"Guests of the Inmost Heart"
Conceptions of the Divine Beloved among Early Sufi Women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v3i1.72Keywords:
early sufi women, sufi literature, khabar genreAbstract
In the works of Sufi love mysticism, the Sufi seeker is often represented as a male lover in relation to God as the symbolically “feminine” Beloved. However, women themselves were not infrequently the practitioners of the mystical path in Islam, and it is clear from the words attributed to them that female Sufis developed their own image of the Divine Beloved as the symbolically masculine object of their female desire. In this paper, I examine short poetic pieces and sayings attributed to Sufi women in both hagiographical and biographical works in an attempt to identify a specifically feminine brand of Islamic “love” mysticism, reflecting a distinctly and traditionally female experience of loving and spiritual longing.References
Aflaki, Shams al-Din Ahmad. Manaqib al-arfin, trans. John O'Kane as The Feats of the Knowers of God. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
'Attar, Farid al-Din, Tazkirat al-awliya, ed. Muhammad Isti'lami. Tehran: Intisharat-i Zavvar, 1998.
Baqli, Ruzbihan. Unveiling of Secrets, trans. C. Ernst. Chapel Hill: Parvardigar Press, 1997.
Bukhari, Muhammad b. Isma'il. Sahih Bukhari, 9 vols., ed. and trans. Muhammad Muhsin Khan. Medina: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.
Chittick, William. The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998.
Chittick, William. The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989.
Cornell, Vincent. The Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Ghazali, Abu Hamid. Ihya' 'ulum al-din, 5 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ma'rifah, 1982.
Ghazali, Ahmad. Sawanih: Inspirations from the World of Pure Spirits, trans. and ed. Nasrollah Pourjavadi. London: KPI, 1986.
Hakim al-Tirmidhi, Kitab sirat al-awliya', trans. and ed. B. Radtke and J. O'Kane as The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996.
Hanafi, Hasan. al-Turath wa'l-tajdid: mawqifuna min al-turath al-qadim. Cairo: al-Markaz al-'Arabi li'l-Bahth wa'l-Nashr, 1980.
Homerin, Th, Emil. "Living Love: The Mystical Writings of 'A'ishah al-Ba'uniyah." Mamluk Studies Review 7, no. 1 (2003): 211-34.
Hurayfish, 'Ali b. Sa'd Allah. al-Rawd al-fa'iq fi'l-mawa'iz al-raqa'iq. Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Jumhuriyyah al-'Arabiyyah, n.d.
Ibn al-'Arabi. al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah, 13 vols., ed. Ibrahim Madkur. Cairo: al-Hay-ah al-Misriyyah al-'Ammah li'l-Kitab, 1972.
Ibn al-'Arabi. Traite de l'amour, trans. and ed. Maurice Gloton. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986.
Ibn al-Jawzi, Jamal al-Din Abu'l-Faraj, Sifat al-safwah, 4 vols., ed. Ibrahim Ramadan and Sa'id al-Lahham. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, 1989.
Ibn Rajab, 'Abd al Rahman al Hanbali. Kitab al-istinshaq nasim al-uns min nafahat riyad al-quds, ed. Ahmad 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sharif. Beirut: Maktab al-Islami, 1991.
Jami, Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman b. Ahmas, Nafahat al uns. Luknow: Lith., 1915.
Kalabadhi, Muhammad b. Ibrahim. al-Ta'arruf li-madhhad ahl al-tasawwuf, ed. Mahmud Amin Nawawi. Cairo: al-Azhar Press, 1980.
Murata, Sachiko. Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought, Albany: SUNY Press, 1992.
Nabhani, Yusuf b. Isma'il. Kitab Jami' karamat al-awliya 2 vols. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1972.
Nisaburi, al-Hasan b. Muhammad. 'Uqala' al-majanin, ed. Muammad Bhar al-'Ulum. Najaf: al-Maktabah al-Haydariyyah, 1968.
Nizam al-Din Awliya', Fawa'id al-fawa'id, ed. Muhammad Latif Malik. Lahore, 1966.
Qushayri, 'Abd al-Karim b. Hawazin. Principles of Sufism, trans. Barbara von Schlegell. Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1990.
Roded, Ruth. Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: from Ibn Sa'd to Who's Who. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994.
Schimmel, Annemarie. My Soul is a Woman. New York: Continuum, 1999.
Sha'rani, 'Abd al-Wahhab, al-Tabaqat al-kubra, ed. 'Abd al-Rahman Hasan Mahmud Cairo: Maktabat al-Adab, 1993.
Sharif al-Radi, Nahj al-balaghah. Qum: Mu'assasat al-Nashr al-Islami, 1992.
Smith, Margaret. Rabi'a: The Life and Work of Rabiµa and Other Women Mystics in Islam. Oxford: Oneworld, 1994.
Spellberg, Denise. Politics and Gender in Early Islam: The Legacy of 'A'ishah bt. Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Sulami, Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, Early Sufi Women: dhikr al-niswa al-muta'abbidat al-sufiyyat, trans. and ed. Rkia E. Cornell. Louisville: Fons Vitae, 1999.
Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, trans. Mirabai Starr. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.
Trimingham, Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Wensinck, A.J. Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane, Leiden: Brill, 1943.
