Jami

by Hamid Algar

'Abd al-Rahman Jami (1414-1492) is a culminating figure in Perso-Islamic culture, whose reputation and influence have remained undiminished throughout the eastern Islamic world--the Ottoman empire and Central Asia, Iran, India, China, and the Malay world. Primarily celebrated as a poet, Jami was also an accomplished Islamic scholar and Arabist, a Sufi of great standing, and an acerbic polemicist and social critic. He was most closely associated with the Timurid dynasty; but his international renown made him a favourite also of other political powers of the time.

In this masterfully concise study, Algar begins with a sketch of the geographical and historical landscape behind the events of Jami's life in Herat and beyond. He explains the influences upon his character and work, the factors that shaped his poetic output, its literary forms, and thematic concerns, the reasons for the precise configuration of his Sufism within the Naqshbandiyya, and his combative support for some of the doctrines of Ibn 'Arabi. Algar also discusses the concept and Jami's practice of 'seclusion within society', whereby the Sufi was attentive to the problems of the community while being detached from them. Jami's social critique and some of his polemic against fake scholars and sham Sufis can be understood as part of that concern for community. Finally, Algar surveys the transmission of Jami's literary, intellectual, and spiritual legacy to the eastern Islamic world, and, within suggestions for further reading and study, he presents an overview of recent Jami
scholarship in the Islamic world, the West, and China.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Hamid Algar began his studies of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Civilzation at Cambridge in 1959. After graduating, he spent a lengthy and fruitful period of travel in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan before returning to Cambridge in 1963 and completing his doctorate there two years later. He has been teaching in the Department of Near Eastern Studies since 1965, providing a wide range of instruction in the fields of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish literature and offering lecture courses on various aspects of Islamic religion and culture. His research interests center on Shi’ism in Iran and Sufism in the Persian and Persian-influenced world, with particular emphasis on the Naqshbandi order. His copious writings have been published in an array of languages additional to English: French, German, Russian, Italian, Bosnian, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Malay/Indonesian. He was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Tehran.

Reviews

[Vika Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it's useful to have a book-length, approachable survey of Jami's biography, Algar''s sensibilities are often on display. His homophobia (count the number of times he uses the word "perversion", for instance") mar the presentation. Algar is clearly not familiar with any of the current discussions of sexuality in Islamic literary works. He switches from presenting Jami's verse and prose as "proof" of what Jami thinks about issues to suggesting that perhaps the literary works are imaginative. The vast majority of these representations are done without presenting any basis for Algar's opinions. Hopefully this work will spur others to dig into the superficial presentation more completely.

[Luther Obrock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, readable, and thorough account of Jami, one of the most important poets of Herat, and indeed the Persian-literate world.