Sufism and American Literary Masters

Description

This book reveals the rich, but generally unknown, influence of Sufism on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literature. The translation of Persian poets such as Hafiz and Sa'di into English and the ongoing popularity of Omar Khayyam offered intriguing new spiritual perspectives to some of the major American literary figures. As editor Mehdi Aminrazavi notes, these Sufi influences have often been subsumed into a notion of "Eastern," chiefly Indian, thought and not acknowledged as having Islamic roots. This work pays considerable attention to two giants of American literature, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, who found much inspiration from the Sufi ideas they encountered. Other canonical figures are also discussed, including Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, along with literary contemporaries who are lesser known today, such as Paschal Beverly Randolph, Thomas Lake Harris, and Lawrence Oliphant.
Foreword
Jacob Needleman

Introduction
Mehdi Aminrazavi

The English Romantic Background

1. English Romantics and Persian Sufi Poets: a wellspring of Inspiration for American Transcendentalists
Leonard Lewisohn

The Master: Emerson and Sufism

2. The Chronological Development of Emerson’s Interest in Persian Mysticism
Mansur Ekhtiyar

3. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Muslim Orient
Marwan M. Obeidat

4. Emerson and Aspects of Sa’di’s Reception in Nineteenth-Century America
Parvin Loloi

5. Emerson on Hafiz and Sa’di: The Narrative of Love and Wine
Farhang Jahanpour

The Disciple: Walt Whitman

6. Whitman and Hafiz: Expressions of Universal Love and Tolerance
Mahnaz Ahmad

7. Walt Whitman and Sufism: Towards “A Persian Lesson”
Massud Farzan

The Initiates: Other American Authors

8. Literary “Masters” in the Literature of Thomas Lake Harris, Lawrence Oliphant, and Paschal Beverly Randolph
Arthur Versluis

9. American Transcendentalists’ Interpretations of Sufism: Thoreau, Whitman, Longfellow, Lowell, Melville, and Lafcadio Hearn
John D. Yohannan

10. The Persians of Concord
Phillip N. Edmondson

11. Omarian Poets of America
Mehdi Aminrazavi

12. “Bond Slave to FitzGerald’s Omar”: Mark Twain and The Rubáiyát
Alan Gribben

13. Mark Twain’s Ruba’iyyat: AGE-A Rubáiyát

Glossary
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• 19th century
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438453545
• Langue: English

Extrait

Sufism and American Literary Masters
SUNY series in Islam

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, editor
Sufism and American Literary Masters
Edited by
Mehdi Aminrazavi
Foreword by
Jacob Needleman
Cover art from Fotolia
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sufism and American literary masters / edited by Mehdi Aminrazavi ; foreword by Jacob Needleman.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in islam)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5353-8 (hc.: alk. paper)
1. American poetry—Islamic influences. 2. Sufi poetry, American—History and criticism. 3. Sufism in literature. 4. Muslims in literature. 5. Islam in literature. 6. Mysticism in literature. I. Aminrazavi, Mehdi. II. Needleman, Jacob. PS166.S85 2014 810.9'382974—dc23 2014028931
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Mitra, my daughter for her resilience and courage in light of adversity
Thou art the dweller of every house on whose door I knock,
Whereever I sojourn, Thou art the Light of the door way.
Be it tavern or monastery, Thou art its soul of souls.
In praying to the Ka‘bah or the house of idols, I have Thee in mind,
The purpose is Thou, the Ka‘bah and the idol house are but an excuse.
Baha’ al-Din ‘Amili
Contents
Foreword
Jacob Needleman
Introduction
Mehdi Aminrazavi
T HE E NGLISH R OMANTIC B ACKGROUND
1. English Romantics and Persian Sufi Poets: A Wellspring of Inspiration for American Transcendentalists
Leonard Lewisohn
T HE M ASTER : E MERSON AND S UFISM
2. The Chronological Development of Emerson’s Interest in Persian Mysticism
Mansur Ekhtiyar
3. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Muslim Orient
Marwan M. Obeidat
4. Emerson and Aspects of Sa‘di’s Reception in Nineteenth-Century America
Parvin Loloi
5. Emerson on Hafiz and Sa‘di: The Narrative of Love and Wine
Farhang Jahanpour
T HE D ISCIPLE : W ALT W HITMAN
6. Whitman and Hafiz: Expressions of Universal Love and Tolerance
Mahnaz Ahmad
7. Walt Whitman and Sufism: Towards “A Persian Lesson”
Massud Farzan
T HE I NITIATES : O THER A MERICAN A UTHORS
8. Literary “Masters” in the Literature of Thomas Lake Harris, Lawrence Oliphant, and Paschal Beverly Randolph
Arthur Versluis
9. American Transcendentalists’ Interpretations of Sufism: Thoreau, Whitman, Longfellow, Lowell, Melville, and Lafcadio Hearn
John D. Yohannan
10. The Persians of Concord
Phillip N. Edmondson
11. Omarian Poets of America
Mehdi Aminrazavi
12. “Bond Slave to FitzGerald’s Omar”: Mark Twain and The Rubáiyát
Alan Gribben
13. Mark Twain’s Ruba‘iyyat: AGE–A Rubáiyát
Glossary
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
Foreword
The essays in this book offer fascinating revelations concerning the correspondences between Islamic mysticism and the work of such quintessentially American writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain. As such, this book is likely to take an important place in the academic fields of American studies and comparative literature. But its significance transcends the limits of academia and touches on the deepest and most troubling questions of our present era. And in so doing, it reminds us of the noble purpose of literature in the development of the mind.
Our world its seems exists mainly under influences that inevitably lead to division and conflict, even as on the surface of events globalization and advancing technology often inspire dreams of a united human family. It has become clear that in our contemporary civilization, despite all hope to the contrary, fear, anger, and avarice, the ancient devils that set human beings against each other, remain the real “lords of life,” to appropriate an Emersonian phrase. The essential question, which is now a literal matter of life and death, therefore remains: Where and what are the forces that can lead individuals, peoples, and nations toward an acceptance of each other in fact as well as in dreams, and inspire an awareness of the ultimate oneness and value of life? The themes of the following essays hold fundamental clues to the answer to this question.
Those clues reside in the juxtaposition of the words “Sufism” and the names of some of the most iconic American writers of the nineteenth century. Sufism is generally understood as both a doctrine and practice embedded in the religion of Islam. These essays taken as a whole posit that somewhere behind the historical, geopolitical, and philosophical incommensurabilities that now seem so harshly to separate Islam from the views of mainstream America, there remain significant traces of a philosophical convergence that resonates in some of the most “American” poetry in existence. A study of these traces not only opens a new avenue of mutual understanding between the Islamic and American souls, but will provide a springboard for a deeper understanding of the opportunities that literatures provides as a medium for reconciling seemingly intractable differences.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1844 essay “The Over-Soul” remains one of the most eloquent examples of nineteenth-century transcendentalism’s explication of Indian spirituality. Of particular influence was the doctrine of Atman, or Higher Self, which forms the essence of the human Self and is inseparable from Brahman, which forms the corresponding essence of the universal Self. Part of Emerson’s genius was his ability to reconsider such prototypical American values as the emphasis on pragmatism and individual agency in the light of spiritual, even esoteric reinterpretations of these values. Another case in point is “Self-Reliance” (1841), which opens with a dynamic characterization of the American ideal of individualism and self-determination and closes having reinterpreted such models as mere facets of the Higher Self within.
This kind of work constitutes philosophy, and indeed literature itself, at the height of their power: serving as reminders of humanity’s higher identity, which is continually forgotten in the necessary life of action in the world. Through great ideas greatly expressed, literature enables readers to function, and even grow, in a cultural milieu that relies on a worldview and explanatory model that tend to reductionist absolutism, relativism, titillation, and the provocations of subjective morality.
Visionary works of philosophy and literature are among the cultural forces necessary to open our minds to the possibility of transforming human beings, by nature dangerously gifted animals, into instruments of conscience and compassion; yet open-mindedness is not in itself enough, and here the meaning of Sufism can perform an essential task. Sufism is indeed a system of ideas rooted in the great perennial vision of man and reality that lies at the heart of all the world’s spiritual traditions, but the contemporary, albeit modest, awakening interest in Sufism is directed mainly to its status as a practice leading to a higher state of Being. In short, Sufism is a Way. What is meant by that term is a guided inner struggle, in which a man or woman strives to emerge from a state of egoism, submitting to a supreme Goodness that is both idea and energy.
When the influence of Indian spiritual tradition was first appearing in nineteenth-century America, any information was almost entirely limited to purely philosophical content, with only fragmentary and speculative practical applications. In general, the discipline, the full practice of the Way, was known haphazardly, if at all. Even Hinduism, which mainly influenced the transcendentalists and contains the idea of the practice of a Way at its heart, was seen as pure philosophy with no central place in the day-to-day lives or writings of the American Transcendentalists.
These days, the popularity of Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as various forms of yoga, indicate that at least certain components of the practice and inner workings of Eastern religions have become a growing influence in America. Without such prevalent practical applications of Eastern spiritual traditions, including Sufism, the quest to reawaken and rediscover the Way within Western religious traditions would be vastly impaired, perhaps to a debilitating extent.
We ask the same questions today that occupied the minds of every nineteenth- and twentieth-century American transcendentalist, including one most relevant to our purposes: Can true literary masterworks reach beyond the worlds of inspiration and ideas to aid in the practical search for finding solutions to the universal problems of the human condition? In the light of the following essays, we may begin to think about the ways in which Sufism illuminated the writings and lives of the most influential American writers of the nineteenth century, and also extrapolate the answers to apply to our lives two centuries later.
Jacob Needleman
Introduction
For centuries, the Western fascination with the East has been the subject of countless books, plays, and movies, particularly after the economic and intellectual effects of colonialism in the early nineteenth century introduced “Oriental” cultures to a sophisticated drawing-room audience. However, Hafiz, Sa‘di, Jami, Rumi, and other Sufi masters had a place, however obscure and inaccurately portrayed, in the corpus of English translations long before Oriental them