iSLAM MEDENiYETiNDE

(MEDİNETÜ'S-SELAM)

ULUSLARARASI SEMPOZ\'UM 7-8-9 KASIM 2008

_ı ~ ' ~ iLAtıiYA'J: S:~T:.ı:o. Ümraniye FAK:ULTESI ARAŞTIRMAMERKEZI Belediyesi

Marmara Üniversitesi, İlah!)'at Fakültesi, islam Tarihi ve Sanatlan Bölümü

Marmara University, Faculty of Theology. Department of Islami c History and Arts

&

islam Konferansı T~kilatı, İslam Tarih, Sanat ve Kültür Ara§tırma Merkezi (IRCICA)

- Organisation of lslamic Conference, Research Centre for Islamic History. Art aı'ıd Culture

İSLAM MEDENIYETINDE BAGDAT 1\ •• A

(MEDINETU'S-SELAM) ULUSLARARASI SEMPOZVUM

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAD (MADINAT ai-sAIAM) IN THE ISLAMI C CIVILIZA TION

7-9 Kasım 1 November 2008 Bağlarba~ı Kültür Merkezi

Üsküdar- İSTANBUL

TÜRKİYE

PROGRAM

Ümran!}'e Beled!}'esi'nin katkılar!Yia

Sponsored by Umran!}'e Municipalio/

BETWEEN SHARl'A AND

TARiQA: 'GENDERING' SÜFISM

IN BAGHDAD AND BEYOND

Assist. Prof. Afshan Bokhart

This paper examines Baghdad's spiritual role as the axis-mundi for the formal teachings of Süfiyaa, 1 i ts diaspora and the pioneering spirit of i ts saints whose philosophies dispersed as far as India and at a distant of eight hundred years. The analysis uses the spiritual breeding ground of Baghdad during its Islamic Golden Age in the eighth century and its Süfi intellectual links as a point of departure in considering the roles of the female mystic, Rabi'a al­'Adawiyya (d.801), Shakyh Abu al-Qa~im al-Junayd (830-910) and Abd al­Qadir Jilani (1077-1166) and the seminal roles they played in the spiritual journey, writings and life of the seventeenth century Mughal princess Jahan Ara Begum (1614-1681), daughter of emperor Shah Jahan (r.1628-1658). The study considers how the Baghdadi-schooled individuals forged a framework where the princess sanctioned her spiritual authority as a piri-murid 2 and crafted the continuity of the Timurid-Mughal legacy. 3

Suffolk University. ~ 1 Vincent J. Cornell, Voices ofislam (North Carolina: Greenwood Publishing, ~tl7),

p.252. Süfiyaa indicates esoteric knowledge rather than a formalized doctrine and theosophy.

2 The liminal state of a Münis al-Arvah i-muridi is simultaneously a position of mas­ter and disciple manifest in one authority. This term is notused in Jahan Ara' s text but is a 20th century term used in feminist studies to deseribe female mystics who had achieved the highest stages of enlightenment but could not ascend formally to therankof a Münis al-Arvah. See, Kelly Pemberton's essay, 'Muslim Women Mys­tics and Female Spiritual authority in South Asian Süfism', in Cantesting Rituals: ls-

•

518 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAO IN THE ISLAMI C CIVILIZATION

Baghdad's spiritual 'heroes' were valued each intheir own way by Jahan Ar~ Begurn and further enjoined her full and sornewhat public participation and representation within the Süfi Qadriyah order and in the imperial Mughal landscape. The first female mystic Rabi'a advocated 'pure love'4 to reconcile traditional Islam with its mystical strain and thereby her spiritual ageney im­bued Süfi theosophy with a 'gendered dimension'. Nine hundred years later and thousands of miles away across the Indian sub-continent a princess also pursued an alternative mystical site of Islam to embolden and advocate her own spiritual authority through Süfism. This emerges ata time when Shah Ja- . han found solace in orthodox Islam and whose expansionist objectives in Balkh, Afghanistan for ancestral territory created a climate of war, death and destruction.5 Shakyh Abu'l-Qasim al-Junayd's writings and histarical memory are invoked in the princess' treatises 6 to both legitimize and link the Mughal's supremacy to Baghdad and to the intellectual center ofislam and Süfism.

The superior role of the Qadriyah order is also advocated by Jahan Ara in her treatises over the Mughal-sponsored Chishtiyah order where Jilani's reli­gious link to Prophet Malıarnmed is used to sanction the authority of Jahan Ara Begurn's self-proclaimed piri-muridi, status and her spiritual ascension. The research relies on two Süfi treatises: Risala-i-Sahibiyiih and Münis al­

Arvah both written in Persian by Jahan Ara Begum during the period 1639-40. The Sahibiyiih is a personal narrative of the princess' spiritual journey in the Qadriyah order of Süfism as well as a biographical sketch of her pir Mullah Shah Badakhshi. Münis al-Arvah is an anthology of the Chishtiyah and Qadri­yah saints and the extraordinary events of their lives.

The three main Süfi schools, Süharwardy, Qadriyah and Naqsbhandiyah emerged from Baghdad and spread to other parts of the world and were

lam and Practices of Identity-Making', eds. Stewart, P. and Stathern, A. (Durharn: North Carolina Press, 2005), pp.3-39. The Timurids in Persia were the predecessors of the Mughals in India. The Persia­nate Central Asian Muslim dynasty ofTurco-Mongol descent ruled over an empire including Central Asia, Iran and modern Afghanistan. The dynasty was founded by the legendary conqueror Timur (Tarnerlane) in the 14ıh century. See, J.H. Sanders, tr.,Tamerlane, (tr. oflate 14ıh century Arabic work by A. Ibn Arabshah, 1936). Cornell, p. 250. John Richard, The Mughal Empire, Cambridge, 1993, p. 132. Muhammad Aslarn. Typed Persian copy of the original seventeenth century ma­nuscript. 'Risala-i-Sahibiyah', Journal of Research Society of Pakistan, Vol. 16, no. 4 and 17 (hereafter called Sahibiyii.h) and Münis al-Arvah marked "MS Fraser 229", 38 pages and dated 1639 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford England consists of 83 fo­lios in Persian (hereafter called 'Munis-al-Arvah'.

'GENDERING' SÜFISM IN BAGHDAD AND BEYONO 519

adopted to some extent to support various socio-religious and political state­craft agend~s. From its early eighth century origins in Basra and Kufa, Süfism spread to two main centers by the ninth century: Khurasan and Baghdad? The school of Khurasan precedes the Baghdad school but was deeply influenced by the more formalized Baghcladi school of Süfism that gave the mystical sect a more systematic character. The Abbasid Caliphate ruled from their capital city of Baghdad and from the eighth to the ninth century, the city became the cross-roads to disseminate and exchange material and intellectual matters. The 'worldliness' and the Abbasid's Sunni orthodoxy gave rise to a social and later spiritual trend of spiritual and temporal renunciation that formalized in­to the Süfi concept of fanaa or complete anniliila tion of the m undane self.

The importance of the school of Baghdad was not only in its influence of Süfi orders in Khurasan, Basra and Kufa, the contemporary epicenters of

1

Süfism but also later Süfi institutions in the form of three main schools: Süharwardy, Qadriyah and Naqshbandiyah that were wholly influenced by the teachings and scholarship of two individuals who were based in Baghdad.8 The writings of al-Harith Muhasibi (781-857) and his apprentice Abu al- Qasim al­Junayd (825-910) conveyed different but doctrinal formulation of early Süfism that developed into various strains and emerged from Baghdad and spread to other parts of the world especially Persia and later Mughal India through the Qadriyah and Naqshbandiyah orders. 9

The undisputed master of the Süfis of Baghdad was Abu al-Qasim al­Junayd, who had a pivotal role the history of early Süfism.10 The representa-

• tives of divergent mystical schools and modes of thought could refer to him as their master, so that the initiation chains of later Süfi orders almost invariably go back to him as the po int of origin. In the ham d, the introductory poem that praises Allah in her anthology of Süfi saints Münis al-Arvah (1639), Jahan Ara Begum invokes Shaykh Junayd of Baghdad's name and memory to sanction the verity of her writings and histarical knowledge base:

Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge:, 2002, p. 36. ,, , ~

Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill, 1975, pp. '228-244. Ibid., pp.236-238.

10 A.J. Arberry. "Junaid," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1935),.p. 499; A.H. Ab­del Kader, The Life, PersonaUty and Writings of al-Junayd, Gibb Memorial Series, n.s. 22, London, 1962, pp.34-39. See the review of Abdel Kader's book by Joseph van Ess, Oriens 20 (1967). Another comprehensive analysis is given in R.C. Zaeh­ner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism, London, 1960, p. 135.

..

520 1 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAD IN THE ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

"This faqira, ll only by the assistance and by the favor and approval of God the all-knowing and all-mighty and his beloved messenger Prophet

· Muhammad, and with the helping grace of my revered master, Mullah Shah who took my hand, I'm filled with desire to write this treatise about the lives of the saints from Shaykh Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd to Shaykh Kwajah Mü'in al-Din Chishti who are God's friends and exten­sions and by whose grace this work will be placed on the mantle with the other accounts of the great ones of religion and the revered ones of certainty. 12

Princess Jahan Ara Begum bornin 1614 in Ajmer India was the oldest daughter ofEmperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Upon her mother's un­timely death during childbirth in 1631, the seventeen year-old Jahan Ara in­herited her mother's role as the head of the imperial harem, the royal seal and more fiscal power than any Mughal woman before her. Like most royal prin­cess', Jahan Ara received a comprehensive education including Islamic theolo­gy and Qu'ranic studies. To her spiritual enlightenment and education, her Süfi-devout brother Dara Shiköh anda prolific author of mystical texts, added Süfi literature especially the tadhkirahs13 of holy saints to his sister's reading -list. In 1638, Dara Shiköh initiated Jahan Ara's participation into the Süfi Qadriyalı order under the guidance of Mullah Shah Badakhshi.

By 1641, Jahan Ara was ina complete state of obeisance and devation to the Qadriyalı order and embarked on her own Süfi writings. The princess was clearly inspired and perhaps provoked by her beloved brother Dara to seek out the Qadriyalı order of Süfism to satiate her spiritual longings that re­mained unfulfilled by traditional Islam. Mullah Shah's teachings, spiritual guidance and ideology motivated Jahan Ara's spiritual treatise the Sahibiyiilı. The Qadriyalı order is considered the earliest of the Muslim formal mystic Süfi orders and based entirely upon the principles of Shari'ah14 and was founded by the Hanhali theologian 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in Baghdad, Iraq. Jilani also popularly remembered in his daim to 'have his feet on the neck of

ll The feminine form of faqir (Persian), signifying her lowly and poor status and whose humility is fit for a woman dedicated to the path of Süfism. A Süfi disciple often refers to him/lıerself as a faqir, an impoverished one where poverty is a Süfi' s pride and s/he is dependent upon God alone.

12 Sahibiyah,p 16. •

13 • Tadhkirahs is a form of Persian prose as an amalgam of biographical sketches

and/ or anthologies of Süfi saints. 14 Shar'iah, m eaning the 'way' or 'path' refers to the body of Islamic law that broadly

covers political, economic and social issues based on Muslim principles ofjurisp­rudence.

'GENDERING SÜFISM IN BAGHDAD AND BEYONO 521

the saints' of other orders15 and to have learnt the Süfi precepts directly from Prophet Muhammad which ultiınately privileged his position in Jahan and Dara Stııköh' s mindset. AHilani intended the few rituals he preseribed to extend only to his small circle of followers, but his disciples broadened this community into an order and encouraged its spread into North Africa, Cen­tral Asia, and especially India. 16

The spread of Islam in India was partly due to the exaltation of its mysti­cism. In the Sahlbiyah, Jahan Ara acknowledged and legitiınized the histarical origins of Süfism in the path she pursued by affirming the most esteemed and lauded exemplars from the foundational period of Islam, both men and wom­en through which she maps her own beginnings as a Qadriyah disciple. In M un is al-Arvah, Jahan Ara provides a select but complete account of the awli­ya (saints) as they pertain to her own discipleship. Toward this end she pro­vides birth dates, death dates and the places of tombs of every wali {saint). Ja­han Ara begins her treatise vigorously and systematically representing the ac­counts of the Qadriyah and Chishtiyah saints which she cites as borrowed from the Akhbar al-Akhyar of Shaikh Abdul Haq Dehlawi 17 acknowledging and honoring the Qadriyah and Chishtiyah saints and their alliances and their history by tracing their line to Prophet Muhammad:

"Khwaja Muin al-Din Chishti...disciple of Khwaja Usman Haruni who was the disciple of Hazrat Haji Shareef Zandni. .. who was the disdple of Hazrat Ali ... and Abd al-Qadir Jilani who was the direct disciple of Prophet Muhammad and who was leader among the great awliyas and for whom Mullah Shah has great love and respect. The lives of these great ones are inextricably link.ed to •each other and to the court of Eter­riity and our Creator. I have extracted with great care from well-known books and treatises, their history and have cornmitted these to vvriting in this Sahibiyiih." 1s

Jahan Ara's Münis al-Arvah further substantiates her full devotion and the im portance of Süfism in her ritualized religious practice:

"After completing my religious duties and reciting the Holy Qur'an, I consider no act more noble or sacred than reading the life accounts of the holy saints, may God sanctify their souls. I spend my free time in the

j! ;

15 Tasadduq Husain, "The Spiritual Journey of Dara Shikoh", Social Scientist, '3o, no. 7/8 (July-Aug. 2002), p. 57.

16 For a general overview and history of the Qadriyiili order in India and Pakistan, See: Arthur Buehler, "The Indo-Pak Qadiriyah", Journal of the History of Sufism, (2002). [Special Issue, the Qadiriyah Order]

17 Mıinis al-Arvah, pp. 23-26. 18 lbid, p.l4.

522 1 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAD iN THE ISLAMIC CIVIUZATION

study of books and treatİses comprised of the life accounts of great reli­gious men and renowned mystics". 19

During one of her ri tu als J ah an Ara makes daim s of having many visions where she is accompanied by the four Caliphs giving approval to her writings and during one episode where she envisions herself circumambulating · the tombs oflmam Müsa Kazim and Ghaus al-Azam in Baghdad and in Ajmer at Khwaja Mu'in al-din Chishti's tomb.20

The Chishtiyi:ih sect was supported and instituted by Emperor Akbar dur­ing his reign where Salim Chishti served as the 'patron saint' of the Mughals.zı The Chishtiyi:ih order, however, was not imported during the fust Mughal emperor Babur's invasion of India in 1526 nor was it the preferred order a century later that would initiate Jahan Ara and Dara Shiköh's discipleships. TheNaqshbandiyi:ih Süfı order came to India with Babur along with concepts ofTimurid rule and their associated spirituallegacies and concepts of kingship and semi-divine rule. The Naqshbandiyi:ih's orthodoxy and exclusion of wom­en among other non-negotiable tenets may suggest the reasons for its rejection by the catholic and inclusive Akbar and the precedents of pluralism he advo-

·'cated for his empire and the successive members of the imperial family.

Timurid rule and its inextricable links to Süfism can be traced as early as the fourteenth century during Tugluq Timur' s reign (r.1362) 22 who supported the nascent Naqshbandiyi:ih 23 Süfi orders in Central Asia to the extent that he was buried next to his shaykh Amir Külal (d. 1371). 24 In fourteenth century Central Asia the Naqshbandiyi:ih gave organized assistance and religious sanc­tions toward legitimization of the influential Timurid landlord rulers. In re­tum, the Timurids respected and patronized Süfıs, building them mausoleums

19 Münis al-Arvah, pp. 36-37. 20 Ibid., pp.12-13. 21 John F. Richards, The Mughal Empire ,Cambridge, 1996, pp.27-29. 22 Beuhler, Arthur. "The Naqshbandiyya in Timurid India: The Central Asian Le­

gacy", Journal of Islamic Studies. 7:2 (1996) p. 210. 23 Süfis were wandering Muslim ascetics spreading Islam among every faction of the

populace. Through this method of promulgatiori they were able to link many gro­ups of Central Asian society, including the n omadie tribes, the artisan guilds of the towns and the peasant population of the villages. Given this b road following and consolidation, it was in the interest of rulers particularly in a climate of rivalry among various factions to secure the support of Süfi shaykhs to legitimize and sus-

- tain their rule and holdings. For an ovenri.ew of the dynamics between Uzbek ru­lers and Süfi shaykhs, See: Beuhler, Arthur. "The Naqshbandiyya in Timurid India: The Central Asian Legacy", Journal oflslamic Studies. 7:2 (1996) pp. 208-228.

24 See J, M. Rogers, trans., "V.V. Bartol'd's Article O Pogrebenii Timura ("The Burial of Timur") in Jouı·nal of Persian Studies, 12 (1974), 65-87.

'GENDERING' SÜFISM IN BAGHDAD AND BEYONO 523

and providing them with endowments of lan d ( waqf). 25 A reciprocal relation­ship was established between the Timurids who acquired legitimacy and the Naqshbandiyahs who secured an elevated socio-political status in the imperial administration. This archetypal relationship and pattern of patranage was rep­licated among Akbar, Jahangir and the Chistiyah order and later between Shah Jahan, Jahan Ara and Dara Shiköh and the Qadriyah order. The Sü:fi orders continued to provide services as mediators between the people and their Mughal rulers and between the people and God and to institute and enforce Islamic practices integrated with mystical underplıpllngs.

The standard Sü:fi-Sovereign 26 archetypal relationship is reconstituted by Jahan Ara Begum where she outperforms her imperial obligations and seeks to extend her imperial authority to a spiritual realm through her Sü:fi treatises and her monumental sacred commissions. Jahan Ara Begum's impetus to rec­ord and convey her innermost mystical workings are clearly inspired and mo­tivated by her brother Dara Shiköh's prolific writings on the subject.27 Howev­er, the patterns of the princess persuasions for personal narratives is not un­precedented in Sü:fi hagiographies. Medieval female mystics often saw them­selves at a disadvantage because not only was mystical experience difficult to communicate, as women they lacked the authority and authoritative language to communicate spiritual truths and the authenticity to legitimate their spir­itual agency.

According to Fiona Bowie, "Women mystics wrote out of an inn er urge to communicate a personal event o' great importance."28 This event was a mystical visian or journey through which the female mystic saw herself in a direct relationship with God and passionately sought to convey this without heretical accusations. Female mystics including Jahan Ara Begum framed their experience where their ageney is objectified or being used as a 'tool' or 'in­strument' of God to convey spiritual enlightenment that is not directed by their own volition. Jahan Ara uses this framework to sanction her enlighten­ment by indicating in the introduction or hamd of the Sahibiyah, her sanc- ·

j! ~

25 Beuhler, Arthur. "The Naqshbandiyya in Timurid India: The Central A;ian Le­gacy", Journal of Islami c Studies. 7:2 (1996) pp. 210.

26 Beuhler, p. 212. 27 A survey of Dara Shikoh's writings are included in Kalika-Rjan Qanungo's, Dara

Shikoh, Calcutta, 1935; Bikram Jit Hasrat, Dara Shikoh: Life and Works, Calcutta, 1953.

28 Fiona Bowie, The Aııthropology of Religions, Blackwell Publishing (USA), 2006, p. 289.

•

524 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAD IN THE ISLAMIC CIVIUZATION

tioned authority and impetus to write the treatise as dictated by God and his messenger, Prophet Muhammad.

"This faqira, 29 only by the assistance and by the favor and approval of God the all-knowing and all-mighty and his beloved messenger Prophet Mu­hammad, and with the helping grace of my revered master, Mullah Shah who took my hand, I'm filled with desire to write this treatise and place it on the mantle with the other accounts of the great ones of religion and the revered ones of certainty.30

The daim that one is compelled by God to write and not through any presumption on the part of the author recurs frequently in mystic women's writing and is evidenced in Jahan Ara' s invocation of Islamic figures through­out the Sahibiyiih .31 Lacking the authority of a derical order or male gender, the only justification for female mystics' writing was that of being an instru­ment of the Creator and feeling the compulsion to relate the intensity of their spiritual experience. Sanctioned by her Creator and his Prophet Muhammad and stili in the remembrance of the sp iritual states of her inn er mystical jour-

-- ney, Jahan Ara Begum begins and condudes the nineteen pages of the Sa­hibiyiih.

Jahan Ara's literary prowess indudes poetic compositions. Upon receiv­ing the vision of the Holy Prophet among his companions, Jahan Ara compos­es a quatrain that she acknowledges is inspired by Rümi's poems that are given to her by Dara Shiköh and ones she keeps dose to her heart:

"I prostrated myself in gratitude and this quatrain came out of my mouth: 'Oh King (Mullah Shah) you are the One, the blessings of your gaze deliver the seekers to God. Whoever you look at reaches his goal. The light of your gaze has become the light of God through you."'32

Jahan Ara also honors Attar, Rumi and Mullah Shah and acknowledges the primacy and authority of female ageney within Süfism by invoking the memory of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya (717- 801 C.E), the first and foremost female Süfi. Süfi biographical dictionaries often have a seetion entitled "W om en who achieved the status of men" and the Indian saint Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakar

29 The feminine form of faqir (Persian), signifying her lowly and poor status and _ whose humility is fi.t for a woman dedicated to the path of Süfism. A Süfi disciple

often refers to him/lıerself as afaqir, an impoverished one where poverty isa Süfi's pride and s/he is dependent upon God alone.

30 Aslam, Sahibiyah, p. 26. 31 Ibid., pp.lS-26. 32 Ibid., p.24.

'GENDERING' SÜFISM IN BAGHDAD AND BEYONO i 525.

refers to a pious woman as 'aman sent in the form of a woman.'33 It is clear {rorn the sources listed in the Münis al-Arvah and Sahibiyiih that Jahan Ara would have-read sections on achievements of women in Süfi orders as well as Ganj-i Shakar's writings that motivated her own participation ina Süfi order. Jahan Ara establishes a framework for her own spiritual authority and privi­leges her gender by ~voking Rabi'a 's name and example. Subsequently, in the same passage Jahan Ara equalizes the genders intheir access and potential en­

lightenment on the Süfi path: "Attar has said that about Rabi'a 'she is not one woman but a hundred men from head to toe. She is entirely drowned in pain34 like a good Süfi and her longing and devation on the path is equal to the piety of 100

')) 35 men.

Tahan Ara sirnultaneously uses Rabi'a and the malegender to 'measure' a '

wornan's worth not to limit or subordinate the potential of women but to re-flect existing constructions of gender hierarchy and the contemporacy socio­religious predilections of male to female in seventeenth-century Mughal India. The patdarehal 'gender coding' is usedas a variable to measure the superiority of the female gender and agency. Jahan Ara uses Mullah Shah's comments to critique patriarchy and privilege women in their devation and practice of Süfi doctrines. In subsequent verses she equalizes the genders in their access to the ultimate objective of the Süfi path: perfection and knowledge of "Self' which ultimately leads to divine union. At the center of Jahan Ara' s argument is the female pursuit of the Süfi path as equal to males in access to Gad both in prac­tice and prescription. She writes in the Sahibiyiih:

"Whoever is bonored by the greatest happiness of knowing and realiza­tion is the perfect human (insbaaneh-kamil) or the absolute essence of the world (zaat-e mııtluk) and is superior among all living creatures whether man or woman. God's grace will favor whoever he likes be it man or woman." 36

Jahan Ara's elevated piri-muridi status is substantiated in the writings of Mullah Shah's biographer and disciple Tawakkul Beg:

She passed through all the normal visions and attained a pure union with God and gained an intuitive perception. Mullah Shah said of her, .. ~

"She has attained so extraordinary a development of the mystical•:. ~

33 'Abd al-Haqq Muhaddith Dihlawi, Akhbar al-Akhyar, tr. Iqbal al-Din Ahmed, Ka-rachi,1963, p.488.

34 The concept ofjaana or annihilation of 'Self is necessary to unite with the Creator. 35 Aslam, Sahibiyah, p. 16. 36 Aslam, Sahibiyah, pp.ll-12.

526 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAD IN THE ISLAMIC CIVJLIZATION

knowledge that she is worthy ofbeing my representative if she were not a woman." 37

After legitimizing her gender and female ageney in Süfism, Jahan Ara continues to authenticate her piri-muridi identity through Süfi histories and literature to represent an informed and passionate devation to the Qadriya.Iı. Jahan Ara cites well-known Süfi treatises and bibliographic sources to legiti­mize the origins of her inspiration and documentation in the Sahibiyiih and Münis al-Arvah and to convey her access to and deep knowledge of Süfi hagi­ographies and mystical texts.

"Because of my deep beliefs and convictions, the idea behind this manu­script is to guide you and I hope that the readers and llsteners of this manusedpt will benefit and understand ideas and thoughts of the way. I have used reliable and respected sources:

'Akhbiir al-akhyiir fi asriir al-abriir' by 'Abd al-Haqq Muhaddis Dihlavi (1'552-1642), Diwan of Shaykh Junaid of Baghdad, Diwan of Rumi and Kashf al-Mahjub of Hujwiri, the Tadhkirat al-Awliya of Attar and the Nafahat al-Uns of Jami, Diwan of Baba Farid-al-Din Masud Ganj-i­Shakar (1175-1265), Akbarnamah by Sheikh Abü al-Fa2;ı Mubii.rak (1551-1602), Kalam-i-lam yazal [the message eternal] by Khwaja Mu'in al-din Chishti (1142-1236), Sakinat al-awlfyii and Safinat al-awliyii by Dara Shiköh (1615-1659) ... "38

Islamic theology and jurisprudence continued to form the underpinnings for the Timurid-Mughal imperial ideology that had legitimized their sixteenth century conquest of and expansion in India, however, Süfism and its mystical belief systems clearly had a significant influence on the socio-political psyche of the imperial line. As exemplified through Jahan Ara Begum's example, the innate constructions of Süfism viscerally attended so me of the most deeply felt social and spiritual needs of the Mughal elite that orthodox Islam may not have addressed.

The inextricable connection of the imperial family to Süfi institutions was further galvanized by marrying state to household and required women to also "visibly" represent the pietistic objectives of the ruling house through their patranage and largesse. These Mughal 'enunciations', according to Ebba Koch, "emerged as forms of communication through a topos of symbols"39 that 'gen-

-37 Tawakkul Beg Kulabi, Nuskhah-i Ahwal-i-Shahi, 1667, British Museum Library

shelf3202, folio no.l38, pp.11-14. 38 Münis al-Arvah, p.IO. 39 Ebba Koch, Lecture: "The Mughal Hunt", Harvard University, Dept. of Sanskrit

and Indian Studies. April, 2007. I am grateful and indebted to Ebba Koch for her insights, wisdom and encyclopedic knowledge in guiding my studies and analysis

'GENDERING' SÜFISM IN BAGHDAD AND BEYONO 527

dered' the Mughal landscape and further, participated in what Gulru Necipo­glu has descri~ed as the 'staging' for the performance of 'optical politics' as a direct function of imperial patronage.40 The highly politicized and 'staged' re­ligiosity of royal women' s coınmissions sustained the sovereign's rule and the histarical memory of the patrilinealline.

Physically and spiritually the Süfi-Sovereign affiliation established an "au­ra of sanctity" 41 araund the imperial family and araund Mughal-sponsored shrines and mosques. In 1650, to honor her Münis al-Arvah, Jahan Ara com­ınissioned the Mullah Shah Badakhshi mosque and kJıanaqah complex located in Srinagar, Kashmir. The intensity of Jahan Ara' s mystical religiosity finds its fullest expressian in this coınmission that fulfills the imperial obligations of public piety, her spiritual devation and her self-representation asa piri-muridi. The o;verall structure is compact in its organization and exhibits an attempt towards a standard Shahjahani typology42 including baluster columns, multi­cusped arches, and an "intuitive" syınmetry in the overall design of the plan and elevation. The mosque is both inward- and outward-facing in its organi­zation and embellishment with many of its distinguishing features articulated on each exterior wall of the complex. A comprehensive analysis of the mosque complex is beyand the scope of this study; however, the overall design and plan "organically" emerges conveying Shahjahani iconography and idioms that enlists its membership as part of imperial hegemony particularly in the vast reaches of the Mughal domains in Kashmir.

The most remarkable features on the southern elevation are the bands of •

Persian poetic verses inscribed within fo ur framed panels of the blind arches.

of the Mughals and Jahan Ara Begum in particular. Further, Dr. Sunil Sharma's eritkal analysis and poetic 'visions' of Mughal splendor have been pivotal to my re­search in cultivating a comprehensive framework for historicizing the Jahan Ara Begum's literary contributions.

4° For the usage of this term see G. Necipoglu-Kafadar, "Framing the Gaze in Otto- • man, Safavid, and Mughal Palaces", pp. 303-4. Gulru Necipoglu uses the term 'ocu-lar politics' as an 'instrument' of visual control used by imperial males within the Ottoman, Mughal and Safavid empires to spatially and socially organize royal wo- ' men' s visibility and hierarchy that yielded an 'asymmetry of power' in gender ıı.oli- ~ tics. See, "Framing the Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Palaces," Ars Orielı-talis 23 (1993): p. 304.

41 Kishwar Rizvi, "Gendered Patronage: W oınen and Benevolence during the Early Safavid Empire", Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies, ed. D. Fairchild Ruggles, Albany,2000, pp. 123-53. Rizvi analyses the Safavid pre­cedent and tradition of cultivating a shrine-specific "imperial aura" and culture to visibly "enact their vision of rulership".

42 Ebba Koch, Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology ,Delhi, 200l,Introduction.

528 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BAGHDAD IN THE ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

Based on the stylistic composition of each verse and the unique ending (Per­sian amad, indicating "he has come" or "arrived"), has located this characteris" tic style to be either of Shah Jahan's court poet Abu Talib Kalim (d. 1650) or the calleetion of Rumi' s poems in Jahan Ara' s possession.43 A complete trans­lation of the verses is not possible due to their ruinous state. However, the fol­lowing verses are mostly intact and translated:

The guide for the lost heart has come [amad]. The conquest of the hearts is all in His hands. The Beloved, to fill the goblet has come [amad]. This is the second Mecca. For circumambulation the enlight­ened King has come [amad]. The chronogram from God has come [amad].

Sunil Sharma considers the meta-creative or the poetry-architecture dia­lectic as an irnperial instrument for conveying ideologkal and political mes~. sages.44 In the Mullah Shah Mosque, the poet's "veiled" meaning or "inner­message" is comrnunicated to the Süfi-devout through poetic language. The embedded meanings of the verses conform to Jahan Ara's public persona: sirnultaneously revealing and hiding the complexities and dualities of her met­aphysical "aura" and ideology. Jahan Ara' s official sanction of theseverses in­dicates deliberate associations of the Persian verses with her own poetry in the Sahibiyiih :

Panel: The guide for the lost heart has come.

Sahibiyalı : You, Mullah Shah, who have come, are the guide to my he art.

Panel: The conquest of the hearts is all in His hands. The Beloved, to fill the goblet has come.

Sahibiyalı : Oh, Mullah Shah, you are the Beloved who conquers and fills the hearts !ike empty goblets.

43 A close analysis of the Persian poetic verses from the exterior of Mullah Shah Mosque with Dr Suni! Sharma in Cambridge, MA, December 2006, and Dr Yunus Jaffrey in Delhi, January 2007 confirmed the court poet Abu Talib Kalirn as the po­tential author of the inscriptions. Thackston's dissertation provided supporting li­terary evidence that further identifies Kalim as present in Kashmir in the Iate 1640s. See Thackston Wheeler's unpublished Ph.D. dissertation for a comprehensi­ve analysis of Kalirn's work and ideology: The Poetry of Abu-Talib Kalim; Persian poet-laureate ofShahjahan, Mughal emperor ofindia, 1974, Harvard University.

44 For a "lyrical" overview of the cultural and literary "collisions" between the Safa­vids and Mughal courts, see Suni! Sharma, "Celebrating Writing and Books in Sa­favid and Mughal Court Poetry", in Ecrit et culture en Asie centrale et dans le mon­de turco-iranien, XIVe-XIXe siecles 1 Writing and Cultııre in Central Asia and the Turko-Iranian World, 14th-19th centuries, eds. Francis Richard and Maria Szuppe, Paris, 2008, pp. 12-13.

'GENDERJNG' SÜFISM IN BAGHDAD AND BEYONO 1 529

Persian poetry on the Mullah Shah Mosque. in its preseribed role "trans­lates" the vision of Jahan Ara' s piety into the discursive realm of Süfi poetry and ideology and locates her elevated spiritual and imperial authority through her monumental patronage. The poetic verses and their abstract language of love ine:xtricably link Jahan Ara's relationship with Mullah Shah as both her "beloved" and her pir and further invoke Rabi'a 's directive to use love to unite with the Beloved. The inscriptions serve as physical extensions and represen­tations of Jahan Ara's spiritual identity in poetic verse and her imperial au­thority as the patron of the mosque. As the devotep Süfi disciple, Jahan Ara standsat the nexus of Mullah Shah and the mosque's "aura of sanctity" and publicly conveys her dual persona within the "subtext" of her own poetry.

Conclusion: ' Throughout Jahan Ara' s narratives and in the epigraphical program of the

Mullah Shah complex, Rabi'a 's name and ideology is invoked and inter­spersed in the princess' poetry and prose to anthorize and legitimate her gen­der' s elevated rankasa defaeta Süfi pir. Further, the Süfi 'heroes' ofBaghdad's are surveyed in Münis al-Arvah and the Sahibiyiih to forge links between the Timurid-Mughallegacy and the Qadriyili and thereby to the intellectual cen­ter of Islam. The Süfi treatises not only boldly convey Jahan Ara Begum's spir­itual authority and voice in Süfism but attempt to bring a more nuanced and polyvocal understanding of both Islam and women's place within it in the same manner as Rabi'a 's representation had nine hundred years earlier. Through her elaborate designs of produ~ing and pursuing legacy, J ahan Ara Begum's devotion and ascension within the Qadriyili order sustains the Ti­murid-Mughal political and spiritual memory and like Rabi'a, the princess' in­itiatives are motivated in the same climate of worldliness that gave Süfism im­petus during the Abbasid rule in Baghdad. The Qadriyili order and the im­portance of Baghdad as a spiritual destination continues to relevant today among Indian and Pakistanis both non/Muslims. 'Abdu'l-Qadir's tomb in Baghdad is a pilgrimage destination for the Süfi devotees who stay often stay for weeks, silently walk around with the little bro6ms, deaning the sanctuary J

"' and the threshold of the saint that continues to be called Muhy al-din, 'The t"e-viver of religion'.