Islam
74 findings, grouped by tradition.
Islam61
- Star and CrescentThe star came late: Selim III (r. 1789–1807) added an eight-pointed star to the crescent on army and navy flags; it became five-pointed only late in Abdülmecid's reign (1839–61).
- Ibn ʿArabīHe never uses the phrase waḥdat al-wujūd. Chittick credits Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) with making it a doctrine's name, to condemn it; Jāmī (d. 1492) first embraced it.
- RūmīColeman Barks, whose versions made Rumi a bestseller, read no Persian. Rozina Ali showed in 2017 that his 'wrongdoing and rightdoing' stands for Rumi's īmān and kufr.
- Fīhi Mā FīhiJawid Mojaddedi (2014) reads the modest seventy-one discourses, and its remarks that Rumi was hard to reach without distinguished guests present, as signs he was no hands-on teacher.
- Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and RightdoingThe lines are Barks's English of 1984; Furūzānfar's quatrain 395 has a desert beyond Islam and unbelief. Barks told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002, 'I took the Islam out of it.'
- Reynold A. NicholsonNicholson chose fidelity over paraphrase in 1925; Barks, reading no Persian, wrote in 2014 that he had 'nothing to be faithful to, except what the scholars give'.
- Sultan WaladThe earliest life of Rumi, Sultan Walad's Ibtidā-nāma of March to June 1291, was written by the head of the order it promotes, as Franklin Lewis notes (2000).
- The Chickpea to the CookThe story ends, at III.4209, warning against stumbling “over these deep sayings”; Nicholson's 1940 commentary reads that as aimed at tanāsukh, transmigration.
- The Dīvān-e Shams-e TabrīzīRumi put Shams's name in the closing couplet of almost a third of the Dīvān's ghazals, on William Chittick's count; most of the rest are unsigned.
- The Elephant in the DarkSanāʾī and al-Ghazālī made the men blind; Rūmī made the house dark, as Nicholson noted in 1940. Ghazālī found each partly right, all failing; Rūmī blames the missing candle.
- Why the Answer to Prayer Is DelayedIbn Ḥijja al-Ḥamawī (d. 1434) quotes the treasure dream and names al-Tanūkhī (d. 994), nearly three centuries before Rūmī, as its source.
- The Song of the ReedThe line English readers know as Nicholson's is not the line Nicholson ended up wanting in 1930, with the Konya manuscript of 1278 before him. He directed that the Masnavi's first verse be read "Listen to this reed how it complains, telling a tale of separations". That puts the complaint first, the tale second: the reverse of what he printed in 1926.
- The Tomb at KonyaThe turning resumed in a Konya cinema in December 1953, licensed only as a celebration of a great Turkish poet. Law 677, which closed the shrine in 1925, has never been repealed.
- Ibn Taymiyya and the Refutation of the SufisJailed over it in 1326, he was misquoted. Ibn Kathīr protested that his fatwa did not forbid visiting graves, only setting out on a journey especially to visit them.
- The King and the HandmaidenWhinfield's 1887 heading has Shams urge Rūmī to write. Nicholson's 1926 footnote names the Soul who plucks his skirt at I.125 Ḥusámu'ddín.
- The Greengrocer and the ParrotWhinfield's 1887 abstract has "a cat" spill the oil. In Nicholson's 1926 version the parrot spills it itself (I.250), then charges the dervish with its own deed.
- The Lion and the HareRūmī names the tale's source himself at I.899: "Seek the story (illustrating this) from (the book of) Kalíla (and Dimna)".
- The Merchant and the ParrotWhinfield's 1887 abstract gives the parrot's message in one clause; in Nicholson's 1926 version it runs twenty-three lines (I.1552–1574), a lover's complaint.
- The Old HarperThe tale does not end on contrition: when the harper breaks his harp, ʿUmar answers, "thy repentance is worse than thy sin" (I.2205).
- The Moaning PillarIn Bukhārī the trunk only cries; the choice of Paradise comes in Ubayy ibn Kaʿb's report, added to Aḥmad's Musnad by his son ʿAbd Allāh.
- The MasnaviBook I's preface gives no date; Book II dates its own start to "the year six hundred and sixty-two" (II.7), A.H. 662, 1263–64.
- The Grammarian and the BoatmanThe tale is an insertion: Rūmī says he "stitched in" the grammarian (I.2846), then returns to the Bedouin's jug of rain-water (I.2848).
- Who Is at the Door?Whinfield's 1887 abridgement ends on the two I's. Nicholson's full text (1926) runs two lines on, to the needle whose eye is “not suitable for the camel”.
- The Chinese and the Greek PaintersIn Nicholson's 1926 text the Greeks retire from the debate (I.3469); the Konya manuscript of 1278 has instead “the Greeks were more skilled”.
- ʿAlī and the KnightʿAlī's famous answer, “the Lion of God” not “the lion of passion” (I.3788), gives only a general reason. The spit that roused his fleshly self is named at I.3975, nearly two hundred lines on.
- Moses and the ShepherdGod's “the most hateful to Me is divorce” (II.1752) is a saying of the Prophet; Whinfield's 1887 version footnotes it “A tradition.”
- The Man Who Planted ThornsRūmī's second remedy is company: the friend of God's light quenches the fire, as Hell begs the believer, “thy light has taken away the burning of my fire” (II.1249).
- The Bear and the FoolThe fool begins as the hero: the rescuer is one of the “valiant (holy) men” who run to the oppressed “like the mercy of God” (II.1933–1934).
- Muʿāwiya and IblīsIblīs quotes the Prophet, “Make haste to perform your devotions before the time is past” (II.2613); Wilson (1910) sets it beside a Tradition, ʿAjjilū bi-ṣ-ṣalāti.
- The Four Men and the GrapesThe grapes return: at II.3715 the Aws and Khazraj become brethren “like the units of (a bunch of) grapes”, and at II.3741 the quarrel stays unsolved.
- The Sufi's DonkeyRūmī sets this guest against an earlier Sufi (II.156) who left his ass to a servant. This one feeds it himself (II.515), and loses it to his own singing.
- The Mouse and the CamelThe tale does not end on the camel's rebuke (II.3449). The mouse repents, and is carried over: “I would take across hundreds of thousands like thee” (II.3452).
- The Snake-Catcher and the Frozen SnakeThe thaw is a figure twice over. At III.1008 the world itself is frozen, jamād being jāmid. At III.1060 the sun that thaws the soul's dragon is “the sun of lust”.
- I Died as a MineralThe ladder is spoken in character, by the Ṣadr-i Jahān's fugitive wakīl, walking back to a prince who seeks “a ten years' vengeance” (III.3875).
- The Embryo in the WombAt III.3964–3969 the embryo returns: drawn by grace toward birth, it flees back to the belly, unaware of a world outside, like Galen.
- ‘Allah’ and ‘Here Am I’Nicholson's 1937 commentary traces the reversal to a Hadith: when the slave says “yā Rabb”, God says “Labbayka, O my slave! Ask, and it will be given unto thee”.
- Daqūqī and the Seven CandlesDaqūqī doubts his sanity: “Or have I become mad and crazy?” (III.2025). He tests the vision by eating its fruit (III.2027), then doubts again (III.2032).
- The Lover and the Night PatrolBook III breaks off at III.4810, sending the reader to “the Fourth Book”. There the lover's seven years of seeking (III.4780) have become eight (IV.41).
- The Tanner in the Perfume MarketThe cure is medicine before allegory: the brother cites “the great Jálínús (Galen)”, give the patient what he was used to (IV.276).
- The Three FishRūmī names his source and demotes it: from Kalīla, “that is (only) the husk of the story, while this is the spiritual kernel” (IV.2203).
- The Bird's Three CounselsThe third counsel is never given: the bird asks why it should tell it “in vain” (IV.2263). The tale is an aside, glossing IV.2244: “’Tis wrong to regret the past”.
- The Garden WithinBoth sides cite the Qurʾān: the passer-by's “Look ye” (IV.1361) opens 30:50, and Rūmī's “abode of deception” (IV.1366) echoes 57:20.
- The Journey Through the KingdomsRūmī had told this ladder before, in the first person: “I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with growth” (III.3901).
- Ayāz and His SheepskinThe question is a feint: Rūmī's heading to V.3251 says Maḥmūd asked it to make Ayāz speak. Ayāz answered at V.2113, a reply Whinfield's abridgement leaves out.
- The Sage and the PeacockThe peacock grants that a self-restrained man may keep his feathers (V.652–653); it is not that man, so it throws its weapons into the well (V.659–660).
- The Ruby and the SunRūmī's prose heading to V.2020 adds a divine saying: go to My creatures with My attributes; who sees you sees Me. Nicholson names the hearer Bāyazīd; the Persian does not.
- The Turkish Amir and the MinstrelWhinfield reverses Rūmī's order: the minstrel's cup-song comes first (VI.665–669), the “I know not” ode later (VI.704–707). Whinfield prints the ode first.
- The Faqir and the Hidden TreasureThe scroll never said shoot far: the voice at VI.2348–2352 says it bade him only put an arrow to the bow. The king's strongbow archers had found nothing either (VI.1957).
- The Three TravellersWhinfield gives the Jew's dream one sentence; Rūmī gives it VI.2427–2449, then says many a Jew's end was praiseworthy, so scorn no unbeliever (VI.2450–2452).
- Neither Christian nor JewGamard reads Nicholson's 'does not occur' as an admission about this ode, but it concerns a 'counterpart' poem. Nicholson's text is a Vienna manuscript of 845 A.H.
- Every Form You SeeNicholson's note ties the closing 'Son' to the Trinity and Qurʾān 4:171. His rhymed version says it outright: “‘The Son of God!’ Nay, leave that word unsaid”.
- Seek Him in the PlacelessEvery couplet ends on one Persian word, “will flee”. In couplet 5 Nicholson's “Absolute” is yaqīn, which his 1898 note glosses as truth known intuitively.
- Up, O Ye Lovers“Quittance” renders ḥalālī: the cameleer asks pardon for waking them. Manuscript B³ reads jilālī, saddle-cloths; Bevan thought it may be right, blankets reclaimed at dawn.
- Why Does Not the Soul Take WingThe falcon's “Return” is irjiʿī, Qurʾān 89:28. Nicholson adds Dīvān lines (T. 343. 11) where the soul, a royal falcon, breaks a thousand gyves, “to us returning”.
- The Man of GodNicholson's 1898 note sets “king ’neath darvish-cloak” beside Ḥāfiẓ's “crownless kings” and Abū 'l ʿAtāhiya's “a king in beggar's garb”.
- On the Day of My DeathNicholson printed the ode from B (1372) yet departs from it twice: “snare” where B has dūgh, “butter-milk”, and couplets 3 and 4, whose half-lines B and V swap.
- Every Moment the Voice of LoveAflākī tells that Saʿdī chose this as the best ode in Persian, for the prince of Shīrāz to send the great Khān. Nicholson calls Aflākī untrustworthy in matters of fact.
- When the Names Were NotNicholson (1898) found the Persian only in a Vienna manuscript of 1441; Ibrahim Gamard lists it among seven of his odes not in the earliest manuscripts.
- Show Thy FaceNicholson (1898) tied the wine-cup-and-curl couplet to Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, killed by the Mongols in 618 AH (1221) while gripping an infidel's forelock.
- The JinnGalland’s 1704 Nights calls them génies; Burton rejects the English genie in 1885.
- The IfritLane’s 1836 Egyptian account also uses efreet for ghosts of dead people.
Sufism5
- SamāʿThe earliest surviving text in the samāʿ dispute is a censure, not a defence: Ibn Abī al-Dunyā's Dhamm al-malāhī, by a Baghdad traditionist who died in 894. It predates al-Hujwīrī's Kashf al-Maḥjūb, the first Sufi defence cited here, by nearly two centuries.
- The Mevlevi SemâLaw 677 of 1925 abolished çelebilik, the Mevlevi headship, by name and made wearing dervish dress a crime. Turners in two state ensembles founded in 1991 now wear it.
- QawwaliAt Delhi's Nizamuddin shrine in 1975–76, Qureshi saw qawwals sing veiled Farsi and Hindi verses to high-status patrons and plain Urdu songs to humbler young men.
- Fal-e HafezDivining by a poet's divan predates Hafez; one of the earliest references to his own being used so is Abu Bakr Tehrani's Ketab-e Diyarbakriyya, written 1469–78.
- The Sema of the Whirling DervishesSultan Walad organised the Mevlevi order, but its rituals took their basic shape only under his descendant Pir ʿAdel Chelebi, in the fifteenth century. So Franklin Lewis reported in 2000, following Tahsin Yazıcı. The only significant later change he records came under Selim III (1789-1807).
Islamic Esotericism2
- Ilm al-RamlIts codification is traceable only to twelfth-century Latin treatises on unidentified Arabic sources; the first known Arabic codifier, Ibn Maḥfūf, died before 1265.
- The Seal of SolomonThe Qur'an never mentions Solomon's ring. The story enters through commentary on 38:34, and Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) judged that Ibn Abbas had it from the People of the Book.
Ismailism2
- Ismaili EsotericismThe named grades of initiation Sunni authors ascribed to Ismailis came from Ibn Rizam's and Akhu Muhsin's polemics; Daftary (1993) found no evidence of them in Ismaili texts.
- The Qiyama at AlamutNo 1164 account survives, and Ibn al-Athir never mentions it; it is known from Persian historians writing after Alamut fell, Juvayni about 1260 first.
Alevism1
Druze1
Islamic Philosophy1
Yazidism1