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presence of sufi teachings and practices in some tales

of The Arabian Nights

jean-jacques thibon

On reading the tale of hâsib karîm al-dîn, who would not dream of finding the pages which would make him ‘the wisest man alive’?1 These five pages are what remains of daniel’s vast library which went down in a shipwreck, or more accurately, what he wrote after the catastrophe to preserve the quintessence of his library which he then placed in a casket as a legacy for his son. and yet these five pages written by daniel, alternatively portrayed as Greek sage and biblical prophet, are all that is needed to attain the heights of knowledge.2 alongside the myth of the transmission of partly lost universal knowledge is the ideal of distilled knowledge. however, with the numerous editions, translations and analyses of The Arabian Nights what was witnessed is the very opposite: a process of continual expansion. my essay stems from questions on the transmission of knowledge, whatever its form or nature. with all the naivety of a novice, as i am neither an expert in literature nor in The Arabian Nights, this essay explores the presence of sufism in The Arabian Nights. my aim is to identify how this work portrays the central element of muslim spirituality. The main difficulty resides in the absence of a complete index listing the themes addressed, despite a few attempts in this direction.3 it is consequently difficult to have a comprehensive view without reading the thousands of pages which make up The Nights. such an intention might seem misplaced as the tales in this work are not generally known for their emphasis on asceticism or spirituality. it might be argued that it is in fact the very opposite as their main aim is to entertain through a combination of poetry, wine and sensual pleasures, intertwined with the supernatural. But as this collection of texts has to a greater or lesser extent adopted all genres, mysticism is no exception.

it is of interest that in another great narrative in popular arabic literature, The Novel of Baybars, saints occupy a prominent place and play a significant

8 Jean-Jacques Thibon

role.4 Even if the frame of the two narratives differs both in time and space, The Novel of Baybars nonetheless leads us to ask how The Nights portrays spirituality in general and sainthood in particular. The present chapter does not claim to offer a complete answer to the question, but only to suggest some hitherto little explored lines of thought. searching for signs of the presence of sufis leads to two main questions. The first is how their presence is expressed; the second is what conclusion can be drawn from their presence without running the risk of unjustifiable interpolations.

to answer these questions, this essay will address first sufi masters and other types of mystics; second saints and finally the values and beliefs conveyed by the tales in which they are the players.

i

The following story5 is attributed to ibrâhîm al-khawwâs, a sufi who was said to have died in 291/903-4 at rayy.6 The daughter of a king ‘in the land of the infidels’ had grace bestowed on her in a revelation which brought her into the state of ‘dazzling truth’ 7 and for four years, like saint Theresa of avila, she was visited by a presence which never left her. she thus, learnt that ibrâhîm al-khawwâs was coming to visit her in reply to her request to receive a visit from one of God’s saints to deliver her from her family who believed her to be ill and considered she was mad. he was introduced to the king as a doctor whose task was to cure her, at the risk of his life, if he failed. he stayed by her side for seven days and at the end of this period she expressed the desire to make her way to ‘the lands of islam’. Contrary to the hagiographic tradition which remembers al-khawwâs for the perfection of his tawakkul (complete reliance on God), he turned out to be helpless and at a complete loss when it came to executing the plan. instead, it was the daughter, the novice, who succeeded by trusting in providence: she got him to follow her and they managed to escape from the city without mishap. she spent the last seven years of her life in mecca where she was later buried. it will be noted that this muslim saint, as this is how he is presented, plays practically no role in this brief tale. On the other hand, he receives a spiritual lesson from a woman, a Christian, in a field in which he is supposed to excel. his only merit is to have been an agent of God’s will, even if it was despite himself. as he himself admits, however hard he tried not to travel, he was compelled to do so. it would seem legitimate to ask whether this tale illustrates reactions to mystical themes amongst the popular classes, as suggested by the translator.8 what is in the forefront is the omnipotence of God who needs no mediator to guide his chosen servant, despite totally unpropitious circumstances (in the present case: a woman, a king’s daughter, a Christian country). Emerging from behind the

presence of sufi teachings and practices 9

portrait of the saint as a transparent agent of God’s will is a hint of criticism against excessive claims to mystic powers made by certain sufis.9 what is clear is that the choice of saint was not innocent and that it shows a certain knowledge of sufi literature.

in another tale ‘The man from upper Egypt and his Frankish wife’10 the role of the four named sufis is even more insignificant. yet they are sari al-saqatî, Bishr al-hâfî, Junayd and Fudayl b. ‘lyâd, who are amongst the most prestigious figures of sufism from third to ninth century.11 a muslim spends the night with a Frankish woman, but overcomes with a feeling of piety, he abstains. The following day, he sees her walking past his shop, as seductive as ever, and chides himself for taking things no further with this woman, thereby setting himself up as the equal of one of these masters. This shows the masters to be exceptional beings; an ordinary man cannot hope to have a rivalry with them nor can he expect to share their spiritual states. silent icons, they seem to be kept at a distance. They are not in their element in these tales and even if they are part of the general setting, it is quite exceptional for them to occupy the forefront of the stage and then only by chance.

But on occasions this does happen as in ‘ ‘abu al-hasan and abu Ja‘far the leper’12 which features sufis, not only as active characters, but also as the only ones in the tale. a man, whom one presumes to be devout inasmuch as he frequently takes pilgrims to mecca, is one day accosted by a leper who wishes to accompany him on his journey to the holy lands. however, the man in question for once does not wish to have a fellow-traveller. he consequently travels alone, but at every stage of his journey he encounters the leper who has arrived there first. at medina, having lost track of him, he tells his story to a group of sufis led by shiblî and Bistâmî.13 They immediately recognize abû Ja‘far and explain that he is a holy man, an intercessor whose every prayer is answered. The man’s attitude changes radically and he sets off to look for him, fervently wishing to find him. he eventually succeeds and, thanks to the saint’s intercession, he follows the path of the sufis to the end of his days, living in utter destitution. i have identified the narrative which was used to write this tale. it is recounted by Baghdâdî in his Ta’rîkh14 and The Arabian Nights have faithfully reproduced the various narrative elements of the ‘original’. however, with two exceptions, the first difference is that in Baghdâdî’s version the two sufis encountered at medina15 are not shiblî and Bistâmî, but abû Bakr al-kattânî et abû al-hasan al-muzayyin.16 This change can easily be explained; the reputation of the former is infinitely greater than that of the latter and consequently the audience were much more likely to recognize them and, so to speak, to place greater credit in the narrative and its authenticity. as regards abu Ja‘far, he is al-majdhûm,17 a Baghdad sufi who lived at the beginning of the fourth to the tenth century, a recluse to whom miracles are attributed. The other difference between the two versions is that the poetry in The Nights does


not figure in Baghdâdî’s narrative. These two differences make it possible to observe the transformations which a historiographer’s account undergoes for inclusion in a collection of tales, the enhanced reputation of the characters and a sprinkling of poetry are all that is needed to reach a wider audience.

in ‘umar al-nu‘mân’,18 a young girl tells anecdotes about holy men, amongst those who appear are Bishr al-hâfî and ibrâhîm b. adham, for the sufis, and the famous ascetic Thâbit al-Bannânî.19 They are held as examples mainly for their teaching which is full of wisdom and detachment. a dialogue between shaqîq al-Balkhî and ibrâhîm b. adham at mecca20 ends in the former recognizing the latter’s superiority. a version of this dialogue can be found in the manuals of sufism.21 But here shaqîq al-Balkhî questions Ja‘far al-sâdiq, and not ibrâhîm b. adham. his question concerns futuwwa, spiritual chivalry, and the different ways in which the concept is understood by the mystics of khurasan and medina. it is easy to understand why this technical term should have been removed for laymen and replaced by a vaguer question on the differences in behaviour between the two populations. however, The Arabian Nights accurately renders the difference in approach that existed amongst sufis in their understanding of the futuwwa. and one of the key concepts, îthâr, abnegation or altruism, is indeed stressed in the tale. Ja‘far al-sâdiq, the figurehead of shiite islam, who is also recognized and claimed by the sunnites, is replaced by ibrâhîm b. adham in other versions, possibly because he might have posed problems in a largely sunnite context or during a period when there was friction between the two groups.

in the tale of ‘alâ’ al-dîn abû al-shâmât’,22 when ‘alâ’ al-dîn sets off for Baghdad, his father gives him a lamp and a tomb-covering for ‘abd al-Qadir Jîlânî,23 the great saint of the iraqi capital. On the eve of his departure he organizes a dhikr in honour of the saint.24 The veneration of the saint turns out to be salutary as it is this saint who saves alâ’ al-dîn from certain death when he is attacked by a bandit brandishing a lance over his head. But this is not the last of the brigands and when they attack him a second time, he invokes lady nafîsa, the great-granddaughter of hasan, son of ‘alî whose tomb in Cairo is an object of great veneration.25 here the protection is twofold and establishes a balance between the two khalifal cities, on the one hand, the intercession of saints through a tutelary figure and on the other hand, protection preferred by the Ahl al-Bayt, the family of the prophet. This tale unambiguously depicts the veneration in which certain sufis were held. is the explanation that this tale was inserted later in the collection of The Nights?26 it nonetheless remains that one figure dominates The Nights as the embodiment of spirituality and that is Jîlânî, the great saint of Baghdad whose name is venerated to the east and west of the muslim world. One might ask whether The Nights contributed to his popularity, however modestly, or whether they simply recorded a fame otherwise achieved?


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The expression of muslim spirituality takes many forms, even if it is not an exaggeration to say that sufism which is itself multiform represents the most stable and structured form, both in its doctrines and its practices. Thus, the terminology used to designate the various representatives has an equally rich number of terms. The whole range is found in The Nights, where sufi, fakir, dervish, calender, etc., appear in turn. ascetics and other devout characters are also frequently present in different tales. The latter are representative of a character type that goes beyond the muslim world to cover the whole of the middle East, with Christian, Jewish and even Buddhist versions. a whole series of contrasting portraits may be drawn. The pious shepherd living at the top of a mountain surrounded by his flock of sheep and by wild animals which do him no harm is a classic theme in ascetic literature. a beautiful maiden attempting to seduce him completes the picture of a man exposed to the temptations of the world and the senses.27 asceticism is also portrayed in the series of animal fables. here the wolf in his quarrels with the fox tries to arouse the fox’s pity by simulating sincere repentance and undertaking to dress in woollen garments and to retire to the top of a mountain to pray to God.28 Elsewhere, the false bigot, in the shape of a hedgehog has no difficulty taking people in. in such cases, the ascetic’s clothing is a subterfuge to satisfy a craving for worldly goods.29 The sufi, easily recognized from the way he dresses with woollen robe, staff and goatskin, inspires confidence. Thus, these attributes may serve to hide intentions that are far removed from mystical preoccupations. when he decides to wander incognito through the streets of Baghdad, khalifa harun-al rashid dresses up as a dervish along with three dignitaries, one of whom was his vizier, Ja‘far the Barmecide.30 another case in point is the old lady who dresses up as a pious devout old lady. when instructed by the Governor of kûfa, al-hajjâj, to procure nu’m, a woman of exceptional beauty and learning for the khalifa, she dons a woollen robe, puts a rosary ‘made of thousands of seeds’ round her neck and carries a staff and a goatskin from yemen.31 Thus decked out with all the attributes of piety, the old woman succeeds in enticing nu‘m out of her house and taking her to ‘a sacred place’ to visit ‘venerated holy personages’.32 This description, which probably suggested to nu‘um a khanqâh or a zâwiya, convents which more often than not harboured the tomb of a holy man and were a place of gathering for sufis, turned out to be the Governor’s palace.

indeed the Nights do often portray women hiding dark intentions under the robes of piety. another example is dhât al-dawâhi, mother of a Frankish prince, who is sent into the ranks of a muslim army to use her wiles to destroy them. when she comes before king sharr kân, she dresses as a mystic to implement her sinister projects.33 Furthermore, she goes beyond outward


appearances and displays a surprisingly good knowledge of islam and islamic spirituality. when she recounts her travels to the king, she tells of how she swelled with pride on finding herself walking on water, an act for which God punished her by condemning her to an itinerant life. in depicting herself thus, she makes herself out to be a saint, who can work miracles, but who is punished for forgetting the humility befitting a servant of God. This is a recurrent hagiographic theme. That this colourful character, who threatens islam on the battlefields when it is weakened by its divisions, should have chosen to dress as a sufi to deceive valiant leaders, that she should also be well-versed in the inner secrets of mysticism and asceticism makes one wonder what the hidden intentions of the narrator were. was he trying to show sufism to be a creed which is foreign to islam and introduced to combat and destroy it?

apart from cases such as these, the destitution of dervishes is presented as genuine and while they are not unmoved by feminine beauty, even if they are vowed to chastity, the frequentation of men and boys repels them. in the tale Qamar al-Zamân and the Jeweller’s Wife, a dervish is set free of all suspicion after rejecting the advances of the young and stunningly handsome Qamar al-zamân who had been sent by his father to put the dervish’s morality to the test. having mistaken the meaning of the dervish’s tears and sighs when he saw his son, the father suspected him of the worst intentions.34 in this tale, the dervishes are cleared of any paedophilic leanings. This should probably be seen in the light of a very widespread practice, which was nonetheless severely condemned by many sufi masters: during dhikr (recollection and invocation of God), the contemplation of the faces of comely young men was used to stimulate meditation and the search for ecstasy. This dubious practice could not help but arouse suspicion and reprobation. This tale might be interpreted as echoing this controversy and taking up a clear stance in favour of the dervishes.

Elsewhere, the son of a rich merchant threatens his father if he refuses to bend to his will, saying that he will don the clothes of a dervish to go off into the world. here a disappointment which has nothing to do with love motivates the intention to become a dervish.35 in this illustration of the conflict of generations, the dervish becomes a symbol of the challenge to the established order.

Even the son of the khalifa, and in this case it is once again harun-al rashid, can become a sufi. when still a youth he dons the woollen robe of the sufis and renounces worldly honours and pleasures to live the life of an ascetic. he is not presented as a mere ascetic, but as a friend of God with the power to work miracles, gives orders to animals and the premonition he has of his own death enables him to organize his funeral without omitting to inform the khalifa, his father.36

Thus, trials and tribulations sometimes lead an enlightened man along an unexpected path, giving him the opportunity to change his way of life, to


meditate on the futility of the things of this world and their transience. This tells him it is the time to become a mystical mendicant, a faqîr, who lives on alms while waiting to enter the next world.37

it is difficult to say how far such characters can be identified with sufism. most of them probably can be; the others are linked with forms of spirituality which were more or less accepted by orthodox islam, but who were familiar enough to be easily identified and who even enjoyed the prestige conferred by renunciation and piety. in some cases, the recognition of a person’s sainthood takes things a step further. The miracles which his state enables him to accomplish give rise to visible signs of devotion and veneration, and it is at this point that the art of the tale meets that of hagiography and starts borrowing themes from it.

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Certain characters suggest a form of sainthood that is clearly identified in the spiritual tradition of islam. The tale of the saintly king, or more exactly the king-saint,38 offers a good example, the king lives in a state of utter destitution once he has finished attending to the affairs of his kingdom. in private both he and his wife wear woollen robes, live by the work of their hands, fast during the day and pray at night. The king incarnates the hidden saint living far from the eyes of the world. two elements justify this claim; he has the gift of clairvoyance and is immediately able to recognize a friend of God amongst the crowd of supplicants who has come to his audience. Furthermore, from then on, his prayers, in which his wife joins him, are answered and this is a sign of his high degree of spirituality. The holy man who has visited him is a saint like himself and endowed with charismatic gifts, but he has felt his fervour weakening. it is restored to its former strength through the intercession of this couple who suffuse him with renewed and long lasting fervour. The characters in the present tale are connected with the people of israel, but it is easy to transpose them to the muslim world.39 This recalls al-malik al-sâlih in The Novel of Baybars.40

The theme of the king’s son who becomes a mendicant is also a classic figure in the hagiographic tradition. in the tale of the king and his pilgrim son,41 the father is as tyrannical and oppressive as his son is good and just. The son becomes a travelling ascetic, renouncing the world and living on alms. when he wants to recover a garment that his father’s guards have stolen from him, he is imprisoned. But his prayers and piety lead to the destruction of the palace and the city which both end up in ashes. ibrâhîm b. adham, who is also a king’s son turned ascetic, is one of the most important figures in sufi hagiography.42 it is not by chance that kingship and sainthood are juxtaposed as they represent the two extremes of power, linked respectively to the worldly and spiritual


spheres. here this confrontation is to the advantage of the spiritual sphere, represented by the saint who defends righteous causes and has been sent to rid the world of tyrants and of those who have failed to rise up against injustice.

another easily identifiable type is the anonymous saint. he may, for example, be a slave, a black slave even, as in The Tale of the Pious Black Slave;43he wears the woollen robes of the sufis; anything he prays for is granted and he intercedes to get rain to fall on Basra when it is smitten by severe drought. an interesting detail is that he was, so to speak, unmasked by historical characters, probably from ascetic circles in Basra. The main point is that he claims he is seeking the love of God, a claim disputed by his interlocutors, whom it appears to scandalize. Then when the secret of his proximity to God is revealed, he asks to be called to God and he dies on the spot. a mysterious messenger brings a shroud for him and his tomb becomes a place of pilgrimage and prayer for the devout. in iraq, from third to ninth century such claims were considered scandalous and the tale perhaps reflects this controversy.44 One fact which would seem to support this is that the story was told by malik b. dinar, a writer of sermons and moralist from Basra who led the life of an ascetic.45

The tale of the blacksmith who puts his hand in the fire without feeling the slightest pain recalls the great master of nishabur, abû hafs al-haddâd,46 who was said to thrust his bare hands into the fire to retrieve red-hot iron. The character in the tale seems little inclined to accomplish excessive feats of devotion and he does no more than the bare minimum.47 it might be asked how he acquired this charismatic gift. he desired, so the tale goes, a lady who spurned his advances, invoking the love of God to enjoin him not to mar her honour. The blacksmith paid no heed and made numerous attempts, all in vain, until one day he received God’s grace, for no apparent reason. he without asking for anything in return gave her food when she had gone hungry for several days. as a result, she prayed to ask God to spare him fire in this world and the next. The miracle consequently results from the prayers of this holy woman who is chaste through the love of God. The blacksmith’s repentance, necessary but one might say of little narrative interest, takes second place to the woman’s piety. here sainthood is represented by a woman and her intercession is the outward sign of this quality. as bearers of divine mercy, saints, whether men or women, shower on those around them the blessings that stem from their state and function. The conversion of Christians as a result of the exemplary conduct of a muslim is a recurrent theme in pious literature.48 in the tale of ‘The prior who Became a moslem’,49 an ascetic falls in love with a young Christian girl, but refuses to convert to Christianity to marry her. nor does he accept to possess her as she invites him to do, as it would destroy twelve years of asceticism for a moment of pleasure. while seated in the doorway of his shop watching her, some children attack him and start throwing stones at him. he does not survive even though a monk from a nearby monastery attempts to save him. he just has the time to make a last wish and ask God to


reunite them in paradise. in a dream, the young girl lives this reunion and dies five days later on the tomb of the devout muslim thereby fulfilling the promise that had been transmitted to her in her dream to join him in paradise. Four mysterious visitors dressed in woollen garments miraculously take her body away from the inhabitants of the Christian village so that she may be buried according to muslim rites. The forty monks who had witnessed the end of the story and the villagers all convert to islam. One cannot help but see in this tale a variant on the theme of dying of love, but the lover’s being an ascetic throws a new light on the theme. meeting the young girl can be interpreted as the last in a series of trials on the path of initiation to eternal bliss. death is above all death of the mortal soul and the miracles which accompany this spiritual victory show the superiority of islam and lead Christians back to the right path. in the present case, the miracle consists in the holy man’s ability to bring about conversions through his spiritual influence, he is presented as continuing the prophetic function, in accordance with the sufi saying, ‘the saints are the heirs of the prophets’.50

another example is the juggler who is instructed to bury a saint, who has the premonition of his own death. The juggler is also instructed to hand the attributes of his state (woollen robe, staff and goatskin) over to a young man who has up to now lived a carefree life but who has been told of his destiny in a dream. inadequately prepared as he is to succeed the saint who has just passed away, the young man nonetheless dons the new garments and sets out to follow his calling. here one must point out a barely concealed allusion to the assembly of saints,51 whose number is fixed and is renewed on the death of each member and the illustration that the state of grace is not necessarily linked to good works.

whether saints are portrayed preaching or converting, protecting or interceding, the range of their functions is wide. They are nearly always hidden figures, recognized saints in some tales, saints in the making in others. The various manifestations of their sainthood are generally linked with the supernatural through the working of miracles. Thus, The Nights convey the usual features of the hagiographic tradition. The Friends of God, who are always exemplary, alone perceive the finality of the events that beset the world.

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as it is not possible within the framework of this essay to list all the themes linked in one way or another with the expression of mysticism, only a few significant examples will be given to illustrate the presence of a mystical register in The Nights. One theme which is widely illustrated in the corpus is that of how the order of the world and of things escapes ordinary mortals. it might be


thought that this is linked with the place accorded to the supernatural in The Nights. But it would not seem to be the only explanation, as the conviction also has a mystical dimension. From the top of his mountain a prophet,52 who resembles a hermit, witnesses an unjustified theft and murder. The prophet is outraged at such injustice, as was moses in the company of khadir, 53 a story which, as told in the koran, represents the prototype of the master-disciple relationship. he then receives a revelation which explains the hidden side of the events, contrary to appearances, this act has re-established justice. The relationship between the inner and the outer, between the visible order of the world and the deep reality of things, which is necessarily hidden, lies at the very roots of all mysticism.

in the tale of ‘ ‘abdallâh of the land and ‘abdallâh of the sea’ 54 there is a journey of initiation that leads a wretched sinner to kingship. But before that he will have to endure numerous trials stoically, go forty days without catching a single fish, suffer the humiliation of want and the slanderous accusations of theft. in this tale in which all the characters are called ‘abdallâh,55 two worlds coexist, but never meet; the ordinary world of the land and the world of the sea, inhabited by men and women who are slightly different from humans both in their physical appearance and their habits. here again one is led to think of two orders of reality, comparable to the inner or outer opposition. the fisherman accepts all the bitter disappointments of his destiny without the slightest complaint and shows unswerving loyalty towards his friends. Those are the qualities which lead him to kingship and wealth. The end of the tale reveals a breach between the land and sea dwellers. when the former are overcome with sadness at death, the latter are filled with joy as life is an offering that God takes back. Thus the resignation with which ‘abdallâh of the land submits to God’s will is harshly judged by ‘abdallâh of the sea for whom there is no other possibility but the joyous acceptance of union with him in death, a sort aquatic torment-free version of hallâj. The faith of the land-dwellers, which is certainly praiseworthy seems lacklustre when compared with that of the sea-dwellers. Thus this tale, so to speak, extols the superiority of one path over the other, of love over patience in the face of adversity, which might be interpreted as echoes of the debate on the pre-eminence of gratitude (shukr) over endurance (sabr) in sufi circles.56 Even though it is short, the tale which compares a king and a saint in the face of death presents a certain interest.57 it contrasts two world orders, the worldly order as represented by the king who is depicted as being ignorant of all higher things and the spiritual order as represented by the saint who lives in the world but already has a foot in the beyond and is versed in its codes and values. death establishes an insuperable boundary between the two men.

The governance of the world does not lie only in the hands of legitimate kings. in many places, The Nights refer to a king assisted in his duties by a right hand and a left hand vizier, a three-man council which closely resembles the


pole with the imam of the right and the imam of the left as found in ibn ‘arabî.58 Behind this presentation might be detected references to the hidden governance of the world by saints which interferes with the visible face of political power held by legitimate kings.

another even more significant journey of initiation is that of hâsib. after dwelling in a cave, he escapes from the trap laid by his companions and penetrates the depths of the earth, finally reaching a place beside a lake where he is led into the presence of the Queen of snakes and her twelve thousand subjects who reside there during the summer (and on mount Qaf in the winter).59 despite hâsib’s pleas, the queen refuses to let him leave and explains the reasons, if he happens to bathe at the hammam, she will die and a black mark will appear on hâsib’s body. a sufi reading of these events might follow these lines, the cave represents a spiritual retreat, as in the story of the seven sleepers who were trying to escape the corrupt city; the snake embodies temptation as it did when it enticed adam to disobey, thus hastening his fall; in contrast, the hammam, through its power to purify bodies, evokes the purification of the heart; control of the self marks the end of the devil’s temptations symbolized in the tale by the Queen of snakes; her sacrifice, like that abraham was preparing to perform on his son, symbolizes unbounded submission. Furthermore, the black mark which appeared on hâsib’s body might be interpreted as a reference to the black death60 of the sufis. hâsib will later attain wisdom and knowledge of heaven and earth by drinking the scum that formed when the flesh of the Queen of the snakes was cooked.61 hâsib cannot look beyond the jujube tree of the extreme limit because his ascension to heaven (mi‘raj), symbol par excellence of the spiritual journey, cannot surpass that of the prophet which constitutes the archetype. if the proposed interpretation is accepted, the key to the whole journey is certainly to be found in this passage: what is recounted is nothing less than a mi‘raj, a spiritual journey, complete with all its trials, its descent into hell and the tour of the heavenly spheres. The theme of a man raised to heaven in quest of truth is universal and its expressions multiform; islam has adopted it as mi‘raj, the heavenly journey of the prophet, which was first claimed by Bistâmî and then later by several sufis.

such a reading of the tale, altogether feasible and coherent, supposes that the mi‘raj is not the prerogative of the prophet alone. Even if the tale draws material from sources that are far more ancient than islam (the theme of the initiation rite extends from the Quest for the holy Grail to certain shamanist rituals),62 only the sufis propose an islamic version of the initiation rite by claiming a spiritual version of the prophet’s ascension to heaven for saints.

khadir occupies an eminent place for sufis. in the koranic story of his meeting with moses, he asserts himself as the initiator into mystical truth, the master of all masters,63 whose teachings show how to go beyond the face of the law to the profound reality of things. in the tale of ‘abdallâh b. Fâdil and his


brothers,64 khadir takes charge of a young girl, who ‘has given herself up to the true God’ and is the only survivor of a city in which all the unbelieving inhabitants have been transformed into stone. as happened to mary in the koran, a tree miraculously planted by khadir supplies her daily needs while khadir regularly visits her to instruct her. he will constantly watch over her exceptional destiny as a woman with all its pitfalls. she heals the sick, a power which khadir transmitted to her. There are several noteworthy elements in this tale: the twofold mystery surrounding the choice of the elected, here not only a woman, but an inhabitant of a totally pagan country; a mysterious heavenly personage who takes charge of her education and livelihood, an act which makes her grace seem even more supernatural; the portrayal of this woman as an instrument shaped by providence, whose purposes she later series by the mercy she shows in healing the sick.

a widespread belief found in The Nights is that certain people are elected by God and this belief is closely linked with that of people’s destiny being determined by divine decree. if the latter point is by no way specific to sufism, but an article of islamic creed in general, the question of election, less evident in muslim theology, is central to sufi convictions. God’s saints are his Elected and his Friends. in the tale of ‘alî al-misrî,65 the journey fulfils a redemptive function for a young prodigal son, who has wasted the fortune left by his father, ignoring the sound advice the latter gave him. The intervention of providentially well disposed characters who assist him at the crucial stages of his long journey to Baghdad, he rises from decadence to kingship regaining wealth, honour and family. But in the meantime, he has remembered his father’s advice. This tale illustrates how filial piety and a journey of initiation interplay to edify the mind.

if piety is a cardinal virtue, orthodoxy does not say that it can work miracles. if certain tales in The Nights portray a type of piety which endows a character with the gift of healing,66 the reason might simply be put down to a predilection in The Nights for the supernatural. what is undebatable is that the belief in miracles cannot be questioned and that when miracles are beneficial they can only be performed by those who have won an imminent place beside God, the awliyâ’ Allâh. Of particular note is the important place occupied by women in many stories and their capacity to fulfil the function of sainthood.

v

in the light of what precedes the question is what can be retained as noteworthy form this rapid study of sufism in some tales of The Nights? ‘They (The Nights) have several layers of meaning and everyone can find what he thinks he is looking for’.67 This quotation from J.E. Bencheikh invites us to be modest and careful in our conclusions. without being totally absent, sufi masters seem to


play only a marginal role. Considerations of a general nature can help explain why for example, the fact that the oldest substratum of The Nights is of foreign origin, or the fact that this literary genre purports to entertain and amuse and that saints do not offer the best support to do so. and yet one might object that amongst the various sources of inspiration for the tales in The Arabian Nights, religion has not been excluded.68 in point of fact, the general conclusion must not be too cut and dried. if sufi masters are absent from some tales, they are in contrast undeniably present in others. Can this be explained by the geographical origin of the tales and the date they were written? in all probability the answer is yes to some extent. it is interesting to note that the main sufi masters who appear in the tales belong to the iraqi branch of sufism.69 The great figures of Egyptian and syrian sufism seem to have been completely passed over to the advantage of the school of Baghdad. Furthermore, if the narrow framework of symbolic figures is surpassed and the study extended to the diverse forms of mysticism, the presence of dervishes, calendars, fuqarâ’, ascetics or ordinary sufis points to a stronger mystic strain in The Nights. saintliness does in fact assert itself through this range of characters who are more often than not anonymous and unconnected with the great saints in muslim history. if The Nights did not serve as a receptacle for The Golden legend, they have nonetheless contributed to conveying a certain image of sainthood that is widespread amongst the popular classes of muslim societies. Furthermore, in a number of tales saints actively participate in the hidden governance of the world. The saint is a heroic figure only indirectly linked with historical characters, but one who has the qualities to fire the popular imagination and establish close ties with the readers of the tales, with whom he shares both anonymity and modest status. sufism being an integral part of medieval muslim society, some of its themes are inevitably present in The Nights: futuwwa, mi‘raj of saints, their miracles (karâmât), their prayers and the veneration they receive. The sufis’ dress, the places they meet and the rites they practise in these places constitute some of the features indicating their presence, but whose significance varies from one tale to another. The theme of election is also attested, it can concern anyone, regardless of their deeds, and transform them almost instantaneously into one of God’s saints. This possibility, which puts all men on an equal footing, is most certainly one of the most widely used devices in the tales. But beyond the narrative technique which lends itself to endless developments lies one of the fundamental beliefs in the muslim creed, namely the omnipotence of the divine decree. The supernatural, so to speak, insofar as it is a popular form of the miracle and consequently of the divine, cannot be dissociated from religious and even spiritual values.

another element which is more difficult to apprehend is the quest or, to use sufi terminology, the mystic path. The quest, whatever its form, is a universal element found in the literature of tales and more often than not it corresponds to a spiritual journey. at this stage the limits of our classification


are reached, as different literary genres have a certain porosity, there are no clear cut boundaries between historiographies, works of edification, ethical literature and even manuals of sufism or hagiographies. material travels and as it moves from one genre to another, it is adapted. in all cases, whatever the literary genre of the sources, and whatever adaptation they may have undergone, a form of knowledge is transmitted, even if indirectly, and this leaves its mark on the collective memory. The presence of sufism and sufis turns out to be more marked than a mere statistical count might indicate. There remains yet one more question to be answered, is it legitimate to speak of a popular form of sufism conveyed by The Nights? Thus formulated, the question presupposes an opposition, which can be criticized in more than one respect, between scholarly and popular forms of sufism. The veneration of saints, the blind devotion they receive, the belief in their miraculous powers, the respect for dervishes, God’s servants detached from all worldly possessions, all these things are part of popular beliefs and acts of devotion. yet they are not in contradiction with the doctrines of sufism. The different levels of interpretation frequently make it possible to reach a popular audience without offending the more learned readers. The genius of The Nights, and of the literature of tales in general, is that readers’ understanding depends on their emotive, spiritual, symbolic or gnostic values.

as miquel has pointed out using the notations of ibn nadim, if one goes beyond the surface, these texts may be more serious than first meets the eye, or at least it may be so of those whose moral is spiritual teaching.70 The Nights convey a form of wisdom, or more accurately, a whole wealth of wisdom. and through the magic of words they enact the human epic. destinies cross as characters, who are sometimes heroes, but often ordinary men, move between heaven and earth, between the quest for knowledge and the quest for love, like puppets on strings pulled by a hand that is as invisible as it is unpredictable. as sufis have always tried to reach knowledge, driven by the irresistible impulse of love, it is scarcely surprising that they have a place in this immense fresco of tales.

notes

all references to The Arabian Nights are to the French version by J.E. Bencheikh and a. miquel: Les Mille et Une Nuits, translation, introduction and footnotes, 3 vols. (paris: Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la pléiade, 2005–6). For ease of reference the titles of the tales are given in English.

1. ‘hâsib karîm al-dîn’, 2:380, Nights 482–53.2. J.E. Bencheikh, Les Mille et Une Nuits ou la parole prisonnière, paris: Gallimard,

1988, pp. 161 ff.


3. n. Eliséeff, Thèmes et motifs des Mille et Une Nuits, Essai de classification, Beyrouth-damas, French institute, 1949. see also on this subject, C. Brémond, ‘principles

d’un index des passions, actions et motivations dans Les Mille et Une Nuits’, in Les Mille et Une Nuits en partage, ed. a. Chrai’bi., proceedings of the Fondation singer-polignac-nalCO symposium, aries: sindbad/actes sud, 2004, pp. 29–38.

4. as shown by d. Gril in his article ‘du sultanat au califat universel: le rôle des saints dans Le roman de Baybar’, in Lectures du Roman de Baybars, aix-en-provence, 2003.

5. ‘The Christian king’s daughter and the moslem’, 2:363–65, Nights 477–8. 6 . On this character whom the translators were unable to identify, see abû ‘abd al-

rahmân al-sulamî, Tabaqât al-Sûfiyya, ed. shurayba, Cairo, 1953, pp. 284–7. as expected we were unable to find any trace of this tale in the hagiographic collections consulted. however, this sufi master is known for his numerous travels which could have taken him to Christian countries, even if this is not mentioned in the sources. in addition, several accounts report his having brought about the conversion of a Christian monk and of a Jew, see al-munâwî, al-Karâdkib al-durriyya, ed. sâlih himdân, 2 vols., 4 bks, Cairo: n.d., 1:331. There are consequently some plausible elements in the account.

7. ibid., 2:364. 8. see miquel’s remark, 2:994. 9. similarly, ‘alâ’ al-dîn’s rude greeting to the derviches entering his house: ‘welcome

to the liars’, perfectly justified in the context, is not without a hidden meaning (‘alâ’ al-dîn abu-l-shâmât’, 1:990).

10. 3:455-79, Nights 894-6. 11. On these sufi masters, see sulamî, Tabaqât al-Sufiyya, respectively 48, 39, 55, 6. 12. ‘abu al-hasan and abu Ja’far the leper’, 2:375-78, Nights 481 and 482. 13. note the irrealistic association of these two well known sufi masters, as the first

died in 334/945 and the second probably in 234/848, see sulamî, Tabaqât al-sûfiyya, 67, 337–38. might the words of ecstasy (shatâhât) attributed to these two masters explain why they were chosen and shown to be companions?

14. Baghdâdî, Ta’rikh Baghdâd, 14 vols. (Beyrouth: n.d.), 14: 213–14. in Baghdâdî the tale is recounted by abû al-husayn al-darraj and not by abû al-hasan as in the translation by Bencheikh and miquel.

15. at mecca, in Baghdâdî, but this minor discrepancy might be due to certain copiers.

16. This refers to two Bagdadian disciples of Junayd; the first died in 322/933–34 at mecca, the second in 328/939 or 940, see sulamî, Tabaqât al-Sûfiyya, 373, 382.

17. This name designates someone with skin disease. 18. 1:477. 19. an ascetic from Basra, famous for his acts of piety, his nocturnal devotions and

his fasting, who died in 123/740–1 or 127/744–15 aged 86, see sulamî, Tabaqât al-Sûfiyya, 207n. The Arabian Nights, 1:475, Nights 80.

20. 1:481, Night 83. 21. Qushayri, al-Risâla al-qushayriyya (Beyrouth: dâr usâma, 1987), 73. another less

explicit version which does not refer to futuwwa is mentioned by abu nu’aym with


the same characters as in the tale. see abû nu’aym al-isfahânî, Hilyat al-awliyâ’, 10 vols. (Beyrouth, n.d.), 8: 37–8.

22. 1:963–1024, Nights 249–69. 23. died in 561/1166 in Baghdâd. On this sufi master, see a. demeerseman,

Nouveau regard sur la voie spirituelle d”Abdal-Qâdir al-Jilânî et sa tradition, paris: librairie philosophique J. vrin, 1988.

24. 1:974, Nights 254. 25. 1:978, Nights 255. 26. The appearance of the term firman, used under the Ottoman administration, gives

an indication of the date of the tale, or at least of the date when it might have been revised, namely after the beginning of the sixteenth century, which marked the beginning of the Ottoman control of Egypt.

27. l:709ff., Nights 148. This theme refers to that of the ‘people of the Cave’ mentioned in the koran and which is explicitly mentioned in a poem in this fable (1:711).

28. ‘The wolf and the Fox’, 1:723, Nights 149. 29. ‘The hedgehog and the wood pigeons’, 1:738-10, Nights 152. 30. ‘alâ’ al-dîn abû al-shâmât’, 1:986-93, Nights 257-59. in another tale, ‘alî shâr and

zumurrud’, a Christian dresses up as a dervish (1:1155, Nights 323). 31. ‘tale of Qamar al-zamân’, 1:935, Nights 238–391. 32. ibid., 1:937. 33. ‘tale of king ‘umar al-nu’mân, and his sons sharr kân and daw’ al-makân’,

1:366-674, esp. 512, Nights 45-145. 34. ‘Qamar al-zamân and the Jeweller’s wife’, 3:676-78, Nights 965. 35. ‘alâ’ al-dîn abû al-shâmât’, ibid., 1:973, Nights 253. 36. ‘The man who stole the dish of gold whereon the dog ate’, 2:39–42, Nights

340–1. 37 . ‘hârûn al-rashîd and his pious son’, 2:195-99, Nights 401–2. 38 . 2:354-57, Nights 473-4. 39. it would be interesting to analyse the role of the Isrâ’iliyyât, which are tales of

Jewish origin in The Arabian Nights. These traditions have played a significant role in islamic religious literature from the second to the ninth centuries. see the article G. vajda ‘isrâ’îliyyât’, in Encyclopédic de l’Islam, 2nd edn., 4:221. E. littmann noted the presence of Jewish and Christian scholars at the abassid court to explain the presence of allusions to the apocrypha and the talmud, quoted by n. Elissdéff, op. cit., 48.

40. d. Gril, ‘du sultanat au califat universel’, 186. 41. ‘The unjust king and the pilgrim prince’, 3:502-4, Nights 905. 42. see sulamî, Tabaqât al-Sûfiyya, 27. 43. 2:342-44, Nights 467-8. 44. For example the inquisition carried out by Ghulâm khalîl in 264/877 who

imprisoned 70 sufis, see Baghdâdî, Târikh Baghdâd, 5/134. On this question, C. melchert, ‘The transition from ascetism to mysticism at the middle of the ninth century C.E.’, Studia Islamica, vol. 83, 1996, pp. 51–70, esp. 65–6. amongst them was nuri (d. 295/907) because he claimed to love God passionately, see ibn al-gawzî, Talbîs Iblîs, 2nd edn., Beyrouth: dâr al-kutub al-‘ilmiyya, 1987, p. 198. around the same date, tirmidhî (d. 318/930) was brought before a tribunal for similar reasons.


45. he is said to have died in 127/744–45, see abû nu’aym al-isfahânî, Hilyat al-Awliyâ‘, 2:357–88.

46. One of the founders of the path of the maiamatiyya. see sulamî, Tabaqât al-Sûfiyya, 115-22, who died c. 265/878–79 and attar, Le mémorial des saints, tr. a. pavet de Courteille, paris: seuil, 1976, p. 258. On this path, see r. deladrière, ‘les premiers malâmatiyya: ‘les Gardiens du secret’ (al-Umanâ,)’, in Mélamis- Bayramis, Études sur trois mouvements mystiques musulmans, ed. n. Clayer, a. popovic et t. zarcone, istanbul, 1998, pp. 1-14.

47. ‘The Blacksmith who could handle fire without hurt’, 2:351-53, Nights 471-3. 48. see in The Novel of Baybars, d. Gril, ‘du sultanat au califat universel’, p. 178. On

various tales about conversions, cf. n. Elisséeff, op. cit., 103. 49. ‘The prior who Became a moslem’, 2:227-31, Nights 412-14. 50. Cf. al-’ajlûnî, Kashf al-khafâ’, ed. ahmad al-kalâsh, 2nd edn., Beyrouth, 1979,

2:83, citing the hadith in the version: ‘scholars are the inheritors of the prophets’, with a number of variants and additions.

51. On the Dîwân al-awliyâ’, see m. Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints, paris: Gallimard, 1986, p. 113.

52. ‘The prophet and the Justice of providence’, 2:366-67, Nights 478-9. 53. koran 18, 65–82. 54. 3:602-19, Nights 940-46. according to a. miquel, there are two distinct parts, the

first is a prologue to the magic tale of the sea which follows. he claims the vocabulary shows it to be of Egyptian origin and situates it between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (3:988).

55. The teller of the tale thus stresses the ontological reality of the creatures. ibn ‘arabi considers that the pole is always called ‘abdallâh. cf. m. Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints, p. 122.

56. On this point, see G. Gobiliot, ‘patience (sabr) et rétribution des mérites, gratitude (shukr) et aptitude au bonheur selon al-hakîm al-tirmidhî’, Studia Islamica, 79, 1993, pp. 51-78.

57. ‘The angel of death with the proud king and the devout man’, Night 462, 2:324–25.

58. For example, 2:272. On the pole and the two imams, see Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints, pp. 122–5. On their presence in The Novel of Baybars, see d. Gril, Du sultanat au califat universe I, p. 180.

59. On kâf mountain, whose cosmic role is essential and marks the end of the sufi’s pilgrimage through the seven spiritual stations in the Mantiq al-tayr of ’attâr, cf. a. miquel et m. streck, art. kâf, Islamic Encyclopaedia, 2nd edn., 4:419. ibn ‘arabî speaks of an immense snake entwined around kâf mountain, see m. Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints, 123.

60. it consists in enduring stoically all the wrongs one suffers. This formulation of the four deaths of a sufi associated with four colours: white, black, red and green has been attributed to a third-ninth century sufi, hâtim al-asamm, cf. m. Chodkiewicz, ‘les quatre morts du soufi’, in Revue de I’Histoire des Religions, 215/1, 1998, p. 38.

61. in initiation rites such as futuwwa, a cup of salt water was drunk. 62. ‘This is the tentative interpretation proposed by J.E. Bencheikh, Les Mille et Une

Nuits ou la parole prisonnière, pp. 169–70.


63. d. Gril, ‘du sultanat au califat universel’, 182, 195. 64 . ‘abd allâh b. Fâdil et his Brothers’, 3 : 721-60, esp. 739, Nights 978–89. 65. ‘alî al-misrî’, 2 : 254-72, Nights 424–34. 66. ‘The king and the virtuous wife’, 2 : 335-38, Nights 465–6. 67. J.E. Bencheikh, La parole prisonnière, 15. 68. ibid., 156. 69. Even if the presence of Bistâmî somewhat attenuates this claim. 70. miquel’s introduction to The Arabian Nights, 1 : 26.

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