Professors Carl Ernst and Cyrus Zargar discuss the poetry and singular legacy of al-Hallaj, the famous early Sufi poet and teacher who became legendary for his shocking statement, Ana al-Ḥaqq, “I am the Real,” and his dramatic execution by the authorities in Baghdad in 309/ 922. al-Hallaj left behind a body of beautiful Sufi poetry in Arabic that is still popular today and became a legendary figure in Sufi literature.

Links and Further Reading/Listening:

“Life, Works, and Poetic Legacy of a Martyred Mystic” Abbasid History Podcast.

Carl Ernst, al-Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr (Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 2018)

Louis Massignon, Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr-Abridged Edition. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021)

Kevin Blankinship, “The House of His Desires: The Life and Legacy of al-Hallaj,” Lapham’s Quarterly:

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/house-his-desires

Kitab al-Tawasin (Arabic, with Persian commentary by Ruzbihan Baqli and French translation by Louis Massignon): https://archive.org/details/kitbalawsn00usaiuoft/page/n13/mode/2up

Links to performances of Hallaj’s Poetry:

https://sites.harvard.edu/sulaymanibnqiddees/tag/hallaj/

Online Collection of Poems attributed to al-Hallaj (in Arabic):

https://www.aldiwan.net/cat-poet-Al-Hallaj

Host: Oludamini Ogunnaike

Guests: Carl Ernst and Cyrus Zargar

Edited By Alana Bittner, WJTU