Dreams in Islamicate World Nile Green

The Religious and Cultural Roles of Dreams and Visions in Islam Author(s): Nile Green Source: Journal of the
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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam"
NILE
GREEN
Introduction Since annalists "visions cannot material to be to the herd of historians and account
appear hope
spiritual
persons
only, So,
vulgar
so favoured
by Heaven".1
in his
nineteenth-century
of the sufls of Sind, SirRichard Burton expressed the dilemma of scholars researching Muslim
dream and visionary activities longer be experiences of premodern deterred in his characteristic style. But while is still no scholarly discussion matter of of the visionary we need no sufls and other Muslims sardonic the past two
straightforward the
by Burton's scholarship,
pessimism. decades and
Despite have witnessed practice, vision and
reticence a flourishing through For,
earlier
generations into of
of positivist the visionary the extensive of Islamic
of research the the analysis very
aspects literature
of Muslim surrounding there
religious
cultural and a rich
chiefly
the dream developed in the form
in Islam. varied
from on
beginning of the
history, and
has
discourse visions.
the nature
imagination
its expression
of dreams
and waking
The
theoretical approaches
theorists and vision were
to the imagination
always For accompanied this reason,
developed
by the Islamic
by early Muslim
of a more is especially tradition
philosophers
active rich sodality for its
and mystical of dreamers
activities
seekers.
contributions
dream years past and afford
to both theories of the imagination

experience. insight and private into The the Muslim experiences abundant past, scarcely yields new
and the description

from this rich an often by the
of its expression
field encounter of other in recent with kinds
in
visionary
research intimate
allowing granted
individuals
analysis
of
documentation. It was beginning While each of the dreams of visions its many Islam and and subsequent it is in this or visions sense that were and of the Prophet Muhammad itself may an played be seen that announced the text. in
the Qur'an unsurprisingly
as a visionary aspect roles of sufism
of one forms,
kind
another visions
important important
both
dreams
also
in many
other
fields of Muslim
of * the episodes
life, from historiography

discussed in this article
and medicine
visions and
to folklore and magic.2 As many

dreams were a crucial means of
reveal,
This article was researched and written with the financial support of the Sir William Ouseley Memorial School of Oriental and African Studies from 1999-2001 and the Gordon Scholarship held at London University's Milburn Junior Research 2002. from October Fellowship held at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University 1 R. F. Burton, Sindh and theRaces that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus (Karachi, 1973 [1851]), p. 409. 2 For general accounts of the dream in Islam, see U. Azam, Dreams in Islam (Pittsburgh, 1992). T. Fahd, 'The Dream inMedieval Islamic Society', in G. E. von Grunebaum and R. Caillois (eds), The Dream andHuman Societies in der islamischen Kultur (Berkeley, 1966), A. Schimmel, Die Traume des Kalifen: Trdume und ihreDeutung in Encyclopaedia Iranica (hereafter EI). 1998) and H. Ziai, 'Dreams and Dream Interpretation' JRAS, Series 3, 13, 3 (2003), pp. 287-313 DOI: 10.1017/S1356186303003110 ? (Munich,
The Royal Asiatic Society 2003 Printed in theUnited Kingdom
288 Nile Green

with literary that time that and the major with article, whom one it was classic of other concurrence the visionary alive crucial For in the out is the with
connecting Muslim especially weight
past works
figures in this
peopled.
are discussed with
characteristic civilisations. and
stands This
is in common the
the premodern of access
literatures and that
of history, provided of Islam than
importance by it.
to the past no surprise
continuity
the models literature experience major the
It is therefore
and the past fracture
oneirocritical into present the of
shows looking taken by
a greater forward
preponderance into futures
towards as yet unreal.
bringing This
between
directions relationship and
the modern
and premodern to a wider Islamic
imagination
reminds cultural
us at the onset embeddedness the customs some
of
the
imagination within
Gedankenwelt. universe form of of
It is this symbols a useful
of dreams and
visions of of
a shared and vision
that means past.
suggests of
literature
the dream the inner
in Islam may universe
charting
of
the parameters
imaginative
the Muslim
The
When early Muslims particularly cultural it.3 The heritage practice came to
Pre-Islamic
models
Heritage
with form East which as dreams, to both East to understand they drew imaginative in part on the
generate
experiences, common before
in their most that
widespread Near
the ancient
provided
Islam
and Christianity back to the very
of dream
interpretation
in the Near
stretched
civilisation, being handed on thereafter partly through the beginnings of Mesopotamian in of the the biblical story of Joseph, a tradition no less important to Islam (as Jews religion
and related in the Qur'an).4 with It was the late antique the most legacy direct of Greek funnel into culture, Islam however, of earlier with traditions its similar of dream After Greek Plato from reflected in fascination theories.5 some thinkers offered the an of the earliest Greek a number theory rational surface dreams important that any of literary of references systematic to the dream theories of (oneiros) in Homer, In his they soul later dreams that was
developed interesting of the
dreaming.6 that while the irrational symbolic albeit
Timaeus, originate as images Plato that he
of mantic soul the an were they liver indirect Aristotle's are are
dreams, perceived their
claiming by obscure, to essays
insight on the
smooth such
(hence
character). not and On Aristotle one
this way very
allowed highly More denied
relationship short
reality, On
rated
Dreams enough,
Divination argued
in Sleep,
which
dreams
god-sent.
Reasonably
that if the gods wanted

and be more selective Aristotle's
to communicate with
about the recipients of
humankind
their nocturnal
they would
messages. to
do it in the daytime
an role
Despite
sceptical
approach
to the dream,
it continued
play
important
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).
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 289
dreaming of Ephesus. of symbolic in late The dream of antiquity was undoubtedly of including events or on and dreams riddles) the oracle in the second-century Oneirocritica of Artemidorus vision when (horama) the of Artemidorus described that was dreamers a type a clear parent, of the
classification (often future
the writings as well
as the
pre-enactment or some other events of
(chrematismos), reveals, them.
respected and advises
impressive how
personage, to deal of with classical
in a literal manner, direct
the nature and
future writing as well dreaming, While
Through
translations
epitomes,
the dream series of
theories
thinkers works
like Aristotle touching
and Artemidorus, upon the subject of
as a wider were poorly of
speculative available the
philosophical to Muslim pre-Islamic and means and to be dream
later made documented, dream for
thinkers.7 Arabs of had relating interpreters inspired saying experience of poetry certainly dreams in possessed to the their own lives. kdhin, also
understanding They ecstatic sometimes or by possessed,
experiences diviners seen
their waking form of the were
example, who sought were by
soothsayers actively beside
able
to recite Arabs by
oracles. special of
Dreams at
the pre-Islamic evidence to in of the
prayers
the Ka'bah and vision from
sleeping
it.8 Literary is also attested
the Arab abundance
the dream that has
during
the jahiliyyah
survived
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
While there were clearly a number in the integral through Jabra'il. history's numinous itself soul upholds is taken of both famously of Ishaq of part of
and Vision
ready models centuries Islam from of of
in Early
of analytical Islam, dreams
Islam
theories and of dreaming had primary visionary in his inspiration, The ears, the Qur'an believers and to hand
for Muslim been of with perhaps Muhammad's and 6:60) the
intellectuals an
early of
visions The
nonetheless revelation encounter in what result is of
themselves Islam had come
its very the Prophet and hearing
beginnings. Muhammad's bells pains of
the experience Sweating, greatest fear the back and
the archangel literary
clammy of was dream
ringing of
apotheosis trembling of
the wracking the birth experiences of God. prophets accounts al-Fath foresaw and visions of
the Qur'an. when of feature
(39:42 that dreams The and in
validity into
it tells
dreams (ru'ya, dream the
the presence and earlier
Accounts also the (48:27) his
the visions
manam) most
Muhammad occurs (37:83-113), the Prophet prototypes in
in the Qur'an.10 (12:1-100) also
the Qur'anic while
life of Yusuf the scripture
sacrifice
in Surat he
recounts return to and
a clairvoyant Makkah. These
dream
in which of dreams
eventual as at times
triumphant prognosticating
canonical
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 (Leiden, 2001),
Nile Green 290

at other of Islam. The hadith are also replete with accounts of the dreams of the Prophet and his companions times were to recur in myriad form the
revelatory
throughout
subsequent
history
or references by them to dreaming. One often quoted tradition held that the Prophet himself
had also said that such many dreams accounts were constitute of often the one forty-sixth dreams major part of prophecy.11 visions in his of life The simh his literature ascent to contains These accounts and
Prophet's to
(especially and were interesting
heaven). with
dreams of
related
events One
related episodes
along in
the dream-life
of his
companions.
the most
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
wearing explaining that call there two green garments use way On and it for to do hearing carrying a clapper. people instructed 'Abd Allah to prayer, 'Abd Allah declared had asked to buy the clapper, that he would was a better (adhan). summoning this this and at which the man explained of the
in the performance the dream
to prayer
account,
the Prophet
an authentic
vision from God

the been dreams adhan, one of established and visions
and had the first mil 'adhinBilal instructed accordingly. Here we

the most the feature characteristic intervention in Ibn features of Ishaq's of Muslim Yet such life, was a whole as the host vision regarded of a dream. Sirah,
see how
as having
through also
less momentous al-Tufayl
in which
al-DawsT sees himself with his head shaven and with

was later seen as having prophesied his martyrdom
a bird coming out of his mouth, which

during the reign of the caliph 'Umar
(634-644 AD).13
was widely regarded
For his part, the companion

as a gifted interpreter
and first caliph, Abu Bakr
(r.632-634 AD)
of dreams.14
After the prophet Yiisuf,

regarded hadith the was tenth as the most eclipsed century the by famous a
itwas the pious Iraqi traditionist Ibn Slrln (d.728 AD) who was
of Muslim dream interpreters. as an dreams books certainly interpreter been popular His of early dreams fame as a scholar and of by reputation on faked s name (mu (abbir) ascribed in the known early
growing
numerous as
treatises publishers
had by
posthumously authors in the earliest
to him history work of
in much European
same way
publishing.15
Ibn Sirln
features
Arabic
of dream interpretation,
earliest the of the texts of numbers such of
the DusturfVl
to Ibn Slrln so escalated
ta'bir of Abu
himself that by works was the
Ishaq al-Kirmani
entitled fifteenth to appear. simply century
(fl.775-785 AD). The

Ta'bir it was al-ru'ya, possible was his though for renown an
ascribed texts
Arabic
compilation
Ibn Sinn's
supposed
So widespread
that the great ChishtT sufi of Dihll, Nizam

dream interpretations al-fu'ad. and Latin.16 (albeit Later as received were via in Fawa'id as Greek works
al-dln Awliya
al-Ghazall) to
(d.1325 AD) made

in his discourses in Turkish and
reference to his
recorded as well
that were Persian
attributed
Ibn Sinn
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 of Muhammad: 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.
Other treatise Shl'I created 'Abbasid into the pious on imam, the early figures also of (d.765 came dreams AD).17 to be was Of associated attributed greater reflected with the subject. less a One early than Persian the sixth
interpretation al-Sadiq of For the
to no influence, the
figure were of
Ja'far
however, importance of Artemidorus Marking among dream
those the was
works in
as a result Baghdad. at of
caliphal example of
patronage, a version al-Ma'mun the in of
that of
subject translated reach thinkers This that was was
the Oneirocritica (r.813-833 AD).
Arabic shadows
request
the Muslim
long
of is
classical through
antiquity, his citations fVl
prestige the Abu
of Artemidorus other Sa'Td great caliphal
demonstrated the voluminous
manual. AD)
al-Qadirt
ta'bir
al-Dmawan
(d.c.1009
this period the in 1006 by the caliph al-Qadir (991-1031 AD).18 During commissioned bookseller and bibliographer Ibn al-Nadlm (d.996 AD?) recorded the details of some ten of
the dream manuals that were Porphyry cosmopolitan classified which century by a wider in the was available as well atmosphere section one of of in Baghdad.19 and Including al-Kirmani, works by Artemidorus Fihrist Interestingly, alchemy and and is further these the the neo-platonist proof texts occult, By of were the as Ibn Sinn in which his catalogue extensive al-Nadlm's flourished. with magic,
such works dealing of his had of
a section the ninth
the most oneirocritical
inventory. developed its antique The first or in Arabic predecessors, and most indigestion. that was early common A rarer
a written oral
tradition
supplemented Muslim type has
tradition. three
In a reflection types
dream-theory its origins
posited in bodily
different such
of dream.
sensations,
as heat,
discomfort
second type provides glimpses of future events, but it is only

type the that forms the veridical dream of dream repertoire, leading of form that is a special Islam also class added standard classical capable by a
the third and most

divine of the
blessed
To dream
of personalised the possibility
message. satanic
(hulm), were could
a dream overridden assume
the dreamer the Prophet in a dream
wildly relating and
astray. However that neither a believer Satan of
its graver nor any
implications of the jinn of
saying
the Prophet's
so rob
that most
favoured
all dreams. Indeed, in one of the first hadith in Bukharl's Sahih the Prophet explained
"Whoever this means have own has seen me came has to mean all kinds the earliest seen me that of truly, dreams arguments, and of Satan cannot take my could policies. of form Yet Islamic of his to be form".20 a legally of The sometimes of formed son-in-law the Prophet persons or waterproof
that
In practice,
legitimating one of
dreams
the Prophet
and most one of such
lasting such
expressions dream continue visits, future his
'All had
described dreams of to the
Prophetic
Prophet's piety.21 own in a sermon found important to believers Muhammad mystic to in
in his Nahj the modern might follow thus him
al-balaghah, day.22 appear The to
while
the Prophet prophetic his
purposes reveal
however, grave, approval
were to urge of
many.
dreamer life or
a celibate work.
in the path
of married
to express
a writer's
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.
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,
Nile Green 292

The tradition apparent. It was conditions to that the dream was also reflected in the Arabic
importance and it was
given here Aristotle,
early
philosophical were most
the
continuities (d.950 the and
with AD)
pre-Islamic reasoned active that
oneirocriticism the soul thought
Following these symbols,
al-Farabi in
in images. certain
originating
divine so serve
intellect,
that
could prophetic
under
be made
manifest
in dreams
clairvoyant
or even
purposes.23
Subsequently
he was from saw unique in to modify the divine. such
this theory was to influence Ibn Sma (d.1037 AD),

the In an theory to describe the prophetic of later dream sufi
though in his Kitab al-shifa'

(Hnayah) Ibn Slna in any way dreaming caliphal said to the this to the dream, and not as with the great was lectured asserted that
as an act of providence
important as allotted The this
prefiguring to all humans practice period the
approaches degrees came
providence to the prophets.24 ways Islamic
in different at times
of philosophy and al-Ma'mun
together AD),
interesting of
during philosophy a dream of resulted
(r.813-833 works dream
patron have caliph
and encounter the good, in the
translation with
of Greek
into Arabic, Aristotle later
experienced on
Aristotle.25 the bibliographer promotion
In the
the meaning had also
while caliph's
al-Nadim of book
encounter
production.
In the Muslim
west,
dream theory was later discussed by Ibn Rushd (d.1198 AD) and the philosopher of Khaldun Ibn (d.1406 AD). history With regard to the vision in Islam, the life of the Prophet formed a major model and
point of reference. Subsequently, the locus classicus of the vision in Islam has always been
the Night
undergone
Journey
{isra}) to Jerusalem and the Second Journey

The main source of the mi(raj motif
(mi(raj) through the heavens

was the account given in
by Muhammad.26
the Qur'an
always ascended 'the length been
(17:1 and 53:1-18) which

assumed through of two each bows' to refer of to him. the heavenly away redolent from with the an
although not mentioning

In this spheres the inner rich touchstone until of famously
the Prophet by name has

visions, within its many kinds. came the tomb transformed of Islam, the the Prophet a distance subsequent Particularly to remove flight of coming In
all Muslim
presence
of God. of many
elaborations, vivid is the
it is a story tradition internal of early a more
imagery journey
different figures to
that before organs,
celestial
otherworldly correspondences Sun was early a
Muhammad's and As basis of the paintings the for
image for
rich with
shaman's paintings. into
the preparations revelation complex undergone
the voyage in
to the
in pharaonic gradually centuries topic of
contained urban by
the Qur'an in the
the
civilisation the Prophet
nature
experience
became
tremendous
intellectual
importance.
commentaries
Later mystics
on these
like Shah Ni'mat

This Qur'anic
Allah Wall
point of
(d.1431 AD)
reference lent
were
the
to write
great
verses.27
vision
prestige
in 23 turn,
as well
later
as legitimacy, both of which

traditions which elaborated the
were
theme
reinforced by many
further.28 Nonetheless,
hadith as well
the
as,
subject
"Al-Farabi and his See T. Fahd, La Divination Arabe (Strasbourg, 1966), pp. 51-60 and M. W. Ur-Rahman, Islamic Culture 10 (1936). Theory of Dreams", 24 See T. Fahd (1966), pp. 51-60 and T. Fahd and H. Daiber in Eh. 25 Al-Nadim (1970), pp. 583-584. 26 See B. Schrieke, J. Horovitz, "mi'radj", in Eh. J. Knappert and B. W. Robinson, J. E. Bencheikh, "Some notes on the impact of the story of the Mi'raj on Sufi literature", Muslim World 63 See N. El-Azma, (1973) of theMadhahib Through Dreams", Arabica 32 (1985), On dreams and hadith, see L. Kinberg, "The Legitimation ? Der of Two Ways of Legitimation", idem, "Literal Dreams and Prophetic Hadith in Classical Islam A Comparison Islam 70, 2 (1993) and idem, Ibn Abi al-Dunya: Morality in theGuise ofDreams (Leiden, 1994).
of visions always purported sy. Prophet's journey One became medieval into as a a popular theme version This text of in oral and written story traditions composed of of his east The all around in al-Andalus the own the story have remained references a matter of theological experiences delicacy were and the precise nature of of the con
Qur'an's trover The
to visionary
frequently
a matter
the Mediterranean. was been through celestial of Ibn subsequently seen by the some cosmos
Arabic Latin.30 key in of type
the mir'aj as well
translated scholars
as oral literary
traditions vision further in Persian. among by the
influence
on Dante's
journey Prophet's
as recounted a source of its
the Commedia.3] inspiration in Persian on the
However, for writers prose, while are those
journey Slna to have is
became the been earliest written
Mi'rajnama notable poet Jamal
the more Iranian
poems
in Persian
theme
al-dln
'AlawT (d.1590 AD)

were eighteenth even written century catalogues the
and the south Indian poet

in Tamil and, during mi'rdj was by Muslim poets form, in lithographic the nineteenth seen to
'Azam BTjapurT (fl.1666 AD).

writing they in the far became a south of
Such
India as of
mi'rdjndmas late as the
popular
feature
Iranian In genuine of
booksellers' Islamic
century.32 epitomise rupture was the notion of literally recounted a witness for artists. to the an vision as a
tradition from The
revelation reality. language, in visionary
God, Prophet's
as a true visionary that But
epistemic
(or fath, always with material
'opening') in a the highly role painted of
everyday
experience later
symbolic symbols
something experience.
provided
believers fertile
it also provided
Vivid
depictions
steed is the in Buraq,
of the Prophet's Night

came to form one of creature over a a peacock's startling
Journey, along with various imaginings of his mysterious

the most who the out to on widespread is often beautiful at his images forms the most face of of Muslim lovingly a young earlier lion Such devotional portrayed man upon art. element his taut It himself
visionary paintings, body and show
Buraq time
these
evolving tail fanned
equine sometimes Matthew were
rear. However, of the winged churches.
depictions representation images of
of Buraq of St
resemblance carved
the Evangelist occasionally were century traditions of Buraq as of found paired example
found
Romanesque (fdlnamas) of the or
the mi'rdj of
in books with
of divination forecasts Tabriz
in which future, An
miniature as in the example of
paintings case of a mid
the prophets sixteenth of the
poetic
reader's
from
Safawid
QazwTn.33
the vibrancy are the
the mi found they
(rdj in the on the sides
religious of lorries
imagination in Pakistan mountain
of modern-day in order roads to of
Muslims provide the
paintings of
the blessing
a safe journey
plod
through
the hazardous
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).
M7e Green 294 The Dream

The most important early example
and Vision
of a
Among
the Sufis
vision in sufi tradition was that of
non-prophetic
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 In time the hoary ecstatic dervish Abu Yazld became
mystical Other early Urmensch early writers female saint of and many also spoke later of sufis were the visionary al-'Adawiyyah to have encounter (d.801
in subsequent sufi literature a kind of

their own with AD). dreams God But about meeting by the him. the great
undergone perhaps
Islam, Rabi'ah
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 forty years to be until seen also one either night asleep he or slept trying and to saw the Prophet Albeit accounts in a dream, often of with later after which caution, he was such always visionary a certain sufis,
sleep.36 of
tales
became
a common
feature
like Muhammad
Ghawth Gwallari
The of the fact that many
(d. 1562-3 AD).37

sufi"writers visions of trifling had their been early more mentors of concerned suggests with that the amazing they allowed classes subject matter at themselves, of Baghdad.
spellbinding to leave
times,
the more
category
the dream
to the
chattering
Texts such as the Kashf al-mahjub of'All

of and AD), a the visions by the theories of time the of early the sufis.38 Yet composition were the role a of
al-HujwTri
continued 'Awarif of in Prophet types soul sufi that was to fully the
(d.c.1072 AD)
to play an of'Umar
are replete with

important role SuhrawardT Suhrawardl the crucial
stories
dreams
in sufism (d.1234 devoted reference was of to
al-ma'arif sufi
of dreaming book 'Awarif method in to
commonplace of dreams
literature. Once
Thus again though
chapter in
of his the
tasawwuf?9
point
al-ma'arif of
was
the
Muhammad, of vision with
more different deserts
curious elements thus relate
Suhrawardl's nature earth, formed visionary again receiving as in the the
attributing defeat so on. of A
different the lower
the of
transcended oceans to water type
the and
(nafs). Dreams idea was more the notion suitable The main
common vision
that veridical to the neophyte this was
dreams whose once before
a lesser or
of
the waking faculties have who
imaginative
yet had
awaken.
topos for
Prophet his case first
Muhammad, vision
himself prolific
experienced sufis devoted Gesu
dream entire Daraz
premonitions works (d.1422 to the
of Jabra'il. al-asrar
More
subject,
ofAsmar
of Muhammad
al-Husayni
AD).40
The Crystalisation While

unseen"
of Sufi Visionary
Theory into "the world

theory of the
the early sufis simply spoke of visions

('alam al-ghayb), the most important
in terms of a breaching
codification of a formal
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
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 295 and vision
SuhrawardT ancient meld with
into a wider mystico-philosophical

(d.1191 AD). A visionary and Iran a systems to form of pre-Islamic a truly by
system came in the work

philosopher, (as well theory a pivotal into as those SuhrawardT of ancient
of Shihab al-dln
to make the and Egypt) in which who the
aimed Greece
religious Islam experiences been
cosmopolitan the sufls played
of mystical role. a
knowledge It is SuhrawardT world of
visionary to have
sought
appears accessed
the first
to schematise
the
realm
of vision
proper
its own,
through themode
and other lesser
of knowledge he suggestively entitled the wisdom of oriental illumination laid out this epistemological system in his Kitab hikmat al-ishraq SuhrawardT (hikmat al-ishraq).
Arabic works As some and, of more the intimately, examples letters in a number of Persian is evocative that of prose of visionary writing, narratives the place importance both the in Persian.41 visionary recitals earliest of Persian
composed of of these
in the history culture at large.
the wider borrowed
the vision
in Islamic
It is noteworthy
SuhrawardT
model
of Ibn
of the symbolic risalah and the title of his philosophical

Slna. Whether later in his or not career, Ibn Slna had visions sought played to formulate an in which
system from the earlier work

a more role, mystical remains system uncertain of if
knowledge not entirely For
increased
impossible
to answer.42 both between visions that and of form their concrete but not lesser kindred of dreams and to take the this place realm of in an
SuhrawardT, world abstraction.
intermediate intellectual
phenomenal substance, he
reality
pure
Possessing
referred
intermediate
world
as the world of likenesses ((dlam al-mithal). Connecting

faith, Through he also frequently its custody level of and of referred symbols was to it by as its mode seen to act the Qur'anic
it back to the foundations

term of isthmus this between or cosmic God's It was sense also interface
of
the Muslim (barzakh).
of communication, as an intermediary
sphere non seen
(or alternatively, delimited to as act acting knowledge as the
existence) our own the
fragmentary living and for between part
understanding the living dead sufls
the universe. and was and kinds their of model in in this
interface
between meeting
understood As a the
as the visionary realm of existence thus played s wider were as simple mystical here
ground
dead and
predecessors. levels which of being,
proper
that mediated an important
different
(dlam al-mithal SuhrawardT and dreams
in the For
cosmological the first of time existence seen as
underpinned thought, visions longer events
epistemology.43 a with enrobed special from on high level
Islamic of their some
sphere they were being.
own. way
No actual
regarded existentially Not described Aristotle
messages
in
undergone to merely
at a different show himself of his enquired
of our
wishing
solely own.
as a master included relative
of
theory, a meeting
SuhrawardT with
naturally the philosopher generations
also
a number in which
of visions SuhrawardT
These
as to the
achievements
of earlier
of spiritual aspirants.44 Aristotle

reached even a thousandth part
told him that while

of the rank of
none of theMuslim
Plato, early
philosophers
like Abu
had
the Divine
sufls
Yazid
al-Bistaml
(d.875 AD)
and Sahl al-TustarT (d.896 AD)
could be confirmed
as true men
Sohrawardi, Le Livre de la Sagesse Orientale [Kitab Hikmat al-Ishraq], trans. H. Corbin (Paris, 1986). See H. Corbin, Avicenne et le recit visionnaire (Paris, 1952). See M. Amin Razavi, Suhrawardl and the School of Illumination (Richmond, "Dream, 1997), E Rahman, in von Grunebaum and Caillois Imagination and Alam al-MithaF, (1966) and H. Ziai, Knowledge and Illumination: A Study of Suhrawardl's Hikmat al-Ishraq (Atlanta, 1990). See M. Y. Hairi, "SuhrawardT's An Episode and a Trance: A Philosophical Dialogue in aMystical Stage", in P.Morewedge (ed.), Islamic Philosophy andMysticism (Delmar, 1981).
Nile Green 296

of divine wisdom. have episodes a vision draw Over a century he later in turn to the the sufi 'Ala' al-Dawlah al-Simnanl mystical in the an (d.1336 achievements.45 legitimation role of in the AD)
would Such various
in which our
denounced role of
Suhrawardl's dreams as well and as
attention or
visions
individuals, of
processes Persian
institutions. the short
Yet
playing
important
development
literature,
treatises
purporting
to describe
Suhrawardl's
own private visions outlined a typology of the initiatory mystical vision for his own disciples
and later mystics to follow. a In one of these visions, who hue described looks all over, glowing both the with in the treatise and 'Aql-e-surkh, ancient that sunrise at the he is Suhrawardl same time.46 born encounters Glowing of of creation, creation.47 later, in the a re-working systematisation of the theory of the 'alam al-mithal that was was the to feature of
mysterious a strange an archangel
wayfarer crimson
youthful stranger
with
explains
the first was A
perpetually
the primordial
that
the dawn generation
prominently
grand
of mystical
experience
life work
Ibn 'Arabi of Mursiyyah

faculty Indeed, God's of the (khayal) Ibn eternal played 'Arabi and viewed unrepeating to be of the bridging axiomatic visions and
(d.1240 AD).
role man's
In Ibn 'Arabfs system the role of the imaginative

as the own creative agent that is active as an in understanding.48 aspect of essential considered supreme knowledge. theories, to man with keen in with not
an increased mystic
imaginative (tajalli). He
impulse
self-manifestation essential the part of gap
in this way
the use human In for as a the to Ibn
imagination capable witness
the
the journey between present both
into God, human and
as the divine mystical from
faculty this we Ibn private divine. limit)
existential
yes/no as, at the from
formulation same man instant, to God
in so many descending visual
'Arabi
regarded
God
revelation Every was
ascending and level creative to be
as a creative freedom
encounter he was tying
original
act seen
of man
(the
of whom
at another
as a divine
act of
self-manifestation,
'Arabi'swider
importance following writings theory the AD) divine Ibn on of of of
theory of the unity of existence

the imagination as Ibn were 'Arabi's One to recur ideas were of the most
(wahdat aUwujud). Such ideas of the spiritual

throughout spread Muslim civilisation form expressions and of during through Ibn the the in manuscript later
centuries later the
commentators.49 appeared in which idea of
interesting al-mashq, calligrapher (mashq-e-khayali) calligraphy.50 to the the
'Arabi's to
imagination
in the Adah great Iranian practice of Arabic
a sixteenth-century Baba Shah as a means
guidebook Isfahan! of (d. 1587-8 reaching
art of
calligraphy, the
the
developed perfection 'Arabi
imaginative in the beauty considerable famous
the
inherent also found devoted most
attention in
subject on
of the
dreams. especial
His
ideas
dreaming
expression
chapters
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. Baba Shah Isfahani sAdab al-mashq", Journal of theAmerican
The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 297 capabilities of the prophets
his ideas refused to go away
Ishaq and Yusuf

and in India
in his Fusus al-hikam.51 If highly controversial,

five centuries later the jurisconsult and mystic
Shah Wall Allah of DihlT

divine mithal)?2 expected Islamic dream the self-manifestation To from this day the
(d. 1762 AD)

(tajaltt) that was
likewise referred to veridical dreams as a form of

drawn of dreams down forms from one world, the of imaginary the most a world important style of ((dlam al services
interpretation in many SufT masters in Iran no in parts
sufi masters
of
the Muslim
forming their
spiritualised their India, use more of
psychoanalysis.53 lives in of khanaqds
regularly less the than cure
interrogate Pakistan of
disciples
concerning In northern and makes tibb) with
and Morocco. conditions (yunani
shrine
Pattishah
specialises the tradition
psychiatric medicine
techniques local Like abundance city all of Ibn
combining
of Graeco-Islamic
therapeutic the life
methods.54 of his precursor episodes. his youth Musa, of the SuhrawardT, These and Tsa sufls began experienced Ibn in 'ArabT's own life was he was encounter It was Ruh al-quds, also living with notable in the the this he for Spanish souls time of that an
of visionary during
1190 while a mystical
of Qurtubah the prophets
(including an account
and Muhammad).55 of Spain entitled
around in which
'ArabI wrote
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 exceptional. could carpenters His and cobblers of Andalusia, Sadr spirit of al-dln any QunawT person Ibn 'ArabT's (d.1273 (the own AD) vocation later for visions how to come commentator the described
his master and
summon him at any
dead
prophets Ibn
included) 'ArabT as a
speak with
time whatsoever, visionaries such grand
in this way asWilliam Blake abilities, 'ArabT's
presenting and often
signorial
precursor Later favour. the
to such sufls also
European claimed
Immanuel as a means youthful of
Swedenborg.57 of showing encounter the great divine with Iranian
visionary of the Ibn
A mid-nineteenth of the prophets
century is found
echo in
celebrated
souls
autobiographic
ramblings
sufT, SafT 'AlTShah (c. 1835-1899 AD). Describing

man, this ShT'T sufT claimed to have first encountered
a retreat (child)he performed

Husayn before noticing the
as a young
assembled
spirits of all of the prophets and saints in the distance behind him.
the classic sufT initiatory vision, SafT was then beckoned forward by
In this ShT'Tversion of
FJusayn and handed a
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), 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. pp. 15-52. 55 See M.
Nile Green 298

sword with which he was ordered to pursue Safl was far from the only of
jihad.58
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 Such their accounts alternative of title of the Kashfiyya.59 encounters and commemoration. were a way to play when by of great were therefore For not merely interviews importance and knowledge of of the could a matter with of past the (and visionary
this kind in Qajar
of unveiling
(kashf) gave his
aggrandisement indeed sense, be pre-eternal) in that
of memory luminaries formed re-figured knowledge, unmediated the
visionary
epistemological the people present. the
in an historical the past could and up at the Such
they and
in which a role the
reclaimed
in the souls of
In defiance sages of time-past
strictures turn overrode ancients.
fragility any need visions the dead time
of written for a lesson about
the written libraries
word and the of
such
visionary
meetings of word reflected manifested on the
to worry provided into
desecrated of avoiding presence of written (malfuzdt)
lost knowledge the written this they
a means the speaking
the mediation of the living. in
through a more
bringing general in
In Islam
epistemological the of "recorded the Qur'an Visionary for he it. The claimed
suspicion conversations" itself.60 encounters most had important brought about the
knowledge of Indian
that was
elsewhere the oral qualities
sufls
and
the emphasis
created of about the writing all
literature Ibn own of
as well
as circumvented visionary works.
the
epistemological were that as of those
need that
'ArabT's many major his vast of written
experiences He claimed as well
his
prophetic the shorter
visions Fusiis
brought al-hikam,
Futuhdt
al-makkiyya to
redaction texts Ibn
which 'ArabT
he made described
the Futuhdt as being result a period
the gratitude not by
subsequent but by
generations. divine with Ibn the text dictation the
These
composed of a series of
himself
(imla1
ildhi) which
occurred
as the during to and
of visionary in not of the
encounters holy city.61 by a But a claim
Prophet claim
Muhammad to be scope, a kind lucid fully to the
undergone of secretary
residence
'ArabT's
the Prophet sheer none
is certainly volume in all of
contradicted the Futuhdt,
extraordinary that few since
complexity read and
unrelenting digested of Muhammad were seen as God delusional
have
perhaps experience Here
its splendours. it was
in its close that order however, outraged that
resemblance as many separated the visions many sufls
prophetic
himself, tearing himself. and away To
as it impressed. ordinary of Ibn later men from
visions
at the divine his enemies,
prophets not
and
indeed but
'ArabT were sufls to regarded place in the
revelatory Ibn 'ArabT's experience of Ibn
heretical. part of his
Nevertheless, mission works and
visionary at the 'ArabT,
life
as a central of their
continued Working
visionary tradition
centre later
theorising al
of mysticism.
the
'Abd
al-Karlm
Jlll (d. between
1406 and 1417 AD) discussed dreams and visions
in his Insdn al-kdmil.62 In

dar
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.
in
discussing Ibn 'Arabi's theory of the perfect man that lay at the centre of this text, in the
sixtieth chapter of his book Jill described a vision of his own which
1394.63 master summed Despite 'Arabi al-Dawlah as cultural new the for In claiming Sharaf up al-din to see the perfect it was dangerous other even man, who kind his is also the Prophet, which al-Jabartl most the very about sufis case In Shikuh even of of vision theories. claimed such minor same way to of similar treatises dreams having
he received in Zabld
in the to Ibn form 'Arabi's of his own
in
detractors
all that was such their
controversies, own works, (d.1336 as when the Yoga him a dream and
inspiration
as
that
of
Ibn
in the
as the Qudsiyya played
of'Ala' a role a
al-Simnani mediators, of
AD).64 Dara Vasishtha fed him
the
occasionally been inspired
attested
to patronise in which inspiration of literary to warn chapters
translation latter
in a dream with could for sweets.65 also
the Hindu But such stand
sage Ramacandra positive directly appeared of the visionary in the way in a dream remaining
embraced
notwithstanding, composition. 'Aziz Nasafl of his KashJ At
or vision in 1281 1281, and
at times
Abarquh
example,
the Prophet to delay the writing
(d. between al-haqd'iq for
1300 AD) two decades.66
another
Uways Theories of visions were not
al-Qaranr limited to
and the
Visionary central Islamic
Initiations lands and the school
of Najm
al-din Kubra
eastern wrote Simnanl's in which ritual formula to SimnanI, progression Originally so greatly of was Islamic a treatise
(d.1221 AD)
world. on Working visions reminds were SimnanI is no
added to the development

in Najm to the sought al-dln's the principles aspects the adapted us of
of the sufi technics of vision

'Ala' practices the visionary of silent after to al-Dawlah of al-Simnani and of the Kubrawl life specific repetition sunset.68 in Islam, meditative of
in the
also order.67 the way and
tradition,
treatise visions
practical through a dhikr
actively
performance of sunrise the
practices. 'There
recommended god in other this than
consisting before introduce of the
the credal
God' would
and
According of a
diligence of coloured confined also
practice
the mystic stiffs
the witnessing career. SimnanI
the onset that herald lights to Central the Kubrawi Asia, important for its adaptation This the
visionary
school and
to which of named
contributed of the
transmission was
the after
tradition
"path Uways
the Uwaysis" al-Qarani, only the
(tariqa-e-uwaysiyan).69 reputed friend with of him
tradition
the mysterious who had had been
Prophet
Muhammad and
from telepathy.70
Yaman Uways
reputedly
communicated
through
visions
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).
Nile Green 300 a famous figure throughout

once different after Uways a style rather the mystical of a living again recounted sects at of this than the in sufis
the history of sufism and in the eleventh

Kashf did Uways of not al-mahjub. make was to Such usual of a any lend However, reference his name claimed in his to to
century his life was

description tradition denomination been of initiated the of the any the named of
al-HujwIrfs HujwTrl In truth, school through through be with
time.71 an path actual not but would
sufism.
sufis
to have mode
into hand
the more the means the
and mundane visionary green-man
clasping Usually or
master initiation
initiatory of
encounter. Islam al-Khidr
this visionary
enigmatic
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
perhaps in eastern khani.74 instructions dragons, and the richest single around source the of Uwaysl year we 1600 hear a Tajik Nizam visionary by Ahmad of an Afghan narratives of Uzgan greengrocer who whose has is the in his who terrifying collection written Turkestan In this by an Tadhkirah-ye-bughra is given encounters brings mystical with about
visionary the prophet
history
Isma'il, called
perfumer al-din
elderly
scholar
devotion
to God
visions of the prophet Da'ud

writer This territory of the Psalms himself. kind and of Uwaysl time of
in which
vision
he is taught to sing in rapture as beautifully

was if not common. sufi Far 'Abd from al-
as the
the 'Aziz
initiatory
widespread khani, the North
the Tadhkirah-ye-bughra
African
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
subversive the usual in enabling ambitious methods mystics of to entry claim into a grand initiation mystical while discourse side-stepping through the institutionalised Islamic
membership
master. ruler Uways of
of a recognised order (tariqa) and under the restraining guidance

with 'Ala' Uways al-din could Hasan also have political Shah dimensions, (1347-1358 AD) as when was the Bahman his
of a living
emerging by
Encounters the Dakan in a dream
encouraged But an
to take up
arms
against
rival Muhammad initiations limits (d.1731) content became were
bin Tughluq.76 became needed issued a at times to be legal
such was acceptable the Syrian
the prestige if marginal Naqshbandi initiations For of of
of visionary aspect master were only part, of sufi 'Abd
encounters experience. al-Ghanl so
that visionary Nonetheless, al-NabulusI long as their tradition of later imagination seen
set and ruling
that visionary with shari'a?1 stream a variety in the master, follower
acceptable
was
not
at variance into
the most institutional checks and
however, and
the Uwaysl the bounds were
absorbed in this way and a disciple
the broader by groups living to his
sufism balances. given always to
restrained sufi his
These telepathic on
among
Persian
Indian and made
prominence who could
communication outrageous claims
between he was
recant
any
said
to have
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 (1996), p. 220 and Kinberg (1994), pp. 36-37.
in a vision of investiture figures or dream.78 by an Nonetheless, aspirant's and living dreams, or in the whether less in the institutionalised form of investiture of Muslim of the form by
initiatory master have
controlled an
such
as Khidr through
the Prophet,
continued
to be
important Urdu
theme hagiography
spirituality
to the present
day.79
Aftab-e-dakan,
a modern
sufTsof Awrangabad,
of one of the city's
describes the visionary

shrines. In the vision, Mu'ln
initiation of Shihab al-din the first sajjada nashin

al-din Chishti appeared on a throne before
Sayyid Shihab al-din at his shrine in Ajmer

Shihab Nur al-din across India to the Dakan where HammamT (d.1692 AD).80
before Khidr
he was
arrived on horseback
into the service
to carry
of Shah
delivered
Dreams,
Accounts and often of meaningful of clairvoyant an dreams dreams
Visions
and visions in Arabic less
and Historiography
also featured in works historiography. thought than of a non-religious Just the voice as today of nature the idea
played
important seems
role
and Persian troubling a
altogether
an invisible
God booming
was and the the idea really
in our right ear, so for the city-dwelling

of dream frightening analysis an enjoyable issues middle-point of revelation. existential
beau monde of the 'Abbasid empire

between Dream frivolous entertainment (ta (bir) became
interpretation
a subject of great popularity

its popularity historians biographical In rulers these and brought al-Taban works historical besmirching (786-809 AD) about (d.923 relating works,
in the sophisticated circles of the 'Abbasid court in Baghdad and

the AD) creation and of circles of expert (d.956 AD) interpreters. recorded The such great narratives, 'Abbasid as did al-Mas'udT
to all classes dreams at
of people.81 times clearly Mas'udT of a tree serve the purpose the dream to him and of flattering in which his some Harun al
the memory saw two
of others. branches
recounts given
al-RashTd
brother,
HadT (785-786 AD).82 While

leaves, referring earlier an image to ruler the which relative the success
Hariin's branch flourished,

royal and physician longevity AD) Ibn of is seen Ishaq their burning he
that of his brother bore only few

al-SaymarT needlessly caliphal More the Prophet of explained dream, interesting to free as the In a later
reigns.
al-Mutawakkil dream of Harun from prison
(847?861 al-RashTd during Here another.
in the flames.83 by has name
is another Musa
in which the same night
is commanded that the clear latter the
ibn Ja'far his
a dream of one is also
the Prophet while for
promising intimating
freedom.84 of
a dream Yet
narrative
may
person of
the piety
as a historian
in particular,
Mas'udT
interest
This was especially the case with Naqshbandi founder had also been an Uwaysl. See Baldick sufis, whose of such experiences by sufi masters in the modern (1993), pp. 25-26 and p. 29. On the mediation period, see also A. Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandi Brotherhood and theRise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh, to the History of Modern "An Introduction Persian Sufism, Part II:A Socio 1998) and L. Lewisohn, (Columbia, to the Present Day", Bulletin of the School ofOriental and African cultural Profile of Sufism, from the DhahabI Revival Studies 62 (1999). 79 See M. A. Amir-Moezzi (ed.), Le Voyage initiatique en terre d'islam: Ascensions celestes et itineraires spirituels (Paris, of Self Representation 1996) and K. P. Ewing, "The Dream of Spiritual Initiation and the Organization among Pakistani Sufis", American Ethnologist 17, 1 (1990). 80 Tara Sahib Qureshi, Aftab-e-Dakan (Awrangabad, c. 1985), pp. 13-14. [Urdu] 81 Von Grunebaum and Caillois (1966), pp. 12-19. Tlie Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids, trans, and ed. P. Lunde and C. Stone (London, 1989), pp. 64?65. Mas'udi, 83 Ibid., p. 272. 84 Ibid., pp. 74-75
78
Nile Green 302

how dreams could be used to in The
showing
explain
developments
political
history.
origins
of the pro-'Alid
reference Clearly, narrative there
policies of al-Mu'tadid
of'AlT originality reflects and who emerging himself in the imagery
(892-902 AD),
the caliph dream stories
for example, are explained

from persecuting by Mas'udT of prophets and his and one
through
dream as found Salamah,
to a dream is little
warning
descendants.85
recounted the birth
in particular
surrounding traditions of
saints
in the hagiographical the Berber pregnancy ominously their In heads slave-girl of a lion on
folkloric was
of various al-Mansur
cultures. (754?775 and then
In this narrative AD), roaring lions who dreamt with
the mother from her
during
her
side. Crouching, surrounded
its tail beating bowed
the ground, it.86 literary in as early
it was
presently
by other
reverently
before
a Persian
context awork
the
connections
between of FirdawsT dragged his
dreaming (d.1020 the AD),
and when
kingship for
were example with no
demonstrated the poet
as the Shahnama of being of finding of the most recounted
recounted mace
Zuhak's and
nightmare dream One
through Persian
streets prose
and
beaten were
an ox-headed less keen several
Sam's
son Zal.
historians dreams of
to record centuries
royal dreams. after FirdawsT
interesting by the
of all such Persian
royal
occurred the Saljuqs
and was
chronicler
of Rum
on
Ibn BTbT (d. after 1284 AD). royal patron 'Ala' al-dm Kay Qubad
the night before he was story unexpectedly of rather the reworking in of Mas'udT's story
Ibn BTbT describes how during his imprisonment his (1219-1237 AD) had dreamt of a mysterious shaykh
released. of Musa But this was and not the merely element with a historian's of wonder the mission great to dream ibn Ja'far of Kay who was
Ibn BTbT's Hafs
features
in the moment (d.1234 AD),
Qubad's sent on
meeting a diplomatic
sufT Abu
'Umar
SuhrawardT
the Saljuq capital at Quniyah

marvellous crossover of courtly
by the 'Abbasid caliph al-Nasir

and sufT imagery, it was only upon
(1180?1225 AD).
meeting
For in a
and
SuhrawardT
his entourage
dream figure However, given such become Zayn the and
outside
who insight had
the walls of the city that Kay Qubad

appeared the roles works. NTshapur and (d. secure 1551 to him to presage the throwing and of women The whose her AD), as dreamers of
recognised
off of his clairvoyants
the shaykh as the

bonds.87 is also sometimes was enabled her one to
into historical from
in Persian fortune-teller a al-dm city royal
mother
Ibn BTbT,
BTbT Munajama, gifts
extraordinary son's fortunes tells us role aristocrats as a fraud
prognosticating at court.88 that a less Another fortunate Harat.
adviser
Persian woman After
historian, rose from
WasafT to have success was
after a similar
slums
if short-lived the TTmurid revealed
in TTmurid of when the Harat's
considerable explains Uzbik how rulers
lucrative
among eventually
city, WasafT wise new
BTbT RushanayT
(who were
'trances'. that she was
also kind enough

scorching hanged in public
to patronise his work)

of the many Here for her crimes.89
quickly saw through her ventriloquistic

aristocrats we she had stories gulled soon ensured see how of fortune-telling
The
embarrassment
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.
"Themes
visionaries enemies could over the be used coals grandees as a rhetorical to the public continued a the ploy ridicule to royal by which of future their was court savants could drag their patrons'
generations. dream at lives times Bahr of and place great in for weight genre
Nevertheless, on of their correct for
publicise duty which
interpretation, Princes. are to for the In
emphasised al-fawa'id,
the
the Mirror
anonymous on some of
twelfth-century the of basic the themes sun in one
example, illustrated
princely with also kinds
readers reference
instructed caliph
oneirocriticism, fighting.90 of time
'Umar's of
dream
and moon the experience
The
text
is
interesting of dream.
its discussion these faced
inconsistencies interests, describing of
in different miniature other (d.1334 close AD) of
Reflecting a grave same
royal sultan the
sixteenth-century his dreams Safl to his
Ottoman vizier and
subsequently advisers.91 became an In
depicts the
period,
dreams
Shaykh
al-din The
of Ardabll dreams of
important
feature
of Safawid
historical
writings.92
the founder
the family dynasty were

divine the more for blessing and
capable of encoding political claims to legitimate rule into signs of

These fact that dream Safl of imposing from justify Buhlul a narratives al-dln's shrine formed acted a rhetoric both that was made all the as a nationwide as a seasonal might In a similar al-walih, the great to wage in this way manner, for Dihli war example, centre courtly work dream the
approval. by in
powerful and,
pilgrimage Dream to deter might al-Makkl Bakhtiyar sultan of
the manner and the
mountain-ringed architecture thoughts of
Versailles, sainthood
retreat. together narratives historian al-din Sharql Such sufi
narratives wayward also be
courtiers used to
of conspiracy. policies. claim In Zafar of seeing him
certain Lodl's
recorded Kakl (d.1235
Sultan AD)
sufi Qutb against the
in a dream
encouraging
Jawnpur.93 and visions were and magic. shows clearly As that by though the no means to reinforce lent the preserve the point, of contemplative
dreams
purveyors also men of an
of miracle survives action which and
autobiographical was common to set of that in a of the all
material both
importance reformers. own of vivid a career
to dreams
rationalising soldier into the scholars only
religious recorded inner his world
In one dream warrior
sixteenth-century life. It is a document from of the frontier millers
memoirs, provides way the
Indo-Afghan insight European could
a direct
that modern same period
reconstructing dream of.94 AD) or
the mental However,
world
Italian
indeed Babur
it is in the of the most works
autobiography closely observed The career.
of of
first Mughal dream occurred account About narratives
emperor
(r. 1526-30 historiographical as Babur
that
one
inMuslim 1500-1, speak
autobiographical
appears. early in his
dream The
in the year deserves that time out to
sought
to conquer
Samarqand
for
itself. dream. came I dreamed [Ahrar] had have been arrived I
I had
a strange him. He
Khwaja The
Ubaydullah tablecloth must
and
had gone
to greet
and sat down.
laid somewhat
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,
90
Nile Green 304

unceremoniously motioned. understood he took me before him, back for it seemed that he was offended. Mullah steward Baba looked at me and
Imotioned and accepted
as if to say, 'It's not my he
fault. The I rose
is to blame'. him.
The
khwaja
of me
by the arm, feet was off the ground. A few see days later
this apology. Then the right or the left, In Turkish I took he
rose and
to escort
In the entryway so that one has
I don't said,
remember
which,
and lifted me
'Shaykh Maslahat
berdi [Shaykh Maslahat
bestowed].' Here greatest were as we
Samarqand.95 saints For were the to even great that of over the imagination saints father of one of the Asia of his
the
hold and
of
the NaqshbandT in history. as they
warriors close
statesmen heart
NaqshbandT his own
of Central and those
to Babur's in India.
descendants As the
great
age
of
the Muslim
empires
was
drawing
to a close,
in nineteenth-century
DihlT one of the last Mughal

kingship qualities Fadl's and visionary of the TTmurid According
princes put forward a theory of the special relationship between

MTrza that to AzfarT, had 'AlT AzfarT' been re-worked the claim three centuries (nasl-e-timuriyya) for the supernatural in Abu'l the Mughal house earlier
capacity.96
presented of TTmur
Akbarnama.
as the heirs
househould
a minor proud of the of his shrine
had a special affinity for the clairvoyant dream and vision

himself, own AzfarT (d. 1818/19 dreams, ChishtT AD) such at theory had appears in his premonitory al-dm as that prior the a wife in which to going he not he foresaw there on
(rWyd-e-sddiq). As
as someone the exact details But limited a drop of
prince
autobiography
of Mu'Tn with the fact his that
Ajmer of
pilgrimage. his own
in accordance powers on
genealogical his father
supernatural, who did
blamed possess
taken
even
TTmurid blood
fact own than Yet Despite of northern (d.1898 him, he AD) also enabled career. they such
in her veins.
him to explain then,
In interpreting a dream of the Hindu

to readers console the and of the the great own all too exonerate those who apparent lack the unsuccessful had attained of a
goddess LakshmT, this

of political no political success in his less effectively eminence. royal elite.
Dreams, could
could the merely
reinforce did the not
achievements represent of the to his
theories all of
idiosyncrasies experience, modernist life.
disappearing in Sir the reformist
epistemic a generation a book that many
ruptures later,
colonial Islamic dream
climate Khan before
India, wrote
Sayyid like
Ahmad others by
devoted
In this work, had been
confessed
of his most
important
actions
provoked
dreams.97
Visionary Despite
biographical of visionary been happy
Diarists princes
sufT writers there were
the wealth
writings, narratives. to record
of such material
it While the visions is nonetheless some of
concerning
the earlier sufTs,
to be found
that remain like also SulamT the
in historical
richest (d.1021
and
had their
sufT biographies
sources AD)
of other
those
sufTs for whom
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)
own as in personal the case visions of Ibn the formed 'Arabi, contents that the basis of a literary by The genre vision precise treatises disciples of his in as role its own such of right. but such This was one not,
a literature of actual
revealed visions.
rather texts
which life is
sought uncertain. may
to describe It seems been seen
in sufi these
possible
as with of the
the visionary a stiffs
of Suhrawardl, about the of dreams Here we nature a
accounts A
have
as a means based the on
teaching
of visions. narrative
hermeneutical might of the
lesson
interpretation to interpret
the meanings own private (muhasib).
visionary and visions see the
in this way central of sufi such
teach obligation texts a
novice of
as part inherent at the own
spiritual
self-reckoning the notion
ambiguity same visionary interlinked. time
in promoting blueprint and it also text, of
of visionary that might tradition, content of
experience recur in in such
itself while the ways was novice's
creating life. Vision However,
powerful
images and that the
imagination likely
were these
frequently to be seen as
seems
visions
a kind of revelatory unveiling

were sense, itself. also the regarded the In plotted stuff as of the their heirs visions contested relationship of
(futuh, kashf or shuhud) in its own right. Since the sufi saints
the Prophet in a chronological, a continuum the the with the initiatory revelation and of prophet and the ontological the Qur'an and visions saint of
represented configuration, between
its variously out the
relationship
between
revelation
of Muhammad
sufi masters. earliest of al-Haklm of his his own example of the sufi autobiographical AD).98 those dreams dream In this work, of his wife, of Tirmidhl's as much as the narration Tirmidhl he is perhaps the not Bad' only as in
The sha}n the some towards
al-Tirmidhl own dreams
(d.c.908 but For also the
describes clearly wife
content sense the
whom
regarded were
instructor. education
unnamed edification
directed own soul.
spiritual
of her
husband
of her
At one point in Tirmidhl's

so came In one pool of to be such the medium she dream clear
career, his wife kept dreaming of him just before the dawn and
of teachings sent sitting As Tirmidhl for him with sat his by two spiritual beings his in the other feet dangling a man world. in a (in fact sisters with clear white
saw Tirmidhl water.
crystal
spring
eating
grapes,
an angel) appeared and drew him aside before instructing him about the meaning
justice dream, and Khidr the cultivation of piety, likened to teach tradition to the growing of myrtle. justly Indeed, In another towards his makes an appearance also had its own Tirmidhl of dream to behave diarists.
of divine
uxorial enemies. al-asm r
Persian
literature
the Kashf
of Ruzbihan
autobiographies its author's appropriately includes symbolism deserts for a where lute to
Baqll of Shiraz (d.1209 AD)

of visionary for the sufis.99 Kashf with from encounters someone of hailing intoxicating of
is one of the most

forms of an human of
celebrated of all the visionary

journal celestial grape, as well of beings. Kashf as the that details Perhaps al-asrar poetic celestial reaches love. and the
al-asrar
extraordinary
all manner the home
city
Shiraz sessions
descriptions of divine Ruzbihan play
mystical pearls
wine-drinking roses. form There of heart
showers
and white God in the
are visions Turk with
vast who
encounters soulful music
a handsome swells
such
that Ruzbihan's
unbearable
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).
Nile Green 306

Unsurprisingly, one of the most one with popular of its heady texts mix of sensitivity sufism.100 examples own occupation visionary shared of a later sufT dream show of diarist that was Shah of and grandeur the diary has proven to be
of Persian surprising whose an
Perhaps WalT Allah
the more (d.1762), also sometimes
of DihlT texts was
narratives by professors
the writing law. Indeed,
visionary
Islamic
the Fuyud al-haramayn of ShahWalT Allah is one of the most notable of all Muslim
texts as well as one In Fuyud of the most important a terrestrial contributions journey of is seen South to Asian Islam a more literature.
visionary
to Arabic celestial
al-haramayn
prefigure
visionary MadTnah.
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
him, he received during his stay in the holy cities.101 One of the most interesting
'ArabT before
aspects of such texts as that of ShahWalT Allah

the experience to to get of locations the most travel visited out than of the by (especially on their a pilgrimage) journey. holidays. orthodox such Such
is the interplay which

and parallel sets of sufTs were undoubtedly
they propose between

visionary people experiences who knew
relating how More apparitions the
colourful witnessed
somewhat another
visions to
of
Shah WalT
Allah
were
the
earlier
contributor al-ZawawT time and for
sufT visionary (d.1477 AD).
literature In diaries of such suggesting such
in Arabic, that as that a of
fifteenth-century to the form journeys and nine period to be there really are east
Algerian is the most
Muhammad auspicious
journey al-ZawawT visionary hundred and his fertile visions
visions,
dream version
a kind
of home-grown
anti-Orientalist en Orient
later European For among the
to the Levant visionary comes drawn
as the Voyage described month
of Gerard
de Nerval. journal, in which
encounters during a seven
in al-ZawawT's visit to with not Egypt
their most al-ZawawT places he
intense found Of to
from
a sublimated differences with
encounter Nerval, described. amid
the physical least in that
visited. seems
course have
important the places to be
al-ZawawT difference than other dream, bestowing to visit
completed favoured that was
actual for found
journey visions among medieval whom they
he were
Another a sacred Muslim tombs of
important (rather sufTs and In one into went
is that
al-ZawawT's geography figures lying
pharaonic) religious two dead upon another
the many necropolis he adamantly then
early
in Cairo's appeared
enormous
of al-Qarafah. tried refused, to browbeat al-ZawawT
sufT shaykhs him the Robe
to al-ZawawT Since
of Perfection.
tomb and sat crying beside

(d.1309 AD) appeared also refused and him 'Ata' Allah the Garment hard that also to satisfy
it. Eventually
asked him why but the Robe, instead. Having
the long dead Alexandrian

he was since travelled bartered crying. al-ZawawT the for When went of on
sufT Ibn 'Ata' Allah

explained, he offered Ibn him was
al-ZawawT crying
of Perfection and he did and not
length
the Sahara, the and fly
al-ZawawT latter
Ibn only
'Ata' Allah bestow the
a while,
but when on water out four
explained air but dinars,
the Garment came with
the sultan
ability
to walk hand
in the gold
the power
to make
of Egypt
thousand
al-ZawawT
eventually
agreed.
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.
100
Aside from such Arabic and Persian examples, the dream diary was also known to Turkish
literature. These Khatun of Uskiib

Misrl manner explained (d.1694 of
included the dream letters of the Balkan female Ottoman (^.1641-43

In his encounters, in Turkish, the
AD)
aswell
as the more
prison a series science of
dervish, 'Ashiyah extensive dream diary of Niyazl-e

NiyazI-e-MisrI lectures divination recorded in which (jqfr).U)2 all angelic Jabra'il
AD). esoteric
extraordinary including secrets of
notebooks,
to him,
the
of
letter
Visionary
Al-Zawawl whose sufi visitor AD), highly seeking Sha'ranI certain al-MursI tombs instructors was he far had on from come the best unique to visit ways of
Geographies
the visionary were of appearance given saint. of those by saints their
in demanding and other pilgrims
sometimes a chosen
advice
ensuring
a vision was tombside
Another al-Sha'ranl But advice
assiduous (d.1565 like to the
to the great whose popular visionary advised, days of
Cairene
necropolis is also guidebooks with that the best
of al-Qarafah replete with
'Abd
al-Wahhab
Lata'ijal-minan pilgrimage encounters for example, are thus
visionary Sha'ranI also of
episodes.103 offered deceased around
to al-Qarafah, the necropolis's the dead
those
thousands saints them still at
inhabitants.104 a great deal, 'Abbas on a
since for
travel
the week AD)
catching
their
mausolea; shrine before
Abu'l sunrise
(d.1287
tended
only
to be
in residence
at his
Saturday. Similar kinds of advice also filtered into the folklore of theMuslim
northern a shrine saint or India, so as catching as elsewhere, to alert him the itwas saint to customary their believed for visitors The to clap their hands caused presence. to lead annoyance
world
before by
and in
entering a
disturbing of visionary
unawares
was
to that
least welcome
form
visitation Persian AD) tombs. al-kamil clearing of Dihll was
in the form sufis only also one
of haunting.105 encouraged among a many such customs and 'Aziz Nasafl on summoning the Muslim the tomb (d. between dead 1281 and from in his concentrating Shah Kallm 1300 their
to give well-known to
advice
shaykhs world,
In describing Nasafl his mind (d.1729 directed
technique the
throughout circumambulate However, a special
al-Insdn on Allah
pilgrim
while
and purifying AD) of instead revealing itwas
his heart.106 recommended
in Kashkul-e-katimi, graveside the for dhikr soul of a
(dhikr-e-kashf-e-qubur) the deceased visionary in tombs master encounter in order
as the best means beside with 102 whose a saint tomb or
to its practitioner, Another as istikharah,
in a dream, practice the
performed.107 was known
ensuring of sleeping
prophet
custom
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 of Muslim Saints inLate Medieval Egypt (Leiden, The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern Crooke, India, 2 vols (Westminster, 1896), vol. 1, to Crooke's informants, the saints become especially annoyed when "discovered in deshabille" p. 229. According by unannounced visitors. 106 'Aziz Nasafi, al-Insan al-kamil, ed. M. Mole (Tihran/Paris, 1962), pp. 236-237. The section is translated in (1998), p. 146. Ridgeon Kalimullah Jahanabadi, pp. 46-47. The Scallop Shell, (Being a Sufite Practical Course on Divine Union) (Madras, 1910), 1999). 105 See W.
Nile Green 308

to summon performance dreams of two that was cycles common of prayer, to both istikharah sufis could and the and in
ordinary
pilgrims.108
Following in mosques
also be
accomplished
the home. The Prophet himself had advised on the way of performing
practice, the was an practice especially entire occult book though of without associating common on the any reference to the time with or place namaz al-istikharah Abu specific places al-Zubayrl along
a basic version of this

Nevertheless, developed to have a whole of the and written host Indian of of sufi,
of performance. certainly is said with
in the Maghrib. subject were Gwallarl of
'Abd Allah Similar
istikharah.
practices,
other
procedures, Ghawth in the
famously (d. 1562-3
compiled AD),
in the Jawahir-e-khamsah whose own mausoleum
Muhammad magnificent Some practices such place,
is one
the most
subcontinent.109 famous them. for as The places great to encounter necropolis visionary atMakll there quality of was beings ('the with or without in Sind specific is one as well
shrines
were
to summon famous saints
little Makkah')
the visionary there.
appearance This special was
the Prophet celebrated
and his grandsons by Mir on of earth... the king 'All
as the many in
interred
Shir Qanl' the of visiting the jinn,
the Jilawgah-e-imam, of the men
where
Makll
eulogised however,
as "a paradise it is the shrine
place
of God".110
In Morocco,
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 drawn from the jinn.lu
AD) the that has reminiscences of one acted of such
In Iran, it is arguably the shrine of Shah Ni'mat Allah Wall

active Shah to the sleeping centre (d.1899 shrine pilgrims, of AD) at Mahan. another sufi pilgrimage that were There, dervish in recent mentioned amid a centuries. earlier closely we Safl 'All
(d.1431
Among find an
as the most
account of morning
sufi visit and
observed
scene
tea-making
described
seeing
Shah Ni'mat
Allah coming
of his caught pilgrims tomb.112 short have
to gently wake him up from his sleep before quietly returning to the privacy
Similarly, glimpses witnessed many of of at many a saint glowing the tombs of other engaged green and shrines throughout while above pilgrims experiences. on a fairly the Muslim at a less the like world believers have level in worship, lights shrines hovering which anthropomorphic sepulchre.113 visited Islam, to demand on a were as in the given owe
saintly
Ironically, themselves Christianity building spot. their Some existence of
al-ZawawI In premodern
the no
concrete less,
residue saints and
earlier
visionary appeared a complete
prophets or even
regular for
basis themselves sites holy
a memorial of the most to a the
shrine famous
mausoleum of Muslim visions
and most class or
obscure and of
pilgrimage in which around a their
in this way
particular
of dreams
personage
appears burial built site. as a
to demand The great
construction city
elaboration
a shrine
purported was originally
pilgrimage
of Mazar-e-Sharlf
in northern
Afghanistan
108
incubation 109 Hadrat
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
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).
result of one such dream in which body had cases, the been site was secretly revealed brought as the there been true burial site of earlier by the Prophet's by divinely saints in the or case
son-in-law, guided else
'AlT, whose camels.114
centuries instructed
In other about
sufTs have in which
themselves they themselves
earlier As
the Prophet
the places
should
be buried.
of the famous patron of theMuslims

dream-located interplay such case Asian that tombs existed dreams are in turn between have
of KashmTr, Sayyid 'AlT HamadanT

as shrines. cults and This process demonstrates dream sacred
(d.1385 AD),
the narratives.115 geographies,
such
On in the
revered
continual
pilgrimage augmented a more famous vision-shrines (mashahid
hagiographical of place rival for
occasions
the development local shrine burial in Najaf. also al-ru'yd) lay dot were the
of Mazar-e-Shanf Muslims than lesser
positing his more known
'AlT for Afghan
and Central
However, world. medieval Such
landscape
throughout feature visited of by the
the Muslim landscape of and
vision-shrines while many
a common and were
Syria,
others
in al-Qarafah
al-ZawawT
thousands
main
of others.116 At
at the lies a large modern made up
the other
end of
the Islamic world,

shrine Muhammad, buried own there, burial known
hidden
one
behind
the
in
mausoleum
eighteenth-century cenotaph following
NaqshbandT built of after Dust the saints of to his
as PanchakkT of the Mughal in a dream such of human or even the
Awrangabad soldiers to a who
the original
appeared site. In ways
modern-day the physical and At of times
devotee and creativity, this
to demand subtle worlds
recognition were expressed the able
as
these,
interact
through
the medium literary vision visionary and
perception means. world literary
whether between to the
through intangible of
architectural, world terrestrial with of the and
ritual
traffic led
concrete in
the mausoleum that deliberately
overlapping physical
geographies counterparts.117
works
confused
geography
its ethereal
The Dream
The frequent interplay between
and Vision
and
in Hagiography
death, burial and enshrinement, meant that
dreaming
stories of the dreams and visions of the saints and their followers played an important role
in Muslim experiences featuring of many themselves in of hagiographies. possessed a Possessing powerful On visions also lay such rhetoric a claims that was to truth, often the exploited leitmotif of the visionary through that in its frequent the memory form was by the
sufT hagiography. these sufTs whose successors
sociological were best
level, known of
it is noteworthy and recorded shrine
literary This
and
their
at the centre
important
cults.118
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 Medieval Persian Sufism (Oxford, 1999), p. 149. Legacy of 116 On such vision shrines, see J.Meri, The Cult of Saints amongMuslims andJews in Medieval 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
Nile Green 310

case with the great Ruzbihan Abu YazTd, The such, whose vision visionary and al-HakTm shrine often was al-TirmidhT enlarged an also and no less than the prototypical the period the rhetoric of com
BaqlT
sufT visionary of of the
early was
beautified element an
during in element
Il-Khans.119 As
therefore at times
essential entertained
sainthood.
narratives
petition.
Accounts
descriptions hagiographers
of the life of Sayyid

of dreams recount as an how
'AlTHamadanT
of the
lent an especially
miraculous people's in different
important place
HamadanT's to urge dreams
to
expression
saint's
powers.120
the Prophet
appeared
them
to follow the saint, while HamadanT himself frequently both appeared in the dreams of others
and interpreted to the dreams Islam, Such thus stories of kings. linking also One dream such royal dream to oral predicted of of the saint's conversion history Asian and Islam, of KashmTr ethnogenesis. narratives in the traditions collective
proliferate
traditions
South-East
particularly in the motif describing

a dream containing the arrival of circumcised.121 Dream episodes feature prominently
the conversion of a king as having been effected through

a sufT by ship, after which the king wakes up mysteriously
in the most AD), for
famous example,
Muslim
hagiographical appears
works. in a dream
In
the Tadhkirat
al-awliya
of'Attar
(d.c.1221
the Prophet
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 that we at of'Ayn the have same al-Zaman Jamal al-dm GTlT, one of of the disciples of Najm al-dm Kubra, that visionary off to seek experience out his master, versus book-learning several
epistemological earlier.123
weighing Before setting
discussed
GTlT packed
books on logic ((aql) and tradition (naql) to accompany him on his journey. When
Najm his with al-dm travel him bag. and s centre On at Khwarazm, GTlT felt GTlT puzzled had a dream since he felt in which he was al-dm, to realise books he was not told to throw waking, carrying second
near to
away
any possessions of which the
it took
two more spelt This
dreams out GTlT
containing for him,
Najm for GTlT threw the
in the that into
exasperated to his sack
master of books.
the matter time,
the dreams the river
referred for
promptly
Bactrus,
which
accounts KubrawT
act Najm
of dreams sufT, Sa'd
al-dm
al-dm
invested him with

in the of
his sufT robe (khirqah).Among

JamT also describes to attend saw he Sa'd a vision coming
the many
seen by
other
another
and visions
same work, the Prophet at the
HamawT, others
a sufT musical standing seated.
gathering with great
(majlis-e-sama propriety as he
?) .124 The stared
present empty bench
gathering
al-dm
at the
on which
saw Muhammad
Journal ofMiddle Eastern Studies i (1992) and F. Malti-Douglas, Studia Islamica 51 (1980). Biographical Notice", 119 To this day Iranian sufis still go on vision quests by passing
"Dreams,
the Blind
and the Semiotics
of the
the night beside the tomb of Abu Yazld at Bistam. (Author's personal observation.) 120 See De Weese (1999). 121 Mary Turnbull (personal communication). Farid al-din Attar, Muslim Saints andMystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya', trans. A.J. Arberry (London, 1990), pp. 93 and 165. 123 ibn Ahmad Jam!, Nafahat al-uns min hadarat al-quds (Tihran, 1375/1955), 'Abd al-Rahman p. 432. 124 Ibid., p. 429.
Hagiographies spectacular tales from of the Indian subcontinent are particularly noteworthy al-awliya, for the North their often Indian
visionary
encounters.125
In his Jawahir
Shaykh 'Uthman Bukhari (d.c.1687 AD) described the prophetic visions of his spiritual ancestor, Shaykh Makhdum Jahaniy an of Ucch (d.1383 AD).126 Shaykh Suhrawardl memorialist
had by Makhdum instructed encountered him about the the most Prophet efficient during forms a visit of to Madlnah Visions, and was then, affect personally religious dhikr.
practice
performance Stories frequently concerning
in the human
of the
sphere, just as the Prophet

prayers saint or by cults a vision with of the
himself had been

angel Jabra'il and Hindu the feature same time
instructed
in the
ritual popular
engaged
in worship. also legends tradition of
surrounding involve earlier
shared Muslim often at thus
congregations invoking
visionary kings and
oneiric
episodes, Royal
emperors.
dreams
in the Bengali
the legendary Satya Pir, while

are initiated into the world of
in the Dakan
the vision
theMughal
that are
emperor Awrangzeb
still recounted
and his vizier

tradition
in stories
in the oral
of Shah Nur HammamI

In some all visionary who of partake sufis South Asian
(d.1692 AD).127
texts, Muslim that of if such saints are seen to be into able to commit form. exist which of Here many has the greatest of another There a motif it is onlookers such also accounts rich exist
accomplishments, in the vision,
shape-shifting
it is rightly into Asia. the tigers
considered. and lions,
transforming in the Persian
themselves folklore of South from
found also
expression and one
However,
literary
versions Dakan
the motif thieves
hagiography
eighteenth-century
describes
sneaking
into the tent of the sleeping sufi master,

out like screaming a as they see the sufi
Shah Palangposh
himself into
(d. 1699 AD)

"a wild
only to be chased
eyes popping
transform
tiger with
peacock's".128
Conclusions most of our have been drawn from the the of visions
Although
examples
past,
recounting
and dreams has continued

means and limited dreams have to the even sufi
to be an important aspect of Muslim

groups roles early that amid continue the to discourse flourish of Muslim Iraqi writers and More political
religiosity. This
the Muslim reform.129 developed
is by no
world
throughout
played
In a different the genre promotion writer and Orhan vision as of the of
context rufyd
of political as a means of of
reform, portraying national
twentieth-century Utopias cultural of social
justice
in their
a programme Pamuk the has
Iraqi
revival.130
recently, theories of
the Turkish the of dream dream
intricately for his
assembled novel Kara
traditional Kitap,
Muslim while Swahili
framework
manuals
interpretation
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 in Modern 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 and
Nile Green 312

form some The classes have of the most interpretation of society right to titles stocked has by Muslim thus continued world, functions booksellers to while and play in along a role literary the East African life and these of the
popular
coast.131 of all
of dreams across
in the form
religious dreams
the Muslim new cultural
visions continued societies For
continued roles of
develop
resonance. upon
Evidently,
imaginative they
experience
in no way
impinge
the modernity
in which scholars one
are found.132 aspect of recent attempts to understand the cultural framework
useful
of the imagination
visionary disbelief. narratives But perhaps
in Islam is the way

in the neutral the most
in which
of what aspect of
it allows us to treat premodern Muslim

used the study simply of Muslim to be called suspended dream and visionary
ground
rewarding
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 itself can to be Muslim. character came clearly Whether recounted was form. by hagiographers, altered in all of and for their historians specific diversity, uses or ends autobiographers, when experience we of visionary to be mutated make and out visions often But
experiences into literary
in such writings which
the different have been
social, directed.
cultural
political
towards
accounts
of dreams
Aside from Piers Plowman episodes

Thomas history. majnun
in English
de Quincey. Both opium
and the poetry of William Blake, the most famous visionary and literature are probably those related to Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Such and opium the were fantasies also played of of a considerable cannabis the practices role (as bhang of the inMuslim in South cultural Asia or for various preparations element
in North
Africa)
a central
qalandariyyah,
example.133 Medieval Dihll

more sober
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
colleagues. 'Inayat Khan of humorous us of The the In dying tales the secular the sphere, ravages the the famous and painting ofjahangir's medieval eaters visionaries the remit boon Arabic of hashish to of the this from describing of opium the popular of the
companion sub-genre both arts of article. To discourse each of the remind
picaresque of such
adventures less must
undoubted of
contributions this subject,
respectable fall beyond
Islam.135
exploration
however,
cultural on the
historian, imagination to which
oneirocritical finds visionary expression narratives
and
visionary in different
texts
reveal
the ways contexts. each
in which Yet beneath of
historical put, below
the uses
have
been
entrapment
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. 171b, fol. 4 verso. See F. Rosenthal, The Herb: Hashish Versus Medieval
quiet eloquence itself. images chronicle of the new of the dream there be in the blunter world of writing, universal scholar there quality lingers to such the aura of the
experience tropes monastic election by and
Often that will ofjocelin abbot
is an unquestionably as familiar of Brakelond to the
experiences, The of the
of Buddhism AD) recounts
as of Christianity. how at the were dreams of time
(d.c.1202 monks morning
in
1182
the worried Each even
of Bury new seeing
St Edmunds of these body
haunted spread
all manner the
of portentous cloisters and one
dreams.136 monk
accounts the broken
around
reported
St Edmund
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 of into the past. another soul ultimately serves to remind us of the living
humanity
136 Jocelin of Brakelond, 1989), pp. 18-19.
Chronicle
of the Abbey
of Bury St Edmunds,
trans. D. Greenway
and J. Sayers
(Oxford,

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The Religious and Cultural Roles of Dreams and Visions in Islam Author(s): Nile Green Source: Journal of the

The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam"

pessimism. decades and

Despite have witnessed practice, vision and

reticence a flourishing through For,

of positivist the visionary the extensive of Islamic

of research the the analysis very

of Muslim surrounding there

cultural and a rich

the dream developed in the form

and mystical of dreamers

to both theories of the imagination

and the description

the Qur'an unsurprisingly

as a visionary aspect roles of sufism

life, from historiography

to folklore and magic.2 As many

The Royal Asiatic Society 2003 Printed in theUnited Kingdom

288 Nile Green

connecting Muslim especially weight

are discussed with

characteristic civilisations. and

the premodern of access

literatures and that

of history, provided of Islam than

to the past no surprise

the models literature experience major the

and the past fracture

oneirocritical into present the of

shows looking taken by

preponderance into futures

towards as yet unreal.

directions relationship and

and premodern to a wider Islamic

us at the onset embeddedness the customs some

Gedankenwelt. universe form of of

It is this symbols a useful

a shared and vision

that means past.

the dream the inner

in Islam may universe

experiences, common before

in their most that

and Christianity back to the very

developed interesting of the

dreaming.6 that while the irrational symbolic albeit

Timaeus, originate as images Plato that he

dreams, perceived their

claiming by obscure, to essays

character). not and On Aristotle one

this way very

allowed highly More denied

that if the gods wanted

classification (often future

the writings as well

pre-enactment or some other events of

(chrematismos), reveals, them.

respected and advises

personage, to deal of with classical

in a literal manner, direct

the nature and

future writing as well dreaming, While

the dream series of