Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and Cambridge University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
NILE
GREEN
Introduction
Since
"visions
to
material
appear
cannot
annalists
hope
persons
spiritual
so favoured
to be
the
only,
by Heaven".1
So,
of
herd
vulgar
in his
historians
and
account
nineteenth-century
of the sufls of Sind, SirRichard Burton expressed the dilemma of scholars researching Muslim
dream
and visionary
the visionary
we
no
need
earlier
the
very
of
the
Islamic
imagination
and
and
dream
visionary
this
individuals
into
insight
and
private
abundant
The
this
rich
granted
by
the
philosophers
sodality
for
its
of its expression
in
rich
research
in recent
field
encounter
intimate
analysis
on
visions.
active
is especially
an often
allowing
scarcely
experiences
from
from
discourse
a more
of
tradition
through
For,
and waking
yields
past,
varied
by early Muslim
activities
Islamic
reason,
the Muslim
the
and
of
flourishing
chiefly
in Islam.
vision
of dreams
developed
by
accompanied
For
experience.
new
afford
always
seekers.
developed
practice,
a rich
in the form
its expression
contributions
years
vision
has
and
reticence
the
witnessed
cultural
the dream
to the imagination
were
theorists
there
history,
and
matter
straightforward
have
of
discussion
scholarly
Despite
decades
religious
surrounding
while
is still no
pessimism.
two
the past
of Muslim
and
theoretical approaches
dreamers
past
of
sardonic
scholarship,
literature
But
style.
by Burton's
aspects
extensive
beginning
and mystical
of
the
characteristic
sufls
deterred
the visionary
of
the nature
The
be
of positivist
into
analysis
the
of premodern
longer
generations
of research
in his
experiences
activities
of
with
other
kinds
of
documentation.
It was
beginning
the dreams
of
Islam
of one
visions
While
each
of
its many
fields of Muslim
of
the
episodes
and
and
kind
forms,
visions
subsequent
sense
it is in this
or
both
of
that
another
were
visions
and
the Prophet
the Qur'an
an
unsurprisingly
dreams
also
played
and medicine
in this
visions
discussed
article
Muhammad
itself may
reveal,
that
be
seen
of
aspect
important
roles
important
the
announced
as a visionary
text.
in
sufism
in many
other
dreams
were
a crucial
means
of
(Munich,
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
288
Nile Green
with
connecting
Muslim
the models
the
of
than
experience
major
and
shows
taken
of
relationship
of dreams
and
the
the parameters
inner
experiences,
particularly
common
cultural
it.3 The
before
to
that
heritage
of dream
practice
of
This
present
the
us at the onset
of
of
embeddedness
customs
the
suggests
means
the Muslim
into
between
cultural
that
symbols
a useful
oneirocritical
fracture
reminds
It is this
of
with
continuity
the past
crucial
is the
This
some
charting
of
past.
Heritage
models
widespread
Near
the ancient
alive
the
out
stands
and
visionary
bringing
form
Pre-Islamic
generate
and
imagination
universe
universe
in their most
civilisations.
the
unreal.
in Islam may
vision
of other
in
For
peopled.
characteristic
concurrence
Gedankenwelt.
Islamic
imaginative
came
Muslims
early
as yet
and premodern
a shared
classic
that
towards
to a wider
and
and
surprise
futures
the modern
The
When
no
into
one
literatures
to the past
preponderance
imagination
the
access
it was
whom
article,
the premodern
of
forward
the dream
of
in this
It is therefore
within
with
figures
a greater
by
visions
of
literature
it.
looking
directions
with
importance
by
Islam
the major
are discussed
that
provided
literature
and
is in common
that
of history,
weight
the
works
literary
especially
time
past
which
form
as dreams,
East
understand
provided
East
imaginative
Islam
stretched
on
in part
drew
they
to both
in the Near
interpretation
to
with
the
and Christianity
to the very
back
of dream
of
the
thinkers
Plato
offered
from
the
very
in Sleep,
the
highly
which
of
the
be more
Despite
late antique
of Greek
legacy
the most
direct
funnel
culture,
Islam
into
More
selective
Aristotle's
of
dreams
important
denied
that
soul
any
the
an
dreams,
are
they
liver
its
with
however,
of earlier
traditions
dreams
are
sceptical
the
recipients
approach
short
god-sent.
to communicate with
about
their
of
Reasonably
humankind
their
On
nocturnal
to the dream,
later
Timaeus,
that while
they
originate
irrational
soul
as
symbolic
albeit
reality,
essays
In his
dreaming.6
obscure,
to
in Homer,
(oneiros)
the
by
relationship
Aristotle's
of
claiming
perceived
(hence
indirect
were
theories
systematic
of mantic
theory
surface
such
of
to the dream
references
literary
rational
smooth
Greek
a number
interesting
allowed
this way
earliest
developed
an
insight
on
reflected
rated
the
that was
dreams
theories.5
some
After
in
with
fascination
Greek
It was
in the Qur'an).4
related
similar
Dreams
one
not
and On
enough,
they would
character).
images
Plato
that
he
Divination
Aristotle
argued
do it in the daytime
messages.
it continued
to
play
an
important
role
in both the popular religious life of late antiquity (particularly through the popularity of the
cult of Asclepius) and thewritings of philosophers and occultists. The most important text on
3
The Interpretation ofDreams in theAncient Near East (Philadelphia,
See O. L. Oppenheim,
1956).
4
see S. Suiri, 'Dreaming Analyzed
12:1-100. On the interaction of Jewish and Muslim
oneirocriticism,
Qur'an
Dreams in theWorld of Medieval
and Recorded
Islam', in D. Schulman and G. G. Stroumsa (eds), Dream Cultures:
Explorations in theComparative History ofDreaming (Oxford, 1999).
5
See E. R. Dodcls, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, 1951), Chapter Four, 'Dream Pattern and Culture
Pattern'.
6
See Artemidorus,
Oneirocritica: The Interpretation ofDreams byArtemidorus, trans. R.J. White
(ParkRidge,
1975)
and C. Blum, Studies on theDream Book ofArtemidorus (Uppsala, 1936).
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 289
in late
dreaming
of Ephesus.
symbolic
dream
of
or
some
other
future
events
writing
of
as well
as a wider
dreaming,
While
of
possessed,
sometimes
by
seen
is also
and
to be
Arabs
to
attested
of
the
and
and Artemidorus,
the
upon
touching
of
subject
by
saying
form
of
of
of poetry
has
kdhin,
were
at
also
the Ka'bah
the dream
that
lives.
the
Dreams
prayers
special
experience
abundance
their waking
the
oracles.
inspired
the Arab
the
in
own
their
possessed
to
dreams
relating
to recite
of
certainly
interpreters
Arabs
in
parent,
the nature
translations
like Aristotle
had
of
dream
able
evidence
it.8 Literary
Through
works
and means
the pre-Islamic
by
sought
beside
the jahiliyyah
during
were
dreamers
thinkers.7
pre-Islamic
diviners
example,
actively
sleeping
the
experiences
who
soothsayers
to Muslim
the
direct
a clear
that was
(horama)
when
thinkers
classical
philosophical
available
dream
for
them.
a type
described
in a literal manner,
reveals,
with
of
speculative
documented,
understanding
ecstatic
of
later made
poorly
They
or
series
theories
vision
(chrematismos),
personage,
to deal
how
the dream
epitomes,
oracle
the
impressive
on
advises
and
of Artemidorus
as the
as well
of Artemidorus
Oneirocritica
second-century
the writings
riddles)
including
or
in
dreams
events
respected
and
were
of
(often
future
the
undoubtedly
classification
pre-enactment
of
was
antiquity
The
and
survived
vision
from
that period. Popular in the naslb style of the ode (qasidah) from the pre-Islamic period is
the motif of the poet resting at night only to be haunted by the vision (khayal, tayf) of his
beloved.9
The Dream
there were
While
for Muslim
been
of
Islam
an
come
had
perhaps
literary
6:60)
dreams
(ru'ya,
the
soul
sacrifice
the
upholds
is taken
dream
These
validity
back
into
in
and
canonical
was
the Prophet
prototypes
while
earlier
also
prophets
accounts
in Surat
he
of dreams
of
al-Fath
foresaw
and
of
when
Accounts
visions
his
encounter
The
the
in
that
and
dreams
in the Qur'an.10
The
(12:1-100)
scripture
also
prognosticating
and
recounts
return
triumphant
as at times
(39:42
Qur'an
life of Yusuf
eventual
is
of
result
believers
the visions
the
in what
ears,
inspiration,
feature
the
revelation
primary
it tells
of
(48:27)
nonetheless
visionary
the Qur'an.
experiences
of God.
in which
of
had
in his
ringing
pains
the birth
dream
the Qur'anic
bells
the wracking
the presence
Muhammad
of
of
Muhammad's
and hearing
of
visions
The
beginnings.
the Prophet
clammy
trembling
(37:83-113),
Ishaq
of
and
to hand
of dreaming
theories
dreams
Islam,
its very
from
Islam
of analytical
of
centuries
Islam
apotheosis
and
occurs
famously
of
a clairvoyant
Makkah.
fear
of both
manam)
most
dream
the
itself
Sweating,
greatest
history's
of
ready models
the experience
Jabra'il.
numinous
of
early
part
integral
through
the archangel
Muhammad's
and
in the
intellectuals
themselves
with
a number
clearly
in Early
and Vision
to
and
7
See A. E. Affifi, "The Influence of Hermetic
Literature on Muslim Thought",
Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies 13 (1950), S. M. Oberhelman,
The Oneirocriticon ofAchmet: A Medieval Greek and Arabic Treatise
on the Interpretation of Dreams (Lubbock,
of Parva Naturalia and the
1991) and S. Pines, "The Arabic Recension
to al-Risala al-Manamiyya and Other Sources",
Veridical Dreams According
Philosophical Doctrine
Concerning
Israel Oriental Studies 4 (1974).
8
See T. Fahd, "istikhard'' in EI2.
9
See R. Jacobi, "Qaslda" in J. S. Meisami
and P. Starkey (eds), Encyclopedia ofArabic Literature (London, 1998),
p. 631.
10
See L. Kinberg,
vol. 1, pp. 546-553
"Dreams
and Sleep",
in J. Dammen
McAuliffe
(ed.), Encyclopaedia
of theQur'an
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
(Leiden, 2001),
Nile Green
290
at other
of
times
were
revelatory
to recur
in myriad
form
the
throughout
history
subsequent
Islam.
The
are also
hadith
accounts
with
replete
of
the dreams
of
the Prophet
and his
companions
or references by them to dreaming. One often quoted tradition held that the Prophet himself
had
said
also
contains
that
such
These
heaven).
of
of
were
dreams
accounts
with
accounts
many
one
constitute
dreams
the
often
the dream-life
to
related
of his
visions
events
major
life
literature
ascent
his
and were
the most
of
simh
(especially
in his
One
companions.
The
prophecy.11
and
dreams
Prophet's
of
part
forty-sixth
related
interesting
to
along
in
episodes
the Sirat Rasiil Allah of Ibn Ishaq refers to a dream of one of the companions, 'AbdAllah ibn
Zayd.12 'Abd Allah recounted to the Prophet a dream inwhich he had encountered aman
two
wearing
there
the
one
adhan,
this
instructed
characteristic
through
seen
later
also
as
in
feature
having
a dream.
of
Ibn
Sirah,
Ishaq's
widely
as a
regarded
as the most
was
hadith
the
in much
by
publishing.15
the
the
of
numbers
Arabic
texts
of
compilation
publishers
texts
of
dreams
faked
books
s name
interpretations
in Fawa'id
to
certainly
Ibn Slrln
himself
so
escalated
Ibn Sinn's
as Greek
al-fu'ad.
(albeit
Later
the
see how
as
regarded
host
having
less momentous
of
vision
in which
the
of
reign
that
supposed
as received
works
were
via
by
by
been
al-Tufayl
'Umar
caliph
(r.632-634 AD)
was
in the
authors
entitled
al-Ghazall)
simply
Ta'bir
it was
by
history
Arabic
al-ru'ya,
possible
was
So widespread
Ibn Sinn
of
of
work
century
in his
early
known
and
to him
ascribed
in the earliest
fifteenth
al-dln Awliya
(mu (abbir)
posthumously
to appear.
to
dreams
Ishaq al-Kirmani
the
as a scholar
fame
early
of
popular
features
works
attributed
His
interpreter
had
ta'bir of Abu
as the
interpreters.
on
the DusturfVl
ascribed
such
such
during
as an
reputation
treatises
Ibn Sirln
of dream interpretation,
earliest
growing
as
same way
the
a whole
dream
of Muslim
numerous
century
European
life, was
Yet
the
itwas the pious Iraqi traditionist Ibn Slrln (d.728 AD) who was
famous
eclipsed
tenth
of
an authentic
the dream
of dreams.14
interpreter
gifted
clapper,
explained
his martyrdom
prophesied
(634-644 AD).13
was
the
buy
the man
in the performance
declared
of Muslim
features
intervention
the
to
asked
at which
'Abd Allah
the Prophet
account,
had
to prayer,
people
and
this
hearing
the most
of
visions
and
summoning
to do
'Abd Allah
clapper.
established
dreams
carrying
it for
way
On
(adhan).
use
a better
was
to prayer
call
and
garments
that he would
explaining
that
green
his
though
for
an
renown
reference to his
discourses
that were
in Turkish
and
Persian
recorded
as well
and Latin.16
11
vol. 1, p. 343. See also
A. J.Wensinck,
Concordance et Indices de la Tradition Musulmane
(Leiden, 1936-1969),
in Early Islamic Traditions", Oriens 29-30 (1986).
and the Afterworld
L. Kinberg, "Interaction Between This World
12A.
The Life ofMuhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (Karachi, 1967), p. 236.
Guillaume,
13
Ibid., p. 177.
14
See T. Fahd and H. Daiber, "rw'ya", in Eh.
15
and Caillois
See Fahd in von Grunebaum
(1966), pp. 360-363. See also Ibn Sirin, Das Arabische Traumbuch des
Ibn Sirin, trans. H. Klopfer (Munich, 1989).
16
Nizam Ad-Din Awliya, Morals for theHeart, trans. B. B. Lawrence
(New York, 1992), p. 174. On the later
attributed works of Ibn Sirin, see T. Fahd, "Ibn Sirin", in Eh.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 291
Other
pious
on
treatise
Shl'I
early
the
imam,
'Abbasid
of
For
Baghdad.
Arabic
at
the
the
shadows
of
classical
of
dreams
AD).17
Of
al-Qadirt
attributed
the
citations
the
of
Abu
ta'bir
fVl
less
the
AD).
other
great
Sa'Td
were
the
the
caliphal
al-Dmawan
translated
is
thinkers
was
This
manual.
was
that
AD)
(d.c.1009
of
reach
long
Muslim
dream
in
subject
was
Marking
sixth
works
those
of
among
the
than
figure
importance
Persian
early
of Artemidorus
of Artemidorus
prestige
in
however,
the Oneirocritica
(r.813-833
One
subject.
influence,
reflected
that
of
the
to no
greater
al-Ma'mun
antiquity,
his
with
associated
was
a version
example
request
through
voluminous
to be
patronage,
caliphal
into
the
(d.765
al-Sadiq
Ja'far
demonstrated
of
interpretation
as a result
created
came
also
figures
dream
that were
manuals
the neo-platonist
proof
of
texts
were
Porphyry
the
type
a wider
posited
its origins
in bodily
has
section
of
the most
of
his
catalogue
tradition
different
as heat,
that
the
standard
could
the veridical
classical
a dream
(hulm),
were
forms
of
capable
overridden
by
assume
dream
Islam
repertoire,
of
the Prophet
its antique
The
common
of
rarer
indigestion.
divine
the possibility
so rob
and
or
early
predecessors,
astray. However
blessed
To
message.
the
satanic
its graver
dream
implications
neither
Satan
nor
a believer
of
that most
that
the
that was
and most
first
of personalised
added
wildly
and
alchemy
in Arabic
developed
of
discomfort
class
relating
in a dream
form
the Prophet's
also
the dreamer
leading
saying
is a special
that
dream
magic,
inventory.
these
Interestingly,
had
of dream.
types
such
sensations,
with
of his
is further
Fihrist
flourished.
dealing
extensive
In a reflection
tradition.
three
al-Kirmani,
and
by Artemidorus
al-Nadlm's
such works
oneirocritical
oral
dream-theory
and
in which
one
a written
century
by
supplemented
Muslim
the
was
which
the ninth
By
in
classified
works
Including
Baghdad.19
as Ibn Sinn
atmosphere
cosmopolitan
a section
occult,
in
available
as well
of
any
the jinn
favoured
all dreams. Indeed, in one of the first hadith in Bukharl's Sahih the Prophet explained
has
"Whoever
this
seen me
came
sometimes
means
of
legitimating
have
formed
one
own
son-in-law
in his Nahj
the modern
might
follow
of
has
to mean
that
all kinds
of
the
day.22
The
thus
appear
to
him
in the path
of
purposes
reveal
to
of married
lasting
one
dreams
the
of
the Prophet
such
prophetic
dreamer
life or
take my
policies.
of
dream
his
to express
continue
visits,
future
his
Yet
Islamic
of his
to be
approval
waterproof
of
the Prophet
Prophet's
piety.21
own
in a sermon
found
important
to urge
of
legally
The
were
however,
grave,
dreams
that
In practice,
form".20
form
could
expressions
Prophetic
the Prophet
such
or
persons
arguments,
described
while
of
dreams
cannot
Satan
and
truly,
and most
earliest
'All had
al-balaghah,
seen me
of
many.
to believers
a celibate
a writer's
in
Muhammad
mystic
to
work.
17
See H. Hosain,
"A Treatise on the Interpretation of Dreams",
Islamic Culture 6, 4 (1932).
18
T. Fahd and H. Daiber in Eh.
19
The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture, 2 vols,
Al-Nadim,
trans. B. Dodge
(New York, 1970), p. 742.
20
in J. G. Katz, Dreams, Sufism and Sainthood: The Visionary Career ofMuhammad
al-Zawaun (Leiden,
Quoted
1996), p. 205.
See I. Goldziher,
"The Appearance
of the Prophet in Dreams", Journal of theRoyal Asiatic Society (1921).
22
See Hadrat 'All, Nahj al-balaghah (Tihran, Chihil Sutun, n.d.), Khiitbah 73, p. 43.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
292
The
importance
tradition
apparent.
these
conditions
he was
to
symbols,
in
the
of
have
important
on
so serve
the
philosophy
the meaning
also
and
period
the
in the
resulted
of Greek
In the
(Hnayah)
as
the
in any way
caliphal
was
Aristotle
later
dreaming
great
into Arabic,
al-Nadim
Ibn Slna
with
together
AD),
dream
of book
promotion
certain
purposes.23
not
and
came
works
the bibliographer
caliph's
under
to the dream,
(r.813-833
Aristotle.25
in images.
thought
prophetic
degrees
at times
most
approaches
al-Ma'mun
with
while
the good,
sufi
were
as an act of
providence
in different
translation
encounter
of
later
philosophical
could
or even
dream
of philosophy
practice
and
a dream
had
to all humans
this
during
of
soul
that
intellect,
clairvoyant
the prophetic
prefiguring
The
prophets.24
Islamic
encounter
that
reasoned
active
Arabic
early
oneirocriticism
pre-Islamic
AD)
divine
and
to describe
as allotted
experienced
caliph
the
in the
reflected
with
(d.950
in
in dreams
theory
In an
ways
interesting
patron
al-Farabi
originating
providence
to the
unique
also
continuities
modify
such
was
dream
the
manifest
the divine.
saw
the
that
Aristotle,
be made
Subsequently
from
here
Following
It was
to
given
it was
and
to
said
the
lectured
asserted
that
this
In the Muslim
production.
west,
of
point
reference.
the Night
Journey
been
ascended
'the
length
is the
internal
and
As
the
early
the
in
turn,
complex
undergone
on
as well
later
these
by
rich
in
in
the
became
Prophet
This
Qur'anic
which
elaborated
was
the Qur'an
civilisation
the
the
Allah Wall
point
were
theme
of
a distance
of
subsequent
different
kinds.
Particularly
to
of
the
shaman's
tomb
of
into
the
Islam,
lent
were
the
the
nature
intellectual
tremendous
reinforced by many
flight
paintings.
transformed
(d.1431 AD)
reference
to remove
came
figures
centuries
further.28
the Prophet
within
in pharaonic
topic
in
given
its many
gradually
early
account
the
In
correspondences
Sun
been
always
visions,
coming
otherworldly
to the
the voyage
has
of God.
of many
journey
verses.27
was
all Muslim
famously
imagery
Islam
motif
of
presence
rich with
image
for
urban
the mi(raj
until
inner
celestial
contained
Later mystics
commentaries
prestige
organs,
revelation
experience
importance.
the
an
the preparations
a more
for
basis
of
of
paintings
the
with
redolent
that before
tradition
Muhammad's
in
vision
the
touchstone
spheres
from
away
of
In this
the heavenly
bows'
it is a story
elaborations,
vivid
of
each
two
of
of
to him.
to refer
assumed
through
classicus
source
main
The
the Qur'an
always
locus
by Muhammad.26
undergone
the
Subsequently,
to write
vision
great
hadith as well
Nonetheless,
the
as,
subject
23
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 293
of
visions
Qur'an's
The
was
seen
One
been
by
celestial
is
Slna
became
journey
Ibn
the
to have
mi'rdjndmas
as the
Iranian
the
of
a matter
con
of
everyday
reality.
Prophet's
experience.
But
body
sometimes
Matthew
and
show
the Evangelist
sixteenth
the
paintings
were
paired
century
traditions
of Buraq
a safe
journey
with
as
who
evolving
the
the mi
out
to
on
poetic
they
plod
the
south
Jamal
of
Such
as
India
of
feature
popular
an
literally
'opening')
in a
a witness
with
material
for
to
artists.
as
vision
the
recounted
always
believers
fertile
of
(or fath,
was
widespread
forms
is often
the most
beautiful
sides
the
Vivid
highly
role
of
painted
through
lion
churches.
Such
religious
lorries
(fdlnamas)
of
the
or
reader's
QazwTn.33
imagination
in Pakistan
the hazardous
mountain
in which
An
in order
roads
to
of
of
the mi'rdj
case
of
of
provide
a mid
the vibrancy
are
Muslims
the
St
paintings
of
example
of modern-day
of
representation
as in the
future,
of Buraq
depictions
images
taut
his
upon
miniature
It
element
portrayed
man
earlier
art.
devotional
lovingly
a young
of
the winged
Romanesque
Tabriz
of
of
images
forecasts
Safawid
face
of Muslim
rear. However,
at his
of divination
(rdj in the
found
on
carved
from
example
of
himself
in books
rupture
later
notion
the
experience
the most
resemblance
found
found
became
they
epitomise
it also provided
tail fanned
startling
poet
century.32
epistemic
provided
notable
time
peacock's
occasionally
the prophets
one
Buraq
over
paintings,
equine
that
Iranian
in the far
writing
form,
to
visionary
something
to form
seen
as a true
The
creature
visionary
these
were
came
Buraq,
is the
was
mi'rdj
depictions
steed
the
Mi'rajnama
poets
the nineteenth
Prophet's
the more
the
by
journey
the
The
have
story
own
east
among
those
the
of his
in Persian.
while
are
theme
by Muslim
during
God,
in visionary
the
in lithographic
and,
from
language,
symbols
in Tamil
century
tradition
on
of
further
for writers
all around
in al-Andalus
composed
vision
literary
prose,
traditions
traditions
However,
in Persian
type
story
as oral
on Dante's
inspiration
in Persian
catalogues
revelation
symbolic
of
nature
precise
and written
as well
even written
eighteenth
Islamic
genuine
of
the
frequently
the mir'aj
the Commedia.3]
of
its
written
booksellers'
In
source
of
earliest
been
in
of
text
This
influence
key
as recounted
al-dln
in
were
in oral
theme
version
Latin.30
as a
poems
of
and
delicacy
experiences
popular
Arabic
into
scholars
cosmos
the
through
medieval
translated
some
became
journey
Prophet's
subsequently
late
theological
sy.
the Mediterranean.
of
of
to visionary
references
purported
trover
a matter
remained
always
the
the blessing
region.34
2
See e.g. A. K. Tuft, "The ru'ya controversy and the interpretation of Qur'an verse 7 (al-A'af): 143", Hamdard
Islamicus 6, 3 (1983).
30
See G. Besson and M. Brossard-Dandre
(ed. & trans.), Le Livre de Vkhelle deMahomet: Liber Scale Machometi
(Paris, 1991).
31
See M. Asin Palacios, Islam and theDivine Comedy (London, 1926).
3
See M. M. Uwise,
"Muslim Literary Forms in Tamil Literature", Proceedings of the Second International Conference
Seminar of Tamil Studies, vol.i
"Persian Popular Literature in the
(Madras, 1968), pp. 182-189 and U. Marzolph,
Qajar Period", Asian Folklore Studies 60, 2 (2001), p. 231.
33
The twenty-nine
known pages of this manuscript,
attributed to the painters Aqa Mirak and 'Abd al-'Aziz at
the court of Shah Tahmasp, are now dispersed among several collections. The painting of the mi'raj referred to is
now in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington.
34
SeeJ-C. Blanc, Afghan Trucks (London, 1976).
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
M7e Green
294
most
The
important
The Dream
and Vision
early
of
example
the Sufis
Among
vision
non-prophetic
in sufi
was
tradition
that
of
ascent of Abu Yazld al-BistamT (d.874 AD). Different accounts of Abu Yazld's
were
visions
recorded in the descriptions written by more desk-loving sufis like Sarraj (d.988
a
AD),
pseudo-Junayd of Baghdad and the celebrated Persian poet 'Attar (d.c.1221 AD).35
the mystical
mystical
and many
early writers
Other
female
early
also
saint
of
later
sufis were
of
the visionary
spoke
Islam, Rabi'ah
to have
own
their
encounter
(d.801
al-'Adawiyyah
dreams
with
God
AD).
But
about
him.
meeting
the great
by
undergone
the
perhaps
importance
of veridical dreams to the sufis is best seen in the story in the Tabaqat al-sujiyyah of 'Abd
Allah Ansari which recounts how Shah Shuja' KirmanI (d.c.88o AD) went without
sleep
for
seen
to be
always
tales
visionary
one
until
years
forty
also
The
of
fact
the
that many
times,
trying
a common
sufi"writers
visions
the more
leave
to
the visions
and
AD),
a
theories
of
had
their
point
in
the
nature
earth,
the
of
'Awarif
oceans
or
visionary
the
receiving
as in the
the
in
was
of
and
so on.
the
faculties
Muhammad,
who
unseen"
lower
('alam
al-ghayb),
again
the
though
(nafs). Dreams
of
more
himself
Suhrawardl
the
that was
fully
SuhrawardT
Thus
with
idea was
awaken.
the notion
suitable
The
al-Husayni
to
main
dream
experienced
sufis
devoted
Gesu
of Sufi Visionary
entire
Daraz
(d.1234
devoted
crucial
more
was
curious
different
deserts
reference
of
elements
thus
relate
that veridical
dreams
the
whose
neophyte
topos for
this was
(d.1422
to
once
before
premonitions
works
to
the
subject,
AD).40
Theory
in terms of a breaching
codification
stories
in sufism
role
important
of'Umar
at
of Baghdad.
an
Once
matter
subject
themselves,
classes
chattering
literature.
sufi
had
important
they
play
of vision
soul
yet
sufi
types
prolific
allowed
Muhammad,
Prophet
of Muhammad
to
tasawwuf?9
to
More
the amazing
that
al-ma'arif
of
in
vision
have
of Jabra'il.
al-asrar
'Awarif
common
the waking
vision
ofAsmar
the
The Crystalisation
While
such
caution,
like Muhammad
sufis,
(d.c.1072 AD)
continued
different
defeat
Prophet
the
of dreams
role
attributing
his
case
later
with
to the
al-HujwTri
commonplace
the
of
type
imaginative
first
al-ma'arif
of
to water
a lesser
of
were
suggests
the dream
dreams
composition
to
book
transcended
formed
again
of
concerned
mentors
early
Yet
sufis.38
early
method
Suhrawardl's
of
he was
after which
a certain
with
often
accounts
of
more
been
category
trifling
of dreaming
of his
chapter
the
time
the
by
of
Albeit
sleep.36
feature
in a dream,
the Prophet
spellbinding
to
saw
and
slept
or
asleep
became
Ghawth Gwallari
he
night
either
of
a formal
of
the
of the
dream
35
See M. A. Sells (trans, and ed.), Early IslamicMysticism
(New York, 1996), pp. 212-250.
36
'Abd Allah Ansari, Tabaqat al-sufiyyah, ed. A. H. Habibi (Kabul, 1404/1983),
pp. 196-197. Quoted
Khwajah
inR. Islam, Sufism in South Asia: Impact on Fourteenth Century Muslim Society (Karachi, 2002), pp. 27-28.
37
Ghawth Gwaliori's Ascension", Journal
the Uses and Abuses of Muhammad
See S. Kugle, "Heaven's Witness:
of Islamic Studies 4, 1 (2003).
38
The Kashf al Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, trans. R. A.
See Ali Bin Uthman
al-Hujwiri,
Nicholson
(Delhi, 1999), especially pp. 88-160.
39
See R. Gramlich, Die Gaben der Erkenntnisse des 'Umar al-Suhrawardi1978).
'Awarif al-ma'arif (Wiesbaden,
40
Muhammad
(Haydarabad, 1350^1971-2).
al-Husayni Gesu Daraz, Asmar al-asrar, ed. 'Ata' Allah Husayni
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 295
SuhrawardT
ancient
meld
been
truly
sought
experiences
to have
to form
Islam
Iran
by
sufls
the
as those
(as well
of mystical
theory
a
played
into
to make
Greece
in which
knowledge
who
the
appears
its own,
of
world
proper
the
and Egypt)
It is SuhrawardT
role.
pivotal
of vision
realm
ancient
of
of Shihab al-dln
aimed
SuhrawardT
philosopher,
cosmopolitan
the
to schematise
the first
and
visionary
of pre-Islamic
systems
religious
with
AD).
(d.1191
visionary
and vision
accessed
through themode
and
other
these
of
the vision
in Islamic
in his
later
entirely
For
career,
in which
that
had
visions
an
played
faith,
and
that
between
lesser
their
concrete
of
form
Possessing
he
delimited
level
of
interface
of
realm
(dlam al-mithal
a more
increased
kindred
of
existence
were
dreams
as
regarded
existentially
in which
Aristotle
al-Bistaml
living
for
ground
on
at a different
show
of visions
SuhrawardT
a thousandth
(d.875 AD)
high
level
himself
if
of his
own.
enquired
part
the
were
of
kinds
pure
intermediate
time
in
existence
as
in
non
levels
understood
some
the
underpinned
thought,
own.
their
As
of being,
which
Islamic
seen
also
predecessors.
and
of
sphere
God's
sense
this
of
interface
cosmic
It was
dead
of
in
or
isthmus
between
model
seen
visions
No
longer
events
actual
way
being.
as a master
as to the
rank
of
sphere
These
of
this
their
cosmological
included
relative
term
and
first
of
and was
sufls
the
this
an
in
place
realm
the universe.
different
of our
to
intermediary
dead
in the
they
solely
as an
living
For
the
of communication,
the
between
part
important
of
system
uncertain
take
and
referred
understanding
and
dreams
the Qur'anic
to act
fragmentary
the
from
messages
to merely
a number
described
own
seen
epistemology.43
a
with
enrobed
special
undergone
wishing
was
that mediated
an
to it
by
mystical
here
simple
the
both
mystical
remains
role,
reality
he
substance,
as its mode
symbols
meeting
thus played
s wider
SuhrawardT
our
between
as the
visionary
acting
of
existence)
and
knowledge
as the
act
importance
borrowed
phenomenal
not
but
referred
also frequently
its custody
(or alternatively,
the place
writing,
the wider
SuhrawardT
to formulate
sought
of
narratives
visionary
prose
is evocative
letters
Through
reached
Slna
visions
both
world
(barzakh).
Not
Ibn
abstraction.
the Muslim
and
of Persian
examples
It is noteworthy
large.
or not
impossible
intellectual
proper
earliest
of Persian
of
to answer.42
SuhrawardT,
intermediate
as
at
culture
Slna. Whether
knowledge
to
the
of
in the history
in a number
intimately,
Ibn
world
more
and,
some
As
recitals
visionary
model
not
works
in Persian.41
composed
of
of
Arabic
lesser
of
theory,
a
SuhrawardT
naturally
with
the philosopher
meeting
of earlier
achievements
none of theMuslim
the Divine
Plato,
early
also
generations
philosophers
sufls
could be confirmed
like Abu
had
Yazid
as true men
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
296
of
divine
a vision
would
have
Such
episodes
various
in which
our
draw
individuals,
to
or
processes
the
later
in turn
he
attention
Persian
of
development
a century
Over
wisdom.
sufi
the
role
of
al-Simnanl
as
in the
an
playing
of
legitimation
in the
role
important
to describe
purporting
AD)
(d.1336
achievements.45
mystical
visions
and
dreams
as well
treatises
short
the
al-Dawlah
Suhrawardl's
Yet
institutions.
literature,
'Ala'
denounced
Suhrawardl's
own private visions outlined a typology of the initiatory mystical vision for his own disciples
and
same
the first
was
born
of
an
later,
in the
(khayal)
Indeed,
God's
of
and
eternal
the
witness
'Arabi
divine.
regarded
writings
of
theory
art of
AD)
Ibn
on
the
later
the
same
from
man
that
explains
is
he
sunrise
seen
as
Ibn
'Arabi's
appeared
in which
the
idea
of
inherent
also
devoted
found
most
to
the
of
that
great
recur
of
understanding.48
the use
God
he was
self-manifestation,
In
knowledge.
theories,
for
to man
as a
encounter
visual
of whom
human
supreme
mystical
from
of
aspect
considered
divine
descending
as a creative
spread
Muslim
the
with
not
keen
in with
tying
later
calligrapher
Baba
and
to
Ibn
of
during
the
through
the
Ibn
'Arabi's
to
guidebook
Isfahan!
Shah
as a means
(mashq-e-khayali)
of
(d. 1587-8
the
reaching
calligraphy.50
to
attention
in
form
expressions
a sixteenth-century
al-mashq,
of Arabic
civilisation
in manuscript
interesting
Iranian
expression
and
in so many
throughout
the most
considerable
famous
feature
practice
in the beauty
to
life work
essential
as the
into God,
human
act of
in the Adah
imaginative
as an
in this way
freedom
(the
ideas were
One
the
in
is active
that
He
both
to God
as a divine
were
was
al-mithal
that was
impulse
present
instant,
of man
act
to be
'alam
agent
between
formulation
creative
and
commentators.49
perfection
dreaming
at the
ancient
the primordial
experience
the journey
gap
yes/no
imagination
calligraphy,
'Arabi
existential
ascending
the
(tajalli).
of
part
as, at the
imagination
developed
divine
the
level
centuries
of
stranger
with
imaginative
of
following
essential
visions
original
importance
the
of
creative
own
man's
axiomatic
and
at another
'Arabi'swider
'Aql-e-surkh,
and
self-manifestation
bridging
the
Every
was
limit)
the
to be
revelation
private
treatise
the
youthful
the
glowing
theory
as the
role
mystic
unrepeating
of
capable
this we
Ibn
viewed
imagination
faculty
both
all over,
of mystical
(d.1240 AD).
an increased
played
the
of
systematisation
grand
'Arabi
Ibn
hue
perpetually
archangel
re-working
looks
creation.47
generation
prominently
who
crimson
in
described
visions,
wayfarer
a strange
creation,
of
these
of
mysterious
with
Glowing
the dawn
A
encounters
time.46
In one
to follow.
later mystics
Suhrawardl
the
the
chapters
subject
on
of
the
His
dreams.
especial
ideas
theophanic
See J. J. Elias, "A Kubrawi Treatise on Mystical Visions: The Risala-yi Niiriyya of'Ala' ad-Dawla as-Simnani",
Muslim World 83, i (1993).
46
See N. Green, "A New Translation of Suhrawardi's The Crimson Archangel {'Aql-e-Surkhy\
Sufi 36 (1998).
47
See SuhrawardT, The Mystical and Visionary Treatises of Suhrawardi, trans.W M. Thackston
(London, 1982) and
G. Webb,
"An Exegesis of Suhrawardi s The Purple Intellect (Aql-i surkh)", Islamic Quarterly 26, 4 (1982).
H. Corbin,
SeeW C. Chittick,
Imaginal Worlds: Ibn 'ArabIand theProblem ofReligious Diversity (Albany, 1994) and
in Arabic philosophical
Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn al-'Arabi (Princeton,
1969). On the imagination
inMeisami
and Starkey (1998), pp. 393-394.
tradition, see J. S.Meisami,
"Imagination",
49
Muslim World 82
"Notes on Ibn 'Arabi's Influence in the Indian Sub-Continent",
See e.g. W. C. Chittick,
(1992).
See C. W Ernst, "The Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy:
Oriental Society 112 (1992), pp. 279-286.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 297
ideas
to go
refused
mithal)?2
expected
from
Islamic
in
lives
of
shrine
Pattishah
the
life
of Qurtubah
city
all of
the
the
one
forms
the Muslim
and mystic
jurisconsult
their
than
Pakistan
the
cure
of
medicine
spiritualised
their
In northern
conditions
psychiatric
services
concerning
disciples
and Morocco.
of Graeco-Islamic
of
style
India,
use
and makes
of
more
tibb) with
(yunani
al
((dlam
important
a
forming
interrogate
world
imaginary
the most
of
world,
less
in
tradition
prophets
These
episodes.
his
of
the
sufls
life was
own
'ArabT's
entitled
Spain
It was
Ruh
in
the
with
in which
al-quds,
Spanish
the
this
around
an
for
notable
living
encounter
mystical
and Muhammad).55
of
also
he was
1190 while
a
experienced
Tsa
Musa,
(including
in
began
and
youth
an account
Ibn
SuhrawardT,
precursor
during
'ArabI wrote
Ibn
his
of
of visionary
abundance
no
from
down
regularly
specialises
the
of
parts
Iran
the
methods.54
therapeutic
Like
in
khanaqds
drawn
of dreams
SufT masters
combining
techniques
local
in many
later
centuries
interpretation
sufi masters
psychoanalysis.53
dream
the
the
five
that was
(tajaltt)
this day
India
self-manifestation
To
in
and
away
of
souls
time
he
that
showed
that visions of this kind (if not of this masterly degree) were a far from unusual feature of
the Islamic milieu of the southern Europe of his day.56 Yet even by the high standards of
the
was
visionary
carpenters
and
His
commentator
exceptional.
his master
and
to such
precursor
Later
the
him
speak with
favour.
summon
could
sufls
also
claimed
A mid-nineteenth
souls
of
the
prophets
of Andalusia,
Sadr
the
at any
European
cobblers
spirit
of
al-dln
any
asWilliam
visionaries
such
grand
century
is found
of
in
the
Blake
abilities,
visionary
echo
Ibn
'ArabT's
this ShT'T
sufT claimed
to have
first
(the
and
often
encountered
classic
sufT initiatory
vision,
SafT was
then
later
Ibn
of
as a
of
before
beckoned
forward
the
noticing
by
divine
showing
great
come
signorial
encounter
youthful
ramblings
how
to
Swedenborg.57
as a means
celebrated
described
'ArabT
Immanuel
visions
for
included)
prophets
spirits of all of the prophets and saints in the distance behind him.
the
vocation
AD)
presenting
autobiographic
(d.1273
person
in this way
own
'ArabT's
QunawT
dead
time whatsoever,
Ibn
the
with
Iranian
as a young
assembled
In this ShT'Tversion of
FJusayn
and
handed
51
trans. R. W. J. Austin
Ibn 'Arabi, The Bezels of Wisdom,
and 120-127. On Ibn
(Lahore, 1988), pp. 98-103
'Arab! and dreams, see alsoW. C. Chittick, The Sufi Path ofKnowledge (Albany, 1989), pp. 119-121.
See G. N. Jalbani and D B. Fry (trans, and ed.), Sufism and the Islamic Tradition: The Lamahat and Sata 'at of Shah
Waliullah (London, 1980), pp. 112-114.
is based on the author's own observations with
This
see K. P.
regard to Iran and India. For Pakistan,
of Self Representation
Ewing, "The Dream of Spiritual Initiation and the Organization
among Pakistani Sufis",
American Ethnologist
17, 1 (1990) and idem, Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis, and Islam (Durham,
in Morocco
and Egypt, see V. Crapanzano,
"Saints, Jniin, and Dreams: An Essay
1997). On similar processes
in Moroccan
Psychiatry 38 (1975) and E. Sirriyeh, "Dreams of the Holy Dead: Traditional
Ethnopsychology",
Islamic Oneirocriticism
Versus Salafi Scepticism", Journal of Semitic Studies 45, 1 (2000).
54
S. Kakar, Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and itsHealing Traditions (Delhi, 1990),
pp. 15-52.
55
See M.
Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in theDoctrine of Ibn Arabi (Cambridge,
Chodkiewicz,
I993)> P- I7- On Ibn 'Arabi's visions more generally, see C. Addas, La Quete du soufre rouge (Paris, 1989) andW. C.
Chittick,
Sufi 19 (1993).
"Meetings with Imaginal Men",
56
Ibn 'Arabi, Sufis ofAndalusia, trans. R. W. J. Austin (London, 1971).
Chodkiewicz
(1993), pp. 17?18.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
298
sword
with
he was
which
to pursue
ordered
Safl was
jihad.58
far from
the only
of
visionary
Iran, for visions also formed the epistemological centre of the mystical
theology expounded by the founders of the ShaykhT school of ShT'T thought. The founder
of the school, Shaykh Ahmad Ahsa'l (d.1826 AD), described his dream encounters with the
imams in considerable detail, his use of the classic terminology
followers
their
accounts
Such
of
indeed
be
that
they
reclaimed
time
any
and
to worry
need
visions
the
a means
provided
into
dead
the
of
"recorded
it. The
most
he
claimed
had
brought
the
in its close
outraged
order
that
however,
(imla1
works
Ibn
Indian
of
and
strictures
the
word
at
up
the
ancients.
through
Such
bringing
a more
manifested
general
in
elsewhere
on
the emphasis
and
turn
overrode
reflected
they
that was
Islam
sufls
lucid
have
of mysticism.
of
the oral
qualities
Ibn
later
continued
Working
and
and
from
sufls
to
place
the
visionary
tradition
were
and
subsequent
not
experience
Ibn
seen
but
in
tearing
and
life
visionary
at the
the
holy
later
by
a
the Futuhdt,
away
To
But
a claim
it was
at the divine
his
enemies,
heretical.
as a central
centre
city.61
its splendours.
himself.
delusional
'ArabT,
of
himself,
God
by
contradicted
volume
as
but
encounters
the
not
in all of
shorter
himself
by
of visionary
is certainly
indeed
'ArabT's
of
of
of Muhammad
revelatory
Ibn
the gratitude
residence
digested
prophetic
the
unrelenting
none
visions
not
regarded
in
sheer
prophets
'ArabT were
of
period
that
as
a series
of
that
those
as well
composed
result
experience
Here
to
the Prophet
perhaps
prophetic
men
being
during
secretary
read
fully
as
as the
were
claimed
al-makkiyya
the Futuhdt
described
to
He
need
epistemological
experiences
works.
Futuhdt
of
occurred
as it
impressed.
of
vast
the
visionary
written
he made
of
as circumvented
major
his
complexity
to the
ordinary
many
own
his
undergone
scope,
as many
sufls
'ArabT's many
'ArabT
a kind
the visions
as well
Ibn
ildhi) which
to be
separated
and
living.
this
(and
could
past
could
meetings
the written
In
in
visionary
the
the
of
time-past
lost knowledge
of
literature
all
Muhammad
since
Nevertheless,
mission
the
of
the
past
in an historical
knowledge
sages
such
the
knowledge
which
redaction
resemblance
that
of
texts
claim
few
created
the writing
extraordinary
that
of
about
Prophet
'ArabT's
text
the mediation
brought
the
dictation
Ibn
and
avoiding
about
These
generations.
the
word
presence
of
the
of
with
of
In defiance
present.
of
souls
libraries
(malfuzdt)
important
al-hikam,
with
by
interviews
importance
and
people
in the
a matter
merely
visionary
epistemological
the
the written
of written
encounters
Visionary
divine
itself.60
for
Fusiis
the
conversations"
the Qur'an
visions
of
speaking
suspicion
epistemological
the
when
desecrated
the
great
a role
unmediated
about
of
not
therefore
For
in which
to play
knowledge,
a lesson
for
were
a way
re-figured
of written
fragility
were
commemoration.
and
formed
of unveiling
the Kashfiyya.59
encounters
luminaries
pre-eternal)
in
of
visionary
of memory
aggrandisement
sense,
title
alternative
of
part
their
'Abd
of his
theorising
al-Karlm
al
58
inM. Homayum,
have been published
These reminiscences
TarTkh-e-silsiliha-e-tarTqah-e-Ni'matullahiyyah
Iran (London, 1371/1992), pp. 267-268.
59
See M. Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought inQajar Iran (Syracuse, 1982).
60
See N. Green, "Translating the Spoken Words of the Saints: Oral Literature and the Sufis of Awrangabad",
Lynne Long (ed.), Holy Untranslatable (London, forthcoming).
61
See Chittick,
(1989), pp. xii-xv.
62
Studies in IslamicMysticism (Cambridge,
See R. A. Nicholson,
1921), pp. 90-92.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
dar
in
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 299
Ibn
discussing
'Arabi's
of
theory
the
man
perfect
that
at the
lay
centre
sixtieth chapter of his book Jill described a vision of his own which
Sharaf
summed
al-din
up
such
'Arabi
for
own
(d.1336
of
translation
embraced
notwithstanding,
At
composition.
'Aziz Nasafl
Abarquh
for
al-haqd'iq
fed
in
1281,
1281
and
of
were
visions
al-din Kubra
(d.1221 AD)
Islamic
world.
a treatise
on
wrote
Simnanl's
treatise
in which
ritual
visions
'There
to SimnanI,
greatly
"path
of
Uways
reputedly
was
also
to
the
important
the Uwaysis"
to delay
the
only
communicated
reputed
the
central
positive
of'Ala'
in which
visionary
of
a role
played
inspiration
in the way
appeared
Ibn
of
that
to patronise
inspired
directly
of
literary
in a dream
to warn
remaining
chapters
the
Initiations
God'
of
of
the
practices
of
through
of Najm
the
and
stiffs
in the
tradition
was
Muhammad
and
of
sunset.68
to
the way
meditative
repetition
after
also
order.67
in Islam,
specific
and
the credal
According
the witnessing
of
career.
visionary
to which
transmission
visions
the Kubrawl
silent
the mystic
school
Prophet
school
al-Simnani
life
of
the
sunrise
and
This
of
the visionary
introduce
of
the
al-Dawlah
performance
before
its adaptation
him
'Ala'
and
the
and
tradition,
consisting
would
lands
Islamic
aspects
a dhikr
friend
with
such
stand
the writing
Visionary
(tariqa-e-uwaysiyan).69
al-Qarani,
detractors
sage Ramacandra
the Prophet
through
than
for
in
own
of his
as
occasionally
been
having
But
and
practical
practice
'Arabi's
as the
Qudsiyya
treatises
dreams
at times
the principles
sought
other
this
form
Ibn
inspiration
the Hindu
sweets.65
the onset
that herald
lights
to Central
the Kubrawi
Asia,
coloured
confined
Originally
so
in
of
al-dln's
recommended
god
diligence
of
progression
is no
to
adapted
actively
SimnanI
practices.
formula
were
to
also
the
decades.66
in Najm
us of
reminds
attested
Working
visions
such minor
way
1300 AD)
limited
similar
same
example,
al-Qaranr
not
eastern
for
two
another
Uways
Theories
with
could
in
text,
theories.
in a dream
him
this
in the
to
which
claimed
of
the
Shikuh
or vision
(d. between
of his KashJ
In
Vasishtha
and
him
a dream
case
in the
Dara
the Yoga
even
sufis
AD).64
as when
mediators,
latter
other
even
his
about
the Prophet,
of vision
kind
the very
dangerous
works,
al-Simnani
as cultural
the
most
is also
who
man,
it was
controversies,
their
al-Dawlah
the perfect
al-Jabartl
Despite
new
to see
In claiming
1394.63
master
of
he received in Zabld
SimnanI
of
named
the
after
from
telepathy.70
contributed
tradition
of
the
the mysterious
Yaman
who
Uways
had
had
been
63
Ibid., p. 105.
64
See J. J. Elias, The Throne Carrier of God: The Life and Thought of 'Ala' ad-dawla as-Simnani (New York, 1995),
p. 192.
65
Muhammad
Dara Shikuh, Majma '-ul-Bahrain or theMingling of Two Oceans, ed. M. Mahfuz-ul-Haq
(Calcutta,
1929), pp. 25-26.
66
See L. Ridgeon,
'Aziz Nasafi
(Richmond,
1998), pp. 8-9.
67
See Elias (1993).
68
Elias (1995), pp. 124-141.
69
see Elias (1995). On Uwaysi mysticism,
see J. Baldick, Imaginary
On the visionary techniques of the Kubrawiyya,
Muslims:
The Uwaysi Sufis of Central Asia (New York, 1993) and D. DeWeese,
"The Tadhkira-i Bughra-khan and the
inReview
of Imaginary Muslims", Central Asiatic Journal 40, 1 (1996).
'Uvaysi' Sufis of Central Asia: Notes
70
See A. S. Husaini,
Sufis", The Moslem World 57 (1967) and K. Khaharia,
"Uways al-Qaranl and the Uwaysi
"Uways al-Qarani, Visages d'une legende", Arabica 46, 2 (1999).
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
300
a famous figure throughout
once
sects
the
this
rather
style
into
of
at
after Uways
a
of
living
but
initiation
was
Uways
school
not
master
this visionary
In truth,
actual
make
of
through
the more
through
the means
be with
would
to
sufism.
the
any
reference
lend
his
Such
sufis
usual
a
of
in his
However,
al-mahjub.
not
did
HujwTrl
time.71
path
Kashf
al-HujwIrfs
sufis
an
than
the mystical
hand
in
recounted
again
different
name
to
of
denomination
initiated
been
of
Islam
of
the
named
the
clasping
encounter.
initiatory
green-man
enigmatic
the
mode
and mundane
visionary
tradition
to have
claimed
of
description
any
Usually
or
al-Khidr
else
the Prophet himself.72 Two no lesser figures than Ibn 'Arabi and the great Indian
sufi Ahmad Sirhindl (d.1624 AD) claimed initiations this kind.73 However
Naqshbandi
with
the
perhaps
in eastern
richest
single
In this
khani.74
instructions
the
an
and
dragons,
of Uwaysl
visionary
the
1600
by Ahmad
scholar
elderly
the Psalms
of
This
kind
hear
a
an
of
Tajik
who
al-din
has
whose
Tadhkirah-ye-bughra
is given
who
mystical
encounters
terrifying
to God
devotion
written
collection
in his
greengrocer
Afghan
perfumer
Nizam
called
is the
narratives
of Uzgan
with
about
brings
as the
in which
himself.
of Uwaysl
time
and
territory
we
Isma'il,
prophet
year
history
visionary
by
source
around
Turkestan
of
was
vision
initiatory
the Tadhkirah-ye-bughra
the North
khani,
common.
if not
widespread
sufi
African
Far
from
'Abd
al-
the
'Aziz
ibn al-Dabbagh was initiated by a vision of Khidr at the tomb of the jurist and sufi Abu'l
Hasan ibn al-Hirzihim (d.i 164AD) in Fas in 1713.75 Uwaysl mysticism could certainly prove
in
subversive
the
ruler
in a dream
were
the most
institutional
of
checks
prominence
could
of
master
of
who
to take up
aspect
Naqshbandi
initiations
into
entry
'Abd
only
part,
Islamic
while
initiation
grand
side-stepping
discourse
mystical
and
of a living
given
to
the bounds
were
telepathic
recant
initiations
limits
long
on
any
as their
tradition
of
later
seen
were
among
claims
not
he was
and
a
into
to have
the
Syrian
that visionary
with
shari'a?1
stream
the broader
restrained
Indian
disciple
said
acceptable
set and
at variance
in this way
an
and
made
sufi
his
by
such was
But
ruling
legal
absorbed
Persian
between
communication
outrageous
was
became
imagination
to be
emerging
encouraged
at times
became
needed
issued
content
the
bin Tughluq.76
Nonetheless,
(d.1731)
was
AD)
(1347-1358
rival Muhammad
his
al-NabulusI
so
These
Shah
the
through
as when
dimensions,
political
that visionary
the Uwaysl
however,
balances.
always
experience.
have
Bahman
against
al-Ghanl
acceptable
sufism
and
arms
encounters
sufi
also
Hasan
al-din
of visionary
if marginal
could
Uways
'Ala'
the Dakan
the prestige
For
with
Encounters
Uways
of
claim
membership
of
to
mystics
methods
institutionalised
usual
master.
ambitious
enabling
by
groups
variety
in the
living
master,
to his
follower
71
See Hujwiri
(1999), pp. 83-84.
72
On such encounters with Khidr, see P. Franke, Begegnung mit Khidr: Quellenstudien zum Imaginaren in traditionellen
Islam (Stuttgart, 2000) and I.Omar, "Khidr in Islamic Tradition", Muslim World 83 (1993).
73
See Y. Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (Montreal, 1971), pp. 27-28.
74
Baldick (1993).
75
The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971), p. 159.
See J. S. Trimingham,
ruler died before 'Ala'
H. K. Sherwani, TTie Bahmanis of theDeccan (Delhi, 1985), p. 41. Since the Tughluq
al-din could meet him in battle, Uways may also here have played a role in protecting the martial reputation of the
new ruler.
77
See Katz
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 301
in a vision
or dream.78
investiture
of
such
Nonetheless,
an
by
and
of
the
city's
Nur
across
al-din
HammamT
to
India
(d.1692
the Dakan
of
and often
an
played
al-din
was
and
idea
the
really
he was
also
in Arabic
role
seems
of dream
the
Chishti
investiture
theme
Urdu
hagiography
by
of Muslim
of
on
appeared
a throne
arrived on horseback
into
delivered
and Persian
less
altogether
in works
featured
the
before
to carry
service
the
troubling
an
analysis
enjoyable
of
Shah
nature
non-religious
as
Just
than
thought
today
the voice
the
idea
an invisible
of
middle-point
issues
existential
frightening
of
historiography.
God booming
of
and Historiography
visions
and
important
dreams
form
important
a modern
before Khidr
where
Visions
dreams
clairvoyant
of meaningful
an
to be
form
institutionalised
controlled
AD).80
Dreams,
Accounts
less
Mu'ln
the
Aftab-e-dakan,
day.79
In the vision,
shrines.
in
continued
sufTsof Awrangabad,
of one
have
the Prophet,
to the present
through
spirituality
living
aspirant's
as Khidr
figures
or
in the
whether
dreams,
initiatory
master
Dream
of revelation.
frivolous
entertainment
(ta (bir) became
interpretation
its popularity
the
historians
about
brought
al-Taban
(d.923
biographical
works
relating
In
these
historical
rulers
and
(786-809
saw
an
referring
earlier
ruler
is another
Musa
image
to
the
intimating
his
from
prison
freedom.84
the piety
of
times
clearly
serve
the
of
during
another.
is seen
AD)
in which
the
a dream
Yet
of
longevity
al-RashTd
Here
Ibn
physician
and
such
'Abbasid
great
as did
narratives,
tree
same
night
narrative
as a historian
Ishaq
their
to him
al-SaymarT
reigns.
that
his
Harun
al
brother,
In a later
the
clear
in particular,
latter
by
has
interesting
to free
Prophet
a dream
name
of one
Mas'udT
is also
the
the
dream,
More
the
as
explained
caliphal
in the flames.83
is commanded
may
and
some
flattering
in which
the dream
given
burning
he
of
purpose
recounts
Mas'udT
branches
(847?861
of Harun
dream
royal
success
al-Mutawakkil
ibn Ja'far
promising
relative
AD)
the
which
The
interpreters.
recorded
(d.956
of others.
two
of expert
of people.81
at
dreams
the memory
AD)
of circles
al-Mas'udT
to all classes
and
AD)
works,
besmirching
al-RashTd
creation
of
the Prophet
person
of
while
interest
for
78
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
302
how
showing
dreams
of the pro-'Alid
could
to a dream
reference
there
Clearly,
narrative
of'AlT
is little
their
on
in as early
recounted
mace
centuries
several
and
One
of
of Mas'udT's
reworking
in
he was
Ibn BTbT's
sufT Abu
story
Hafs
of
'Umar
dream
However,
given
become
the
and
insight
royal
al-dm
city
BTbT RushanayT
(who were
'trances'.
that
was
scorching
hanged
AD),
and
(d.
of women
The
secure
after
it was
and
a similar
among
son's
TTmurid
us
Saljuqs
her
crimes.89
of
Here
when
the
bonds.87
is also
gifts
sometimes
city, WasafT
Harat's
wise
enabled
her
rose
from
considerable
how
explains
new
to
historian,
woman
After
one
was
Persian
Another
the
and
SuhrawardT
BTbT Munajama,
Harat.
to
For in a
of his
fortunate
great
mission
diplomatic
clairvoyants
less
of wonder
with
meeting
off
at court.88
that
aristocrats
the many
prognosticating
in TTmurid
as a fraud
of
and
a historian's
element
recognised
role
the
(1180?1225 AD).
upon
Ibn BTbT,
fortunes
tells
AD),
embarrassment
in public
of
extraordinary
revealed
eventually
no
occurred
of
meeting
throwing
as dreamers
if short-lived
the
with
were
dreams
merely
the
on
sent
only
the
mother
her
1551
example
beaten
historians
royal
not
Qubad's
was
who
to presage
whose
NTshapur
adviser
to have
roles
works.
The
she was
from
success
lucrative
the
historical
WasafT
slums
ibn Ja'far
of Kay
sufT imagery,
to him
appeared
into
fortune-teller
such
Zayn
had
in Persian
of Musa
dream
(d.1234
and
for
and
chronicler
this was
But
released.
outside
who
figure
of all such
Persian
of courtly
streets
prose
were
kingship
when
AD),
Persian
the
by
in the moment
SuhrawardT
crossover
his entourage
bowed
reverently
the
rather
and
the
through
interesting
recounted
unexpectedly
story
features
(d.1020
son Zal.
his
the most
and was
FirdawsT
dragged
of finding
dream
royal dreams.
after
before
night
lions who
her
during
with
roaring
dreaming
of FirdawsT
of being
nightmare
Sam's
between
as the Shahnama
then
by other
connections
the
of Rum
on
and
Salamah,
dreamt
AD),
dream
as found
saints
and
In this narrative
(754?775
surrounded
presently
awork
Zuhak's
to record
less keen
al-Mansur
one
and
of prophets
cultures.
side. Crouching,
her
context
literary
an ox-headed
of
descendants.85
by Mas'udT
the birth
of various
his
persecuting
recounted
surrounding
origins
through
it.86
a Persian
the poet
it was
the ground,
demonstrated
from
from
caliph
stories
traditions
the mother
emerging
before
the
dream
The
history.
political
(892-902 AD),
imagery
was
in
developments
warning
folkloric
who
of a lion
heads
In
and
slave-girl
ominously
explain
in the
reflects
in the hagiographical
pregnancy
himself
originality
in particular
the Berber
to
be used
policies of al-Mu'tadid
Uzbik
rulers
she had
see how
stories
gulled
soon
ensured
of fortune-telling
85
Ibid., p. 366.
86
sufis such as al-Hallaj (d.922), see L. Massignon,
Ibid., p. 21. On comparable lion dreams concerning
12 (1945), pp. 244?246.
archetypiques en onirocritique musulmane",
Eranosjahrbuch
87
H. W. Duda, Die Seltschukengeschichte des Ibn Bibi (Copenhagen,
1959), pp. 101-104.
88
Ibid., pp. 187-188.
89
Zayn al-din Mahmud Wasafi, BadaV al-waqaV (Tihran, 1350/1971), pp. 395-396.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
"Themes
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 303
visionaries
could
over
enemies
Nevertheless,
on
of
are
readers
to
interesting
for
kinds
of dream.
subsequently
the
a grave
same
the
blessing
the more
for
and
period,
retreat.
Dream
together
might
historian
al-Makkl
al-din
Bakhtiyar
Sharql
sultan
sufi
material
both
same
account
About
Safl
example,
miniature
and
other
of Ardabll
dreams
close
AD)
(d.1334
of
is
in different
time
vizier
text
The
Ottoman
The
genre
illustrated
fighting.90
of
weight
the
oneirocriticism,
al-din
a rhetoric
formed
shrine
acted
the founder
of
sainthood
of
claim
of
seeing
him
encouraging
courtly
work
dream
manner,
for
al-walih,
all
centre
in this way
might
In Zafar
policies.
Lodl's
made
as a seasonal
In a similar
of conspiracy.
thoughts
that was
as a nationwide
both
Versailles,
architecture
in a dream
to
that time
shows
into
that
inner
the
example,
the great
Dihli
to wage
war
world
of.94
as Babur
a strange
him. He
of
a career
or
sought
dream
sufi Qutb
the
against
one
of
the most
Samarqand
common
to
set of
It is a document
of
the
that
in a
frontier
Italian
of
observed
appears.
early
in his
of
millers
autobiography
closely
works
autobiographical
to conquer
was
from
world
it is in the
However,
contemplative
autobiographical
sixteenth-century
life.
warrior
the mental
that
AD)
historiographical
for
vivid
point,
to dreams
In one
own
of
preserve
the
lent
reformers.
his
dream
only
the
reinforce
importance
reconstructing
(r. 1526-30
1500-1,
speak
though
the
means
to
religious
scholars
Babur
no
by
recorded
the
indeed
I had
to greet
As
rationalising
inMuslim
deserves
clearly
soldier
could
in the year
out
al-fawa'id,
for
to his
dreams
mountain-ringed
Buhlul
were
which
and
emperor
had gone
in
experience
writings.92
certain
justify
and magic.
insight
narratives
occurred
from
AD)
visions
European
period
first Mughal
dream
of
the
Shaykh
al-dln's
imposing
Sultan
Indo-Afghan
that modern
the
to
(d.1235
survives
a direct
provides
way
Safl
of
the
used
recorded
action
an
memoirs,
be
and
of
great
sixteenth-century
narratives
dream
that
courtiers
of miracle
also
men
place
and moon
his
historical
and
patrons'
Jawnpur.93
dreams
purveyors
one
of
their
emphasised
Bahr
sun
in
describing
dreams
These
and
Kakl
of
times
themes
the
interests,
sultan
the manner
in
also
of
of Safawid
fact
wayward
narratives
Such
the
narratives
to deter
dream
drag
by
and,
basic
inconsistencies
the
approval.
powerful
pilgrimage
the
royal
faced
feature
important
of
these
'Umar's
of
could
lives
at
twelfth-century
some
its discussion
dream
was
which
duty
savants
generations.
their
publicise
royal
on
caliph
of future
anonymous
instructed
depicts
an
became
the
Reflecting
In
advisers.91
In
Princes.
reference
with
also
interpretation,
for
to
court
by which
ploy
ridicule
continued
grandees
the Mirror
princely
to the
public
coals
correct
their
as a rhetorical
be used
the
the
of
The
all
dream
career.
The
itself.
dream.
came
I dreamed
Khwaja
The
Ubaydullah
tablecloth
must
[Ahrar] had
have been
arrived
and
laid somewhat
90
See J. S. Meisami,
The Sea of Precious Virtues (Bahr al-Fawa'id): A Medieval IslamicMirror for Princes (Salt Lake
1991), pp. 284-292.
The miniature
is found in a Siyar al-nabipreserved
in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.
92
See S. A. Quinn,
"The Dreams of Shaykh Safi al-Din and Safavid Historical Writing",
Iranian Studies 29 (1996).
93
in S. Digby,
liTabarrukat and Succession Among
the Great Chishti Shaykhs of the Delhi Sultanate", in
Quoted
R. E. Frykenberg
(ed.), Delhi Through theAges (Delhi, 1986), p. 103.
S. Digby, "Dreams and Reminiscences
of Dattu Sarvani, a Sixteenth Century
Soldier", Indian
Indo-Afghan
Economic and Social History Review 2 (1965). Cf. C. Ginzberg,
The Cheese and theWorms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth
Century Miller (Baltimore, 1992).
City,
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
304
before
unceremoniously
understood
and accepted
by the arm,
feet was off the ground.
of me
A few
bestowed].'
we
Here
see
greatest
were
the
of
hold
I took
close
to Babur's
of
age
great
kingship
and visionary
qualities
of
a minor
to
and
khwaja
In the entryway
him.
and lifted me
which,
over
great
so that one
the
has
saints
own
his
one
of
imagination
NaqshbandT
of
that
shrine
on
of
and
the
Asia
of Central
father
of
those
his
with
the
own
career.
than
they
his
fact
his
did
theories
all of
of northern
the
India,
AD)
the
the
console
and
that many
represent
ruptures
later,
of
the
the
great
to his
devoted
of his most
of such material
biographical
writings,
it
of visionary
narratives.
While
been
to record
the visions
happy
he
some
Islamic
dream
in
princes
sufT biographies
of
the
of
drop
success
no
eminence.
political
the
been
like
provoked
elite.
royal
climate
reformist
Sayyid
In this work,
in his
less effectively
disappearing
Sir
had
even
limited
Ahmad
Khan
others
before
by
dreams.97
Diarists
concerning
of other
But
own
modernist
life.
his
of political
attained
of
details
pilgrimage.
possess
experience,
actions
important
is nonetheless
had
idiosyncrasies
colonial
own
lack
exact
the
on
the unsuccessful
who
those
as someone
blamed
not
did
apparent
exonerate
the
Visionary
the wealth
who
all too
of
achievements
generation
a book
going
in Abu'l
the Mughal
(rWyd-e-sddiq). As
foresaw
there
supernatural,
a wife
taken
to readers
merely
epistemic
wrote
confessed
not
prior
the
of
he
could
then,
had
father
to explain
reinforce
Ajmer
supernatural
earlier
autobiography
in which
to
the
(nasl-e-timuriyya)
in his
appears
as that
such
at
theory
genealogical
that
Dreams,
could
Despite
of TTmur
for
centuries
three
presented
AD)
dreams,
him
he
in nineteenth-century
the claim
re-worked
as the heirs
ChishtT
al-dm
in her veins.
Despite
to a close,
drawing
been
(d. 1818/19
premonitory
of Mu'Tn
enabled
such
had
to AzfarT,
fact
also
was
'AlT AzfarT'
that
AzfarT
himself,
own
of his
(d.1898
even
the
were
they
MTrza
house
TTmurid blood
him,
The
According
prince
in accordance
Yet
to escort
at me
looked
househould
powers
remember
saints
For
empires
capacity.96
the TTmurid
Akbarnama.
the
as
the Muslim
of
I rose
'Shaykh Maslahat
said,
Baba
is to blame'.
Samarqand.95
in history.
heart
Mullah
steward
in India.
the
proud
I don't
he
offended.
fault. The
rose and
he
the NaqshbandT
statesmen
and
descendants
Fadl's
In Turkish
later
days
warriors
as
As
back
took me
he
that he was
for it seemed
him,
Imotioned
motioned.
earlier
sufTs,
sufT writers
there were
to be found
that
like
also
SulamT
those
in historical
the
remain
(d.1021
and
sources
richest
AD)
had
their
95
Zahiruddin Muhammad
Babur, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, trans, and ed. W. M.
Thackston
1996), p. 120.
(Washington and Oxford,
96
S. Subrahmanyam,
"Palace or Prison: theWorld as Seen by aMughal Prince inDelhi, c.1800", Commonwealth
28th February 2003.
History Seminar, Oxford University,
97
Elements
in the
Ibid. On such features of Sir Sayyid's thought, see B. B. Lawrence,
"Mystical and Rational
in B. B. Lawrence
of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan",
(ed.), The Rose and theRock: Mystical
Early Religious Writings
and Rational Elements in the Intellectual History of South Asian Islam (Durham, 1979). On another nineteenth-century
Muslim
Vision", Studia Islamica
dreamer, see J. G. Katz, "Shaykh Ahmad's Dream: A 19 Century Eschatological
79 (1994)
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 305
own
as
personal
in
formed
of
'Arabi,
case
the
have
might
the
central
of
ambiguity
same
time
texts
a
of
and
text,
regarded
sense,
the
itself.
In
stuff
plotted
sufi masters.
heirs
towards
the
spiritual
so came
to be
In one
such
of
pool
texts
nature
of
in
these
we
see
the
such
inherent
and
dream,
Khidr
Persian
the
(d.c.908
ways
For
the
education
of her
frequently
of Ruzbihan
those
dreams
the
revelation
between
relationship
of
its author's
visionary
appropriately
for
of
dream
narration
In this work,
Tirmidhl
whom
of Tirmidhl's
and
is
the Qur'an
and
the
he
the
perhaps
not
were
wife
edification
water.
for him
with
sitting
As
by
spiritual
two
his
sat
Tirmidhl
for
of
where
lute
of
to
its own
had
teach
divine
encounters
with
in the other
his
clear white
play
such
of
feet
only
soul.
the
of
dream
dangling
of
and
the
roses.
in
the
form
that Ruzbihan's
There
of
heart
enemies.
Shiraz
beings.
al-asm
Kashf
as well
as
a handsome
of
Turk
with
details
Perhaps
grape,
are visions
swells
that
journal
celestial
sessions
wine-drinking
and white
God
extraordinary
of
uxorial
his
human
city
(in fact
the Kashf
Indeed,
in a
of divine
In another
towards
justly
diarists.
an
forms
home
mystical
music
to behave
world.
a man
grapes,
of myrtle.
growing
all manner
pearls
encounters
soulful
the
al-asrar
from
intoxicating
showers
Ruzbihan
to
Bad'
directed
own
of her
beings
sisters with
eating
Tirmidhl
tradition
Kashf
hailing
to
likened
piety,
sufis.99
of
of
as in
regarded
clearly
saint
visions
describes
unnamed
as the
as much
sent
teachings
saw Tirmidhl
someone
descriptions
symbolism
deserts
the
as
ontological
of
prophet
of Muhammad
of his wife,
husband
autobiographies
includes
also
seen
career, his wife kept dreaming of him just before the dawn and
an appearance
literature
own
to be
and
initiatory
with
revelation
AD).98
instructor.
cultivation
makes
at the
novice's
was
visions
as part
the
itself while
in
is
narrative
visions
an angel) appeared and drew him aside before instructing him about the meaning
justice
life
accounts
of visions.
and
recur
were
not,
which
in sufi
visionary
experience
of
one
these
the
(muhasib).
tradition,
autobiographical
also
spring
such
Here
that might
the
the
but
she
clear
crystal
sufi
dreams
the medium
dream
rather
private
a continuum
between
the
but
dreams
in a chronological,
Prophet
configuration,
relationship
own
his
the meanings
content
the
of
about
of visionary
and
that
represented
contested
own
of Suhrawardl,
own
images
likely
the
al-Tirmidhl
of his
role
such
(futuh, kashf or shuhud) in its own right. Since the sufi saints
of
of
precise
treatises
self-reckoning
imagination
visions
example
al-Haklm
sense
some
their
the
earliest
of
content
the
of
out
the
The
the
its variously
also
sha}n
as
interpret
powerful
seems
it also
However,
of
his
the notion
of
to
as
was
This
right.
vision
disciples
interpretation
spiritual
blueprint
a stiffs
teaching
the
The
visions.
the visionary
in promoting
life. Vision
interlinked.
of
novice
obligation
such
creating
visionary
the
actual
by
its own
in
genre
literary
revealed
as with
on
based
teach
sufi
of
that
as a means
lesson
in this way
of
basis
a literature
possible
seen
been
the
contents
the
It seems
hermeneutical
of
Ibn
to describe
sought
uncertain.
may
visions
the
vast
who
unbearable
al-asrar
poetic
celestial
reaches
love.
98
For an annotated translation, see B. Radtke
and J. O'Kane, The Concept of Sainthood inEarly IslamicMysticism:
Two Works by Al-Hakim Al-Tirmidhi
(London, 1996), pp. 15-36. See also Suiri (1999), pp. 261-268.
99
Ruzbihan
al-Baktive Kitab Kasf al-asrar'I HeFarsca bazi Siileri, ed. N. Hoca
al-Bakli, Ruzbihan
(Istanbul, 1971)
an English translation, see C. W. Ernst, The
[Arabic and Persian].For
Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master
(Chapel Hill,
1997).
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
306
one
of
the most
Allah
texts
also
and
sensitivity
sufism.100
surprising
examples
own
whose
(d.1762),
texts was
of
of Persian
the more
of
of DihlT
visionary
mix
heady
popular
one
Perhaps
WalT
its
with
Unsurprisingly,
an
sometimes
of
later
shared
has
diary
sufT dream
narratives
visionary
occupation
the
grandeur
show
of
by professors
was
diarist
that
as well
as one
In Fuyud
literature.
the most
of
a terrestrial
al-haramayn
law.
Islamic
'ArabT before
he
him,
of
experience
to
to get
how
More
received
his
during
the most
out
al-ZawawT
journeys
hundred
and nine
fertile
to be
really
lying
to be
found
appeared
to al-ZawawT
AD)
(d.1309
'Ata' Allah
appeared
also
hard
to
that
the Garment
came
al-ZawawT
satisfy
with
and
he
did
not
the power
eventually
they
Ibn
only
knew
bestow
the
since
travelled
bartered
the
sultan
ability
for
the
among
journal,
al-ZawawT
found
he
places
that
than
(rather
In one
Of
seems
to
is that
difference
sufTs and
early
visited.
al-ZawawT
pharaonic)
other
religious
two
dream,
dead
into
bestowing
upon
went
to visit
another
When
hand
al-ZawawT
went
length
a while,
to walk
of Egypt
later European
For
al-ZawawT
al-ZawawT
the
of
to browbeat
refused,
crying.
that
in which
of al-Qarafah.
tried
such
important
of
tombs
as
such
that
suggesting
intense
Having
to make
a sacred Muslim
adamantly
of
earlier
their most
in
amid
then
In
diaries
the physical
least
Another
he
but
'Ata' Allah
Egypt
the
in Arabic,
literature
de Nerval.
described.
necropolis
why
the Robe,
to
visit
the many
whom
him
asked
instead.
and
who
were
Allah
AD).
in al-ZawawT's
not
it. Eventually
him
refused
of Perfection
the Garment
also
and
experiences
people
version
with
were
medieval
Since
visionary
dream
of Gerard
Nerval,
he
among
enormous
of Perfection.
of
Shah WalT
visions,
encounter
with
visions
in Cairo's
the Robe
interesting
sufT visionary
(d.1477
en Orient
month
journey
for
for
described
a seven
actual
of
to
anti-Orientalist
as the
Voyage
a sublimated
places
that was
sufT shaykhs
him
the
visions
time
and
differences
important
favoured
geography
figures
celestial
the most
of
undoubtedly
al-ZawawT
encounters
from
sets
parallel
contributor
auspicious
during
drawn
completed
al-ZawawT's
orthodox
of home-grown
comes
and
Muhammad
is the most
visionary
are
there
have
a more
prefigure
One
cities.101
sufTs were
Such
such
to the Levant
period
visions
course
visionary
to Arabic
Islam
holidays.
somewhat
another
by
a kind
form
visionary
and
to
Asian
pilgrimage)
journey.
their
the
Algerian
east
the
on
of
than
fifteenth-century
to
(especially
visited
witnessed
journey
his
travel
locations
colourful
apparitions
the
is seen
journey
relating
South
of
Indeed,
itinerary that is pursued during a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Makkah and
In the textWalT Allah described no fewer than forty-six visions that, like Ibn
visionary
MadTnah.
the
of
contributions
important
Shah
the writing
the Fuyud al-haramayn of ShahWalT Allah is one of the most notable of allMuslim
texts
to be
proven
of
on
but when
out
four
the
and
offered
him
al-ZawawT
was
he
crying
the Sahara,
on water
Ibn
explained,
fly
thousand
latter
explained
in the
gold
air but
dinars,
agreed.
100
See H. Corbin, En Islam Iranien: aspects spirituels et philosophiques, Tome 3, Lesfideles d'amour, shi'isme et soufsme
(Paris, 1972), pp. 9-146 and C. W Ernst, Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and theRhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism
1996).
(Richmond,
101
See J.M. S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shah Wati Allah Dihlawi,
1703-1762 (Leiden, 1986), p. 9.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 307
Aside
from
such Arabic
Khatun of Uskiib
Misrl
(d.1694
manner
In his
esoteric
aswell
including
in Turkish,
secrets
the
was
whose
sufi
tombs
from
had
come
on
instructors
of
whose
highly
Sha'ranI
of
for
days
al-MursI
thus
the
pilgrims
best
tended
lectures
letter
divination
in which
India,
a shrine
so as
saint
or
to
was
'Abd
tombside
the
for
sometimes
al-Wahhab
visionary
Sha'ranI
saints
offered
of
deceased
travel
their
Persian
sufis
was
also
one
only
advice
In describing
al-kamil
Nasafl
clearing
his mind
of Dihll
(d.1729
AD)
of
beside
with
whose
a saint
or
to lead
believed
among
and purifying
instead
revealing
itwas
prophet
to give
many
technique
the
customs
such
encouraged
directed
tomb
The
presence.
their
clap
to that
to
the
those
inhabitants.104
a
deal,
great
Abu'l
hands
'Abbas
by
form
and in
world
before
caused
on
sunrise
before
least welcome
(d.1565
like
advice
around
shrine
their
by
assiduous
But
mausolea;
annoyance
saints
entering
a
disturbing
of visionary
of haunting.105
tombs.
was
unawares
in the form
their
to
for visitors
those
al-Sha'ranl
also
at his
in residence
customary
to
saint
Jabra'il
Another
episodes.103
still
at
them
catching
to be
saint.
thousands
dead
of
given
a chosen
of
necropolis's
only
itwas
the
alert
him
catching
visitation
AD)
as elsewhere,
all
(jqfr).U)2
appearance
visionary
a vision
since
that
are
angelic
were
to al-Qarafah,
the
recorded
Saturday. Similar kinds of advice also filtered into the folklore of theMuslim
northern
to Turkish
known
NiyazI-e-MisrI
of
the
with
replete
with
example,
AD)
(d.1287
other
guidebooks
the week
of
science
of al-Qarafah
is also
encounters
advised,
certain
also
Geographies
ensuring
necropolis
pilgrimage
visionary
and
of
ways
Lata'ijal-minan
popular
seeking
to visit
Cairene
series
the
in demanding
unique
best
the
to the great
visitor
AD),
he
far
notebooks,
prison
Visionary
Al-Zawawl
was
diary
dervish, 'Ashiyah
extensive dream diary of Niyazl-e
as the more
extraordinary
encounters,
to him,
explained
the dream
examples,
AD)
(^.1641-43
AD).
of
and Persian
literature. These
well-known
to
pilgrim
Another
as
istikharah,
tomb
while
special
practice
the
the
for
custom
soul
1300
their
al-Insdn
on
concentrating
Kallm
Allah
(dhikr-e-kashf-e-qubur)
of
ensuring
of
in his
Shah
dhikr
graveside
in a dream,
and
from
shaykhs
world,
in Kashkul-e-katimi,
However,
to its
practitioner,
dead
the Muslim
the
1281
(d. between
summoning
circumambulate
recommended
known
on
throughout
his heart.106
performed.107
was
'Aziz Nasafl
and
advice
the deceased
a
sleeping
master
encounter
visionary
in tombs
in order
102
See D. Terzioglu,
"Man in the Image of God in the Image of the Times: Sufi Self-Narratives
and the Diary of
(1618-94)", Studia Islamica 94 (2002), p. 157.
Niyazi-e-Misri
103
'Abd al-Wahhab
(1971), pp. 220-225. See also J. G. Katz, "An Egyptian Sufi Interprets His Dreams:
Trimingham
al-Sha'rani, 1493-1565", Religion 27, 1 (1997).
104
For more on popular medieval
to al-Qarafah,
see T. Ohtoshi,
and guidebooks
"The Manners,
pilgrimage
Customs
and Mentality
to the Egyptian City of the Dead:
of Pilgrims
1100-1500 A.D.", Orient 29 (1993) and
C. S. Taylor, In the Vicinity of theRighteous: Ziyara and the Veneration ofMuslim Saints inLate Medieval Egypt (Leiden,
1999).
105
See W.
The
Scallop Shell,
on Divine
Union)
(Madras,
pp. 46-47.
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
1910),
Nile Green
308
to summon
that was
dreams
two
of
performance
common
of prayer,
cycles
to both
sufis
istikharah
could
and
ordinary
also be
in mosques
accomplished
the
of
practice
was
entire
Ghawth
Some
famous
place,
as the many
of
as
specific
Similar
places
certainly
own
whose
AD),
written
a whole
with
along
and
developed
to have
is said
al-Zubayrl
practices,
Nevertheless,
in the Jawahir-e-khamsah
compiled
to encounter
places
great
the visionary
interred
the Jilawgah-e-imam,
place
of performance.
place
'Abd Allah
istikharah.
(d. 1562-3
The
them.
for
saints
the men
Abu
famously
famous
to summon
practices
were
with
the
of
Indian
is one
mausoleum
host
of
of
sufi,
the most
subcontinent.109
were
shrines
of
subject
Gwallarl
in the
magnificent
in
the
or
time
the
al-istikharah
in the Maghrib.
procedures,
Muhammad
such
on
book
occult
other
namaz
associating
to
reference
any
common
especially
an
without
though
in
and
the home. The Prophet himself had advised on the way of performing
practice,
the
Following
pilgrims.108
there.
special
was
quality
it is the
however,
is one
as well
celebrated
as "a
paradise
eulogised
specific
in Sind
little Makkah')
the Prophet
was
or without
with
beings
('the
of
there
appearance
This
In Morocco,
of God".110
atMakll
necropolis
Makll
where
visionary
on
shrine
of
'All
Shir Qanl'
earth...
the
visiting
the king
of
the jinn,
Sldl Shamharush, in the foothills of the Atlas that ismost famous for the visions witnessed
by its pilgrims, including visions of Sldl Shamharush himself leading his armies of followers
In Iran, it is arguably the shrine of Shah Ni'mat Allah Wall
AD)
acted
reminiscences
the
of
of one
account
of morning
of his
tomb.112
caught
short
of
building
spot.
Some
their
existence
to demand
great
witnessed
no
Christianity
in recent
pilgrimage
that were
at Mahan.
shrine
another
pilgrims,
sleeping
sufi
AD)
(d.1899
to the
at many
of
concrete
residue
dervish
described
closely
Among
we
earlier
amid
(d.1431
centuries.
mentioned
There,
an
find
scene
observed
seeing
the most
to a
the
pilgrimage
and
particular
city
shrines
earlier
even
and most
class
or
appeared
a
elaboration
of Mazar-e-Sharlf
complete
obscure
of dreams
above
which
Shah Ni'mat
of
fairly
regular
basis
for
themselves
a shrine
in northern
sites
pilgrimage
in which
around
Afghanistan
have
level
sepulchre.113
a
their
holy
Islam,
to demand
on
in this way
personage
purported
was
were
visited
al-ZawawI
In premodern
mausoleum
visions
believers
anthropomorphic
saintly
like
experiences.
of Muslim
and
the
pilgrims
on
world
at a less
while
hovering
visionary
prophets
or
famous
construction
lights
and
the Muslim
throughout
in worship,
green
of
shrine
shrines
engaged
tombs
saints
less,
other
glowing
the
a memorial
of
a saint
of
glimpses
the
themselves
108
and
Similarly,
many
Ironically,
Shah
of
to gently wake him up from his sleep before quietly returning to the privacy
have
pilgrims
'All
Safl
centre
active
sufi visit
such
tea-making
Allah coming
The
as the most
originally
as in
the
given
owe
appears
burial
built
site.
as a
See T. Fahd, "bUkhara", in Eh. The practice reflects (though may not necessarily relate to) the custom of
in Greek and Roman
temples, particularly in the form associated with the cult of Asclepius.
trans. Muhammad
Ghawth Gwallari, Jawdhir-e-khamsah,
(Dilhl,
Beg Naqshbandi
Shaykh Muhammad
incubation
109
Hadrat
n.d.). [Urdu]
110
in A. Schimmel,
Islam in the
Mir
ed. S. H. Rashdi
'All Shir Qani', Maklinama,
(Haydarabad, 1967). Quoted
Indian Subcontinent (Leiden, 1980), p. 127.
111
See A. Chlyeh, Les Gnaoua du Maroc: itineraires initiatique, transe et possession (Casablanca,
1998), especially
pp. 60-62.
112
See Homayuni
p. 267.
(1371/1992),
113
See e.g. T Canaan, Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine (London, 1927).
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 309
of one
result
'AlT, whose
son-in-law,
else
body
the Prophet
been
interplay
existed
such
occasions
case
of Mazar-e-Shanf
Asian
Such
medieval
main
at
who
the
made
of
literary
this
traffic
the mausoleum
works
led
to
the
the
The Dream
The
frequent
between
interplay
able
saints
to
interact
of
On
in the
of
and
through
terrestrial
geography
of
visionary
as
such
of human
or
and
in
in a dream
In ways
site.
literary
and
the
the Mughal
appeared
vision
the
even
the
ritual
concrete
in
geographies
its ethereal
with
behind
the medium
architectural,
and
as PanchakkT
one
burial
of
landscape
al-ZawawT
by
there,
own
of
the Muslim
hidden
Muhammad,
world
intangible
counterparts.117
in Hagiography
and Vision
dreaming
continual
and Central
the
known
buried
his
through
physical
of
visited
shrine
the
overlapping
confused
that deliberately
of
expressed
between
the
throughout
recognition
were
worlds
such
narratives.115
geographies,
feature
and were
after Dust
built
following
whether
creativity,
times
end of
landscape
a common
NaqshbandT
to demand
subtle
and
the
in al-Qarafah
cenotaph
the original
dot
were
al-ru'yd)
lay
case
(d.1385 AD),
sacred
or
saints
in the
As
for
place
divinely
in Najaf.
eighteenth-century
devotee
and
At
world
up
physical
perception
means.
the
by
dream
rival
by
earlier
demonstrates
process
of
the Prophet's
earlier
be buried.
hagiographical
burial
also
the other
modern-day
these,
many
of others.116 At
Awrangabad
to
while
others
This
and
local
shrine
(mashahid
mausoleum
soldiers
famous
vision-shrines
Syria,
thousands
a more
vision-shrines
known
site of
instructed
should
the development
augmented
his more
lesser
burial
centuries
been
themselves
cults
pilgrimage
have
brought
as shrines.
revered
positing
than
Muslims
in turn
between
dreams
However,
world.
are
tombs
that
there
themselves
they
true
secretly
in which
as the
revealed
sufTs have
cases,
the places
about
site was
the
had
In other
camels.114
guided
in which
dream
such
burial
death,
and
meant
enshrinement,
that
stories of the dreams and visions of the saints and their followers played an important role
in Muslim
experiences
featuring
of many
themselves
possessed
in
of
and
their
rhetoric
powerful
sufT hagiography.
these
such
Possessing
hagiographies.
sufTs whose
successors
On
that was
sociological
visions
were
also
at the centre
lay
to
claims
best
level,
known
of
the
truth,
often
of
leitmotif
exploited
recorded
important
shrine
that
in
the memory
literary
cults.118
visionary
its frequent
through
it is noteworthy
and
the
This
form
by
was
the
See R. D. McChesney,
Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in theHistory of aMuslim Shrine (Princeton,
1991).
115
See D. DeWeese,
and Kubrawi Hagiographical
in L. Lewisohn
Traditions",
(ed.), The
"Sayyid 'All Hamadani
Legacy ofMedieval Persian Sufism (Oxford, 1999), p. 149.
116
On such vision shrines, see J.Meri, The Cult of Saints amongMuslims andJews inMedieval Syria (Oxford, 2002)
and Taylor (1999), pp. 32?33. As is sometimes revealed in foundation
founded as the result
inscriptions, mosques
of visions also existed.
117
in Arabic Oneirocritical Works",
See G. J. van Gelder, "Dream Towns of Islam: Geography
in A. Neuwirth
(ed.), Myths, Historical Archetypes and Symbolic Figures in Arabic Literature: Towards a New Hermeneutic Approach
(Stuttgart, 1999).
118
See M. K. Hermansen,
"Citing the Sights at the Holy Sights: Visionary Pilgrimage Narratives of Pre-Modern
South Asian Sufis", in E. Waugh
and E M. Denny
(eds.), Islamic Studies inAmerica: Fazlur Rahman (Atlanta, 1997),
inNorth African Islam", Princeton Interdisciplinary
and Sainthood
J. G. Katz, "Visionary Experience, Autobiography
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Nile Green
310
case with
sufT visionary
of
the
of
sainthood.
whose
YazTd,
The
Il-Khans.119
As
al-HakTm
often
at
visionary
and
enlarged
an
therefore
narratives
no
al-TirmidhT
was
shrine
early
was
vision
such,
and
BaqlT
times
less
beautified
essential
also
the prototypical
than
the period
during
in
element
an
entertained
the
rhetoric
element
com
of
petition.
Accounts
descriptions
as an
dreams
recount
hagiographers
how
lent an especially
'AlTHamadanT
of
expression
the Prophet
the
saint's
miraculous
in different
appeared
to
important place
HamadanT's
powers.120
to urge
dreams
people's
them
to follow the saint, while HamadanT himself frequently both appeared in the dreams of others
and
the dreams
interpreted
to
of KashmTr
ethnogenesis.
thus
Islam,
Such
of kings.
dream
linking
also
stories
the
containing
arrival
in the
to
oral
the
predicted
of
traditions
traditions
collective
and
history
Asian
South-East
of
conversion
saint's
Islam,
of
dream
royal
narratives
proliferate
such
One
after which
ship,
the king
wakes
up mysteriously
circumcised.121
Dream
feature
episodes
the Tadhkirat
al-awliya
in the most
prominently
of'Attar
(d.c.1221
famous
for
AD),
Muslim
example,
In
works.
hagiographical
the Prophet
in a dream
appears
to chastise a self-satisfied follower of Dhu'l Nun MisrT (d.861 AD), while a follower of the
deceased Ma'ruf KarkhT (d.815 AD) dreamed of seeing his master standing stupefied with
love beneath the throne of God.122 In the great Nafahat al-uns, JamT (d.1492 AD) describes
a dream
hints
al-Zaman
of'Ayn
at
same
the
that we
have
al-dm
Jamal
of
weighing
epistemological
discussed
one
GTlT,
Before
earlier.123
of
visionary
out
al-dm
versus
experience
to seek
off
setting
of Najm
the disciples
his master,
book-learning
several
GTlT packed
near to
books on logic ((aql) and tradition (naql) to accompany him on his journey. When
his
s centre
al-dm
Najm
travel
with
bag.
him
and
which
accounts
KubrawT
sack
act Najm
sufT, Sa'd
GTlT
felt
two more
This
?) .124 The
stared
for
HamawT,
others
at the
of
empty
bench
he was
not
to realise
for GTlT
the
that
into
books
told
at the
also
coming
saw
gathering
on which
to attend
he
Sa'd
saw Muhammad
"Dreams,
river
the Blind
the
for
Bactrus,
other
the many
seen
a sufT musical
al-dm
away
referred
the dreams
the
a vision
describes
throw
of which
second
to
any possessions
carrying
in the
al-dm,
Najm
the Prophet
present
he was
in which
felt
threw
same work,
in the
he
him,
promptly
and visions
al-dm
since
containing
out
GTlT
time,
a dream
had
puzzled
dreams
the matter
spelt
al-dm
of dreams
as he
GTlT
waking,
of books.
(majlis-e-sama
propriety
at Khwarazm,
it took
master
exasperated
to his
On
that
Kubra,
standing
by
another
gathering
with
great
seated.
of the
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 311
the
from
Hagiographies
of
tales
spectacular
are
subcontinent
Indian
visionary
for
noteworthy
particularly
In his Jawahir
encounters.125
their
often
the North
al-awliya,
Indian
Makhdum
instructed
him
by
the
of
performance
frequently
by
saint
cults
or
visionary
earlier
concerning
prayers
popular
involve
and
kings
initiated
the world
into
In some
who
of
sufis
in the
expression
and
one
Persian
like
if such
folklore
of
as
they
see
Jabra'il
at
in the
in worship.
also
congregations
time
invoking
in the Bengali
feature
religious
instructed
engaged
same
the
personally
affect
then,
and Hindu
legends
in the oral
still recounted
of
tradition
emperor Awrangzeb
are
that
from
the
sufi
to be
into
However,
exist
many
which
Dakan
Shah Palangposh
the
tradition
such
also
accounts
found
the motif
describes
of
greatest
it is onlookers
has
of
"a wild
into
himself
Here
versions
literary
eighteenth-century
transform
form.
There
a motif
lions,
to commit
able
another
considered.
and
tigers
Asia.
South
seen
shape-shifting
into
the
are
it is rightly
themselves
hagiography
screaming
a
angel
thus
dreams
saints
that of
the
theMughal
in stories
texts, Muslim
in the vision,
transforming
Visions,
often
episodes,
Royal
the vision
accomplishments,
partake
dhikr.
(d.1692 AD).127
Asian
South
of
and was
to Madlnah
shared Muslim
with
in the Dakan
of
all visionary
of
forms
a vision
oneiric
emperors.
efficient
ritual
surrounding
a visit
during
Prophet
the most
about
in the human
practice
Stories
the
encountered
thieves
rich
exist
also
sneaking
only to be chased
tiger with
eyes
popping
peacock's".128
Conclusions
most
Although
our
of
and
dreams
context
have
as a means
rufyd
Pamuk
the
even
of political
a programme
the
to
limited
has
framework
roles
played
early
to
continue
amid
the
the
past,
national
cultural
revival.130
assembled
novel
Kara
traditional
Kitap,
social
political
More
Muslim
while
Swahili
the Muslim
reform.129
developed
in their
justice
the Turkish
recently,
theories
manuals
of
is by no
religiosity. This
of Muslim
and
of visions
recounting
throughout
Iraqi writers
twentieth-century
Utopias
his
the
flourish
discourse
portraying
Iraqi
from
drawn
of
intricately
for
that
groups
reform,
of
of
sufi
been
have
examples
world
In a different
the genre
of
the
promotion
writer
of
Orhan
the
dream
and
vision
of
dream
interpretation
as
see respectively
For details of visionary episodes in medieval
and modern
South Asian Muslim
hagiography,
B. B. Lawrence, Notes From a Distant Flute: The Extant Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian Sufism (Tehran, 1978) and
C. Liebeskind, Piety on itsKnees: Three Sufi Traditions in South Asia inModern Times (Delhi, 1998).
126
See Qamar-ul Huda, Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercisesfor Suhrawardi Sufis (London, 2003), pp. 103-104.
127
See N. Green, "Stories of Saints and Sultans: the Oral Historical Tradition of the Aurangabad Shrines" Modern
Asian Studies (forthcoming)
and T. K. Stewart, "Satya Pir: Muslim Holy Man and Hindu God" in D. S. Lopez
1995).
(ed.), Religions of India in Practice (Princeton,
128
Shah Mahmud Awrangabadi, Malfuzat-e-Naqshbandiyyah:
Halat-e-Hadrat
Baba Shah Musafir Sahib (Haydarabad:
Nizamat-e-'Umur-e-Madhhabl-e-Sarkar-e-'Ali,
p. 37.
1358/1939-40),
129
See M. Gaborieau,
the Sufis: The Debate
in Nineteenth
India", in E de Jong
Century
"Criticizing
B. Radtke
(eds), IslamicMysticism Contested: 13Centuries of Controversies and Polemics (Leiden, 1999).
130
See W. Walther,
and Starkey (1998), pp. 234-236.
"Folklore", inMeisami
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and
Nile Green
312
some
form
The
coast.131
of
the most
of
all
classes
visions
have
of
society
roles
of
For
But
by Muslim
thus
new
booksellers
in
in no way
religious
life
form
dreams
and
literary
these
Evidently,
the modernity
upon
impinge
African
in the
resonance.
and
functions
the East
along
a role
play
while
world,
cultural
experience
to
continued
the Muslim
develop
useful
recent
of
aspect
in
the
neutral
the most
perhaps
to understand
attempts
of
the
of what
ground
of
aspect
rewarding
the
cultural
framework
in which
narratives
disbelief.
has
are found.132
they
of the imagination
visionary
right
to
one
scholars
across
imaginative
in which
societies
stocked
of dreams
continued
continued
titles
popular
interpretation
used
the
to
simply
be
of Muslim
study
called
dream
suspended
and visionary
traditions is the way inwhich they alert us to the different roles played by the imagination
in formulating the diverse ways in which believers broadened the boundaries of what it
means
the
to be Muslim.
character
can
of visionary
came
itself
experiences
to be mutated
out
make
clearly
of dreams
and
recounted
Whether
into
literary
the different
have
visions
by
was
often
form.
But
social,
been
for
altered
in all of
cultural
and
or
historians
hagiographers,
ends
specific
their
political
experience
we
in such writings
diversity,
uses
autobiographers,
when
towards
accounts
which
directed.
episodes
de Quincey.
Thomas
Both
history.
the
various
a considerable
played
of
preparations
a central
were
Africa)
also
fantasies
opium
and
opium
in North
majnun
Such
of
element
cannabis
the
inMuslim
role
(as bhang
of
practices
the
cultural
in South
or
Asia
for
qalandariyyah,
Dihll
maljuzat texts from the circle of Nizam al-din Awliya (d.1325 AD) in
show how qalandars often flaunted the usage of such drugs to the displeasure of their
more
sober
example.133 Medieval
'Inayat Khan
companion
of
sub-genre
both
us of
The
Islam.135
tales
the
the
secular
from
dying
humorous
remind
arts of
In
colleagues.
the
describing
the
of
this
famous
of opium
ravages
of
such
however,
subject,
and
less
the popular
the
of
Arabic
medieval
eaters
of hashish
visionaries
respectable
must
boon
ofjahangir's
painting
adventures
picaresque
contributions
undoubted
exploration
the
sphere,
the
fall beyond
remit
to
the
of
this
article.
To
the
discourse
each
of
cultural
on
the
the uses
oneirocritical
historian,
finds
imagination
to which
visionary
expression
narratives
and
visionary
texts
in different
have
been
reveal
historical
put,
below
contexts.
each
in which
the ways
Yet
entrapment
beneath
of
the
131
Orhan Pamuk, The Black Book, trans. G. Gun (London, 1996).
13
in
ofWorlds"
and the Pakistani Saint: The Interpenetration
See e.g. K. P. Ewing, "The Modern Businessman
"The
G. M. Smith and C. W. Ernst (eds), Manifestations
of Sainthood in Islam (Istanbul, 1993) and V.J. Hoffman,
in Contemporary
Role of Visions
Life", Religion 27, 1 (1997). Extensive accounts of the dream
Egyptian Religious
are also found in Azam (1992), pp. 33-103.
lives of contemporary Muslims
in A. Popovic and G. Veinstein
On the activities of such groups, see J. Baldick, "Les Qalenderis"
(eds), Les
Voies dAllah: Les ordres mystiques dans le monde musulman des origines a aujourd'hui (Paris, 1996) and A. Karamustafa,
God's Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Later Middle Period, 1200-1550 (Salt Lake City, 1994).
in the Religious
Life of the Delhi
See S. Digby, "Qalandars and Related Groups: Elements of Social Deviance
in Y. Friedmann
and Fourteenth Centuries",
Sultanate of the Thirteenth
(ed.), Islam in India, vol. 1 (Jerusalem,
1984).
135
Bodleian Library, MS. Ouseley
Muslim Society (Leiden, 1971).
Add.
See F. Rosenthal,
Versus Medieval
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 313
quiet
itself.
experience
tropes
and
monastic
election
by
of
eloquence
images
be
abbot
of Brakelond
in
of portentous
the
and
cloisters
to the
as familiar
1182
one
monk
Each
even
universal
AD)
quality
new
morning
seeing
of
broken
these
The
time
were
St Edmunds
of
the
haunted
dreams
spread
St Edmund
of
body
the
of
experiences,
at the
how
accounts
the
such
as of
Christianity.
recounts
of Bury
monks
reported
to
aura
the
lingers
of Buddhism
scholar
(d.c.1202
the worried
dreams.136
there
of writing,
is an unquestionably
there
ofjocelin
the new
of
world
in the blunter
dream
that will
chronicle
all manner
around
the
Often
himself rise from his tomb amid all of the disquiet of the abbey. Through the shared qualities
of the dreams of the monks of Bury and the visions of the likes of Ruzbihan BaqlT, the
freshness
individual
of
such
glimpses
humanity
136
Jocelin of Brakelond,
1989), pp. 18-19.
of
into
another
soul
ultimately
serves
to
remind
us
of
the
living
the past.
Chronicle
of the Abbey
of Bury St Edmunds,
trans. D. Greenway
and J. Sayers
This content downloaded from 128.97.244.230 on Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:42:14 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
(Oxford,