Transgressive Transcendentalism

Is there really any other kind?

That Old Weird America

Bob Dylan and the Band in the Basement.

Mevlana & Shams

Bob Dylan: Nashville Sessions 1969

Say No More

Gnostics Most Eloquent

For the tongues of those called
"gnostics most eloquent"
said all that could be said,
then fell silent.

~ Ibn al-Farid, The "T" Poem, tr. Th. Emil Homerin

Madjdhub

("the attracted one"), in Ṣufī literature the name for the representative of a type of piety which is chiefly of a passive nature (munfaʿil : al-Rundī), in contradistinction to the more active ( fāʿil ) "striding one" ( sālik ), a characteristic which is expressed in numerous other pairs of opposition, like: mud̲j̲āhada-mus̲h̲āhada, makāsibmawāhib, maḳām-ḥāl, murīd-murād, muḥibb-maḥbūb, muk̲h̲liṣ-muk̲h̲laṣ. While the mad̲j̲d̲h̲ūb, on the way to God, may abandon himself to be drawn by divine attraction (d̲j̲ad̲h̲ba, d̲j̲ad̲h̲b, Persian kas̲h̲is̲h̲), the sālik depends on his own exertions (kūs̲h̲is̲h̲), which is, however, in the same way as the attraction, a gift (bak̲h̲s̲h̲īs̲h̲) of God.

Usually, mixed forms occur, as is clear from the works of Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn-i Kubrā [q.v.] and Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn-i Dāya, for whom the "strider" is the one who, while striding, is attracted gently, and the mad̲j̲d̲h̲ūb the one who, while striding, is attracted intensely. Others, like ʿUmar al Suhrawardī, Maḥmūd-i Kās̲h̲ānī and ʿAzīz-i Nasafī, speak of a "strider who is attracted" (sālik-i mad̲j̲d̲h̲ūb) when the striding came earlier in time, and of an "attracted one who is striding" (mad̲j̲d̲h̲ūb-i sālik) when the being attracted came earlier in time. The general principle is that neither the one who is merely striding, nor the one who is merely attracted, is qualified to be a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ and to lead others on the mystical path, since the former has never arrived at his aim, while the second, as being only attracted, has never stridden along the path by himself.

With regard to personal progress, it is true, the word of the Prophet holds good: "One single attraction by God is equivalent to the activity of men and d̲j̲inn", but only the one who has personal experience of striding, its labours and dangers, is able to assist others in advancing.

In more recent literature in particular, mad̲j̲d̲h̲ūb is a frequently used extenuating and exculpating designation of eccentric ecstatics, love-maddened persons, holy fools, and despisers of the law. Occasionally, the term is also used as a nickname, like in Ibrāhīm-i Mad̲j̲d̲h̲ūb (7th/13th century).

~ R. Gramlich, EI2.

To speak of being a "practicing madjdhub" makes about as much sense as to speak of being a "practicing alcoholic."

Who Are You?

Pete Townshend.

Richard Wilbur

Richard Wilbur never gets the credit he deserves. He was a true humanist, which made him both a universal thinker—a citizen of the great cosmopolitan Republic of Letters—and also an unapologetic product of his particular part of history and portion of earth.

Such individuals, from the bard of Gilgamesh to the present moment, are the flowering of humanity that citification made possible through its division of labor. They are the true heroes of human history, and I can only hope that there will be some evidence that they lived among us after the American suicide cult that passes for Evangelical Christianity in the 21st century and has infiltrated the highest echelons of our government has brought about the Armageddon it so longs for.

Maybe an alien race, investigating the smoldering ruins, will find some tattered remnant of Wilbur’s essay on poetry and happiness and take it back to their planet to decipher. Of course, reading it will only deepen the mystery of the fate of our species. But at least they will have obtained some intimation of what, in our better moments, we were capable of producing.

My Heart Told Me

Ibn al-Farid.

The Four Corners Of Turkish Culture

I hate to invoke Bill Clinton, but I’m afraid I have to riff on his famous campaign slogan (“It’s the economy, stupid”). As twisted as Turkish politics are (and have always been, frankly, whether Byzantine, Ottoman, or Republican), “It’s the culture, stupid.”

The four corners of Turkish culture are hospitality, conviviality, beauty, and humanity.

The rest is just opera.

The Prophetic Tradition

To follow in the footsteps of the prophets...