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