APPENDIX I — JÍLÍ’S ‘AYNIYYA

Mention has been made (p. 99, note, supra) of Jílí’s ode entitled al-Nawádiru ’l-‘Ayniyya fi ’l-bawádiri ’l-ghaybiyya. In the Insánu ’l-Kámil he cites 36 of its 534 verses (I. 30, 3; 39, 6 fr. foot; 52, 17; 66, 19; and 76, 15) and describes it as a magnificent and unique composition, too sublime to be fully understood. It is, however, little more than a versified summary of matter set forth in the Insánu ’l-Kámil, though in some instances the author expresses himself with a freedom and boldness which would hardly be tolerated in a prose treatise. As a poem, apart from its ungraceful style, it suffers from expounding a theory of mystical philosophy and cannot bear comparison with Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ’s Tá’iyya — the poetry of pure mysticism. The extracts given below have been copied from a manuscript in the British Museum (Or. 3684; Rieu’s Suppl. to the Catalogue of Arabic MSS. No. 245) containing the text together with a commentary by ‘Abdu ’l-Ghaní al-Nábulusí.

Editorial note: in the original edition this appendix continues with six facsimile plates of the manuscript (British Museum Or. 3684) bearing brief textual-critical notes on individual Arabic words and manuscript variants. As the poem itself was never rendered into English by Nicholson — he translates only 36 of its 534 verses, quoted earlier in Chapter II — and the plates cannot be reproduced here, this appendix is limited to his introductory account of the poem, above.