Overview

Shabistari's poetry frequently offers a deconstruction of the literalists' views concerning faith and infidelity. Essential to his understanding of Sufism is the need for personally experiencing the liberated state of the 'heart' that lies beyond so-called faith and infidelity. Professor Leonard Lewisohn has, not surprisingly, named his masterful study of Shabistari's teachings, Beyond Faith and Infidelity. Professor Lewisohn presents us with a comprehensive study of the historical context and the cultural and literary environment of Shabistari's era. In addition to the more audacious hermeneutical teachings of Sufism like the one explored above, the Garden of Mystery summarizes the Islamic/Hellenistic philosophical tradition, including its cosmological doctrines. Similar teachings can be found in two of Shabistari's less celebrated didactic poems, The Book of Felicity (Sa'adat-nama), and the Truth of Certainty about the Knowledge of the Lord of the Worlds (Haqq al-yaqin fi ma'rifat rabb al-'alamin). Shabistari's poetic style and language are occasionally quite obscure, even for an educated Persian speaker. Shabistari had chosen to render complex metaphysical doctrines into verse and, in so doing, was constrained by the conventions of meter and rhyme expected in his day. He claimed that the concise, aphoristic flashes of his spiritual insights came through selfless inspiration, nearly through revelation. Not surprisingly, many of his couplets need years of thought and meditation to digest. Shabistari's genius can only be appreciated through attentive study, usually with the help of well-informed commentaries. Professor Lewisohn's Beyond Faith and Infidelity is as close as non-Persian speakers will get to the best of the original commentaries. His profound understanding of Persian history and the Sufi literary tradition, along with his many years as a practicing Sufi, make this book one of the finest works ever written on Islamic spirituality.

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9781949743173

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Reviews

This is a powerful treatment of an important subject, and Lewisohn has succeeded in throwing light on an important yet still insufficiently understood period of thought. ShabistarI, who died around 740/1340, has several claims to importance. There are his works, and especially the poetic treatment of philosophical, and in particular Sufi, ideas. There is the fact that he lived at a time of almost total political collapse at the hands of the Mongols, which saw none the less the greatest period of literary development in Persian there has ever been. Also, this period was wracked with severe theological and philosophical controversy, all of which ShabistarI' s work reflected to a degree. Lewisohn presents a detailed and very readable account of the life and times of ShabistarI, describes the literary, political and mystical milieu, his relationship with lbn 'ArabI, his hermeneutics and aesthetics, his approach to the nature of contemplation, and his ideas on relationships with unbelievers. Review by: Oliver Leaman, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (May, 1996), pp. 97-98 Mahmud Shabistari's long wait, for a thorough scholarly introduction to the wide world of those interested in the literature and history of Islamic spirituality, has ended. Leonard Lewisohn invites his readers into the religious and literary culture of western Iran in late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries for a glimpse of life at the heart of the Il-Khanid domain. With a minor rearrangement, one can envisage his investigation as a series of concentric circles, each in succession defining a narrower and more finely detailed set of issues. ....Densely annotated, with extensive and useful bibliography, Lewisohn's study rewards a careful reading. From the perspective of the history of Persian religiousliterature, it helps to fill the gap in accessible analyses of important poets between Rumi and Hafiz.

Author Information

Dr Leonard Lewisohn (1953-2018) studied Persian Poetry in Shiraz for 6 years 1973-m1979 and devoted his entire live to making the beauty, wisdom inspiration and spirituality of Persian poetry and Sufi literature accessible to the English speaking peoples. He taught Classical Persian and Sufi Literature at: Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, Department of Academic Research of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, and University of Oxford. He lectured internationally on Classical Persian and Sufi Literature, contributed many articles to encyclopedias, peer reviewed journals and chapters in edited volumes he organized 3 international conferences on the history of Persianate Sufism as well as international conferences on Attar, Hafiz, Rumi and Sufis and Their Opponents in the Persianate world.

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