THREE GREAT SUFI POETS OF ANDALUSIA: Abu Madyan, Ibn 'Arabi & Al-Shushtari: Selected Poems

THREE GREAT SUFI POETS OF ANDALUSIA... Abu Madyan, Ibn ‘Arabi & Al-Shushtari SELECTED POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith ABU MADYAN (1126-1198) was a Sufi teacher, scholar and writer and poet. Some say he is the most important founder of Sufism in the Maghreb and Andalusia. He received his religious education in Fez, where he underwent the influence of the teachings of Gilani, Abu Yaza, and al-Ghazali. After his pilgrimage to Mecca and studies in the Middle East, he returned to teach in Bougie, Algeria. Ibn ‘Arabi called Abu Madyan ‘the teacher of teachers’. IBN ‘ARABI (1165-1240). In the West, he is also known as the Doctor Maximus and in the Islamic world as al-Shaykh al-Akbar (Great Master.) He was born in Murcia in Andalusia, At the age of thirty-five he left Spain intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived near Mecca for three years, where he began writing The Meccan Illuminations). In 1204 he left for Anatolia. He finished his influential and controversial book of poems The Interpreter of Ardent Desires in 1215. In 1223 he settled in Damascus where he lived the last seventeen years of his life. A prolific writer, Ibn ‘Arabi is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as the ‘Unity of Being’. AL-SHUSHTARI (1212-1269) was a Sufi poet who was born in Guadix, northwest of Granada, Spain. As a young man he travelled to Tunisia, Algeria, Damascus and several times made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He finally settled in Egypt. He became a devotee of the Sufi Master Ibn Sab’in. Al-Shushtari composed two treatises on Sufism. Often when walking or riding the poet would sing his poems and play an instrument as he did so. He was influenced by Ibn ‘Arabi. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept in all these beautiful, powerful poems. Introduction on the Life & Times & Poetry of the poets and Sufi Poetry and Forms. COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH’S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ’S ‘DIVAN’.“It is not a joke... the English version of ALL ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran.“Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart.Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu’in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Shah Latif, Mahsati, Lalla Ded, Rahman Baba, Iqbal, Ghalib, Seemab, Jigar, Abu Nuwas, Ibn al-Farid, Ibn al-‘Arabi, Abu Nuwas and others, and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and a dozen screenplays.w amazxon.com/author/smithpa Read more