Professors James Morris and Arjun Nair discuss the poetry of the “Sultan of Lovers,” ‘Umar ibn al-Farid, the 7th/13th-century Egyptian poet whose qasidas (odes) are widely considered to be among the best ever composed in the Arabic language.

Links and Further Reading/Listening:

Ibn al-Farid – The Sufi Poet of Love & Oneness, Let’s Talk Religion

T. Emil Homerin, ʻUmar Ibn Al-Fāriḍ: Sufi Verse, Saintly Life (New York: Paulist Press, 2001).

——, Passion Before me, My Fate Behind: Ibn al-Fāriḍ and the Poetry of Recollection, (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011).

——, “ ‘On the Battleground’: Al-Nābulusī’s Encounters with a Poem by Ibn al-Fāriḍ.” Journal of Arabic Literature (2007): 352-410.

——, The Wine of Love and Life: Ibn Al-Farid’s Al-Khamriyah and Al-Qaysari’s Quest for Meaning (Chicago: Middle East Documentation Center, 2005)

Arberry, A.J., The Mystical Poems of Ibn al-Farid (Dublin: The Chester Beatty Monographs, 1956).

Nair, Arjun, “Compacts, Pacts, and Covenants in Saʿīd al-Dīn Farghānī’s Commentary on Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s Naẓm al-sulūk.” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 73 (2023).

——, “Poetry and Sufi Commentary: A Case of/for Religious Reading in Premodern Sufism.” Journal of Islamic Studies (2023)..

Links to performances of Ibn al-Farid’s Poetry: https://sites.harvard.edu/sulaymanibnqiddees/tag/ibn-al-farid/

Online Collection of Poems Attributed to Ibn al-Farid (in Arabic): https://www.aldiwan.net/cat-poet-bin-alfard

Host: Oludamini Ogunnaike

Guests: James Morris and Arjun Nair

Edited By: Alana Bittner, WJTU