Oriental Mysticism (Paperback)

Oriental Mysticism Book Description

ORIENTAL MYSTICISM A TREATISE ON THE SUFIISTIC AND UNITARIAN THEOSOPHY OF THE PERSIANS COMPILED FROM NATIVE SOURCES BY E. H. PALMER HCHOI. AH OF 8T JOHNS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDOK MKMBKB OK TIIK ROYAL ASIATIC socikTV, AND OF THK SOClfiTlt AS1ATIQUK I K PARIS SECOND EDITION, WITH INTRODUCTION BY A. J. ARBERRY, Lirr. D. ANHISTANT LIBRARIAN OF THK INDIA OKKK K SOMKriMB FKI-I-OW OK PKMBROKfi COLLKOK, CAMBRIDOK LONDON LUZAC CO. 1938 Printed by offset in Great Britain by Billing and Sons Ltd., Guildford and Esher INTRODUCTION. EDWARD HENRY PALMER, born at Cambridge in 1840, and murdered by Bedouins in the Egyptian desert in 1882, is one of the most romantic figures in the history of Oriental studies. The story of his humble origin, of the amazing flair for languages which led to his discovery by the Fellows of St. Johns College, Cambridge, and of his subsequent brilliant career, is too well known to need retelling. At the age of thirty-one lie was appointed Lord Almoners Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge, a Chair which it has within this decade been thought proper to suppress, a curious circum stance in a country where the modern science of Orientalism may be said to have been born. It was while Palmer was engaged in cataloguing the Islamic manuscripts preserved in the libraries of Kings and Trinity Colleges that his interest was aroused by a short manual of the Sufi system of theosophy, the Maqsad i aqsa or Furthest Aim of Aziz ibn Muhammad al-Nasafl. In 1867, the year of his graduation as a Bachelor of Arts, he published the present little book, which he called Oriental Mysticism in this he gave a summarized ii Introduction. translation of Nasaffs treatise, working it up into aform suitable for general reading. A careful comparison of Palmers succinct account with the text of Nasafi shows that it is in reality no more and no less than a version of carefully chosen para graphs of the original the skill with which this process has been conducted will be evident k the reader, who will find in this book a remarkably clear and concise account of the theological and philo sophical basis of the Sufi system. Of Nasafi himself virtually nothing is known beyond the statements of the author of the Majdlis al- ushshaq, quoted by Rieu 1 and followed by sub sequent writers, that he lived at Bukhara, but fled before the invasion of Chinglz Khan, and died at Abarquh, between Istakhr and Yezd, in 661 1263. He wrote several fairly widely known works on Sufism, including the Kashf al-haqaiq, an epitome of the 400 volumes of the works of Najm al-Dln Kubras pupil, Sad al-Dln Humrnui. 2 Nasafi quotes HummuI in the Maqsad i aqsd, and there refers to him as no longer living 3 as Hummui died in 650 1253, the present work would appear to have been written some time during the decade 1253-1263. 1 Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, p. 1095a. 2 So write Rieu and Eth4 Palmer below, p. 27, Ivanow and Brockelmann write Hamawi. 3 MS. 1.0. Delhi Persian 1193, fol. 33o. Introduction. iii But in the same context Sadr al-Dln Rumi sc. Qonawl is also quoted in terms which imply that he is likewise dead and Qonawls death did not occur until 672 1273. 1 The system which is here expounded is largely based on the theosophical mysticism of the great Ibn Arabl 560 1165-638 1240, whose Fusus al hikam Nasaf 1 in one place quotes. 2 If it is permitted to hazard a guess, it ispossible that Nasaf fs acquaint ance with Ibn Arabis work was npt directly Jbased jfic dj fi 4 4X4 on the perusal of the highly abstruse ongma but derives from Qonawls lectures on the Fusus, which he may have attended, like Fakhr al-Dln Iraqi. 3 The central point of this system is the doctrine of the Insjm j kamilf or Perfect Man, the microcosm corresponding with the macrocosm, for whose being the whole order of creation was designed...

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