The Sufi Idea of Love

By Farhad Shakely, "AESTHETICAL ASPECTS IN THE POETRY OF MALÂ-YÊ JAZÎRÎ -- Part III" - The Kurdish Globe - Erbil, Iraq
Friday, April 17, 2009

In order to understand various aspects of Jazîrî's poetry, it is of utmost importance to place it in its historical context and take the political, cultural and religious dimensions of his time into consideration.

Questions of special interest concern the poet's relation to the princes of Jazîra, the Azîzân dynasty, and the sufi order to which he probably belonged. There are additionaly the issues of Kurdish culture and language that deserve investigation.

These issues are directly connected with the history of the Botân principality, but also with the situation in Kurdistan generally. Jazîra was one of the chiefdomds that belonged to the newly established ayâlat of Diyârbakir. Apparently it was the most powerful and independent one amongst the Kurdish principalities and, therefor, enjoyed a special position. It constituted, together with six other major and ten minor principalities an administrative unity called vilâyat-i Kurdistan.

An important question in the context of Jazîrî's life and poetry is The Red School, Madrasa-yâ Sor, that was built by a Mîr Sharaf, supposedly the one to whom the poet was a contemporary.

It is said that when Mîr Sharaf II was on his way to capture Jazîra, after being in exile a long time, he prayed to God and promised to build a mosque on the spot from which he enters the city, and thus The Red School, together with a mosque, were built. It is often asserted that Jazîrî lived and taught in The Red School.

One of the important remnants seen in the present city of Jazîra is the piebald tower, that is built on the bank of the Tigris. Yashin, in his book on Jazîra, states that the tower was built in 1596 by Mîr Sharaf III. The name balak, piebald, derived from the Arabic ablaq, is due to the fact that the tower is built of black basalt rocks and gypsum. Jazîrî mentions the tower of honour, burjâ Sharaf, in a panegyric poem supposedly addressed to Mîr Sharaf III.

The relationship between Malâ-yê Jazîrî and the princely family of Botân, the 'Azîzân dynasty, is not recorded except in the poetry of Jazîrî himself and in a great number of anecdotes about his life, most of which are completely unfounded. The essence of this relationship and the reason why Jazîrî had such a high position with that family is, I think, due to the fact that Jazîrî was a Sufi and a poet. We find in the dîwân of Jazîrî only two panegyrics for the Kurdish prince.

The whole poetry of Jazîrî affords a great deal of possibilities to find out and study the basic elements of a representative classical sufi poetry. He was greatly inspired by classical Persian poets as Hafiz, Mawlânâ Jalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî and Jâmî whom he certainly considered great masters of poetry. The spiritual affiliation to the Naqshbandi order of sufism is also distinctly present in his poetry.

His experiences as a sufi are marvellously illustrated in almost all his poems. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that the formal and linguist aspects of his poetry are also of utmost importance for every approach that aims at presenting a comprehensive idea about the poetry of Malâ-yê Jazîrî.

Aesthetical Aspects: An Approach
To study and investigate aesthetical aspects in the poetry of Malâ-yê Jazîrî one does not need to confine his research to only one genre, topic or form. The whole poetry of Malâ-yê Jazîrî affords a great deal of possibilities to find out and study the basic elements of a representative classical sufi poetry. These elements, indeed, are harmoniously interwoven with the themes and ideas of the poet, which create a high degree of poetical structure. The study of this structure involves, inevitably, a close reading of the texts to explore the most subtle parts and the intricate relationships among these parts, and to grasp meanings that are convoyed by various metaphors and symbols.

One of the most important questions that should be dealt with and answered in the beginning of a study of the content of Jazîrî's poetry is whether we consider his poetry as an artistic expression of his life and his experiences, material and/or spiritual.

A thorough reading of the poetry of Malâ-yê Jazîrî gives the impression that the topics of sufism were present and dominant almost in all his poetic production. This leads us, consequently, to wonder if there has been a time when Jazîrî was a poet, but not a sufi. The logical answer seems to be that his poetical talents spouted out and flourished as a result of his initiation to the path and his aquaintance with the legacy of sufi poetry.

The ghazal of Jazîrî as a whole deal with the mystical, and thereby philosophical, thoughts and ideas of the poet. There are only a few number of ghazal in his dîwân that can be interpreted as love poetry, the addressee of which being a human. Even in such poems one is struck by the fact that they inevitably contain symbols, similes and expressions that connote the sufi idea of love; the divine love.

A Ghazal
The ghazal DJZ-Z:1 is an example of a sufi ghazal that contains significant twofold metaphors and similes. The formal and exterior meaning of this poem suggests that it is a love poem, in which the poet addresses his beloved to describe his love and his grief. This line of thought continues through the whole poem, although on different levels.

What makes the reader from the beginning aware of the real meaning of the poem, the sufi ideas of annihilation in and unity with God, is the linguistic vehicle, the vocabulary, and the metaphors. These elements are employed on such a level that it widens the circle of the poem to comprehend not only the earthly love, but also the heavenly.

Jânâ zhi jamâl-â ta muqaddas qabasim az
Gar khûb u parîzâda nazar kî ta basin az

Dear, of your holy beauty I am a firebrand
Beautiful and fairyborn, if you look [at me], you are enough for me

Describing her/his beauty muqaddas, holy, and himself as a qabas, firebrand or a portion of a fire, is the key for the twofold interpretation. Being a part of a greater whole is the idea that is expressed ambiguosly here. The second b. presents the idea of unity more deliberately and more poetically:

Mithlê mah-i naw gar ta divêtin ma bibînî
Mêza bika jâmê, tu dizânî chi kasim az

If you want to see us as the new moon
Look in the cup, [then] you know who I am

The picture is built upon three different allusive and mythical dimensions that are commonly employed in the Oriental poetry.

The new moon, mah-i naw, is the symbol of the good news that the fast month, Ramadhân, or the festival, i.e. the beginning of Shawwâl has come. Then it is enthusiastically expected and looked for. But, on the other hand, it tells of the grief that turned the lover, the poet, so thin that he resembles a new moon.

The cup, jâm, is a reference to Jamshîd's cup, in which he could see the secrets of the world.

Abbreviations
b: beit, bb: beits

DJZ: The Diwan of Mala-ye Jaziri, edited by Zivingi, see the bibliography.
The letters and numbers that follow indicate the chapter and the poem in the book.

Terms
Diwan: the entire collected work of a poet. Poems are usually arranged according to letter (or letters) of the rhythm.

Beit: or bayt, the basic unit in Oriental verse, usually translated as a couplet or distich. Consists of two misra's in the same metre; misra's may or may not rhyme.

Misra': each of two rhythmically identical (or near identical) halves of a beit.

Ghazal: a short poem of not fewer than four and not more than fifteen couplets.

Qasida: in form similar to the ghazal, but much longer. Theoretically it contains not less than thirty and not more than ninety-nine couplets.