The al-ism al-a`zam in medieval and later Persianate and other Sufi Poetical and Mystical Literaries.
Stephen Lambden UCMerced.
In progress 1980s-2017.
Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm ibn Ishaq (b. Nishapur c. 1145 – d. Nishapur. c. 1221), Farid al-Din `Attar (d. 1239)
The Persian prose Tadhkirat al-awliya' (Memorials of the Saints) of Farid al-Din `Attar of has been well-referred to as "not primarily a historical recreation of a lost past, but rather an act of sacred remembrance and devotion that intends to enable its readers to transcend the limitations of the self and reconnect with ultimate values and realities" (Losensky, 2009: 3). It contains seventy-two loosely chronologically organized biographical, often hagiographical sketches commencing with the sixth Imam Ja`far al-Ṣādiq (d. c.148/765) until the God-intoxicated Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (b. al-Bayda' / Ṭūs, Persia, c. 244/858 – d. Baghdad, 309/ 922). It opens as follows:
- Tadhkirat al-awliya' ed. Muhammad Esti`lami. Tehran: Zavvar, 1346 Sh./1968.
- Trans.Paul Losensky, Farid-ad-Din `Attar's Memorial of God's Friends, Lives and Sayings of Sufis (in `The Classics of Western Spirituality' series). New York -Mahwah : Paulist Press, 2009.
Jalal al-Din Rumi (d.672/1273)…
Rūzbihān Baqlī Shirazi (d. 606/1209),
`Abd al-Rahman Jami` (d. 898/1492)…
