(4)

“O [Thou who art] hidden from both worlds, who is He who is
apparent?
And O [Thou who art] the Essence of the Apparent, who then is the
Hidden One?
Who is that One who in a hundred thousand forms
Is apparent every moment?
And who is that One who in a hundred thousand effulgences
Showeth forth His Beauty every moment?
Thou sayest, ‘I am hidden from the Two Worlds’:
Who then is He who appeareth in each and all?
Thou didst say, ‘I am always silent’:
Who then is He who speaketh in every tongue?
Thou didst say, ‘I stand outside body and soul’:
Who then is He who clothes himself in the garment of body and
soul?
Thou didst say, ‘I am neither this one nor that one’:
Who then is He who is both this one and that one?
O Thou who hast withdrawn apart,
I conjure Thee by God tell me who is in the midst?
Who is He whose effulgence shines forth
From the beauty and comeliness of the charmers of hearts?
And who is He who hath shown His beauty
And who hath cast turmoil into the world?
O thou who remainest in doubt,
Not knowing certainly who lurks in thy doubt,
Be hidden from the eyes of Maghribí,
And see who is apparent through his eyes!”

(5)

The opening lines of the following poem strike an almost Christian note:

“That One who was hidden from us came and became us,
And He who was of us and you became us and you.
The King of the topmost throne of Sovereignty condescended,
And, notwithstanding that there is no King save Him, became a
beggar.
He who is exempted from poverty and wealth
Came in the garb of poverty in order to show forth [true] riches.
Who hath ever heard aught stranger than this, that one and the same
person
Became both his own house and his own householder?
That pure substance and that peerless pearl
When it germinated became earth and heaven.
Into the raiment of ‘how-ness’ and ‘why-ness’ one cannot say
How and why that ‘how-less’ and ‘why-less’ Charmer of hearts
entered.
His eyebrow revealed itself from the eyebrows of the beautiful,
Until it was pointed at by every finger, like the new moon.
In the garden of the Universe, like the straight cypress and the
anemone,
He became both red-capped and green-robed.
That Sun of the Eternal Sphere shone forth
So that it became Western (Maghribí) and Eastern, Sun and Light.”

(6)

“Ask not the road to the College or the customs of the Monastery;
Pass by road and custom; ask not about way and road.
Adopt the path of [religious] Poverty and Annihilation, and be happy;
Look not behind thee, and ask not save of what lies before.
When thou steppest forth from the narrow cell of the body
Ask not save of the Holy Precincts and of the King.
Ask about the delights of Poverty and Annihilation from those who
have tasted them;
Ask not of him who is the slave of wealth and rank.

When the Royal Umbrella appears, acclamation arises:
Ask no longer then about the King from the army and the host!
When thou hast stepped forth in sincerity and staked thy head,
Ask not of thy cap, if they steal it of thee.
Since my state, O Friend, is not hidden from thee
Do not again enquire of my state from witnesses.
Wipe out the sin of his existence, since thou thyself art obliterated;
Do not again ask of sin concerning the sin of his existence!
O Friend, since Maghribí hath come to Thee to make his excuses
Overlook in Thy Grace, and ask not concerning the sin of him who
apologizes!”

(7)

“We have escaped from the Monastery, the Chapel and the College,
And have settled in the quarter of the Magians with Wine and the
Beloved.
We have cast aside the prayer-mat and the rosary,
We have girt ourselves with the pagan girdle * in the service of the
Christian child.
On the benches [of the Wine-house] we have torn up the dervish-
cloak of hypocrisy;
In the taverns we have broken our hypocritical repentance.
We have escaped from counting the beads of the rosary;
We have sprung forth from the snares of virtue, piety and asceticism.
In the quarter of the Magians we became annihilated from all exist-
ence:
Having become annihilated from all existence, we have become all
existence.
Hereafter seek not from us any knowledge or culture,
O wise and sensible friend, for we are lovers and intoxicated!
Thanks be to God that from this worship of self
We are wholly delivered, and are now worshippers of wine.
We are drunkards, wastrels, seekers of wine,
And we are most at ease with him who is, like ourselves, drunk and
ruined.
Since Maghribí has removed his baggage from our assembly
And has departed (for he was the barrier in our path), we are free!”

(8)

“Thou art but a drop: talk not of the depths of the Ocean;
Thou art but a mote: talk not of the high Sun!
Thou art a man of to-day: talk then of to-day;
Do not talk of the day before yesterday and yesterday and to-morrow!
Since thou knowest not earth and heaven
Talk no more of below and above!
Since thou hast not the elements of musical talent
Talk not of taná, ná and táná! *
Cease, O my son, from denial and affirmation;
Talk not of ‘except’ and ‘no’! *
If they bid thee lay down thy life,
Go, lay down thy life, and talk not!
Until thou knowest who ‘I’ and ‘We’ are
Be silent! talk not of ‘I’ and ‘We’!
Until, like Adam, thou receivest from God the Science of the Names
Do not talk about the Names!
He who hath become the Counterpart of all Things
Hath said to Maghribí, ‘Speak not of Things!’”

The above specimens should suffice to give a fair idea of Maghribí's thought and style. He belongs essentially to the same class of mystical poets as Saná'í, Shams-i-Tabríz (i.e. Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí), and 'Iráqí, and, as he asserts, Farí-du'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“From His waves * arose 'Iráqí and Maghribí,
And from His ferment came Saná'í and 'Aṭṭár.”

Yet though of the same category as these, he seldom reaches their level.

9. Abú Isḥáq (“Busḥaq”) called “Aṭ'ima”
(Fakhru'd-Dín Aḥmad-i-Ḥalláj of Shíráz).

Although there are several other poets of this period who are not undeserving of notice, such as 'Aṣṣár of Tabríz,

Busḥaq of Shíráz Jalál-i-'Aḍudí, Jalál-i-Ṭabíb, etc., this chapter has already reached so considerable a length that I shall make mention of only one other, Abú Isḥáq of Shíráz, the poet of foods, hence called Aṭ'ima, who offers the greatest possible contrast to Maghribí, the mystic and pantheist.

Of Abú Isḥáq's life, as usual, very little is known, except that he appears to have spent the greater part of it at Shíráz, where he enjoyed the favour of the great, and especially of Tímúr's grandson Iskandar ibn 'Umar Shaykh Mírzá, who governed Fárs and Iṣfahán from A.H. 812 to 817 (A.D. 1409-1415). Dawlatsháh consecrates a long article to him, * which, however, chiefly consists of quotations from his poems and an account of the ambitious designs and tragic fate of his patron Iskandar, who was deprived of his sight by his uncle Sháh-rukh on the 2nd of Jumáda i, 817 (July 20, 1414), and died the following year. By trade Abú Isḥáq was, as his title Ḥalláj indicates, a carder of cotton. On one occasion, when he had been absent for several days from Prince Iskandar's receptions, the latter asked him, when he reappeared, where he had been; to which he replied, “I card cotton for a day, and then spend three days in picking the cotton out of my beard.” Short notices of Abú Isḥáq are given in the Átash-kada, the Haft Iqlím and the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (vol. ii, p. 10), but they add nothing to the little recorded by Dawlatsháh, save a brief anecdote in the last named, according to which Abú Isḥáq considered himself the Busḥáq and Sháh Ni'matu'lláh of Kirmán disciple and admirer of Sháh Ni'matu'lláh, the mystical poet of Máhán, a little village near Kirmán, where he is still commemorated in a handsome shrine served by dervishes of the order which he founded. Abú Isḥáq's admiration took the dubious form of parodying Ni'matu'lláh's mystical rhapsodies in profane poems addressed to various culinary delicacies. Thus Ni'matu'lláh has a poem quite in the style of Maghribí, beginning: