Friends, relationships and stuff…..
Today was (is) one of those days where the ‘real world’ is trying to tell me something: synchronicity is everywhere.
Firstly, I have been pondering all week on the nature of friendship and the lack of it, of how difficult it is to be in harmony with people and meet others of ‘like-mind’ as the saying has it. I have struggled with this for a long time - even moving countries in part because of it and it is still ‘an issue’. All my best friends have somehow disappeared, think I’ve gone mad (which may be true) or just avoid me for unspecified reasons (although I am always careful to make a bad impression and one supposes this must get wearing....) and new ones seem in short supply. Moving country seven times in five years doesn’t help either.....
October 17 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [3]
Hafez
A friend of mine, Anna Sullivan from the UK, is a very talented artist and has sent me some illustrations she has been working on which accompany (amongst other things) some of the sayings of the Persian poet Hafez.
I thought I’d post a couple of my favourites alongside some of my favourites from Hafez:
Without the beloved’s face, the rose is not pleasant.
Without wine, spring is not pleasant.The border of the sward and the air of the garden
Without the tulip cheek is not pleasant.The dancing of the cypress, and the rapture of the rose,
Without the one thousand songs is not pleasant.With the beloved, sugar of lip, rose of body,
Without kiss and embrace is not pleasant.Every picture that reasons’s hand depicteth,
Save the picture of the idol is not pleasant.Hafez! the soul is a despicable coin:
For scattering, it is not pleasant.
And my long-time favourite:
If that Shirazi Turkish maid
would take my heart in her hand,
I’d give Bukhara for the mole on her cheek....
...or Samarkand.
October 12 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [1]
Obvious Absurdities
PD Ouspensky, in the first chapter of In Search of the Miraculous
October 10 2005 in Esoteric Christianity | Read More | Comments [0]
More pics
I’m still snowed under with work but it’s easing off a bit and I should get to post a bit more this week. I’ve also been frantically putting the finishing touches to an update of my Islamic Art/Tribal rugs site and have been scanning in dozens of pictures. In the process of this I found a few interesting ones (?) which I post below.
Also been working on an extended article on Ibn Arabi’s work particularly al-futuhat al-makkiyya (The Meccan Openings) with reference to Corbin and Chittick’s researches on ‘Creative Imagination’ and I will post something of that here soon.
Meanwhile, the pics below in order are an Aleppo street scene, the blind Halveti Dervishes in the Mosque of Damascus, Aleppo souq and the Ottoman cemetery in Istanbul.
October 05 2005 in Travelogue | Read More | Comments [0]
Kate Bush is back!
There have been rumours of a new Kate Bush album for about 12 years but as time went by it was generally regarded as a myth - well, it looks like it’s true, the new album, Aerial, will be released later this month. Which is a double-edged sword because it could go either way: ruin the memory or be an awesome life-enhancing milestone. Thankfully, due to the woeful state of current ‘culture’ the second option is almost a given.
I met Kate once when I was about 15, she seemed very small and elfin and not much older than me but I digress. I’ve always loved her music, I first got into it because of the Gurdjieff references and for a long time I viewed her as saying something very profound about the Work through her lyrics but it seems that she really doesn’t have much of an interest at all. Weird how we project our own ideas onto music and extrapolate things about the artist that are very far from the reality - might make a good post someday but on....
There’s something odd about the album cover too (see above). It seems that the cover contains a coded message depicted in the soundwave image there. Apparently it is a ‘visual representation of spoken, or sung words over music? and sound’ analysts and fans alike have been agonisingly attempting to work out the message. The current favourites are wildly different.
The album is a double with one cd being ‘Kate songs’ and the other a ‘concept album’ (uh-oh) which may or may not be one continuous song. Apparently the single King of the Mountain is available for download on the net somewhere for free but I haven’t been able to find it - if anyone has a link let me know.
Another article in the Scotsman has more info and intriguingly it claims that EMI execs are very excited about the album and that it may be a career peak and a masterpiece. We shall see - can’t wait....and how come all these people have heard it already?
October 03 2005 in Music | Read More | Comments [3]
The Magic Sack
’Know, 0 Fortunate Ones,’ Lateef said, as he sat in his retirement under a tree instructing novices, ‘that without thieves there would be occasions on this Earth of ours when justice is not done, and when the innocent suffer. In our very ancient thieves’ lore there is a moral tale Which has fortified the spirit and nourished the acquisitiveness of many a laggard in the ranks of thiefdom: helping to maintain our numbers and preventing the development of backsliding. This is the tale of the pious man and the thief.
September 27 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
Travel pics
Still busy - massive scanning job on today but I found some lost pics of my last trip to the Middle East and took the opportunity to scan some in. I’m posting a couple of photos I took below. First is some beautiful calligraphy from the outside area of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, second a street scene from the same area while the third and fourth are the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus and the inside of the Monastery at Petra in Jordan.
September 21 2005 in Travelogue | Read More | Comments [0]
Busy bee…
Not sure how much posting I’ll get round to this week as I’m literally inundated with work. Literally - which is good....and bad. Shall try to avoid some of it but I shall probably manage to post a Latif story and and a Nasrudin story during the next few days to while away the hours of heart-wrenching waiting you are all no doubt hellishly enduring.
In the meantime I’m going to plug a new site by a good friend of mine, Tim, over at Becoming Invisible. There’s some great stuff on there and I know Tim has more goodies lined up so check it out. He’s a Nick Cave fan and loves Istanbul - what more can you want?!
September 19 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
Through Eastern Eyes
I recently went to see an exhibition here in Barcelona called West by East which attempts to chart perceptions of the West from the perspective of the Islamic world, as opposed to the other way around which is usually the only view that is presented. The idea is a novel one and the exhibition does in fact provide some significant insights.
The exhibition is running at the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona until the end of September when it moves to Valencia and is the brainchild of the Tunisian writer Abdelwahab Meddeb who was inspired to create the project in the wake of 911.
The exhibition is essentially about how Westerners (ie Europeans) have traditionally been perceived in the Islamic world. According to the exhibition notes, the layout of the show “allows visitors to observe how Islam has been divided in the way in which it sees the West and highlights the different viewpoints and attitudes that have existed side by side throughout history”. In particular it focuses on how concepts which we in the West see as being in opposition - ie, conflict, solidarity, interchange, fascination - actually have existed side by side throughout Islamic history rather than successively superseding each other as is the traditional Western view.
September 17 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [5]
Mushkil Gusha: Death Comes to Baghdad
The disciple of a Sufi of Baghdad was sitting in the corner of an inn one day when he heard two figures talking. From what they said he realized that one of them was the Angel of Death.
“I have several calls to make in this city during the next three weeks” the Angel was saying to his companion. Terrified, the disciple concealed himself until the two had left. Then, applying his intelligence to the problem of how to cheat a possible call from death, he decided that if he kept away from Baghdad he should not be touched. From this reasoning it was but a short step to hiring the fastest horse available and spurring it night and day towards the distant town of Samarkand.
Meanwhile Death met the Sufi teacher and they talked about various people. “And where is your disciple so-and-so?” asked Death.
“He should be somewhere in this city, spending his time in contemplation, perhaps in caravanserai” said the teacher.
“Surprising,” said the Angel “because he is on my list. Yes, here it is: I have to collect him in four weeks’ time at Samarkand, of all places.”
September 15 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
Latif the Thief
Many people are familiar with the exploits of Mulla Nasrudin, the wise-fool of the east but there is a similar, although lesser-known, character whose tales are told in chaikhanas and in gatherings throughout Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia: Latif the Thief.
There are both similarities and differences with the Nasrudin stories in the Latif Tales but Latif has a style all his own - and of course he is not a holy man but a thief. An improbably wise and clever one. I shall post some of his stories whenever I get the chance as they are very amusing!
One day Latif the Theif ambushed the commander of the Royal Guard, captured him and took him to a cave.
‘I am going to say something that, no matter how much you try, you will be unable to forget,’ he told the infuriated officer. Latif made his prisoner take off all his clothes. Then he tied him, facing backwards, on a donkey.
‘You may be able to make a fool of me,’ screamed the soldier, ‘but you’ll never make me think of something if I want to keep it out of my mind.’
‘You have not yet heard the phrase which I want you to remember,’ said Latif. ‘I am turning you loose now, for the donkey to take back to town. And the phrase you must always remember is: I’ll catch and kill Latif the Thief, if it takes me the rest of my life.’
September 12 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [2]
Superheroes
It’s funny how sometimes you observe something and it makes you realise things about something quite different - often with no connection at all. Yesterday morning I was watching my daughter playing with some figures of the ‘Incredibles’ (we don’t really approve but what can you do?) and I realised I knew something I didn’t know I knew (if you catch my drift - if not, bear with me, it gets clearer).
What I realised was this: all desire and effort is on fact a desire an effort to reach God. There is no division into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, there is just misplaced effort - we are all desiring ‘God’ but some of us just don’t realise it. The desire for power, for that new car, to be ‘free’ or ‘enlightened’, to shag the girl next door - all this is the search for God. Of course, one may not be able to find God in these ways but I am not talking about the outward effort rather the underlying impulse which is often unknown even to the person doing the ‘desiring’.
September 12 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [3]
Snow Upon The Desert
From Fitzgerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes - or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two - is gone.
September 10 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [3]
More on the East and West
Following on from the recent comments on the post ‘East vs West’ below, I thought it might be interesting to actually look at the similarities between the West and Islamic thought.
In fact, when one delves into this (however superficially), one immediately finds that the similarities are less correspondences than actual foundations. Some of these are widely known but other not. It is interesting to compile a list - not only for possible research and as a basis for discussion, but also as a reminder that many of the things we consider as uniquely Western actually have their roots in Islamic culture. In many regards, there is no such thing as the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ or even a conception of the ‘other’ in this regard because western society is in many respects founded on Islamic concepts. Consider the following facts which I throw open for discussion:
1. Alcohol, generally regarded as ‘Western’ was first distilled by the Sufi and alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (d. 815). Jabir also was the first person to systematize chemistry and is regarded as the founder of Western alchemy. He gave his name to the english word ‘jibberish’ (ie Jabir-ish) as he was allegedly so difficult to understand.
2. As in the case of Jabir, many Arabic and Persian words have passed into English, some directly: Coffee is from Qahwa (the beverage was first utilised by Arab Sufis as an aid to concentration), traffic, cheque, tariff, magazine, tabby, filly, algebra, troubadour and admiral are also Arabic. The word ‘Orange’ is directly from the Persian na rang meaning ‘no sorrow’.
3. In literature too there are direct links. Shakepeare used many Sufi stories (see link below and also this Guardian article courtesy of reader Kingsley - thanks!) as did Dante, drawing largely on Arabian folk-tales. Chaucer’s ‘Pear Tree’ story is to be found in Rumi’s Mathnawi and the fable ‘Dick Whittington’ is Persian in origin. Later writers such as Goethe draw heavily on the Persian Hafiz.
4. The British King Offa (757 - 796) may have been a Muslim. There is a coin minted during his reign in the British Museum which has the shahada - There is no God but Allah - inscribed on it alongside his name.
5. The discipline of Comparative Religious Studies was founded by Ibn Hazm of Cordoba (d. 1064) who also wrote the first history of world religions. In other academic fields, the first critical historical survey was written by Ibn Khaldun (his muqaddima still an acknowledged Classic text), al-Razi (d. 925) is credited with inventing the classification ‘animal, vegetable, mineral), logarithms were developed by the Arab mathematician al-Khwarizm from Hindu sources (the name algorithm is a corruption of his own), Rumi mentions a form of evolutionary theory hundreds of years before Darwin and ibn Nafis discovered the circulation of the blood centuries before Harvey who is generally credited with this discovery.
6. The concept of the University is Islamic on origin. The world’s oldest University is al-Azhar in Cairo which dates from 970. Even the ‘mortar boards’ of graduates are Islamic and derive from the flat hats of the scholars there who would rest the Qur’an on the ‘mortar’ to symbolize the primacy of Scripture over the intellect. The tassel at the back of the ‘mortar board’ was for bookmarking the pages of the Qur’an.
In the 13th Century at Oxford, the great Franciscan scholar Roger Bacon taught Arab Illuminist philosophy and wore Arab clothes whilst lecturing (incidentally there are many connections between Sufism and Franciscan thought - particularly marked are the parallels between St Francis and the Sufi teacher Najmuddin Kubra).
Hospitals too derive from a similar source - perhaps specifically the Bimaristans (sick-houses) of the Seljuq period in Damascus. they were imported to Europe by the Crusaders. Vaccination also was first introduced into the West at this time form Turkish lands.
7. In Music, the Waltz is modeled on the movements of the ‘Whirling Dervishes’ (Mevlevis) and Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ is a Sufi piece of music. Similarly the typically English ‘Morris Dancing’ is in fact Moorish dancing and derives from Islamic Spain.
8. Saint George, patron Saint of England is in fact synonymous with Khidr the patron Saint of the Sufis and is not English at all but Syrian. Similarly, the Christian Saint Charlambos is in reality the Sufi teacher Haji Bektash as Saint Therapion is really the Sufi poet Turabi.
There are many more such foundations - particularly in the realm of science: the concept of zero, translations of Greek thought, astronomy and mathematics are perhaps the best known. All in all there is so much more that unites the Islamic world and the West than divides that it is incredible that these common areas are not more widely known.
September 10 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [2]
Logo
Was asked about the blog masthead logo and whether it was mean to represent the Islamic crescent moon symbol. Actually it is adapted from a motif ubiquitous in Ottoman art, the chintamani - literally meaning ‘auspicious’ - which is usually depicted in threes. It is also sometimes called ‘the badge of Tamerlane’. Tamerlane was a despotic ruler who features sometimes in Mulla Nasrudin stories.
The name “Anulios” comes from George Gurdjieff’s magnum opus Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson or Third Series of writings “All and Everything”. In the first book it is the name for a fragment of the Earth which split off and became the moon and which thenceforth exerted an influence on human beings. Along with its sister fragment “Kimespai” it has the general meaning of ‘never allowing one to sleep in peace’.
I thought the chintamani also evoked the image of the earth and a smaller fragment quite nicely. And of course it does look like a crescent!
Here is a pic of the symbol in situ - on a silk kaftan made for Sultan Ibrahim (d. 1648) and now in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul.
September 10 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
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