149 The point is made by Meisami, “Arabic Mujūn Poetry,” 24.
150 This tradition and the controversy surrounding it is discussed in Giffen, Theory of Profane Love among the Arabs , 99—115.
151 In Islamic law, a martyr (shahīd) in the strict sense, who is to be buried without being washed, shrouded, and (according to some) prayed for, is the Muslim who dies fighting for his faith. However, jurists allowed martyr status in an extended sense to Muslims who, for example, died of plague, in childbirth, were murdered, and so on. Such martyrs were to be buried in the normal way but were thought to gain immediate access to heaven. See Kohlberg, “Shahīd.”
152 Giffen, Theory of Profane Love among the Arabs, 127—29. Such an argument is cited in Karnī, Munyat al-mubibbīn, fol. 24a-b.
164 Hamori, “Love Poetry (ghazal),” 205. The tradition of pederastic but ‘udhrī love poetry goes back at least to Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Kātib (d. 876); see Arazi, Amour divin et amour profane.
166 For such military imagery in love poetry, see Ibn al-Hanbalī, Durr al-habab , 2:145—46; Ibn Ma‘sūm, Sulāfatal-‘asr, 227; Muhibbī, Khulasat al-athar, 2:330, 3:452.
173 The point is made by al-Suwaydī, ‘Abd al-Rahmān, [Risālah fi al-mahabbah ] , fol. 104b.
174 This argument is used in Raghib Pasha, Safīnat al-rāghib, 322; Munāwī, al-Fayd alqadīr, 6 : 179—80.
175 Ghazzī, Kamal al-Dīn, al-Wird al-unsī, fol. 140b; a similar theory is to be found in Ibn Hazm (d. 1037), Tawq al-hamāmah; see Giffen, Theory of Profane Love among the Arabs, 80.
177 Buckingham, Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, 1: 149. This source was brought to my attention by S. O. Murray’s article “Some Nineteenth-Century Reports of Islamic Homosexualities.” I am not as convinced as Murray seems to be that the discussion tells us more about Buckingham’s culture than about Ismael’s.
178 Buckingham, Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia , 1 : 160.
179 Buckingham, Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, 1: 163.
180 In the legends surrounding the ‘udhrī lovers, the couples sometimes marry, and this is said not to have affected their love. Yet the marriage invariably features as a lull in the narrative, which picks up when the lovers are separated again, by travel, parental intervention, or death (see, for example, Antākī, Tazyīn al-aswāq, 1 : 131, 205, 286). Hamori succinctly describes marriage as a “much too prosaic relief” for ‘udhrī idealization of passionate, unconsummated love (“Love Poetry (ghazal),” 205).
189 For the metaphysics of Ibn ‘Arabī, I have relied most heavily on Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, part I. Helpful shorter surveys include Affifi, “Ibn ʿArabī”; Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, ch. 6; Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, ch. 1.
190 The analogy with Platonism is made in Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 163—64.
191 Lines 242—43 and 261—62 of Ibn al-Fārid’s al-Tā’iyyah al-kubrā entitled Naẓm alsulūk. The translation is my own. For annotated translations of the poem, see Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, 199ff.; and Homerin, ‘Umar ibn al-Fārid, 73ff
192 Nabulusī, kashf al-sirr al-galhamiḍ, fol.3a-b.
199 See the discussions in Munawi, al-Fayd al-qadir , 3:445 (tradition 3928) ; al-Azizi al-Bulaqi, al-Siraj al-munir , 2:251; Ajluni, Kashf al-khafa ; 1: 379.
200 Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism 121 (quoting al-Insan al-ākamil by Abd al-Karim al-Jili [d. 1428]). See also, Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 2 18 ff.
203 Discussions of the theme available in English also focus almost exclusively on the Persian mystical tradition; see Schimmel Mystical Dimension of Islam, 287ff.; Schimmel, “Eros-Heavenly and Not So Heavenly—in Sufi Literature and Life”; Wafer, “Vision and Passion”; Wilson, Scandal, 93ff
204 Unless otherwise indicated, information on Ayyūb is taken from Muḥibbī khulāṣat al-athar , 1: 428-33.