology (Leided: Brill, 2014), 186, work nº 28 (cf. also footnote 2 at p. 28).
14 The adjective “Akbarian,” or “Akbarī,” derived from the honorific “al-Shaykh al-Akbar,” that
is, the “Greatest [Sufi] Master,” Ibn al-ʿArabī is known by.
15 This happens e.g. in ms Oslo, Schøyen Collection 5350; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütü-
phanesi, Lala Ismaïl 191; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Pertev Pașa 606; ms
Bursa, Bursa Bölge, Hüseyin Çelebi 449 and ms Manisa, İl Halk Kütüphanesi 2936.

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236 martini

well-aware and receptive to this new trend. As mentioned, Maghribī’s pro-

found knowledge of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s oeuvre, as well as his special interest in
some of the works in which the Shaykh al-Akbar utilized diagrams, emerges
clearly from the examination of his writings. Textual evidence is strong and
indisputable proof, which we can therefore take as a solid basis for building
the argument. Starting from this point, and also taking into account a differ-
ent set of information, we can get a broader picture. This occurs by looking
at Maghribī’s chains of spiritual descents and, more widely, at the intellec-
tual networks in which he participated. In doing so, it becomes clear that
Maghribī was interconnected with many actors belonging to this new wave
of Sufi men who felt the need and saw the opportunity for conceiving and
utilizing visual elements within their writings. Maghribī’s chains of spiritual
descent recorded by Ibn Karbalāʾī, which I partially transposed in Figure 6.1,
together with pieces of information derived from other sources which will be
discussed below, establishes a connection between the Tabrizi author and two
Sufi scholars of the first generation addressed in this volume.16 These are Ibn
al-ʿArabī and Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, who together with al-Būnī inaugurated,
so to speak, the new season of the employment of diagrams in Sufi literat-
ure on the eve on the Mongol Invasion. This spiritual pedigree also includes
the name of Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnawī, to whom a couple of writings including dia-
grams are also traditionally attributed, although they are most probably both
spurious.17 A careful examination of Ibn Karbalāʾī’s list of Maghribī’s chains of
spiritual descent also returns other significant information. The most import-
ant is that the silsila connecting Maghribī back to Ibn al-ʿArabī corresponds to
the most significant Ibn al-ʿArabī’s chain of spiritual descent, the Silsila Ḥātim-

16 The information included in Figure 6.1 refers to only two out of the six silsilas to whom
Shīrīn Maghribī was attached according to Ibn Karbalāʾī (Rawḍāt al-jinān, 1:67–69.). These
are the two silsilas which are relevant to the argument developed in the present study.
A detailed discussion of Maghribī’s “mystical pedigree,” according to Ibn Karbalāʾī, is in
Leonard Lewisohn, “A Critical Edition of the Divan of Maghrebi (With an Introduction
Into His Life, Literary School, and Mystical Poetry),” 2 vols., (Ph.D. Diss., School of Oriental
& African Studies (soas), University of London, 1988), 1:68–83.
17 In addition to the previously mentioned Mirʾāt al-ʿārifīn, another work often ascribed to
Qūnawī is al-Lumʿa al-nūrāniyya fī ḥall mushkilāt al-Shajara al-Nuʿmāniyya, which is “a
commentary on a diagram that Ibn al-ʿArabī is said to have drawn up to illustrate the gen-
eral direction of future events in Egypt.” (Chittick, “Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Isḥāḳ b.
Muḥammad b. Yūnus al-Ḳūnawī,” 754). The attribution of al-Lumʿa al-nūrāniyya to Qūn-
awī is questioned by William Chittick (ibid.), Michel Chodkiewicz (An Ocean Without
Shore. Ibn ʿArabî, The Book, and the Low, transl. David Streight (Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1993), 137n55), and Richard Todd (The Sufi Doctrine of Man, 28n2, 174n31,
184).

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 237

iyya, which Maghribī transmitted in his turn to some of his acquaintances,

and which has been recorded, including Maghribī’s name, in numerous later
sources. I addressed the question of Maghribī’s role within this important silsila
in a separate study,18 but it is mentioned here because through the analysis
of this chain of spiritual descent it was possible to establish a direct relation-
ship between Maghribī and another scholar, who is in his turn relevant for the
question of Visual Sufism. Said scholar is ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa (d. 819/1416–
1417), to whom Shīrīn Maghribī taught some of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s works, and to
whom he transmitted a famous ḥadīth musalsal he had received via the above-
mentioned Ibn al-ʿArabī’s silsila.19 Scion of one of the most important scholarly
families of Mamluk Cairo and Jerusalem, ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa was an affirmed
theologian and Shafiʿī jurist, student of Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī (d. 805/1403),
Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406) and Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 771/1370), and teacher
of Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī (d. 852/1448).20 His interests and activities, however,
were not restricted to jurisprudence and theology: numerous pieces of inform-
ation also indicate committed engagement in Sufism.21 With regard to the
phenomenon of Visual Sufism, the relevant pieces of information are three.
First of all, as mentioned, is ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa’s personal acquaintance
with Maghribī, with whom he studied some of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s books and from
whom received the transmission of a particular hadīth (denominated Ḥadīth
al-Mushābaka) through a silsila going back to Ibn al-ʿArabī. Secondly, ʿIzz al-
Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa was involved in the transmission of the works of al-Būnī (who,
as previously mentioned, was an author inclined to use diagrams) to ʿAbd al-
Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī (d. 858/1454), another prominent scholar in the intellectual

18 See Martini, “Muḥammad Šīrīn Maġribī (d. 810/1408) as a Key Agent in the Transmission
of Akbarī Silsilas.”
19 For full reference and detailed discussion of the sources recording Maghribī’s connection
with ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa see Martini, “Muḥammad Šīrīn Maġribī (d. 810/1408) as a Key
Agent in the Transmission of Akbarī Silsilas,” 142–146 and passim.
20 On the Ibn Jamāʿa Family see Kamal Salibi, “The Banū Jamā‘a: A Dynasty of Shāfi‘ite Jurists
in the Mamluk Period,” Studia Islamica 9 (1958): 97–109; Kamal Salibi, “Ibn Jamāʿa,” in The
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, 3 (1986): 748–749; Elizabeth Sirriyeh, “Whatever
Happened to the Banū Jamāʿa? The Tail of a Scholarly Family in Ottoman Syria,” British
Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 28 (2001): 55–65.
21 Entries on ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa are included in the majority of the bio-bibliographical
dictionaries of the period. A detailed entry, listing many works of the scholar, is in Jalāl al-
Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Bughyat al-wuʿāt fī ṭabaqāt al-lughawiyyīn wa-l-nuḥāt, ed. Muḥammad Abū
al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, 2 vols., (Aleppo: Maṭbaʿa ʿĪsā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Shurakāh, 1384/1964),
1:63–66. For further information on ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa, see Martini, “Muḥammad Šīrīn
Maġribī (d. 810/1408) as a Key Agent in the Transmission of Akbarī Silsilas,” 142–146 and
passim.

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238 martini

landscape of the period, who is also known for having employed diagrams in
some of his works.22 This is not all. ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa’s belonging to a schol-
arly Sufi network whose actors were particularly known for their interest in
visual elements (which included Maghribī, Ibn al-ʿArabī via the latter, al-Būnī
through knowledge of his works, and al-Bisṭāmī) seems to having influenced his
own personal authorial choices. We find a clue to this in the study conducted by
Mohammad Gharaibeh on the commentary tradition of the Muqaddima of Ibn
al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245), a major work on the sciences of ḥadīth.23 Among the tens
of commentaries of the Muqaddima collected and examined by Gharaibeh, it
emerges that only one includes some visual elements, namely diagrams, and
that this is precisely the commentary authored by ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa.24
These pieces of information show that Maghribī and various other Sufi
authors who used visual elements in their works were related to each other
either through direct interpersonal knowledge, participation in common
chains of spiritual descent, or through the study and transmission of texts. This
seems to be equally true for the earlier generation of scholars addressed in this
volume, if it is true that al-Būnī and Ibn al-ʿArabī had at least a master in com-
mon, that is, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Mahdawī,25 and that Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh met
al-Qūnawī, and perhaps the very Ibn al-ʿArabī in Damascus. Figure 6.1 shows
Shīrīn Maghribī’s visual Sufi network reconstructed on the basis of the sources
discussed in this chapter.

22 ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa tought al-Bisṭāmī al-Bunī’s treatise entitled al-Lumʿa al-nūrāniyya. On
the relationship between these two scholars, see Noah Gardiner, “Forbidden Knowledge?
Notes on the Production, Transmission, and Reception of the Major Works of Aḥmad al-
Būnī,” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 12 (2012): 81–143, 115–117; Jean-Charles Coulon,
“La magie islamique et le «corpus bunianum» au Moyen Âge,” 2 vols. (Ph.D. Diss., Uni-
versité de Paris iv—Sorbonne, Paris 2013), 1:420, 537–538. On the same subject, cf. also
Jean-Charles Coulon, “Building al-Būnī’s Legend. The Figure of al-Būnī through ʿAbd al-
Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī’s Shams al-āfāq,” Journal of Sufi Studies 5 (2016): 1–26, 12n45, and Noah
Gardiner, “Esotericist Reading Communities and the Early Circulation of the Sufi Occultist
Aḥmad al-Būnī’s Works,” Arabica 64, no. 3–4 (2017): 405–441, 435.
23 Mohammad Gharaibeh, “The Sociology of Commentarial Literature. An analysis of the
commentary tradition of the Muqaddima of Ibn aṣ-Ṣalāḥ (d. 643/1245) from the perspect-
ive of the sociology of knowledge,” (Habilitation Thesis, University of Bonn, 2019).
24 ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa, Sharḥ Kitāb Ibn Ṣalāḥ, ms Istanbul, Topkapı Saryı Müzesi Kütü-
phanesi, Ahmed Kitabliğı 669, where the diagram at issue is at fol. 127b. The diagram is
found within a section discussing the question of the five interior (i.e. the intellectual fac-
ulties) and the five exterior senses. Mohammad Gharaibeh is planning to reproduce and
discuss this diagram in an article on this unpublished commentary by ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa
(written communication dated October 1st 2019).
25 Noah Gardiner, “Forbidden Knowledge?,” 87.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 239

2.2 The Inclination of Maghribī’s Inner Circle for Diagrams

Directly connected to the impact exerted on Maghribī’s extensive implement-
ation of diagrams by his belonging to a specific Sufi network is the influence
exerted on him by his disciples in the same direction. That Maghribī’s stu-
dents were, in turn, aware of the novelty represented by visual elements in Sufi
literature, and that they explicitly requested their sheikh to incorporate dia-
grams in his works, is recorded by Maghribī within the introductions to two
of his prose works, which also contain other remarkable information on the
issue of Visual Sufism. What follows is the introduction to the Jām-i jahān-
namā:

A group of friends that were in search of the science of the divine one-
ness (ʿilm-i tawḥīd), and wishing to undertake the step of spiritual real-
ization (taḥqīq) and of disengagement from phenomena (tajrīd), and
could not obtain certitude from the words of the leaders of this group
(aʾimma-yi īn ṭāʾifa), and had limited access to their books and little under-
standing of their metaphors (va az kutub-i īshān va fahm-i ʿibārāt-i ān
qāṣir būdand), begged this poor man: “Compose an epistle that gath-
ers the entirety of the science of divine oneness (ʿilm-i tawḥīd) and the
degrees of existence (marātib-i vujūdī); and for each degree (barā-yi har
martaba) arrange a circle (dāʾira); and show the form of each degree
(ṣūrat-i har martaba) as a circle (dāʾira); and by keys made of forms
of sensible objects (bi-mafātīḥ-i ṣuvar-i maḥsūsāt, i.e. the circular dia-
grams), disclose the meanings and the intelligible objects.” I answered
their entreaty and, after having conciliated the divine favor, I occupied
myself with composing it, and I named the epistle “The World-Showing
Cup.”26

26 The following is the transcription of the translated passage according to the reading estab-
lished by the author in the currently unpublished critical edition of the treatise (in ʿĀbid-
īnī’s edition, op. cit., the corresponding passage is on p. 248.):

‫ و از الفاظ ائم ّٔه این طایفه ایشانرا‬،‫ب قدم تحقیق و تجر ید‬
ّ ‫طایفٔه دوستان که طالب علم توحید بودند و مح‬
‫ از ین فقیر التماس کردند که‬،‫ و از کتب ایشان و فهم عبارت آن قاصر بودند‬،‫برُ د الیقین حاصل نمیشد‬
‫ و از برای هر مرتبهای دایرهای‬،‫رسالهای که جامع کل ّیاّ ت علم توحید و مراتب وجودی باشد بساز‬
‫ و بمفاتیح صور محسوسات در معانی و معقولات‬،‫بپرداز و صورت هر مرتبهای را بدایرهای بنمای‬
‫ و رساله را نام جام‬،‫ و بعد از استخاره بانشایآن مشغول شدم‬،‫ التماس ایشانرا اجابت کردم‬.‫بگشای‬
.‫جهاننمای کردم‬

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240 martini

As anticipated, from this passage we learn that the text was written as the
result of an explicit request by a group of “friends” (dūstān), and that the dis-
ciples deliberately asked their master to insert diagrams (called here “circles,”
dāʾira, pl. davāʾir) into the text. Maghribī takes up the challenge and the dia-
grams become the focus of his writing. That the disciples’ request mentioned
by Maghribī was real and not a mere rhetorical artifice devised by the author is
indirectly confirmed by traces of the intellectual activity of some of Maghribī’s
students, which will be addressed later on in this study.
This information, together with the awareness of the intellectual environ-
ment in which Maghribī and his students were immersed, seem to suggest that
the use of diagrams, by the time Maghribī had begun writing the Jām-i jahān-
namā, was becoming a sort of genre, at least within specific Sufi circles. His
disciples, in fact, formulate a precise request to their master. They do not ask
him for a generic text, but want it to contain diagrams, which is only possible as
long as the claimants had already seen, read, but especially appreciated, other
texts making use of this “special device.” The information contained in the
introduction to the Jām-i jahān-namā is supplemented by that embedded in
the introduction to his works entitled al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya fī maʿrifat badʾ ījād
nashʾat al-ʿālam ilā al-ṣūra al-insāniyya. In it we read that upon coming back to
Tabriz after a long period of time, Maghribī found his hometown in a deplor-
able state of decadence, to the point that he resolved to leave it again.27 He
was persuaded to stay only by the heartsick entreaties of his relatives (ahālī),
students (ṭullāb), and companions (aṣḥāb). In any case, they managed to keep
the Sufi master in town only temporarily. Maghribī in fact adds that he had
to move anyway to spend the winter in Gilan.28 It was precisely because of
his distance from Tabriz and from his friends (dūstān) that Maghribī resolved
to establish an epistolary correspondence with them (bi-irsāl-i murāsalāt va
iblāgh-i mukātabāt), so that despite their physical separation (mufāraqat-i jis-
mānī), their spirits (arvāḥ) could be joined.29 Therefore, Maghribī continues,
as a result of the idea of writing epistles to his friends in Tabriz while he was
away:

27 For a tentative interpretation and historical contextualization of these vague references,

see Martini, “al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya by Shīrīn Maghribī,” 39–42.
28 See ibidem.
29 Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī, al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya fī maʿrifat badʾ ījād nashʾat al-ʿālam
ilà al-ṣūra al-insāniyya. The following is the transcription of the relative passage accord-
ing to the reading established by the author in the currently unpublished critical edition
of the treatise based on ms Oslo, Schøyen Collection 5350 and ms Tehran, Kitābkhāna-yi
Majlis 10103:

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 241

After having asked for authorization from the Lord, and having prayed
to the True God for proper guidance, an epistle was compiled that it
might be a compendium of the science of “Indeed in the science there
is a hidden aspect,”30 and contain a well-protected secret (sirr-i maṣūn)
and was then sent; [it is an epistle] concerning the mode of manifest-
ation and arrangement of worlds (kayfiyyat-i ẓuhūr va tartīb-i ʿavālim)
and of the coming into view of the [peculiar] shapes of the landmarks
by which one guides himself on the way (va burūz-i ashkāl-i maʿālim),
starting from the origin of the world up to Adam’s existentiation (min
badʾ al-ʿālam ilā ījād Ādam), [clothing these doctrines] in a dress [made]
of circles and shapes (dar kisvat-i davāʾir va ashkāl), and archetypal and
imaginary forms (va dar ṣūrat-i mithāl va khayāl), in order to help their

‫أمّا بعد چنین گو ید راقم این مرقوم ]…[ الشیخ ]…[ أبو عبد الله محم ّد بن عّز الدين عادل بن يوسف‬
‫ آن معموره‬،‫المغر بي المشتهر بشير ين ]…[ که چون بعد از مّدت مدید و عهد بعید بتبر یز دلاو یز عود افتاد‬
‫ آن مصر مملـکت که تو دیدی خراب‬:‫ با دل گفت بیت‬،‫را خراب یافت و آن در یا را سراب دید‬
ّ َ ‫يح ْسَبهُ ُ ال‬
‫( بر‬Q 24:39) ﴾ً ‫ظْمآنُ م َاء‬ َ ٍ ‫ب بقِ يِ ع َة‬
ٍ ‫كس َر َا‬
َ ﴿ ‫شد و آن نیل مکرمت که شنیدی سراب شد؛ آیة‬
،‫ اهالی و طل ّاب و موالی و اصحاب که سر ساز داشتند‬،‫خواند و راکب عزم را بر مرکب سفر نشاند‬
‫ لیکن چون معهود‬،‫ما را از سفر باز داشتند و بدل نوازی پیش آمدند تا مانع سفر این فقیر آمدند‬
‫بود که زمستان بگلستان گیلان رجوع افتد—که زمستان گیلان گلستانست—و با دوستان سروآسا‬
‫در بوستان در تبر یز چون اقامت پیش آمد این معنی در خاطر این درو یش آمد که در ایام مفارقت‬
‫جسمانی روابط مواصلت روحانی از آن دوستان جانی منقطع نگرداند و بارسال مراسلات و ابلاغ‬
.‫مکاتبات شرایط محب ّت را محکم و رابط مودّت را مر بوط دارد‬
30 This is the beginning of a hadith stating “Indeed in the science there is a hidden aspect
that is only known by those who know thorough God, when they talk about that, that is
not contradicted except by those who are distracted in regard to God.” (inna min al-ʿilm
ka-hayʾat al-maknūn, lā yaʿrifu-hu illā al-ʿulamāʾ bi-Llāh, fa-idhā naṭaqū bi-hi lam yunkir-hu
illā ahl al-ghirra bi-Llāh). Like for other statements ascribed to the Prophet Muḥammad
in Sufi literature, there is a debate about the genuineness of this hadith. It is not present
in the most authoritative collections and is considered “weak” (ḍaʿīf ) or even “fabricated”
(mawḍūʿ) by some scholars. It is, however, widely cited by important classical traditional
Sufi-related authorities. Among the prominent authors who have used it are, in chrono-
logical order, Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī (d. 386/998) in the Qūt al-qulūb, al-Sulāmī (d. 412/1021)
in al-Arbaʿīn fī al-ṭaṣawwuf, al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) in the Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, and Ibn al-
ʿArabī in al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. This hadith is also discussed by al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) in
al-Laʾālī al-maṣnūʿa fī al-aḥādīth al-mawḍūʿa. Its importance for Maghribī is underlined
by the fact that he also recorded it in another of his works, the aforementioned al-Durr
al-farīd fī maʿrifat marātib al-tawḥīd.

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242 martini

visualization and facilitate their contemplation (tashīlan li-taṣawwuri-hā

wa-taysīran li-tadabburi-hā).31

From these lines emerge some interesting points supporting and partially com-
plementing the ideas present within the introduction to the Jām-i jahān-namā.
First of all, this text confirms the presence of numerous Maghribī disciples
in Tabriz, but especially the deliberation, by the Sufi scholar, of inserting dia-
grams within the text as tools for helping their understanding of abstract con-
cepts. If possible, in this work Maghribī’s awareness of the central role played
by diagrams becomes even more explicit, as they are specifically mentioned
within the introduction, being described as one of the key features of the text.
Moreover, an embryonic theory of visualization is detectable in it, suggested by
the employment of a specific terminology, using davāʾir and ashkāl to indicate
the diagrams, the verbs taṣawwara and tadabbara to describe the interaction
among the reader-viewer and the figures, and references to technical concepts
such as mithāl and khayāl, a whole set of terms and concepts most probably
inherited and retuned from previous masters, among which is Ibn al-ʿArabī.32

2.3 Diagrams as Didactical Tools

In the introduction to the Jām-i jahān-namā, Maghribī associates his disciples’
specific request to compose a text containing diagrams to their difficulty in
understanding earlier works composed on the subject. Maghribī explicitly
expresses his decision to insert diagrams within the text as tools in order to
help his disciples understand abstract concepts also within the introduction
to al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya. In this second text, the deliberate didactic aim of
both writing the text and drawing the images is further indicated by Maghribī
when he explains that he wrote and forwarded this sort of textbook of Akbarian

31 Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī, al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya. The following is the transcription of

the relative passage according to the reading established by the author:

‫ بعد‬،‫پس بنابر ین معنی رسالهای که جامع علم ”إن من العلم كهيئة المكنون“ و شامل سرّ مصون باشد‬
‫ مشتمل بر کیفی ّت ظهور و‬،‫ انشا کرده ]و[ فرستاده شد‬،‫از تقدیم استجازٔه ر ب ّانی و استخارٔه حّقانی‬
‫ترتیب عوالم و بروز و اشکال معالم من بدء العالم إلى إ يجاد آدم در کسوت دوایر و اشکال و در صورت‬
.‫مثال و خیال تسهیلا لً تصو ّرها و تیسیرا لً تدب ّرها‬
32 On the use of a similar technical terminology in connection to diagrams by other Sufi
authors cf. the contributions by Gardiner (Chapter 1), Karjoo-Ravary (Chapter 2), Tyser
(Chapter 3), and Kropf (Chapter 7) in this volume. Cf also the excerpt from a text by
Maghribī’s disciple al-Bazzāzī translated below in this chapter.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 243

cosmology to his friends in order to obviate to his physical absence from Tabriz.
This range of statements, which could seem to be just rhetorical expedients,
rather, on the contrary, hints at what is adduced by various authors of visual
Sufi texts as the main reason for the implementation of the diagrams. This is
the idea, already expressed by earlier authors such as Ibn al-ʿArabī and al-Būnī,
that the diagrams serve as didactic tools to help the novice understand difficult
abstract metaphysical concepts.33 Recapitulating, it is possible to trace at least
three factors, strictly interconnected, to explain Shīrīn Maghribī’s extensive
employment of visual elements in his prose works. These were, firstly, his being
the spiritual and intellectual heir of a specific Sufi milieu in which the imple-
mentation of visual elements received great impetus. The second factor was
the pressure exercised by his students who, belonging to that very same intel-
lectual tradition, were most probably aware of the literature produced in that
intellectual environment, and of the visual novelty characterizing many of its
products. The final factor was Maghribī’s teaching-oriented style and his under-
standing (this, too, inherited from his intellectual landmarks) of diagrams as
didactic tools to help the novices grasp concepts otherwise difficult to assim-
ilate. It was at the intersection of these historical and social tendencies that
Shīrīn Maghribī’s inclination for a visual mode of Sufism originated.

3 Maghribī’s (Visual) Legacy on His Direct Disciples

If, it has been suggested, the implementation of diagrams by Shīrīn Maghribī

was not the result of an individualistic choice, but rather a product of the spe-
cific intellectual context in which the scholar developed and operated, effects
of this new trend should be traceable within the next historical phase as well.
This is exactly what can be observed within the intellectual production of some
of Maghribī’s disciples. This scriptural evidence represents, at the same time,
a verification of Maghribī’s disciples’ inclination for visual elements which
had been put forward in the previous section on the basis of the references

33 Cf. especially chapters 1, 2, 3 and 7 in this volume. The same idea was shared by other Sufi
authors committed to the adoption of visual elements in their writings, including Ḥay-
dar Āmulī (d. after 787/1385). See Ḥaydar Āmulī, al-Muqaddimāt min Kitāb Naṣṣ al-Nuṣūṣ
fī sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam/Le text des textes (Nass al-nosus). Commentaire des «Fosûs al-
hikam» d’Ibn ‘Arabî. Les prolégomènes, ed. Henry Corbin and Osman Yahia (Tehran-Paris:
Département d’iranologie de l’Institut Franco-Iranien de recherche-Librairie d’Amérique
et d’Orient Adrien–Maisonneuve, 1353 sh./1975), 31, §81.

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contained in the introduction to the Jām-i jahān-namā, in which the Tabrizi

scholar states that his students explicitly requested that he insert diagrams
within the text.
The question of Maghribī’s influence on his students risked remaining un-
answered, since only a few of these individuals were known by name, and
only a prose work by one of them was known to be extant.34 The best known
among Maghribī’s disciples is certainly ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Khalwatī (d. 859/1454),
also known by his nom de plume “Mashriqī,” clearly related to that of his not-
able master. According to Ibn Karbalāʾī, in addition to a divan, which is extant,
Mashriqī also wrote some Sufi prose works.35 Most probably, these writings
would reveal Maghribī’s strong influence, as Mashriqī’s song-book actually
does,36 and could potentially include diagrams. However, this question remains
unanswered, at least for the time being, as none of these texts appear to have
survived.
Another disciple mentioned in the sources is ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Bazzāzī (d.
unknown). These same sources do not record any work by Bazzāzī, but as
often happens for the late medieval and early modern periods, for which only
a minority of texts are published and many others are even still unknown,
it is from the research in manuscript collections that additional information
can emerge. While I was intent on collecting manuscript copies of Maghribī’s
works, I was able to identify a couple of short previously unknown texts by two
of his disciples. These texts help to shed light on the question of the reception
of Maghribī’s works, teachings, and utilization of diagrams within his circle in
Tabriz. One of these two short writings is by Bazzāzī, and is, so far, the only
known work authored by him. For the present aim, the title of Bazzāzī’s work is

34 This is Aḥmad b. Mūsā Rashtī Ustādī’s (d. after 850/1446) commentary (sharḥ) on Maghri-
bī’s Jām-i jahān-namā. On this author see below.
35 Ibn Karabalāʾī ascribes to Khalwatī-Mashriqī the following works: (1) Mafātīḥ al-ghayb;
(2) Ḥāshiya bar Sharḥ-i Iṣṭilāḥāt-i shaykh ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshī; (3) [Ḥāshiya bar] Sharḥ-i
Nuṣūṣ-i Shaykh Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnaywī (sic); (4) Sharḥ bar Qaṣīda-yi Mīmiyya-yi Khamriyya-
yi Fāriḍiyya; (5) Risāla-yi sanati-yi sarmadiyya; (6) Risāla-yi Mirʾāt al-ʿibād fī maʿrifat
al-maʿād; (7) Sharḥ bar Rubāʿī-i Ḥawrāʾiyya; (8) Sharḥī bar baʿḍī az abyāt-i mushkila-yi
Gulshan-i rāz (Ibn Karbalāʾī, Rawḍāt, 1:86, cf. Lewisohn, Dissertation, 1:135 and Idem, “The
Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi,” Iranian Studies 22, nos. 2–3 (1989): 99–127, 101–102).
Any of Khalwatī’s treatises seems to be extant. It should be noted that some of the titles
listed by Ibn Karbalāʾī as Khalwatī’s are identical to those authored by famous Akbarian
scholars, suggesting that Ibn Karbalāʾī’s list might contain some imprecisions and might
not be fully reliable. E.g. title nº 1 corresponds to that of a treatise by Qūnawī (cf. Todd, The
Sufi Doctrine, 185–186), while nº 5 resembles very much of that of a work by ʿAbd al-Razzāq
al-Kāshānī.
36 Cf. Lewisohn, “The Life and Poetry of Mashreqi Tabrizi,” 111 and passim.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 245

already revealing. This is Epistle of the Circles about the Corporeal and Spiritual
Realms (Risālat al-Dawāʾir fī al-mulk wa-l-malakūt). The circles are mentioned
in the title and this short epistle in Arabic is centered on a circular diagram
(see Plate 6.1), precisely as diagrams are embedded in all the prose works of his
master. The introduction to this text is also of interest for the topic discussed
in this pages. In it we read:

My friend in God Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ Allāh […] entrusted me to figure

a circular diagram (amara-nī an arquma dāʾira), hinting at the corporeal
and spiritual realms, at the small and great intermediary dominions (al-
barzakhiyya al-ṣughrā wa-l-kubrā), and at the analogical correspondence
(al-munāsaba) among these two, making it apparent for he who medit-
ates and contemplates it (wāḍiḥan ʿinda man taʾammala wa-tadabbara),
and examines and muses (wa-tafaḥḥaṣa wa-tafakkara).37

Bazzāzī’s epistle is a precious external piece of written evidence of the influ-

ence exercised by Maghribī’s focus on a visual mode of Sufism among his dis-
ciples in Tabriz, not only because it includes a diagram. Its incipit shows at least
two more meaningful features. As with Maghribī, as well as Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-
Būnī and others, Bazzāzī includes synthetic references to a technique of visual
meditation. The awareness of the visual means and of its technical use, prob-
ably to take place in a ritual context, are precisely the elements that enable us
to speak of a phenomenon of Visual Sufism. Finally, in Bazzāzī’s epistle we see
the very same pattern noticed in the Jām-i jahān-namā: a Sufi, belonging to that
same spiritual circle, explicitly asking a companion to write not a generic mys-
tical work, but a specific diagram-focused text. Bazzāzī, in fact, informs us that
he composed this epistle at the request of another companion, and especially
that this companion did not ask him to write a generic text, but specifically
a circular diagram. This is not all. Bazzāzī’s friend, who commissioned him to
write the epistle, is called Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ Allāh in the text. He would
have remained nothing but a name if a short text by him was not copied and
transmitted in a miscellaneous codex containing Maghribī’s works.38 From this
document, we learn that Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ Allāh, whose full name is com-
plemented here by the three adjectives “al-Ṣūfī al-Anṣārī al-Waḥdānī,” was also
in his turn a direct disciple of Shīrīn Maghribī. The work is described in the

37 ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Bazzāzī, Risālat al-Dawāʾir fī al-mulk wa-l-malakūt, according to the read-
ing established by the author in the currently unpublished critical edition of this short
text. Cf. ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Lala Ismail 191, fol. 90b.
38 ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Lala Ismail 191, fols. 88b–89b.

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246 martini

plate 6.1 Diagram of the Circles about the Corporeal and Spiritual Realms. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm
Bazzāzī, Risālat al-Dawāʾir fī al-mulk wa-l-malakūt (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye
Kütüphanesi, Pertev Paşa 606, fol. 134a)

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 247

first lines as “an epistle in rhyme on the comment of the Circle of the Shaikh al-
Maghribī called ‘The Circle of Existence,’ that the master presented in his book
named Jām-i jahān-namā.”39 Abū Muḥammad, by declaring himself Maghribī’s
disciple, by writing a comment on a diagram contained in a text by his master,
and by requesting to one of his companions the composition of an original
work including a diagram, provides more independent proof of the reception
of Maghribī’s visual mode of Sufism by his Tabrizi circle.
Another one of Maghribī’s direct acquaintances was Aḥmad b. Mūsā Rashtī
Ustādī (d. after 850/1446). According to our present knowledge, Rashtī did
not personally employ diagrams in his writings, but spent a long time in Tab-
riz reading the Jām-i jahān-namā with Shīrīn Maghribī, receiving an official
authorization (ijāzat-nāma) from the master to teach and transmit the text.
Rashtī returned twice to Tabriz after Maghribī’s death (810/1408), once in the
year 820 (1417) and a second time in 850 (1446).40 On both occasions he met
circles of Maghribī’s disciples. The first time he was asked by his hosts to teach
them the Jām-i jahān-namā, the second to put in written form a commentary
to the same text, which he did. Rashtī’s account, included within the introduc-
tion to his commentary to the Jām-i jahān-namā, is a precious indication of
Maghribī’s activity of teaching and transmission of his own text which includes
diagrams, as well as of the lasting interest in Maghribī’s writings in Sufi circles
in Tabriz for a long time afterwards, about forty years after he had passed
away.
The existence of another one of Maghribī’s student-disciples is documented
by an 851 (1447) copy of an ijāza Maghribī’s lent to a certain Kamāl al-Dīn
Ismāʿīl.41 The document records a number of texts Kamāl al-Dīn read and stud-
ied under Shīrīn Maghribī’s supervision, followed by a statement in which the

39 “Hādhihi risālatun manẓūmatun fī sharḥ dāʾirat al-shaykh al-Maghribī al-musammāt bi-

dāʾirat al-wujūd, allatī awrada-hā al-shaykh fī kitābi-hi al-musammā bi-Jām-i jahān-na-
mā.” Ibid., fol. 88b.
40 Aḥmad b. Mūsā Rashtī Ustādhī, Sharḥ-i Jām-i jahān-namā, ms Tehran, Kitābkhāna-yi
Majlis 10064. The folios in this manuscript are not numbered. According to my counting,
the beginning of Rashtī’s commentary, the location of the information I am mentioning, is
on fol. 248b. The Majlis’ manuscript is the original from which was produced the microfilm
kept at the Central Library of the University of Tehran which was utilized in their studies
by both Lewisohn (Dissertation, 1:197, footnote 2) and ʿĀbidīnī (Dīvān-i Shams-i Maghribī,
243).
41 ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Ragıp Paşa 687, fols. 284b–285a. A transcription of
it is in Maḥmūd al-Sayyid al-Daghīm, Fihris al-makhṭūṭāt al-ʿarabiyya wa-l-turkiyya wa-l-
fārisiyya fī maktabat Rāghib Bāshā, 10 vols. (Jaddah: Saqīfat al-Ṣafā al-ʿIlmiyya, 1437/2016),
6:146. I would like to thank Cecile Bonmariage for having brought to my attention this
document.

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Sufi master declares that he initiated him to the Sufi path, ending with a recapit-
ulation of the key requirements of the spiritual way. Considering the number of
works recorded within the ijāza—24 in all—the teaching sessions must have
lasted at least for some months. Despite the document not mentioning where
the teaching took place, the fact that the 851 (1447) copy was transcribed in Tab-
riz suggests that the Azerbaijani capital (Maghribī’s main residence) was also
the location of the teaching and of the original issuing of the ijāza.42 Apart from
these tangential remarks, what is interesting to observe for our present aim is
the fact that among the books taught by Maghribī to Kamāl Dīn Ismāʿīl there
are three key Sufi treatises containing diagrams. These are Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Kitāb
al-jadāwīl wa-l-dawāʾir43 and ʿUqlat al-mustawfiz, plus Maghribī’s own Jām-i
jahān-namā.
The list of Maghribī’s students whose activity shows traces of engagement
with Sufi visual literature ends with a figure already mentioned in the previous
section. This is ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa, to whom the Tabrizi scholar taught some
of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s books and transmitted a particular silsila in Cairo; and who is
the author of a commentary on Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Muqaddima of which is unique
in its genre precisely for including a diagram.
It results from this excursus that all Shīrīn Maghribī’s students for whom
information is available show engagement with visual elements to various
degrees. Such concentration of interconnected individuals inclining toward
the visual mode of Sufism, at the current status of the researches in the field,
appears to be exceptional, as does Shīrīn Maghribī’s consistency in utilizing
visual devices in all his prose works. Because of these characteristics, the pic-
ture emerging from the examination of the intellectual activities of his students
verifies the exceptionality of Shīrīn Maghribī’s case for the investigation of the
phenomenon of Visual Sufism. Since the interest of these people in diagrams
and visual elements did not develop by chance but, rather, was in relation to
Maghribī’s teachings which, as we have seen, were generated in turn within
a peculiar intellectual environment, these individuals can be regarded as the
next generation of the network firstly addressed in the preceding section and
represented in Figure 6.1, in which the names of Maghribī’s students occupy
the lower part.

42 ms Ragıp Paşa 687, fol. 284a. Cf. al-Daghīm, Fihris, 1:144 and 157.
43 This is an alternative title of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s treatise, nowadays generally known as Kitāb
Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir. Ibn al-ʿArabī refers to this work as “Kitāb al-jadāwīl wa-l-dawāʾir” in Kitāb
Ayyām al-shaʾn (see Yahya, Classification, 176), Kitāb al-Azal (Ibid, 178), Kitāb al-Qasam al-
ilāhī bi-l-ism al-rabbānī (Ibid, 420), and the Kitāb al-Tadbīrāt al-ilāhiyya (Ibid, 476–477).
Cf. also Yahya, Classification, 284, 311 (work nº 289) and 566.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 249

4 An Insight into Shīrīn Maghribī’s Long-Lasting (Visual) Legacy

in India

The influence of the use of diagrams by Maghribī did not remain within the
circle of his students. In this final section, I will briefly mention the main
avenue thorough which Shīrīn Maghribī’s (visual) legacy perpetuated thorough
the centuries, occasionally influencing the intellectual development of either
individual scholars or larger Sufi groups. This is closely related to the history
of the reception of Maghribī’s most famous text, the aforementioned Jām-i
jahān-namā. Given the numerous texts, over several centuries, showing traces
of an influence of this work, the history of the reception of the Jām-i jahān-
namā deserves to be addressed in its own right. The few comments presented
in these pages are only preliminary hints of such a study, which is currently
underway. While the main objective of the following observations is to stress
further the influence of Maghribī as a significant scholar of the School of Ibn
al-ʿArabī whose intellectual activity to date has remained mostly in the shad-
ows, it also aims towards a different goal. This is to suggest the usefulness of
studying the visual elements of a literary tradition for the purpose of tracing
the trajectory of specific ideas over time and space, that is, as an instrument
of investigation in the fields of Intellectual History and the History of Ideas.
The Jām-i Jahān-namā knew incredible fame in the Indian Sub-continent. The
short treatise had probably already reached India during Maghribī’s lifetime, or
immediately afterwards, for an Arabic translation and commentary of the Jām-
i jahān-namā, entitled Irāʾat al-daqāʾiq fī sharḥ Mirʾāt al-ḥaqāʾiq, is tradition-
ally ascribed to ʿAlī Mahimi (Mahāʾimī) (d. 835/1432), a major Indian Akbarian
Sufi Scholar from Mumbai and younger contemporary of Maghribī, who died
about twenty years after him.44 After about a century of silence, around the

44 Mahimi played an important role in the diffusion of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s ideas in India. Among
other works, he composed a commentary on the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, a commentary on Qūn-
awī’s al-Nuṣūṣ fī taḥqīq al-ṭawr al-makhṣūṣ, as well as, apparently, an apologetic text in
defence of the Shaykh al-Akbar. Despite the peculiarities and fame of this figure, who
is revered as the protector of Mumbai police and whose festival attracts hundreds of
thousands of people every year, I am not aware of any dedicated study to Mahimi. In con-
sideration of the Akbari nature of the work, the use of Arabic, but above all the explicit
ascription to Mahimi in various manuscripts, the attribution of the Irāʾat al-daqāʾiq to
Mahimi seems highly probable. The definitive confirmation could come from a system-
atic examination of the manuscripts of the work. The work by Mahimi should not be
confused with a gloss on al-Bayḍāwī’s tafsīr bearing the same title authored by a later
Indian author, Ṣibghaṭat Allāh al-Barwajī (d. 1015/1606), on which cf. Khayr al-Dīn al-
Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām: Qāmūs tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-l-nisāʾ min al-ʿarab wa-l-mutaʿarribīn

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middle of the sixteenth century, we notice a new rise in interest for the Jām-i
jahān-namā in the circles of the Shaṭṭāriyya brotherhood based in Gujarat. It
is in the Shaṭṭārī circles that several commentaries of Maghribī’s work were
produced, amongst which the most widespread are those by Ibrāhīm Shaṭ-
ṭārī (d. ca. 991/1583)45 and Wajīh al-Dīn ʿAlawī (d. 998/1589).46 The presence
of these commentaries and their numerous manuscript copies indicates a ser-
ious interest for this writing by Maghribī. But what is more important from
the present perspective, focusing on the visual aspects of this phenomenon,
is that the diagrams contained in the Jām-i jahān-namā seem to have played
a relevant role in shaping the cosmology of the Shaṭṭāriyya. Such a signific-
ant influence of the visual aspects of Maghribī’s work on Shaṭṭārī Sufism was
indicated in his scholarly testament by the late professor of South Asian Stud-
ies at the University of Pennsylvania, Adithya Behl. In his Love’s Subtle Magic:
An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379–1545, Behl devoted several pages to
the role and reception of the Jām-i jahān-namā in some of the Shaṭṭāri found-
ational texts:

In addition to the general theories of Ibn ‘Arabī, the Shattaris based much
of their cosmological structure directly on a short prose treatise, the Jām-
i Jahān Numā or “The World-Showing Cup,” written in 1385 by the Persian
poet Muḥammad Shīrīn Maġhribī. […] Soon after he wrote the treat-
ise, a certain Shaikh Rashīd read it and wrote a long work on it entitled
the Davā’ir-i Rashīdī (“The Circles of Rashīd”). In it Shaikh Rashīd, about
whom nothing else is known, extended Maġhribī’s ideas and elaborated
a scheme for invoking the divine Names. The Shattaris in India took up
Maġhribī’s treatise and seem to have taught it extensively in Shaṭṭārī
k̲h̲ānaqāhs. The Jām-i Jahān Numā was the subject of at least three Shaṭ-
ṭārī commentaries, one by the famous Shaikh Vajīh al-dīn ‘Alavī Gujarātī,

wa-l-mustashriqīn, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm al-Malāyīn, Beirut 200215), 3:200. The lasting
interest for Mahimi’s translation and commentary (therefore, implicitly, for Maghribī’s
work) is suggested by the fact that the Irāʾat al-daqāʾiq had already received an early
edition in Mumbai before 1919: see Yūsuf Īlyān Sarkīs, Muʿjam al-maṭbūʿāt al-ʿarabiyya wa-
l-muʿarraba, 2 vols. ([Cairo]: Maṭbaʿa Sarkīs bi-Miṣr, 1346/1928), 1717. A modern edition of
the text is included in ʿĀṣim Ibrāhīm al-Kayālī al-Ḥussaynī al-Shādhilī al-Darqāwī (ed.),
Rasāʾil ṣūfiyya fī al-ḥaqāʾiq wa-l-tajalliyyāt al-ilāhiyya al-anfusiyya wa-l-āfāqiyya (Beirut:
Kitāb-Nāshirūn, 2013).
45 See Qazi Moin Uddin Ahmad, “History of the S̲h̲attari Silsilah,” (Ph.D. Thesis, Aligarh
Muslim University, Aligarh, 1963), 151 and ff. for additional information on this sheikh.
46 See Qazi Moin Uddin, “History of the S̲h̲attari Silsilah,” 114 and ff. for additional informa-
tion on this sheikh.

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a second by a Shaikh Ibrāhīm Shaṭṭārī, and a third by a Shaikh Bahlūl.

Maġhribī’s cosmological structure was also adapted into Shattari practice
by a later Shattari shaikh named Hazṛat Ibrāhīm Shaṭṭārī ‘Gāzur-i Ilāhī,’
“the washerman of God.”47

And again:

The Jām-i Jahān Numā and the three Shattari commentaries on it sketch
out both the larger macrocosmic universe and its parallel microcosm
in the human body. In combination with Shaikh Muḥammad Ġhaus
Gvāliyārī’s writings […] these texts form the framework for Shattari Sufi
practice, which they termed the mashrib-i Shaṭṭār or the Shattari way.48

Behl explains that one amongst Shaṭṭārī’s most important masters, Muḥammad
Ghawth Gvāliyārī (d. 970/1562), drew heavily on the work by Maghribī, but
what is more important from the present perspective is that the focus of this
elaboration was once again on the diagrams: “In the Kalīd-i Makhāzin, Shaikh
Muḥammad Ġhaus elaborates parts of the wider cosmological structure of
Maġhribī’s Jām-i Jahān Numā into a system of three dā’irahs or circles.”49 Such
abundance of later references suggest, it would seem, that Maghribī’s choice of
focusing on diagrams in his works was both successful and timely. What res-
ults from the previous discussion is a general reassessment of Shīrīn Maghribī
and of his intellectual influence on contemporary and later generations of
Sufis, which is directly tied to his activity as a transmitter of Akbarian lin-
eages, as well as to his diagram-centred writings and teachings. Maghribī’s
is an extremely valuable case-study to investigate this new trend in Sufi lit-
erature, which saw an increment in the employment of visual materials in
the texts, and it proves that such visual devices were neither conceived by
their authors nor perceived by their readers as being marginal elements, but
rather as being, in many cases, the very centre of the intellectual discourse.
The hope is that this realization might contribute to changing the general per-
ception about Sufi diagrams by looking at them from a new perspective as
useful devices in the hands of scholars for investigating the intellectual history
of Sufism.

47 Adithya Behl, Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379–1545 (Oxford-
New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 236.
48 Behl, Love’s Subtle Magic, 237.
49 Behl, Love’s Subtle Magic, 238.

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plate 6.2 Circular Diagram (dāʾira) Concerning [the Relationship between] Unity (Aḥadiy-
yat), Oneness (Vaḥdat) and Unicity (Vāḥidiyyat). Shīrīn Maghribī, Jām-i jahān-
namā (ms Manisa, İl Halk Kütüphanesi, 45 Hk 2936, fol. 3a., dated 864/1459)

As a final example of this century-long and geographically-wide discourse,

I would like to conclude by presenting a comparison between the first circu-
lar diagram contained in Shīrīn Maghribī’s Jām-i jahān-namā, reproduced here
from an Anatolian manuscript copied before 864/1459 (Plate 6.2)50 and a vari-
ant of the same diagram which is contained in a huge, eight-hundred page long
text in Urdu entitled Taʿlīm-i ghawthiyya, written in India in 1887 by the Qādirī
shaykh Sayyid Shāh Gul Ḥasan Qalandar (Plate 6.3).51

50 Shīrīn Maghribī, Jām-i jahān-namā, “Form of the First Circle concerning the Aḥadiyyat,
Waḥdat and Wāḥidiyyat,” ms Manisa, İl Halk Kütüphanesi, 45 Hk 2936, dated 864/1459,
fol. 3a.
51 Sayyid Shāh Gul Ḥasan Qalandar, Mirʾāt al-waḥda, al-maʿrūf ba Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya, ed.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 253

plate 6.3 [Circular Diagram (dāʾira) Concerning [the Relationship between] Unity
(Aḥadiyyat), Oneness (Vaḥdat) and Unicity (Vāḥidiyyat)]. Sayyid Shāh Gul Ḥasan
Qalandar, Mirʾāt al-waḥda, al-maʿrūf ba Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (completed in 1877)
(ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Shaṭṭār Ṭāhir, Shabīr Brādarz, Lahore 2003, p. 471)

This diagram aimed to synthetically represent the relationships between

three different aspects of Unity as the first determination, or self-disclosure
(tajallī-yi avval) of the divine essence (dhāt). In order to designate these three
“aspects” of the Unity, three technical terms are used, which seem rather dif-
ficult to render adequately in translation. They are Aḥadiyya, Wāḥidiyya and
Waḥda, which I tentatively translate here, respectively, as “Unity,” “Unicity,”
and “Oneness.” Aḥadiyya indicates here Unity in an absolute sense, as the
negation of all multiplicity. When Aḥadiyya is considered, only it ‘is present.’
Nothing is conceivable ‘with’ it and nothing can proceed ‘from’ it. On the
other hand, the term Wāḥidiyya means Unity as the origin of all multiplicit-
ies. Wāḥidiyya contains in itself all possible differentiations in potentia. Finally,

Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Shaṭṭār Ṭāhir (Lahore: Shabīr Brādarz, 2003), 471. The one presented
here is only one among the numerous visual elements present in this work.

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here the term Waḥda means Unity, considered simultaneously according to the
two aspects of Aḥadiyya and Wāḥidiyya. Restricting the description to the main
elements only, at the top of the diagram we see the “arch” (qaws) of “Unity”
(Aḥadiyya), while at the bottom is the arch of “Unicity” (Wāḥidiyya), which is
subdivided in turn into four segments named “Vision,” “Light,” “Science,” and
“existence” (shuhūd, nūr, ʿilm and wujūd).52 In the middle, between the two
semicircles, there is a horizontal diameter called “Oneness” (Waḥda), which is
identified with the “Mohammedan Reality” (Ar. al-Ḥaqīqa al-Muḥammadiyya/
Pers. Ḥaqīqat-i Muḥammadī).
The reason for briefly introducing this diagram in the conclusion of this
study is not to examine the reception and reworking of these dense meta-
physical concepts by Maghribī in detail but, rather, to present an example of
the striking persistence of these visual materials through the centuries, there-
fore arguing for their potentiality and the worth of their investigation for the
advancement of our understanding of the history of Sufism. From this per-
spective, in fact, any migration, modification, or new surfacing of a specific
diagram from manuscript to manuscript and from text to text, authored by dif-
ferent scholars in different geographical places and historical moments, must
be regarded as a visual trace of an ongoing intellectual discourse that in large
part still awaits exploration.
The potential of a diachronic research that would be focused on the visual
elements in Sufi literature is suggested by another diagram contained in the
Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya by Shāh Gul Ḥasan. The previous comparison has made it
possible to establish nearly perfect continuity between the diagrammatic rep-
resentation contained in Maghribī’s text, originally written in Tabriz towards
the end of the fourteenth century, and an Indian text of the nineteenth cen-
tury, therefore suggesting, above all, the idea of cultural continuity within such
vast area. This other figure, on the other hand, speaks to us of the specular
aspect, that is, that of change and enrichment, and of the intellectual elabor-
ation that took place through the wide span of space and time (almost five
hundred years) that separates these two works (Plate 6.4).53 This figure, in
fact, represents an extremely interesting outcome in which it is observed how,
at the end of a long journey, the geometric and rigorously abstract structure
of the primitive diagram ended up taking on anthropomorphic connotations.

52 These four terms are placed in a different order in the two versions of the diagram.
53 “Circular diagram of the Unity of the Essence” (Dāʾira-yi aḥadiyyat-i dhāt), in Shāh Gul
Ḥasan Qalandar, Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (Hyderabad: Mīnār Buk, s.d.), 153. This diagram was
discussed by Fabrizio Speziale in “Il simbolismo mistico del volto umano nel trattato (in

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 255

plate 6.4 Circular diagram of the Unity of the Essence (Dāʾira-yi aḥadiyyat-i dhāt). Sayyid
Shāh Gul Ḥasan Qalandar, Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (completed in 1877) (ed. Mīnār
Buk, Hyderabad, s.d.)

The link between this representation (Plate 6.4) and the diagram included
in Shīrīn Maghribī’s Jām-i jahān-namā introduced previously, appears quite
evident (Plate 6.2, cf. Plate 6.3). It is rather clearly indicated by the termin-
ology used in the figure reproduced in Plate 6.4 in the circular diagram on
the right, repeated a second time in the representation of the human face
on the left, since in the upper semicircle we read “Arch of the Unity of the
Essence” (qaws-i aḥadiyyat-i dhāt), in the lower one “Arch of Unicity” (Qaws-i
Wāḥidiyyat), and on the central diameter “Oneness” (Waḥdat), identified with
the “Mohammedan Reality” (Ḥaqīqat-i Muḥammadī), precisely as occurs in
Plates 6.2 and 6.3. The implications of such an evolution from a rigorously
abstract and geometric representation to a figurative one appear fascinating in
consideration of the generally aniconic character of the Islamic tradition, but
above all of the fact that we find ourselves here in front of an anthropomorphic
representation not of any subject, but of the divine. That such a late outcome
of an early geometric diagram already encountered in Maghribī’s work, that is,
an anthropomorphic representation of divine reality in an Islamic context, is a
quite sensitive and problematic issue is not only easily imaginable but can also
be documented. Once again, this is made possible thanks to the graphic trace
left by visual representations, yet another proof of the usefulness of the icono-
graphic study of the phenomenon of Visual Sufism. So we find out, with a cer-
tain surprise, that in a different edition of the Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya by Gul Ḥasan

Urdu) Sūrat-i maʿlūma-yi ṣuwari ʿilm di Karīm Allāh ʿĀshiq,” Journal Asiatique 295, no. 2
(2007): 439–459, 444–445.

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plate 6.5 Circular diagram of the Unity of the Essence (Dāʾira-yi aḥadiyyat-i dhāt).
Sayyid Shāh Gul Ḥasan Qalandar, Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya (completed in 1877) (ed.
Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Shaṭṭār Ṭāhir, Shabīr Brādarz, Lahore 2003, p. 305)

this representation has been ‘censored,’ and that the human face was replaced
with an empty circle (Plate 6.5).54 The human face ‘appears’ to immediately
‘disappear’ again. The geometric shape becomes figurative, to become geomet-
ric again. The empty circle leaves space for a full face, to become empty again.
These are all signs of incessant intellectual engagement and tension with visual
representations in Sufi literature which have their roots in the past and emerge
alive and well to the present day.
The questions raised by the second representation taken from the Taʿlim-i
Ghawthiyya (Plate 6.4), in which the representation of a male human face is
superimposed on the circle representing the three aspects of the unity of the
divine essence (aḥadiyya, wāḥidiyya and waḥda), are numerous. Where and
when was this superposition elaborated for the first time? Was it an original
development of Gul Ḥasan, or of his master, or was it simply incorporated in
that text from earlier sources? If and what are the relations between this rep-
resentation and the anthropomorphic graphic developments found in other
currents of Sufism, or contiguous to Sufism, such as the Ḥurūfiyya, the Nuqṭaw-
iyya and the Bektashiyya, of which Mir-Kasimov presented a wide survey in
the previous chapter? These questions remain unanswered for the time being.
The progressive recognition and publication of materials pertinent to the phe-
nomenon of Visual Sufism, even apparently not directly related to Maghribī’s

54 “Circular diagram of the Unity of the Essence” (Dāʾira-yi aḥadiyyat-i dhāt) in Sayyid Shāh
Gul Ḥasan Qalandar, Mirʾāt al-waḥda, 305.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 257

work, could certainly facilitate the identification of intermediate links between

the primitive form of the diagram as it is found in the Jām-i jahān-namā and
the anthropomorphic version included in the Taʿlīm-i Ghawthiyya.55 As already
mentioned, the main purposes of hinting at the reception of the Jām-i jahān-
namā in the Indian Subcontinent in this study were essentially two: to mention
the long-term effects of Maghribī’s intellectual activity and his specific interest
in the use of diagrams, and to underline some potentialities inherent to the
study of the visual materials contained in many Sufi texts. It is my hope that
both have been achieved, at least in part.

Conclusions

In this study I tried to show how the use of diagrams was one of the peculiar
features of the work of the Persian Sufi scholar Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī,
suggesting that this specific interest was not the result of a purely personal
choice by the author, but rather the outcome of the intellectual environment
in which the author lived and worked. This was done through the examina-
tion of primary sources of various kinds, many of them unpublished. These
sources are represented by reports on the chains of spiritual descent of the
author, his and his direct disciples’ texts, a reading and initiatory certificate
(ijāza), commentaries on Maghribī’s works, and explicit or implicit references
to diagrams contained in them. The picture that emerged from this analysis is
that Maghribī participated in the spiritual legacy of some authoritative masters
who before him had used visual tools in their works (Ḥamūyeh, Ibn al-ʿArabī),
and that he knew, for having quoted, commented or taught them, some of the
main works of Ibn al-ʿArabī containing diagrams (Kitāb Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir, ʿUqlat

55 I trust that at least some of the steps in the path and modifications undertaken by this
diagram will be clarified in a study dedicated to the reception of Maghribī’s Jām-i jahān-
namā that I am carrying out and for which I have already collected many materials. In this
process of anthropomorphization, the Shaṭṭāriyya circles, which we have seen were very
receptive to Maghribī’s Jām-i jahān-namā and to the use of diagrams and visual medita-
tion in general, may have played a certain role. This impression is reinforced by two short
treatises by the Shaṭṭārī master ʿĪsā Jund Allāh (d. 1031/1622) translated into English by
Carl Ernst. In these two texts, entitled Risāla-yi Murāqaba and Risāla-yi Barzakh respect-
ively, there are indeed some representations in which the names of Muḥammad, ʿAlī and
Allāh give form to human faces and bodies and which, as also observed by Ernst, closely
resemble some representations attested in the Bektashiyya. See Carl W. Ernst, Teachings
of Sufism, (Boston-London: Shambala, 1999), 53–72. Ernst based his translation on ms
Aligarh, Aligarh Museum University, Mawlana Azad Library, Persian jf 73.

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258 martini

al-mustawfiz, Chapter 314 of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya). We also learn that the

disciples of Maghribī were, in turn, particularly inclined to visual elements,
being influenced in this by the intellectual activity of their master, and influ-
encing him in turn. For each individual who studied with Maghribī and for
whom information is available, it is possible to observe a more or less direct
involvement with visual tools. They range from those who in turn composed
texts including diagrams (ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Bazzāzī, ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa), to
those who commented on Maghribī’s texts containing figures (Aḥmad b. Mūsā
Rashtī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ Allāh), to those who studied works containing
diagrams with the Sufi master (Kamāl al-Dīn Ismāʿīl). It is likely for no other
Sufi scholar is it possible to find so many clues that indicate such a system-
atic involvement with visual elements as happens for Shīrīn Maghribī, which
makes his a particular and rather interesting case for investigating the issue
of Visual Sufism. The central role played by diagrams in Maghribī’s work can
also be appreciated through the reconstruction of the history of the reception
of the author’s works, in particular of the Jām-i jahān-namā, of which some
examples from the Indian area have been briefly introduced in the final part of
this study. For the same reasons, it seems correct to say that much of Maghribī’s
posthumous legacy can be attributed precisely to this peculiar feature of his
work, namely the use of visual elements. To mention the history of the recep-
tion of the Jām-i jahān-namā, and of one of the diagrams it contains, was also
an opportunity to highlight some of the potential inherent to the study of dia-
grams in order to trace paths within Sufi intellectual history and history of
thought. Since one of the most influential authors to have used diagrams in
many of his works was Ibn al-ʿArabī, and since Shīrīn Maghribī was fully in the
wake of the great Andalusian master, and had a role in the so-called Akbarian
School, what we could call the micro-history of the reception of Maghribī’s
work should be considered part of the wider process of dissemination of the
work and thought of Ibn al-ʿArabī throughout the Islamic world. Precisely in
view of the fact that among the best known and most influential Sufi intellec-
tuals who made use of visual elements in their works are Ibn al-ʿArabī and many
Akbarian masters of later generations, it is not without significance to point out
that in many cases—although not in all of them—the history of Visual Sufism
corresponds with the history of the diffusion of the work and thought of Ibn
al-ʿArabī.

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shīrīn maghribī’s (d. 810/1408) visual sufism 259

figure 6.1 Shīrīn Maghribī’s visual Sufi network

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260 martini

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Salibi, Kamal. “The Banū Jamā‘a: A Dynasty of Shāfi‘ite Jurists in the Mamluk Period.”
Studia Islamica 9 (1958): 97–109
Salibi, Kamal. “Ibn Jamāʿa.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, 3 (1986): 748–
749.
Sarkīs, Yūsuf Īlyān. Muʿjam al-maṭbūʿāt al-ʿarabiyya wa-l-muʿarraba. 2 vols. [Cairo]:
Maṭbaʿa Sarkīs bi-Miṣr, 1346/1928.
Sirriyeh, Elizabeth. “Whatever Happened to the Banū Jamāʿa? The Tail of a Scholarly
Family in Ottoman Syria.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 28 (2001): 55–65.
Speziale, Fabrizio. “Il simbolismo mistico del volto umano nel trattato (in Urdu) Sūrat-
i maʿlūma-yi ṣuwari ʿilm di Karīm Allāh ʿĀshiq.” Journal Asiatique 295, no. 2 (2007):
439–459.
Yahya, Osman. Histoire et classification de l’oeuvre d’Ibn ‘Arabi. Damascus: Institut Fran-
çais de Damas, 1964.
al-Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn. al-Aʿlām: Qāmūs tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-l-nisāʾ min al-ʿarab
wa-l-mutaʿarribīn wa-l-mustashriqīn. 8 vols. Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm al-Malāyīn, 200215.

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 chapter 7

“Sensible Images”: Pictograms in the Manuscript

Transmission of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s
(d. 973/1565) al-Mīzān al-kubrā
Evyn Kropf

Introduction

In one of his earliest works, Kashf al-ghumma, the popular and prolific 16th
century Egyptian scholar and mystic ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī (d. 973/1565)
first introduces a remarkable theory on the equal orthodoxy of the four Sunni
madhāhib (schools or ways) and the pragmatic application of such plurality to
facilitate legal and ritual transactions.1
al-Shaʿrānī more fully elaborates this theory of Mīzān (Balance or Scale)
in his later work al-Mīzān al-kubrā (The Great Balance). Within this theory,
al-Shaʿrānī commends the equality of the madhāhib while contending that
the differences between them are not substantial.2 There is a single Sharīʿa—
to which all of the madhhab Founders and their followers are equally con-
nected at the Source—and two standards of interpretation, strict (al-ʿazīma
wa-l-tashdīd) for the ʿulamāʾ and Sufis and lenient (al-rukhṣa wa-l-takhfīf ) for
laypeople.3 Indeed, in its higher, profound reality (ḥaqīqatan) the Perfect Law
is the entirety of all the madhāhib valid in their teachings.4

1 See pp. 164–169 of Chapter 5 “Ibn ʿArabī’s Influence on ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī,” in Samer
Dajani, “Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of Ijtihād: its origins and later reception” (PhD Diss., soas
University of London, 2015); Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim, “al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism:
A Theory of Legal Pluralism,”Islamic Law and Society 20, nos. 1–2 (2013): 110–140; pp. 161–163 in
Adam Sabra, “Illiterate Sufis and Learned Artisans: The Circle of ʿAbd al-Wahhâb al-Shaʿrânî,”
in Le développement du soufisme en Égypte à l’époque mamelouke, eds. Richard McGregor and
Adam Sabra (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 2006): 153–168; and Samuela
Pagani, “The Meaning of the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib in ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān
al-Kubrā,” Islamic Law and Society 11, no. 2 (2004): 177–212, 184.
2 See Michael Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt: Studies in the Writings of
ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1982), 236–241.
3 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fols. 2b,
5a–b [present order]; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī, Kitāb al-Mīzān al-kubrā (Miṣr: al-Maṭbaʿa
al-Kastaliyya, 1279/1862, henceforth referred to as “Cairo 1862 ed.”), 3; Ibrahim, “al-Shaʿrānī’s
Response to Legal Purism,” 125, 129 and 133; Marion H. Katz, “ʿAzīma and rukhṣa,” Encyclo-

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264 kropf

As Michael Winter and Samuela Pagani have demonstrated, al-Shaʿrānī com-

posed and developed his theory of Balance within the conceptual framework
of Sufism5—drawing on the teachings of his spiritual director ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ
al-Burullusī (d. 939/1532–1533) and other shaykhs, and through his extensive
study of Sufi writings—particularly those of the renowned Sufi theoretician
Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).
Indeed, al-Shaʿrānī cites Ibn al-ʿArabī extensively in al-Mīzān, particularly
his al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. al-Shaʿrānī even attributes the central concept of
his theory—all four Sunni madhāhib originating in a single source—to Ibn al-
ʿArabī’s thought.6
Widely studied and appreciated in the centuries since its writing,7 al-Mīzān
al-kubrā has circulated in a vast number of manuscript copies and printed edi-
tions, drawing the particular attention of scholars exploring the social and legal
implications of what Michael Winter has called al-Shaʿrānī’s “bold, original and
revolutionary idea.”8

paedia of Islam, Three. For a thorough treatment of al-Shaʿrānī’s theory in the context of
fiqh, see A.Ė. Shmidt, ʿAbd-al-Vakhkhâb-ash-Shaʿrânīĭ (973/1565) i ego kniga Razsypannykh
zhemchuzhin ([St. Petersburg]: Tip. Imp. Akademīi nauk, 1914).
4 “fa-l-sharīʿa al-kāmila ḥaqīqatan hiya jamīʿ al-madhāhib al-ṣaḥīḥa bi-aqwāli-hā …” al-Mīzān
al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 13a; Cairo 1862 ed., 30.
5 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 237, 241 and Pagani, “The Meaning of
the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib,” 194ff. Knut Vikør also characterizes al-Shaʿrānī’s approach to the
“irrelevance or ‘unification’ of the madhhabs” as “deeply steeped in Sufi ideas,” see p. 374,
364–375 of “The Shaykh as a mujtahid: A Sufi Conception of ijtihad,” In El Sufismo y las nor-
mas del Islam: Trabajos del iv Congreso Internacional de Estudios Jurídicos Islámicos, Derecho
y Sufismo, Murcia, 7–10 mayo 2003, ed. by Alfonso Carmona (Murcia: Editora Regional de
Murcia, 2006): 351–375.
6 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, Cairo 1862 ed., 16–17; ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 7a–b. al-Shaʿrānī has
also echoed Ibn al-ʿArabī in his concern for the practice of laypeople and pragmatic school
boundary-crossing Cf. Ibrahim, “al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism,” 132 and especially
Dajani, “Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of Ijtihād,” 151–193, in which he attempts to thoroughly ana-
lyze Ibn al-ʿArabī’s influence on al-Shaʿrānī.
7 On the popularity of al-Shaʿrānī’s writings including al-Mīzān see Leila Hudson, “Reading al-
Shaʿrānī: The Sufi Genealogy of Islamic Modernism in Late Ottoman Damascus,” Journal of
Islamic Studies 15, no. 1 (2004): 39–68.
8 Cf. Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 241. These include Hikimathulla
Bin M.H. Babu Sahib, “A Study of al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā,” (PhD Diss., University of
Edinburgh, 1995); Pagani “The Meaning of the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib”; Ibrahim, “al-Shaʿrānī’s
Response to Legal Purism”; and Dajani, “Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of Ijtihād,” Chapter 5. Of
course al-Shaʿrānī is indebted to earlier pragmatic writings on the validity of differences of
opinion among the madhāhib, useful for practitioners in offering legal advice to laypeople.
The most salient is the Raḥmat al-umma fī ikhtilāf al-aʾimma of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-
Raḥmān al-Dimashqī al-ʿUthmānī (fl. 780/1378). Some scholars have argued that al-

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“sensible images” 265

Even so, little attention has been paid to another compelling aspect of the
work—namely, al-Shaʿrānī’s use of imagery in the form of a series of nine
schematic illustrations or pictograms that appear with extensive labels and
companion explanatory texts in a dedicated chapter of the work’s introduc-
tion.9 al-Shaʿrānī refers to these pictograms as amthila maḥsūsa—sensible
images or simulacra which serve as allegories subject to sensory perception.10
My initial survey of a preliminary corpus of more than 50 manuscript cop-
ies of al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā reveals that the pictograms appeared
in the earliest known manuscripts as fundamental content, essential to the
work’s emerging form.11 This includes a manuscript—Şehid Ali Paşa 994, now

Shaʿrānī took this work as a model (cf. Joseph Schacht, “Ik̲h̲tilāf,” ei2 and Pagani, “The
Meaning of the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib,” 190) but Ibrahim notes that al-Shaʿrānī (in con-
trast to al-Dimashqī) attempts to provide a theoretical justification for legal practice (cf.
Ibrahim, “al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism,” 125). See also Ignaz Goldziher, “Zur Lit-
eratur des Ichtilâf al-Maḏâhib.”Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 38
(1884): 669–682.
9 These simplified symbolic visualizations indirectly signify abstract concepts while resem-
bling their intermediate metaphorical referents. Thus, they are both symbolic and iconic
and I therefore characterize them as pictograms. Samuela Pagani does touch on the picto-
grams (which she calls “drawings”) quite briefly in her treatment of al-Shaʿrānī’s theories,
notably his “peculiar blending of Sufi and legal discourses” (cf. Pagani, “The Meaning of
the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib,” 195 note 85 and 210). Samer Dajani also makes brief reference
to the pictograms (cf. Dajani, “Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of Ijtihād,” 173–175).
10 Of course amthila being the plural of mithāl, variously understood as ‘image,’ ‘simulacrum,’
‘model,’ ‘allegory,’ ‘analogy’ or even ‘imagination’ and distinct from mathal (pl. amthāl)
‘similitude,’ ‘likeness,’ or even ‘sensible form.’ See William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Know-
ledge: Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany, NY: suny Press, 1989), 85 and
117, and Jamal Elias, Aisha’s Cushion: Religious Art, Perception, and Practice in Islam (Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 222–223 and 230. For Fazlur Rahman ʿālam
al-mithāl equates to “realm of images,” cf. “Dream, Imagination, and ʿālam al-mithāl,” In
The Dream and Human Societies, eds. Gustav von Grunebaum and Roger Caillois (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1966): 409–419. Samer Akkach adds “Mithāl equates
‘symbol’ in the sense of being a shadow of a higher reality revealed in a sensible form.” Cf.
Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading
of Mystical Ideas (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005), 28.
11 I have been compiling a census of manuscripts for the Mīzān, and from that have drawn
my preliminary corpus. Almost all of the manuscripts within the present corpus were pro-
duced in the 17th and 18th centuries in former Ottoman areas, were eventually collected
by Ottoman officials and are now preserved in the Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi in Istan-
bul. I have also consulted manuscripts for al-Mīzān and related works now preserved in
the University of Michigan Library, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Yale Uni-
versity), British Library, Leipzig University Library, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, New York
Public Library, and Gazi Husrev-Begova Biblioteka in Sarajevo. I continue to consult addi-
tional manuscripts.

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preserved in the Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi in Istanbul—that numerous sub-

sequent copyists came to regard as an exemplar in the hand of the author.
This manuscript contains the entire work in a single volume of only around
190 folios with incredibly dense layout.12 The manuscript carries numerous
signs of emendation, and the overall impression is of an evolving text poten-
tially just emerging from its draft stages.13 The manuscript includes an authorial
colophon and though variations in hand and line thickness are apparent at
multiple places in the manuscript, it seems plausible that some portion may
indeed be in the hand of al-Shaʿrānī and that he directed the production of
the copy (Plate 7.1).14 The manuscript was obviously heavily used and valued,
and it has received numerous repairs, including a rebinding that has resulted in
several of the opening folios being positioned out of order. Again, most import-
antly, subsequent copyists considered it an autograph exemplar (Plate 7.2).15

12 The number of lines per page reaches a remarkable 40 in places. In most printed editions,
the work is presented as two volumes—often two volumes in one.
13 Extensive annotations appear in a few different hands on the margins throughout and
symbols of correction and collation together suggest that the transcript underwent a thor-
ough review process. Most of the corrections provide omitted text. Some areas of text
have been struck through. Other corrected words and passages have been provided on
bits of paper pasted over earlier text. Such corrections extend to the title piece where the
title assigned to the work was altered from al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya—the title of another
shorter, earlier work of al-Shaʿrānī on the same theme, to be discussed in due course—to
al-Mīzān al-Shaʿrāniyya (cf. ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 1a).
14 The title piece (fol. 1a) attributes the work’s authorship to its copyist (taʾlīf kātibi-hā) whom
it identifies as al-Shaʿrānī not by nisba but instead with an extensive listing of his nasab.
The authorial colophon at the close of the text (fol. 190b) reads: ‫قال ذلك وكتبه عبد الوهاب‬
‫ابن احمد الشعرانى مولف هذا الكتاب فى سلخ شهر رمضان المعظم قدره سنه ست وستين وتسعماية بمصر‬
.‫المحروسة جعلها الله تعالى دار اسلام وايمان واحسان وايقان الى يوم الدين امين امين امين امين‬
While this statement certainly offers a reasonable indication of authorship, date, and
place of completion for the composition of the work (30 Ramaḍān 966 [ca. 6 July 1559]
in Egypt), its reference to transcription does not necessarily extend to the entire volume.
In fact, there are variations in hand and line thickness apparent at multiple places in the
manuscript (including a change in hand where the khātima begins, though this authorial
colophon is in that same hand) and it may have actually been transcribed by a few differ-
ent copyists. Still, at this stage it is certainly plausible that al-Shaʿrānī was directly involved
in the production of this copy.
15 The copyist of the undated ms Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Laleli 1228 reproduces verbatim
the authorial colophon appearing in ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994 and takes pains to model that
manuscript’s transcript and pictograms with earnest fidelity, presumably believing it to
be an autograph. The copyist of ms Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Reisülküttab 403, dated 3
Jumādā i 1015 [ca. 6 Sept. 1606], similarly reproduces the authorial colophon (and other
elements) of ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994 and explicitly indicates in his colophon that he has
worked from an autograph (min khaṭṭ al-muʾallif ). This copyist was presumably close to
al-Shaʿrānī’s circle, as one of his nisbas suggest his resident affiliation with the Sufi order

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“sensible images” 267

Further, the pictograms were later transmitted by copyists and collaborat-

ing artisans—those skilled at drawing, painting, and illumination—who con-
sidered them integral to the work and significant icons in their own right.
In fact, inclusion of the pictograms extends across the manuscript corpus
and even to almost all lithographed and printed editions of al-Mīzān.16 I have
yet to encounter a manuscript of the work without the pictograms, though I
have encountered a copy that includes only two of the nine.17
Perhaps even more interestingly, I have also encountered the pictograms in
the manuscript corpus beyond witnesses for al-Mīzān. The pictograms appear
incorporated into prayer compendia as devotional devices (Plate 7.3),18 tipped
in and incorporated into a couple of manuscript copies of silsilename works,19
and even inserted out of order at the opening of a manuscript copy of Erzur-
umlu İbrahim Hakkı’s (d. 1780) Marifetname.20 This appropriation of the pic-
tograms further suggests that they acquired a more expansive iconic signifi-
cance—likely by way of association with mystical experience and supersensory
revealed knowledge of otherwise unseen profound realities—and merits more
thorough investigation.21

associated with al-Shaʿrānī (al-Shaʿrāwī waṭanan wa-khirqatan) cf. colophon on fol. 278b
‫وكان الفراغ من تبييض هذه النسخة من خط المولف يوم الثلاث المبارك ثالث جمادى الاول سنة‬
‫خمسة عشر بعد الالف من الهجرة النبو ية على صاحبها افضل الصلاة والسلام على يد الفقير الحقير المدعي‬
‫بالعجز والتقصير احمد بن علي الشبراهارسي بلدا الشعراوي وطنا وخرقة غفر الله له ولوالديه ولمن دعا له‬
.‫بالمغفرة امين امين امين‬
16 To not include the pictograms is quite the exception, but the 1970s Istanbul edition of the
introduction (Mîzân-ül kübrâ kitâbının önsözü, Ed. Hüseyn Hilmi Işık) omits them and
deliberately so. Though essentially a reprint of the earlier mid-19c Cairo editions, the sec-
tion on the pictograms is left out and the pagination altered to disguise the omission.
17 ms Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Kılıç Ali Paşa 465, copied 12 Rabīʿ i 1020 [ca. 25 May 1611].
The two diagrams appear on fol. 40a and fol. 40b without complete context (i.e. the open-
ing of the chapter is lacking as well).
18 Staatsbibliothek Ms. or. oct. 1602 (copied in 1707–1709, likely in Istanbul) and New York
Public Library M&A Arab 22 (copied in 1874). My thanks to Christiane Gruber for bringing
these manuscripts to my attention.
19 ms Çelebi Abdullah 262, likely transcribed during reign of Ahmet i (r. 1603–1617) with dia-
grams likely later, perhaps even 18th c., and ms Nuruosmaniye 3304, likely transcribed
during reign of Mehmet iv (r. 1648–1687), both Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi. My thanks to
İlker Evrim Binbaş for bringing these manuscripts to my attention.
20 ms Ankara, Milli Kütüphane, 06 Mil Yz B 621/1. Again, my thanks to Christiane Gruber for
bringing this manuscript to my attention.
21 For an overview of the varied roles and significations of pictorial motifs in illustrated Otto-
man prayer miscellanies, see Christiane Gruber, “A Pious Cure-all: the Ottoman Illustrated
Prayer Manual in the Lilly Library,” In The Islamic Manuscript Tradition: Ten Centuries of
Book Arts in Indiana University Collections, ed. Christiane Gruber (Bloomington, IN: Indi-
ana University Press, 2009): 116–153.

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268 kropf

plate 7.1 Colophon, marginal annotations, strike-through, annotated paste-overs, etc.

visible at the close of the autograph exemplar of al-Mīzān al-kubrā (al-Mīzān
al-Shaʿrāniyya in title piece). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süley-
maniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, copied in Egypt in 966/1559, fol. 190b)

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“sensible images” 269

plate 7.2 Comparison of pictograms in the recognized autograph ms Istanbul, Süley-

maniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fols. 25b–26a (above) and ms Istanbul,
Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Laleli 1228, fols. 32b–33a (below), a copy taken either
directly from the autograph or from a careful intermediary. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān
al-kubrā.

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kropf

plate 7.3 Pictograms from al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā appropriated for an Ottoman prayer compen-
dium (ms Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, or. oct. 1602, dated 1119–1121/1707–1709, fols. 38b–39a)

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“sensible images” 271

The pictograms’ significance emerging from the manuscript corpus has

raised a number of questions for me regarding their origins, their functions,
and al-Shaʿrānī’s purpose in including them. To explore these questions, I
have turned to al-Shaʿrānī’s exposition of the pictograms which he presents
alongside them in al-Mīzān, as well as to his influences and his intentions—
particularly as explicitly laid out within the text.
In this contribution, I will introduce the pictograms of al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān
al-kubrā and offer preliminary observations regarding their function as per-
suasive, instructive visual devices grounded in a Sufi paradigm. I will explore
the intellectual contexts from which the author produced this work, interrogate
his interpretations of the pictograms, and consider his intentions surrounding
their purpose and function. Ultimately, I will argue that the pictograms reflect
a deliberate effort at conveying indispensable visual content that gives form to
the spiritual. In this way, the author validates and brings nearer to comprehen-
sion his claims for the metaphysical reality underpinning his theory and details
a prescription toward a similar encounter with the Source of the Law (ʿayn al-
sharīʿa) for the seeker approaching revealed knowledge.

1 Sufi Paradigms: Intellectual Contexts for al-Mīzān

According to al-Shaʿrānī’s own autobiographical accounts and the biograph-

ers who relied heavily upon them,22 he was born into a distinguished, schol-
arly family and raised in a Sufi milieu. In his writings, al-Shaʿrānī claims des-
cent from Mūsā Abū ʿImrān (d. 707/1307), a son of the sultan of Tlemcen who
became a disciple and follower of the celebrated shaykh Abū Madyan Shuʿayb
(d. 589/1193 or 594/1198), spiritual father of the Shādhilī Ṣūfī order.23
al-Shaʿrānī himself considered roughly 50 shaykhs among his teachers in-
structing him in fiqh, ḥadīth, mysticism and other subjects and he references
many of their teachings in al-Mīzān and in his other writings.24 Among the
most significant is the celebrated Shāfiʿī scholar Zakarīyā b. Muḥammad al-
Anṣārī (d. 925–926/1519–1520)—al-Shaʿrānī’s chief teacher in fiqh who, despite

22 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 38–41.

23 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 41–42; Winter, “al-S̲h̲aʿrānī,” ei2; and
indeed this lineage appears in the title piece of ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994. For biograph-
ical details for many of these notable individuals, see al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā
(= Lawāqiḥ al-anwār fī ṭabaqāt al-akhyār), ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḥasan Maḥmūd (Cairo:
Maktabat al-Ādāb, 1414–1421/1993–2001).
24 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 54ff.

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his outward occupation as an important jurist, was also a Sufi who composed
several important works and even initiated al-Shaʿrānī as a Sufi novice.25
The most important shaykh in al-Shaʿrānī’s Sufi education was ʿAlī al-Khaw-
wāṣ al-Burullusī (d. 939/1532–1533), an illiterate palm-leaf plaiter to whom al-
Shaʿrānī attributes ideas and sayings copiously dispersed throughout his writ-
ings, including al-Mīzān. al-Shaʿrānī composed at least two volumes in which
he compiled his master’s rulings and responses to various questions.26
Further, al-Shaʿrānī studied numerous written works—annotating them and
their commentaries. Among the most often quoted such works in his writings
are those of al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505), al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and particularly Ibn
al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) of whom he is recognized as a fervent admirer, devoted
student and passionate defender.27
Indeed, emerging from al-Shaʿrānī’s extensive engagement with Ibn al-ʿAra-
bī’s works, it can be asserted that from Ibn al-ʿArabī al-Shaʿrānī adopted much
of his Sufism and his theory of cognition.28
The Law (al-sharīʿa) was quite important within Ibn al-ʿArabī’s mystical
philosophy and in his seminal masterwork al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, he discusses
at length the inviolability of the Law and the just Scale (or Balance) of the Law
(al-mīzān al-sharʿī).29 al-Shaʿrānī emphasizes Ibn al-ʿArabī’s views on the signi-
ficance of the Law and its necessity for attainment of mystical unveiling (kashf )
in his abridgement of his own synopsis of the Futūḥāt, al-Kibrīt al-aḥmar.30

25 In fact al-Shaʿrānī considered him to be a Sufi saint; cf. Winter, Society and Religion in Early
Ottoman Egypt, 55.
26 Durar al-ghawwāṣ fī Fatāwā al-Khawwāṣ, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Ismāʿīl (Cairo: Dār
al-Hudá, 1405/1985) and al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar (Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya li-l-Turāth,
1418/1998) cf. Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 57. al-Shaʿrānī was
also influenced by the teachings of ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ’ shaykh, the well-known Ibrāhīm al-
Matbūlī (d. 877/1472), a central figure in the 15th century Sufi circles of Cairo. al-Shaʿrānī
named his principal manual of ethics for him, al-Akhlāq al-Matbūliyya (cf. Winter, Society
and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 8–9 notes 31, 43–44, etc., and Sabra, “Illiterate Sufis
and Learned Artisans,” 154).
27 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 53, 165ff. Winter notes that “No other
Sufi writer is quoted so much in his works” (p. 165).
28 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 166; see also William Chittick, The Sufi
Path of Knowledge.
29 See for example chapter 11 “The Scale of the Law” in Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge,
170–189, as well as “The Inviolability of the Law,” 258ff. On pp. 173–174 Chittick gives the
following excerpt from the Futūḥāt “He who desires the path of knowledge and felicity
should not let the Scale of the Law drop from his hand for a single instant … In the same
way, no one for whom the Law is prescribed (al-mukallaf ) or rather no human being
should let the Scale established by the Law drop from his hand … (iii 239.19).”
30 See pp. 380–384 in Richard J.A. McGregor, “Notes on the Transmission of Mystical Philo-

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al-Shaʿrānī also gives tremendous weight to the Futūḥāt in al-Mīzān and

cites the work extensively in his introduction.31 In a passage addressing cor-
roboration for his theory in the writings of other scholars,32 al-Shaʿrānī cites
the Futūḥāt and credits Ibn al-ʿArabī with espousing the idea that, to whatever
madhhab a jurist adhered, he would find that madhhab terminating in the
Source (al-ʿayn) from which its imam derived their rulings. There he would
see the rulings of all the imams dipped out from the same sea (taghtarifu min
baḥr wāḥid).33 Thereby that jurist would be loosened from strict adherence to
a single madhhab but would thereafter give decisions according to the equal
soundness of all the madhāhib. Elsewhere in the introduction, al-Shaʿrānī cites
the Futūḥāt in his discussion of the necessity of following the Sufi path under
the guidance of a shaykh for attaining revealed knowledge of the Balance by
direct tasting (dhawq) and even attaining direct witness (shuhūd) of the Source
of the Law (ʿayn al-sharīʿa).34
This influence of Ibn al-ʿArabī extends to al-Shaʿrānī’s use of imagery, which
Ibn al-ʿArabī also employed liberally.35 In the Futūḥāt, Ibn al-ʿArabī mentions
that he is utilizing images or simulacra (amthila) and similitudes or sensory
forms (amthāl) to bring concepts nearer to imagination (taṣawwur) for those

sophy: Ibn ʿArabī according to ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī,” In Reason and Inspiration
in Islam. Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Muslim Thought: Essays in Honour of
Hermann Landolt, ed. Todd Lawson (London: I.B. Tauris, 2005): 380–392. Altogether, al-
Shaʿrānī devoted no fewer than four of his works to the Futūḥāt, including his own work of
Sufi doctrine, al-Yawāqīt wa-l-jawāhir. Other works include: Lawāqiḥ al-anwār al-qudisiyya
fī bayān qawāʿid al-Ṣūfiyya (or al-Muntaqāh min al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya) a synopsis of the
Futūḥāt (gal ii, 336, no. 8); Sawāṭiʿ al-anwār al-qudisiyya fī-mā ṣadarat bi-hi al-Futūḥāt
al-Makkiyya, explaining the verses of the Futūḥāt (gal ii, 336, no. 9); and of course al-
Kibrīt al-aḥmar fī bayān ʿulūm al-Shaykh al-Akbar, an abridgement of Lawāqiḥ al-anwār
(gal ii, 336, no. 11). See Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 165. As
Richard McGregor has pointed out, it is through al-Shaʿrānī’s works on the Futūḥāt (espe-
cially al-Kibrīt al-aḥmar) that many Muslim scholars accessed Ibn al-ʿArabī’s thought (cf.
McGregor, “Notes on the Transmission of Mystical Philosophy,” 390).
31 In at least seven instances directly and elsewhere indirectly, as Samer Dajani has also
observed. Dajani further notes instances of al-Shaʿrānī placing ideas which appear in the
writings of Ibn al-ʿArabī into the mouth of al-Khawwāṣ (Cf. Dajani, “Ibn ʿArabī’s concep-
tion of Ijtihād,” 184–185 and 188–189).
32 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 7a–b; Cairo 1862 ed., 16–17.
33 al-Shaʿrānī uses this same terminology of ightirāf in numerous places in al-Mīzān to ref-
erence the all the madhāhib or their respective rulings being dipped out from the Source
of the Law (cf. for example al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fols. 1b, 10a and 14b;
Cairo 1862 ed., 1, 22 and 33).
34 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 14b; Cairo 1862 ed., 33–34.
35 See the contributions of Ali Karjoo-Ravary (Chapter 2) and Sophie Tyser (Chapter 3) to
the present volume.

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weak intellects who cannot imagine or perceive (idrāk) the meaning of such
things apart from a similitude (mathal). In this “striking of similitudes” (ḍarb
al-amthāl) or allegorical imagery, he follows the practice of God himself.36
al-Shaʿrānī similarly characterizes his own use of sensible images or allegor-
ies subject to sensory perception (amthila maḥsūsa) in al-Mīzān.

2 al-Shaʿrānī’s Explanation of the Pictograms of al-Mīzān

al-Shaʿrānī first alludes to the pictograms of his al-Mīzān al-kubrā early in his
introduction to the work as he outlines his approach and the various issues
he will address. There he indicates that he has included several introductory
chapters which are beneficial as elucidation of obscure expressions or as a cor-
ridor that conducts one to the far interior of a house. He continues, indicating
that:

… one of the introductory chapters includes mention (dhikr) of sensible

images or allegories subject to sensory perception that bring nearer to
comprehension (tuqarribu ʿalā al-ʿaql) just how all the madhāhib derive
from the Great Source of the Law (ʿayn al-sharīʿa al-kubrā) and the man-
ner of connectedness—taken from the Presence of Divine Revelation—
between the rulings of the latest followers (muqallidīn) of the Founders
and the rulings of the earliest of them, from Throne to Footstool to Pen
to Tablet to Jibrīl to Muḥammad to the Companions to the Followers
to the Followers’ followers to the Founding Imams and their followers
(muqallidī-him) to the Day of Judgment. And [the chapter includes] clear
exposition (bayān)37 of a Tree, Net, Circle, and Sea from which the per-
son who considers them and reflects intently can apprehend ( yaʿlamu
al-nāẓir fī-hā idhā taʾammala) that nothing of the rulings of the Imams
departs from the Law. [Further, it includes] clear exposition of how all
the Founding Imams will be interceding for their followers and regarding
their distresses in this World and the Intermediate (Barzakh) and on the
Day of Resurrection such that they can pass over the Bridge. [Further, it
includes] clear exposition of how every madhhab adopted with sincerity

36 Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb (Cairo: al-Majlis
al-Aʿlā li-l-Thaqāfa, 2017), 9:313 and 317 (= Fut. iii, 419 & 420).
37 Also “evidential proof,” cf. Alexander Knysh, Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Leiden:
Brill, 2000), 312–313. See also S.A. Bonebakker, “al-Maʿānī wa ’l-Bayān. 1. Arabic,” ei2.

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“sensible images” 275

will lead to the Gate of Paradise, and finally clear exposition of the near-
ness of all the Founding Imams with the Prophet along the River of Life
in Paradise, as it is revealed by mystical unveiling.38

The pictograms themselves appear a bit later, in the chapter alluded to previ-
ously. al-Shaʿrānī titles this chapter:

Chapter on clear exposition of a significant number of the sensible images

or allegories by means of which is apprehended the connectedness of
the rulings of all the legal interpreters and their followers with the Great
Source of the Law. So contemplate them for they will guide you, God will-
ing.39

Immediately following the chapter title, al-Shaʿrānī launches into the picto-
grams. Through a series of rectangular fields terminating in triangular shapes
and joined by rules, the opening pictogram presents a “mithāl (image or simu-
lacrum) of the Presence of Revelation (ḥaḍrat al-waḥy), branching off it or from
it all legal judgments” through a series of Presences or orders of being (ḥaḍarāt)
each of which are labeled (Plate 7.4).40 Surmounted by the Unconditioned
Presence of Revelation (ḥaḍrat al-waḥy allatī lā tukayyafu), they continue in
manifestation with the Throne, the Footstool, the Pen, the Preserved Tablet,
the Tablets of Obliteration and Affirmation, Jibrīl, Muḥammad, the Compan-
ions, the Founding Imams (al-aʾimma al-mujtahidīn), and finally their followers
to the day of resurrection. In the accompanying explanatory text, al-Shaʿrānī
explicitly states that he has not placed a rule joining the Presence of Revelation
to the others, for it is not reasonable to conceive of its direct connectedness to
anyone.41

38 This full passage appears in ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 4b [present order] and in the Cairo
1862 ed., 10.
39 The chapter appears in ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994 on fols. 22b–26a and in the Cairo 1862 ed. on
pp. 52–59.
40 The supplied heading in the autograph exemplar reads ‫فمثال حضرة الوحي وتفرع جميع‬
‫ الاحكام عنها او منها‬cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 23a and compare Cairo
1862 ed., 53.
41 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 23a; Cairo 1862 ed., 53. In many manu-
scripts, the artisans rendered this detail, taking care to omit a band between the opening
field (labeled ḥaḍrat al-waḥy) and the next. However, some artisans either did not notice
or did not recognize its significance as discussed in the companion text (perhaps owing to
limited mastery of the Arabic) and therefore included a joining band (cf. ms Süleymaniye
Kütüphanesi, Yeni Cami 584, copied 1669, fol. 25a).

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 276

plate 7.4 Pictogram of the Presence of Revelation (ḥaḍrat al-waḥy), branching off it or from it all legal
kropf

judgments. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali
Paşa 994, copied in Egypt in 966/1559, autograph, fols. 22b–23a)

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“sensible images” 277

The next pictogram presents the “mithāl of the Source of the Pure Law (ʿayn
al-sharīʿa al-muṭahhara)” as an opening at the base of a Tree (shajara).42 al-
Shaʿrānī explains that from this opening emerges large branches represent-
ing the rulings of the Founders of the four madhāhib, then smaller branches
representing the sayings of their important followers, and limbs branching
off from the various sides of the branches representing the students of those
followers. Finally red dots at the tips of the small limbs represent the ques-
tions for decision derived from the rulings of the scholars in every epoch
(Plate 7.5 right).43 al-Shaʿrānī indicates that the viewer contemplating this tree
should come to know that no ruling can be found that is not connected to
those that preceded it back to the Source of the Law.44 In their rendering of
a tree, many artisans have carefully included branches of various sizes with the
smallest branches terminating in red dots, after the model in the autograph
exemplar. Others departed from the explanatory text and simply rendered a
tree.45
The next pictogram—almost always appearing on the facing page—pre-
sents “another mithāl of the connectedness of all the madhāhib of the Founding
legal interpreters and their followers (madhāhib al-mujtahidīn wa-muqallidī-
him) with the Source of the Law” in the manner of a Circle (dāʾira, as it is
characterized elsewhere in the text) of lines or watercourses (khuṭūṭ) leading
to a central Spring (ʿayn).46 Each line or watercourse is labeled for a madhhab
(school or way) and the central circle is typically labeled “The Source of the
Law” (See Plate 7.5 upper left and compare Plate 7.6).47

42 Provided in a label in the autograph exemplar but without independent heading ‫مثال عين‬
‫ الشر يعة المطهرة‬cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 23b. Some later manuscripts
supply a heading as well. In the opening lines of his preface, al-Shaʿrānī characterizes the
Sharīʿa itself like unto the Great Spreading Tree, with the rulings of the ʿulamāʾ like the
branches and twigs. Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 1b; Cairo 1862 ed., 2:

‫فان الشر يعةكالشجرة العظيمة المنتشرة وأقوال علمائها كالفروع والأغصان فلا يوجد لنا فرع من غير‬
‫اصل ولا ثمرة من غير غصن‬
43 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 23b; Cairo 1862 ed., 54.
44 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 23b; Cairo 1862 ed., 54.
45 Some taking an extremely naturalistic approach cf. ms Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Hacı
Selim Ağa 403, Egypt 1604 (though pictograms much later), fols. 48b–49a.
46 The supplied heading in the autograph exemplar reads: ‫مثال اخر لاتصال سائر مذاهب‬
‫المجتهدين ومقلديهم بعين الشر يعة‬. Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24a and
compare Cairo 1862 ed., 55.
47 The view of madhhab leans toward the sense of doctrine rather than the technical sense
for legal system and is quite expansive, with more than 18 included in the pictogram.

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 278

plate 7.5 Pictogram of the Tree (right) facing Pictogram of the Spring and Watercourses / Circle (upper
kropf

left) and Pictogram of the Net (lower left). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süley-
maniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, copied in Egypt in 966/1559, autograph, fols. 23b–24a)

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“sensible images” 279

plate 7.6 Pictogram of the Spring and Watercourses / Circle and Pictogram of the Net.
al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Aşir
Efendi 124, Egypt? 1023/1614, fol. 32a)

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280 kropf

Below the Circle/Spring and Watercourses appears a mithāl of the “Fisher-

man’s Net (shabakat al-ṣayyād),”48 with each hole interlocked and connected
back with the first hole, which represents the Source of the Law. Most artisans
rendered this as a triangular shape with crosshatch infill, surmounted by a lar-
ger loop or circle labeled “the Source of the Law” (See Plate 7.5 lower left and
compare Plate 7.6).
The next pictogram presents the “mithāl of the ṣūra (simulacrum of the
form) of the connectedness of all the madhāhib of the Founding legal inter-
preters and the rulings of their followers with the Sea of the Revelation and
the Tradition (baḥr al-kitāb wa-l-sunna) by way of manifest ascription.”49 In
the presumed autograph exemplar, the pictogram includes a perimeter defin-
ing the boundary of the Sea from which extends small lines representing the
madhāhib of the Founders (Plate 7.7 upper right). This is certainly subtle, and
many artisans failed to distinguish it from the surrounding frame of the written
area and even neglected the extending bands entirely.50
Below the Sea appears the “mithāl of the position of the four imams and
others at the Accounting and the Weighing (al-ḥisāb wa-l-mīzān) with their fol-
lowers behind them so that they may intercede.”51 The stations of the imams are
typically provided along the interior corners of an inner square with a render-
ing of a balance or scales at the center. Extending back from the inner square
are fields with strokes or marks representing the followers (see Plate 7.7 lower
right and compare Plate 7.8).
On the facing page appears the “mithāl of the position of the Founding
Imams regarding their followers on the Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ) such that they may be
delivered to Paradise without falling into the Fire.”52 Two different images for

48 No heading is provided with this pictogram in the autograph exemplar and the term mithāl
is not explicitly used but understood as the Net is characterized this way elsewhere in the
introduction. Instead, the words ‫ ونظير ذلك ايضا شبكة الصياد‬are rubricated within the text
cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24a.
49 The heading supplied in the autograph exemplar reads ‫وهذا مثال صورة اتصال مذاهب‬
‫ المجتهدين واقوال مقلديهم ببحر الكتاب والسنة من طر يق السند الظاهر‬cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid
Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24b and compare Cairo 1862 ed., 56.
50 Cf. ms University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center), Isl. Ms.
586, likely late 17th century, p. 64 and ms Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Nuruosmaniye 1875,
copied in 1694, fol. 26b.
51 Intended is the accounting at the end of days. The heading supplied in the autograph
exemplar reads: ‫مثال موقف الائمة الار بعة وغيرهم عند الحساب والميزان واتباعهم خلفهم ليشفعوا‬.
Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24b and compare Cairo 1862 ed., 56.
52 The heading supplied in the autograph exemplar reads: ‫وهذا مثال موقف الائمة المجتهدين‬
‫يلاحظون اتباعهم على الصراط حتى يخلصوا الى الجنة من غير وقوع في النار‬. Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā,
ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 25a and compare Cairo 1862 ed., 57.

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 “sensible images”
281

plate 7.7 Pictogram of the Sea (upper right) and Pictogram of the Accounting / Weighing (lower right)
facing the Pictogram of the Bridge (left). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süley-

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maniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 994, Egypt 966/1559, autograph, fols. 24b–25a)
 282

plate 7.8 Pictogram of the Sea (upper right) and Pictogram of the Accounting / Weighing (lower right)
kropf

facing the Pictogram of the Bridge (left). al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süley-
maniye Kütüphanesi, Atıf Efendi 1076, Egypt? 1055/1646, fols. 43b–44a)

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“sensible images” 283

the Bridge are given according to whether or not the people on them kept to the
Law or diverted from it—one straight and one jagged in a zig-zag fashion—and
the mithāl of Hell is given below, typically in the form of a solid dark rectangular
field (see Plate 7.7 left and compare Plate 7.8 left).
The next pictogram presents a “mithāl of the paths of the madhāhib of the
Founding Imams to the gates of Paradise and that whoever sincerely follows a
madhhab among them will be conveyed by it to the gate of Paradise” (Plate 7.9
right).53 This is typically represented as a large rectangular field with several
lines labeled for the paths of the followers of each of several imams, each of
which leads to an opening labeled “the Gate of Paradise” (bāb al-janna). Into the
design of the gate some artists have incorporated the Qurʾanic verses “But the
righteous will be in Gardens with springs—‘Enter them in peace and safety!’ ”
(Plate 7.10)54
The final pictogram on the facing page presents the “mithāl of the Domed
shrines (qibāb) of the Founding Imams by the River of Life (nahr al-ḥayāt) in
Paradise, which is the semblance (maẓhar) of the Sea of the Pure Law in the
world” (See Plate 7.9 left).55 This is typically represented by series of five dome
shapes along a rectangular field with vegetal forms sprouting from it. Each
dome is labeled for a different Founding Imam or for the Prophet, whose dome
is larger than the others. al-Shaʿrānī says that “the perfection of their pleas-
ure in Paradise is beholding the essence of the Prophet.”56 Again some artists
have added here the Qurʾānic verses: “The righteous will live securely among
Gardens and rivers, secure in the presence of an all-powerful Sovereign”57 (See
again Plate 7.10), but more commonly a solid field is employed.
al-Shaʿrānī concludes the chapter presenting these amthila with an empha-
tic statement regarding the source of this final mithāl, namely that he did not
draw the domes with his mind, but according to a ṣūra (form or image) which
he saw in Paradise during one of his visions.58

53 The heading supplied in the autograph exemplar reads: ‫وهذا مثال طرق مذاهب الائمة‬
‫المجتهدين الى ابواب الجنة وان كل من عمل بمذهب منها خالصا اوصله الى باب الجنة‬. Cf. al-Mīzān
al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 25b; Cairo 1862 ed., 58.
54 Q 15:45–46 trans. M.A.S. Abdel Haleem. See for example ms Şehid Ali Paşa 995, Egypt 1625,
fol. 36b.
55 The companion text in the autograph exemplar opens: ‫وهذا مثال قباب الائمة المجتهدين على نهر‬
‫الحياة في الجنة الذي هو مظهر بحر الشر يعة المطهرة في الدنيا‬. Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali
Paşa 994, fol. 26a and compare Cairo 1862 ed., 59.
56 ‫فكان من كمال نعيمهم في الجنة شهود ذاته صلى الله عليه وسلم‬. Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali
Paşa 994, fol. 26a; Cairo 1862 ed., 59.
57 Q 54:54–55 trans. M.A.S. Abdel Haleem. Again see ms Şehid Ali Paşa 995, fol. 37a.
58 … ‫وما رسمت هذه القباب بعقلي وانما رسمتها على صورة ما ر يأتها في الجنة في بعض الوقائع‬. Cf. al-Mīzān
al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 26a; Cairo 1862 ed., 59.

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plate 7.9 Pictogram of the Gate (right) facing Pictogram of the Domed shrines by the River of Life (left)
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in autograph exemplar. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi,

Şehid Ali Paşa 994, Egypt 966/1559, fols. 25b–26a)

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plate 7.10 Pictogram of the Gate (right) facing Pictogram of the Domed shrines by the River of Life (left),
each incorporating Qurʾanic verses. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye

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3 al-Shaʿrānī’s Own Experience of Attaining Revealed Knowledge

of the Balance and the Source of the Law

As a defender of Sufi orthodoxy and ardent adherent of Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Shaʿrā-

nī himself held particular regard for the Law and its significance as an essential
guide even in mysticism—even surer than mystical unveiling which could vary
in its source but in its true form would always agree or correspond with the
Law.59
In al-Mīzān, al-Shaʿrānī is careful to emphasize that attaining gnosis (maʿri-
fa) of the Balance by direct tasting can only be realized while rigorously follow-
ing the Sufi path under the guidance of a shaykh.60 Further, no one can attain
direct witness of the Source of the Law unless that person progresses on the
Sufi way, following and submitting to the guidance of a shaykh who has exper-
ienced supersensory knowledge of the Balance.61
al-Shaʿrānī goes on to describe in detail his own rigorous experience of
denial and devotion that led to his witnessing the Source of the Pure Law with
the eye of his heart (waqaftu bi-ʿayn qalbī ʿalā ʿayn al-sharīʿa al-muṭahhara),
following his own shakyh ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ.62 He indicates that he first received
it from al-Khaḍir by knowledge, faith, and surrender (ʿilman wa-īmānan wa-
taslīman). He then progressed along the way under the direction of his shakyh
ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ ( fī al-sulūk ʿalā yad shaykh) until he came to examine and
know (al-iṭṭilāʿ ʿalā) the Source of the Law by direct tasting, mystical unveil-
ing, and certitude (dhawqan wa-kashfan wa-yaqīnan). He further describes his
path and what he beheld and then indicates that a form (ṣūra) of what he saw
(raʾaytu) will appear in the chapter dedicated to sensible images or allegories.63
A bit later in the text, al-Shaʿrānī again describes what he himself saw
(raʾaytu) when God bestowed on him to examine and know the Source of
the Law.64 He goes on in the same passage to detail what he observed as he
gazed upon (naẓara ilā) the madhāhib of the Founding Imams (al-aʾimma al-
mujtahidīn) and all that branched out from them across epochs: none of the

59 After all, al-Shaʿrānī was a respected member of the ʿulamāʾ as well as a Sufi. Cf. Ibrahim,
“al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism,” 131; Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman
Egypt, 234 and 237; cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 8a; Cairo 1862 ed., 13:
.‫ان الـكشف الصحيح لا يأتي دائما الا موافقا للشر يعةكما هو مقرر بين العلماء والله أعلم‬
60 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 14b; Cairo 1862 ed., 33–34.
61 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fols. 10a and 14b; Cairo 1862 ed., 22 and 34.
62 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 10a; Cairo 1862 ed., 22–23.
63 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 10b; Cairo 1862 ed., 23.
64 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 14a; Cairo 1862 ed., 32.

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rulings departed from the Law owing to their mutual connectedness to the
Source of the Law.65 He mentions that the nearest visual allegory conveying
that mutual connectedness back to the Source of the Law is the fisherman’s
net used in Egypt (shabakat ṣayyād al-samak fī arḍ Miṣr).66
In fact, al-Shaʿrānī first introduces his own revelatory and validating experi-
ence of the Source of the Law in the presence of al-Khaḍir in his earlier work on
the Balance, al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya.67 In this work he also emphasizes that—as
he himself heard from his shaykh ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ—the way to attain a direct
witness of the Source of the Law is to follow the path of asceticism and sin-
cere devotion and to restrain one’s members—exoteric and esoteric—against
everything which God hates, for whoever does that will reach the Great Source
of the Law.68

4 al-Shaʿrānī’s Intentions in Composing, Illustrating and Circulating

al-Mīzān

While al-Shaʿrānī strongly advocated for the direct personal guidance of a

shaykh in matters of Sufism—including the mystical grounding of al-Mīzān—
he was also one of many orthodox Sufis who were prolific authors and teachers
and whose zāwiyas were schools.69

65 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 14a; Cairo 1862 ed., 32.
66 See again the pictogram of the Fisherman’s Net (shabakat al-ṣayyād), Plate 7.5
and Plate 7.6.
67 This work was composed three years prior to al-Mīzān al-kubrā and is essentially a shorter
version of it (in the manuscript corpus it is occasionally identified as al-Mīzān al-ṣaghīr
or al-Mīzān al-ṣughrā, i.e., “the Minor Balance”). As for the significance of this report,
its transmission, and in particular inclusion of the diagram as essential content, we can
turn once again to the manuscript corpus. While printed editions of this work exist and
include the diagram—including the 1989 Cairo edition of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḥasan Maḥ-
mūd in which he relies on the Būlāq 1300/1882–1883 edition and a manuscript transcribed
in 1165/1752—I have been able to consult additional, earlier manuscripts, each of which
also includes the diagram with the report: ms British Library, Or. 3197 (copied 1034/1625),
ms Yale University Hartford Seminary Arabic 103 (copied 1111/1700), and ms Leipzig, Vollers
850, i (copied 12th/18th century). In one early manuscript, ms British Library, Or. 3197
(dated 1034/1625), the copyist claims to have worked from an exemplar in the hand of the
author. This same copyist, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-ʿUṭaywī al-Shabrāhārisī al-Shaʿrāwī, also wrote
out a copy of al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā (ms Reisülküttab 403) which he also claims
to have transcribed from an exemplar in the hand of the author. As discussed earlier, I
believe the latter exemplar to be ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994.
68 Cf. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḥasan Maḥ-
mūd ([Cairo]: ʿĀlam al-Fikr, 1409/1989; henceforth referred to as “Cairo 1989 ed.”), 43.
69 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 194.

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al-Shaʿrānī was clearly touched by the debate—ongoing for centuries by his

time—around the role of books in Sufism.70 The consensus in this debate was
that “books were useful tools with which to instruct the novice in the ethical
aspects of the Way.”71 Still, in mystical aspects, guidance and spiritual training
(riyāḍa) under a shaykh was considered essential and self-education by books
was considered “unreliable and dangerous” because of possible misinterpreta-
tion.72 In the introduction to al-Mīzān, al-Shaʿrānī declares that certain gnosis
cannot be reached through careful study of books but only by way of true mys-
tical unveiling (al-kashf al-ṣaḥīḥ).73
In his autobiographical accounts, al-Shaʿrānī relays that when he first came
to shaykh ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ, the shaykh ordered him to sell all of his books and
give the money to charity in order to rid himself of acquired knowledge and
make room for heavenly knowledge. al-Shaʿrānī did so, and shortly after com-
posed his first book which the shaykh approved.74 al-Shaʿrānī did deliberate
over whether he should write or not, provided he was inspired. He consul-
ted his shaykh who left the decision to al-Shaʿrānī’s “own understanding of
God’s will” and his ability to resist those who would question what he wrote.75
al-Shaʿrānī decided to write, following in the tradition of numerous popular-
izers of Sufism.
In composing al-Mīzān, al-Shaʿrānī intended its study and circulation among
scholars, particularly those with Sufistic inclinations.76 In his introduction,
al-Shaʿrānī declares that he composed the work “for the brethren among the
seekers of knowledge.”77 As we have already seen, he also writes for those who
seek gnosis of the Balance by means of direct tasting, even addressing them dir-

70 Even Ibn Khaldūn threw into this debate around the necessity of a spiritual guide for those
embarking on the Sufi path and the role of books in Sufi training and practice cf. Alexan-
der Knysh, Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2017), 154–156 ff.
71 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 192.
72 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 192.
73 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 8a; Cairo 1862 ed., 14.
74 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 57.
75 Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt, 194ff.
76 And as the manuscript corpus attests, it was indeed widely circulated and read, but by
whom is another extremely important question to pursue (particularly in light of argu-
ments that al-Shaʿrānī targeted “the Muslim community at large” and “no longer … schol-
ars and students of jurisprudence” only, cf. Dajani, “Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of Ijtihād,”
181).
77 And “only after their repeated questioning” (a common device). Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms
Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 8b; Cairo 1862 ed., 15.

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ectly in sections on this topic.78 This certainly includes ʿulamāʾ and other legal
practitioners, particularly those in a position to advise laypeople and especially
those inclined or even already initiated to the Sufi path. al-Shaʿrānī invites and
expects them to be perusing his volume, and in his conclusion adjures them to
correct any mistakes which they encounter.79
Ultimately, al-Shaʿrānī is writing for novices—those still progressing along
the way.80 Over and over in al-Mīzān he outlines the way to fully grasp his
theory—that is, to reach the inspiration of the Source of the Pure Law and to
reach revealed knowledge of the Balance by way of direct tasting. The way is
through following the Sufi path under the guidance of a shaykh.81
al-Shaʿrānī contends that the ʿulamāʾ too can reach this level—attaining
knowledge and even a direct experience of the Balance. Those who claim to
have done so must be carefully evaluated,82 but it is possible for them, provided
they take the necessary steps.
All in all, al-Shaʿrānī’s allegorical exposition in al-Mīzān—studied independ-
ently or in consultation with one’s teachers—conveys not only his theory but
also a means of realization via examination of the Source of the Pure Law—the
Law as it really is—under the guidance of a shaykh. Eearly on in the intro-
duction of al-Mīzān, al-Shaʿrānī states clearly that in authoring the text he is
responding to a need for exposition of this theory of the Balance and clarific-
ation of its meanings.83 As we have already seen, he characterizes his intro-

78 For example the chapter ‫فصل إن اردت يا اخي الوصول الى معرفة هذه الميزان ذوقا‬. Cf. al-Mīzān
al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 14b; Cairo 1862 ed., 33.
79 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 190b; Cairo 1862 ed., 246. This follows his
lengthy discussion of various practical examples (amthila) of the application of his theory
organized by the typical topical classification for works of fiqh. As elaborated by Ibrahim,
al-Shaʿrānī wrote with special concern for laypeople and the pragmatic application of his
theory depended a great deal on persuading legal practitioners of its theoretical justifica-
tion. Cf. Ibrahim, “al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism,” 129, 133, etc.
80 Michael Winter points out that at various places in al-Shaʿrānī’s writings he conveys clearly
that with his Sufi works he intends to provide ethical manuals (not mystical treatises)
which expound “ideal mores for novices not perfect Sufis” cf. Winter, Society and Religion
in Early Ottoman Egypt, 195. This seems to extend this more practical legal work as well.
81 As we have already seen cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fols. 10a and 14b; Cairo
1862 ed., 22 and 33–34.
82 He even includes a chapter of the introduction on how to respond if such a scholar comes
claiming to have attained gnosis of the Balance by direct tasting cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms
Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 13b; Cairo 1862 ed., 32.
83 That is, “‫”… استخرت الله تعالى و أجبتهم الى سؤالهم في ايضاح الميزان‬. Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, Cairo
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duction as an explanation of difficult or obscure expressions and a corridor

that conducts one to the far interior of a house. Further, he emphasizes that he
includes sensible images or allegories subject to sensory perception (amthila
maḥsūsa) in order to bring nearer to comprehension the central underpin-
ning of his theory: the unseen realities of the Source and the legal traditions
emerging from it.84 These references and versions of the pictograms themselves
appear in the earliest known copy of the manuscript prepared under his direc-
tion. A seeker can thus begin along this progression of perception by first gazing
upon the pictograms that convey these unseen realities.85
al-Shaʿrānī further characterizes what he is conveying by way of sensible
images as bayān—clear exposition but also evidential proof. He indicates that
these amthila are clarifying, but also evincing and validating the unseen real-
ities supporting his theory: the connectedness of the madhhab Founders with
the Source of the Law, the way each madhhab delivers its followers to the Gate
of Paradise, and so on.86
Commensurately, in the explanatory texts accompanying each pictogram,
al-Shaʿrānī repeatedly adjures readers to look, consider, and reflect intently
upon these sensible images so that they too may be persuaded and guided.
Indeed, al-Shaʿrānī’s shaykhs took such an approach with him, deploying alle-
gory and imagery in their teachings.87 Elsewhere in the introduction to al-
Mīzān, he indicates that he heard his esteemed shaykh Zakarīyā al-Anṣārī say
many times that the Source of the Law is like the sea and from whatever side
one dips out from it, all is one.88 al-Shaʿrānī may be echoing this teaching—

appear in the main transcript, but is provided on the outer margin in another hand (along
with signe-de-renvoi indicating placement). However, both the supplied text and the inser-
tion sign have also been struck through. All such signs suggest a fairly well-developed text
and theory finally being elaborated in writing.
84 Cf. again al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 4b [present order]; Cairo 1862 ed.,
10.
85 Samuela Pagani states, “… even the least sophisticated of readers can catch a glimpse of
the relationship between the ‘source’ and its derivations, thanks to the drawings in the
book.” Cf. Pagani, “The Meaning of the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib,” 210.
86 For example, in the context of shifting from one madhhab to another (school boundary-
crossing) cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 11a; Cairo 1862 ed., 25.
87 al-Shaʿrānī’s experience with imagery appears to extend to interpretive contexts for a dia-
gram known as al-Dāʾira al-Shādhiliyya. At least two manuscripts transmitting a sharḥ of
this diagram attributed to al-Shaʿrānī are known to me: ms Berlin, Sprenger 810 (Ahlwardt
4140) and ms Princeton Islamic manuscripts, Garrett no. 1206Y, fols. 44b–53b. The attri-
bution is more explicit in the Berlin manuscript. The text of the Princeton manuscript is
less clear in terms of attribution, but suggests that the author is relaying material received
from his father Aḥmad.
88 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 14b; Cairo 1862 ed., 33.

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which, as we have seen, he attributes to Ibn al-ʿArabī as well—in the simulac-

rum of the form of the connectedness of all the madhāhib of the Founding legal
interpreters and their followers with the Sea of the Revelation and the Tradition
which he presents among the sensible images.
In conveying a teaching transmitted from his most important shaykh ʿAlī al-
Khawwāṣ in the introduction to al-Mīzān, al-Shaʿrānī references another mithāl
(allegory or simulacrum) which his shaykh may have utilized. The imagery is
another relatable form of palm, fingers and joints which al-Shaʿrānī details in
words.89 He notes that he once heard his shaykh say in regard to the fact that
the scholars of the Law (ʿulamāʾ al-sharīʿa) order the student to adhere to a par-
ticular madhhab and the scholars of Profound reality (ʿulamāʾ al-ḥaqīqa) order
the novice (murīd) to adhere to a single shaykh approaching the way, that a rel-
evant allegory (mithāl) for the Source of the Law or the Presence of the Gnosis
of God (ḥaḍrat maʿrifat Allāh) is the palm. Further, a mithāl for the madhāhib of
the Founding legal interpreters and the ways of the shaykhs is the fingers, and
a mithāl for the duration spent occupied with a particular madhhab or way of
a particular shaykh is the joints of the fingers. He goes on to clarify that each
of the joints represents a third of the way along the path to the Source which is
likened to the palm.90
Perhaps most significantly, al-Shaʿrānī conveys that his shaykh ʿAlī al-Khaw-
wāṣ once responded to al-Shaʿrānī’s question of which madhhab was best
by drawing a circular pictogram on the wall with a stick.91 al-Khawwāṣ then
explained the drawing saying, “No madhhab is foremost than another with
respect to the Law (for the one who clings to proper conduct).”92
al-Shaʿrānī relates this episode in al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya, and faithfully in-
cludes a reproduction of the drawing with the report, preceded by a head-
ing: “And this is the image of what Sīdī ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ drew (for me)” (Plate
7.11).93 Following the pictogram, al-Shaʿrānī explains what each element signi-
fies, as well as the resulting conclusion to be drawn by those for whom God

89 The ease of visually referencing this analogy with a gesture or gaze to one’s hand may
explain why al-Shaʿrānī did not feel compelled to include a visual depiction as well.
90 Cf. al-Mīzān al-kubrā, ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 11a; Cairo 1862 ed., 25.
91 Cf. al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya, ms British Library, Or. 3197, fols. 28b–29a; ms Yale University
Hartford Seminary Arabic 103, fol. 16a; ms Leipzig, Vollers 850, i, fol. 27a; as well as Cairo
1989 ed., 42. My gratitude to Adam Sabra who mentions this episode in his “Illiterate Sufis
and Learned Artisans,” 164.
92 al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya, Cairo 1989 ed., 42. Continues in ms British Library, Or. 3197,
fols. 28b–29a “… along with the Founding Imams.”
93 Cf. Cairo 1989 ed., 42; British Library Or. 3197, fol. 20a; Leipzig Vollers 850, i, fol. 27a; Yale
Hartford Seminary Arabic 103, fol. 16a.

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plate 7.11 Pictogram from a manuscript witness of al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya. al-Shaʿrānī, al-Mīzān al-
kropf

Khaḍiriyya (ms Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Vollers 850, i, copied 12th/18th century,
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“sensible images” 293

has removed the veil of obscurity. He indicates that the Source of the Law is
the circle at the center94 and the madhāhib practically applied and studied
are the lines leading toward the central circle from all sides. Thus, no madh-
hab is foremost with respect to the Law than another.95 al-Shaʿrānī has repro-
duced a version of this same pictogram, and a prescription for attaining a
glimpse of the Source of the Law, in al-Mīzān al-kubrā (see again Plates 7.5 and
7.6).

Conclusions

While diagrammatic illustrations are not uncommon in Sufi literature—espe-

cially in the works of Ibn al-ʿArabī and his successors—on the whole they
remain understudied in their origins, significations and functions, particularly
as manifest historically in the manuscript corpus.96 This has certainly been the
case for the pictograms of al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā.
These sensible images or sensory allegories for perceiving unseen realities—
have their origins in what al-Shaʿrānī’s illiterate shaykh (shaykh ummī) and
other spiritual guides taught, and what al-Shaʿrānī himself was eventually able
to see with the eye of his heart as graced by God while under the inspiration
of al-Khaḍir and under his shaykh’s guidance. Following the practice of use
of imagery by his immediate teachers and others—in particular Ibn al-ʿArabī,
al-Shaʿrānī has offered a means of perceiving what is otherwise unseen, on a
higher plane of profound reality.

94 ”‫ “الدائرة الـكبرى‬in British Library Or. 3197, Yale Hartford Seminary Arabic 103, and Cairo
1989 ed., but ”‫ “الدائرة الصغرى‬in Leipzig Vollers 850, i.
95 Cairo 1989 ed., 42; British Library Or. 3197, fol. 20a; Yale Hartford Seminary Arabic 103,
fol. 16b; Leipzig Vollers 850, i, fol. 27a.
96 Certainly great strides are being taken with the present volume. Sufistic cosmological
diagrams—often far more dense and involved in their modes of presentation and refer-
ents that the pictograms of al-Shaʿrānī’s al-Mīzān al-kubrā—have already been explored to
some degree. Marcia K. Hermansen utilized semiotic analysis to ground a series of South
Asian Sufi diagrams in a presentation of “model of” and “model for” spiritual practice
mapped onto various dimensions of the human body (cf. “Mystical Paths and Authorit-
ative Knowledge: A Semiotic Approach to Sufi Cosmological Diagrams,” Religious Studies
and Theology 12, no. 1 (1992): 52–77). Samer Akkach explored the visual symbolism utilized
by Ibn al-ʿArabī in particular to elaborate the convergence of metaphysics, cosmology and
mysticism for spatial organization. He declares that symbolism in Sufi contexts hinges
on “hierarchical conception in constructing ontological links between the lower and the
higher, the sensible and the intelligible” (cf. Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Pre-
modern Islam, 25).

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294 kropf

Many of these images have allegorical referents in observation of everyday

life—the Tree, the Fisherman’s Net used in Egypt, the Spring and Watercourses
/ Circle, the Sea, the hand and fingers—while others, such as the Domed
shrines along the River of Life in Paradise—are the products of visionary exper-
ience.97
Across referents and across witnesses in the manuscript corpus, these pic-
tograms provide clear exposition and manifest evidential proof for concepts
of meta-historical, metaphysical reality: the Source of the Law and the equal
connectedness of all the Founders of the madhāhib, their rulings and their fol-
lowers. Further, they attest to the underlying inspiration and validity of the
claims al-Shaʿrānī is making regarding the equal orthodoxy of the four Sunni
madhāhib.98
The artisans transmitting al-Shaʿrānī’s work recognized the iconic signific-
ance of these pictograms and carefully reproduced them. While the picto-
grams as they have been transmitted are rather rudimentary and—lacking a
dense and involved iconographical program—may not manage to effectively
promote prolonged contemplation via their visual execution apart from their
label texts, the author nevertheless invites readers to consider, contemplate and
reflect intently upon them.
According to al-Shaʿrānī’s teaching, while simply regarding and pondering
the pictograms is not sufficient for fully realizing the revealed knowledge of an
experiential observation of the Source of the Law itself, such contemplation—
alongside submission to a shaykh, asceticism and sincere devotion—could
conduct the seeker further along the progression of perception leading to such
an encounter. Indeed the pictograms can serve to mediate later recognition of
these realities as one progresses along the path.
This was, in fact, al-Shaʿrānī’s own experience, for it was before his revelatory
encounter with al-Khaḍir that his shaykh drew a pictogram for him, utilizing a
drawing as a means of instructing and conveying the idea. In providing these
allegories subject to sensory perception in al-Mīzān, al-Shaʿrānī thus follows
the instructive and validating practice of his shaykh, of Ibn al-ʿArabī and indeed
of God himself who “coineth the similitudes for mankind in order that they may
reflect.”99

97 As Samuela Pagani has also noted (cf. Pagani, “The Meaning of the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib,”
195 note 85).
98 This is another dimension of the “metaphysical validation of ikhtilāf ” and acceptance of
it which Pagani contends al-Shaʿrānī is emphasizing in al-Mīzān (cf. Pagani, “The Meaning
of the Ikhtilāf al-Madhāhib,” 205).
99 Q 14:25 trans. Pickthall.

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table 7.1 Pictograms of al-Mīzān al-kubrā

Pictogram Where found in al-Mīzān al- Plates

kubrā

Presences (ḥaḍarāt) ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994 fol. 23a; 7.4

Cairo 1862 ed., 53
Tree (shajara) ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994 fol. 23b; 7.5 (right)
Cairo 1862 ed., 54
Circle (dāʾira) / Spring and Water- ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24a; 7.5 (upper left) and
courses (ʿayn wa-khuṭūṭ)* Cairo 1862 ed., 55 7.6
Fisherman’s Net (shabakat al-ṣayyād) ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24a; 7.5 (lower left) and
Cairo 1862 ed., 55 7.6
Sea of the Revelation and the Tradi- ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24b; 7.7 (upper right) and
tion (baḥr al-kitāb wa-l-sunna) Cairo 1862 ed., 56 7.8 (upper right)
Accounting and the Weighing ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 24b; 7.7 (lower right) and
(al-ḥisāb wa-l-mīzān) Cairo 1862 ed., 56 7.8 (lower right)
Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ) ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 25a; 7.7 (left) and 7.8
Cairo 1862 ed., 57 (left)
Gate of Paradise (bāb al-janna) ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 25b; 7.9 (right) and 7.10
Cairo 1862 ed., 58 (right)
Domed shrines by the River of Life ms Şehid Ali Paşa 994, fol. 26a; 7.9 (left) and 7.10
(qibāb ʿalā nahr al-ḥayāt) Cairo 1862 ed., 59 (left)

* Compare pictogram in al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya (Plate 7.11)

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Index
ʿAbbās i 81n10 Alphabet 3, 5, 7, 16–17, 21, 30, 33, 39, 57, 84,
al-ʿabd al-kullī 20 89, 95, 117, 160, 164, 173, 195–197, 211, 217,
Abjad 33n37, 39, 89 221
Abū ʿImrān, Mūsā 271 al-ʿamāʾ 137, 139
Abū Madyan 271 Amānat-nāma 213n34
Abulafia 13 Amulet 17, 29, 33, 35, 37, 47
Adam 20, 30, 32–33, 37, 46–47, 87, 177, Āmulī, Ḥaydar 9, 163, 201n22, 216n39,
193n7, 201–202, 205–207, 209, 211, 213, 243n33
215–216, 241 An Ocean without Shore 129, 150n71
Adam’s face 193n7, 202 analogy 134, 265n10, 291n89
Adam Kadmon 20n8 Anatolian 192, 252
al-ʿAdwī, Muḥammad Qiṭṭa 81n10 Angel 17, 20, 32–33, 35–39, 41, 43, 45, 76,
aether 140n48 109, 111, 113, 137, 139, 143, 145–146, 197,
Afsharian, Marjan 215n36 207, 223
Aḥadiyya/Aḥadiyyat 5, 183, 252–256 al-Anṣārī, Zakarīyā b. Muḥammad 271, 290
Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn 82n11 anthropocentric 194–196
Ahmet i 267n19 anthropomorphism (and derivatives) 4–5,
air 19, 23, 75, 85n20, 89, 91, 112, 139–141, 144, 12, 113, 116, 218, 254–257
209, 213 ʿaql 19–20, 22, 24, 39, 139, 151, 274
see also hawāʾ see also intellect
Akçehisarlı dervish Sulaymān 221 al-Aʿrāf 102, 112–113, 146
al-Akhlāq al-Matbūliyya 272n26 al-Arbaʿīn fī al-ṭaṣawwuf 241n30
Akkach, Samer 104n64, 125n4, 265n10, Arberry, Arthur John 126n5
293n96 arc 101, 111, 119, 166
Aksel, Malik 222–227 arch 90, 254–255
ʿālam archetype 24, 133n26
ʿālam al-amr 23, 43–44, 129 architect 135–136
ʿālam al-ghayb 132 arḍ 46n52, 139n45, 144, 209
ʿālam al-ibdāʾ 20n7 arḍ al-ḥarsh 144–145
ʿālam al-ikhtirāʿ 20n7 see also earth
al-ʿālam al-insānī 20, 29–30, 32–33 al-Ardabīlī, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Murād 8n18
ʿālam al-khalq 23 Aristotle 129
ʿālam al-khayāl 3 ʿarsh (throne) 29, 32, 36, 38–44, 137n44, 140,
al-ʿālam al-lawḥī 33, 34n39 146, 167, 178, 185, 205
ʿālam al-mithāl 3, 132, 265n10 Asʿad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Kātib
ʿālam al-shahāda 132, 133n27, 144 7n13
ʿālam al-tarkīb 30, 32 al-ʿAsqalanī, Ibn Ḥajar 237
ʿAlawī, Wajīh al-Dīn 250 Astarābād 196
Alexander the Great 129 Astarābādī, Faḍl Allāh 192, 193n4, 193n6–
ʿAlī al-Aʿlā 213n34 7, 194n11, 195–200, 203–204, 206, 208,
ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib 163, 216n39, 223, 257n55 210, 213n34, 217, 219, 222
Alif 17n3, 19, 21–22, 24–26, 28–30, 33n37, astrology 18–19, 28, 47
39, 47, 89, 158, 172–178, 180, 183, 184n79, athīr 140n48
185, 215–216, 223 ʿAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn 195
Allāh 99, 105, 158, 166, 173–174, 176–177, 180, Averroes 13n25
183, 185–186, 215–216, 221, 223 Avicenna 13n25
ruʾyat Allāh 147 Avraham ben Ḥiyya 13n25

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300 index

ʿayn (letter) 17n3, 19, 33n37, 39–46, 173, 177– Būlāq 81n10, 137n42, 140nn47–48, 287n67
178, 180, 201, 221, 223 al-Bulqīnī, Sirāj al-Dīn 237
ʿayn (source) 271, 273–274, 277, 286, 295 al-Būnī, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad 6, 11, 16–
Ayyubids 27 22, 25–36, 38–47, 236–238, 243, 245,
ʿazīma 263 259
Azrael 39 Burning Bush 216
burūda 139
bāʾ 17n3, 19, 33n37, 39n44, 89, 201, 216n39 al-Burullusī, ʿAlī al-Khawwāṣ 264, 272,
Bahlūl, Sheikh 251 273n31, 286–288, 291
Bākharzī, Sayf al-Dīn 161 Burūsavī, Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī 193n6
balance see mīzān
Ballanfat, Paul 155n2, 158n7, 159n11, 162, 166, Cairo 16, 81, 82n11, 237, 248, 267n16, 272n26,
173n48, 187 287n67
Baqlī Shīrāzī, Rūzbihān 195 Calligraphy 3, 5, 91n33, 155, 157, 172, 193–194,
al-Barwajī, Ṣibghaṭat Allāh 249n44 217–218, 221, 223
barzakh (isthmus) 77, 105–106, 115, 132, Chishtiyya 2
142n51, 147, 185, 245, 257n55 Chittick, William C. 232n4, 236n17, 272n29
bāṭin 18, 23–24, 26, 35–38, 44, 66, 99, 113– Chodkiewicz, Michel 129, 150n71, 151,
114, 132, 146, 178, 180, 185, 211 236n17
ahl al-bāṭin 35 circle passim
al-Bayḍāwī, Nāṣir al-Dīn 249n44 see also dāʾira
al-bayt al-maʿmūr (Inhabited House) 207, circumference 90, 92–94, 104, 114, 125
213 compass see birkār
Bazzāzī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm 242n32, 244–246, Cook, Julian 137n42
258–259 Corbin, Henry 3n5, 29, 132n25, 162
Beauty 9n21, 183, 195, 197, 201 cosmos 18, 20–21, 24–25, 28–30, 32–34, 39,
Behl, Adithya 250–251 43, 45, 47, 53, 78, 85, 87–88, 89n27, 92,
Bektāsh Velī, Ḥājjī 192 97–98, 105, 110, 112, 116–119, 121, 223
Bektashiyya 3–4, 10, 192–196, 221–223, 256,
257n55 dāʾira (pl. dawāʾir) 23, 31n34, 32, 37n42, 38,
Belting, Hans 157 45, 129, 131, 134–135, 137n44, 139, 157,
Binbaş, Evrim İlker 267n19 160, 163, 165, 167, 175–178, 180, 183–184,
Birge, John Kingsley 193n6 239–240, 245–246, 247n39, 248, 252–
birkār (compass) 54, 90, 92, 108, 135 253, 254n53, 255–256, 277, 290n87, 295
al-Bisṭāmī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 237–238, 259 see also circle
black 7, 75, 88, 108, 110–111, 146, 174–175, 180, al-Dāʾira al-Shādhiliyya 290n87
184–185 dais 19, 28, 30, 32–33, 35–36, 39, 41, 42n45,
Black Stone 207, 211, 218 43–46
body 20, 28, 78, 98, 100, 113, 140, 142, see also kursī
146, 157, 162, 165–167, 186, 193–197, Dajani, Samer 265n9, 273n31
202, 207, 213, 217–218, 221, 223, 251, Damascus 155n2, 179n71, 238
293n96 Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā 82n11
Universal Body 110, 140 Davāʾir-i Rashīdī 250
see also jism Dawriyya 59, 92
Bonmariage, Cecile 247n41 al-Daylamī, Shams al-Dīn 2, 12n24
Book of the Alphabet 30, 33 Dhakāvatī Qarāguzlū, ʿAlī Riḍāʾ 192n2
Breath of the All-Merciful (nafas al-Raḥmān) dhāt (divine essence) 46n52, 166, 174, 185,
96–97, 109, 139n45 253, 254n53, 255–256
Browne, Edward 193n5 dhawq 166, 273, 286

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dhihn 135 fire 26, 89, 91, 114–116, 140, 209, 213, 280
dhikr 35, 37n42, 47, 134, 166–167, 274 see also nār
diagram passim al-Fīshāwī, Aḥmad Abū Muṣliḥ 81n10
dome (qubba, pl. qibāb) 76, 142–143, 179, fiṭra 20
283–285, 294–295 flower 91
dot 90, 111, 113, 118, 175n53, 216–217, 277 Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam 249n44
Dot of God (nuqṭat Allāh) 215 al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Meccan Openings)
see also nuqṭa 6, 51–121, 125–152, 234, 241n30, 258, 264,
drawing 3, 13n25, 34, 53, 87, 104, 108, 126n5, 272–273
132n23, 135–136, 218, 242, 264, 265n9,
267, 290n85, 291, 294 Garipzanov, Ildar 26
dream 3, 161–164, 179 Gāzur-i Ilāhī, Ibrāhīm Shaṭṭārī 251
Dune (al-kathīb) 78, 116, 118, 147, 149, 150n68 al-Ghamrāwī, Muḥammad al-Zuhrī 82n11
dunyā 37n42, 142, 145–146 Gharaibeh, Mohammad 238
al-ḍurāḥ 79, 119 Ghawth, Muḥammad Gvāliyārī 251
Durar al-ghawwāṣ fī Fatāwā al-Khawwāṣ Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid 2n4, 127n12, 133, 136,
272n26 241n30, 272
al-Durr al-farīd fī maʿrifat marātib al-tawḥīd Ghazālī, Aḥmad 195
8n16, 234, 241n30 Ghāzān Khān 161
Durr-i Yatīm 218, 220, 221n44 Ghiyāth al-Dīn, Khwāja 155n2
al-Dusūqī, Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Ghaffār 81n10 Gilan 240
graphicacy 18, 26, 28, 34–35, 46–47
Earth 19, 23, 31, 43, 45, 46n52, 76, 87, 89, 91, green 98–99
93, 111–115, 117–119, 130, 136, 139n45, 140, Gruber, Christiane 267n18
142–145, 174, 175n55, 177, 207, 209–210, Gujarat 250
213 Gul Ḥasan, Shāh Qalandar 252–256
see also arḍ and turāb
Eden 116–117, 142, 147 hāʾ 17n3, 19, 33n37, 37–38, 39n44, 166–
Egypt see Miṣr 167, 174–178, 180, 183–184, 186, 216,
eL Seed 157 221
Elias, Jamal 162 habāʾ 139
Ernst, Carl W. 257n55 al-Ḥabashī, ʿAbdallāh Badr 131, 176
Eschatology 93, 144, 151, 186 al-Ḥabashī, Bilāl 176
Europe 157 Ḥabīb al-Najjār 179n71
Eve 207 ḥaḍra (pl. haḍarāt) 131, 275–276, 291
Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī 195
face 116, 159, 164, 167, 174, 176, 184–186 Hakkı, İbrahim 267
God’s face 43, 92, 103, 113, 117–118, 120 al-Ḥallāj, Abū al-Mughīth al-Ḥusayn b.
human face 193–197, 202, 205, 207, 209, Manṣūr 2, 12n24, 27, 127n12, 184
211, 213, 217–219, 221–224, 255–256, Ḥamūyeh, Saʿd al-Dīn 6, 11, 12n24, 155–187,
257n55 236, 238, 257, 259
falak (pl. aflāk) 19, 22, 24, 32, 36, 43n51, 45, Ḥamūyeh, Ṣadr al-Dīn 161
140, 142 Ḥamza b. Qara ʿUthmān 8n18
fanāʾ 166 ḥaqīqa 24, 38, 41, 197, 263
al-Fārābī 13n25 Ḥaqīqa Muḥammadiyya/Ḥaqīqat-i
al-Farghānī, Saʿīd al-Dīn 233 Muḥammadī 5, 139, 195n12, 254–255
al-Fātiḥa 88, 180, 234 ʿulamāʾ al-ḥaqīqa 291
Fawāʾiḥ al-jamāl 165–167, 172 ḥarāra 19, 139
fiqh 264n3, 271, 289n79 ḥarf see ḥurūf

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Ḥāshiya bar Sharḥ-i Iṣṭilāḥāt-i shaykh ʿAbd 193n6, 195, 232–238, 241n30, 242–243,
al-Razzāq Kāshī 244n35 245, 248–249, 257–259, 264, 272–273,
Ḥāshiya bar Sharḥ-i Nuṣūṣ-i Shaykh Ṣadr al- 286, 291, 293–294
Dīn Qūnaywī (sic) 244n35 Ibn Bādīs 109n72
hawāʾ 19, 139n45, 140, 144 Ibn Barrajān 20, 33n37, 34n39, 133n26, 144–
see also air 145
ḥayawān 31n34, 32, 142 Ibn Jamāʿ, ʿIzz al-Dīn 237–238, 248, 258–259
hayūlā 137, 139 Ibn Karbalāʾī 233, 236, 244
al-ḥayy 147, 175, 178, 183–184 Ibn Khafīf 163
heart 20, 28, 35, 37, 41, 46, 113, 116, 133–134, Ibn Khaldūn 237, 288n70
136, 142, 146, 157, 164–167, 174–175, 177– Ibn Malka, Yehudah ben Nissim 13
178, 183–184, 186, 286, 293 Ibn Rushd see Averroes
see also qalb Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ 238, 248
heaven 18, 21, 26, 43, 45–46, 76, 93, 98, 111– Ibn al-Sīd 13n25
114, 119, 130, 136, 142–144, 151, 172, 174, Ibn Sīnā see Avicenna
177, 202, 206–207, 209, 213 Ibrāhīm 180, 205
heavenly house 119, 177 al-Ibyārī, Aḥmad 81n10
heavenly book 197 ifāḍa 32
heavenly sphere 25, 195n15, 201, 205, ightirāf 273n33
209–210, 213 Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn 2n4, 172n12, 136, 241n30
Hell 69, 77, 94, 102–103, 112–117, 133, 140, ijāza 162, 247–248, 257
144–148, 201–202, 283 Īlkhāns 161
see also jahannam ʿilliyyūn 103
Hermansen, Marcia K. 293n96 ʿilm al-ḥurūf see ḥurūf
himma 161, 167 imagination 28, 35, 37, 47, 83–84, 85n20,
Hirschler, Konrad 160 88–92, 96, 131, 136, 202, 265n10, 273
ḥiss (and ḥissī, maḥsūs) 37n42, 131–132, imām (pl. aʾimma) 111, 194
136n40, 239, 265, 274, 290 Imams of the Names 89
horn see ṣūr in legal schools 273–275, 280, 283, 286,
ḥubb see love 291n92
al-Hujwīrī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Jullābī 25 India 2, 4, 233, 249–250, 252, 254, 257–258
human face see face Ink 7–9, 37, 55, 81, 108, 109n72, 174–175, 177–
ḥurūf (sing. ḥarf ) 20, 29n29, 41, 42n45, 57, 178, 180
83–84, 96, 157, 167, 192, 195, 216 insān 46, 134n31, 135n37, 142, 146, 152n74
al-ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa (al-muqaṭṭaʿāt) al-insān al-kāmil 20n8, 71, 105, 130, 142,
184 195
ʿilm al-ḥurūf 16, 163, 186n85 al-ʿālam al-insānī 20, 29–30, 32–33
ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥurūf 57, 83 intellect 19–22, 24, 33, 39, 91, 109, 134–135,
Ḥurūfiyya (and Ḥurūfī) 10, 192–223, 256 139, 194
Ḥusaynī, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad 196n16 see also ʿaql
huwa 51, 100, 166n43, 167, 175–176, 183, 185 Irāʾat al-daqāʾiq fī sharḥ Mirāt al-ḥaqāʾiq
huwiyya 66, 99, 167 249
Hyle see hayūlā ʿĪsā see Jesus
ʿĪsā b. Kamāl al-Dīn 197n17
ʿibāra (pl. ʿibārāt) 131, 132n22, 167, 239 ʿĪsā Jund Allāh 257n55
Iblis 207 al-Isfār ʿan natāʾij al-asfār 52n4, 86n23
Ibn al-ʿArabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn 6, 9, 11–12, al-Isfarāʾīnī, Nūr al-Dīn 161
13n25, 16, 20n8, 25, 27, 29, 51–121, Isḥaq 205
125–152, 155n2, 158n9, 160n15, 161, 186, Iskandar see Alexander the Great

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ism (pl. asmāʾ) 16, 135, 147, 174–175 Khalwatī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm 244
al-ism al-jāmiʿ 179, 195n12 Khalwatiyya 2
Ismāʿīl 205 khātim al-awliyāʾ 155, 163n30, 165n32, 178,
Ismāʿīl Pasha (Khedive of Egypt) 81n10 183–184
Israfil 39 al-Khawwāṣ, ʿAlī see al-Burullusī
Istanbul 53–54, 173, 265n11, 266, 267n18 khayāl 3, 131, 132n22, 134, 136nn39–40, 241–
al-Iṣṭilāḥāt al-ṣūfiyya 133n26 242
Khiḍr see al-Khaḍir
Jabarūt 41, 45 Khodaverdian, Shahram 215n36
Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh 126 al-Khudrī, Abū Saʿīd 177n59
Jabirian Corpus 41, 45 al-Kibrīt al-aḥmar 272
jadwal (pl. jadāwil) 57, 84, 131 kitāb 23–24, 30n32, 32, 280, 295
jahannam 144–145 umm al-kitāb 184n79, 221
see also Hell Kitāb Ayyām al-shaʾn 248n43
Jām-i jahān-namā 6–8, 233, 239–240, 242, Kitāb al-Azal 248n43
244–245, 247–252, 255, 257–258 Kitāb fī ʿilm al-ḥaqāʾiq 160n15
Jāmī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 162 Kitāb fī ẓuhūr khatm al-wilāya 164n32
janna (garden, Paradise) 21, 45, 69, 75, 88, Kitāb al-Ḥadāʾiq 13n25
93, 102–103, 110–117, 140, 145–147, 201, Kitāb al-Insān al-kāmil 162
207, 265, 280, 283, 290, 294–295 Kitāb Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir 13n25, 131–132, 248,
Jāvidān-nāma 194n11, 195–204, 206–208, 257
210–213, 217–221 Kitāb al-jadāwīl wa-l-dawāʾir see Kitāb
al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar 272n26 Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir
al-Jazāʾirī, ʿAbd al-Qādir 81 Kitāb al-Jalāla 144n52
Jerusalem 206–207, 209, 213, 237 Kitāb Maḥabbat Allāh 213n34, 214
Jesus (ʿĪsā) 164n32, 179n71, 184, 186n87, Kitāb al-Maḥbūb 155–187
197n17, 215–217 Kitāb-i Mīzān 215
Jirjīs 184 Kitāb al-Muʿjam 30
jism 20, 140, 240 Kitāb Murād al-murīdīn 186n85
al-jism al-kull 140 Kitāb Nuskhat al-ḥaqq 126
see also body Kitāb al-Qasam al-ilāhī bi-l-ism al-rabbānī
Judgement (Day of) 143–146 248n43
Jupiter (Mushtarī) 19, 22, 142 Kitāb Sharḥ ʿajāʾib al-qalb 136
Kitāb al-Tadbīrāt al-ilāhiyya 129n14, 248n43
Kaʿba 119, 197, 201–202, 205–207, 209, 213, Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn 2, 12n24, 27, 127n12
218 Konya 53n6, 137n42, 140n48
Kabbalah 13, 20n8, 27 Kubrā, Najm al-Dīn 161–163, 165–167, 172
Kalīd-i Makhāzin 251 kursī 19, 30, 32, 36, 39, 41, 42n45, 44–45, 140,
Kamāl al-Dīn Ismāʿīl 247, 258–259 173, 178, 205
Karamustafa, Ahmet 4n7, 11, 12n25, 27n24,
83n12, 127n12 al-Laʾālī al-maṣnūʿa fī al-aḥādīth al-mawḍūʿa
al-Kāshānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq 244n35 241n30
kashf 4, 272, 286, 288 lām-alif 177, 178n67, 180, 183
Kashf al-ghumma 263 Landolt, Hermann 158n9
Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq 162–163 laṭāʾif see laṭīfa
Kashf al-ṣīrat 162 Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf al-ʿulwiyyāt 16–
al-Kashmīrī, Fadā Muḥammad 82n11 48
al-Khaḍir 286–287, 293–294 laṭīfa (pl. laṭāʾif ) 162, 165
khalwa 134 Lawāqiḥ al-anwār al-qudisiyya 273n30

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lawḥ (pl. alwāḥ) 20, 33, 34n39, 36, 39, 44– Marriage 88, 98–100, 109
45, 127, 139, 174–175, 193n7, 194, 205 Mars (Mirrīkh) 19, 22, 142
see also tablet Mary 98
letters see ḥurūf Mashāriq al-darārī 233
letter-diagram 17–18, 21, 26, 29, 33, 37 al-Matbūlī, Ibrāhīm 272n26
line (geometry) 32, 54, 86, 88–90, 93–94, mathal (pl. amthāl) 52, 94, 105, 109, 133,
99, 101–108, 110–118, 120, 126, 134–135, 134n31, 183, 265n10, 273–274
142, 145–146, 174–175, 180, 184n79, 185, Mathnawī (Rūmī’s) 7
196, 201, 209, 213, 217–218, 277, 280, 283, matter 33
293 Prime Matter 137, 139–140
maternal and paternal lines 218–219, see also hayūlā
221 al-Mawrūrī, Abū Muḥammad 129n14
love 80, 87, 120, 139, 164, 176, 195, 197, 201 maẓhar (pl. maẓāhir) 194, 283
Love’s Subtle Magic 250 Meccan Openings see al-Futūḥāt al-
al-Lumʿa al-nūrāniyya 236n17, 238n22 Makkiyya
meditation 12n24, 26, 34, 45, 132, 245, 257n55
māʾ 19, 133n30, 140, 144 see also taʾammala
see also water Mehmet iv 267n19
macrocosm/macrocosmic 20, 25, 28, 32–33, Mercury (ʿUṭārid) 19, 22, 142
37, 46, 98, 213, 251 mercy see raḥma
mādda 23 messianism 158, 158n11, 183, 186–187
madhhab (pl. madhāhib) 263–265, 273–274, Michael (angel) 39
277, 280, 283, 286, 290–291, 293–294 Microcosm 17, 20, 28, 213, 251
maʿdin 142 Middle East 157
maʾduba 145 miḥrāb 88
mafātīḥ al-ghayb (concept) 105 Mīr Sharīf 193n4
Mafātīḥ al-ghayb (text) 244n35 miʿrāj 26, 46, 151
Maghribī, Muḥammad Shīrīn 6–9, 231–259 Mirʾāt al-ʿārifīn 234–235, 236n17
magic/magical 37, 211 Mirʾat al-maqāṣid fī dafʿ al-mafāsid 193n6
al-maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ 108, 127 Mirrīkh see Mars
al-Mahdawī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz 27n22, 238 Mishkāt al-anwār 133
Mahdī 163, 164n32, 187 Miṣr 287
Mahimi (Mahāʾimī), ʿAlī 249 mithāl (pl. amthila) 51–53, 85, 132–133,
maḥsūs see ḥiss 134n31, 135–136, 152, 241–242, 265, 273–
al-Makkī, Abū Ṭālib 241n30 275, 277, 280, 283, 289n79, 290–291
malakūt 17, 21, 23, 40–41, 48, 133, 245–246 ʿālam al-mithāl 3, 132
Mamluks 27n20, 237 mīzān (balance, scale) 145, 216, 263–264,
maʿnā (pl. maʿānī) 42n48, 114, 131–132, 272–273, 280, 286, 288–289, 295
133n27, 133n30, 134n31 al-Mīzān al-Khaḍiriyya 266n13, 287, 291–292
al-Manṣūb, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān 82 al-Mizān al-kubrā 34, 263–295
manzil (pl. manāzil) 126n6, 127, 129–130, al-Mīzān al-Shaʿrāniyya 266n13, 268
140, 142, 147n66 Molé, Marijan 162, 186n85
maqām (pl. maqāmāt) 23–24, 126n6, 146, Mongols 7, 161, 218n42, 236
184 Moon (Qamar) 19, 23, 111, 142, 175, 178, 180,
al-Maqqarī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad 81n10 206, 209–210
Maqṣad al-aqṣā 162 Moses 176, 205–206, 216–217
Marconi, Maurizio 126n8, 131n21, 132n22 Muḥāḍarat al-abrār 129
maʿrifa 286, 291 Muḥammad (the Prophet) 26n17, 54, 86,
Marifetname 267 94, 96, 107–108, 111–112, 114, 125, 146,

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163, 176–177, 183–184, 185n82, 195, 197, Pagani, Samuela 264, 265n9, 290n85,
205, 211, 213, 216–217, 241n30, 257n55, 294nn97–98
274–275 palm 87, 176–178, 272, 291
Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha 81n10 Paradise see janna
muḥīṭ 23, 34, 38–39, 43–45, 125, 139–140, 211 Pārsā, Khwāja Muḥammad 195
mulk 21, 23, 31, 245–246 Pasīkhānī, Maḥmūd 192, 215, 217
Mumbai 249 Patrizi, Luca 125n1
Muqaddima (of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ) 238, 248 Peacock 35–36
muqaṭṭāʿāt 184, 221 pen (qalam)
mushāhada 42, 147, 165 as a symbol 20, 23, 28–29, 35–38, 42–45,
Mushtarī see Jupiter 109–110, 118, 139, 194, 274–275
physical 84, 165
nabāt 32, 142 Perfect Man see al-insān al-kāmil
nabī (pl. nabiyyūn, anbiyāʾ) 23, 61, 94, 164, Petrone, Michele 125n1
177–178, 205, 213n35 Pharaoh 176
nafas 127, 139n45 Pickthal, Muhammad 197n19
Nafḥ al-Ṭīb 81n10 point see nuqṭa
nafs 20, 23, 33, 174, 177 pole see quṭb
al-nafs al-kulliyya (universal soul) 29, Pourjavady, Nasrollah 195
32–33, 109, 136, 139 Provence 13n25
ʿālam al-nafs 32, 35, 41 pupil 46, 136
see also soul
al-najdayn 73, 107, 127–128 qadam 116, 140
name see ism Qādiriyya 2, 4
Naqshbandiyya 2 qalam see pen
nār 114, 140 qalb 20, 41, 113, 135nn39–40, 146, 164–165,
see also fire 167, 184, 286
Nasafī, ʿAzīz al-Dīn 162–163, 173 dhikr al-qalb 134
Nasīmī, Sayyid ʿImād al-Dīn 193n4 see also heart
nature 91, 109, 118, 139, 201 qamar see Moon
see also ṭabīʿa qiyāma 126n6, 194
Neo-Platonism 13n25, 20 see also resurrection
Nizāriyya 194 qubba (pl. qibāb) see dome
Noah 205 Qūnawī, Ṣadr al-Dīn 160n15, 234, 236, 238,
Nūn 39n44, 41–44, 158, 172–173, 176–178, 244n35, 249n44, 259
183–184 Qurʾan passim
nuqṭa (pl. nuqaṭ) 125, 130, 135, 165, 167, 172, Qūt al-qulūb 241n30
174–176, 178–180, 184n79, 215–216 quṭb (pl. aqṭāb) 23–25, 176, 194, 195n12
nuqṭat Allāh 215–216
see also dot rāʾ 17n3, 19, 29–33, 34n39, 35, 39–42, 46, 173,
Nuqṭawiyya/Nuqṭaviyya 10, 192–223 221
Nuri, Osman 159n10 radius (pl. radii) 90–91
Nuskha 136 raḥma (mercy) 29–30, 32, 37, 39, 41, 45, 103,
al-Nuṣūṣ fī taḥqīq al-ṭawr al-makhṣūṣ 249n44 110, 115, 117
al-Nuzha al-Sāsāniyya 8n17, 9n20, 234, 240, Rahmān (Merciful, All-Merciful) 46, 96–97,
242 109, 174, 178, 185, 202, 205, 207
raḥmāniyya 177n65, 178, 180
Ottoman 4, 187, 192–193, 218, 220, 265n11, bukhār raḥmnānī 139n45
267n21, 270 nafas al-Raḥmān see nafas

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Raḥmat al-umma fī ikhtilāf al-aʾimma Sefer ha-orah 13

264n8 shahāda 23, 34, 42, 183
ramz (pl. rumūz) 83 ʿālam al-shahāda see ʿālam
Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ 27 shajara see tree
rasama (r-s-m) 53 shakl (pl. ashkāl) 21n10, 23, 37n42, 39,
Rashīd, Sheikh 250 42n48, 83, 85, 131, 132n22, 134n31,
Rashtī, Aḥmad b. Mūsā Ustādī 244n34, 247, 135n37, 137n41, 139, 167, 241–242
258–259 shams see Sun
Rawḍāt al-jinān va jannāt al-janān 233 al-Shaʿrānī, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb 6, 9, 34, 263–
al-Rāzī, Ibn Abī Ḥātim 87n24 294
al-Rāzī, Najm al-Dīn 161 al-Shaʿrāwī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-ʿUṭaywī al-
red 7, 51, 55, 81, 99, 108, 109n72, 174–175, 177– Shabrāhārisī 287n67
178, 185, 277 Sharḥī bar baʿḍī az abyāt-i mushkila-yi
resurrection 93, 96, 112, 145, 194, 213, 274– Gulshan-i rāz 244n35
275 Sharḥ bar Qaṣīda-yi Mīmiyya-yi Khamriyya-yi
see also qiyāma Fāriḍiyya 244n35
Rifʿat, Aḥmad 193n6 sharīʿa 52, 94, 108, 126n6, 127n11, 263, 264n4,
Risāla-yi Barzakh 257n55 272, 277n42
Risālat al-Dawāʾir fī al-mulk wa-l-malakūt ʿayn al-sharīʿa 271, 273–274, 277, 286
245–246 ʿulamāʾ al-sharīʿa 291
Risāla-yi Mirʾāt al-ʿibād fī maʿrifat al-maʿād Shaṭṭārī, Ibrāhīm 251
244n35 Shaṭṭāriyya 2, 250–251, 257n55
Risāla-yi Murāqaba 257n55 Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl 81n10
Risāla-yi sanati-yi sarmadiyya 244n35 Shīn 17n3, 19, 33n37, 39–43, 46, 179–180
riyāḍa 288 ship 56, 87–89, 120
Rome 13n25 Shiraz 7n13
Rose-Beers, Kristine 109n72 Shujāʿ al-Dīn Ḥamza Beg 8n18
rūḥ 20, 24, 29, 31n34, 32, 34n39, 83, 112, 135, ṣiddīq (pl. ṣiddiqūn) 23, 61, 94, 177
146, 167, 177 ṣiddīqiyya 99
rukhṣa 263 silsila (pl. salāsil) 162, 236–237, 248
Rūmī, Jalāl al-Dīn 195 al-Simnānī, ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla 161
ruṭūba (humid) 139 al-Simnānī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b.
Aḥmad Māhān 155
saʿāda 127 Sinai 216
sabʿ min al-mathānī (the Seven Twofold) al-ṣirāṭ 60, 93, 108, 145–146, 184n79, 201,
209, 213 280, 295
sāḥib al-zamān 162 Sīrat al-awliyāʾ 179
Saʿīd Pāshā 81n10 Sirr al-asrār 129
saint 18, 20–21, 23–26, 47, 147, 192, 197, 205, soul 9, 20, 23, 33, 37, 42–43, 46–47, 83, 91,
272n25 139–140, 144–145, 164, 166–167, 174, 177,
hierarchy of saints 17, 20, 24–25, 28, 47, 184n79, 185n82, 202
147, 197 Universal Soul see al-nafs al-kulliyya
see also walī see also nafs
ṣalāt 88, 177 Spain 13
Sarajevo 265n11 sphere 18–20, 22–26, 30–32, 34–36, 39, 43,
Satan (al-Shayṭān) 37n43, 114, 201–202 45, 47, 75–76, 93, 101, 110–111, 131, 134,
Saturn (Zuḥal) 19, 22, 142 140–143, 145, 151, 157, 160, 163, 165, 167,
Sawāṭiʿ al-anwār al-qudisiyya 273n30 175–180, 183–185, 195n15, 201, 205–206,
Sayyid Isḥaq 213n34 209–210, 213

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square 94n38, 110, 137, 140, 215, 280 al-Tirmidhī, Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad 94n38
straight edge 54, 92, 108 al-Tirmidhī, al-Ḥakīm 164n32, 179
al-Subkī, Tāj al-Dīn 237 Tlemcen 271
substance 28n26, 30 topography 145
see also mādda tree (shajara) 75, 87, 140–141, 202, 205, 207,
al-Sulamī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad 274, 277–278, 294–295
241n30 triangle 51, 89–90, 99–100, 103–104, 109–
Sun (Shams) 19, 22, 26, 142, 175, 180 110, 137, 139, 175
ṣūr 96, 132n23 Ṭūbā 75, 140–141
ṣūra (pl. ṣuwar) 4n6, 20, 23, 30, 31n4, 32–33, Tunis 27n22
35–36, 37n42, 39, 45, 52–53, 79, 84–85, turāb 140
96, 108, 118, 131–132, 134, 136n39, 137n41, al-Tustarī, Maḥmūd b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad
137n44, 138, 174, 178, 180, 195n12, 201n22, 155
239, 241, 280, 283, 286
al-ṣuwar al-nafsāniyyāt 33 ukra 19
sūrat al-aʿrāf 146 Uns al-gharīb 13
sūrat al-ḥamd 209 ʿUqlat al-mustawfiz 234, 248, 257
sūrat al-raʿd 130 ʿUṭārid see Mercury
sūrat Yāsīn 158 al-ʿUthmānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn 241n30, 272 al-Dimashqī 264n8
symbol 83, 101, 133n26, 134, 142, 197, 209,
218, 265nn9–10, 266n13 Venus (zuhara, zuhra) 19, 22, 142
see also ramz
symbolism 3, 89, 91n32, 93, 99, 125, 131, wafq, pl. awfāq 16
133n27, 145–146, 202, 223, 293n96 waḥda/vaḥdat 184, 234, 252–256
al-Waḥdānī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-
taʾammala 33–34, 245, 274 Ṣūfī al-Anṣārī 245, 259
ṭabīʿa (pl. ṭabāʾiʿ) 139 waḥdāniyya 166, 183
ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥurūf see ḥurūf wāḥidiyya/vāḥidiyyat 5, 252–256
see also nature walāya 155n2, 162, 164n32, 178–179, 180n73,
tablet 20, 23, 33, 35–36, 39, 43–45, 107, 109– 184
110, 118, 127, 129, 136, 139, 174–175, 177, walī (pl. awliyāʾ) 21n10, 23, 151, 157, 163–165,
194, 205, 274–275 175, 178–179
see also lawḥ khātim al-awliyāʾ 155, 163n30, 178, 183
Tabriz 155n2, 231, 233, 240, 242–245, 247– see also saint
248, 254 al-wasīla 111, 142
tadabbara 41, 42n48, 242, 245 water 19, 23, 75, 88–89, 91, 101, 112, 133, 139–
tadabbur 23, 129n14, 242 141, 144, 180, 186, 209, 213
tajallī (pl. tajalliyyāt) 93, 253 watercourse 277–280, 294–295
Taʿlīm-i ghawthiyya 252–257 white 51, 98–99, 108, 127, 145–147, 184–
talisman/talismanic 16, 18, 211 185
ṭarīqa (pl. ṭuruq) 85, 160 Winter, Michael 264, 272n27, 289n80
taṣawwara 132n22, 133n30, 242 wird (pl. awrād) 16
taṣawwur 109, 133n30, 242, 273 wujūd 45, 85, 130, 135n37, 136n40, 137,
taṣwīr 4, 45, 84, 108, 132n22 139n46, 142n51, 152n74, 166, 173–174,
tawḥīd 23, 97–98, 162, 164, 180, 184–185, 235, 247n39, 254
239 marātib al-wujūd 151
throne see ʿarsh waḥdat al-wujūd 234
Throne Verse 173

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Yaʿaqov ben Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen 13 Zarcone, Thierry 221n46

Yahia, Osman 82 Zarkar, Rustin 157, 164, 172
Yasʿā 164, 179n71, 183–184, 186n87, 187 zāwiya 287
al-Yawāqīt wa-l-jawāhir 273n30 Zuḥal see Saturn
Yemen 82, 206 Zuhara see Venus
Yubūsa 139 Zuhra see Venus
Yusuf Ali, Abdullah 197n19 ẓulma 37n43, 144, 184n79

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