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Preface: we have endeavored to produce a balanced study avoiding value judgments well aware of controversial issue Shari6a is in Muslim and rest of world (p. xviii). Their conclusion is indisputable, that Shar;6a is unlikely to be abolished in the near future as its removal would be labelled un-Islamic; however it is equally unlikely that the Sudan, with its present boundaries, can survive as an Islamist state.

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Rhode Island College

doi:10.1093/jis/eti143

From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn al-F:ri@, His Verse, and His Shrine. By Th. Emil Homerin (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2001), 162 pp. Price PB 15.95. ISBN 9774246683.
Lovers of Su poetry, scholars of Arabic literature, and Islamic studies generally all owe a debt of gratitude to the American University of Cairo for this updated paperback edition of From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn al-F:ri@, His Verse, and His Shrine. This seminal work, rst published in 1994, traces the process by which Ibn al-F:ri@ (576632/11811235)known to his contemporaries as a devout Muslim, poet and litterateurbecame assimilated within the communal memory of his co-religionists as a God-intoxicated saint steeped in the mystical doctrines of divine unity. The key premiss of this work is the centrality of textual discourse to this process over time. In this study Dr Homerin treats, through a rich array of primary sources that had not yet appeared in translation, the socio-historic currents that were to shape the eventual persona of Ibn al-F:ri@ from the fourteenth century until the modern era. This second edition has also been enriched with a new preface, a list of addenda to the rst edition, and an updated bibliography. The ongoing saga of mawlid celebration of Ibn al-F:ri@ and his shrine in the Jebel Muqattam cemetery has also been updated to the year 2000. From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint comprises four chapters, arranged chronologically: Metamorphosis, Sanctication, Controversy, and Disjunction. Each chapter corresponds to a stage in the evolving interpretation of Ibn al-F:ri@s character and literary output. Metamorphosis (pp. 1532) deals with the earliest references to Ibn al-F:ri@ narrated by those closest to him: his students and contemporaries. In these references he is depicted as a sober scholar of Hadith, a teacher of the art of poetry, and an inspired and articulate Su (p. 24). It was, however, at the hands of his commentators that Ibn al-F:ri@ initially gained the status of a gnostic poet whose experiential knowledge of God (ma6rifa) had endowed him with poetic inspiration and supernatural powers (p. 27). The earliest of these commentators, Sa6;d al-D;n al-Fargh:n; (d. 1300), interpreted drinking wine as symbolizing Ibn al-F:ri@s mystical experience and the burning pains of love as the mystics pained separation from God (p. 28). Two later

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commentators, following al-Fargh:n;s example, elevated Ibn al-F:ri@ to an even higher status. 6Izz al-D;n al-K:sh:n; (d. 1334) said of Ibn al-F:ri@, the shaykh, the scholar, the realized and thorough knower of God (p. 28). D:8<d al-Qaysar; (d. 1346) wrote of Ibn al-F:ri@, the exemplar of the gnostics of the worlds, the chief of the greatest scholars, the pride of those with spiritual insight, the adornment of the saints, and the axis of the true friends [aBy:8] (p. 28). These commentators, themselves inuenced by the works of Ibn al-6Arab; (11651240) and his student 4adr al-D;n al-Q<naw; (d. 1274), saw Ibn al-F:ri@ as a mystically inspired spokesman of absolute unity (waAdat al-wuj<d). Later critics, such as the well known Eanbal; jurist Ibn Taym;yya (d. 1328) and the famous grammarian Ab< Eayy:n (d. 745/1344) would take these commentaries as indicative of Ibn al-F:ri@s doctrinal point of view and nd grounds for portraying him, at best, as an extremist Su at odds with Islamic orthodoxy itself. For this reason the early commentariesin particular those dealing with al-T:8;ya al-kubr:, his most famous ode describing the Su itinerary to spiritual realizationare crucial to an understanding of Ibn al-F:ri@s postmortem metamorphosis (p. 29). The accusations of incarnation and monism made by his detractors in the thirteenth century would taint Ibn al-F:ri@s reputation down to our own times. Sanctication (pp. 3354) deals with the role of the textual tradition of hagiography in the genesis of a saint (p. 33). This chapter analyses the text most central to the elevation of Ibn al-F:ri@s status from poet to saint. This work, the D; b:jah, composed by the poets grandson 6Al;, Sibt Ibn al-F:ri@ (. 1334), was written as the preface to a collection of his grandfathers poetry, his D; w:n. The D; b:jah is a succinct summary of the poets early mystical calling and the inward states that gave rise to al-T:8;ya al-kubr:. The D; b:jah portrays Ibn al-F:ri@ as an exemplar of the Su path and includes numerous anecdotes of his dealings with the Maml<k rulers of his times, miraculous stories and events, and his death and burial in the cemetery of Mount Muqattam. The D; b:jah is a living example of a text that provides the criteria, so often sought by modern researchers, that attribute the aura of sanctity to a particular gure within the Islamic socio-religious context. Homerins treatment of the D; b:jah and the reasons that led to its eventual popularity among future generations accents the particular nature and the intent behind the hagiographic text that distinguishes it from the biographical works dealing with Hadith scholars and fuqah:8. In Controversy (pp. 5575), Homerin picks up the thread of the theological discourse and the conicting opinions about interpretations of Ibn al-F:ri@ that arose in 146970, when al-Fargh:n;s commentary on the al-T:8;ya al-kubr: was taught in public. Critics such as 6Izz al-D;n al-Kin:n; (13971471), a chief Eanbal; judge, ascetic, and Su; the Sh:6; jurisprudent and Hadith scholar, Ibn Im:m al-K:mil;ya (140669) and another Sh:6; scholar, Ibr:h;m al-Biq:6; (140780) accused Ibn al-F:ri@ and anyone who defended him of indelity. These critics drew upon Ibn Taymiyyas early criticisms of Ibn al-F:ri@ and tended to concentrate upon the doctrines of absolute unity (waAdat al-wuj<d), incarnation (Aul<l), unication (ittiA:d) and the veneration of saints. These critics feared that the doctrines they believed Ibn al-F:ri@ espoused would

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invalidate the legal foundations of Islam. The motives behind this debate, however, may not have been of a purely theological nature. Through careful reading of texts of the period, Homerin contextualizes this debate, which tended to be between the old established scholars (the critics), and the next generation of upcoming senior scholars (the supporters), within a period of political and economic instability. In this light, the motivating factors behind the debate were the lucrative positions of power and prestige to be gained by scholars who were well considered by the ruling Maml<k elite. The controversy came to an end with the miraculous appearance of Ibn al-F:ri@s ghost before a family member of Sultan Q:6it B:y one day in 1470. This event coincided with the natural death of his main detractors and with the disgrace of al-Biq:6; for instigating civil disturbances against the supporters of Ibn al-F:ri@. This controversy, as is so often the case, only served to enhance the status of Ibn al-F:ri@ and conrm his sanctity among both the generality and the elite. After the controversy of 146970 organized opposition to Ibn al-F:ri@ evaporated (p. 75). Jonathan Katz, in his review of the work under consideration, called Disjunction (pp. 7692) the most discursive chapter in the book (IJMES, 36 (2004), 281). In this chapter the textual discourse, from seventeenth-century hagiographies to the short stories of Naguib Mahfouzset against a backdrop of the changing of fortunes of Ibn al-F:ri@s shrine and yearly mawsimcomes full circle, from Ibn al-F:ri@ the poet to the saint and back again (p. 96). By Ottoman times the saintly image of Ibn al-F:ri@ had become an accepted theme well testied to in hagiographies of the period such as al-Mun:w; (15451622) and Ibn al-6Im:d (162379). Ibn al-F:ri@s popularity led others to imitate his style, and between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries more than a dozen commentaries of his verse were written. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, with Egypt slipping out of Ottoman control and being transformed into a modern state, Ibn al-F:ri@s status as a saint began to decline. More often than not Egyptians returning from study abroad regarded the simple beliefs of the generality and popular customs as superstition and outdated ways of thinking. Islamic reform movements, under modernist inuence, turned to apologetics or, following the example of Ibn Taymiyya, sought to rid Islamic society of harmful innovation and the veneration of saints. The mawlid of Ibn al-F:ri@ fell victim on the one hand to these modernist tendencies and on the other to a government wary of popular Islamic movements. By the 1940s the mawlid lost much of its following and by 1960 was no longer celebrated. Despite the outward decline of the fortunes of Ibn al-F:ri@ as a saint, judged by the circumstances of his shrine and mawlid, his poetry continued to be held in high esteem. The educated elite, both modernist and traditionalist, appreciated its elegance, literary value, and inspirational qualities. His D; w:n was considered by many to be among the classics of Arabic literature. In the rst half of the twentieth century European scholars began to take an intense interest in the works of Ibn al-F:ri@. C. A. Nallino and R. A. Nicholson found in his verse an expression of the universal desire for experiential union with God, free from doctrinal allusions or outside inuences. For many Orientalists,

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Ibn al-F:ri@s verse bore witness to the vitality of the creative spirit and reected the shared ideals of humanity. In time the D; w:n, including the entire al-T:8;ya al-kubr:, was edited and translated. Egyptian scholars like MuAammad MuB3af: Eilm;, inuenced perhaps by orientalist appreciation of Ibn al-F:ri@, began to reevaluate Ibn al-F:ri@s verse in a more literary light and to see in his person a poet inspired by a love of absolute beauty more than a God-intoxicated mystic. Despite this modern admiration for Ibn al-F:ri@ as a poet and litterateur, he remains known to all as the Sul3:n al-62shiq; n (Sultan of the Lovers) and his poetry has become part of Egypts cultural heritage. As Homerin writes, Freed for the most part from the taint of Ibn al-6Arab; and shorn of fabulous tales, Ibn al-F:ri@, the mystical poet, has earned a place among Egypts literary and spiritual forefathers (p. 89). Among the modern educated elite, Ibn al-F:ri@s status as a saint may have suffered the vicissitudes of varying social and historical contexts; his appeal, however, to the generality of Egyptian Muslims was never in question. He has always exemplied the ideals and values that Muslims hold most highly: piety, proximity to God, and absolute surrender to His decrees. His shrine has always been and continues to be a centre for pilgrimage; the mawlid has been reinstated since 1981. Thus, as Homerin ends this work, late in the twentieth century this thirteenth-century Muslim persists both through the power of his poetry and the belief in his sanctity (p. 97). The subject of sanctity and its socio-historical repercussions has become of central interest in the religious studies classroom. From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint offers an Islamic perspective on how sanctity as an institution grows out of a textual discourse that takes place over the centuries. I feel this book would be a relevant addition to the upper-level Islamic-studies classroom in which the literature, history, and popular culture of the Islamic world are studied. I can imagine its use as a secondary text in graduate seminars that focus on the early textual history of Susm. However, the discourse drawn upon in this work extends beyond the realm of the Islamic studies classroom; and anyone attracted to the study of the realm of the saint as a science of the human soul and its multiple states will nd this work of great interest.

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Kenneth L. Honerkamp University of Georgia at Athens

doi:10.1093/jis/eti144

Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800 Edited by GUITY NESHAT and LOIS BECK (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 267 pp. Price PB $18.95. ISBN 0252071212.
This is an extremely interesting, well-researched, and well-written volume, which marks a major step towards bringing women back to their place