preface

The sources, whence this note on Sufism has been derived are: —

i. The introduction (pp. i — 13). (a) Disquisition on Sufism by Sir W. Jones, (b) “Soofies” (History of Persia) by Malcolm. (c) The Gulshan-i-Raz. (d) Other sources.

ii. The definition of sixty-nine terms used in Sufism (pp. 14 — 158). The Misbahu-l-Hidayat by Mahmud bin 'Ali al Kashani, being a translation (in Persian) of the Arabic work — ‘Awarif-u-l-Ma’arif¹ by Shaikh Shahabu-d-Din 'Umar bin Muhammad-i-Sahrwardi (b. 1145, d. 1234).

iii. The performances of darvishes (pp. 159 — 168). The Darvishes by Brown.

2. Neither the Misbahu-l-Hidayat (in Persian), nor the 'Awarifu-l-Ma'arif (in Arabic), — has ever before been translated into English. What is here given to the Reader comprises more than a half² of the Misbahu-l-Hidayat. Shaikh Shahabu-d-Din Muhammad-i-Sahrwardi (b. 1145, d. 1234), the son of Abu Najib, was born at Sharward; and he died at Baghdad.

He was a pious Shaikh, assiduous in spiritual exercises and in the practice of devotion. He is author of the 'Awarifu-l-Ma'arif, the Hikmatu-l-Assar, and many other works.

The matter (ten pages) taken from Brown's Darvishes has been arranged, corrected, collected, and greatly condensed.

3. Those who wish further to pursue the subject of Sufism will find useful the table of authorities on Sufism, English and Persian (pp. iv — v).

4. Unless Sufism be understood, the Divan-i-Hafiz cannot be understood.

In Vol. IV (pp. 196-211) of the works of Emerson (1882), wholly wrong is the view given of the work of Hafiz; and mistranslated and misunderstood are the passages there given.

It is unnecessary to give instances; easily may the student verify this statement by referring either to my translation of Hafiz, or to the original Persian. Let one instance suffice: —

Emerson's Works, Vol. IV, p. 205.

Oft have I said, I say it once more.
I, a wanderer, do not stray from myself.
I am a kind of parrot; the mirror is holden to me.
What the Eternal says, I stammering say again.
Give me what you will: I eat thistles as roses,
And, according to my food I grow and I give:
Scorn me not; but, I know I have the pearl.
And am only seeking one to receive it.

Clarke's translation of the Divan-i-Hafiz, Ode 371.

Times I have said; and again I say: —
That, heart-bereft, not of myself, have I gone this Path (of love).
Behind the (pure) mirror (of the holy traveller's heart), me, they have kept like the parrot.
What the Teacher of eternity without beginning said: — “Say I say.”
Whether, the thorn I be or whether the rose, there is a sward-adorner (God).
By whose hand as (it) cherished me, I grew.
O friends, me heart-bereft, astonied, censure not:
A great jewel, I have; and the master of vision (the jeweller, God) I seek.

Emerson (p. 201) says: —

“We do not wish to make mystical divinity out of the Songs of Solomon, much less out of the erotic and bacchanalian songs of Hafiz. Hafiz himself, is determined to defy all such hypocritical interpretation, and tears off his turban and throws it at the head of the meddling dervis, and throws his glass after the turban. Nothing is too high, nothing too low for his occasion, Love is a leveller, and Allah becomes a groom, and heaven a closet in his daring hymns to his mistress or to his cupbearer. This boundless charter is the right of genius.”

To this statement, would agree no one who had, in the original Persian, read Hafiz; and had understood him.

Despite the fact that Emerson wholly fails to understand Hafiz as the mystic poet, divine, immortal — strangely he admires him. For at p. 239, he says: —

“You shall not read newspapers, nor politics, nor novels, nor Montaigne, nor the newest French book. You may read Plutarch, Plato, Plotinus' Hindu mythology and ethics. You may read Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Milton; read Collins and Gray; read Hafiz and the Trouveurs — fact-books which all geniuses prize as raw material and as antidote to verbiage and false poetry.”

5. At the head of the various sections, the figures refer to the Persian text of the Misbahu-l-Hidayat — Roman figures to chapters, Arabic figures to sections (of chapters).

6. To special notice, I wish to bring Maulavi Mirza Muhammad-i-Bisravi, who rendered me much help in this difficult work.

7. This translation was made in a tropical country, in leisure moments, amidst the pressure and the stress of professional duties most exacting; and under special circumstances of harass and worry that it is not permissible to describe.³

For these reasons, the reader's indulgence is solicited.

H. WILBERFORCE CLARKE.

Calcutta; January 1891.