Harran Ilahiyat Journal

Abstract

Various themes were covered in Arabic poetry during the Age of Ignorance. With the arrival and spread of Islam, changes and evolutions took place in Arab society, so interaction with other civilizations became inevitable. As a result of this, new genres such as eulogy, ghazal, elegy and fakhir became a part of the major trends over the centuries. Among the themes was divine love, which lends itself well to eulogy and ghazal. In such poetry, beginning with Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya (d. 185/801 [?]), poets would express their love and enthusiasm for God. The greatest representative of the divine love theme in Arabic literature is undoubtedly Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/1235), who is considered as the representative of Sufis with individual philosophical tendencies in Egypt, where mystical schools were extremely strong during the Ayyubid period. In his poetry, Ibn al-Fāriḍ expressed his love, longing and ecstasy for his Lord and described his maqām and ḥāl, besides the nature of his glory in his shuhūd. Al-Fāriḍ’s qaṣīdas helped feel not only the joy of ghazal and khamriyyāt poetry but also the satisfaction of the sublime and spiritual feelings. Therefore, Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry received response from every walk of the society and appealed to people of all dispositions and status by touching common human feelings.
The commentary culture, which occupies a key place in the Islamic scholarly tradition, is not limited to syntax, logic and theological texts; hundreds of commentaries have been written on the dīwāns of leading poets. While no commentaries have been written on some poetry or such commentaries have not reached the present day, the dīwāns of some poets have been commented on many times by commentators with different tendencies. Obviously, it is possible to say that the abundance of these commentaries is directly proportional to the poet's skill in using literary arts, along with the strength of his intellectual/philosophical background. Various commentators have interpreted the dīwān and particularly the Taʾiyya and Khamriyya qaṣīdas by Ibn al-Fāriḍ, who was a very fortunate poet to benefit from the commentary tradition. For example, the Taʾiyya qaṣīda has been commented on by five different commentators, in Turkish alone. In his study, Yaşar Seracettin Baytar devoted a separate chapter to the commentaries on al-Fāriḍ’s dīwān and introduced them. The commentaries by two of these commentators, al-Būrīnī and al-Nāblusī, were compiled and published in a single book. In the present study, the differences of interpretation between these two commentators were examined based on a single qaṣīda with approximately sixty couplets. When these commentaries are comparatively read, one could see how different meanings the commentators can attribute to the same phrase.
Our observations revealed that al-Būrīnī emphasised language and literary features, while al-Nāblusī highlighted mystical inferences. Therefore, both commentators can definitely contribute to comprehension when reading Ibn al-Fāriḍ. The point that should be particularly emphasised is that Ibn al-Fāriḍ is a God-loving poet known as Ṣulṭān al-ʿĀshiqīn. In his poetry, there is the manifestation, in a human heart, of the abstract beauty of the Creator, who is invisible, and the expression of the excitement and effervescence experienced in the emotional world of the person who receives these manifestations. The wording is full of symbols of mysterious states that defy description unless they are tased and observed. Therefore, it is apparently not possible to fully benefit from Ibn al-Fāriḍ because the subjects of his poetry are based on taste, not on description and teaching. Therefore, it can be said that the commentaries on his poems by the people of pleasure and discovery could be more beneficial. In this respect, as a result of the study, the commentary by al-Nāblusī, written on Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s work was preferred and recommended, albeit the sample of the study was limited to a single qaṣīda.