Among Saints and Poets: The Spiritual Topography of Medieval Shiraz
In: Eurasian StudiesSearch for other papers by Denise Aigle in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Shiraz is distinguished from other cities due to its reputation as the city of saints and poets, as previously emphasised in the title of Arberry’s book of 1960: “Shiraz, Persian City of Saints and Poets”. In textual sources, the city is the “Fortress of saints” (burj al-awliyā’). Shiraz owes its sanctity to the many mausoleums dedicated to the descendants of ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (and Šāh-i Čirāġ), as well as famous mystics such as Šayḫ Kabīr (d. 371/982) and Rūzbihān Baqlī (d. 606/1209). The poets Sa‘dī (d. 691/1292) and Ḥāfiẓ (d. 792/1390) celebrated Shiraz as the city of roses and nightingales. Their sanctuaries, which still the object of pious visits, accentuate the “capital” of city’s sacrality.
After reconstructing the urban space in which the sacred buildings are located, the purpose of this paper is to show how the specific sanctity of the city emerged from the textual sources. Two major texts addressing the sanctity of Shiraz date from the eighth/fourteenth century. In the Šīrāz-nāma (completed in 744/1343), Ibn Zarkūb unfolds the history of the city and speaks of its merits. In Šadd al-īzār (ca. 791/1389), a guide for pilgrimage to Shiraz’s seven cemeteries, Junayd Šīrāzī describes the ritual geography of the city. He notes the places where the Shirazis are buried, thus establishing the symbolic presence of the deceased among the living. Alid shrines in particular thus contributed to the “capitalisation of the sacred” in Shiraz.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Afsar, Karāmat-Allāh, Tārīḫ-i bāft-i qadīmī-yi Šīrāz (Tehran: Našr-i Qatra, 1353š./1974, 2nd edition 1995).
-
Aigle, Denise (forthcoming), Saints hommes de Chiraz et du Fārs médiéval. Pouvoir, société et lieux de sacralité, Xe-XVe siècles.
-
Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali, Le guide divin dans le shî’isme originel (Paris: Verdier, 1992).
-
Amīrī, Razzāq Pārsa, Tārīḫ-i Fārs, Šahr-hā wa rusta-hā-yi ān, 3 vols (Šīrāz: Nawīd-i Šīrāz, 1391š./2012).
-
Amri, Nelly, Les saints en Islam, les messagers de l’espérance. Sainteté et eschatologie au Maghreb aux XIVe et XVe siècles (Paris: Le Cerf, 2008).
-
Amri, Nelly, “Zâwiyya et territoire en Ifriqiya du VIIe/XIIIe siècle à la fin du IXe/XVe siècle”, in La Genière, Juliette de, Vauchez, André and Leclant, Jean (eds.), Les sanctuaires et leur rayonnement dans le monde méditerranéen de l’Antiquité à l’époque moderne (Paris: De Boccard, 2010): pp. 243-4.
-
Amri, Nelly, Sîdî Abû Sa‘îd al-Bâjî (1156-1231) (Sousse: Contrastes-Éditions, 2015).
-
Arberry, Arthur J., Shiraz. Persian City of Saints and Poets (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960).
-
Arjomand, Said Amir, “Religious Extremism (ghuluww), Ṣūfism and Sunnism in Safavid Iran: 1501-1722”, Journal of Asian History, XV/1 (1981): pp. 1-35.
-
Aubin, Jean, “Shāh Ismā‘īl et les notables de l’Iraq persan. Études safavides 1”, JESHO, II/1 (1959): pp. 37-81.
-
Aubin, Jean, “L’avènement des Safavides reconsidéré. Études safavides 3”, Moyen Orient et Océan indien, V (1988): pp. 1-130.
-
Azad, Arezou, Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan: Revisiting the Faḍā’il-i Balkh (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
-
Baalbaki, Ramzi, “al-Ṣaghānī”, in EI 2 8 (1995): pp. 848-9.
-
Bayḍāwī, Nāṣir al-Dīn Abū ‘Abd Allāh, Niẓām al-tawārīḫ, ed. B. Karīmī, B. (Tehran: ‘Ilmī, 1313š./1934).
-
Borrut, Antoine, Entre mémoire et pouvoir. L’espace syrien sous les derniers Omeyyades et les premiers Abbassides (v. 72-193/692-809) (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
-
Chabbi, Jacqueline, Le seigneur des tribus. L’islam de Mahomet (Paris: CNRS, 1997).
-
Corbin, Henry and Mo‘īn, Mohammed, Le jasmin des fidèles d’amour (Tehran: Éditions Manoutcheri, 1987).
-
Dawānī, Jalāl al-Dīn, ‘Arż-i sipāh-i Uzun Ḥasan, ed. I. Afšar in Majallat-i dāniškada-yi adabiyāt-i Tihrān, 1335š., III (1956): p. 1-41.
-
Daylamī, Sīrat al-Šayḫ al-Kabīr Abū ‘Abd Allāh b. Ḫafīf al-Šīrāzī, ed. Schimmel, A. (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1955).
-
Dihḫudā, Luġat-nāma (Tehran: Tehran University Publications, 1988).
-
Dupront, Alphonse, Du Sacré. Croisades et pèlerinages. Images et langages (Paris: Gallimard, 1987).
-
Ernst, Carl, Ruzbihan Baqli. Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (Richmond: Curzon, 1996).
-
Fasā’ī, Mīrzā Ḥasan Ḥusaynī, Fārs-nāma-yi Nāṣirī, ed. Muḥammad Rastigār Fasāʾī, 2 vols (Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1367š./1988).
-
Furṣat al-Dawla Šīrāzī, Āṯār-i ‘Ajam, ed. ‘Alī Dibāšī, 3 vols (Tehran: Bāmdād, 1968).
-
Garcin, J.-Cl., “Le sultan et le Pharaon (le politique et le religieux dans l’Égypte mamelouke)”, in Hommages à François Daumas (Montpellier: Université Paul-Valéry, 1986): 261-271 [Reprint in Espaces, pouvoirs et idéologies de l’Égypte médiévale (London: Variorum Reprints, 1987)].
-
Ḥāfiẓ, Dīwān, ed. P. Khanlārī (Tehran: Ḫʷārazmī, 1980).
-
Halevi, Leor, Muhammad’s Grave. Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
-
Ḫūbnaẓār, Ḥasan, Tārīḫ-i Šīrāz (Tehran: Suḫan, 1380š./2002).
-
Ḥudūd al-ʿālam, tr. and com. Minorsky, V., The Regions of the World: A Persian Geography 372 AH-982 AD, (London: Luzac, 1937 [GMS N. S. XI]).
-
Ḫʷājū Kirmānī, Dīwān-i aš‘ār, ed. Ḫʷānsārī, Suhaylī (Tehran: Bārānī, 1336š./1957).
-
Ḫʷānsārī, Suhaylī, “Zandagānī-i Ḫwājū”, in Dīwān-i aš‘ār, ed. Ḫʷānsārī, S. (Tehran, 1336š./1957): pp. 2-85.
-
Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, trans. Gibb, H.A.R., 2 vols (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1959).
-
Ibn Ḥawqal, Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ, ed. Kramers, J.H., 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1938).
-
Ibn ‘Inaba, ‘Umdat al-ṭālib (Najaf: al-Maṭbaᶜa al-ḥaydarīya, 1380/1918).
-
Ibn Zarkūb, Šīrāz-nāma, ed. Jawāḍī, I. Wā‘iẓ (Tehran: Bungāh-i Farhang-i Vāža-javādī, 1350š./1972).
-
Imdād, Ḥasan, Šīrāz dar guḏašta u ḥāl (Ṣīrāz: Mūsawī, 1339š./1960).
-
‘Īsā b. Junayd Šīrāzī, Hazār mazār, ed. Wiṣāl, Nūrānī (Šīrāz: Intišārāt-i Kitābḫāna-i Aḥmadī Šīrāz, 1364š./1975).
-
Isfizārī, Mu‘īn al-Dīn Muḥammad, Rawżāt al-Jannāt fī awṣāf-i madīnat Harāt, ed. Sayyid Muḥammad Kāẓim Imām, 2 vols. (Tehran: Intišārāt-i Dānišgāh-i Tihrān, 1338-1339š./1959-60).
-
Iṣṭaḫrī, Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik, ed. de Goeje, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1967).
-
Ja‘fariyān, Rasūl, Ṣafawiyya dar ‘arṣa-i dīn, farhang wa siyāsat (The Safavids in the Arenas of Religion, Culture ans Politics), 3 vols (Qum: Pazūhiškada-yi Ḥawza wa Dānišgāh, 1379š).
-
Junayd Šīrāzī, Mu‘īn al-Dīn Abū l-Qāsim, Šadd al-izār, ed. Qazwīnī, Muḥammad (Tehran: Čāpḫāna-yi Majlis, 1328š./1949).
-
Kamālī-Sarwistānī, Kūruš, Dānišnāma-yi āṯār-i tārīḫī-yi Fārs (Šīrāz-Tehran: Mu’assasa-yi farhangī wa pažūhišī-yi Dānišnāma-yi Fārs & Sāzimān-i mīrāṯ-i farhangī, 1384š./2006).
-
Karbalā’ī, Ḥāfiẓ Ḥusayn, Rawżāt al-jinān, ed. Ja‘far Sulṭān Qurrā’ī (Tehran: Bungāh-i Tarjuma va-Našr-i Kitāb, 1344-1349š./1965-70).
-
Lambton, Ann K. S., “Shīrāz”, in EI2, IX (1998): pp. 491-7.
-
Limbert, John, Shiraz in the Age of Hafez. The Glory of a Medieval Persian City (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2004).
-
Manoukian, Setrag, City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran. Shiraz History and Poetry (London and New York: Routledge, 2012).
-
Manz, Beatrice, Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
-
Mayeur-Jaouen, Catherine, “Tombeau, mosquée et zâwiya: la polarité des lieux saints musulmans”, in Vauchez (dir.), Lieux sacrés, lieux de culte, sanctuaires. Approches terminologiques, méthodologiques, historiques et monographiques (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2000): pp. 133-47.
-
McChesney, R. D., Waqf in Central Asia. Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480-1889 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
-
Melville, Charles, “Shah ‘Abbas and the Pilgrimage to Mashhad”, in Melville, Ch. (ed.), Safavid Persia, Pembroke Papers, IV (1996): pp. 191-229.
-
Meri, Josef W., The Cults of Saints among the Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
-
Mouton, Jean-Michel. “De quelques reliques conservées à Damas au Moyen-Âge. Stratégie politique et religiosité populaire sous les Bourides”, Annales Islamologiques 27 (1993): pp. 245-54.
-
Mulder, Stephennie, The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi’s and the Architecture of Coexistence (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014).
-
Muqaddasī, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī ma‘rifat al-aqālīm, ed. de Goeje, Descriptio imperii moslemici, BGA VI, (Leiden: Brill, 1877).
-
Mustawfī Qazwīnī, Ḥamd Allāh, Nuzhat al-qulūb, ed. and trans. Le Strange, G., 2 vols (London & Leiden: Luzac & Brill, 1915, 1919).
-
Nelson, Kristina, The Art of Reciting the Qur’ān (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985).
-
Otto, Rudolf, Das Heilige: über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen (Breslau: Trewendt und Garnier, 1917).
-
Pedersen, J., “Masdjid”, in EI 2, VI (1991): pp. 630-1.
-
Rāġib, Yūsuf, “Al-Sayyida Nafīsa, sa légende, son culte et son cimetière”, StIs, XLIV (1976): pp. 61-86 and 45 (1977): pp. 27-55.
-
Rubin, Uri, “Pre-existence and Light. Aspects of the Concept of Nūr Muḥammad”, Israel Oriental Studies, V (1975): pp. 62-119.
-
Šams al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Laṭīf b. Rūzbihān II, Rūḥ al-jinān fī sīrat al-Šayḫ Rūzbihān, in Rūzbihān-nāma, ed. M. Dāniš-Pažūh, (Tehran: Silsila-i Intišārāt-i Anjuman-i Āṯār-i Millī, 1969): pp. 152-370.
-
Šaraf al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. Rūzbihān II, Tuḥfat ahl al-‘irfān fī ḏikr sayyid al-aqṭāb Rūzbihān, in Rūzbihān-nāma, ed. M. Dāniš-Pažūh, (Tehran, Silsila-i Intišārāt-i Anjuman-i Āṯār-i Millī, 1969): pp. 1-149.
-
Sarvestani, Kuros Kamali, “Hafez’s tomb (Ḥāfiẓiya)”, in EIr 11 (2003): pp. 505-7.
-
Savory, Roger M., “The Safavid State and Polity”, IrSt, VII/1-2 (1974): pp. 179-212.
-
Schwarz, Paul, Iran nach den arabischen Geographen des Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1896 (reprint Hildesheim-New York: Georg Olms, 1969).
-
Shahbazi, A. Shapour, “Shiraz i. History to 1940”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/shiraz-i-history-to-1940.
-
Subkī, Tāj al-Dīn, Ṭabaqāt al-šāfi‘iyya al-kubrā, ed. Nūr al-Dīn Šarība (Cairo: al-Maṭbaᶜa al-Ḥusainīya, 1323-1324/1906).
-
Subtelny, Maria, Timurids in Transition. Turko-Persian Politics and Acculturation in Medieval Iran (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
-
Talmon-Heller, Daniella, “Graves, Relics and Sanctuaries: the Evolution of Syrian Sacred Topography (eleventh-thirteenth centuries)”, ARAM Periodical, XVIII-XIX (2006-7): p. 601-20.
-
Taqī Muṣṭafawī, Muḥammad, Iqlīm-i Fārs (Tehran: Taban Press, 1964).
-
Thackston, Wheeler, “Ahlī Šīrāzī”, in EIr 1 (1985): pp. 637-8.
-
Thibon, Jean-Jacques, L’oeuvre d’Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmām al-Sulamī 325/937-412/1021 et la formation du soufisme (Damas: Institut Français du Proche-Orient, 2009).
-
Van Renterghem, Vanessa, Les élites bagdadiennes au temps des Seldjoukides. Étude d’histoire sociale, 2 vols (Beirut-Damascus: Institut Français du Proche-Orient, 2015).
-
Vauchez, André, “Introduction”, in Lieux sacrés, lieux de culte, sanctuaires. Approches terminologiques, méthodologiques, historiques et monographiques, Vauchez, André (dir.) (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2000): pp. 1-7.
-
Vauchez, André, “Introduction”, in La Genière, Juliette de, Vauchez, André, Leclant, Jean, (eds.), Les sanctuaires et leur rayonnement dans le monde méditerranéen de l’Antiquité à l’époque moderne (Paris: De Boccard, 2010): pp. 1-6.
-
Vincent, J. F., J. Dary and R. Verdier, La Construction religieuse du territoire (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1995).
-
Waṣṣāf, Tajziyat al-amṣār wa tazjiyat al-a‘ṣār, ed. M. M. Iṣfahānī, lithograph (Bombay, 1852).
-
Wilber, Donald N., The Masjid-i ‘Atiq of Shiraz (Šīrāz: Pahlavi University, 1972).
-
William Francklin, Observations Made on a Tour from Bengal to Persia in the Years 1786-87 (London: T. Cadell, 1790).
-
Wing, Patrick, “Mozaffarids”, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mozaffarids.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 568 | 62 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 104 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 141 | 7 | 1 |
Among Saints and Poets: The Spiritual Topography of Medieval Shiraz
In: Eurasian StudiesSearch for other papers by Denise Aigle in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Shiraz is distinguished from other cities due to its reputation as the city of saints and poets, as previously emphasised in the title of Arberry’s book of 1960: “Shiraz, Persian City of Saints and Poets”. In textual sources, the city is the “Fortress of saints” (burj al-awliyā’). Shiraz owes its sanctity to the many mausoleums dedicated to the descendants of ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (and Šāh-i Čirāġ), as well as famous mystics such as Šayḫ Kabīr (d. 371/982) and Rūzbihān Baqlī (d. 606/1209). The poets Sa‘dī (d. 691/1292) and Ḥāfiẓ (d. 792/1390) celebrated Shiraz as the city of roses and nightingales. Their sanctuaries, which still the object of pious visits, accentuate the “capital” of city’s sacrality.
After reconstructing the urban space in which the sacred buildings are located, the purpose of this paper is to show how the specific sanctity of the city emerged from the textual sources. Two major texts addressing the sanctity of Shiraz date from the eighth/fourteenth century. In the Šīrāz-nāma (completed in 744/1343), Ibn Zarkūb unfolds the history of the city and speaks of its merits. In Šadd al-īzār (ca. 791/1389), a guide for pilgrimage to Shiraz’s seven cemeteries, Junayd Šīrāzī describes the ritual geography of the city. He notes the places where the Shirazis are buried, thus establishing the symbolic presence of the deceased among the living. Alid shrines in particular thus contributed to the “capitalisation of the sacred” in Shiraz.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 568 | 62 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 104 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 141 | 7 | 1 |