Naji B. Oueijan, Ph.D. "Sufism, Christian Mysticism, and Romanticism"
Abstract
The Romantics, the British and German Romantics before them, felt a need for a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures so that Romanticism may be free from national confinements and that it may become, according to Friedrich Schlegel, a "progressive, universal poetry". They thought, and they were right, that the spiritual and literary visions of the world of other cultures might provide them with new dimensions of thought fundamental for the establishment of their own system. To the East they looked with the eyes of excitement and admiration, because it was a world endowed with a wealthy spiritual, ethical, and cultural heritage, which was organic and practical at the same time. In the East they found a world order firmly established upon the reconciliation of two spiritual dogmas, Christianity and Islam, and upon the fusion of mathematical truth with spiritual revelation; and based on this different world order, they discovered a literary heritage endowed with love, power and wisdom, or what Bernard Blackstone calls "the Triple Eros".
"To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal."
-- Childe Harold Pilgrimage, IV, ll. 1600-1601)[1]
From the beginning, Romantic poets discharged their observations of themselves and the world in works carrying bits and pieces of their traditional culture mixed with fragments of different or even unfamiliar cultures. And from the beginning of Romanticism, diversity of literary identity characterized them. Their writing, it is true, maintained a sense of Romantic identity; but this was free from uniformity and susceptible to mobility. Each Romantic poet sought his literary identity in realms lying outside the restrictive rules of orthodoxy. Their search was the kind that would never end. It defied the boundaries of time and place. It transcended the apparent to emerge in the mysteries of hidden realities; it went beyond the temporal to cherish the Eternal; and it transcended the limitations of physical space to apprehend the Universal.
In realms obscure yet felt, in the unraveled beauties and mysteries of Nature, in the deep recesses of the mind, in the living experience of real existence, and in the all-consuming power of the Universe and its Creator they tried to locate their real identity. Love, knowledge, illumination, ecstasy, and reconciliation, amongst other terms, became keywords in Romantic philosophy. Man, Nature and Universe, besides God, became the main objects of Romantic theology. The Romantic theory of Art diverted from traditional theories not by introducing unfamiliar concepts and ideals, but by undertaking different approaches of perceiving and assimilating them.
Besides, there was a common feeling stimulated by the current devastating events of the Napoleonic wars and the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution that traditional thinking had worn out and that a new cultural system should be established. Wordsworth, Keats and especially Blake made explicit calls for the creation of new systems or else, they thought, they would be enslaved by current doctrines and established systems.[2]
It follows that the Romantics felt a need for a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures. They thought, and they were right, that the spiritual and literary visions of the world of other cultures might provide them with new dimensions of thought fundamental for the establishment of their own system. To the East they looked with the eyes of excitement and admiration, because it was a world endowed with a wealthy spiritual, ethical, and cultural heritage, which was organic and practical at the same time. In the East they found a world order firmly established upon the reconciliation of two spiritual dogmas, Christianity and Islam; and based on this different world order, they discovered a literary heritage endowed with love, power and wisdom, or what Bernard Blackstone calls "the Triple Eros" (1974, 325). In fact, several scholarly works have recently appeared which, on specific historical and general literary grounds, have demonstrated the significance of the contribution of the Eastern culture on British and other Western cultures.[3] The culture of this different world order fired their imaginative and intellectual faculties and provided them with the opportunity to create their own.
In this work I contend that amongst the numerous elements of the Eastern culture, Eastern mysticism, or what is better known as Islamic mysticism or Sufism, attracted the attention of the Romantic poets. But it must be understood at the beginning of this work that it is not my intention to prove that the Romantics were mystics or Sufists per se, perhaps with the exception of William Blake, the acknowledged mystic of the Romantics; rather, without negating the influence of Christian or even Far Eastern mysticism, it is my intention to argue that the Romantics were influenced by Sufism because it suited their earnest purposes and goals. In this respect, and in relation to Romanticism, the term "mysticism" must be defined and the basic differences between Christian mysticism and Sufism must be clarified.
I
Mysticism is a process by which the mystic is able to annihilate the self to achieve perceptive floatation reaching beyond the ordinary realms of man's cognitive faculties. It is based on a deep fascination and a passionate love of the Absolute and a longing for experiencing the via illuminativa, a state of illumination granting the mystic moments of intense gnosis, love, and exultation. To define mysticism, then, one must identify the mystical process or the mystical experience. An eligible definition, which cannot be overlooked in this study, is suggested by Ronald W. Hepburn, who asserts:
Mystical experience is a religious experience, in a broad but meaningful sense of "religious". It is sensed as revealing something about the totality of things, something of immense human importance at all times and places, and something upon which one's ultimate well-being or salvation wholly depends. More specifically, a mystical experience is not the act of acquiring religious or theological information but is often taken to be a confrontation or encounter with the divine source of the world's being and man's salvation. An experience is not held to be mystical if the divine power is not apprehended as simply "over-against" one-wholly distinct and "other". There must be a unifying vision, a sense that somehow all things are one and share a holy, divine, and single life, or that one's individual being merges into a "Universal self", to be identified with God or the mystical One. Mystical experience then typically involves the intense and joyous realization of oneness with, or in, the divine, the sense that this divine One is comprehensive, all embracing, in its being. Yet a mystical experience may be given much less theological interpretation than this description suggests. A mystic may have no belief whatever in a divine being and still experience a sense of overwhelming beatitude, of salvation, or of lost or transcended individuality (1972, 12).
The mystical experience then does not belong to any particular religious dogma or to any one process of achieving higher knowledge. It is a universal constant, whose "variations can be observed to be very clearly and characteristically shaped by the several religious systems upon which they were based" (Arbery, 1973, 12). Its universality verifies the fact that all mystics share common characteristics; at the same time each has his/her distinctive dogmatic background which shapes his/her mystical experience. Besides, mysticism, which evolves from religious dogmas, might not conform to these dogmas. Thus mystics are not altogether theologians inasmuch as theologians are not necessarily mystics. The key-terms used by all might be similar, but their conceptions of these terms might differ. The same is true of mystics themselves; they all use similar key-terms to describe their mystical experiences, but their conceptions of these terms may differ according to their basic dogmas. Still, all mystics acquire knowledge and illumination by acquaintance, while theologians acquire knowledge by description.[4] In this respect, one may consider the Romantics as mystics.
The mystical experience, mystics claim, transcends the apparent and the physical and merges into deeper mysteries of the Universal Soul. The mystical experience is a common goal of all mystics; and it is the basis of mystical sagacity and expression. A comment on mysticism that cannot be ignored in this study is made by John B. Carman, who asserts:
Definitions of mysticism tend to stress one or more of the following features:
(a) a particular ontology, in accord with the mystic's insight, usually either monistic or theistic;
(b) an immediacy or intensity of experience not present in other forms of religion;
(c) a separation from the physical, or from ordinary social life, or from ordinary forms of consciousness (1983, 192).
Such general features would appeal to the Romantics, who in their search for instances of higher awareness sought intense experiences with the Infinite and Eternal. In this respect the Romantics were theists interested in the "mystica theologia" more than in theologia proper.
"The essence of mystica theologia in distinction from the usual theologia lay in the fact that it claimed to teach a deeper 'mystery', and to impart secrets and reveal depths which were otherwise unknown" (Otto, 1932, 141). The "mystical One" to the Romantics and the mystics may be the world, the universe and the eternal. It is the One cryptic and esoteric entity which becomes obvious when approached and/or fused in; it is all-observant, all-knowing and all-powerful; and it is supreme Truth, Beauty, and Love.
Also, it must be understood that mystical expressions are very highly subjective and personal. Since mystics cannot record their accounts during their mystical experiences, their accounts are based on recollection. Mystical experiences could be compared to dreams and visions; and the mystics, the dreamers or visionaries, who upon awakening might be willing to express what they recollect of their visions of the Ultimate Truth. This, of course, correlates with the Romantic experience, which is also dependent upon subjective recollection and expression of visions of Truth. Blake's, Wordswoth's, and especially Coleridge's mystical expressions are based upon this exegesis.
Another definition of mysticism makes this correlation even more obvious. I refer to Freidrich Heiler's conception of the term. Heiler labels mysticism as "that form of intercourse with God in which the world and self are absolutely denied, in which human personality is dissolved, disappears and is absorbed in the infinite unity of the Godhead" (qtd. in Ching, 1983, 228).
Heiler's use of the term "intercourse" implies, if anything, the privateness and individuality of the mystical experience. This individualistic feature of mysticism consorts with the Romantic emphasis on the individual and on the individual experience. However, while the mystic's world and self dissolve in Godhead, the Romantic's self fuses in the world, itself an image of Godhead. William Wordsworth asserts that this fusion of "the individual Mind" with "the external world" is the highest form of man's arguments:
How exquisitely the individual Mind
(And the progressive powers perhaps no less
Of the whole species) to the external World
Is fitted-and how exquisitely, too-
The external World is fitted to the Mind;
And the creation (by no lower name
Can it be called) which they with blended might
Accomplish-this is our high argument.
-- Prospectus to The Recluse, ll. 63-71) [5]
To the Romantics the mind and the self are one, and the blending of both is only possible when the mind transcends itself into the other. This attempt by the Romantics, says Herbert Schueller, is intended "to transcend the mundane and the human, even though the human mind is the agency by which this transcendence must be achieved; the difficulty is that the only agency which the human mind has for transcending itself is itself" (1993, 72). This further explains the correlation between mystical and Romantic self-denial. Surely mere denial of the mind or of the self, mindlessness or selflessness, does not necessarily lead to the mystical experience-we all have our mindless moments in which our minds become vacant and idle-unless the mind, via intended or spontaneous concentrated meditation and/or contemplation of the other, fuses with it; only then such experiences procure powerful moments of knowledge.
The kinship between all forms of mysticism, Christian mysticism, Sufism, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, has become common knowledge. There is no doubt that "Sufism" is an Islamic term, but I strongly believe that the term, which derives from the Arabic noun suf ("wool"), has a Christian origin. History tells us that during the second and third centuries, Christians fled the persecution of the Roman Empire and inhabited the mountains in Iraq and Lebanon. The monks, and especially the hermits, chose the high mountain caves as places of refuge and of contemplation and worship of God. They were the earliest Christian ascetics and mystics ever. To those hermits, the natural beauty and solemnity of those mountains, especially in Lebanon, represented the divine wisdom and beauty of God. Those early hermits were called sufi'yün because they wore suf garments as a sign of humility and to protect themselves from the year-round cool mountain climate. Those Christian mystics are frequently mentioned in Sufi stories and poetry and in pre-Islamic literature, which abounds with allusions to the light or illumination coming forth from their caves. [6] Moreover, if as the Sufi believe that the first Muslim mystic was the Prophet, then contacts between Christian mystics and Muslim ones started as early as the Prophet Muhammad and continued throughout the course of development of Sufism. There is no doubt that the kinship between Christian mysticism and Sufism is a historic fact. Yet for the purposes of my work I would like to draw upon differences between Christian mysticism and Sufism, differences which may have been the basis of the Romantics' interest in Sufism. And although it is not wrong to assume that the Romantics' concern in Sufism was channeled via their initial interest in mysticism in general, I have no doubt in my mind that their engrossment with Sufism was augmented by their fascination in Orientalism. [7]
It is in connection with the aforementioned that I will try to suggest the kinship between Sufism and Romanticism.
II
One of the basic differences between Christian mysticism and Sufism is that:
- the first adheres to the authority of the established church, while
- the second places the mystical experience above the authorities of traditional dogmas or doctrines.
Commenting on the relation between experience and dogma in Christian mysticism, H. P. Owen explains:
These mystics constantly appeal to the Church's authority in the realm of religious belief. They accept unconditionally those dogmas that the Church teaches and in which all Christians believe. Moreover in varying degrees they show a detailed knowledge of the ways in which dogmas have been formulated (1983, 156).
Thus unlike the Sufi mystics, the Christian mystics almost never become heretics prosecuted by the Christian church.
"Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Bernard, Suso, Tauler, Thomas à Kempis, Teresa, John of the Cross, all, though not free from tension, were in holy orders, lived out their lives in regularized Christian ways, continued all their life to participate in Christian ritual and sacramental activity, were not permanently excommunicated, did not die outside the Church" - (Katz, 1983, 33).
On the other hand, the orthodox Islamic authorities accused the Sufi mystics of being heretics and were prosecuted and even sometimes martyred.
Early in the tenth century when the Sufi mystic and poet al-Hallaj advanced his mystical views of love and joyful suffering, he was imprisoned for several years and then executed. Al-Hallaj, like several other Sufi mystics, was considered a martyr symbolizing the free Sufi spirit in conflict with orthodoxy.
The circumstances of Al-Hallaj's life and prosecution and his Sufi thought were quite known to the Romantics through several works, the most popular amongst those being D'Herbelot's Bibliothèque Orientale, which most Romantics possessed in their libraries. [8]
Al-Hallaj and other Sufi figures would appeal to the Romantics for two reasons:
- first, because in their search for a new system they rejected orthodox dogmas and doctrines; and
- second, because the Sufi concept of "joyful suffering" exonerates the Romantics', especially Wordsworth's, notion of "silent pain" as revealed in his "The Ruined Cottage," "Simon Lee," and "Micheal".
Also, like the Sufi mystics the Romantics emphasize their individual experiences, unmindful whether they conform to traditional dogmas and doctrines or not.
Another difference between Christian mysticism and Sufism is apparent in a definition of the latter presented by A. J. Arberry, who asserts that "Sufism may be defined as the mystical movement of an uncompromising Monotheism" (1972, 12).
To the Sufi, "Allah is One and only One" ("La Illahu Illa Allah"). The Prophet Muhammad does not share Allah's Godhead, and in no way is he equal to Allah. It follows that the Muslim and the Sufi do not recognize an incarnate God, a Savior acting as a medium between Allah and his worshipers. The Prophet is only the vehicle of the Divine Message to man, and the Quran is this Divine Message. Via ardent repetition of verses from the Quran, the Sufi empties himself from himself and becomes one with this Divine Message, thus becoming one with Allah.
Christian mystic believes in the doctrine of Trinity.
Bernard McGinn asserts that "Christian understanding of mystical union must be radically different from Jewish and Muslim ones, if only because union, however understood, is with the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (1996, 187).
Thus the Christian mystic's object of contemplation and meditation is God or God Incarnate, Jesus Christ; the Bible is not his immediate channel for achieving the mystical experience. This rather apparent difference entails Sufi features which would appeal to the Romantics. To the Sufi the Quran is the only means to achieve mystical fusion with Allah. And since, as the Quran clearly states, "Whithersoever ye turn, there is the Face of God" (Sura 2:109), then the Sufi sees Allah in Man and Nature as well. To love Man and Nature is to love Allah; this of course gives Sufism pantheistic colorings.
Furthermore, the Sufi belief in the Unity of Being ("wahdat al-wujud") implies the unity of all elements of the Universe in God.
These features would appeal to the Romantics. Blake's concept of "The Universal Man," Wordsworth's "holy marriage", Coleridge's reconciliation theory, Byron's laudation of the universe and its elements, Shelley's view of the infinite, and Keats's perception of universal harmony reciprocate the Sufi "Unity of Being." And like the Sufi poets, the Romantics found their Divine Message in the elements of the Universe.
To the Romantics, perhaps the most appealing and attractive feature of Sufism was the fact that it was a vehicle for higher literature, poetry. Needless to say that almost all Sufi mystics were Sufi poets; they believed poetry was the highest form of literature. This Sufi belief was strongly based on the fact that the language of the Quran, itself the language of Allah, is the highest and most sublime form of literature. The text itself is prosaic, but it is endowed with an incomparable and divine poetic and epigrammatic nature. And, as mentioned before, Quranic verses were, and still are, the main objects of the Sufi contemplation; therefore, it is not wrong to assume that the Sufis considered the Quran their model for literary expression.
Thus they employed poetry as a medium for their Sufi experiences and prose to explain them. Another reason for the Sufi interest in poetry is skillfully cleared up by Annemarie Schimmel, who maintains:
Indeed, one aspect of mystical language in Sufism that should never be overlooked is the tendency of the Arabs to play with words. The structure of the Arabic language-built upon triliteral roots-lends itself to the developing of innumerable word forms following almost mathematical rules. It might be likened to the structure of an arabesque that grows out of a simple geometric pattern into complicated multiangled stars, or out of a flower motif into intricate lacework. A tendency to enjoy these infinite possibilities of the language has greatly influenced the style of Arabic poets and prose writers, and in many sayings of the Sufis one can detect a similar joy in linguistic play; the author indulges in deriving different meanings from one root, he loves rhymes and strong rhythmical patterns-features inherited by the mystics of the Persian, Turkish, and Indo-Muslim tongues. But this almost magical interplay of sound and meaning, which contributes so much to the impressiveness of a sentence in the Islamic languages, is lost in translation (1975, 13).
Of course the Romantics were not as joyful in "linguistic play" as the Sufi poets were; but they were equally enraptured by lyrical poetry. In fact, Sufism as a mystical order cannot be separated from Sufism as a literary movement; indeed, this would appeal to the Romantics. Christian mysticism circumvents this particular feature. This is not to ignore the mystical poetry of a few medieval Christian mystics. Marion Glasscoe discusses five major Christian mystics in his English Medieval Mystics: Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the Cloud-Author, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe; only the first often expressed his mystical experiences in a poetic form. [9] Indeed, most of the Christian mystics used prose as medium for their expressions, and their prose cannot be categorized under pure literature, because it lies somewhere between philosophy and theology.
It follows that Sufism had greatly influenced the development of poetry in Arabia, Persia, and other Islamic regions in the East. At this point it is imperative to note the view of Michael Sells, who notes that Sufi mystics found in love and wine poetry "a vehicle to express an episode of mystical union experienced independently"; he goes on to assert that "Poetic and Sufi sensibility are most closely intertwined at the moment of union. To consider one the vehicle of the other is to lose the resonance and power brought about by the interfusion of the two-language world" (1996, 90).
Sells also presents an illuminating discussion of the different types and themes of Sufi poetry:
The ode, or Qasida, the classical form
that bequeathed its language, themes, and structure to Sufi literature, was divided by medieval literary critics into three major movements:
1. the nasib or remembrance (dhikr), of the lost beloved;
2. the journey (a movement that in some way prefigures the major Islamic journey of the Hajj); and
3. the boast.
Remembrance of the beloved is the wellspring of both the poetic and the Sufi voice.
A brief listing of the conventions and motifs of the poetic remembrance, or nasib, that will be echoed, appropriated, and transformed within Sufi literature would include the following:
(1) the traces of the lost beloved's abodes
(2) the blaming of the lost beloved for her continually changing forms and moods (ahwal)
(3) the stations (maqamat) of her journey away from the poet; and
(4) images of fertility and tranquillity that memory of her conjures in place of the desolate ruins of her campsite, images that open onto the underlying archetype, beloved as lost garden (1996, 90).
The above proves, if anything, that the Sufi and the Romantic poets share common poetic concerns that entail poetic themes and forms:
- 1. the Arabic ode, or "qasida," is the basic form of traditional Arabic poetry. Although prosody in Arabic and English odes differs, yet the goals and themes are similar. There is no question that the ode was one of the Romantics' favorite poetic forms. Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats favored it over other poetic forms.
- 2. "Remembrance of the beloved" in Sufi poetry concurs with Romantic recollection of past days, usually of good old days or of times of childhood and of events invigorating passionate feelings and moments Wordsworth recollects:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
-- "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood," ll. 1-5
Almost the same words are repeated by Coleridge:
There was a time when, though my path was rough,
This joy within me dallied with distress,
And all misfortunes were but as the stuff
Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness.
-- "Dejection: An Ode," ll. 76-79
Coleridge's use of the mystical term "path" should not be overlooked; it is discussed later in this work. Recollection, however, is sometimes stimulated by desolate settings. This concern is obvious in both Sufi and Romantic poetry. In fact, in traditional Arabic literature "Al-Wuquf àl àtlal" (i.e., poetry stimulated by the poets' observation of the ruins of his beloved or of his people's abodes) was a popular poetic genre. The constant movement of the Arab tribes contributed to the emergence of this genre, which the Sufi developed and perfected in his/her poetry.
In Romantic poetry, Wordswoth's "The Ruined Cottage" epitomizes this Sufi tradition. In fact the Romantic poets were fascinated by old ruins and their symbolical representations.
Byron's and Shelley's poetry is packed with ruins poetry. [10]
In "Recollections of Love," Coleridge adheres to the Sufi tradition when he emphasizes the natural setting invigorating memories of his beloved.
Byron's poetry abounds with similar recollections, the most known of which is his recollection of his beloved Teresa in his "Stanzas to the Po."
- 3. the "Hajj" ("the journey") theme of the Sufi poets corresponds to the circuitous journey of the Romantics. Although the quest motif is a traditional theme in world literatures, it is the basic dynamic force that generates movement and action in Sufi and Romantic literature. In both movements the poet separates from his traditional world order to discover another one embodying permanent truth. In other word, he separates from his self to roam in the domain of the other to unravel the mysteries of both the self and the other. In Sufism and Romanticism, separation from the self involves a detachment from the material self and other-such a separation involves pain and suffering-and an attachment to or a fusion of the spiritual self with the spiritual other-such a fusion involves redemption and reconciliation.
- 4. Furthermore, the concept of a literary movement applies to both Sufism and Romanticism. A literary movement indicates change and development in the course of time of fixed literary ideals. It is a trend advancing a desire to dynamize human thought in order to free it from orthodoxy. And it is characterized by growth and development in literary activities and interests.
Sufism dynamized the Muslim's view of Allah; it gave him the opportunity to experience Allah rather than to learn about Him. It represented a dynamic change in man's perceptions of God and the Universe; accordingly, it revolted against fixed canons. All definitions and discussions of Sufism emphasize the fact that it is a "mystical movement" with an organic power to change orthodox interpretations of God, the Universe, and Man. [11]
Romanticism embraces all the above characteristics. "All periods are really movements in time," contends Haward E. Hugo, "but the exponents of Romanticism seemed unusually aware that theirs was a moment of flux, of organic change and growth, while they undertook to revolt against what they regarded as the fixed, outworn canons of preceding generations" (1975, 2).
Morse Peckham asserts that "the cultural development of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is properly to be regarded as a development of Romanticism, the specific values of which I classified as 'change, imperfection, growth, diversity, the creative imagination, the unconscious.'" (1961, 1)
Thus movement, signifying change and growth, seems to be the hidden force driving both Sufism and Romanticism along parallel literary courses.
- Another characteristic of Sufism which would appeal to the Romantics is individuality of each Sufi order. It could certainly be argued that the subjectivity of Sufi mystical experience contributed to the diversity of its orders. The most influential Sufi orders were the Qadirïs and the Suhrawardïya in Persia, the Shadhilïya in Arabia, and the Mevleviya in Turkey. They all had the same starting point; however, each order suited the aspirations of the Sufi sage behind it. Romanticism is characterized by individuality and diversity. In as much as all Romantic poets shared a common philosophical basis, each poet emphasized private manners of expressing it.
Sufism also attracted the attention of the Romantics because of its difference or originality. Literary difference signifies new modes of expression involving new morphological, lexical, and syntactic components, which produce a peculiar literary intertextuality (i.e, the sense of artistic coherence between the thoughts and the forms contributing to the wholeness and the beauty of a literary work). Literary difference emerges from differences of cultural backgrounds and settings. These differences, rarely transmitted via translations, are appreciated and perceived by Western literary figures who have a sufficient knowledge of other cultures. Indeed, all the Romantics were genuinely interested in other cultures, especially the Eastern culture. Although none had a knowledge of the Eastern languages except Lord Byron, who learned Armenian and a little Turkish and Arabic, they had the advantage of having translations and transliterations made by authoritive Orientalists such as Jean Antoine Galland, Simon Ockley, George Sale, and especially Sir William Jones, amongst several other Orientalists, who exerted a greater influence on the Romantics than on their contemporaries or predecessors. [12] These transliterated versions of Oriental works would exhibit original sounds as much as the translations would present original metaphors and views. Such a difference, which was quite observant in Sufi poetry, would appeal to the Romantics.
To end this discussion, I dare say that if Romanticism is a spiritual revolution against orthodoxy, then one could coin Sufism as an early form of Eastern Romanticism; or, even better, one may consider Romanticism as a moderate form of Sufism. I may also say that the Romantics saw in Sufism a literary movement, which had the power to change stock conventions and which had a lot to offer. Indeed, the evidence for the Romantic interest in Sufism and for the resemblance between Sufi and Romantic spiritual and artistic values is interesting enough to justify further investigation. I must confess, however, that I cannot claim that I have given a full argument supporting my thesis-the topic is too rich to discuss in a work with a limited scope. Also I must concede that it is my purpose to show, rather indirectly, that the great imaginative thinkers of the world, whether or not they are demographically, historically and geographically linked, have common concerns, which categorize them all as human beings and that all cultures of the world are parts of a "unified nexus". [13]
Works Cited
Abrams, M. H. (1973) Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Arberry, A. J. (1972) Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD.
Blackston, Bernard (1974) "Byron and Islam: the Triple Eros," Journal of European Studies, 4, 325-63.
D'Herbelot, Barthelamy (1776) Bibliothèque Orientale, vol. II. Maestricht.
Carman, John B. (1983) "Conceiving Hindu 'Ghakti' as Theistic Mysticism," Mysticism and Religious Traditions, ed. Steven T. Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 191-225
Ching, Julia (1983) "The Mirror Symbol Revisited: Confucian and Taoist Mysticism," Mysticism and Religious Traditions, ed. Steven T. Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 226-46.
Glasscoe, Marion (1993) English Medieval Mystics. London: Longman.
Hepburn, Ronald W. (1972) "Mysticism, Nature and Assessment of," Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. V.
Hoffmeister, Gerhart (1998) "The Problem of Nationalism and Cultural Identity in the Age of Goethe: Dialectics of National and Global Views of Herder, A. W. Schlegel, and Goethe," Romanticism Across the Discipline, ed. by Larry H. Peer. New York: University Press of America, Inc., 1998, 11-26.
Hugo, Howard E. (1975) The Portable Romantic Reader. New York: The Viking Press.
Katz, Steven T. (1983) "The 'Conservative' Character of Mystical Experience," Mysticism and Religious Traditions, ed. Steven T. Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3-60.
McGann, Jerome J., ed. (1978-92) Lord Byron: The Complete Poetical Works. Oxford: Clarendon Press, vol.II.
McGinn, Bernard (1996) "Comments" Mystical Union in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, eds. Moshe Idel and Bernard McGinn. New York: Continuum, 1996, 185-93.
Otto, Rudolf (1932) Mysticism East and West: A Comparative Analysis of the Nature of Mysticism. New York.
Oueijan, Naji B. (1998) "Orientalism: The Romantic's Added Dimension," Romanticism in its Modern Aspects, ed. Virgil Nemoianu. Wilmington: Council on National Literatures, 37-50.
______. (1966) The Progress of an Image: The East in English Literature. New York: Peter Lang.
Owen, H. P. (1983) "Experience and Dogma in the English Mystics," Mysticism and Religious Traditions, ed. Steven T. Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 148-62.
Peckham, Morse (1961) "Toward a Theory of Romanticism: II. Reconsiderations," Studies in Romanticism, vol. I, No. 1, 1-12.
Perkins, David, ed. (1967) English Romantic Writers. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, INC.
Picktall, Mohammed Marmaduke Trans. (n.d.) The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. New York: Mentor Book.
Schimmel, Annemarie (1975) Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Schueller, Herbert M. (1993) "Romanticism Reconsidered," in Prism[s]: Essays in Romanticism, 1, 67-87.
Sells, Michael (1996) "Bewildered Tongue: The Symantics of Mystical Union in Islam," Mystical Union in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, eds. Moshe Idel and Bernard McGinn. New York: Continuum, 87-124.
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End Notes
[1] In Jerome J. McGann's (1978-92) Lord Byron, The Complete Poetical Works (Oxford: Clarendon Press), vol.II.
[2] M. H. Abrams makes a reliable discussion of this point (1973, 65-70).
[3] Amongst these works see the following: Martha Pike Conant (1908) The Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press); Norman Daniel (1962) Islam and the West: The Making of an Image (Edinburgh: The University Press); Samuel C. Chew (1974) The Crescent and the Rose: Islam and England during the Renaissance. 1965; rpt. (New York: Octagon Books); Byron Porter Smith (1977) Islam in English Literature (New York: Caravan Books); Edward Said (1979) Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books); Mary Anne Stevens, ed. (1984) The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse: The Allure of North Africa and the Near East (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson); Lisa Lowe (1991) Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalism (London: Cornell University Press); Nigel Leask (1992) British Romantic Writers and the East (New York: Cambridge University Press); Mohammed Sharafuddin (1994) Islam and Romantic Orientalism (London: I. B. Tauris Publishers); John M. MacKenzie (1995) Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts (Manchester: Manchester University Press); and Naji B. Oueijan (1999) A Compendium of Eastern Elements in Byron's Oriental Tales (New York: Peter Lang).
[4] The terms "acquaintance" and "description" are employed by Steven T. Katz (1983, 21).
[5] This and other quotations from Romantic writers is taken from David Perkins, ed. (1967) English Romantic Writers (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, INC.), unless otherwise indicated.
[6] Annemarie Schimmel (1975, 34-35) presents an interesting discussion of the influence of the early Christian mystics on Sufism.
[7] The facination of the Romantic poets in Orientalism is discussed in Naji B. Oueijan (1996, 67-113); see also Naji B. Oueijan (1998, 37-50) "Orientalism: The Romantic's Added Dimension," Romanticism in its Modern Aspects, ed. Virgil Nemoianu (Wilmington: Council on National Literatures).
[8] (D'Herbelot, 1776, II, 118-90); D'Herbelot's work includes entries with information about Oriental life and culture and discusses several Sufi poets and thinkers like "Gazali" ( 1776, II, 66) and others.
[9] Marion Glasscoe (1993) makes a full discussion of the Christian mystics.
[10] For instance, when Childe Harold reaches Waterloo, the narrator orders him to "Stop!-for thy tread is on an Empire's dust!" (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, III, l. 145); see also Shelley's "Ozymandias".
[11] A. J. Arberry discusses Sufism as a mystical "movement dominating the minds and hearts of learned and earnest men. Yet its mark lies ineradicably athwart the pages of Muslim literature; the technical vocabulary of the Sufis, with all the psychological subtlety of its terms, can scarcely be eliminated from the language of modern philosophy and science"(1972, 133). Annemarie Schimmel (1975) treats Sufism as a movement and acknowledges the great impact of Sufism on the development of Oriental literatures and languages.
[12] For a detailed study of this topic, see (Oueijan, 1996, 37-66).
[13] Gerhart Hoffmeister (1998, 14) uses the term, "unified nexus," to describe Herders understanding of the cultures of mankind.
__________________________________________
Presented at the University of Erfort, The German Society for English Romanticism, November 1999, Erfort, Germany.
http://www.ndu.edu.lb/academics/palma/20010701/SufismChristianMysticism.htm
The Romantics, the British and German Romantics before them, felt a need for a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures so that Romanticism may be free from national confinements and that it may become, according to Friedrich Schlegel, a "progressive, universal poetry". They thought, and they were right, that the spiritual and literary visions of the world of other cultures might provide them with new dimensions of thought fundamental for the establishment of their own system. To the East they looked with the eyes of excitement and admiration, because it was a world endowed with a wealthy spiritual, ethical, and cultural heritage, which was organic and practical at the same time. In the East they found a world order firmly established upon the reconciliation of two spiritual dogmas, Christianity and Islam, and upon the fusion of mathematical truth with spiritual revelation; and based on this different world order, they discovered a literary heritage endowed with love, power and wisdom, or what Bernard Blackstone calls "the Triple Eros".
"To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal."
-- Childe Harold Pilgrimage, IV, ll. 1600-1601)[1]
From the beginning, Romantic poets discharged their observations of themselves and the world in works carrying bits and pieces of their traditional culture mixed with fragments of different or even unfamiliar cultures. And from the beginning of Romanticism, diversity of literary identity characterized them. Their writing, it is true, maintained a sense of Romantic identity; but this was free from uniformity and susceptible to mobility. Each Romantic poet sought his literary identity in realms lying outside the restrictive rules of orthodoxy. Their search was the kind that would never end. It defied the boundaries of time and place. It transcended the apparent to emerge in the mysteries of hidden realities; it went beyond the temporal to cherish the Eternal; and it transcended the limitations of physical space to apprehend the Universal.
In realms obscure yet felt, in the unraveled beauties and mysteries of Nature, in the deep recesses of the mind, in the living experience of real existence, and in the all-consuming power of the Universe and its Creator they tried to locate their real identity. Love, knowledge, illumination, ecstasy, and reconciliation, amongst other terms, became keywords in Romantic philosophy. Man, Nature and Universe, besides God, became the main objects of Romantic theology. The Romantic theory of Art diverted from traditional theories not by introducing unfamiliar concepts and ideals, but by undertaking different approaches of perceiving and assimilating them.
Besides, there was a common feeling stimulated by the current devastating events of the Napoleonic wars and the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution that traditional thinking had worn out and that a new cultural system should be established. Wordsworth, Keats and especially Blake made explicit calls for the creation of new systems or else, they thought, they would be enslaved by current doctrines and established systems.[2]
It follows that the Romantics felt a need for a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures. They thought, and they were right, that the spiritual and literary visions of the world of other cultures might provide them with new dimensions of thought fundamental for the establishment of their own system. To the East they looked with the eyes of excitement and admiration, because it was a world endowed with a wealthy spiritual, ethical, and cultural heritage, which was organic and practical at the same time. In the East they found a world order firmly established upon the reconciliation of two spiritual dogmas, Christianity and Islam; and based on this different world order, they discovered a literary heritage endowed with love, power and wisdom, or what Bernard Blackstone calls "the Triple Eros" (1974, 325). In fact, several scholarly works have recently appeared which, on specific historical and general literary grounds, have demonstrated the significance of the contribution of the Eastern culture on British and other Western cultures.[3] The culture of this different world order fired their imaginative and intellectual faculties and provided them with the opportunity to create their own.
In this work I contend that amongst the numerous elements of the Eastern culture, Eastern mysticism, or what is better known as Islamic mysticism or Sufism, attracted the attention of the Romantic poets. But it must be understood at the beginning of this work that it is not my intention to prove that the Romantics were mystics or Sufists per se, perhaps with the exception of William Blake, the acknowledged mystic of the Romantics; rather, without negating the influence of Christian or even Far Eastern mysticism, it is my intention to argue that the Romantics were influenced by Sufism because it suited their earnest purposes and goals. In this respect, and in relation to Romanticism, the term "mysticism" must be defined and the basic differences between Christian mysticism and Sufism must be clarified.
I
Mysticism is a process by which the mystic is able to annihilate the self to achieve perceptive floatation reaching beyond the ordinary realms of man's cognitive faculties. It is based on a deep fascination and a passionate love of the Absolute and a longing for experiencing the via illuminativa, a state of illumination granting the mystic moments of intense gnosis, love, and exultation. To define mysticism, then, one must identify the mystical process or the mystical experience. An eligible definition, which cannot be overlooked in this study, is suggested by Ronald W. Hepburn, who asserts:
Mystical experience is a religious experience, in a broad but meaningful sense of "religious". It is sensed as revealing something about the totality of things, something of immense human importance at all times and places, and something upon which one's ultimate well-being or salvation wholly depends. More specifically, a mystical experience is not the act of acquiring religious or theological information but is often taken to be a confrontation or encounter with the divine source of the world's being and man's salvation. An experience is not held to be mystical if the divine power is not apprehended as simply "over-against" one-wholly distinct and "other". There must be a unifying vision, a sense that somehow all things are one and share a holy, divine, and single life, or that one's individual being merges into a "Universal self", to be identified with God or the mystical One. Mystical experience then typically involves the intense and joyous realization of oneness with, or in, the divine, the sense that this divine One is comprehensive, all embracing, in its being. Yet a mystical experience may be given much less theological interpretation than this description suggests. A mystic may have no belief whatever in a divine being and still experience a sense of overwhelming beatitude, of salvation, or of lost or transcended individuality (1972, 12).
The mystical experience then does not belong to any particular religious dogma or to any one process of achieving higher knowledge. It is a universal constant, whose "variations can be observed to be very clearly and characteristically shaped by the several religious systems upon which they were based" (Arbery, 1973, 12). Its universality verifies the fact that all mystics share common characteristics; at the same time each has his/her distinctive dogmatic background which shapes his/her mystical experience. Besides, mysticism, which evolves from religious dogmas, might not conform to these dogmas. Thus mystics are not altogether theologians inasmuch as theologians are not necessarily mystics. The key-terms used by all might be similar, but their conceptions of these terms might differ. The same is true of mystics themselves; they all use similar key-terms to describe their mystical experiences, but their conceptions of these terms may differ according to their basic dogmas. Still, all mystics acquire knowledge and illumination by acquaintance, while theologians acquire knowledge by description.[4] In this respect, one may consider the Romantics as mystics.
The mystical experience, mystics claim, transcends the apparent and the physical and merges into deeper mysteries of the Universal Soul. The mystical experience is a common goal of all mystics; and it is the basis of mystical sagacity and expression. A comment on mysticism that cannot be ignored in this study is made by John B. Carman, who asserts:
Definitions of mysticism tend to stress one or more of the following features:
(a) a particular ontology, in accord with the mystic's insight, usually either monistic or theistic;
(b) an immediacy or intensity of experience not present in other forms of religion;
(c) a separation from the physical, or from ordinary social life, or from ordinary forms of consciousness (1983, 192).
Such general features would appeal to the Romantics, who in their search for instances of higher awareness sought intense experiences with the Infinite and Eternal. In this respect the Romantics were theists interested in the "mystica theologia" more than in theologia proper.
"The essence of mystica theologia in distinction from the usual theologia lay in the fact that it claimed to teach a deeper 'mystery', and to impart secrets and reveal depths which were otherwise unknown" (Otto, 1932, 141). The "mystical One" to the Romantics and the mystics may be the world, the universe and the eternal. It is the One cryptic and esoteric entity which becomes obvious when approached and/or fused in; it is all-observant, all-knowing and all-powerful; and it is supreme Truth, Beauty, and Love.
Also, it must be understood that mystical expressions are very highly subjective and personal. Since mystics cannot record their accounts during their mystical experiences, their accounts are based on recollection. Mystical experiences could be compared to dreams and visions; and the mystics, the dreamers or visionaries, who upon awakening might be willing to express what they recollect of their visions of the Ultimate Truth. This, of course, correlates with the Romantic experience, which is also dependent upon subjective recollection and expression of visions of Truth. Blake's, Wordswoth's, and especially Coleridge's mystical expressions are based upon this exegesis.
Another definition of mysticism makes this correlation even more obvious. I refer to Freidrich Heiler's conception of the term. Heiler labels mysticism as "that form of intercourse with God in which the world and self are absolutely denied, in which human personality is dissolved, disappears and is absorbed in the infinite unity of the Godhead" (qtd. in Ching, 1983, 228).
Heiler's use of the term "intercourse" implies, if anything, the privateness and individuality of the mystical experience. This individualistic feature of mysticism consorts with the Romantic emphasis on the individual and on the individual experience. However, while the mystic's world and self dissolve in Godhead, the Romantic's self fuses in the world, itself an image of Godhead. William Wordsworth asserts that this fusion of "the individual Mind" with "the external world" is the highest form of man's arguments:
How exquisitely the individual Mind
(And the progressive powers perhaps no less
Of the whole species) to the external World
Is fitted-and how exquisitely, too-
The external World is fitted to the Mind;
And the creation (by no lower name
Can it be called) which they with blended might
Accomplish-this is our high argument.
-- Prospectus to The Recluse, ll. 63-71) [5]
To the Romantics the mind and the self are one, and the blending of both is only possible when the mind transcends itself into the other. This attempt by the Romantics, says Herbert Schueller, is intended "to transcend the mundane and the human, even though the human mind is the agency by which this transcendence must be achieved; the difficulty is that the only agency which the human mind has for transcending itself is itself" (1993, 72). This further explains the correlation between mystical and Romantic self-denial. Surely mere denial of the mind or of the self, mindlessness or selflessness, does not necessarily lead to the mystical experience-we all have our mindless moments in which our minds become vacant and idle-unless the mind, via intended or spontaneous concentrated meditation and/or contemplation of the other, fuses with it; only then such experiences procure powerful moments of knowledge.
The kinship between all forms of mysticism, Christian mysticism, Sufism, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, has become common knowledge. There is no doubt that "Sufism" is an Islamic term, but I strongly believe that the term, which derives from the Arabic noun suf ("wool"), has a Christian origin. History tells us that during the second and third centuries, Christians fled the persecution of the Roman Empire and inhabited the mountains in Iraq and Lebanon. The monks, and especially the hermits, chose the high mountain caves as places of refuge and of contemplation and worship of God. They were the earliest Christian ascetics and mystics ever. To those hermits, the natural beauty and solemnity of those mountains, especially in Lebanon, represented the divine wisdom and beauty of God. Those early hermits were called sufi'yün because they wore suf garments as a sign of humility and to protect themselves from the year-round cool mountain climate. Those Christian mystics are frequently mentioned in Sufi stories and poetry and in pre-Islamic literature, which abounds with allusions to the light or illumination coming forth from their caves. [6] Moreover, if as the Sufi believe that the first Muslim mystic was the Prophet, then contacts between Christian mystics and Muslim ones started as early as the Prophet Muhammad and continued throughout the course of development of Sufism. There is no doubt that the kinship between Christian mysticism and Sufism is a historic fact. Yet for the purposes of my work I would like to draw upon differences between Christian mysticism and Sufism, differences which may have been the basis of the Romantics' interest in Sufism. And although it is not wrong to assume that the Romantics' concern in Sufism was channeled via their initial interest in mysticism in general, I have no doubt in my mind that their engrossment with Sufism was augmented by their fascination in Orientalism. [7]
It is in connection with the aforementioned that I will try to suggest the kinship between Sufism and Romanticism.
II
One of the basic differences between Christian mysticism and Sufism is that:
- the first adheres to the authority of the established church, while
- the second places the mystical experience above the authorities of traditional dogmas or doctrines.
Commenting on the relation between experience and dogma in Christian mysticism, H. P. Owen explains:
These mystics constantly appeal to the Church's authority in the realm of religious belief. They accept unconditionally those dogmas that the Church teaches and in which all Christians believe. Moreover in varying degrees they show a detailed knowledge of the ways in which dogmas have been formulated (1983, 156).
Thus unlike the Sufi mystics, the Christian mystics almost never become heretics prosecuted by the Christian church.
"Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Bernard, Suso, Tauler, Thomas à Kempis, Teresa, John of the Cross, all, though not free from tension, were in holy orders, lived out their lives in regularized Christian ways, continued all their life to participate in Christian ritual and sacramental activity, were not permanently excommunicated, did not die outside the Church" - (Katz, 1983, 33).
On the other hand, the orthodox Islamic authorities accused the Sufi mystics of being heretics and were prosecuted and even sometimes martyred.
Early in the tenth century when the Sufi mystic and poet al-Hallaj advanced his mystical views of love and joyful suffering, he was imprisoned for several years and then executed. Al-Hallaj, like several other Sufi mystics, was considered a martyr symbolizing the free Sufi spirit in conflict with orthodoxy.
The circumstances of Al-Hallaj's life and prosecution and his Sufi thought were quite known to the Romantics through several works, the most popular amongst those being D'Herbelot's Bibliothèque Orientale, which most Romantics possessed in their libraries. [8]
Al-Hallaj and other Sufi figures would appeal to the Romantics for two reasons:
- first, because in their search for a new system they rejected orthodox dogmas and doctrines; and
- second, because the Sufi concept of "joyful suffering" exonerates the Romantics', especially Wordsworth's, notion of "silent pain" as revealed in his "The Ruined Cottage," "Simon Lee," and "Micheal".
Also, like the Sufi mystics the Romantics emphasize their individual experiences, unmindful whether they conform to traditional dogmas and doctrines or not.
Another difference between Christian mysticism and Sufism is apparent in a definition of the latter presented by A. J. Arberry, who asserts that "Sufism may be defined as the mystical movement of an uncompromising Monotheism" (1972, 12).
To the Sufi, "Allah is One and only One" ("La Illahu Illa Allah"). The Prophet Muhammad does not share Allah's Godhead, and in no way is he equal to Allah. It follows that the Muslim and the Sufi do not recognize an incarnate God, a Savior acting as a medium between Allah and his worshipers. The Prophet is only the vehicle of the Divine Message to man, and the Quran is this Divine Message. Via ardent repetition of verses from the Quran, the Sufi empties himself from himself and becomes one with this Divine Message, thus becoming one with Allah.
Christian mystic believes in the doctrine of Trinity.
Bernard McGinn asserts that "Christian understanding of mystical union must be radically different from Jewish and Muslim ones, if only because union, however understood, is with the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (1996, 187).
Thus the Christian mystic's object of contemplation and meditation is God or God Incarnate, Jesus Christ; the Bible is not his immediate channel for achieving the mystical experience. This rather apparent difference entails Sufi features which would appeal to the Romantics. To the Sufi the Quran is the only means to achieve mystical fusion with Allah. And since, as the Quran clearly states, "Whithersoever ye turn, there is the Face of God" (Sura 2:109), then the Sufi sees Allah in Man and Nature as well. To love Man and Nature is to love Allah; this of course gives Sufism pantheistic colorings.
Furthermore, the Sufi belief in the Unity of Being ("wahdat al-wujud") implies the unity of all elements of the Universe in God.
These features would appeal to the Romantics. Blake's concept of "The Universal Man," Wordsworth's "holy marriage", Coleridge's reconciliation theory, Byron's laudation of the universe and its elements, Shelley's view of the infinite, and Keats's perception of universal harmony reciprocate the Sufi "Unity of Being." And like the Sufi poets, the Romantics found their Divine Message in the elements of the Universe.
To the Romantics, perhaps the most appealing and attractive feature of Sufism was the fact that it was a vehicle for higher literature, poetry. Needless to say that almost all Sufi mystics were Sufi poets; they believed poetry was the highest form of literature. This Sufi belief was strongly based on the fact that the language of the Quran, itself the language of Allah, is the highest and most sublime form of literature. The text itself is prosaic, but it is endowed with an incomparable and divine poetic and epigrammatic nature. And, as mentioned before, Quranic verses were, and still are, the main objects of the Sufi contemplation; therefore, it is not wrong to assume that the Sufis considered the Quran their model for literary expression.
Thus they employed poetry as a medium for their Sufi experiences and prose to explain them. Another reason for the Sufi interest in poetry is skillfully cleared up by Annemarie Schimmel, who maintains:
Indeed, one aspect of mystical language in Sufism that should never be overlooked is the tendency of the Arabs to play with words. The structure of the Arabic language-built upon triliteral roots-lends itself to the developing of innumerable word forms following almost mathematical rules. It might be likened to the structure of an arabesque that grows out of a simple geometric pattern into complicated multiangled stars, or out of a flower motif into intricate lacework. A tendency to enjoy these infinite possibilities of the language has greatly influenced the style of Arabic poets and prose writers, and in many sayings of the Sufis one can detect a similar joy in linguistic play; the author indulges in deriving different meanings from one root, he loves rhymes and strong rhythmical patterns-features inherited by the mystics of the Persian, Turkish, and Indo-Muslim tongues. But this almost magical interplay of sound and meaning, which contributes so much to the impressiveness of a sentence in the Islamic languages, is lost in translation (1975, 13).
Of course the Romantics were not as joyful in "linguistic play" as the Sufi poets were; but they were equally enraptured by lyrical poetry. In fact, Sufism as a mystical order cannot be separated from Sufism as a literary movement; indeed, this would appeal to the Romantics. Christian mysticism circumvents this particular feature. This is not to ignore the mystical poetry of a few medieval Christian mystics. Marion Glasscoe discusses five major Christian mystics in his English Medieval Mystics: Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the Cloud-Author, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe; only the first often expressed his mystical experiences in a poetic form. [9] Indeed, most of the Christian mystics used prose as medium for their expressions, and their prose cannot be categorized under pure literature, because it lies somewhere between philosophy and theology.
It follows that Sufism had greatly influenced the development of poetry in Arabia, Persia, and other Islamic regions in the East. At this point it is imperative to note the view of Michael Sells, who notes that Sufi mystics found in love and wine poetry "a vehicle to express an episode of mystical union experienced independently"; he goes on to assert that "Poetic and Sufi sensibility are most closely intertwined at the moment of union. To consider one the vehicle of the other is to lose the resonance and power brought about by the interfusion of the two-language world" (1996, 90).
Sells also presents an illuminating discussion of the different types and themes of Sufi poetry:
The ode, or Qasida, the classical form
that bequeathed its language, themes, and structure to Sufi literature, was divided by medieval literary critics into three major movements:
1. the nasib or remembrance (dhikr), of the lost beloved;
2. the journey (a movement that in some way prefigures the major Islamic journey of the Hajj); and
3. the boast.
Remembrance of the beloved is the wellspring of both the poetic and the Sufi voice.
A brief listing of the conventions and motifs of the poetic remembrance, or nasib, that will be echoed, appropriated, and transformed within Sufi literature would include the following:
(1) the traces of the lost beloved's abodes
(2) the blaming of the lost beloved for her continually changing forms and moods (ahwal)
(3) the stations (maqamat) of her journey away from the poet; and
(4) images of fertility and tranquillity that memory of her conjures in place of the desolate ruins of her campsite, images that open onto the underlying archetype, beloved as lost garden (1996, 90).
The above proves, if anything, that the Sufi and the Romantic poets share common poetic concerns that entail poetic themes and forms:
- 1. the Arabic ode, or "qasida," is the basic form of traditional Arabic poetry. Although prosody in Arabic and English odes differs, yet the goals and themes are similar. There is no question that the ode was one of the Romantics' favorite poetic forms. Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats favored it over other poetic forms.
- 2. "Remembrance of the beloved" in Sufi poetry concurs with Romantic recollection of past days, usually of good old days or of times of childhood and of events invigorating passionate feelings and moments Wordsworth recollects:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
-- "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood," ll. 1-5
Almost the same words are repeated by Coleridge:
There was a time when, though my path was rough,
This joy within me dallied with distress,
And all misfortunes were but as the stuff
Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness.
-- "Dejection: An Ode," ll. 76-79
Coleridge's use of the mystical term "path" should not be overlooked; it is discussed later in this work. Recollection, however, is sometimes stimulated by desolate settings. This concern is obvious in both Sufi and Romantic poetry. In fact, in traditional Arabic literature "Al-Wuquf àl àtlal" (i.e., poetry stimulated by the poets' observation of the ruins of his beloved or of his people's abodes) was a popular poetic genre. The constant movement of the Arab tribes contributed to the emergence of this genre, which the Sufi developed and perfected in his/her poetry.
In Romantic poetry, Wordswoth's "The Ruined Cottage" epitomizes this Sufi tradition. In fact the Romantic poets were fascinated by old ruins and their symbolical representations.
Byron's and Shelley's poetry is packed with ruins poetry. [10]
In "Recollections of Love," Coleridge adheres to the Sufi tradition when he emphasizes the natural setting invigorating memories of his beloved.
Byron's poetry abounds with similar recollections, the most known of which is his recollection of his beloved Teresa in his "Stanzas to the Po."
- 3. the "Hajj" ("the journey") theme of the Sufi poets corresponds to the circuitous journey of the Romantics. Although the quest motif is a traditional theme in world literatures, it is the basic dynamic force that generates movement and action in Sufi and Romantic literature. In both movements the poet separates from his traditional world order to discover another one embodying permanent truth. In other word, he separates from his self to roam in the domain of the other to unravel the mysteries of both the self and the other. In Sufism and Romanticism, separation from the self involves a detachment from the material self and other-such a separation involves pain and suffering-and an attachment to or a fusion of the spiritual self with the spiritual other-such a fusion involves redemption and reconciliation.
- 4. Furthermore, the concept of a literary movement applies to both Sufism and Romanticism. A literary movement indicates change and development in the course of time of fixed literary ideals. It is a trend advancing a desire to dynamize human thought in order to free it from orthodoxy. And it is characterized by growth and development in literary activities and interests.
Sufism dynamized the Muslim's view of Allah; it gave him the opportunity to experience Allah rather than to learn about Him. It represented a dynamic change in man's perceptions of God and the Universe; accordingly, it revolted against fixed canons. All definitions and discussions of Sufism emphasize the fact that it is a "mystical movement" with an organic power to change orthodox interpretations of God, the Universe, and Man. [11]
Romanticism embraces all the above characteristics. "All periods are really movements in time," contends Haward E. Hugo, "but the exponents of Romanticism seemed unusually aware that theirs was a moment of flux, of organic change and growth, while they undertook to revolt against what they regarded as the fixed, outworn canons of preceding generations" (1975, 2).
Morse Peckham asserts that "the cultural development of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is properly to be regarded as a development of Romanticism, the specific values of which I classified as 'change, imperfection, growth, diversity, the creative imagination, the unconscious.'" (1961, 1)
Thus movement, signifying change and growth, seems to be the hidden force driving both Sufism and Romanticism along parallel literary courses.
- Another characteristic of Sufism which would appeal to the Romantics is individuality of each Sufi order. It could certainly be argued that the subjectivity of Sufi mystical experience contributed to the diversity of its orders. The most influential Sufi orders were the Qadirïs and the Suhrawardïya in Persia, the Shadhilïya in Arabia, and the Mevleviya in Turkey. They all had the same starting point; however, each order suited the aspirations of the Sufi sage behind it. Romanticism is characterized by individuality and diversity. In as much as all Romantic poets shared a common philosophical basis, each poet emphasized private manners of expressing it.
Sufism also attracted the attention of the Romantics because of its difference or originality. Literary difference signifies new modes of expression involving new morphological, lexical, and syntactic components, which produce a peculiar literary intertextuality (i.e, the sense of artistic coherence between the thoughts and the forms contributing to the wholeness and the beauty of a literary work). Literary difference emerges from differences of cultural backgrounds and settings. These differences, rarely transmitted via translations, are appreciated and perceived by Western literary figures who have a sufficient knowledge of other cultures. Indeed, all the Romantics were genuinely interested in other cultures, especially the Eastern culture. Although none had a knowledge of the Eastern languages except Lord Byron, who learned Armenian and a little Turkish and Arabic, they had the advantage of having translations and transliterations made by authoritive Orientalists such as Jean Antoine Galland, Simon Ockley, George Sale, and especially Sir William Jones, amongst several other Orientalists, who exerted a greater influence on the Romantics than on their contemporaries or predecessors. [12] These transliterated versions of Oriental works would exhibit original sounds as much as the translations would present original metaphors and views. Such a difference, which was quite observant in Sufi poetry, would appeal to the Romantics.
To end this discussion, I dare say that if Romanticism is a spiritual revolution against orthodoxy, then one could coin Sufism as an early form of Eastern Romanticism; or, even better, one may consider Romanticism as a moderate form of Sufism. I may also say that the Romantics saw in Sufism a literary movement, which had the power to change stock conventions and which had a lot to offer. Indeed, the evidence for the Romantic interest in Sufism and for the resemblance between Sufi and Romantic spiritual and artistic values is interesting enough to justify further investigation. I must confess, however, that I cannot claim that I have given a full argument supporting my thesis-the topic is too rich to discuss in a work with a limited scope. Also I must concede that it is my purpose to show, rather indirectly, that the great imaginative thinkers of the world, whether or not they are demographically, historically and geographically linked, have common concerns, which categorize them all as human beings and that all cultures of the world are parts of a "unified nexus". [13]
Works Cited
Abrams, M. H. (1973) Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Arberry, A. J. (1972) Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD.
Blackston, Bernard (1974) "Byron and Islam: the Triple Eros," Journal of European Studies, 4, 325-63.
D'Herbelot, Barthelamy (1776) Bibliothèque Orientale, vol. II. Maestricht.
Carman, John B. (1983) "Conceiving Hindu 'Ghakti' as Theistic Mysticism," Mysticism and Religious Traditions, ed. Steven T. Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 191-225
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End Notes
[1] In Jerome J. McGann's (1978-92) Lord Byron, The Complete Poetical Works (Oxford: Clarendon Press), vol.II.
[2] M. H. Abrams makes a reliable discussion of this point (1973, 65-70).
[3] Amongst these works see the following: Martha Pike Conant (1908) The Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press); Norman Daniel (1962) Islam and the West: The Making of an Image (Edinburgh: The University Press); Samuel C. Chew (1974) The Crescent and the Rose: Islam and England during the Renaissance. 1965; rpt. (New York: Octagon Books); Byron Porter Smith (1977) Islam in English Literature (New York: Caravan Books); Edward Said (1979) Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books); Mary Anne Stevens, ed. (1984) The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse: The Allure of North Africa and the Near East (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson); Lisa Lowe (1991) Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalism (London: Cornell University Press); Nigel Leask (1992) British Romantic Writers and the East (New York: Cambridge University Press); Mohammed Sharafuddin (1994) Islam and Romantic Orientalism (London: I. B. Tauris Publishers); John M. MacKenzie (1995) Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts (Manchester: Manchester University Press); and Naji B. Oueijan (1999) A Compendium of Eastern Elements in Byron's Oriental Tales (New York: Peter Lang).
[4] The terms "acquaintance" and "description" are employed by Steven T. Katz (1983, 21).
[5] This and other quotations from Romantic writers is taken from David Perkins, ed. (1967) English Romantic Writers (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, INC.), unless otherwise indicated.
[6] Annemarie Schimmel (1975, 34-35) presents an interesting discussion of the influence of the early Christian mystics on Sufism.
[7] The facination of the Romantic poets in Orientalism is discussed in Naji B. Oueijan (1996, 67-113); see also Naji B. Oueijan (1998, 37-50) "Orientalism: The Romantic's Added Dimension," Romanticism in its Modern Aspects, ed. Virgil Nemoianu (Wilmington: Council on National Literatures).
[8] (D'Herbelot, 1776, II, 118-90); D'Herbelot's work includes entries with information about Oriental life and culture and discusses several Sufi poets and thinkers like "Gazali" ( 1776, II, 66) and others.
[9] Marion Glasscoe (1993) makes a full discussion of the Christian mystics.
[10] For instance, when Childe Harold reaches Waterloo, the narrator orders him to "Stop!-for thy tread is on an Empire's dust!" (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, III, l. 145); see also Shelley's "Ozymandias".
[11] A. J. Arberry discusses Sufism as a mystical "movement dominating the minds and hearts of learned and earnest men. Yet its mark lies ineradicably athwart the pages of Muslim literature; the technical vocabulary of the Sufis, with all the psychological subtlety of its terms, can scarcely be eliminated from the language of modern philosophy and science"(1972, 133). Annemarie Schimmel (1975) treats Sufism as a movement and acknowledges the great impact of Sufism on the development of Oriental literatures and languages.
[12] For a detailed study of this topic, see (Oueijan, 1996, 37-66).
[13] Gerhart Hoffmeister (1998, 14) uses the term, "unified nexus," to describe Herders understanding of the cultures of mankind.
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Presented at the University of Erfort, The German Society for English Romanticism, November 1999, Erfort, Germany.
http://www.ndu.edu.lb/academics/palma/20010701/SufismChristianMysticism.htm