This is the result of a rash promise I made a friend some time ago to bring some simplicity to a subject normally wrapped in obscure terms and obtuse language. My current wife made it difficult to evade the task by sadistically presenting me reading material running into thousands of pages. So here goes. The basic terms first.
A Sufi is one who immerses himself totally in God. Lives and dies through Him.
A 'mystical experience' is one which generates a feeling of well being which one can not relate to within one’s material context. Only as a communion with a higher power, God.
Sufi poetry is an expression of man’s inner experience of spirituality and his unending quest for God’s love.
First identified Sufi poetry appeared in Arabia in the ninth century followed shortly thereafter in Persia. Subsequently, Sufi poetry has been composed in many languages wherever Sufis travelled and settled; including the Middle East, India and Africa. The main languages are Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. The normal written form of the first three languages is the Arabic script but much of early Hindi and Punjabi poetry was also originally written in the Arabic script. Sufi poetry has affected and in turn been affected by folk poetry as far afield as Bengal and its Bauls.
Beyond The Obvious
The form of Sufi poetry is a very personal inspired expression. It operates at many levels. At a basic level it makes for great reading. At another level it creates a mystical feeling of spiritual upliftment. At the highest level it is known to create mass ecstasy bordering on trance when recited in a gathering of enlightened people.
It is important to understand that Sufi poets were poets first and Sufis second, some of them being recognised as Sufis posthumously. At the other end, many Sufi masters did not leave behind a body of poetic work or even of prose. Many great masters felt that words were inadequate to reflect their mystical experiences.
Formal Structure
While the finished poetry reads as a voluntary outpouring, in reality Sufi poetry follows some fairly rigid formal structures. In general each verse consists of two half verses.
Sufi poetry of Arabic heritage follows the pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. In this form the second half of the first verse rhymes with the first half. The second half of each following verse also rhymes with the first verse as in: a a; b a; c a, etc.. The poems are classified into three main categories depending on the number of verses. Thus a Quatrain (ruba’i) has two verses or four half verses, a Lyric (ghazal) has six to twenty verses and an Ode (qasida) has twenty to an unlimited number of verses.
Sufi poetry of the Persian heritage is the Epic (masnavi). Each verse again has two halves. The second half of each verse rhymes with its own first half. This makes each verse independent of those succeeding or those following it as in: a a; b b; c c etc. An epic poem can thus be of unlimited length, from very short to many thousands of verses.
Discovery by the West
Sufi poetry was discovered for the western civilisation by British orientalists in the late eighteenth century. By some accounts Sufi poetry was among the first things that the westerners could relate to in the eastern cultures. Initially it was read literally as romantic poetry. Over time scholars realised that the standard romantic terminology had altogether different references in the Sufi tradition.
The first Sufi poet to achieve widespread recognition in the west was Omar Khayyam, a minor Persian poet, but a great mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. There are many limitations when Sufi, more so than any other, poetry is read in translation. Firstly the English and other European languages do not have the richness of vocabulary to replicate the rhyming of the originals. Secondly, much of the Sufi poetry is a dual language creation. For example, Persian poets often resort to Arabic words or phrases to achieve a certain effect. This would be very difficult to achieve for a primarily mono-lingual audience unless, for example, English is used for Persian together with Latin for Arabic .
Over time three distinct forms of translations have emerged. The first is the direct literal word-for-word translation. The second is a translation of each verse to get across its hidden or intended meaning as perceived by the translators, often losing its poetic form in the process. The third is an attempt to create a poem in the target language starting from the second. Each translated work thus acquires some predilections inherent to the translator.
Key Imagery & Interpretation
Sufi poetry can be confusing because early works adopted much of the imagery of the cultural contexts from which it emerged. The most prominent such sources are:
1. the hagiographic poetry of the royal courts of the era,
2. the homage to wine and wine servers in Christian monasteries with their ritualised wine drinking; often in the form of passionate declarations of love for the, male or female, saqi (cup bearer); and, of course,
3. the eternal practise of amorous love of one human for another and the resulting erotic verse.
An early Sufi poet Ibn al-'Arabi had to explain: “I indicate lordly knowledge, divine illuminations, spiritual secrets, rational truths and religious admonitions, but I have expressed them in the style of the erotic lyric. This is the language of every cultivated writer and elegant spiritual person.”
Given the similarity of imagery and language of the secular poetry of the courts, the intoxicated spontaneous utterances of the wine house patron and ecstatic or agonised outpourings of lovers, it is important to understand that Sufi poetry’s mystical character derives from its context and interpretation rather than its literal form.
Thus mashooq, “the beloved”, is God; nasha of wine is spiritual intoxication; ishq is passionate love between man and God, and so on.
The real power of Sufi poetry is the experience that the poetry creates in the reader and through him the listener, if any. It is a literary and spiritual continuum to which the reader, the listener and the poet converge spanning time, geography and culture.
Sufi Poetry & Pop Culture
The most accessible places for Sufi poetry and music have traditionally been the shrines to famous Sufi saints, many of them in India and what is presently Pakistan. Here one finds the best of Sufi poetry, delivered by singers of remarkable class, in praise of or love of god. Here musical performances leading to mass ecstasy can be experienced like nowhere else.
Other than this, Sufi poetry and music continue to flourish in numerous places small and big from Cairo to Calcutta to Jakarta. Over the last three quarters of a century, the explosive growth of broadcast media, recorded distribution and lately internet, have brought Sufi poetry and music to the masses. Music based on Sufi poetry has spread far beyond what its religious or spiritual context would have warranted.
The largest numbers have been reached through Indian Urdu/Hindi films which rely heavily on the Ghazal and the Qawwali, incorporating Urdu and occasionally Persian or even Arabic words. The popularity and reach of Indian films music is phenomenal covering as it does the Indian sub-continent and spreads all the way to Persia and the Arab countries.Without knowing it millions today enjoy derivatives of Sufi poetry and music. There are even instances of popular Ghazals and Qawwalis from Hindi cinema being adapted back to Persian and other middle eastern languages.
In the western world though, till recently, Sufi poetry was the domain of scholars, seekers and oddballs. Starting late twentieth century, wider western audiences also discovered the mesmerising pop form of Sufi poetry and music through the work of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and those who followed him. Sufi music has now established a small but expanding following in world music.
The Poetry-Music Paradox
Finally any exposition on Sufi poetry would be incomplete without pointing out the ultimate paradox. To those who know the language, Sufi music is meaningless without the words. To most of the world audience that loves Sufi music, however, the words are meaningless. It is not uncommon to have musical congregations where audiences with diverse language and cultural backgrounds enjoy performances in equally diverse set of languages. All immersed in an experience not easily categorised or understood.
Notes:
1. I have deliberately avoided listing poets or favourite works. Firstly because there are too many of them. Secondly because many of the best are probably not even known. Most Sufi poets have traditionally written and performed for themselves and their fraternity.
2. Inevitably the worst translations come out of the pulp press in Northern India from people who are often neither scholars nor linguists nor poets.
3. This is not a work of scholarship. I have liberally used various sources, too numerous to individually acknowledge.
A Sufi is one who immerses himself totally in God. Lives and dies through Him.
A 'mystical experience' is one which generates a feeling of well being which one can not relate to within one’s material context. Only as a communion with a higher power, God.
Sufi poetry is an expression of man’s inner experience of spirituality and his unending quest for God’s love.
First identified Sufi poetry appeared in Arabia in the ninth century followed shortly thereafter in Persia. Subsequently, Sufi poetry has been composed in many languages wherever Sufis travelled and settled; including the Middle East, India and Africa. The main languages are Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. The normal written form of the first three languages is the Arabic script but much of early Hindi and Punjabi poetry was also originally written in the Arabic script. Sufi poetry has affected and in turn been affected by folk poetry as far afield as Bengal and its Bauls.
Beyond The Obvious
The form of Sufi poetry is a very personal inspired expression. It operates at many levels. At a basic level it makes for great reading. At another level it creates a mystical feeling of spiritual upliftment. At the highest level it is known to create mass ecstasy bordering on trance when recited in a gathering of enlightened people.
It is important to understand that Sufi poets were poets first and Sufis second, some of them being recognised as Sufis posthumously. At the other end, many Sufi masters did not leave behind a body of poetic work or even of prose. Many great masters felt that words were inadequate to reflect their mystical experiences.
Formal Structure
While the finished poetry reads as a voluntary outpouring, in reality Sufi poetry follows some fairly rigid formal structures. In general each verse consists of two half verses.
Sufi poetry of Arabic heritage follows the pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. In this form the second half of the first verse rhymes with the first half. The second half of each following verse also rhymes with the first verse as in: a a; b a; c a, etc.. The poems are classified into three main categories depending on the number of verses. Thus a Quatrain (ruba’i) has two verses or four half verses, a Lyric (ghazal) has six to twenty verses and an Ode (qasida) has twenty to an unlimited number of verses.
Sufi poetry of the Persian heritage is the Epic (masnavi). Each verse again has two halves. The second half of each verse rhymes with its own first half. This makes each verse independent of those succeeding or those following it as in: a a; b b; c c etc. An epic poem can thus be of unlimited length, from very short to many thousands of verses.
Discovery by the West
Sufi poetry was discovered for the western civilisation by British orientalists in the late eighteenth century. By some accounts Sufi poetry was among the first things that the westerners could relate to in the eastern cultures. Initially it was read literally as romantic poetry. Over time scholars realised that the standard romantic terminology had altogether different references in the Sufi tradition.
The first Sufi poet to achieve widespread recognition in the west was Omar Khayyam, a minor Persian poet, but a great mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. There are many limitations when Sufi, more so than any other, poetry is read in translation. Firstly the English and other European languages do not have the richness of vocabulary to replicate the rhyming of the originals. Secondly, much of the Sufi poetry is a dual language creation. For example, Persian poets often resort to Arabic words or phrases to achieve a certain effect. This would be very difficult to achieve for a primarily mono-lingual audience unless, for example, English is used for Persian together with Latin for Arabic .
Over time three distinct forms of translations have emerged. The first is the direct literal word-for-word translation. The second is a translation of each verse to get across its hidden or intended meaning as perceived by the translators, often losing its poetic form in the process. The third is an attempt to create a poem in the target language starting from the second. Each translated work thus acquires some predilections inherent to the translator.
Key Imagery & Interpretation
Sufi poetry can be confusing because early works adopted much of the imagery of the cultural contexts from which it emerged. The most prominent such sources are:
1. the hagiographic poetry of the royal courts of the era,
2. the homage to wine and wine servers in Christian monasteries with their ritualised wine drinking; often in the form of passionate declarations of love for the, male or female, saqi (cup bearer); and, of course,
3. the eternal practise of amorous love of one human for another and the resulting erotic verse.
An early Sufi poet Ibn al-'Arabi had to explain: “I indicate lordly knowledge, divine illuminations, spiritual secrets, rational truths and religious admonitions, but I have expressed them in the style of the erotic lyric. This is the language of every cultivated writer and elegant spiritual person.”
Given the similarity of imagery and language of the secular poetry of the courts, the intoxicated spontaneous utterances of the wine house patron and ecstatic or agonised outpourings of lovers, it is important to understand that Sufi poetry’s mystical character derives from its context and interpretation rather than its literal form.
Thus mashooq, “the beloved”, is God; nasha of wine is spiritual intoxication; ishq is passionate love between man and God, and so on.
The real power of Sufi poetry is the experience that the poetry creates in the reader and through him the listener, if any. It is a literary and spiritual continuum to which the reader, the listener and the poet converge spanning time, geography and culture.
Sufi Poetry & Pop Culture
The most accessible places for Sufi poetry and music have traditionally been the shrines to famous Sufi saints, many of them in India and what is presently Pakistan. Here one finds the best of Sufi poetry, delivered by singers of remarkable class, in praise of or love of god. Here musical performances leading to mass ecstasy can be experienced like nowhere else.
Other than this, Sufi poetry and music continue to flourish in numerous places small and big from Cairo to Calcutta to Jakarta. Over the last three quarters of a century, the explosive growth of broadcast media, recorded distribution and lately internet, have brought Sufi poetry and music to the masses. Music based on Sufi poetry has spread far beyond what its religious or spiritual context would have warranted.
The largest numbers have been reached through Indian Urdu/Hindi films which rely heavily on the Ghazal and the Qawwali, incorporating Urdu and occasionally Persian or even Arabic words. The popularity and reach of Indian films music is phenomenal covering as it does the Indian sub-continent and spreads all the way to Persia and the Arab countries.Without knowing it millions today enjoy derivatives of Sufi poetry and music. There are even instances of popular Ghazals and Qawwalis from Hindi cinema being adapted back to Persian and other middle eastern languages.
In the western world though, till recently, Sufi poetry was the domain of scholars, seekers and oddballs. Starting late twentieth century, wider western audiences also discovered the mesmerising pop form of Sufi poetry and music through the work of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and those who followed him. Sufi music has now established a small but expanding following in world music.
The Poetry-Music Paradox
Finally any exposition on Sufi poetry would be incomplete without pointing out the ultimate paradox. To those who know the language, Sufi music is meaningless without the words. To most of the world audience that loves Sufi music, however, the words are meaningless. It is not uncommon to have musical congregations where audiences with diverse language and cultural backgrounds enjoy performances in equally diverse set of languages. All immersed in an experience not easily categorised or understood.
Notes:
1. I have deliberately avoided listing poets or favourite works. Firstly because there are too many of them. Secondly because many of the best are probably not even known. Most Sufi poets have traditionally written and performed for themselves and their fraternity.
2. Inevitably the worst translations come out of the pulp press in Northern India from people who are often neither scholars nor linguists nor poets.
3. This is not a work of scholarship. I have liberally used various sources, too numerous to individually acknowledge.
