Perspectives on Physical Beauty in the Thought of Ibn Arabi and Rumi
Open AccessThis thesis provides an introductory conceptual overview to perspectives on physical beauty found in the writings of Ibn Arabi and Rumi. Due to the greater scholarly attention given to spiritual beauty or beatific vision, both in Western and Islamic contexts, this thesis instead discussed physical – and exclusively visual – beauty. Moreover, this specific topic is relevant in that it more directly correlates to Western aesthetic studies, both philosophic and religious. This topic is approached conceptually, so far as the present work elucidates common themes and attitudes that run throughout the primary sources while not necessarily being treated in isolation by Ibn Arabi and Rumi themselves, in keeping with broader literary trends in the pre-modern Sufi tradition. Furthermore, this approach is valuable so far as it allows for a ‘filling in’ of presuppositions, common notions, and logical steps that for a variety of reasons pass unarticulated in the primary sources. This work does not pretend to be a comprehensive exposition of these aesthetic perspectives, a task that exceeds our present scope. It does, however, hopefully provide a sufficient conceptual framework, treating all major attitudes and the majority of technical concepts in connection with physical beauty, with the intention of serving as a starting point for further personal and academic investigations. Methodologically, the thesis places greater emphasis on content over historical contextualization, considering the thought of Ibn Arabi and Rumi to be intrinsically conversant and interrelateable. The notable exception to this work’s generally ahistorical approach is found in turning from theoretical to practical approaches to physical beauty, where a historical approach is necessitated by the fact that our authors’ comments in this area are themselves contextualized within an established discourse on ritualized gazing (Arabic: naẓar, Persian: shāhidbāzī), and thus cannot be sufficiently interpreted without the aid of historical contextualization. Throughout the course of the work, the authors are referenced and considered simultaneously rather than receiving their own discrete sections of each chapter. This approach is be helpful, so far as avoids redundancy and allows the greater systematization of Ibn Arabi's writing to elaborate on and complement similar assertions found in Rumi's oeuvre. In terms of material covered and organization, the introduction chapter develops the question of the thesis, elaborates on its methodology, and concludes with a preparatory discussion of the idiomatic framing and conceptual role of beauty in the Qur’an and Prophetic hadiths. The earlier chapters (II, III, IV) proceed in sequence, detailing two contrary perspectives that consider physical beauty as either intrinsically limited/other-than-God or as divine manifestation/naught-but-God, before turning to a discussion of the metaphysics of perception that provides a solution to this tension. The later chapters (V, VI) stand somewhat independent of the others and each other. Chapter Five addresses one of the fundamental spiritual ‘functions’ of physical beauty in the thought of Ibn Arabi and Rumi, namely its capacity to enjoin love in the heart of the mystic, whereas Chapter Six concerns itself with practical, rather than theoretical/speculative attitudes toward physical beauty, discussing in particular the ritualized aesthetic practice of shāhidbāzī, its cultural and religious genealogies, and the various attitudes toward this practice on the part of pre-modern jurists and mystics alike.With this approach and its goals in mind, this thesis is directed at an audience already conversant in the basic doctrinal and historical contours of Islamic religion and civilization, as well as its mystical tradition, i.e. Sufism, in its literary and historical dimensions. Accordingly, there is minimal explanatory and contextual material beyond the limits of the immediate discussion. Nonetheless, certain crucial concepts have been briefly outlined given their centrality to the arguments and positions assumed by Ibn Arabi and Rumi.
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