Among the many saints of Egypt, one of the most revered for several centuries was 'Omar Ibn al-Farid (576 - 632/1181 - 1235). We have no evidence that he was a member of any of the known orders at that time. During his lifetime, he was not known as an advocate for the underprivileged, nor did he have a reputation as a miracle worker or Sufi mentor. All of his written heritage is contained in a very small volume (about one and a half thousand lines) set of poems. However, for more than seven centuries, he has been known throughout the Muslim world as the greatest and unsurpassed Arab mystic poet, the "sultan of lovers", and a holy man. How did it happen that he acquired the status of a saint in his homeland and far beyond? This question has been repeatedly asked by researchers of his work, and the answer to it, obviously, must be sought in the details of the biography of 'Omar Ibn al-Farid. Despite the fact that it has repeatedly become the subject of study, scientists have not been able to develop a unified approach to it, so I would like to suggest a few considerations that may help correct the widespread assessment of not only the biography, but also the work of Ibn al-Farid.

Among the earliest sources from which biographical information about Ibn al-Farid can be drawn, first of all, we should mention his disciple, a well-known scholar and translator of hadith (muhaddis) Zaki ad-Din al-Munziri (d. 656/1258) 1. Al-Munziri gives the date of birth and death of Ibn al-Farid and mentions that his family originated from the Syrian city of Hama. Ibn al-Farid, according to al-Munziri, belonged to the Shafi'i madhhab and studied hadith under the guidance of the famous scholar al-Qasim Ibn ' Asakir (d. 600/1203). Al-Munziri himself studied hadith under his guidance. He also noted that Ibn al-Farid composed " excellent verses in the Sufi spirit ('ala taryakat at-tasawwuf) and not only that... In his poems, he combined eloquence, sweetness and subtlety and composed quite a lot."

Another account from about the same period belongs to another disciple of Ibn al-Farid, a certain Muhammad Ibn Musdi al - Azdi, 2 and is contained in his Mu'jam al-shuyuh, i.e., a collection containing information about all the mentors with whom he ever studied (the compilation of such collections is widespread it was practiced in that era). This message has come down to us in the account of the Mamluk historian and biographer al-Fayumi (d. 770/1339), the author of the essay "Nasr al-Juman fi tarajim al-a'yan".

1 This information is contained in his essay "At-taqmila li-wafayat an-nakala"; the message is fully quoted by al-Sabuni [Ibn al-Sabuni, 1957, p. 270, note 1].

2 Little is known about the identity of this author, even his name needs to be clarified, since it is spelled differently in different manuscripts of al-Fayumi's work. So, in the Ms C688 manuscript used by me, St. Petersburg, THEBES RAS [Tarjamat..., f. 20g.], his name is read Ibn Musnid.

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The author mentions that Ibn al-Farid's father was a learned faqih, a women's advocate in the Supreme Court of Egypt.3 It is said of Ibn al-Farid himself that he was " an outstanding writer, had a refined character, was like a pure spring, was eloquent in expressions and subtle in hints, his speech was smooth, his pronunciation was noble; < ... > he followed the path of the Sufis and became like a meadow decorated with variegated flowers; he was fragrant beauty and was clothed with a good disposition, and gathered in the nobility of the soul various [virtues]. He studied hadith with Ibn ' Asakir and others.... he had previously labored in Mecca, and then returned to his homeland and lived in seclusion at the al-Azhar Mosque." In conclusion, Ibn Musdi says that he studied with Ibn al-Farid hadiths and some of his verses.

Most of this information is repeated in another prominent muhaddith and disciple of Ibn al-Farid - Yahya al - ' Attar (d. 662/1264). In a similar collection of biographies of his teachers, he calls Ibn al-Farid "an outstanding sheikh and writer", the author of "excellent poems", a Sufi. Al - ' Attar also mentions his life in Makkah.4
The next most recent source containing information about the poet is the famous work of Ibn Khallikan (680/1282) "Wafayat al - a'yan". Unlike the previous authors, Ibn Khallikan was not personally acquainted with Ibn al-Farid. But, despite this, the biography contained in the work of Ibn Khallikan is the most extensive of all the above-mentioned ones. In addition, it seems to contain quotations from his poems for the first time [Ibn Challikan, 1835-1839, f. 5, p. 114].

The biography compiled by Ibn Khallikan includes most of the facts given by al-Munziri, Ibn Musdi and al - ' Attar, and some of them are described in more detail. In addition to Ibn al-Farid's virtues of good character and courtesy, it is first mentioned that he was a pious, pious and abstemious man. In addition, according to "one of the Sheikh's companions", a story is given about how once, while in seclusion, he sang the famous bayt from al-Hariri's Maqamat.:

"Who has never done evil
And only good was marked? -

The narrator said: and he heard, though he saw no one around him, someone reciting the Bayt:

Muhammad for guiding us,
To whom was Gabriel sent?"

Ibn Khallikan does not mention that Ibn al-Farid studied or taught hadith; nor does it say that he was a Sufi, although it is noted that in his poetry he "followed the path of the Sufis", and his famous qasidah "Big Ta'iyah", also known as "Nazm al-suluk", is mentioned."("Poema Puti")6. However, Ibn Khallikan is more interested not in it, but in the witty and unusual quatrains that he reproduces for the reader. A comparison of this report with the biographies of other poets and Sufis found in the Wafayat... clearly shows that Ibn Khallikan considered Ibn al-Farid primarily a poet, not a Sufi, and certainly not a saint.

So, early sources practically do not give us information about the external circumstances of the poet's life, and this is not accidental - on the contrary, this is a well-known feature of the genre

3 His duties included overseeing the precise implementation of the sharia provisions concerning women's rights to inheritance and a share of property in the event of divorce. Hence the nickname - Farid ("determining"), which is sometimes translated as"notary".

4 The report of al-'Attar is given by al-Suyuti in Husn al-muhadara. by: Homerin, 1994, p. 16].

5 Al-Hariri (d. 516/1122). During the time period described, everyone who claimed to be a writer was familiar with the maqams of al-Hariri.

6 For more information about this work, see below.

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medieval biography (tarjama). According to the researchers, it records only those details and actions that justify and support the orthodoxy, piety, scientific and (or) religious authority of the person who is the subject of the description. All other information, no matter how important it may be, from our point of view, for understanding the life of this person, is omitted. So, we will not find in the tarjama any mention of marriage, female relatives; it is unlikely that there will be any indication of the social position of the person about whom it tells, what he did for a living, etc. [Gutas, 2003, p. 224]. These features of medieval biography are also true of Ibn al-Farid. We learn nothing about his family and children, 7 and almost nothing about his livelihood. This can be established only indirectly, based on the knowledge of life in that era. Many Muhaddis were engaged in teaching and received some income from this occupation. Information provided by al-Munziri, al - ' Attar, and other students of Ibn al-Farid suggests that he also earned a living by teaching. In addition, he probably studied poetry with his students, which could also provide some income.

However, the lack of some information in this case also allows us to draw certain conclusions. Thus, many poets from among Ibn al-Farid's contemporaries held various state positions [Homerin, 1994, p. 21], as their biographies strictly indicate. Therefore, if Ibn al-Farid had also been in the civil service, his biographers would probably have mentioned it.

The poet's relationship with the world around him is also reflected in his poems. Valuable auxiliary information is usually provided by the notes contained in his work (compiled by the poet himself or a person who knew him). These notes record the various reasons for poetic messages to friends, the circumstances that preceded the creation of odes of praise and requests made in verse to the powerful, the case or event that caused the creation of a particular passage - and all this helps us recreate the image of the poet... But we will find none of this in Ibn al-Farid's divan. It does not contain a single word of praise for the rulers, and this, of course, is not accidental, just as the question of daily bread is not accidental or idle. After all, Ibn al-Farid was a Sufi, and it was extremely important for Sufis to know how the means on which they live were obtained and, therefore, whether the funds on which they live (rizk halal) are legitimate. Thus, the acceptance of gifts or other remuneration from rulers and nobles was absolutely prohibited, because the illegality of the origin of these funds was obvious.

I will summarize a preliminary result: the early sources discussed above cite only extremely scanty facts of the poet's biography. They allow us to reconstruct only in the most general terms the external picture of his life, but they tell us very little about the internal world. Even less do they explain why he has been revered as a saint for centuries. You can conditionally combine them into a group of "secular" sources. There are, however, other messages that have a slightly different focus.

Thus, the hitherto little-known work of the thirteenth-century author' Abd al-Ghaffar al-Kusi (d. 708/1309), Kitab al-wahid fi suluk ahl at-tawhid, contains two stories about Ibn al-Farid; both of them are included in the chapter on sama'8. In one of them, it is reported that if a sama' was held in Cairo and Sheikh Sharaf ad-Din Ibn al was not present-

7 In the extensive work of al-Safadi (d. 764/1363) "Al-wafyb-l-wafayat" there is a mention of one of the sons of Ibn al-Farid - Kamal ad-Din Muhammad. It is said of him that he studied hadiths with his father and other scholars, and then taught them [Al-Safadi, 1959, p.263].

8 Sufi worship with music and dance.

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Farid, it wasn't so pleasant. So someone invited the sheikh and gave him a feast, but the sheikh was in a depressed mood, and therefore everyone was feeling bad. One of the singers offered to entertain the guest for a certain fee. After receiving the owner's consent, he sang:

"I forgot a part of myself on the day of separation in Hijaz,
That was my heart , because my chest was empty."

As soon as the sheikh heard this chant, he got up and was overcome with ecstasy, and with it the audience experienced a moment of illumination [see: Homerin, 1994, p.24-25].

This story requires a little explanation. As we know, the poet spent many years in the Hijaz, in Mecca or its environs. Memories of those blissful days, longing for them and the desire to see the holy city again are the leitmotif of his work. Although other contemporary poets of Ibn al - Farid wrote about the same thing, 9 in terms of depth of feeling and spontaneity, his poems stand out vividly from the general background. Obviously, those who knew the poet were well aware of how precious the memories of that period of his life were to him.

In another story, we learn that the sheikh had female slave singers, and he danced to their singing. For us, it is not so much the details that are important, but the general tone of both stories, as well as the numerous Sufi terms used by the author in relation to the poet (bat, kabd, wajd). Both do not allow us to doubt that the author considered Ibn al-Farid a Sufi who knew the truth and was able to read people's souls. 10 It should be noted that the facts presented by al-Kusi can hardly be called supernatural; his attitude towards the poet is manifested primarily in the interpretation of these facts. Thus, there is no reason to reject his reports as fiction; in any case, it is fair to assume that some real circumstances of the poet's life may have contributed to the creation of a certain idea about him, although at first (as the sources mentioned earlier show) it wasn't universal.

Another interesting report about the poet, in contrast to the stories of al-Kusi, is clearly anecdotal in nature. It is contained in the work of Ja'far al-Udfuvi (d. 748/1347) "Al-badr al-safir fi uns al-musafir". Al-Udfuvi claims that the poet's poems are born of an all-consuming passion for the Divine Beloved, that he admired absolute beauty in any created form, whether human or otherwise, so much so that he even fell in love with the water carrier camel on which he delivered water [see: Homerin, 1994, p.56].

This story was taken up by other authors (it is mentioned in at least four later sources). Of these, the most interesting is the report of Ahmad al-Makkari (d. 1631), author of the famous anthology " Nafh at-tyb...". The story is given from the words of the author's grandfather: "I was told in Egypt that Sheikh' Omar Ibn al-Farid fell passionately in love with a camel and hired it from the owner to have mercy on him; the people said to him: Why don't you buy it? He replied: The beloved is not possessed!" I (author - S. U.) asked: "When did this happen to him?" He replied: "At the beginning of his [spiritual] journey." Al-Makkari goes on to give this comment: "He remembered,' Will they not reflect on how camels were created?' [Qur'an, 1995, 88: 17], and the meaning of these [words] drew his attention to the camel, and he fell in love with it as a symbol 11, while striving for the Most Glorious" [Al-Makkari, 1968, p.261]. This

9 A. S. Husain, author of the well-known monograph "Al-adab al-sufi fi Misr fi al-qarn al-sabi al-hi-jri" (Sufi literature in Egypt in the 7th century AH) (Cairo, 1964, p. 218), believes that such works formed a special lyrical genre, called the "Sufi literature". im "Longing for Nejd and Hijaz".

10 This ability of mystics who had attained high degrees of knowledge was called farasa ("insight") and was considered a type of miracle.

11 Symbol of divine beauty-letters, "pointing".

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the comment may not make the story plausible, but it does explain the mechanism of its appearance perfectly.

Let us now turn to the most complete account of the life of Ibn al-Farid. It was composed by the poet's grandson 'Ali in 1335, one hundred years after his death, as a preface ('Unwan) to his divan. Even a cursory glance at this preface is enough to tell you that the author's (and the reader's) perception is becoming quite different. The attitude towards the poet as the owner of outstanding spiritual qualities is finally fixed: we are not looking at bio-, but rather hagiography.

What makes you draw this conclusion? It is known that in the Muslim literature of that time the genres of bio-and hagiography are not differentiated; for both there is the same term - tarjama, although a number of other names are also used [Geoffroy, 1995, p. 30; Gutas, p. 224]. The narrative in tarjam was not chronologically coherent and consistent. Rather, it is a set of descriptions of certain cases designed to illustrate certain qualities of character. It was the combination of these qualities that interested the compiler most of all, since his goal was to create a certain, quite canonical image for the reader (whether it was a writer, a scientist, or a miracle-working saint) and provide the necessary evidence for this. Thus, we can recognize the text of ' Ali as hagiographic based on the set of qualities that it gives us. It is also characteristic that most of the information given by 'Ali is not found in earlier texts, but he has a very reliable source: almost all of this information was given to him by the poet's son Kamal ad-Din Muhammad. This is quite typical for the genre of Muslim hagiography: it is the second generation that usually captures what is known about a venerable ancestor, and thus defines his image for the rest [Lory et al., 2003].

So, in full accordance with the canon of the genre, each ' Ali story is an illustration in which the trained reader can easily recognize a certain quality; the combination of these qualities allows us to confidently answer the question: whose image is in front of us? In this case, the reader is inevitably led to the conclusion that this is the image of a saint. How should a research scientist act? Accept this image or ignore it?

The contemporary scholar I. J. Bullata wrote an article "On the biography of Ibn al-Farid", which demonstrates one of the possible approaches. He analyzes in detail about ten stories contained in the biography of 'Ali. Those of them that contain elements of the supernatural, he categorically rejects, stating that this will not bring any damage to our understanding of the poet's life (here and below, my italics. - S. U.). But even those that do not contain such elements are often also recognized as fictional [Boullata, 1981, p. 45-54]. His final conclusion is: "It is difficult, perhaps even impossible, to decide what is reliable in this preface and what is not, since there is no other source with which it can be compared. You have to rely on your own common sense and knowledge of human nature to determine the criteria of truth. If the reported facts do not contradict common sense, they can be accepted as possibly indicating the truth, although not necessarily being it" [Boullata, 1981, p. 48].

This method (based, by the way, on an initially incorrect perception of the source) seems absolutely unproductive. After all, what can be put into the framework of "common sense and knowledge of human nature" varies greatly depending on time and cultural perceptions. By rejecting the system of values and ways of perceiving reality inherent in that era (that is, what, from our point of view, is most interesting to study), Bullata instead achieved nothing: his only conclusion is "it is possible, although not necessarily".

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A slightly different method was chosen by the Egyptian scholar M. Hilmi, the author of an extensive monograph on Ibn al-Farid. He tries to bring the described events closer to reality, trying, wherever possible, to rationally explain supernatural phenomena, referring them to telepathy, then to ordinary coincidence, etc. These attempts, although not devoid of common sense, unfortunately do not look convincing enough [Hilmi, 1971, pp. 21-81].

A much more balanced approach is taken by the American researcher of the poet's life and work, T. E. Homerin. In a special monograph devoted to this topic, he carefully reconstructs the process of transformation of the poet's image in medieval historiography, pointing out that Tarjama 'Ali played a very important role in this process. At the same time, he does not waste time refuting those stories that contain elements of the supernatural, and does not show excessive criticism of the rest of the facts. One of the most important conclusions he comes to is that Ibn al-Farid's poetry plays a key role in his canonization [Homerin, 1994, p.4, 28]. However, Khomerin sees the main task of his research as something else, and therefore does not raise the question of how creativity could have influenced the composition of hagiographic stories about the poet and what his features contributed to such perception by his contemporaries and descendants.

To answer these questions, let us first consider tarjama 'Ali in some detail.

This collection includes about 30 messages related to the life of the poet. Some of them are united by a common theme, some stand apart, and the key to each such message is a certain characteristic of the main character. It is obvious that the set of these characteristics is generally constant and is determined by the genre of hagiography itself; our task is to identify those elements that are not constant, and find out what their role is in shaping the image of the saint.

At the beginning of his story, 'Ali gives a general description of Ibn al-Farid, including his appearance. It is quite typical; however, it should be clarified what explains this typification of appearance. The highest paradigm to which any form of perfection in Islam corresponds is indicated by the verse of the Qur'an: "In the Messenger of God there is a perfect example for you "[Qur'an, 1995, 33:21]13. It is impossible to reproduce its perfection, but imitating it is the most important task of every Muslim [Shodkevich, 1993, p. 199-202]. This is the beginning of the closest attention of scholars of the Muslim community to the appearance of the Prophet Muhammad, to any of his gestures, words, actions. At the same time, the lack of historical information was more than compensated for by the abundance of legends. Nothing is more natural than to relate the image of the saint to this higher paradigm, for the saints were considered by medieval tradition to be the heirs of the prophet. It is this high standard that follows the description given by 'Ali [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 5]: medium height, slender build, regular features and a good complexion; beauty, which is not the same; spiritual appearance, light brow; appearance that inspired others with extreme respect and awe; modesty in communication with people; a pleasant aroma and neat clothes-perhaps there is not a single feature here that is not noted in the descriptions of the prophet. The reader who has heard these descriptions many times couldn't help but notice the same thing. Such an implicit correlation with the image of Muhammad can certainly be noted as an important element (although not a feature) of creating the image of the saint.

12 When we talk about the culture of Islam, we can, of course, use the term "canonization" only conditionally, since there has never been an official procedure for the canonization of saints in Islam.

13 I follow here the translation of G. Sablukov, as the most stylistically successful.

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'Ali goes on to give some information about Ibn al-Farid's early life: his studies in law and hadith, his studies with his father; how he sought solitude and austerity from a young age, but did not show disobedience; how he went to Mecca under wonderful circumstances, and how his life was spent. life there and what was the reason for returning to Egypt [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 6-9]. This part of the tarjama is most replete with incredible details, and it is here that the reader is firmly convinced of the sanctity of the hero of the story. It is not at all difficult to single out the key words here: first of all, it is a worthy origin, education, good breeding, piety; then-more specific features: divine illumination, granted only to the elect, and supernatural abilities, again inherent in so many Sufi saints: communication with wild animals, the ability to overcome long distances, 14 the ability to see hide from everyone and communicate at a distance of 15...

Once again, we return to the connection between the prophet and the saints of his community: a dream is narrated in which the prophet himself explains to the mystic that the chain of his spiritual succession goes back to him - which is more than typical for Sufis, starting from a certain era. 'Ali confirms this by telling readers of his own dream, where the Prophet asked him to confirm a spiritual connection (nisba) between himself and a certain Subayh al-Habashi.

We learn that a certain nobleman accused the poet of heresy, after which he almost lost his life [Ibn al-Farid, 2004(2), p. 15-17]. It is known that insulting a saint or his name is a sin that is followed in this life by severe punishment; thus, we have another very typical element of life.

'Ali narrates an episode also described in Ibn Khallikan and mentioned above: Ibn al-Farid, while in seclusion and suffering from a sense of his own sinfulness, uttered Bayt al-Hariri in despair - and heard the answer to it. However, the fact that Ibn Khallikan's story looks like an interesting story, when placed in a different context, is proof of the high status of the mystic.

Two stories at once are intended to show the reader that the poet did not seek worldly goods, avoided any attention to himself from those in power and did not accept offerings from them, considering it forbidden for him [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 20-23], which again is a typical element of this kind biographies.

Extreme piety, and especially the severe control of the passions of the soul prescribed by Sufism, is the core of the following story, from which we learn that Ibn al-Farid fasted for forty days and did not eat, drink, or sleep for all forty days.

It should have been very valuable for the medieval reader to know that the spiritual authority of the mystic was recognized by the most prominent Sufi of the time, Shihab al - Din 'Omar al-Suhrawardi (d. 632/1234). He met the poet while performing the Hajj in Mecca, and this meeting was preceded by an extraordinary event, where the re-appearance of the Holy Spirit was revealed. The miraculous powers of Ibn al-Farid [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 24].

Finally, the final chord of 'Ali's narrative is a lengthy account of the last hours of the poet's life, narrated from the words of the famous Sufi Ibrahim al-Ja'bari (d. 687/1288), who was present.

14 This phenomenon was called taiy al-ard by the Sufis. It was a frequent attribute in the biographies of mystics; thus, in tarjama 'However, it is given to three more characters.

15 It must be said that these stories provide interesting material for exploring the development of the genre of hagiography; for example, in early writings, such as" Hilyat al-awliya' " by Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani (d. 430/1037), there are also stories about ascetics who were not afraid of lions and ordered them to leave, although the animals themselves do not talk and do not lower themselves on their hind legs, offering to sit on them (as in the case of Ibn al-Farid) [Al-Isfahani, 1405 AD]., 2:89, 8:4 - 5].

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It is full of miracles that relate not only to Ibn al-Farid himself, but also to Ja'bari, and clearly shows that he was a knower ('arif) who achieved closeness to the Lord (qurb) [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 27-31].

So, all the above-mentioned plots can be characterized as standard, constantly repeated in hagiographic literature. This hardly implies the conclusion that they are all fictional; it would be psychologically incorrect to assume that the poet's son or grandson reproduced a random set of common stories; on the contrary, it is quite reasonable to assume that they were formed on the basis of some actual facts and events. The purpose of this study, however, is not to attempt to reconstruct these possible events (this is unlikely to be possible), but to draw attention to the important role that his poetry played in the composition of the picture of Ibn al-Farid's life.

It is well known that a researcher who collects information about the poet's life bit by bit sometimes finds it difficult not to succumb to the temptation to extract biographical facts from his work. It can be assumed that a similar temptation was experienced by the medieval reader, who, however, was not deterred by the criteria of scientific knowledge in this case. In your tarjama 'Ali repeatedly cites individual lines of the sofa as confirmation of the truth of a particular story. Thus, the story of Ibn al-Farid's insight in Mecca is based on the corresponding lines from the Daliyya 16 (N 30-32), where the poet turns to the singer and asks him to grant him happiness, mentioning Mecca, for " there was my closeness [to God] and the exaltation of my holiness; my camp was the camp of Ibrahim, and a revelation was revealed to me... " [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 7].

The wonderful story of the talking lion is accompanied by a quote from the Malaya Ta'iyya (Beit N59):

"And I used to be friends with wild animals, fearing human friendship..."

It would be appropriate to assume that the story of the poet's friendship with Leo itself did not arise without the influence of these lines.

The story of the forty-day fasts is related to Bayt No. 13 from Ya'iyyah (Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 25):

"After all, in the love of you - Ramadan, his whole life:
A day without food in it is followed by a night without sleep..."

The narration of the Nisba ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad refers again to the Bayt Ya'iyyah (N 94) [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 11]:

"The law of love has established kinship between us
Closer than the blood connection is given to people..."

Finally, another example is the story of Ibn al - Farid and 'Omar al-Suhrawardi meeting during the Hajj. Its plot center is the final beit Qasida "Jimiya". As-Suhrawardi wept as he looked at the crowd of worshippers crowding around him, and said to himself: "Is my position before God as all these people think, and have I been mentioned today in the presence of the Beloved?" Then the sheikh appeared before him and read:

16 According to tradition, kasyds are named after a rhyming consonant, in this case - dal'. The following are the traditional Arabic names for qasid: ta'iyyah( ta), kafiyyah (kaf), jimiyyah (jim), etc.

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"Hear the good news and throw off your clothes:
After all, He remembered you, even though your path was not straight!.."

[Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 24]

This Bayt is clearly dialogical, and it is not surprising that we meet it again in al-Makkari's work "Nafh at-tyb" mentioned above. There it is used in a similar story, the hero of which, however, is a less well-known person [Al-Makkari, 1968, 5:324].

In other sources, we also encounter attempts to recreate the poet's life through individual lines. A typical example of this is the message contained in the well-known grammatical commentary on the poet's divan, which was compiled by Badr al-Din Hasan al-Burini (d. 1024/1615). It once again clearly shows how close the connection between the poet's life and the words he said was in the minds of contemporaries. Interestingly, Burini cites this message twice as referring to different lines of the sofa, and apparently doesn't remember it himself. The first version refers to the Kafiyyah, admittedly one of the most beautiful qasids of Ibn al-Fa-rida, and is given after Bayt No. 28:

"And many of those who are interested in the biography of Sheikh (Akhbar) say that when he said:

"Try to love You in any way you want,
I am glad to choose all that You wish, -

The Lord struck him with urinary retention, and he screamed and suffered from pain until he said these two beits, -

My sorrow, my trouble, my need -
And the riches I pray that You possess:
Do not abandon the one whose strength has run out,
For You protect the weak and weak."

Confessing that he had no strength, and that although he was willing to accept any choice, he still spent day and night in lamentation; and I was told that he went about the streets and shouted for the children, and said to them, " Slap your Uncle 'Omar in the face-to the deceiver, because he wished for a choice and rejected the choice from himself "" 17 [2, f. 183g].

In the second case, [Al-Burini, f. 266v] comments on Beit No. 7 "Jimiyi":

"The morning cannot dispel the night of longing for you,
But I will not say impatiently: "O darkness! Make way!..""

Here, the connection between the story and the text is not so clear, but the essence of the phenomenon under consideration is quite clear.

It is clear, then, that Ibn al-Farid's poetry was in itself an important biographical source, and the inspired description of the all - consuming love that the Prophet Muhammad was sometimes seen as the object of, but almost everywhere as the Ultimate Truth, was the most important, the most important proof of his holiness.

17 Choice (ikhtiyar) is a Sufi term that means a person's complete and voluntary acceptance of everything that God wills for him, moreover, wishing for himself that and only that for which God's will will be for him [Al-Hifni, 1997, p. 15].

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Let's turn back to tarjama 'Let's look at the other two remaining groups of messages that may help connect the life, poetry, and sanctity of Ibn al-Farid.

The first group includes four brief episodes. Three of them follow each other [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 19-20], and the fourth one is related to the story of the poet's death and is therefore placed separately and probably added later.

"The sheikh was walking through the market in Cairo, and a group of guards was coming towards him; one of them was beating a drum, and the rest were singing:

"My love, we didn't sleep all night - when is the date hour?
My love, but you didn't come-maybe a ghost will touch our eyes in a dream?
Beloved-but the ghost, alas, did not appear, and it is clear now,
That you have become distant, my love, and do not remember us at all..."

When the sheikh heard them, he let out a loud cry and danced around in the middle of the market, and the people who were there with him ... and the Sheikh tore off his clothes and threw them to the guards, followed by the others; then they carried him in their arms to the mosque of al-Azhar, bareheaded. he was only in his underwear, and he remained in this state of intoxication for many days, stretched out on his back, covered like a dead man..."

"The sheikh was walking along a wide street near the Mosque of Ibn' Uthman <...>, and a mourner in the house was wailing over the deceased, and the women echoed her:

"My lady, you really are dead,
Really, God, really dead!"

When the sheikh heard it, he let out a loud cry and collapsed without memory, and when he woke up, he began to repeat:

"O my soul, you are truly dead,
Really, God, really dead!"".

"The sheikh was sitting in the al-Azhar Mosque, in the sermon hall, < ... > and with him was < ... > a group of Sufis from Persia who lived in the mosque; and whenever they spoke of something mundane, such as a "bedroom" or a"washroom," 18 they would say: "It's from the Persians!" And while they were thus competing with each other and praising the Persians, the muezzins raised their voices in unison, calling for prayer, and the sheikh exclaimed, "And this is from the Arabs!" and fell into ecstasy, and all those who were there shouted so that there was a great uproar in the mosque..."

"The sheikh often went to the al-Mushtah Mosque during the days of [the flood] He liked to watch the river <...> One day he went there and saw a craftsman chipping away a piece of cloth and saying:

"This cut will break your heart, -
It won't get clean, but it just won't break." -

And he did not cease to repeat these words day after day, hour after hour, falling to the ground in great agitation; and then, when the agitation subsided and we thought that he was already dead, he would wake up and begin to speak to us in an otherworldly language, the like of which we have not heard and cannot convey it, then his speech would become confused, he would hear his inner voice, and he would return to the ecstatic state.. . and he was in this state from the moment he heard the man's words on the beach until he died, " may God have mercy on him."

All four episodes are based on the same psychological phenomenon: a spontaneous state of ecstasy (wadj). It is no accident that so much attention is paid to it: all its descriptions, as you can easily see, are quite similar, and there is no doubt that these plots are based on (we will also recall the above one here).

18 Borrowed Persian words are used.

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al-Kusi's story) is based on real facts; they may have formed the core, the basis, which the tradition has generously supplemented with stories about talking lions.19
The purpose of this article is not to describe this phenomenon in detail (this is a very special topic ) However, when speaking about the work of Ibn al-Farid, it cannot be ignored, given the close connection of this topic with the reports about his qasid "Big Ta'iyah", to which ' Ali devoted the second topic of interest to us. a group of stories.

Undoubtedly, the "Big Ta'iyi" plays a major role in the process of composing the image of the poet-saint. It is safe to say that this qasidah occupies a special place not only in the work of Ibn al-Farid, but also in the entire history of Arabic poetry - a poetic description of the hidden spiritual experience of a mystic, his progress along the path of knowledge of Divine Truth, is rightly considered the pinnacle of Arabic mystical poetry.21 It is obvious that for the author himself and subsequent generations of his readers, this work was the most important among all that he created, which, in addition to Tarjama 'Ali, is convincingly evidenced by numerous medieval sources.

The first story of 'Ali is a story passed down to him by the poet's son about how it got its name: "I heard the Sheikh (may God be pleased with him!) said: "I have seen the Messenger of God (may God bless and greet him). in a dream, and he said to me, ' Omar! What did you call your kasida? "I said,' O Messenger of God, I have called it the Tablets of the Heart and the Fragrance of the Garden of Eden.' "He said,' No, you'd better call it A Poem on the Way, ' and I called it that."

The same story was previously mentioned by one of the earliest commentators on the Ta'iyyah, the famous Sufi 'Afif al-Din at-Tilimsani (d. 690/1291). He sought to clear Ibn al-Farid of the charge of heresy, and of course nothing could help more than to directly attest to the prophet's approval of this idea. kasydy 22 [Homerin, 1994, pp. 30-31].

Another story relates that a scholar once went to Ibn al-Farid to ask his permission to write a commentary on his qasidah. "And how many volumes," the sheikh then asked, " will your commentary take up? "Two volumes," he said. The poet smiled and said: "If I wanted to, I would make a commentary on each verse in two volumes"...".

So the Prophet himself gave the Great Ta'iyyah his approval, and the secrets contained in it are so deep that dozens of volumes would not be enough to clarify them... But this is not all; what follows is perhaps the most important testimony of Ibn al-Farid's son as to how this work was created.

"His son said:' The Shaykh spent most of the time in a state of amazement, and his eyes were fixed; he did not hear the person who addressed him, nor did he see him. Sometimes he would stand, sometimes he would sit, and sometimes he would lie on his back, covered like a dead man; ten days would pass, or more, or less, and he would still be in that state, not drinking, not eating, not talking, not moving, like the saying goes:

19 Here is an interesting parallel: one of the biographers of Jalal al-Din Rumi has a story about a fur trader passing by Rumi's house, shouting: Tilku! Tilku! (Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! Fox! The fox! When the poet heard it, he fell into ecstasy and began to recite a ghazal, the beginning of which is: Dil ku? Dil ku? (Where is the heart? Where is the heart? - Persian) [Schimmel, 2003, p. 59].

20 Nevertheless, it should be noted that the rapid attainment of ecstasy (sur'at al-wajd) in the classical treatise on Sufism by al-Kalabazi (d. 385/995) is named among the ten main characteristics of a Sufi [Al-Kalabazi, 1993, p. 103].

21 Among other things, this qasida is distinguished by its monumental size (761 beits, although there are rarely more than 100 beits in a qasida). It is called" Big " because in the poet's divan there is another qasida with the same rhyme, but of a smaller size ("Small Ta'iya").

22 Let us recall the famous hadith that the Prophet's vision cannot be false.

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Lovers you see here, smitten with passion, like those
There are youths in the cave who do not remember the steps of years.
And if they swear that passion has incinerated their hearts,
I swear to the Most High God: there is no truer oath!

Then he would come to his senses and return from this non-existence, and the first thing he did was dictate another passage from the Qasida "Poem on the Way", revealed to him by God" "[Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 13-14].

This story partly brings us back to the ancient idea of poetry as a kind of divination, but in this case it is undoubtedly a source of divine revelation. A very important detail: while unconscious, Ibn al-Farid was "covered" or "wrapped" in a piece of cloth, as in a shroud. Let us recall that two surahs of the Qur'an (73 and 74) have the names "Wrapped up" or" Wrapped up " (in a garment, cloak), referring to the Prophet Muhammad [Qur'an, 1995]. Readers of ' Ali probably remembered that Muhammad, according to legend, was also immersed in unconsciousness, and when he came out of it, he proclaimed what God had revealed to him. This interpretation will not seem unjustified if we analyze a number of commentaries on the Ta'iyyah. Their authors do not have the biographical information given by ' Ali, but they draw similar conclusions that this qasidah of his is the fruit of divine insight. This idea appeared in the earliest known commentary by Sa'id al-Din al-Farghani (d. 699/1300), and was developed by two other commentators of the same school: 'Izz al-Din al-Kashani (d. 735/1334) and Dawud al-Qaysari (d. ca. 747/1346).

We note the following peculiarity in the evaluation of the poet's work by these authors: both al-Kashani and al-Qaysari go so far as to compare (of course implicitly) The "Big Ta'iyya" with the Qur'an, which is known to be inimitable. The Qur'an (Hilmi, 1971, p.39) says: "Compose at least one surah similar to the Qur'an" (Fa-tu bi-suratin mislihi). Al-Kashani also wrote about the "Great Ta'iyya": "By composing it, he made it impossible for the great masters among the eloquent writers <...> to create anything like it (a'jaza <...> min ityan bi-misliha)". He was echoed by al-Qaysari: "No one has ever created anything like it (lam ya'ti bi-misliha) in [previous] ages and times, and it will never again be allowed [by God to repeat] its expressions as long as night follows day; and it is impossible to describe it by explanation or explanation. characterize by comparison! " [Al-Qaysari, f. 2r.]23.

So we see that the impression that the commentators have taken from the text of Ta'iyyah is based on the way it was created. This impression, in turn, is reinforced by additional information about the poet's life, and above all by his tendency to ecstatic states; both of which naturally lead the medieval reader to think of a miracle and holiness.

It should be noted that the two above-mentioned stories of 'Ali are not the only evidence of an unusual way of creating this qasida. In support of this statement, 'Ali quotes from Tarjama Ibn al-Farid, which is contained in one of the manuscripts of the Great Ta'iyyah that he saw:

"Sharaf al-Din 'Omar Ibn al-Farid, the Shaykh who understood the Truth, said: may the light shine on his grave and may his bed be cool. "this qasida is like a sparkling star, a rare and shining pearl, no such foundation has been woven and no understanding has been given, for its verbal garb and meaning almost go beyond the limits of human capabilities - and he first called it 'The Breezes of the Gardens of Paradise and the Jewels of Hearts', then he called it 'The Tablets of Hearts and the Aromas of the Gardens of Paradise'."and then I saw it

23 The reason for this "indescribability" is twofold: on the one hand, the technical perfection of the work, and on the other, its sublime content.

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the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in a dream, and he said to him: Call it "The Poem of the Way"! "and he gave it that name." And it was told by many trustworthy people who were his close friends that he did not compose it as poets compose their poems - but his spirit was enraptured, and he remained senseless for several days, about a week or ten [days]. When he woke up, he would dictate what God revealed to him from it, for thirty, forty, or fifty bayts, and then leave it until this state returned to him... " [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 14-15].

It may be objected that this evidence cannot be considered independent of 'Ali (since it is given by him), but a stylistic analysis of both texts shows that there is no sufficient reason to accuse 'Ali of forgery. It is easy to see that, although the content of the second story generally repeats the alleged story of the sheikh's son, it is more canonical in comparison with it: literary processing (rhymed prose) is noticeable; not two, but three variants of the name of qasida are given; in addition, one can note the characteristic uncertainty of the source ("many trustworthy people"). All this rather suggests that the unknown author of the manuscript recorded an already existing oral tradition, which has lost its direct connection with the source (let's not forget that the text of 'Ali is separated by a whole century from the date of his grandfather's death).

Be that as it may, it was accepted as a fact by subsequent generations that not only the Great Ta'iyyah, but also all the other works of Ibn al-Farid were written "in a state of divine inspiration"24.

Perhaps there were reasons for this belief. This can be illustrated by the example of one Bayt (N 43) from the Qasida Fa'iyyah:

"Contrary to the art of those who have sung his goodness,
Times will pass - but his praise is not exhausted...".

The first person to notice him was Ibn Khallikan, who noted him among the best, in his opinion, bayts of Ibn al-Farid.

One of the stories of 'Ali eloquently testifies to how deep the meaning of this Bayt was seen by his contemporaries.:

"His son said to me (may the Lord have mercy on him!): "I saw the Sheikh (may God be pleased with him!) he got up and danced for a long time, and fell into a great ecstasy, and the sweat was pouring down his body, so that it ran down to the ground under his feet, and he was very excited, and there was no one with him but me. Then he calmed down and knelt down before the Lord Most High, and I asked him the reason for this, and he said: O my son, the meaning of Bayt has been revealed to me, the like of which has never been revealed to me before, and this Bayt is 'Contrary to the art of those... '" [Ibn al-Farid, 2004, p. 18].

Finally, in the above-mentioned comment by al-Burini, there is the following brief message:

"It came to me from someone I trust that the Sheikh (may God be pleased with him!) said: "Even if I did not say in praise of the Messenger of God (may the Lord bless him and welcome him!) if there is nothing but this Bayt, then this would be enough, "and thus indicated that his praise is directed to the Prophet" [Al-Burini, f. 170r].

Why is this bayt, which is not so rich in poetic embellishments, so special (and repeatedly!) of course, it's not hard to understand. Please note that the preceding beits of Qasida (N 38-39) contain an explicit reference to the missile defense system.-

24 See, for example, the work of the late Sufi author 'Abd al-Qadir al-Aidarus (d. 1037 CE) "An-nur as-safir" [Al-Aidarus 'Abd al-Qadir, 1405 CE, 1:143].

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It is not often found in Ibn al-Farid), and therefore, naturally, this Bayt itself was perceived as directed specifically to the prophet. But it is worth understanding this - and the hyperbole familiar to descriptions in Arabic poetry is transformed, becoming much closer to reality for the medieval reader and listener. After all, the Prophet Muhammad is the embodiment of all the virtues that can only be possessed, the perfect creation of the Lord. According to the Sufis, the first thing that God created was the light of the Prophet (Nur Muhammad), and his perfection is super-mundane and indescribable. No matter how many precious words the poets try to string on the thread of their verse, no matter how many virtues they list, Ibn al - Farid said more when he said this Bayt than they did. And the fact that, centuries after the poet's death, people passed on such stories by word of mouth (which, however, could so easily be dismissed as apocryphal) confirms how precious this thought was for the Muslim community. Such reverence for the man who expressed it in the most eloquent way possible - in a well-honed line of poetry-can no longer seem strange.

list of literature

Al-Aidarus ' Abd al-Qadir. An-nur as-safir 'an akhbar al-qarn al -' ashir (Light revealing news of the tenth century). Beirut, 1405 AD.

Al-Burini Badr ad-Din Hasan. Sharh Diwan Ibn al-Farid (Commentary on the Diwan of Ibn al-Farid). (MS OA N 504. Eastern Department of the Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University).

Ibn al-Sabuni Jamal ad-Din Muhammad. Takmila ikmal al-ikmal (The Completion of the Completed Supplement). Baghdad, 1957.

Al-Isfahani Abu Nu'aym. Hilyat al-awliya " wa tabaqat al-asfiyya "(Decoration of saints and ranks of the righteous). Beirut, 1405 AD.

Al-Qaysari Dawud. Sharh Ta'iyyat as-suluk (Commentary on the Ta'iyyah Path) (MS B46. Department of Manuscripts of the St. Petersburg Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

Al-Kalabazi Abu Bakr Muhammad. At-ta'arruf li-madhhab ahl at-tasawwuf (Introduction to the teachings of the Sufis). Beirut, 1993.

Koran / Translated by M.-N. Osmanova, Moscow, 1995.

Al-Makkari Ahmad. Nafh at-tyb min husn al-andalus ar-ratyb (A whiff of fragrance from a juicy branch of Andalusia). Beirut, 1968.

Tarjamat Ibn al-Farid (MS C688. Department of Manuscripts of the St. Petersburg Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

Hilmi M. Ibn al-Farid wa-l-hubb al-ilahi (Ibn al-Farid and divine love). Cairo, 1971.

Al-Hifni A. Al-mu'jam as-sufi (Dictionary of Sufi terms). Cairo, 1997.

Shodkevich M. Modeli sovershestva v islamme i moslemskie svyatye [Models of perfection in Islam and Muslim Saints].
Boullata Issa J. Toward a Biography of Ibn al-Farid // Arabica. 28(1), 1981.

Geoffroy E. Le Soufisme en Egypte et en Syrie sous les derniers mamelouks et les premiers ottomans. Damas, 1995.

Gutas D. Tarjama // EI, 2nd CD ROM ed. Leiden, 2003.

Homerin T. E. From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn al-Farid, his Verse and his Shrine. Columbia (USA), 1994.

Ibn Challikan. Vitae Illustrium virorum (The deaths of famous people) / Ed. F. Wustenfeld. Fasc. I-XIII. Gottingen, 1835 - 1839.

[Ibn al-Farid]. The Diwan of Ibn al-Farid. Readings of Its Text throughout History / Ed. by G. Scattolin // IFAO, Textes arabes et etudes islamiques, 41. he Caire, 2004.

Lory P., et al. Wall // EI, 2nd CD ROM ed. Leiden, 2003.

Salah al-Din Khalil. Al-Wafi bi al-wafayat. (Complete [collection of information] about deaths) / Ed. by S. Dedering, et al. Wiesbaden, 1959 (in progress).

Schimmel A. Rumi: Ich bin Wind und Du bist Feuer. Leben und Werk des grofien Mystikers. Leipzig, 2003.

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