Diwan
Mecca · 1235
I
Ibn al-Farid
Ibn al-Farid
1181 CE–1235 CE · Cairo
Sharaf al-Din 'Umar ibn 'Ali, known as Ibn al-Farid, was an Arabic poet of the Sufi (Islamic mystical) tradition, widely regarded as the finest mystical poet in the Arabic language. He was born in Cairo in 576 AH / 1181 CE; his family came from Hama in Syria, and the surname "Ibn al-Farid" reflects his father's profession of apportioning legal inheritance shares (fara'id). He studied Islamic law in the Shafi'i school (one of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence) and hadith (reports of the Prophet's words and deeds), but turned to a life of contemplation, withdrawing for periods to the Muqattam hills east of Cairo.
Later tradition, drawn largely from a hagiographic preface (Dibaja) composed by his grandson 'Ali about a century after his death, holds that he spent some fifteen years in and around Mecca, where his mystical inspiration deepened and where he is said to have met the Baghdad Sufi master 'Umar al-Suhrawardi; modern scholars treat both the length of this Meccan period and the meeting as uncertain.
His reputation rests on his Diwan (collected poems), above all the long ode Nazm al-suluk ("Poem of the Way," also called al-Ta'iyya al-kubra) and the Khamriyya ("Wine Ode"), which use the imagery of love and intoxication for the soul's union with God. He died in Cairo in 632 AH / 1235 CE and was buried at the foot of Mt. Muqattam, where his tomb became a venerated shrine. Whether his verse implies controversial doctrines of divine union was debated by later scholars.
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Stop 1 of 31181Born
CairoקהירEgypt
What they did here
Born in Cairo in 576 AH / 1181 CE (traditionally 4 Dhu al-Qa'da). His family had migrated from Hama in Syria; his father worked apportioning legal inheritance shares, the source of the name 'Ibn al-Farid.' He studied Shafi'i law and hadith and withdrew at times to the nearby Muqattam hills (not mapped separately) for solitary devotion.
Cairo in this era
Under the Mamluk sultans (1250-1517) Cairo was the largest city of the Islamic world west of Persia and, after the fall of Baghdad in 1258, the seat of a line of Abbasid caliphs in name. Its many madrasas, mosques and Sufi lodges drew scholars of hadith, law and mysticism, among them Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and Ibn Ata Allah.
About Cairo
Cairo, at the head of the Nile delta, grew from two foundations: Fustat, the garrison town built by the Arab conquerors in 641, and al-Qahira ('the Victorious'), the walled city founded by the Fatimid dynasty in 969, where the mosque of al-Azhar opened in 970-72 and became a great centre of learning. Under the Ayyubids (from 1171) and the Mamluks (1250-1517) it was one of the largest cities of the Islamic world. Fustat's Jewish community, home to Maimonides in the 12th century, left the Cairo Geniza, a vast store of medieval documents. Later ruled by the Ottomans and, from 1882, under British occupation, Cairo is the capital of modern Egypt.
Across the traditions, in Cairo at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Ibn al-Farid’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Ibn al-Farid’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.