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Source publication
The current study is an attempt to analyze mystical diagrams from Ḥaydar Āmulī’s commentary of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, and explore the importance of the number 19 and its esoteric significance, which is defined by Āmulī as representing the ‘spiritual friends of God’ (awliyāʾ), including 7 prophets plus 12 Imāms.
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... 10 ( Figure 4) and 11 ( Figure 5) illustrate Āmulī's discussion of the book of revelation (the Qurʾan), which corresponds to the book of al-āfāq (the corporeal world) and the book of al-anfus (the spiritual world). Thus, he further explains that the system of the world is ordered according to the number 19 and every number contains in itself an esoteric secret, which is not found in any other number. ...
Context 2
... he further explains that the system of the world is ordered according to the number 19 and every number contains in itself an esoteric secret, which is not found in any other number. In diagram 10 (Figure 4), Āmulī describes 19 natural elements including 12 celestial spheres, and 7 planets each corresponding to natural elements and divine realms. Nineteen letters of the Basmala corresponds to each of the natural elements, planets and constellations. ...
Context 3
... reflects Āmulī's Shīʿa theology by demonstrating that only the heirs of the Prophet Muḥammad are the qualified awliyāʾ and through them alone is the line of mystical knowledge carried. Diagrams 10 ( Figure 4) and 11 ( Figure 5) demonstrate the correspondences that are affected between the 19 levels of cosmology and 19 levels of Imāmology and prophetology, each indicated by one of the 19 letters of the Basmala. In other words, the diagrams show the correspondences between the corporeal world, the 'Book of Horizons' (kitāb al-āfāq), and the spiritual world, the 'Book of Souls' (kitāb al-anfus). ...
Context 4
... we see in diagrams 10 ( Figure 4) and 11 ( Figure 5), like the Qurʾan, which is composed of all the divine names and attributes, man in the world of the 'physical' (al-ṣūra) assumes the highest position by his close connection to God and receives the 'divine effusion' (al-fayḍ) and 'divine knowledge' (al-maʿrifa). As shown in the diagrams, the natural elements, the celestial spheres, the stars, the prophets and their awliyāʾ represent the Balance between the world of forms and spirit. ...
Citations
This article investigates the influence of Andalusī Sufism in the writings of Persian Sufi scholar Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī. It explores Āmulī’s major enterprise to unify Shiʿism and Sufism, which drew upon the conceptual frameworks articulated in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s teachings on the Perfect Human. Āmulī’s Shiʿi-Sufi synthesis is rooted in the concept of wilāya , the unifying element in the Shiʿi doctrine of the Imamate and Ibn al-ʿArabī’s theory of the Perfect Human. Finally, the article translates and analyses the key section on wilāya in Āmulī’s seminal work, Jāmiʿ al-asrār wa manbaʿ al-anwār (The Compendium of Mysteries and Source of Lights).
While the 7 th /13 th -century Persian Muslim scholar of the Mongol era ʿAzīz-i Nasafī actively engaged with Sufi traditions in his writings, he also introduced an overlooked distinction by drawing a line between Sufis ( ahl-i taṣavvuf ) and monists ( ahl-i vaḥdat ), aligning himself with the latter. This paper argues that Nasafī's clear differentiation between these two groups reflects broader transformations in the intellectual landscape of the Persianate Mongol world. These changes marked the emergence of new modes of thought not easily explainable by the established linguistic conventions of classical Sufism. Consequently, Nasafī's works serve as a window into the intellectual and linguistic challenges faced by Muslim intellectuals as they endeavored to shape the pre-modern and early modern Islamic cosmopolis (7 th /13 th –9 th /15 th centuries), revealing points of convergence and divergence with their intellectual predecessors.
Riassunto: Questo articolo raccoglie considerazioni di carattere introduttivo sul Sufismo visivo, ovvero sul vasto e complesso tema dell’utilizzo di rappresentazioni grafiche nella letteratura sufi, soffermandosi su un aspetto in particolare, ovvero su come questi diagrammi in molti casi siano stati concepiti dai maestri sufi che li idearono e dai loro fruitori come strumenti grafici a supporto della realizzazione spirituale; contemporaneamente esso si interroga, attraverso l’analisi dei testi, sulle ragioni che spinsero alcuni esponenti del Sufismo ad adottare questo particolare mezzo espressivo. Per far ciò sono stati presi in considerazione autori di epoche diverse, partendo da al-Ḥallāǧ (m. 309/922), passando per Ibn ʿArabī (m. 638/1240) -il cui impulso appare determinante nello sviluppo di questo fenómeno- proseguendo con alcuni eminenti esponenti della Scuola Akbariana quali Ḥaydar Āmulī (m. dopo il 787/1385) e Muḥammad Šīrīn Maġribī (m. 810/1408), per concludere con un maestro Naqšbandī contemporaneo di nome Abū l-Ḥasan Zayd Fārūqī (m. 1993). Questo excursus, sebbene breve e sommario, ripercorrendo più di mille anni consente di accertare la diffusione e la lunga fortuna del mezzo espressivo grafico nella storia del Taṣawwuf, il quale rimane ancora oggi poco conosciuto e che solo raramente viene avvertito come una delle tecniche spirituali proprie del Sufismo.
Abstract: This article provides introductory considerations on Visual Sufism, that is, on the vast and complex topic of the use of graphic representations in Sufi literature, focusing on one aspect in particular. That is about how these diagrams in many cases have been conceived by the Sufi masters who designed them and by their users as graphic tools to support spiritual realization. At the same time, through the analysis of the texts, it questions the reasons that led some Sufi thinkers to adopt this particular means of expression. In order to do so, authors of different periods have been taken into consideration, starting from al-Ḥallāǧ (d. 309/922), passing through Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) -whose impulse appears decisive in the development of this phenomenon -then continuing with some eminent exponents of the Akbarian School such as Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. after 787/1385) and Muḥammad Šīrīn Maġribī (d. 810/1408), concluding with a contemporary Naqšbandī master named Abū l-Ḥasan Zayd Fārūqī (d. 1993). This excursus, though brief and summary, by retracing more than a thousand years allows us to ascertain the diffusion and long fortune of the graphic means of expression in the history of Taṣawwuf, which remains little known even today and is only rarely perceived as one of the spiritual techniques proper to Sufism.
In Ibn ʿArabī's (d. 638/1240) highly developed theory of walāya (‘sainthood’ or ‘friendship with God’), Jesus is conceived of as the ‘Seal of Absolute walāya’ whereas Ibn ʿArabī is the ‘Seal of Restricted walāya’. After explaining how Ibn ʿArabī understands these two designations, we shall move on to Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī's (d. ca. 787/1385) critique of Ibn ʿArabī's hagiology. Although Āmulī was one of Ibn ʿArabī's most prominent Shīʿī admirers, he was opposed to the identification of Jesus as walāya's Absolute Seal and Ibn ʿArabī himself as its Restricted Seal. Instead, Āmulī contends, these titles can only apply to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (the first Shīʿī Imam) and the Mahdī (the twelfth Shīʿī Imam) respectively. In order to demonstrate his point, Āmulī deploys his arguments from three different perspectives, namely those of transmission (naql), the intellect (ʿaql), and unveiling (kashf). Since Āmulī's understanding of the Seal of Restricted walāya turns out in many ways to be a natural corollary to his identification of the Seal of Absolute walāya, this article will only be concerned with Āmulī's explication of the latter. It is hoped that this investigation will help shed greater light on a key feature of Āmulī's Imamology, which is inextricably tied to his simultaneous critical reading of, and commitment to, Ibn ʿArabī.
