Reading Classical Islamic Texts (in Arabic): Spirituality (WS-652)

This high level course offers an in-depth exploration of the prose or poetry of some of the central spiritual masters of classical lslam: Ka‘b b. Zuhayr, ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd al-Kātib, al-Ḥallāj, al-Ghazālī, ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhānī, ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Mehmed Pīr ‘Alī Birgivī, Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqı. Key texts will be read in the original Arabic, translated orally, explained grammatically, commented on ideologically, and discussed, by the students as well as by the professor. A good knowledge of Classical Arabic is required to maximize the learning in this course. Bibliographical references and copies of the Arabic texts will be provided. Class will meet: ten mornings, from Monday January 4, 2016 to Friday January 15, 2016, 9 am – 1:30 pm. Course Objectives

1) Students should have gained greater confidence in approaching, translating and discussing classical Islamic works in the original Arabic text. 2) They should be able to find their way around in the major works of masters of classical Islamic spirituality. 3) They should be able to benefit from the methodological approaches adopted in these classes and apply them for their own studies and/or research projects. Course Requirements

1) It is strongly recommended that the student arrive at the first class already able to read Arabic and having a general knowledge about the religion of Islam, Islamic spirituality, and the history and culture of the Middle East. 2) Daily preparations and readings, class participation, final presentation. 3) Attendance in class is required. If you know that you will be unable to attend a class please inform the professor in advance. Missing two classes will result in an automatic lowering of your final grade by 30%. Missing three or more classes will result in automatic failure of the course. The final grade will be based upon the following:

1) Active class participation (60%). 2) The presentation during Class X (January 15, 40%). Students fluent in Arabic shall join with weaker ones in groups of 2 or 3 individuals. Each group will be responsible for the written* & oral presentation,

translation, commentary on, and discussion of an original Arabic text of Islamic spirituality during the last class. This text should be chosen by the end of class V in consultation with the professor.

* All written work is to conform to the seminary writing guidelines, which can be found online at: http://www.hartsem.edu/student/forms/researchpaperguide.pdf. It must use the transliteration system given in class I. It must be run through a grammar and spell-check program or read by the writing tutor if necessary before submission. The Hartford Seminary Grading Guidelines will be the standard of evaluation for work in the course. IMPORTANT: Plagiarism, the failure to give proper credit for the words and ideas of another person, whether published or unpublished, is strictly prohibited. All written material submitted by students must be their own original work; where the words and ideas of others are used they must be acknowledged. Credit will not be given for work containing plagiarism, and plagiarism will lead to failure of a course. Please see the Hartford Seminary Catalogue for the full plagiarism policy. General references

ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF ISLAM. New edition: Vol. i, Leiden: E. J. Brill – Paris: Maisonneuve, M. Besson, 1960; vols. ii–xii, Leiden: E. J. Brill – Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1965–2007.

SCHIMMEL, Annemarie, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, [1975]). NICHOLSON, R. A., A Literary History of the Arabs (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1907), 500 p. Class Schedule

I. Monday January 4. Ka‘b b. Zuhayr (1/7 c.) General references: BEESTON, A.F.L., JOHNSTONE, T.M., SERJEANT, R.B., SMITH, G.R. (eds.), Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, “The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature”, 1983), 547 p. PJ7510 .A8 1983 ALMUJALLI, H., The Importance of Ka‘b ibn Zuhayr’s Burdah to Classical and Modern Islamic Poetry, Ma Thesis (Brandeis

University, May 2014), vi & 48 p. https://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/handle/10192/27079/AlmujalliThesis2014.pdf?sequence=1 Reading Assignments: IBN ISḤĀQ, Sīrat Rasūl Allāh - The Life of Muḥammad. Translation with Introduction and Notes by A. GUILLAUME (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1955), p. 597–602. SELLS, M. J., Bānat Su‘ād. Translation and Introduction, in Journal of Arabic Literature, 21/2, 1990, p. 140–154. Arabic text: KA‘B B. ZUHAYR, Bānat Su‘ād, in Dīwān Ka‘b b. Zuhayr, ed. ‘A. FĀ‘ŪR (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya,

1997), p. 60–67. II. Tuesday January 5. ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd al-Kātib (d. ± 132/750)

General reference: BEESTON, A.F.L., JOHNSTONE, T.M., SERJEANT, R.B., SMITH, G.R. (eds.), Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, “The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature”, 1983), 547 p. PJ7510 .A8 1983 Reading Assignments: LATHAM, J. D., The Beginnings of Arabic Prose Literature: the Epistolary genre, in BEESTON, A.F.L., JOHNSTONE, T.M.,

SERJEANT, R.B., SMITH, G.R. (eds.), Arabic Literature…, p. 154–179. IBN KHALDŪN, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History. Translated and Introduced by Franz ROSENTHAL. Abridged

and edited by N. J. DAWOOD. With a new introduction by Bruce B. LAWRENCE (Princeton - Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005). P. 201–206.

Arabic text: ‘ABD AL-ḤAMĪD B. YAḤYĀ AL-KĀTIB, Risālat ilā l-kuttāb, in Rasā’il al-bulaghā’, ed. M. KURD ‘ALĪ (Cairo: Muṣṭafā l-Bābī l-Ḥalabī, 1331/1913), p. 172–175.

III. Wednesday January 6. al-Ḥallāj (d. 309/922) General references: MASSIGNON, Louis, The Passion of al-Ḥallāj, Mystic and Martyr of Islām. Translated from the French with a biographical

foreword by Herbert MASON, 4 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, “Bollingen series, 98”, 1982). —, The Passion of al-Hallāj, Mystic and Martyr of Islām. Translated and edited by Herbert MASON. Abridged edition

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), xxxi & 292 p., 0-691-01919-3.

Reading Assignments: SCHIMMEL, Annemarie, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, [1975]) —Al-Ḥallāj,

p. 62–77. MICHOT, Yahya, Ibn Taymiyya’s Commentary on the Creed of al-Îallāj, in A. SHIHADEH (ed.), Sufism and Theology

(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), p. 123–136. Arabic text: AL-ḤALLĀJ, ‘Aqīda, in IBN TAYMIYYA, al-Istiqāma. Ed. M. R. Sālim, 2 vols. (Riyādh: Dār al-Faḍīla li-l-Nashr

wa l-Tawzī‘ - Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm li-l-Ṭibā‘a wa l-Nashr wa l-Tawzī‘, 1420/2000), vol. i, p. 115–121. IV. Thursday January 7. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111)

General references: GARDEN, Kenneth, The First Islamic Reviver. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and his Revival of the Religious Sciences (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2014), xiii & 238 p., 978-0-19-998962-1. KĀSHIF AL-GHIṬĀ’, Dhū l-Fiqār (ed.), Junnat al-asmā’ li-Abī Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, in Majmū‘at al-rasā’il al-rūḥāniyya (Beirut:

Mu’assasat al-A‘lamī li-l-Maṭbū‘āt, 1429/2008), p. 167–186. Reading Assignments: GARDEN, Kenneth, The First Islamic Reviver. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and his Revival of the Religious Sciences (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 1–11 & 17–29. SAVAGE-SMITH, E., Magic and Islam, in J. RABY (ed.), The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. Vol. XII. Part One:

Science, Tools & Magic (London: The Nour Foundation - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 59–63. Arabic text: AL-GHAZĀLĪ (PSEUDO-?), Risāla Junnat al-asmā’, MS Michot 1101, fol. 88v–110r.

V. Friday January 8. ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhānī (d. 525/1131)

General references: SAFI, Omid, The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam. Negotiating Ideology and Religious Inquiry (Chapel Hill: The

University of North Carolina Press, 2006), liii & 292 p., ISBN 978-0-8078-5657-4. DABASHI, Hamid, Truth and Narrative. The Untimely Thoughts of ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhānī (Richmond: Curzon Press,

1999), xxii & 671 p. , ISBN 0-7007-1002-7. PAPAN-MATIN, Firoozeh, Beyond Death: The Mystical Teachings of ʻAyn Al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhānī (Leiden: Brill, 2010). LEWISOHN, Leonard, In Quest of Annihilation: Imaginalization and Mystical Death in the Tamhīdāt of ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt

Hamadhānī, in L. LEWISOHN (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, I. Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300) (Oxford, Oneworld: 1999), 1-85168-188-4, p. 285–336.

Reading Assignments: PAPAN-MATIN, Firoozeh, ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhānī’s Persecution in Baghdad or the Exile of the Soul, in Ishraq. Islamic

Philosophy Yearbook, No 3 (Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2012), p. 301–313. ARBERRY, A. J., A Sufi Martyr: The Apologia of 'Ain al-Qudat al-Hamadhânî (London: Allen & Unwin, 1969), p. 53–72. Arabic text: BEN ABD EL-JALIL, Mohammed, Šakwā-l-Ġarīb ‘ani l-’awṭān ’ilā ‘ulamā’-l-buldān de ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt al-

Hamadānī (m. 525-1131), éditée et traduite, avec introduction et notes, in Journal Asiatique, CCXVI (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1930), p. 1–76, 193–297. — P. 59–65.

VI. Monday January 11. ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166) General references: TĀDIFĪ, Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā (AL-; d. 963/1556), Necklaces of Gems (Qalā’id al-Jawāhir). A Biography of the

Crown of the Saints: Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī. Translated from the Arabic by Muhtar HOLLAND (Fort Lauderdale: Al-Baz Publishing, 1998), xxiv & 603 p., 1-882216-17-2.

QADIRI, Muḥammad Riaz, The Sultan of the Saints: Mystical Life and Teachings of Hazrat Shaikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jilani (New Delhi: Adam Publishers, 2009), 338 p.

Reading Assignments: HOLLAND, Muhtar, ‘Abd al-Qādir AL-JĪLĀNĪ. The Sublime Revelation. A Collection of Sixty-Two Discourses - Al-Fatḥ al-

Rabbānī. Translated from the Arabic (Kuala Lumpur: S. Abdul Majeed & Co., [1992]), xv & 496 p. — P. 417–442. NIZAMI, Khaliq A., The Qādiriyyah Order, in Seyyed H. NASR (ed.), Islamic Spirituality II, Manifestations (London: SCM

Press, “World Spirituality, 20”, 1991), p. 6–25. Arabic text: ‘Abd al-Qādir AL-JĪLĀNĪ, al-Fatḥ al-rabbānī wa l-fayḍ al-raḥmānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya,

1403/1983), Discourse 61, p. 222–227.

VII. Tuesday January 12. Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/1235) General references: HOMERIN, Th. Emil, From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint. Ibn al-Fârid, His Verse, and his Shrine (Columbia: University of South

Carolina Press, ‘Studies in Comparative Religion’, 1994), xii & 162 p., 0-87249-980-4. Reading Assignment: HOMERIN, Th. Emil, ‘Umar Ibn al-Fāriḍ. Sufi Verse, Saintly Life. Translated and Introduced. Preface by Michael A. SELLS

(New York - Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, “The Classics of Western Spirituality”, 2001), p. 7–37. Arabic text: Sharibnā…, in G. SCATTOLIN, The Dīwān of Ibn al-Fāriḍ. Readings of its Text Throughout History, A Critical

Edition (Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, “Textes arabes et études islamiques, 41”, 2004), p. 158–161. VIII. Wednesday January 13. Meḥmed Pīr ‘Alī Birgivī (d. 981/1573)

General references: BIRGIVI, Mehmed b. Pīr ‘Alī, The Path of Muhammad (al-Ṭarīqah al-Muḥammadiyyah), A Book on Islamic Morals and

Ethics, & The Last Will and Testament (Vasiyyetnāme). Interpreted by Shaykh Tosun BAYRAK al-Jerrahi al-Halveti. Foreword by Shaykh ABDUL MABUD. Introduction by Vincent J. CORNELL (Bloomington: World Wisdom, Inc., 2005), xv & 351 p., 0-941532-68-2.

MARTI, Huriye, Birgivî Mehmed Efendi. Hayatı, Eserleri ve Fikir Dünyası (Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, 2011), xii & 210 p., 978-975-389-556-9.

RADTKE, Bernd, Birgiwīs Ṭarīqa Muḥammadiyya. Einige Bemerkungen und Überlegungen, in Journal of Turkish Studies, 26/1, 2002, Harvard, p. 159–174.

Reading Assignments: ZILFI, M. C., The Politics of Piety: the Ottoman Ulema in the Postclassical Age (1600-1800) (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca

Islamica, “Studies in Middle Eastern History, 8”, 1988), p. 143–146. LEWIS, G. L., The Balance of Truth, by Kātib Chelebi. Translated with an Introduction and Notes (London: George Allen &

Unwin, “Ethical and Religious Classics of East and West”, 1957), p. 128–131: The Controversy Between Abu’l-Su‘ūd Efendi and Birgili Mehmed Efendi.

Arabic text: BIRGIVI, Mehmed b. Pīr ‘Alī, al-Ṭarīqat al-Muḥammadiyya ([Istanbul]: Maṭba‘at al-Ḥājj Muḥrim Efendī l-Būsnawī, 1287[/1870]), p. 170–176.

IX. Thursday January 14. Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqı Erẓurūmī (d. 1194/1780) General references: SCHIMMEL, A., Sufism and Spiritual Life in Turkey, in S. H. NASR (ed.), Islamic Spirituality. Manifestations (London: SCM

Press, 1991), p. 223–232. OCAK, A. Y. (ed.), Sufism and Sufis in Ottoman Society. Sources, Doctrine, Rituals, Turuq, Architecture, Literature and fine

Arts, Modernism (Ankara: Atatürk Supreme Council for Culture, Language and History, “Publications of the Turkish Historical Society, XXX/3a”, 2005).

ZIAEE, A. A., Islamic Cosmology and Astronomy. Ibrahim Hakki’s Marifetname (Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010).

— Science and Mystical Cosmology in Ibrahim Hakki’s Marifetname (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2010), on https://fr.scribd.com/doc/89443740/Science-and-Mysticism-in-Marifename.

REVNAKOĞLU, C. S, Erzurumlu İbrahim Hakkı ve Marifetnamesi (Istanbul: İlk Harf Yayınevi, “Tasavvuf Serisi, 7”, 2011), 344 p., 978-605-5457-25-9.

BENEITO, P. & HIRTENSTEIN, S., MUḤYĪDDĪN IBN ‘ARABĪ: The Seven Days of the Heart - Awrād al-usbū‘ (Wird). Prayers for the Nights and Days of the Week. Translated and presented in English (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2000).

Reading Assignment: MICHOT, Y., Sufi Love and Light in Tillo: Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqı Erẓurūmī (d. 1194/1780), in The Muslim World, 105/3, June 2015, p. 322–367.

Arabic text: ḤAQQI, Ibrāhīm, Kitāb-e Ma‘rifatnāmeh (Būlāq, al-Maṭba‘at al-Kubrā, 1251/[1835]), p. 523–525, 561–562. X. Friday January 15. Presentations