This panel will explore various aspects of relationships between Sufism and the occult sciences in the medieval and early modern Islamicate world. The occult sciences - astrology, alchemy, magic, various forms of divination, the art of talismans, the science of letters, etc. - were clearly pervasive elements of Islamic (and Islamicate) thought and culture in these periods, but have rarely received scholarly attention commensurate with their impact, due in part to widespread Western scholarly disdain for these topics during the formative years of Orientalism and the other social sciences, and in part to trends in modern Islamic thought which discourage acknowledgment of the historical importance of these praxes. Many important twentieth-century scholars of Sufism such as A.J. Arberry and Spencer Trimmingham took pains to clearly distinguish Sufism - which they uniformly discussed as an Islamic form of 'mysticism' - from all things marked as 'magic', the manifestation of which in Sufi sources they considered evidence of Sufism's late medieval decline. Additionally all things 'magical' were commonly relegated to the categories of 'popular religion' and 'pagan survivals', with the implication that they fell outside traditions of genuine Islamic and Sufi thought. A number of recent developments in Islamic intellectual and cultural historiography and Sufi studies - including movement away from such essentialist categories as 'mysticism', 'magic', and 'popular religion' - call for these broad assertions to be reevaluated.
Some recent scholars, perhaps most notably Pierre Lory, have attempted to shift discussion of these topics toward examination of interrelated learned discourses on the occult sciences, with some scholars paying particular attention to the large body of manuscripts on these topics attributed to authors such as Jabir ibn Hayyan, Sahl al-Tustari, the Ikhwan al-Safa', Abu al-Qasim al-'Iraqi al-Simawi, Ahmad al-Buni, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Bistami, et alii. Lory and others have argued that, despite the claims of some premodern Muslim and modern Western scholars to the contrary, the social role of Sufis as technicians of the sacred frequently involved a reputation for expertise and/or actual participation in the occult sciences.
The papers on this panel will examine medieval and early modern discourses and practices of the occult sciences in Sufi contexts, exploring a variety of temporally and geographically specific configurations of actors, texts, and material artifacts. It is hoped that this panel will aid in expanding and problematizing current scholarly notions of Sufi thought and of the social roles played by Sufis at different times and places.
Religious Studies/Theology
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Dr. Noah Gardiner
The Maghribi cum Egyptian Sufi Ahmad al-Buni (d. ca. 622/1225) has long been regarded as one the most important writers on ‘magic’ from the medieval Islamicate world, especially in association with a large miscellany on the occult sciences – a work of dubious origins – entitled Shams al-ma’arif al-kubra. Despite his fame/infamy, the details of al-Buni's life have long remained mysterious. This paper examines the life of al-Buni on the basis of numerous sources which have not previously been adduced by scholars of al-Buni, including numerous clues to his life found in the paratexts (colophons, audition certificates, patronage statements, etc.) of some early manuscripts of Bunian works, comments al-Buni makes about his own life in works of his which previous scholarship has all but entirely ignored, and an unpublished version of a biographical entry on al-Buni by the famous Mamluk-era historian Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (d. 845/1442). In addition to this new biographical information, the paper examines the broad range of works attributed to al-Buni in medieval manuscripts, focusing on those which survive in multiple copies to suggest that al-Buni was a far more diverse and complex figure than previous scholarship has allowed, one whose impact went far beyond the essentially trivial position to which he has often been assigned by modern scholars. This paper is one product of an extensive survey of the vast and unwieldy corpus of manuscripts of works attributed to al-Buni, and a piece of a larger effort to re-evaluate his place within the history of Sufism and of Islamic thought.
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Dr. Edgar W. Francis IV
Ah?mad ibn ?Al? al-B?n?, a thirteenth-century Sufi from North Africa, has been widely acknowledged as a popular author of Arabic texts that describe the special properties (khaw?s?s?) of the Names of God, verses of the Quran, and other symbols associated with Islam. Because of these accomplishments, al- B?n?’s Arabic biographers praised him as a great mystic who revealed deep and holy secrets. Al- B?n?’s reputation is such that texts attributed to him continue to be printed and circulated—apparently with the goal of harnessing these symbols for practical ends. At the same time, various Western scholars have observed that much of the material circulated under al- B?n?’s name almost certainly post-dates al- B?n? s death in 622/1225. If we accept that most of this corpus was written after al- B?n? died, the question arises: Is it possible to accurately date any of this material so that it can be understood in terms of Sufi thought and practice at the time of its composition? In this paper, I will demonstrate how it may be possible to date the different recensions of the best-known work attributed to al- B?n?, Shams al-ma??rif wa-lat???if al-?aw?rif (The sun of gnosis and subtleties of wisdom). Since there is no scholarly edition of the text yet, most scholarship dealing with this work has relied on the different popular editions which have been printed since 1905. Three different recensions of this work are known and are available in manuscript. These are the “short,” “medium,” and “long” recensions. My examination of all three recensions suggests each of them represents a distinct, datable in the development of the text. Furthermore, the short recension may well date from al- B?n?’s lifetime and thus may be authentic. Dating each recension as precisely as possible will help scholars analyze the mystic and occult elements contained in these works in terms of contemporaneous religious and historical developments.
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Dr. Ozgen Felek
Despite the existence of a rich collection of texts written on talismans and magic in Ottoman Turkish, these texts have not been studied in depth yet. A few recent studies on the topic present basic information about material artifacts, seals with the names of preeminent Sufis such as Abdu’l-kadir Geylani and Ahmed
el-Rufa‘i, talismanic caps, shirts, skullcaps, and healing rods, without providing a deep analysis of the use of the talisman and magic among Ottoman Sufis or the relationships of these practices to wider trends in Ottoman culture.
The present study examines the talismanic shirts prepared for the Ottoman sultans, in particular the shirts of Murad III (r. 1574-1595) who was a devoted disciple to a Halveti master. After a brief introduction to the talismanic shirts prepared for the Ottoman sultans, the motifs, symbols, and Divine words in the talismanic shirts produced for Murad III are analyzed. What kind of results would we encounter if we read his shirts in a conversation with the texts he commissioned, as well as with his dream accounts that he sent to his spiritual master in letter form? Were his shirts mainly meant to function to protect or bring him good luck, or were they loaded with a deeper meaning reflecting the expectations and hopes of the sultan’s subjects?
The study discusses heavily loaded symbols on Sultan Murad’s shirts and his response to the expectations carried by these symbols. Since Murad was a devout Halveti disciple, a close reading of his talismanic shirts and the symbols on them will assist us to better understand the relationship between Sufism and occult sciences in Ottoman culture.
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Dr. Anjela M. Cannarelli Peck Mescall
In the decades prior to Spain’s expulsion of the Moriscos (those remaining Andalusi Muslims who, in the 1500s, were forced to convert to Christianity or leave the kingdoms), the anonymous Morisco-authored Libros plúmbeos (Leaden Texts) emerged in and around Granada’s sacred hill, Sacromonte. The plúmbeos (or plomos) were a cache of trilinguistic texts written in Arabic, Spanish and Latin, inscribed on thin leaden sheets, crafted as lost Christian gospels, and buried in the caves of Sacromonte. Although the works converted many followers, they were sent off to the Vatican in 1641 and declared fakes in 1682. Curiously, the Holy See never disposed of these works and, in the year 2000, the Vatican returned the texts to Granada. Since then, the plomos have been the subject of intense debate among academics like Luis Bernabe Pons, Phillipe Roisse and Mercedes García Arenal who have disagreed about the form, content, and function of the texts. However, when the works are read through the language and imagery of Morisco magic and Sufism, the objectives of the plomos are clarified; they are a means to resolve the much-debated problem of Spain’s divided Morisco and Old Christian communities. I will argue that through the power of the occult sciences and Sufism, the anonymous Morisco authors of the plomos proposed to unify Muslim and Christian Spaniards, quelling the violence against crypto-Muslims and eliminating the group’s impending expulsion. What is more, when read as magical and mystical texts, the plomos suggest an alternative model of Spanish communal identity based on the inclusion of difference versus its exclusion. Curiously, although Old-Christian polity won out in the end and the exile of the kingdoms’ Moriscos began in 1609, the plomos did manage to save a handful of aristocratic Granadan Moriscos—including the translators and suspected forgers of the texts—suggesting that there may have been something wonderfully magical and mystical about the plomos after all.
