Conclusion

Without wasting a word, Shabistari  set out the credentials certifying his work as art according to that Aristotelian (and widespread medieval) way of thinking: (1) a date and (2) a cause invoked by (3) one or more thinking agents (himself and/or his Shaykh). The major change sought may have been his own license to teach, and closely connected to that would have been the teaching material itself which would change the understanding and spiritual path of his students.

It may be that the title of the book as we now have it reflects that Shabistari’s primary change was indeed achieved (as it must have been, of course, but it is pleasing to have it documented).

Book of Gulshan Rãz authored  by the Sheikh
Al-Kamil, Star of the Nation and Religion, Mahmoud
Shabistari (may Allah sanctify his soul)
And multiple his openings (victories/illuminations)

(Thanks to Dara for the translation)

The context of the poem is set up by the use of astronomical cycle-dates, which in the simplest terms tie it in to the beginning of the Ilkhanate, the adoption of Islam as the official religion, the historic evidence of divine grace favouring the Ilkhanids, and now – in this poem and all the great names associated with it – the evidence of that culture’s correct spirituality, too.

Shabistari’s very orthodox presentation of the spiritual journey in terms of circuits that return to their points of origin is especially satisfactory in this context, as it echoes the divinely propelled astronomical cycles by which all these activities are initiated.

The timing of Lahiji’s contribution to this work of art is a matter of continuing research as it does not closely continue the Ilkhanate cycle. This is hardly surprising, since the Ilkhanate no longer existed in his time, and it is possible that his timing reflects an older cycle connected with the founding of particular Sufi orders that had a strong impact on the Ilkhanids and on the Saffavids who were established by his time – but that is a matter for further research.

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Stanzas 47–58

In these stanzas Shabistari explains that he began immediately and then makes a careful disclaimer that he was not a poet but would do his best, and that he did not consider verse suitable for examining mysteries.

Stanzas 59–60

But all of this have I written of my own experience,
And not plagiarized as a demon from angels.
In short, I delivered the answers to the questions
Off hand, each to each, neither more no less.

If this was indeed a public examination, these lines are especially important, as Shabistari confirms that he is answering from his own knowledge, he is not plagiarizing, and he is deliberately short and to the point.

Stanzas 60–62

The messenger took the letter with reverence,
And departed again by the road that he came.
Again that noble was instant with me,
Saying, “do me yet another favour,
“Expound these mysteries which you have spoken.
“Out of theory bring them into evidence”.

One phase of the event was now over, as the messenger departed with the response letter (from which I infer that one or more people were recording the poem as he spoke).

But Shabistari’s shaykh and examiner now had him add to his answers. Lahiji comments that where the first set of answers were logically reasoned knowledge (‘ilm), what was required now was knowledge gained by illumination (kashf)[1].

After making another disclaimer Shabistari obliged again and it is this second, fuller response that is recorded in the poem as we have it.

Stanzas 69–70

When my heart craved of heaven a title for this book,
There came an answer to my heart, “It is our Rose Garden”.
Since heaven has named it “Rose Garden”,
May it enlighten the eyes of all souls.

Receiving the name for the poem from heaven is an adroit allusion to Shabistari’s ability to receive kashf.

The hope that the poem may enlighten the eyes of all souls brings us back to the original point of this discussion that, for Shabistari and his audience, art had a function: to make change in those exposed to it and also sometimes in the artist himself. At the very end of the poem, Shabistari hopes for change in himself (see below). But here near the beginning, he thinks of those exposed to his art, those – if this is indeed a pubic examination – whom he may soon be authorised to teach. For these, the poem maps out the mystic’s circuitous journey from his origin in God, through his most distant separation and back to his point of origin like the planets’ 19-year circuit and return to their own points of origin. (These planetary circuits, incidentally, were later described as performed willingly by the planets in response to God’s command, in love and desire for God, and as an act of tasbih[2].)

Stanzas 1007–1008 (final lines)

I hope that when the noble calls me to mind,
He may say of me, “Mercy be upon him”.
I conclude and end with my own name,
“O Allah, grant me a ‘lauded’ end”.

These lines are not part of the Cause of Writing, but they may perhaps be explained by it. Having presented his knowledge of the spiritual journey before a qualified audience that included his own master (and examiner?), Shaykh Amin al-Din, it is appropriate for Shabistari to end with a signature and hope that his work will be approved. Whinfield says that this hope is directed either at Shaykh Amin al-Din, or at “the pious reader”[3].

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[1]  Whinfield, 6, note 1  http://gulshan-raz.lossofgenerality.com/gulshan-e-raz-text-with-bookmarks/

[2]  Syamsuddin Arif, The Universe as a System: Ibn Sīnā’s Cosmology Revisited, Centre for Islam and Science (January 27, 2010), section 1.3  http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol7-no2/Arif-7-2-f.pdf

[3]  Whinfield, 94, note 1  http://gulshan-raz.lossofgenerality.com/gulshan-e-raz-text-with-bookmarks/

Stanzas 41–42

When the messenger read that epistle, forthwith
The news was noised abroad by many mouths.
All the nobles present in that congregation,
Turned their eyes upon this durvesh.

As we’ve seen, the letter was not formally addressed to Shabistari but to masters in the subject. These were the “nobles” who were present, and they looked expectantly at Shabistari. Again, this does not look like a chance situation but a scripted one in which Shabistari will have a highly qualified audience to monitor his response.

Stanzas 43–46

One who was a man well versed in affairs,
And who had heard these mysteries from me a hundred times,
Said to me, “Tell the answers off straightway,
“That the men of the world may profit thereby”.
I replied, “What need? for again and again
“Have I set forth these problems in treatises”.
“True,” said he, “but I hope to have from you
Answers in rhyme corresponding to these questions”.

Now the network of connections becomes more revealing. Lahiji tells us that the man who instructed Shabistari to answer the letter (and to do so in verse) was Shaykh Amin al-Din[1]. This man was an extremely high-ranking Sufi Shaykh, who was listed as one of the five great men of Fars by the poet Hafez[2]. His full name was Shaykh Amin al-Din Baliyani Kazeruni (died 1344), and he was (either at this time, or certainly later) the Shaykh al-Islam. There is some uncertainty about the functions of the Shaykh al-Islam, but the evidence strongly suggests that he was the highest-ranking Sufi master, and that he directed the educational system and had the authority to certify teachers. Whether he was Shaykh al-Islam at the time of this event (717/1317) he was certainly Shabistari’s shaykh[3]. This explains why he had “heard these mysteries from [Shabistari] a hundred times” and why he also knew that Shabistari had already set out the answers in treatises.

So when Shaykh Amin al-Din instructed Shabistari to “tell the answers off straighway” and to do so in verse, this is more than a social nicety. We now have a situation in which a recognized authority on the spiritual journey who shared a master with Shabistari wrote a set of highly organized and challenging questions to the “masters” in the field, who looked expectantly at Shabistari while his own master and possible chief director and examiner in the education system instructed him to respond. The attendant “nobles” may therefore have functioned as a jury, and the whole event now emerges as a form of public examination and certification. Assuming Shabistari answered all the questions satisfactorily, he would then be authorized to teach about the whole range of material condensed and summarized in his poem.

The certification may have taken the form of an ijazah, which was often but not always a certificate[4]. It may be that this poem, which rapidly became well-known and was later annotated and translated by Lahiji represents Shabistari’s ijazah.

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[1]  Whinfield, p5, note 3; http://gulshan-raz.lossofgenerality.com/gulshan-e-raz-text-with-bookmarks/

[2]  “City Administration in Hafez’s Shiraz”, by John W. Limbert, in Views from the Edge: Essays in Hornor of Richard W. Bulliet, by Richard W Bulliet, Neguin Yavari, Lawrence G Potter, Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim, 116–140, see especially page 117; & 130 and 139 for the Shaykh al-Islam http://books.google.com/books?id=98s_RXcO2c4C&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q&f=false

[3]  An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, Vol IV: From the School of Illumination to Philosophical Mysticism, Volume 4, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, I.B.Tauris, Dec 11, 2012, 476–8, p 476 http://books.google.com/books?id=2GEBAwAAQBAJ&pg=P476#v=onepage&q&f=false

[4]  wikipedia, Ijazah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijazah

Stanza 35

Seven and ten years had passed after seven hundred, From the Flight, when lo, in the month Shawal A messenger of a thousand graces and virtues Arrived at the behest of the men of Khorāsan.

This stanza could also have much to tell us but we don’t currently have the information to decode it – thus revealing the drawback to this cryptic approach to authentication. Lahiji often supplies the missing information elsewhere, but not apparently in this case. Stanzas 36–38

A great man, who in that country is famed For his varied learning as a fount of light, – Whom all the men of Khorāsan, great and small, Pronounce to be better than all men of this age, – Had written an epistle on the matter of mystery [or spirituality] Addressed to the masters of mystery.

Here, Shabistari is giving clues to more very important information and, to make sure that information is preserved, the answer to these clues is annotated into the margin of one of the copies[1], and incorporated as an extra stanza at line 36 in another[2]: Shabistari is referring to Amir Sayyid Hussaini (whose name also appears as Amir Fakhr al-Sādāt Hussaini). This man had several claims to high authority. The name Sayyid is the singular form of the name Sādāt, and both names signal that the bearer is descended through both parents from the Prophet. Those whose name is followed by Hussaini trace their descent through the Prophet’s grandson Husayn. The title Amir also designates descendants of the Prophet through his grandsons Hasan and Husayn. As translated by Darr, the extra stanza states:

He was the joy of the world and a light of the soul, this leader of the mystics, Sayyid Husseini

Now the network of connections begins that reveals the purpose of Shabistari’s poem. Amir Sayyid Hussaini was born in 671/1272–3 and had lived in Mulletān and then in Herat. He was commonly said to have been the disciple of Shaikh Bahā-aldin Zakariyyā Multāni (died 666/1267), and Whinfield follows this (introduction, iii, note 2). But it is impossible since Shaikh Bahā-aldin had died before Amir Hussaini was born, and other early authorities say that Hussaini was actually the disciple of Bahā-aldin’s grandson, Shaikh Rukn-aldin Abū-alfath (died 735/1335)[3]. This is important because Shabistari is also said to have been the disciple of Shaikh Bahā-aldin Zakariyyā Multāni. But, again, this is impossible (Shabistari was born 687/1288) and he too is more likely to have been the disciple of Bahā-aldin’s grandson Shaikh Rukn-aldin[4]. So although Shabistari makes it look as if someone in a distant city just happened to write with difficult questions, and he himself just happened to be available to answer them off the cuff (stanzas 42, 47), we can now see that he and Amir Hussain were in fact connected through a shared spiritual master. And since the questions were of a spiritual nature, the situation begins to look planned at high levels. Shabistari goes on to call Hussaini a “great man”, and refers to his extraordinary learning and superlative reputation. These are not hyperbole: he is known to have been a friend of Shaikh ‘Irāki and Shaikh Auhad Kirmani, and at the time of writing, he had also published a piece in prose and verse called الارواح نزهه(Nuzhat-alarwāh, The Delight [or Promenade] of Souls) (711/1311). It was about the journey of the spiritual pilgrim[5]. This is important too, because Shabistari’s poem is also on the journey of the spiritual pilgrim. So now we know that Hussaini and Shabistari were connected through a shared Shaykh and that Hussaini was already an acknowledged master in the subject that Shabistari is about to tackle in his poem. The situation was clearly no coincidence after all. Stanzas 38–40

Had written an epistle on the matter of mystery [or spirituality] Addressed to the masters of mystery. Therein many difficult expressions In use amongst the masters of indications, Had been versified in the form of several questions, A world of mystery in a few words.

We know now that Amir Sayyid Hussaini was not asking questions from ignorance (and, if we scan the poem, we’ll see that they are in strictly logical order and cover everything from the nature of thought and selfhood, through the spiritual journey, to mystical union). Shabistari now tells us that the language was difficult, specialised, condensed and in verse. So this non-coincidental letter is a serious challenge.

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[1]  email from Dara, using a Farsi edition of Lahiji, Muhammad Reza Barzegar Khaleqi, Ph.d., and Iffat Karbaasi (eds) [2]  Robert Abdul Hayy Darr, Garden of Mystery, the Gulshan-iRāz of Mahmud Shabistari, Classics of Sufi Poetry, no 2, Cambridge: Archetype, 28. Darr was translating the critical edition of the Gulshan i-Rāz by Samad Muwahhid, which was based on “the oldest and most genuine manuscripts available” (p 18). http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Mystery-Gulshani-i-Shabistari-Classics/dp/1901383229 [3]  Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindustani and Pushtu Manuscripts, vol 1, by the India Office Library, Hermann Ethé, 1903, 649 (col 997, under entry 1821) books.google.com/books?id=p9YPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA649&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false [4]  An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, Vol IV: From the School of Illumination to Philosophical Mysticism, Volume 4, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, I.B.Tauris, Dec 11, 2012, 476–8, p 476 http://books.google.com/books?id=2GEBAwAAQBAJ&pg=P476#v=onepage&q&f=false [5]  Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindustani and Pushtu Manuscripts, vol 1, by India Office Library, Hermann Ethé, 1903, p649 (col 997, under entry 1821) books.google.com/books?id=p9YPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA649&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Stanza 34

 Seven and ten years had passed after seven hundred,
From the Flight, when lo, in the month Shawal …

The first piece of information Shabistari gives is the date of an event, 717 ah (1317 ce). Already we are into extreme importance but again we need to take into account something we never question today, which is how we calculate time and how we recognize “anniversaries”.

Briefly, in the divine universe, time is calculated by the more or less yearly motions of the stars and the absolutely specific space of time it takes for all of them to complete their multiple circuits and return to their point of origin. That space of time is an astronomical cycle. Advances in astronomy caused changes in the accepted span of a cycle but by Shabistari’s time the 19-year cycle had become de facto. These 19-year astronomical cycles marked important “anniversaries” and tied events and projects to particular cultures, ruling dynasties, and religious organizations. More importantly these cycle-dates showed that the events and their sponsors were acting in synchrony with divinely controlled time, and hence by implication in accordance with divine intentions. 717/1317 was such a cycle date[1].

Cycle dates began with a significant event: a change of ruling dynasty, the founding of a new religious body, etc. In this case, the origin event appears to have been the formalization of the Ilkhanate with the first use of the Ilkhan title in 658/1260. It was conferred on Hulagu Khan by Kublai Khan on his own election as Khan. For exactly two cycles, it was worryingly unclear which religion the Mongols would espouse. Ghazan Khan adopted Islam just prior to his enthronement, along with his brother and successor, and 100,000 of his followers in 694/1295[2]. But this was followed by a period of brutal intolerance, which finally ended precisely on the second cycle-date, 697/1298, when the instigator was executed and a new vazir appointed.

The new vazir was Rashid al-Din Hamadani, who was also commissioned to write the history of the Mongols to the time of Ghazan Khan – which he began within two years and completed perhaps ten years later[3]. By this time it had become the first World History: the Jame’-i al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles or Universal History). It is still the main source of information about the Mongols and how they saw themselves. By 709/1309, Rashid al-Din had founded a university city, with a mandate for the yearly copying and distributing of the Qur’an and a work on hadith[4], and from 713/1313 all his works, including the Jame’-i al-Tawarikh were to be copied in Persian and Arabic, too[5]. It is Rashid al-Din’s history that tells us about the first use of the Ilkhan title, Ghazan’s conversion, his major reform beginning 697/1298 in response to brutal religious intolerance by his emir Nawrūz, and the fact that the Ilkhanids had divine favour (dawlat)[6]. And it was with the appointment of Rashid al-Din in the cycle year that major fiscal reform led to a change in coinage to reflect this belief[7].

717/1317 is the next cycle year after the reforms of Ghazan and Rashid al-Din, and at this stage in the poem he is about to tell us how and why he came to write it (the Cause mentioned in the title). The poem outlines the complete metaphysics of Sufism, and as we shall see, this spiritual work is no less comprehensive, and no less authoritative, than the historical work of Rashid al-Din.

Summary: time and art

The nineteen-year astronomical cycles mark the moment when all the planets return to their points of origin, thus they define divine time. For human affairs, they take their starting point from a significant event, such as a change of ruling dynasty, the foundation of a religious order, and so forth. For convenience, the cycle-set discussed here could be called the Ilkhanid Cycle, since it began in 658/1260 with the ascent of Kublai Khan to the throne, at which date he also conferred on his brother Hulagu the lesser title, ilkhan. After an extended period of religious chaos Islam was finally established as the state religion when, towards the end of the second cycle, the Ilkhan Ghazan converted to Islam. But the definitive point was the cycle-year itself, 697/1260, which is recognized as a turning point in his reign. That year saw fiscal and monetary reforms, the appointment Rashid al-Din Hamadani as vazir, and his commission for a formal history of the Mongols up to the time of Ghazan. Shabistari’s poem, a formal and correct outline of Sufi orthodoxy (commissioned and endorsed at the highest levels as we shall see), was produced exactly on the third cycle year, 717/1317. The Ilkhanate had now formally defined itself in name, coinage, history and spirituality. All these, including the Ilkhanate itself, are works of art (non-inevitable works capable of causing change, brought into existence by a thinking agent with a purpose for them). By attaching them all to the divinely controlled astronomical cycles the Ilkhanate also announced its own conformation to the rule of God.

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[1]  For simplicity, these cycle-dates are most easily computed using the western calendar, owing to the calendar reform under Ghazan Khan.

[2]  Whinfield, Introduction, iv, where the date is erroneously given as 697/1298 http://gulshan-raz.lossofgenerality.com/gulshan-e-raz-text-with-bookmarks/

[3]  Encyclopeaedia Iranica, Jāme’ al-tawārikh, esp paragraphs 1, 2, 21 http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jame-al-tawarik

[4]  Encyclopeaedia Iranica, Jāme’ al-tawārikh ii Illustrations, paragraph 2 http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jame-tawarikh-ii

[5]  Encyclopeaedia Iranica, Jāme’ al-tawārikh, paragraph 21 http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jame-al-tawarik

[6]  Kingship and Ideology in the Islamic and Mongol Worlds, Anne F Broadbridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008, 68 (chapter begins p 64) http://books.google.com/books?id=VxOcXC85tnQC&pg=PA68&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

[7]  The Mongols in Iran: Chingiz Khan to Uljaytu, 1220–1309, Judith Kolbas, Routledge, 2013, 295, 276 (note 47), 305 http://books.google.com/books?id=tSRTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA295#v=onepage&q&f=false

Pre-Amble

One of the things we often forget to do with historical material is to ask what was understood at the time about the nature of that material. Assuming that we already know what the artist, author, or scientist was setting out to do, we engage with his or her output as if it was produced today, and tacitly ignore or explain away the parts that do not make sense. But these are the parts that make sense of the whole project! These are the parts that tell us what Shabistari and his contemporaries thought art is and what it is for, and what was going on when he launched publicly into this extemporary poem. They tell us what we need to know about him, and hint at the importance of this event that was timed to place it within the cyclical continuum of the metaphysical universe, and they challenge us to let this work of medieval art do the work it was intended to do: to make change.

Let’s take “The Cause” line by line and reveal the incredible density of information given in it.

Title: The Cause of Writing

Here is the first indication of the medieval understanding of art. This understanding goes back ultimately to Aristotle, whose root definition of art is scattered through several works and tends to be set aside because he himself paid more focussed attention to his subordinate definition of one kind of art as mimesis (copying nature). That root definition notes that art is something that is neither inevitable nor a result of a natural process, but it is a potential thing brought into existence by an agent with a capacity to think[1] who also has a purpose for it[2]. That purpose can be served because, he says, art is something that can cause change in other things, possibly including the artist himself[3]. So the title of this section (“The Cause of Writing”) tells us that Shabistari and Lahiji both see art in Aristotle’s terms because the first thing they want to tell us is that the poem had a cause or purpose, and that establishes that this poem is art.

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[1]  Nichomachean Ethics, VII, 4 (see VI or VII, depending on edition: in the following link see VI) http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.6.vi.html#117

[2]  Parts of Animals, I (half way through paragraph 2), http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/parts_animals.1.i.html#58

[3]  Metaphysics, IX, 2 (especially paragraph 1) http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.9.ix.html#63