The Religious and Cultural Roles of Dreams and Visions in Islam

Author(s): Nile Green

Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Nov., 2003), pp. 287313
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great
Britain and Ireland
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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams

and Visions in Islam"

NILE

GREEN

Introduction
Since

"visions

to

material

appear

cannot

annalists

hope

persons

spiritual

so favoured

to be

the

only,

by Heaven".1

So,

of

herd

vulgar

in his

historians

and
account

nineteenth-century

of the sufls of Sind, SirRichard Burton expressed the dilemma of scholars researching Muslim
dream

and visionary

the visionary
we

no

need

earlier

the

very

of

the

Islamic

imagination

and

and

dream

visionary

this

individuals

into

insight
and

private

abundant

The

this

rich

granted

by

the

philosophers
sodality
for

its

of its expression

in

rich

research

in recent

field
encounter

intimate
analysis

on

visions.

active

is especially

an often

allowing

scarcely

experiences

from

from

discourse

a more

of

tradition

through
For,

and waking

and the description

yields

past,

varied

by early Muslim

activities

Islamic

reason,

the Muslim

the

and

of

flourishing

chiefly

in Islam.

vision

of dreams

developed
by

accompanied
For

experience.

new

afford

always

seekers.

developed

practice,

a rich

in the form

its expression

to both theories of the imagination

contributions

years

vision

has

and

reticence

the

witnessed

cultural

the dream

to the imagination

were

theorists

there

history,

and

matter

straightforward

have

of

discussion

scholarly

Despite

decades

religious

surrounding

while
is still no

pessimism.

two

the past

of Muslim

and

theoretical approaches

dreamers

past

of

sardonic

scholarship,

literature

But

style.

and other Muslims

by Burton's

aspects

extensive

beginning

and mystical
of

the

characteristic

sufls

deterred

the visionary

of

the nature

The

be

of positivist

into

analysis

the

of premodern

longer

generations

of research

in his

experiences

activities

of

with

other

kinds

of

documentation.
It was
beginning

the dreams
of

Islam

of one

visions

While
each

of

its many

fields of Muslim
of

the

episodes

and
and

kind

forms,

visions

subsequent

sense

it is in this
or

both

of

that

another

were

visions

and

the Prophet

the Qur'an

an

unsurprisingly
dreams

also

played

life, from historiography

and medicine

in this

visions

discussed

article

Muhammad
itself may

reveal,

that

be

seen

of

aspect

important

roles

important

the

announced

as a visionary

text.
in

sufism

in many

other

to folklore and magic.2 As many

and

dreams

were

a crucial

means

of

This article was researched and written with

the financial support of the Sir William
Ouseley Memorial
School of Oriental
and African Studies from 1999-2001
and the Gordon
Scholarship held at London University's
Milburn Junior Research
2002.
from October
Fellowship held at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University
1
R. F. Burton, Sindh and theRaces that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus (Karachi, 1973 [1851]), p. 409.
2
For general accounts of the dream in Islam, see U. Azam, Dreams in Islam (Pittsburgh, 1992). T. Fahd, 'The
Dream inMedieval
Islamic Society', in G. E. von Grunebaum
and R. Caillois (eds), The Dream andHuman Societies
in der islamischen Kultur
(Berkeley, 1966), A. Schimmel, Die Traume des Kalifen: Trdume und ihreDeutung
in Encyclopaedia Iranica (hereafter EI).
1998) and H. Ziai, 'Dreams and Dream Interpretation'
JRAS, Series 3, 13, 3 (2003), pp. 287-313
DOI: 10.1017/S1356186303003110

(Munich,

The Royal Asiatic Society 2003

Printed in theUnited Kingdom

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

288
Nile Green
with

connecting
Muslim

the models

the

of

than

experience
major

and

shows

taken
of

relationship

of dreams

and

the

the parameters

inner

experiences,

particularly

common

cultural
it.3 The

before

to

that

heritage

of dream

practice

of

This

present
the

us at the onset

of

of

embeddedness
customs

the

suggests

means

the Muslim

into

between

cultural

that

symbols
a useful

oneirocritical

fracture

reminds

It is this

of

with

continuity

the past

crucial

is the

This

some

charting

of

past.

Heritage

models

widespread
Near

the ancient

alive

the
out

stands

and

visionary

bringing

form

Pre-Islamic

generate

and

imagination

universe

universe

in their most

civilisations.

the

unreal.

in Islam may

vision

of other

in

For

peopled.

characteristic

concurrence

Gedankenwelt.

Islamic

imaginative

came

Muslims

early

as yet

and premodern

a shared

classic

that

towards

to a wider

and

and

surprise

futures

the modern

The
When

no

into

one

literatures

to the past

preponderance

imagination

the

access

it was

whom

article,

the premodern
of

forward

the dream
of

in this

It is therefore

within

with

figures

a greater

by

visions
of

literature

it.

looking

directions

with

importance
by

Islam

the major

are discussed

that

provided

literature

and

is in common

that

of history,

weight

the

works

literary

especially

time

past

which

form

as dreams,

East

understand

provided

East

imaginative

Islam

stretched

on

in part

drew

they

to both

in the Near

interpretation

to

with

the

and Christianity
to the very

back

civilisation, being handed on thereafter partly through the

beginnings of Mesopotamian
in
of
the
the
biblical
story of Joseph, a tradition no less important to Islam
(as
Jews
religion
and

of dream

of

the

thinkers

Plato

offered

from

the

very

in Sleep,

the

highly

which

of

the

be more

Despite

late antique

of Greek

legacy

the most

direct

funnel

culture,
Islam

into

More

selective
Aristotle's

of

dreams
important

denied

that

soul

any

the
an

dreams,
are

they
liver

its

with

however,
of earlier

traditions

dreams

are

sceptical

the

recipients

approach

short

god-sent.

to communicate with
about

their

of

Reasonably

humankind
their

On

nocturnal

to the dream,

later

Timaeus,

that while

they

originate

irrational

soul

as

symbolic
albeit

reality,

essays

In his

dreaming.6

obscure,
to

in Homer,

(oneiros)

the

by

relationship

Aristotle's

of

claiming

perceived

(hence

indirect

were

theories

systematic

of mantic

theory

surface

such

of

to the dream

references

literary

rational

smooth

that if the gods wanted

and

Greek
a number

interesting

allowed

this way

earliest

developed
an

insight
on

reflected

rated

the

that was

dreams

theories.5
some

After

in

with

fascination

Greek

It was

in the Qur'an).4

related

similar

Dreams

one

not
and On

enough,

they would

character).

images
Plato
that

he

Divination

Aristotle

argued

do it in the daytime

messages.

it continued

to

play

an

important

role

in both the popular religious life of late antiquity (particularly through the popularity of the
cult of Asclepius) and thewritings of philosophers and occultists. The most important text on
3
The Interpretation ofDreams in theAncient Near East (Philadelphia,
See O. L. Oppenheim,
1956).
4
see S. Suiri, 'Dreaming Analyzed
12:1-100. On the interaction of Jewish and Muslim
oneirocriticism,
Qur'an
Dreams in theWorld of Medieval
and Recorded
Islam', in D. Schulman and G. G. Stroumsa (eds), Dream Cultures:
Explorations in theComparative History ofDreaming (Oxford, 1999).
5
See E. R. Dodcls, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, 1951), Chapter Four, 'Dream Pattern and Culture
Pattern'.
6
See Artemidorus,
Oneirocritica: The Interpretation ofDreams byArtemidorus, trans. R.J. White
(ParkRidge,
1975)
and C. Blum, Studies on theDream Book ofArtemidorus (Uppsala, 1936).

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 289
in late

dreaming
of Ephesus.
symbolic

dream
of

or

some

other

future

events

writing

of

as well

as a wider

dreaming,
While

of

possessed,

sometimes
by

seen

is also

and
to be

Arabs

to

attested

of
the

and

and Artemidorus,
the

upon

touching

of

subject

by

saying

form

of

of

of poetry

has

kdhin,

were

at

also

the Ka'bah

the dream
that

lives.

the

Dreams

prayers

special

experience

abundance

their waking

the

oracles.

inspired

the Arab

the

in

own

their

possessed
to

dreams

relating

to recite

of

certainly

interpreters

Arabs

in

parent,

the nature

translations

like Aristotle

had

of

dream

able

evidence

it.8 Literary

Through

works

and means

the pre-Islamic

by

sought

beside

the jahiliyyah

during

were

dreamers

thinkers.7

pre-Islamic

diviners

example,

actively

sleeping

the

experiences

who

soothsayers

to Muslim

the

direct

a clear

that was

(horama)

when

thinkers

classical

philosophical

available

dream
for

them.

a type

described

in a literal manner,

reveals,

with

of

speculative

documented,

understanding

ecstatic

of

later made

poorly

They

or

series

theories

vision

(chrematismos),

personage,
to deal

how

the dream

epitomes,

oracle

the

impressive

on

advises

and

of Artemidorus

as the

as well

of Artemidorus

Oneirocritica

second-century

the writings

riddles)

including

or

in

dreams

events

respected
and

were

of

(often
future

the

undoubtedly

classification

pre-enactment

of

was

antiquity

The

and

survived

vision
from

that period. Popular in the naslb style of the ode (qasidah) from the pre-Islamic period is
the motif of the poet resting at night only to be haunted by the vision (khayal, tayf) of his
beloved.9

The Dream
there were

While

for Muslim
been
of

Islam

an

come

had

perhaps

literary

6:60)

dreams
(ru'ya,

the

soul

sacrifice

the

upholds
is taken

dream

These

validity

back

into

in

and

canonical

was

the Prophet
prototypes

while

earlier

also

prophets
accounts

in Surat
he

of dreams

of

al-Fath
foresaw
and

of

when

Accounts

visions

his

encounter

The

the

in

that

and

dreams

in the Qur'an.10

The

(12:1-100)

scripture

also

prognosticating

and

recounts
return

triumphant

as at times

(39:42

Qur'an

life of Yusuf

eventual

is
of

result

believers

the visions

the

in what

ears,

inspiration,

feature

the

revelation

primary

it tells
of

(48:27)

nonetheless

visionary

the Qur'an.

experiences
of God.

in which

of

had

in his

ringing

pains

the birth

dream

the Qur'anic

bells

the wracking

the presence

Muhammad

of

of

Muhammad's

and hearing
of

visions
The

beginnings.

the Prophet

clammy

trembling

(37:83-113),

Ishaq

of

and

to hand

of dreaming

theories

dreams

Islam,
its very

from

Islam

of analytical

of

centuries
Islam

apotheosis

and

occurs

famously
of

a clairvoyant
Makkah.

fear

of both

manam)
most

dream
the

itself

Sweating,
greatest

history's

of

ready models

the experience

Jabra'il.

numinous

of

early

part

integral
through

the archangel

Muhammad's
and

in the

intellectuals

themselves

with

a number

clearly

in Early

and Vision

to
and

7
See A. E. Affifi, "The Influence of Hermetic
Literature on Muslim Thought",
Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies 13 (1950), S. M. Oberhelman,
The Oneirocriticon ofAchmet: A Medieval Greek and Arabic Treatise
on the Interpretation of Dreams (Lubbock,
of Parva Naturalia and the
1991) and S. Pines, "The Arabic Recension
to al-Risala al-Manamiyya and Other Sources",
Veridical Dreams According
Philosophical Doctrine
Concerning
Israel Oriental Studies 4 (1974).
8
See T. Fahd, "istikhard'' in EI2.
9
See R. Jacobi, "Qaslda" in J. S. Meisami
and P. Starkey (eds), Encyclopedia ofArabic Literature (London, 1998),
p. 631.
10
See L. Kinberg,
vol. 1, pp. 546-553

"Dreams

and Sleep",

in J. Dammen

McAuliffe

(ed.), Encyclopaedia

of theQur'an

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(Leiden, 2001),

Nile Green
290
at other
of

times

were

revelatory

to recur

in myriad

form

the

throughout

history

subsequent

Islam.
The

are also

hadith

accounts

with

replete

of

the dreams

of

the Prophet

and his

companions

or references by them to dreaming. One often quoted tradition held that the Prophet himself
had

said

also

contains

that

such

These

heaven).

of

of

were

dreams

accounts

with

accounts

many

one

constitute

dreams

the

often

the dream-life

to

related

of his

visions

events

major

life

literature
ascent

his

and were

the most

of

simh

(especially

in his

One

companions.

The

prophecy.11

and

dreams

Prophet's

of

part

forty-sixth

related

interesting

to

along
in

episodes

the Sirat Rasiil Allah of Ibn Ishaq refers to a dream of one of the companions, 'AbdAllah ibn
Zayd.12 'Abd Allah recounted to the Prophet a dream inwhich he had encountered aman
two

wearing

there

the

one

adhan,

this

instructed

characteristic

through

seen

later

also

as

in

feature

having

a dream.

of

Ibn

Sirah,

Ishaq's

widely

as a

regarded

as the most
was

hadith
the

in much

by

publishing.15

the

the

of

numbers

Arabic

texts
of

compilation

publishers

texts
of

dreams

faked

books

s name

interpretations

in Fawa'id

to

certainly

Ibn Slrln

himself

so

escalated

Ibn Sinn's

as Greek

al-fu'ad.

(albeit
Later

the

see how
as

regarded

host

having

less momentous

of

vision

in which

the

of

reign

that

supposed

as received

works

were

via

by

by

been

al-Tufayl

'Umar

caliph

(r.632-634 AD)

was

in the

authors

entitled

al-Ghazall)

simply

Ta'bir
it was

by

history

Arabic

al-ru'ya,
possible
was

So widespread

(d.1325 AD) made

Ibn Sinn

of

of

work

(fl.775-785 AD). The

century

in his

early

known

and

to him

ascribed

in the earliest

fifteenth

al-dln Awliya

(mu (abbir)

posthumously

to appear.

to

dreams

Ishaq al-Kirmani

the

as a scholar

fame

early
of

popular

features

works

attributed

His

interpreter

had

ta'bir of Abu

that the great ChishtT sufi of Dihll, Nizam

dream

as the

interpreters.

on

the DusturfVl

ascribed

such

such

during

as an

reputation

treatises

Ibn Sirln

of dream interpretation,
earliest

growing

as

same way

the

a whole

and first caliph, Abu Bakr

dream

of Muslim

numerous

century

European

life, was

Yet

the

itwas the pious Iraqi traditionist Ibn Slrln (d.728 AD) who was

famous

eclipsed

tenth

of

an authentic

the dream

of dreams.14

interpreter

gifted

After the prophet Yiisuf,

regarded

clapper,

explained

a bird coming out of his mouth, which

his martyrdom

prophesied

For his part, the companion

(634-644 AD).13
was

the

buy

the man

in the performance

declared

of Muslim

features

intervention

the

al-DawsT sees himself with his head shaven and with

was

to

asked

at which

'Abd Allah

the Prophet

account,

had

to prayer,

people

and

this

hearing

the most

of

visions

and

summoning

to do

'Abd Allah

clapper.

and had the first mil 'adhinBilal instructed accordingly. Here we

established

dreams

carrying

it for

way
On

(adhan).

vision from God

been

use

a better

was

to prayer

call

and

garments

that he would

explaining
that

green

his

though
for

an

renown

reference to his

discourses

that were

in Turkish

and

Persian

recorded
as well

and Latin.16

11
vol. 1, p. 343. See also
A. J.Wensinck,
Concordance et Indices de la Tradition Musulmane
(Leiden, 1936-1969),
in Early Islamic Traditions", Oriens 29-30 (1986).
and the Afterworld
L. Kinberg, "Interaction Between This World
12A.
The Life ofMuhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (Karachi, 1967), p. 236.
Guillaume,
13
Ibid., p. 177.
14
See T. Fahd and H. Daiber, "rw'ya", in Eh.
15
and Caillois
See Fahd in von Grunebaum
(1966), pp. 360-363. See also Ibn Sirin, Das Arabische Traumbuch des
Ibn Sirin, trans. H. Klopfer (Munich, 1989).
16
Nizam Ad-Din Awliya, Morals for theHeart, trans. B. B. Lawrence
(New York, 1992), p. 174. On the later
attributed works of Ibn Sirin, see T. Fahd, "Ibn Sirin", in Eh.

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 291
Other

pious
on

treatise
Shl'I

early

the

imam,

'Abbasid

of
For

Baghdad.

Arabic

at

the

the

shadows

of

classical

of

dreams
AD).17

Of

al-Qadirt

attributed

the

citations

the

of

Abu

ta'bir

fVl

less

the

AD).

other

great

Sa'Td

were
the

the

caliphal

al-Dmawan

translated

is

thinkers
was

This

manual.

was

that

AD)

(d.c.1009

of

reach

long

Muslim

dream

in

subject

was

Marking

sixth

works

those

of

among

the

than

figure

importance

Persian

early

of Artemidorus

of Artemidorus

prestige
in

however,

the Oneirocritica
(r.813-833

One

subject.

influence,

reflected

that
of

the

to no

greater

al-Ma'mun

antiquity,
his

with

associated

was

a version

example

request

through

voluminous

to be

patronage,

caliphal

into

the

(d.765

al-Sadiq

Ja'far

demonstrated

of

interpretation

as a result

created

came

also

figures

this period the

in 1006 by the caliph al-Qadir (991-1031 AD).18 During
commissioned
bookseller and bibliographer Ibn al-Nadlm (d.996 AD?) recorded the details of some ten of
the

dream

that were

manuals

the neo-platonist
proof

of

texts

were

Porphyry

the

type

a wider

posited

its origins

in bodily

has

section

of

the most

of

his

catalogue

tradition

different

as heat,

that

the

standard

could

the veridical

classical

a dream

(hulm),
were

forms

of

capable

overridden

by

assume

dream

Islam

repertoire,

of

the Prophet

its antique
The

common

of

rarer

indigestion.

divine

the possibility

so rob

and

or

early

predecessors,

the third and most

astray. However

blessed
To

message.

the

satanic

its graver

dream

implications

neither

Satan

nor

a believer

of

that most

that

the

that was

and most

first

of personalised

added

wildly

and

alchemy

in Arabic

developed

of

discomfort

class

relating

in a dream

form

the Prophet's

also

the dreamer

leading

saying

is a special

that

dream

magic,

inventory.

second type provides glimpses of future events, but it is only

type

these

Interestingly,

had

of dream.

types

such

sensations,

with

of his

is further

Fihrist

flourished.

dealing

extensive

In a reflection

tradition.
three

al-Kirmani,

and

by Artemidorus

al-Nadlm's

such works

oneirocritical

oral

dream-theory

and

in which

one

a written

century
by

supplemented
Muslim

the
was

which

the ninth

By

in

classified

works

Including

Baghdad.19

as Ibn Sinn

atmosphere

cosmopolitan

a section

occult,

in

available
as well

of

any

the jinn

favoured

all dreams. Indeed, in one of the first hadith in Bukharl's Sahih the Prophet explained
has

"Whoever
this

seen me
came

sometimes

means

of

legitimating

have

formed

one

own

son-in-law

in his Nahj
the modern
might
follow

of

has
to mean

that

all kinds

of

the

day.22

The

thus

appear

to

him

in the path

of

purposes
reveal

to

of married

lasting

one

dreams

the

of

the Prophet

such

prophetic

dreamer
life or

take my

policies.
of

dream

his

to express

continue
visits,
future
his

Yet
Islamic
of his
to be

approval

waterproof

of

the Prophet

Prophet's
piety.21
own
in a sermon
found
important

to urge
of

legally

The

were

however,
grave,

dreams

that

In practice,

form".20

form

could

expressions

Prophetic

the Prophet

such

or

persons

arguments,

described

while

of

dreams

cannot

Satan

and

truly,

and most

earliest

'All had

al-balaghah,

seen me

of

many.

to believers

a celibate

a writer's

in

Muhammad
mystic

to

work.

17
See H. Hosain,
"A Treatise on the Interpretation of Dreams",
Islamic Culture 6, 4 (1932).
18
T. Fahd and H. Daiber in Eh.
19
The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture, 2 vols,
Al-Nadim,

trans. B. Dodge
(New York, 1970), p. 742.
20
in J. G. Katz, Dreams, Sufism and Sainthood: The Visionary Career ofMuhammad
al-Zawaun (Leiden,
Quoted
1996), p. 205.
See I. Goldziher,
"The Appearance
of the Prophet in Dreams", Journal of theRoyal Asiatic Society (1921).
22
See Hadrat 'All, Nahj al-balaghah (Tihran, Chihil Sutun, n.d.), Khiitbah 73, p. 43.

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Nile Green
292
The

importance

tradition
apparent.

these

conditions

he was

to

symbols,

in

the

of

have

important

on

so serve

the

philosophy

the meaning
also

and

period
the

in the

resulted

of Greek

In the

(Hnayah)

as

the

in any way

caliphal

was

Aristotle
later

dreaming

great

into Arabic,

al-Nadim

Ibn Slna

with

together
AD),

dream

of book

promotion

certain

purposes.23

not

and

came

works

the bibliographer

caliph's

under

to the dream,

(r.813-833

Aristotle.25

in images.

thought

prophetic

degrees

at times

most

though in his Kitab al-shifa'

approaches

al-Ma'mun

with
while

the good,

sufi

were

as an act of
providence

in different

translation

encounter

of

later

philosophical

could

or even

dream

of philosophy

practice

and

a dream

had

to all humans

this

during

of

soul

that

intellect,

clairvoyant

the prophetic

prefiguring

The

prophets.24

Islamic

encounter

that

reasoned
active

Arabic

early

oneirocriticism

pre-Islamic

AD)

divine

and

to describe

as allotted

experienced

caliph

the

in the

reflected

with

(d.950

in

in dreams

theory

In an

ways

interesting

patron

al-Farabi

originating

providence
to the

unique

also

continuities

this theory was to influence Ibn Sma (d.1037 AD),

modify

such

was

dream

the

manifest

the divine.

saw

the

that

Aristotle,

be made

Subsequently
from

here

Following

It was

to

given

it was

and

to

said

the

lectured
asserted

that

this

In the Muslim

production.

dream theory was later discussed by Ibn Rushd

(d.1198 AD) and the philosopher of
Khaldun
Ibn
(d.1406 AD).
history
With
regard to the vision in Islam, the life of the Prophet formed a major model and

west,

of

point

reference.

the Night

Journey

been

ascended
'the

length

is the

internal

and
As

the

early

the

in

turn,

complex
undergone

on

as well
later

these

by

rich

in

in

the

became

Prophet

This

Qur'anic

as legitimacy, both of which

traditions

which

elaborated

was

the Qur'an

civilisation

the

the

Allah Wall
point

were
theme

of

a distance

of

subsequent

different

kinds.

Particularly

to

of

the

shaman's

tomb

of

into
the

Islam,

lent

were
the

the

nature

intellectual

tremendous

reinforced by many

flight

paintings.

transformed

(d.1431 AD)
reference

to remove

came

figures

centuries

further.28

the Prophet

within

in pharaonic

topic

in

given

its many

gradually

early

account

the

In

correspondences
Sun

been

always

visions,

coming

otherworldly

to the

the voyage

has

the Prophet by name has

of God.
of many

journey

like Shah Ni'mat

verses.27

was

all Muslim

famously

imagery

Islam

(mi(raj) through the heavens

motif

of

presence

rich with

image
for

urban

the mi(raj

until

inner

celestial

contained

Later mystics

commentaries

prestige

organs,

revelation

experience

importance.

the
an

the preparations

a more

for

basis
of

of

paintings

the

with

redolent

that before

tradition

Muhammad's

in

vision

the

touchstone

spheres

from

away

of

In this

the heavenly

bows'

it is a story

elaborations,
vivid

of

each
two

of

of

although not mentioning

to him.

to refer

assumed
through

classicus

source

main

The

(17:1 and 53:1-18) which

the Qur'an
always

locus

{isra}) to Jerusalem and the Second Journey

by Muhammad.26

undergone

the

Subsequently,

to write

vision

great

hadith as well

Nonetheless,

the

as,

subject

23

"Al-Farabi and his

See T. Fahd, La Divination Arabe (Strasbourg, 1966), pp. 51-60 and M. W. Ur-Rahman,
Islamic Culture 10 (1936).
Theory of Dreams",
24
See T. Fahd (1966), pp. 51-60 and T. Fahd and H. Daiber in Eh.
25
Al-Nadim
(1970), pp. 583-584.
26
See B. Schrieke, J. Horovitz,
"mi'radj", in Eh.
J. Knappert and B. W. Robinson,
J. E. Bencheikh,
"Some notes on the impact of the story of the Mi'raj on Sufi literature", Muslim World 63
See N. El-Azma,
(1973)
of theMadhahib Through Dreams", Arabica 32 (1985),
On dreams and hadith, see L. Kinberg, "The Legitimation
?
Der
of Two Ways of Legitimation",
idem, "Literal Dreams and Prophetic Hadith in Classical Islam A Comparison
Islam 70, 2 (1993) and idem, Ibn Abi al-Dunya: Morality in theGuise ofDreams (Leiden, 1994).

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 293
of

visions

Qur'an's

The

was

seen

One

been

by

celestial

is

Slna

became

journey

Ibn

the

to have

'AlawT (d.1590 AD)

were

mi'rdjndmas
as the

Iranian

the

of

a matter

con

of

everyday

reality.

Prophet's

experience.

But

body

sometimes
Matthew

and
show

the Evangelist

sixteenth
the

paintings

were

paired

century
traditions
of Buraq

a safe
journey

with

as

who

evolving

the

the mi

out
to

on

poetic

they

plod

the

south

Jamal

of

Such
as

India

of

feature

popular

an

literally

'opening')
in a

a witness

with
material

for

to

artists.

as

vision

the

recounted

always

believers
fertile

of

(or fath,

was

widespread

forms

is often

the most

beautiful

sides

the

Vivid

highly
role

of

painted

through

lion

churches.

Such

religious
lorries

(fdlnamas)
of

the
or

reader's

QazwTn.33

imagination
in Pakistan

the hazardous

mountain

in which

An

in order
roads

to
of

of

the mi'rdj

case

of

of

provide

a mid

the vibrancy
are

Muslims

the

St

paintings

of

example

of modern-day

of

representation

as in the

future,

of Buraq

depictions

images

taut

his

upon

miniature

It

element

portrayed
man

earlier

art.

devotional

lovingly
a young

of

the winged

Romanesque

Tabriz

of

of

images

forecasts

Safawid

face

of Muslim

rear. However,

at his

of divination

(rdj in the

found

on

carved

from

example
of

himself

in books

rupture

later

notion

the

experience

the most

resemblance

found

found

became

they

epitomise

it also provided

tail fanned

startling

poet

century.32

epistemic

provided

notable

Journey, along with various imaginings of his mysterious

of

time

peacock's

occasionally

the prophets

one

Buraq

over

paintings,

equine

that

Iranian

in the far

writing

form,

to

visionary

something

to form

seen

as a true

The

creature

visionary

these

were

came

Buraq,

is the

was

mi'rdj

of the Prophet's Night

depictions
steed

the

Mi'rajnama

'Azam BTjapurT (fl.1666 AD).

poets

the nineteenth

Prophet's

the more

the

by

journey

the

The

have

story

own

east

among

those

the

of his

in Persian.

while
are

theme

by Muslim

during

God,

in visionary

the

in lithographic

and,

from

language,

symbols

in Tamil

century

tradition

on

of

further

for writers

all around
in al-Andalus

composed

vision

literary

prose,

traditions

traditions

However,

in Persian

type

story

as oral

on Dante's

inspiration

in Persian

catalogues

revelation

symbolic

of

nature

precise

and written

as well

and the south Indian poet

even written

eighteenth

Islamic

genuine

of

the

frequently

the mir'aj

the Commedia.3]

of

its

written

booksellers'

In

source
of

earliest

been

in

of
text

This

influence

key

as recounted

al-dln

in

were

in oral

theme
version

Latin.30

as a

poems

of

and

delicacy

experiences

popular

Arabic

into

scholars

cosmos

the

through

medieval

translated
some

became

journey

Prophet's

subsequently

late

theological

sy.

the Mediterranean.

of

of

to visionary

references

purported

trover

a matter

remained

always

the

the blessing

region.34

2
See e.g. A. K. Tuft, "The ru'ya controversy and the interpretation of Qur'an verse 7 (al-A'af): 143", Hamdard
Islamicus 6, 3 (1983).
30
See G. Besson and M. Brossard-Dandre
(ed. & trans.), Le Livre de Vkhelle deMahomet: Liber Scale Machometi
(Paris, 1991).
31
See M. Asin Palacios, Islam and theDivine Comedy (London, 1926).
3
See M. M. Uwise,
"Muslim Literary Forms in Tamil Literature", Proceedings of the Second International Conference
Seminar of Tamil Studies, vol.i
"Persian Popular Literature in the
(Madras, 1968), pp. 182-189 and U. Marzolph,
Qajar Period", Asian Folklore Studies 60, 2 (2001), p. 231.
33
The twenty-nine
known pages of this manuscript,
attributed to the painters Aqa Mirak and 'Abd al-'Aziz at
the court of Shah Tahmasp, are now dispersed among several collections. The painting of the mi'raj referred to is
now in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington.
34
SeeJ-C. Blanc, Afghan Trucks (London, 1976).

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M7e Green
294

most

The

important

The Dream

and Vision

early

of

example

the Sufis

Among

vision

non-prophetic

in sufi

was

tradition

that

of

ascent of Abu Yazld al-BistamT (d.874 AD). Different accounts of Abu Yazld's
were
visions
recorded in the descriptions written by more desk-loving sufis like Sarraj (d.988
a
AD),
pseudo-Junayd of Baghdad and the celebrated Persian poet 'Attar (d.c.1221 AD).35
the mystical

In time the hoary ecstatic dervish Abu Yazld became

Urmensch

mystical

and many

early writers

Other

female

early

also

saint

of

later

sufis were

of

the visionary

spoke

Islam, Rabi'ah

in subsequent sufi literature a kind of

to have

own

their

encounter
(d.801

al-'Adawiyyah

dreams

with

God

AD).

But

about

him.

meeting

the great

by

undergone
the

perhaps

importance

of veridical dreams to the sufis is best seen in the story in the Tabaqat al-sujiyyah of 'Abd
Allah Ansari which recounts how Shah Shuja' KirmanI (d.c.88o AD) went without
sleep
for

seen

to be

always

tales

visionary

one

until

years

forty

also

The
of

fact

the

that many

times,

trying

a common

sufi"writers
visions

the more

leave

to

the visions

and
AD),
a

theories

of

had
their

point

in

the

nature
earth,

the

of

'Awarif

oceans

or

visionary
the

receiving
as in the

the

in

was

of

and

so on.

the

faculties

Muhammad,

who

unseen"

lower

('alam

al-ghayb),

again

the

though

(nafs). Dreams

of

more

himself

Suhrawardl

the

that was
fully

SuhrawardT

Thus

with

idea was

awaken.

the notion
suitable
The

al-Husayni

to

main
dream

experienced
sufis

devoted
Gesu

of Sufi Visionary

entire
Daraz

(d.1234
devoted

crucial

more

was

curious

different
deserts

reference

of

elements
thus

relate

that veridical

dreams

the

whose

neophyte

topos for

this was

(d.1422

to

once
before

premonitions
works

to

the

subject,

AD).40

Theory

in terms of a breaching
codification

stories

in sufism

role

important

of'Umar

at

of Baghdad.

are replete with

an

Once

matter

subject

themselves,

classes

chattering

literature.

sufi

had

important

they

play

of vision

soul

yet

the early sufis simply spoke of visions

the most

sufi

types

prolific

allowed

Muhammad,

Prophet

of Muhammad

to

tasawwuf?9

to

More

the amazing

that

al-ma'arif

of
in

vision
have

of Jabra'il.
al-asrar

'Awarif

common

the waking

vision

ofAsmar

the

The Crystalisation
While

such

caution,

like Muhammad

sufis,

(d.c.1072 AD)

continued

different

defeat

Prophet

the

of dreams

role

attributing

his
case

later

with

to the

al-HujwTri

commonplace

the

of

type

imaginative

first

al-ma'arif
of

to water

a lesser

of

were

suggests

the dream

dreams

composition

to

book

transcended

formed

again

of

concerned

mentors

early

Yet

sufis.38

early

method

Suhrawardl's

of

he was

after which

a certain

with

often

accounts

of

more

been

category

trifling

of dreaming

of his

chapter

the

time

the

by

of

Albeit

sleep.36

feature

Texts such as the Kashf al-mahjub of'All

of

in a dream,

the Prophet

(d. 1562-3 AD).37

spellbinding
to

saw

and

slept

or

asleep

became

Ghawth Gwallari

he

night

either

of

a formal

into "the world

theory

of

the

of the
dream

35
See M. A. Sells (trans, and ed.), Early IslamicMysticism
(New York, 1996), pp. 212-250.
36
'Abd Allah Ansari, Tabaqat al-sufiyyah, ed. A. H. Habibi (Kabul, 1404/1983),
pp. 196-197. Quoted
Khwajah
inR. Islam, Sufism in South Asia: Impact on Fourteenth Century Muslim Society (Karachi, 2002), pp. 27-28.
37
Ghawth Gwaliori's Ascension", Journal
the Uses and Abuses of Muhammad
See S. Kugle, "Heaven's Witness:
of Islamic Studies 4, 1 (2003).
38
The Kashf al Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, trans. R. A.
See Ali Bin Uthman
al-Hujwiri,
Nicholson
(Delhi, 1999), especially pp. 88-160.
39
See R. Gramlich, Die Gaben der Erkenntnisse des 'Umar al-Suhrawardi1978).
'Awarif al-ma'arif (Wiesbaden,
40
Muhammad
(Haydarabad, 1350^1971-2).
al-Husayni Gesu Daraz, Asmar al-asrar, ed. 'Ata' Allah Husayni

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 295

SuhrawardT
ancient
meld

been

truly

sought

experiences

to have

to form

Islam

Iran

by

sufls

the

as those

(as well

of mystical

theory
a

played

into

to make

Greece

in which

knowledge

who

the

appears

its own,

of

world

proper

the

and Egypt)

It is SuhrawardT

role.

pivotal

of vision

realm

ancient

of

of Shihab al-dln

aimed

SuhrawardT

philosopher,

cosmopolitan
the

to schematise

the first

and

visionary

of pre-Islamic

systems

religious
with

AD).

(d.1191

visionary

system came in the work

into a wider mystico-philosophical

and vision

accessed

of knowledge he suggestively entitled the wisdom of oriental illumination

laid out this epistemological system in his Kitab hikmat al-ishraq
SuhrawardT
(hikmat al-ishraq).

through themode
and

other

these

of

the vision

in Islamic

in his

later

entirely
For

career,

in which

that

had
visions

an

played

faith,

and

that

between

lesser

their
concrete

of
form

Possessing

he

delimited

level

of

interface

of

realm

(dlam al-mithal

a more

increased

kindred

of

existence

were

dreams
as

regarded
existentially

in which

Aristotle

al-Bistaml

living

for

ground

on

at a different
show

of visions
SuhrawardT

a thousandth

(d.875 AD)

high
level

himself

if

of his

own.

enquired

part

the

were

of

kinds

pure

intermediate

time

in

existence
as

in

non

levels

understood

some

the

underpinned
thought,

own.

their

As

of being,

which

Islamic

seen

also

predecessors.

and

of

sphere

God's

sense

this

of

interface

cosmic

It was

dead

of

in

or

isthmus

between

model

seen

visions

No

longer
events

actual

way

being.

as a master

as to the

rank

of

sphere

These

of

this

their

cosmological

included
relative

told him that while

of

term

and

first

of

it back to the foundations

and was

sufls

the

this

an

in

place
realm

the universe.

different

of our

to

intermediary

dead

in the

they

solely

as an

living

For

the

of communication,

the

between
part

important

of spiritual aspirants.44 Aristotle

even

of

system
uncertain

take

and

referred

understanding

and

dreams

the Qur'anic

to act

fragmentary
the

from

messages

to merely

a number

described

own

seen

epistemology.43
a
with
enrobed
special

undergone

wishing

was

that mediated
an

to it
by

mystical
here

simple

the

both

mystical
remains

role,

reality
he

substance,

as its mode

symbols

meeting

thus played
s wider

SuhrawardT

our

between

as the
visionary

acting

of

existence)

and

knowledge
as the

act

importance

borrowed

system from the earlier work

phenomenal
not

but

referred

also frequently
its custody

(or alternatively,

the place

writing,

the wider

SuhrawardT

to formulate

sought

of

narratives

visionary

prose

is evocative

letters

as the world of likenesses ((dlam al-mithal). Connecting

Through

reached

Slna

visions

both

world

(barzakh).

Not

Ibn

abstraction.

the Muslim

and

of Persian

examples

It is noteworthy

large.

or not

impossible

intellectual

proper

earliest
of Persian

of

to answer.42

SuhrawardT,

intermediate

as

at

culture

Slna. Whether

knowledge

to

the

of

in the history

in a number

intimately,

of the symbolic risalah and the title of his philosophical

Ibn

world

more

and,

some

As

recitals

visionary

model

not

works

in Persian.41

composed
of

of

Arabic

lesser

of

theory,
a

SuhrawardT

naturally

with

the philosopher

meeting

of earlier

achievements

none of theMuslim

the Divine

and Sahl al-TustarT (d.896 AD)

Plato,

early

also

generations

philosophers

sufls

could be confirmed

like Abu

had

Yazid

as true men

Sohrawardi, Le Livre de la Sagesse Orientale [Kitab Hikmat al-Ishraq], trans. H. Corbin

(Paris, 1986).
See H. Corbin, Avicenne et le recit visionnaire (Paris, 1952).
See M. Amin Razavi,
Suhrawardl and the School of Illumination (Richmond,
"Dream,
1997), E Rahman,
in von Grunebaum
and Caillois
Imagination and Alam al-MithaF,
(1966) and H. Ziai, Knowledge and Illumination:
A Study of Suhrawardl's Hikmat al-Ishraq (Atlanta, 1990).
See M. Y. Hairi, "SuhrawardT's An Episode and a Trance: A Philosophical Dialogue
in aMystical
Stage", in
P.Morewedge
(ed.), Islamic Philosophy andMysticism
(Delmar, 1981).

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Nile Green
296
of

divine

a vision

would

have

Such

episodes

various

in which
our

draw

individuals,

to

or

processes

the

later
in turn

he

attention

Persian

of

development

a century

Over

wisdom.

sufi

the

role

of

al-Simnanl

as

in the
an

playing

of

legitimation

in the

role

important

to describe

purporting

AD)

(d.1336
achievements.45

mystical

visions

and

dreams
as well

treatises

short

the

al-Dawlah

Suhrawardl's

Yet

institutions.

literature,

'Ala'

denounced

Suhrawardl's

own private visions outlined a typology of the initiatory mystical vision for his own disciples
and

same

the first
was

born

of

an

later,
in the

(khayal)

Indeed,
God's
of

and

eternal

the

witness

'Arabi

divine.

regarded

writings
of

theory

art of

AD)

Ibn
on

the

later
the

same

from

man

that

explains

is

he

sunrise

seen

as

Ibn

'Arabi's

appeared
in which

the

idea

of

inherent
also

devoted

found

most

to

the

of

that

great

recur

of

understanding.48

the use

God

he was

self-manifestation,

In

knowledge.
theories,

for

to man

as a

encounter

visual

of whom

human

supreme

mystical
from

of

aspect

considered

divine

descending

as a creative

spread

Muslim

the

with
not

keen
in with

tying

later

calligrapher

Baba

and

to
Ibn

of

during

the

through

the

Ibn

'Arabi's
to

guidebook
Isfahan!

Shah
as a means

(mashq-e-khayali)

of

(d. 1587-8
the

reaching

calligraphy.50
to

attention
in

form
expressions

a sixteenth-century

al-mashq,

of Arabic

civilisation

in manuscript

interesting

Iranian

expression

and

in so many

throughout

the most

considerable
famous

feature

(wahdat aUwujud). Such ideas of the spiritual

practice

in the beauty

to

life work

essential

as the

into God,
human

act of

in the Adah

imaginative

as an

in this way

freedom

(the

ideas were

One

the

in

is active

that

He

both

to God

as a divine

were

was

al-mithal
that was

impulse

present

instant,

of man

act

to be

'alam

agent

between

formulation

creative

and

commentators.49

perfection

dreaming

at the

ancient

the primordial

experience

the journey

gap

yes/no

imagination

calligraphy,

'Arabi

existential

ascending

the

(tajalli).
of

part

as, at the

imagination

developed

divine

the

level

centuries
of

stranger

with

imaginative

theory of the unity of existence

of

following

essential

visions

original

importance

the

of

creative

own

man's

axiomatic

and

at another

'Arabi'swider

'Aql-e-surkh,

and

In Ibn 'Arabfs system the role of the imaginative

self-manifestation

bridging

the

Every
was

limit)

the

to be

revelation

private

treatise

the

youthful

the

glowing

theory

as the

role

mystic

unrepeating

of

capable

this we
Ibn

viewed

imagination

faculty

both

all over,

of mystical

(d.1240 AD).

an increased

played

the

of

systematisation

grand

'Arabi

Ibn

hue

perpetually

archangel

re-working

Ibn 'Arabi of Mursiyyah

faculty

looks

creation.47

generation

prominently

who

crimson

in

described

visions,

wayfarer

a strange

creation,

of

these

of

mysterious

with

Glowing

the dawn
A

encounters

time.46

In one

to follow.

later mystics

Suhrawardl

the

the

chapters

subject
on

of
the

His

dreams.
especial

ideas

theophanic

See J. J. Elias, "A Kubrawi Treatise on Mystical Visions: The Risala-yi Niiriyya of'Ala' ad-Dawla as-Simnani",
Muslim World 83, i (1993).
46
See N. Green, "A New Translation of Suhrawardi's The Crimson Archangel {'Aql-e-Surkhy\
Sufi 36 (1998).
47
See SuhrawardT, The Mystical and Visionary Treatises of Suhrawardi, trans.W M. Thackston
(London, 1982) and
G. Webb,
"An Exegesis of Suhrawardi s The Purple Intellect (Aql-i surkh)", Islamic Quarterly 26, 4 (1982).
H. Corbin,
SeeW C. Chittick,
Imaginal Worlds: Ibn 'ArabIand theProblem ofReligious Diversity (Albany, 1994) and
in Arabic philosophical
Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn al-'Arabi (Princeton,
1969). On the imagination
inMeisami
and Starkey (1998), pp. 393-394.
tradition, see J. S.Meisami,
"Imagination",
49
Muslim World 82
"Notes on Ibn 'Arabi's Influence in the Indian Sub-Continent",
See e.g. W. C. Chittick,
(1992).
See C. W Ernst, "The Spirit of Islamic Calligraphy:
Oriental Society 112 (1992), pp. 279-286.

Baba Shah Isfahani sAdab al-mashq", Journal of theAmerican

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 297

ideas

to go

refused

mithal)?2
expected

from

Islamic

in

lives
of

shrine

Pattishah

the

life

of Qurtubah

city
all of

the

the

one

forms

the Muslim

and mystic

jurisconsult

their

than

Pakistan

the

cure

of

medicine

spiritualised
their

In northern

conditions

psychiatric

services

concerning

disciples

and Morocco.

of Graeco-Islamic

of

style

India,
use

and makes

of

more

tibb) with

(yunani

al

((dlam

important
a

forming

interrogate

world

imaginary
the most

of

world,

less

in

tradition

prophets

These

episodes.
his

of

the

sufls

life was

own

'ArabT's

entitled

Spain

It was
Ruh

in

the

with

in which

al-quds,

Spanish

the
this

around

an

for

notable

living

encounter

mystical

and Muhammad).55
of

also

he was

1190 while
a

experienced

Tsa

Musa,

(including

in

began

and

youth

an account

Ibn

SuhrawardT,

precursor

during

'ArabI wrote

Ibn

his

of

of visionary

abundance

no

from

down

regularly

specialises
the

of

parts

Iran

the

methods.54

therapeutic

Like

in

khanaqds

drawn
of dreams

SufT masters

combining

techniques
local

in many

later

centuries

likewise referred to veridical dreams as a form of

interpretation

sufi masters

psychoanalysis.53

dream
the

the

five

that was

(tajaltt)

this day

India

(d. 1762 AD)

self-manifestation
To

in

and

away

Shah Wall Allah of DihlT

divine

in his Fusus al-hikam.51 If highly controversial,

Ishaq and Yusuf

capabilities of the prophets

his

of

souls
time

he

that

showed

that visions of this kind (if not of this masterly degree) were a far from unusual feature of
the Islamic milieu of the southern Europe of his day.56 Yet even by the high standards of
the
was

visionary

carpenters

and

His

commentator

exceptional.

his master
and

to such

precursor
Later

the

him

speak with

favour.

summon

could

sufls

also

claimed

A mid-nineteenth

souls

of

the

prophets

of Andalusia,
Sadr

the

at any

European

cobblers

spirit

of

al-dln
any

asWilliam

visionaries
such

grand

century
is found

of

in

the

Blake
abilities,

visionary

echo

Ibn

'ArabT's

this ShT'T

sufT claimed

to have

first

(the

and
often

encountered

classic

sufT initiatory

vision,

SafT was

then

later

Ibn

of

as a

of

before

beckoned

forward

the

noticing

by

divine

showing

great

a retreat (child)he performed

Husayn

come

signorial

encounter

youthful

ramblings

how
to

Swedenborg.57

as a means

celebrated

described

'ArabT

Immanuel

visions

for

included)

prophets

spirits of all of the prophets and saints in the distance behind him.
the

vocation

AD)

presenting

autobiographic

sufT, SafT 'AlTShah (c. 1835-1899 AD). Describing

man,

(d.1273

person

in this way

own

'ArabT's

QunawT

dead

time whatsoever,

Ibn

the

with
Iranian

as a young
assembled

In this ShT'Tversion of
FJusayn

and

handed

51
trans. R. W. J. Austin
Ibn 'Arabi, The Bezels of Wisdom,
and 120-127. On Ibn
(Lahore, 1988), pp. 98-103
'Arab! and dreams, see alsoW. C. Chittick, The Sufi Path ofKnowledge (Albany, 1989), pp. 119-121.
See G. N. Jalbani and D B. Fry (trans, and ed.), Sufism and the Islamic Tradition: The Lamahat and Sata 'at of Shah
Waliullah (London, 1980), pp. 112-114.
is based on the author's own observations with
This
see K. P.
regard to Iran and India. For Pakistan,
of Self Representation
Ewing, "The Dream of Spiritual Initiation and the Organization
among Pakistani Sufis",
American Ethnologist
17, 1 (1990) and idem, Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis, and Islam (Durham,
in Morocco
and Egypt, see V. Crapanzano,
"Saints, Jniin, and Dreams: An Essay
1997). On similar processes
in Moroccan
Psychiatry 38 (1975) and E. Sirriyeh, "Dreams of the Holy Dead: Traditional
Ethnopsychology",
Islamic Oneirocriticism
Versus Salafi Scepticism", Journal of Semitic Studies 45, 1 (2000).
54
S. Kakar, Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and itsHealing Traditions (Delhi, 1990),
pp. 15-52.
55
See M.

Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in theDoctrine of Ibn Arabi (Cambridge,
Chodkiewicz,
I993)> P- I7- On Ibn 'Arabi's visions more generally, see C. Addas, La Quete du soufre rouge (Paris, 1989) andW. C.
Chittick,
Sufi 19 (1993).
"Meetings with Imaginal Men",
56
Ibn 'Arabi, Sufis ofAndalusia, trans. R. W. J. Austin (London, 1971).
Chodkiewicz
(1993), pp. 17?18.

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Nile Green
298
sword

with

he was

which

to pursue

ordered

Safl was

jihad.58

far from

the only

of

visionary

this kind in Qajar

Iran, for visions also formed the epistemological centre of the mystical
theology expounded by the founders of the ShaykhT school of ShT'T thought. The founder
of the school, Shaykh Ahmad Ahsa'l (d.1826 AD), described his dream encounters with the
imams in considerable detail, his use of the classic terminology
followers

their
accounts

Such

of

indeed

be

that

they

reclaimed

time

any

and

to worry

need
visions
the

a means

provided
into

dead

the

of

"recorded

it. The

most

he

claimed

had

brought

the

in its close
outraged

order

that

however,

(imla1

works

Ibn

Indian

of

and

strictures

the

word

at

up

the

ancients.

through

Such

bringing

a more

manifested

general
in

elsewhere

on

the emphasis

and

turn
overrode

reflected

they

that was

Islam

sufls

lucid

have

of mysticism.

Jlll (d. between

of

the oral

qualities

Ibn
later

continued
Working

and

and

from

sufls
to

place
the

visionary
tradition

were
and

subsequent

not

experience
Ibn

seen

but

in

tearing

and

life

visionary
at the

the

1406 and 1417 AD) discussed dreams and visions

holy

later

by
a

the Futuhdt,

away
To

But
a claim

it was

at the divine
his

enemies,

heretical.

as a central

centre

city.61

its splendours.

himself.

delusional

'ArabT,

of

himself,

God

by

contradicted

volume

as

but

encounters

the

not

in all of

shorter

himself

by

of visionary

is certainly

indeed

'ArabT's

of

of

of Muhammad

revelatory
Ibn

the gratitude

residence

digested

prophetic
the

unrelenting

none

visions

not

regarded

in

sheer

prophets

'ArabT were

of

period

that
as

a series

of

that

those

as well

composed

result

experience
Here

to

the Prophet

perhaps

prophetic

men

being

during

secretary

read

fully

as
as the

were

claimed

al-makkiyya

the Futuhdt

described

to

He

need

epistemological

experiences

works.

Futuhdt
of

occurred

as it
impressed.

of

vast

the

visionary

written

he made

of

as circumvented

major
his

complexity

to the

ordinary

many

own

his

undergone

scope,

as many

sufls

'ArabT's many

'ArabT

a kind

the visions

as well

Ibn

ildhi) which

to be

separated

and

living.

this

(and

could

past

could

meetings

the written

In

in

visionary

the

the

of

time-past

lost knowledge
of

literature
all

Muhammad

since

Nevertheless,
mission

the

of

the

past

in an historical

knowledge

sages
such

the

knowledge

which

redaction

resemblance

that

of

texts

claim

few

created

the writing

extraordinary
that

of

about

Prophet

'ArabT's

text

the mediation

brought

the

dictation

Ibn

and

avoiding

about

These

generations.

the

word

presence

of

the

of

with

of

In defiance

present.

of

souls

libraries

(malfuzdt)

important

al-hikam,

with

by

interviews
importance

and

people

in the

a matter

merely

visionary

epistemological
the

the written

of written

encounters

Visionary

divine

(kashf) gave his

itself.60

for

Fusiis

the

conversations"

the Qur'an

visions

of

speaking

suspicion

epistemological
the

when

desecrated

the

great

a role

unmediated

about

of

not

therefore
For

in which

to play

knowledge,

a lesson

for

were
a way

re-figured

of written

fragility

were

commemoration.

and

formed

of unveiling

the Kashfiyya.59
encounters

luminaries

pre-eternal)
in

of

visionary

of memory

aggrandisement

sense,

title

alternative

of

part

their

'Abd

of his

theorising

al-Karlm

al

in his Insdn al-kdmil.62 In

58
inM. Homayum,
have been published
These reminiscences
TarTkh-e-silsiliha-e-tarTqah-e-Ni'matullahiyyah
Iran (London, 1371/1992), pp. 267-268.
59
See M. Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought inQajar Iran (Syracuse, 1982).
60
See N. Green, "Translating the Spoken Words of the Saints: Oral Literature and the Sufis of Awrangabad",
Lynne Long (ed.), Holy Untranslatable (London, forthcoming).
61
See Chittick,
(1989), pp. xii-xv.
62
Studies in IslamicMysticism (Cambridge,
See R. A. Nicholson,
1921), pp. 90-92.

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dar

in

The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 299
Ibn

discussing

'Arabi's

of

theory

the

man

perfect

that

at the

lay

centre

sixtieth chapter of his book Jill described a vision of his own which
Sharaf

summed

al-din

up

such

'Arabi

for

own

(d.1336

of

translation

embraced

notwithstanding,
At

composition.
'Aziz Nasafl

Abarquh

for

al-haqd'iq

fed

in

1281,

1281

and

of

were

visions

al-din Kubra

(d.1221 AD)

Islamic

world.

a treatise

on

wrote
Simnanl's

treatise

in which
ritual

visions

'There

to SimnanI,

greatly

"path

of

Uways
reputedly

was

also

to
the

important

the Uwaysis"

to delay

the

only

communicated

reputed

the

central

positive

of'Ala'

in which

visionary

of

a role

played

inspiration

in the way

appeared

Ibn

of

that

to patronise

inspired

directly

of

literary

in a dream

to warn

remaining

chapters

the

Initiations

God'

of

of

the

practices

of

through

of Najm

the

and

stiffs

in the

tradition

was

Muhammad
and

of

sunset.68

to

the way

meditative

repetition

after

also
order.67

in Islam,

specific

and

the credal

According

the witnessing

of

career.

visionary

to which

transmission

visions

the Kubrawl

silent

the mystic

school

Prophet

school

al-Simnani

life

of

the

sunrise

and

This

of

the visionary

introduce
of

the

al-Dawlah

performance

before

its adaptation

him

'Ala'

and

the

and

of the sufi technics of vision

tradition,

consisting

would

lands

Islamic

aspects

a dhikr

friend
with

such
stand

the writing

Visionary

(tariqa-e-uwaysiyan).69

al-Qarani,

detractors

sage Ramacandra

the Prophet

through

than

for

in

own

of his

as

occasionally
been

having

But

and

practical

practice

'Arabi's

as the
Qudsiyya

treatises
dreams

at times

the principles

sought

other
this

form

Ibn

inspiration

the Hindu

sweets.65

the onset
that herald
lights
to Central
the Kubrawi
Asia,

coloured
confined

Originally
so

in

of

al-dln's

recommended
god

diligence
of

progression

is no

to

adapted

actively

SimnanI

practices.

formula

were

to

also

the

decades.66

in Najm

us of

reminds

attested

added to the development

Working
visions

such minor
way

1300 AD)

limited

similar

same

example,

al-Qaranr
not

eastern

for

two

another

Uways
Theories

with
could

in

text,

theories.

in a dream

him

this

in the
to

which

claimed

of

the

Shikuh

or vision

(d. between

of his KashJ

In

Vasishtha

and

him
a dream

case

in the

Dara

the Yoga

even

sufis

AD).64

as when

mediators,

latter

other
even

his

about

the Prophet,

of vision

kind

the very

dangerous

works,

al-Simnani

as cultural

the

most

is also

who

man,

it was

controversies,

their

al-Dawlah

the perfect

al-Jabartl

all that was

Despite

new

to see

In claiming

1394.63
master

of

he received in Zabld

SimnanI
of

named

the
after

from
telepathy.70

contributed

tradition

of

the

the mysterious

Yaman

who

Uways

had

had
been

63
Ibid., p. 105.
64
See J. J. Elias, The Throne Carrier of God: The Life and Thought of 'Ala' ad-dawla as-Simnani (New York, 1995),
p. 192.
65
Muhammad
Dara Shikuh, Majma '-ul-Bahrain or theMingling of Two Oceans, ed. M. Mahfuz-ul-Haq
(Calcutta,
1929), pp. 25-26.
66
See L. Ridgeon,
'Aziz Nasafi
(Richmond,
1998), pp. 8-9.
67
See Elias (1993).
68
Elias (1995), pp. 124-141.
69
see Elias (1995). On Uwaysi mysticism,
see J. Baldick, Imaginary
On the visionary techniques of the Kubrawiyya,
Muslims:

The Uwaysi Sufis of Central Asia (New York, 1993) and D. DeWeese,
"The Tadhkira-i Bughra-khan and the
inReview
of Imaginary Muslims", Central Asiatic Journal 40, 1 (1996).
'Uvaysi' Sufis of Central Asia: Notes
70
See A. S. Husaini,
Sufis", The Moslem World 57 (1967) and K. Khaharia,
"Uways al-Qaranl and the Uwaysi
"Uways al-Qarani, Visages d'une legende", Arabica 46, 2 (1999).

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Nile Green
300
a famous figure throughout
once

sects

the

this

rather

style

into

of
at

after Uways
a

of

living

but

initiation

was

Uways

school

not

master

this visionary

In truth,

actual

make

of

through

the more

through

the means

be with

would

to

sufism.

the

any

reference

lend

his

Such

sufis

usual
a

of

in his

However,

al-mahjub.

not

did

HujwTrl

time.71

path

Kashf

al-HujwIrfs

sufis

an

than

the mystical

hand

in

recounted

again

different

century his life was

the history of sufism and in the eleventh

to

name

to

of

denomination
initiated

been
of

Islam

of

the

named

the

clasping

encounter.

initiatory

green-man

enigmatic

the

mode

and mundane
visionary

tradition

to have

claimed

of

description

any

Usually
or

al-Khidr

else

the Prophet himself.72 Two no lesser figures than Ibn 'Arabi and the great Indian
sufi Ahmad Sirhindl (d.1624 AD) claimed initiations this kind.73 However
Naqshbandi
with

the

perhaps
in eastern

richest

single

In this

khani.74
instructions

the

an

and

dragons,

of Uwaysl

visionary

the

1600

by Ahmad

scholar

elderly

the Psalms

of

This

kind

hear
a

an

of

Tajik

who

al-din

has

whose

Tadhkirah-ye-bughra
is given

who

mystical

encounters

terrifying

to God

devotion

written

collection

in his

greengrocer

Afghan

perfumer

Nizam

called

is the

narratives
of Uzgan

with
about

brings

as the

he is taught to sing in rapture as beautifully

in which

himself.

of Uwaysl
time

and

territory

we

Isma'il,

prophet

visions of the prophet Da'ud

writer

year

history

visionary

by

source

around

Turkestan

of

was

vision

initiatory

the Tadhkirah-ye-bughra

the North

khani,

common.

if not

widespread

sufi

African

Far

from

'Abd

al-

the
'Aziz

ibn al-Dabbagh was initiated by a vision of Khidr at the tomb of the jurist and sufi Abu'l
Hasan ibn al-Hirzihim (d.i 164AD) in Fas in 1713.75 Uwaysl mysticism could certainly prove
in

subversive
the

ruler

in a dream

were

the most
institutional

of

checks

prominence
could

of

master

of

who

to take up

aspect

Naqshbandi
initiations

into

entry

'Abd

only
part,

Islamic

while

initiation

grand

side-stepping

discourse

mystical

and

of a living

given

to

the bounds
were

telepathic

recant

initiations
limits

long

on

any

as their
tradition

of
later

seen

were

among

claims

not

he was

and
a

into

to have

the

Syrian

that visionary
with

shari'a?1
stream

the broader

restrained

Indian

disciple

said

acceptable

set and

at variance

in this way

an

and
made

sufi
his

by

such was

But

ruling

legal

absorbed

Persian

between

communication
outrageous

was

became

imagination

to be

emerging

encouraged

at times

became
needed

issued

content

the

bin Tughluq.76

Nonetheless,

(d.1731)

was

AD)

(1347-1358

rival Muhammad

his

al-NabulusI
so

These

Shah

the

through

as when

dimensions,

political

that visionary

the Uwaysl

however,

balances.

always

experience.

have

Bahman

against

al-Ghanl

acceptable

sufism

and

arms

encounters
sufi

also

Hasan

al-din

of visionary

if marginal

could

Uways

'Ala'

the Dakan

the prestige

For

with

Encounters

Uways

of

claim

of a recognised order (tariqa) and under the restraining guidance

membership
of

to

mystics

methods

institutionalised

usual

master.

ambitious

enabling

by
groups

variety
in the

living

master,

to his

follower

71
See Hujwiri
(1999), pp. 83-84.
72
On such encounters with Khidr, see P. Franke, Begegnung mit Khidr: Quellenstudien zum Imaginaren in traditionellen
Islam (Stuttgart, 2000) and I.Omar, "Khidr in Islamic Tradition", Muslim World 83 (1993).
73
See Y. Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (Montreal, 1971), pp. 27-28.
74
Baldick (1993).
75
The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971), p. 159.
See J. S. Trimingham,
ruler died before 'Ala'
H. K. Sherwani, TTie Bahmanis of theDeccan (Delhi, 1985), p. 41. Since the Tughluq
al-din could meet him in battle, Uways may also here have played a role in protecting the martial reputation of the
new ruler.
77
See Katz

(1996), p. 220 and Kinberg

(1994), pp. 36-37.

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 301
in a vision

or dream.78

investiture

of

such

Nonetheless,

an

by

and

of

the

city's

Nur

across

al-din

HammamT

to

India

(d.1692

the Dakan

of

and often

an

played

al-din

was
and

idea

the

really

he was

also

in Arabic

role

seems

of dream

the

Chishti

investiture

theme

Urdu

hagiography

by

of Muslim
of

on

appeared

a throne

arrived on horseback
into

delivered

and Persian

less

altogether

in works

featured

the

before

to carry

service

the

troubling

an

analysis

enjoyable

of

Shah

nature

non-religious
as

Just

than

thought

today

the voice

the

idea

an invisible

of

beau monde of the 'Abbasid empire

between

middle-point

issues

existential

frightening

of

historiography.

in our right ear, so for the city-dwelling

God booming

of

and Historiography

visions

and

important

dreams

form

important

a modern

before Khidr

where

Visions

dreams

clairvoyant

of meaningful

an

to be

form

institutionalised

controlled

AD).80

Dreams,
Accounts

less

initiation of Shihab al-din the first sajjada nashin

Mu'ln

Sayyid Shihab al-din at his shrine in Ajmer

Shihab

the

Aftab-e-dakan,

day.79

In the vision,

shrines.

in

continued

describes the visionary

sufTsof Awrangabad,
of one

have

the Prophet,

to the present

through

spirituality

living

aspirant's

as Khidr

figures

or

in the

whether

dreams,

initiatory
master

Dream

of revelation.

frivolous

entertainment
(ta (bir) became

interpretation

a subject of great popularity

in the sophisticated circles of the 'Abbasid court in Baghdad and

its popularity

the

historians

about

brought
al-Taban

(d.923

biographical

works

relating

In

these

historical

rulers

and

(786-809

saw

an

referring
earlier

ruler

is another
Musa

image
to

the

intimating

his

from

prison

freedom.84

the piety

of

times

clearly

serve

the

of

during

another.

is seen

AD)

in which
the

a dream
Yet

of

longevity

al-RashTd

Here

Ibn

physician

and

such

'Abbasid

great

as did

narratives,

tree

same

night

narrative

as a historian

Ishaq
their

to him

al-SaymarT
reigns.

that

his

Harun
al

brother,

that of his brother bore only few

needlessly

In a later

the
clear

in particular,

latter

by
has

interesting
to free

Prophet

a dream

name

of one

Mas'udT

is also

the

the

dream,

More
the

as

explained

caliphal

in the flames.83

is commanded

may

and

some

flattering
in which

the dream

given

burning
he

of

purpose

recounts

Mas'udT

branches

(847?861

of Harun

dream

royal

success

al-Mutawakkil

ibn Ja'far

promising

relative

AD)

Hariin's branch flourished,

the

which

The

interpreters.
recorded

(d.956

of others.

two

of expert

of people.81

at

dreams

the memory
AD)

of circles

al-Mas'udT

to all classes

HadT (785-786 AD).82 While

leaves,

and

AD)

works,

besmirching

al-RashTd

creation

of

the Prophet

person
of

while

interest

for

78

This was especially the case with Naqshbandi

founder had also been an Uwaysl.
See Baldick
sufis, whose
of such experiences by sufi masters in the modern
(1993), pp. 25-26 and p. 29. On the mediation
period, see also
A. Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandi Brotherhood and theRise of theMediating Sufi Shaykh,
to the History of Modern
"An Introduction
Persian Sufism, Part II:A Socio
1998) and L. Lewisohn,
(Columbia,
to the Present Day", Bulletin of the School ofOriental and African
cultural Profile of Sufism, from the DhahabI Revival
Studies 62 (1999).
79
See M. A. Amir-Moezzi
(ed.), Le Voyage initiatique en terre d'islam: Ascensions celestes et itineraires spirituels (Paris,
of Self Representation
1996) and K. P. Ewing, "The Dream of Spiritual Initiation and the Organization
among
Pakistani Sufis", American Ethnologist 17, 1 (1990).
80
Tara Sahib Qureshi, Aftab-e-Dakan
(Awrangabad, c. 1985), pp. 13-14. [Urdu]
81
Von Grunebaum
and Caillois
(1966), pp. 12-19.
Tlie Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids, trans, and ed. P. Lunde and C. Stone (London, 1989), pp. 64?65.
Mas'udi,
83
Ibid., p. 272.
84
Ibid., pp. 74-75

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Nile Green
302
how

showing

dreams

of the pro-'Alid

could

to a dream

reference

there

Clearly,
narrative

of'AlT

is little

their

on

in as early
recounted
mace

centuries

several

and

One

of

of Mas'udT's

reworking
in

he was

Ibn BTbT's

sufT Abu

story

Hafs

of

'Umar

dream

However,
given

become

the
and

insight

royal

al-dm
city

BTbT RushanayT

(who were
'trances'.
that

was

scorching
hanged

AD),

and
(d.

of women
The

secure

after

it was

and

a similar
among

son's

TTmurid

us

Saljuqs

her

crimes.89

of

Here

when

the

bonds.87
is also

gifts

sometimes

city, WasafT

Harat's

wise

enabled

her

rose

from

considerable
how

explains

new

to

historian,

woman
After

one

was

Persian

Another

the

and

SuhrawardT

BTbT Munajama,

Harat.

to

For in a

the shaykh as the

of his

fortunate

great

mission

diplomatic

clairvoyants

less

of wonder

with

meeting

off

at court.88
that

aristocrats

the many

prognosticating

in TTmurid

as a fraud

of

and

a historian's

element

recognised

role

to patronise his work)

for

the

(1180?1225 AD).

upon

Ibn BTbT,

fortunes
tells

AD),

embarrassment
in public

of

extraordinary

revealed

eventually

no

occurred

of

meeting

throwing

as dreamers

if short-lived
the

with

were

dreams

merely

the

on

sent

only

the

mother

her

1551

example

beaten

historians

royal

not

Qubad's

was

who

to presage

whose

NTshapur

adviser

to have

roles
works.

also kind enough

The

she was

from

success

lucrative

the

historical

WasafT

slums

ibn Ja'far
of Kay

sufT imagery,

to him

appeared

into

fortune-teller

such

Zayn

had

in Persian

of Musa

dream

(d.1234

and

for

and

chronicler

this was

But

released.

the walls of the city that Kay Qubad

outside
who

figure

of all such
Persian

by the 'Abbasid caliph al-Nasir

of courtly

streets
prose

were

kingship

when

AD),

Persian

the

by

in the moment

SuhrawardT

crossover

his entourage

bowed

reverently

Ibn BTbT describes how during his imprisonment his

(1219-1237 AD) had dreamt of a mysterious
shaykh

the

rather

the Saljuq capital at Quniyah

marvellous

its tail beating

and

the

through

interesting

recounted

unexpectedly

story

features

(d.1020

son Zal.

his

the most

and was

FirdawsT

dragged

of finding

dream

royal dreams.
after

before

night

lions who

her

during

with

roaring

dreaming

of FirdawsT

of being

nightmare

Sam's

between

as the Shahnama

Ibn BTbT (d. after 1284 AD).

royal patron 'Ala' al-dm Kay Qubad
the

then

by other

connections

the

of Rum
on

and

Salamah,

dreamt

AD),

dream
as found

saints

and

In this narrative

(754?775

surrounded

presently

awork

Zuhak's

to record

less keen

al-Mansur

one

and

of prophets

cultures.

side. Crouching,

her

context

literary

an ox-headed

of

descendants.85

by Mas'udT

the birth

of various

his

persecuting

recounted

surrounding

origins

through

it.86

a Persian

the poet

it was

the ground,

demonstrated

from

from

caliph

stories

traditions

the mother

emerging

before

the

dream

The

history.

political

for example, are explained

(892-902 AD),

imagery

was

in

developments

warning

folkloric

who

of a lion

heads

In

and

slave-girl

ominously

explain

in the

reflects

in the hagiographical

pregnancy

himself

originality

in particular

the Berber

to

be used

policies of al-Mu'tadid

Uzbik

rulers

quickly saw through her ventriloquistic

aristocrats
we

she had

see how

stories

gulled

soon

ensured

of fortune-telling

85
Ibid., p. 366.
86
sufis such as al-Hallaj (d.922), see L. Massignon,
Ibid., p. 21. On comparable lion dreams concerning
12 (1945), pp. 244?246.
archetypiques en onirocritique musulmane",
Eranosjahrbuch
87
H. W. Duda, Die Seltschukengeschichte des Ibn Bibi (Copenhagen,
1959), pp. 101-104.
88
Ibid., pp. 187-188.
89
Zayn al-din Mahmud Wasafi, BadaV al-waqaV (Tihran, 1350/1971), pp. 395-396.

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"Themes

The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 303
visionaries

could
over

enemies

Nevertheless,
on
of

are

readers

to

interesting

for

kinds

of dream.

subsequently

the

a grave
same

the

blessing

the more
for

and

period,

retreat.

Dream

together

might

historian

al-Makkl

al-din

Bakhtiyar

Sharql

sultan

sufi

material
both

same

account
About

Safl

example,

miniature

and

other

of Ardabll
dreams

close
AD)

(d.1334

of

is

in different

time

vizier

text

The

Ottoman

The

genre

illustrated

fighting.90
of

weight

the

oneirocriticism,

al-din

a rhetoric

formed

shrine

acted

the founder

of

sainthood

of

claim

of

seeing
him

encouraging

courtly
work
dream

manner,
for

al-walih,

all

centre

in this way

might

In Zafar

policies.

Lodl's

made

as a seasonal

In a similar

of conspiracy.

thoughts

that was

as a nationwide

both

Versailles,

architecture

in a dream

to

that time

shows

into

that

inner

the

example,

the great

Dihli

to wage

war

world

of.94

as Babur

a strange
him. He

of

a career

or

sought

dream

sufi Qutb
the

against

one

of

the most

Samarqand

common

to
set of

It is a document

of

the

that
in a

frontier

Italian

of

observed

appears.
early

in his

of

millers

autobiography
closely

works

autobiographical

to conquer

was

from

world

it is in the

However,

contemplative

autobiographical

sixteenth-century
life.

warrior

the mental

that

AD)

historiographical

for

vivid

point,

to dreams

In one

own

of

preserve
the

lent

reformers.

his

dream

only

the

reinforce

importance

reconstructing

(r. 1526-30

1500-1,
speak

though
the

means
to

religious

scholars

Babur

no

by

recorded

the

indeed

I had

to greet

As

rationalising

inMuslim

deserves

clearly

soldier

could

in the year

out

al-fawa'id,

for

to his

dreams

mountain-ringed

Buhlul

were

which
and

emperor

had gone

in

experience

writings.92

certain

justify

and magic.

insight

narratives

occurred

from

AD)

visions

European

period

first Mughal
dream

of

the

Shaykh

al-dln's

imposing

Sultan

Indo-Afghan

that modern

the

to

(d.1235

survives

a direct

provides
way

Safl
of

the

used

recorded

action

an

memoirs,

be

and

of

great

sixteenth-century

narratives

dream

that

courtiers

of miracle

also
men

place

and moon

his

historical

and

patrons'

Jawnpur.93

dreams

purveyors

one

of

their

emphasised

Bahr

sun
in

describing

dreams

These

and

Kakl
of

times

themes

the

interests,

sultan

the manner

in

also

of

of Safawid

fact

wayward

narratives

Such

the

narratives

to deter

dream

drag

capable of encoding political claims to legitimate rule into signs of

by

and,

basic

inconsistencies

the

approval.

powerful

pilgrimage

the

royal

faced

feature

important

of

these

the family dynasty were

divine

'Umar's

of

could

lives

at

twelfth-century

some

its discussion

dream

was

which

duty

savants

generations.

their

publicise

royal

on

caliph

of future

anonymous

instructed

depicts

an

became

the

Reflecting

In

advisers.91

In

Princes.

reference

with
also

interpretation,

for

to

court

by which

ploy
ridicule

continued

grandees

the Mirror

princely

to the
public

coals

correct

their

as a rhetorical

be used

the

the

of

The

all

dream

career.

The

itself.
dream.
came

I dreamed

and sat down.

Khwaja
The

Ubaydullah
tablecloth

must

[Ahrar] had
have been

arrived

and

laid somewhat

90

See J. S. Meisami,
The Sea of Precious Virtues (Bahr al-Fawa'id): A Medieval IslamicMirror for Princes (Salt Lake
1991), pp. 284-292.
The miniature
is found in a Siyar al-nabipreserved
in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.
92
See S. A. Quinn,
"The Dreams of Shaykh Safi al-Din and Safavid Historical Writing",
Iranian Studies 29 (1996).
93
in S. Digby,
liTabarrukat and Succession Among
the Great Chishti Shaykhs of the Delhi Sultanate", in
Quoted
R. E. Frykenberg
(ed.), Delhi Through theAges (Delhi, 1986), p. 103.
S. Digby, "Dreams and Reminiscences
of Dattu Sarvani, a Sixteenth Century
Soldier", Indian
Indo-Afghan
Economic and Social History Review 2 (1965). Cf. C. Ginzberg,
The Cheese and theWorms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth
Century Miller (Baltimore, 1992).
City,

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Nile Green
304
before

unceremoniously

understood

this apology. Then

the right or the left,

and accepted

by the arm,
feet was off the ground.

of me

A few

bestowed].'
we

Here

see

greatest
were

the

of

hold

I took

close

to Babur's

of

age

great

kingship

and visionary

qualities

of

a minor

to

and

khwaja

In the entryway

him.

and lifted me

which,

over

great

so that one

berdi [Shaykh Maslahat

the

has

saints

own

his

one

of

imagination

NaqshbandT
of

that

shrine

on

of

and

the
Asia

of Central

father

of

those

his

with
the

own

career.

than

they

his

fact

his

did

theories
all of

of northern

the
India,

AD)

the

the

console

and

that many

represent

ruptures
later,

of

the

the

great

to his

devoted

of his most

of such material

biographical

writings,

it

of visionary

narratives.

While

been

to record

the visions

happy

he

some

Islamic
dream

in

princes

sufT biographies
of

the

of

drop

success

no

eminence.

political

the

been

like

provoked

elite.

royal

climate

reformist

Sayyid

In this work,

in his

less effectively

disappearing

Sir

had

even

limited

Ahmad

Khan

others

before

by

dreams.97

Diarists

concerning

of other

But

own

goddess LakshmT, this

modernist
life.

his

of political

attained
of

details

pilgrimage.

possess

experience,

actions

important

is nonetheless

had

idiosyncrasies

colonial

own

lack

exact

the

on

the unsuccessful
who

those

as someone

blamed

not

did

apparent

exonerate

the

Visionary
the wealth

who

all too

of

achievements

generation
a book

going

in Abu'l
the Mughal

(rWyd-e-sddiq). As

foresaw
there

supernatural,

a wife

taken

to readers

merely

epistemic

wrote

confessed

not

prior
the

of

he

In interpreting a dream of the Hindu

could

then,

had

father

to explain

reinforce

Ajmer

supernatural

earlier

autobiography

in which
to

the

(nasl-e-timuriyya)

in his

appears

as that

such
at

theory

genealogical

that

Dreams,
could

Despite

of TTmur

for

centuries

three

presented

AD)

dreams,

him

he

in nineteenth-century

the claim

re-worked

as the heirs

ChishtT

al-dm

in her veins.

Despite

to a close,

drawing

been

(d. 1818/19

premonitory

of Mu'Tn

enabled

such

had

to AzfarT,

fact

also

was

'AlT AzfarT'

that

AzfarT

himself,
own

of his

(d.1898

even
the

were

they

MTrza

house

TTmurid blood

him,

The

princes put forward a theory of the special relationship between

According

prince

in accordance

Yet

to escort

at me

looked

had a special affinity for the clairvoyant dream and vision

househould

powers

remember

saints
For

empires

capacity.96

the TTmurid

Akbarnama.

the

as

the Muslim

DihlT one of the lastMughal

of

I rose

'Shaykh Maslahat

said,

Baba

is to blame'.

Samarqand.95

in history.

heart

Mullah
steward

in India.

the

proud

I don't

he

offended.

fault. The

rose and

he

the NaqshbandT

statesmen

and

descendants

Fadl's

In Turkish

later

days

warriors
as

As

as if to say, 'It's not my

back

took me

he

that he was

for it seemed

him,

Imotioned

motioned.

earlier
sufTs,

sufT writers
there were

to be found
that

like
also

SulamT

those

in historical
the

remain

(d.1021

and

sources

richest

AD)

sufTs for whom

had
their

95
Zahiruddin Muhammad
Babur, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, trans, and ed. W. M.
Thackston
1996), p. 120.
(Washington and Oxford,
96
S. Subrahmanyam,
"Palace or Prison: theWorld as Seen by aMughal Prince inDelhi, c.1800", Commonwealth
28th February 2003.
History Seminar, Oxford University,
97
Elements
in the
Ibid. On such features of Sir Sayyid's thought, see B. B. Lawrence,
"Mystical and Rational
in B. B. Lawrence
of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan",
(ed.), The Rose and theRock: Mystical
Early Religious Writings
and Rational Elements in the Intellectual History of South Asian Islam (Durham, 1979). On another nineteenth-century
Muslim
Vision", Studia Islamica
dreamer, see J. G. Katz, "Shaykh Ahmad's Dream: A 19 Century Eschatological
79 (1994)

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 305
own
as

personal
in

formed

of

'Arabi,

case

the

have

might
the

central
of

ambiguity
same

time

texts
a

of

and

text,

regarded

sense,

the

itself.

In

stuff

plotted

sufi masters.

heirs

towards

the

spiritual

so came

to be

In one

such
of

pool

texts

nature

of

in

these

we

see

the

such

inherent

and

dream,

Khidr

Persian

the

(d.c.908

ways

For

the

education

of her

frequently

of Ruzbihan

those
dreams

the

revelation

between

relationship

of

its author's

visionary

appropriately

for

of

dream

narration

In this work,

Tirmidhl

whom

of Tirmidhl's

and

is

the Qur'an
and

the

he

the

perhaps

not

were

wife

edification

water.

for him
with

sitting
As

by

spiritual

two

his
sat

Tirmidhl

for

of

where
lute

of

to

its own

had

teach

divine

encounters

with

in the other
his

clear white

play

such

of

feet

only

soul.

the

of

dream

dangling

of

and
the

roses.

in

the

form

that Ruzbihan's

There
of
heart

enemies.

Shiraz

beings.

al-asm

Kashf

as well

as

a handsome

of

Turk
with

details
Perhaps

grape,

are visions

swells

that

journal
celestial

sessions

wine-drinking

and white
God

extraordinary

of

uxorial

his

celebrated of all the visionary

human

city

(in fact

the Kashf

Indeed,

in a

of divine

In another
towards

justly

diarists.

an

forms

home

mystical

music

to behave

world.

a man

grapes,

of myrtle.

growing

all manner

pearls

encounters
soulful

the

is one of the most

al-asrar

from

intoxicating

showers

Ruzbihan
to

Bad'

directed
own

of her

beings

sisters with

eating

Tirmidhl

tradition

Kashf

hailing

to

likened

piety,

sufis.99

of

of

as in

regarded

clearly

saint

visions

describes

unnamed

as the

as much

sent

teachings

saw Tirmidhl

someone

descriptions

symbolism
deserts

the

as

ontological

of
prophet

of Muhammad

of his wife,

husband

Baqll of Shiraz (d.1209 AD)

autobiographies

includes

also

seen

career, his wife kept dreaming of him just before the dawn and

an appearance

literature

own

to be

and

initiatory

with

revelation

AD).98

instructor.

cultivation

makes

at the

novice's

was

visions

as part

the

itself while
in

is

narrative

visions

an angel) appeared and drew him aside before instructing him about the meaning
justice

life

accounts

of visions.

and

recur

were

not,

which

in sufi

visionary

experience

of

one

these

the

(muhasib).

tradition,

autobiographical

also

spring

such

Here

that might

the
the

but

she

clear

crystal

sufi

dreams

the medium

dream

rather

private

a continuum

between

the

At one point in Tirmidhl's

but

dreams

in a chronological,

Prophet

configuration,

relationship

own

his

the meanings

content

the

of

about

of visionary

and
that

represented

contested

own

of Suhrawardl,

own

images

likely

the

al-Tirmidhl

of his

role

such

(futuh, kashf or shuhud) in its own right. Since the sufi saints
of

of

precise
treatises

self-reckoning

imagination

visions

example

al-Haklm

sense

some

their

the

earliest
of

content

the

of

out

the

The

the

its variously

also

sha}n

as

interpret

powerful

seems

it also

However,

of
his

the notion

of

a kind of revelatory unveiling

were

to

as

was

This

right.

vision

disciples

interpretation

spiritual

blueprint

a stiffs

teaching

the

The

visions.

the visionary

in promoting

life. Vision

interlinked.

of

novice

obligation

such

creating

visionary

the

actual

by

its own

in

genre

literary

revealed

as with

on

based

teach

sufi

of

that

as a means

lesson

in this way

of

basis

a literature

possible

seen

been

the

contents

the

It seems

hermeneutical

of

Ibn

to describe

sought
uncertain.
may

visions

the

vast
who

unbearable

al-asrar
poetic
celestial
reaches
love.

98
For an annotated translation, see B. Radtke
and J. O'Kane, The Concept of Sainthood inEarly IslamicMysticism:
Two Works by Al-Hakim Al-Tirmidhi
(London, 1996), pp. 15-36. See also Suiri (1999), pp. 261-268.
99
Ruzbihan
al-Baktive Kitab Kasf al-asrar'I HeFarsca bazi Siileri, ed. N. Hoca
al-Bakli, Ruzbihan
(Istanbul, 1971)
an English translation, see C. W. Ernst, The
[Arabic and Persian].For
Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master
(Chapel Hill,

1997).

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Nile Green
306

one

of

the most

Allah

texts

also

and

sensitivity
sufism.100

surprising

examples
own

whose

(d.1762),

texts was

of

of Persian

the more

of

of DihlT

visionary

mix

heady

popular

one

Perhaps
WalT

its

with

Unsurprisingly,

an

sometimes

of

later

shared

has

diary

sufT dream

narratives

visionary

occupation

the

grandeur

show
of

by professors

was

diarist
that

as well

as one
In Fuyud

literature.

the most

of

a terrestrial

al-haramayn

law.

Islamic

'ArabT before

he

him,

of

experience
to
to get

how
More

received

stay in the holy

his

during

the most

out

al-ZawawT

journeys

hundred

and nine

fertile

to be

really

lying

to be

found

appeared

to al-ZawawT

AD)

(d.1309

'Ata' Allah

appeared
also

hard

to

that

the Garment
came

al-ZawawT

satisfy

with

and

he
did

not

the power

eventually

they

Ibn
only

knew

bestow
the

since
travelled

bartered
the
sultan

ability

for

the

among

journal,

al-ZawawT

found

he

places

that

than

(rather

In one

Of

seems

to

is that

difference

sufTs and

early

visited.

al-ZawawT

pharaonic)

other

religious
two

dream,

dead

into

bestowing

upon

went

to visit

another

When

hand

sufT Ibn 'Ata' Allah

al-ZawawT

went

length

a while,

to walk

of Egypt

later European
For

al-ZawawT

al-ZawawT
the

of

to browbeat

refused,

crying.

that

in which

of al-Qarafah.
tried

such

important

of

tombs

as

such

that

suggesting

intense

the long dead Alexandrian

he was

Having

to make

a sacred Muslim

adamantly

of

earlier

their most

in

amid

then

In
diaries

the physical
least

Another

he

but

'Ata' Allah

Egypt

the

in Arabic,

literature

de Nerval.

described.

necropolis

why

the Robe,

to

visit

the many

whom

him

asked

instead.

and

who

were

Allah

AD).

in al-ZawawT's

not

it. Eventually

him

refused

of Perfection

the Garment

also

and

experiences

people

version

with

were

medieval

Since

tomb and sat crying beside

visionary

dream

of Gerard

Nerval,

he

among

enormous

of Perfection.

of

Shah WalT

visions,

encounter
with

visions

in Cairo's

the Robe

interesting

they propose between

sufT visionary
(d.1477

en Orient

month

journey

for

for

described

a seven

actual

of
to

anti-Orientalist

as the
Voyage

a sublimated

places

that was

sufT shaykhs
him

the

visions

time
and

differences

important

favoured

geography
figures

celestial

the most

of

undoubtedly

al-ZawawT

encounters

from

sets

parallel

contributor

auspicious

during

drawn

completed

al-ZawawT's

orthodox

of home-grown

comes

and

Muhammad

is the most

visionary

are

there

have

a more

prefigure

One

cities.101

sufTs were

Such

such

to the Levant

period

visions

course

visionary
to Arabic

Islam

holidays.

somewhat
another

by

a kind

form

visionary

and

to

Asian

is the interplay which

pilgrimage)
journey.

their

the

Algerian
east

the

on
of

than

fifteenth-century
to

(especially

visited

witnessed

journey

his

travel

locations

colourful

apparitions
the

is seen

journey

aspects of such texts as that of ShahWalT Allah

relating

South

of

Indeed,

itinerary that is pursued during a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Makkah and
In the textWalT Allah described no fewer than forty-six visions that, like Ibn

visionary
MadTnah.

the

of

contributions

important

Shah

the writing

the Fuyud al-haramayn of ShahWalT Allah is one of the most notable of allMuslim
texts

to be

proven

of

on

but when

out

four

the
and

offered

him

al-ZawawT

was

he

crying

the Sahara,

on water

Ibn

explained,

fly

thousand

latter

explained

in the
gold

air but
dinars,

agreed.

100

See H. Corbin, En Islam Iranien: aspects spirituels et philosophiques, Tome 3, Lesfideles d'amour, shi'isme et soufsme
(Paris, 1972), pp. 9-146 and C. W Ernst, Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and theRhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism
1996).
(Richmond,
101
See J.M. S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shah Wati Allah Dihlawi,
1703-1762 (Leiden, 1986), p. 9.

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 307
Aside

from

such Arabic

Khatun of Uskiib
Misrl

(d.1694

manner

In his

esoteric

aswell

including

in Turkish,

secrets

the

was

whose
sufi

tombs

from

had

come

on

instructors

of

whose

highly

Sha'ranI

of

for

days

al-MursI

thus

the

pilgrims

best

tended

lectures

letter

divination

in which

India,

a shrine

so as

saint

or

to

was

'Abd

tombside

the

for

sometimes

al-Wahhab

visionary
Sha'ranI

saints

offered

of

deceased

travel

their

Persian

sufis

was

also
one

only

advice

In describing

al-kamil

Nasafl

clearing

his mind

of Dihll

(d.1729

AD)

as the best means

of

beside
with

whose
a saint

or

to lead

believed

among

and purifying
instead
revealing
itwas

prophet

to give

many

technique
the

customs

such

encouraged

directed

tomb

The

presence.

their

clap

to that

to

the

those

inhabitants.104
a

deal,

great

Abu'l

hands

'Abbas

by
form

and in

world
before

caused

on

sunrise

before

least welcome

(d.1565
like

advice

around

shrine

their

by

assiduous

But

mausolea;

annoyance

saints

entering
a

disturbing
of visionary

of haunting.105

tombs.

was

unawares

in the form

their

to

for visitors

those

al-Sha'ranl

also

at his

in residence

customary
to

saint

Jabra'il

Another

episodes.103

still
at

them

catching

to be

saint.

thousands

dead

of

given

a chosen

of

necropolis's

only

itwas

the

alert
him

catching

visitation

AD)

as elsewhere,

all

(jqfr).U)2

appearance

visionary

a vision

since

that

are

angelic

were

to al-Qarafah,
the

recorded

Saturday. Similar kinds of advice also filtered into the folklore of theMuslim
northern

to Turkish

known

NiyazI-e-MisrI

of

the

with

replete

with

example,

AD)

(d.1287

other

guidebooks

the week

of

science

of al-Qarafah

is also

encounters

advised,

certain

also

Geographies

ensuring

necropolis

pilgrimage

visionary

and
of

ways

Lata'ijal-minan

popular

seeking

to visit

Cairene

series

the

in demanding

unique

best

the

to the great

visitor
AD),

he

far

notebooks,

prison

Visionary
Al-Zawawl

was

diary

dervish, 'Ashiyah
extensive dream diary of Niyazl-e

as the more

extraordinary

encounters,

to him,

explained

the dream

examples,

AD)

(^.1641-43

AD).

of

and Persian

included the dream letters of the Balkan female Ottoman

literature. These

well-known
to

pilgrim

Another
as

istikharah,

tomb

while

special

practice
the

the
for

custom

soul

1300
their

al-Insdn
on

concentrating
Kallm

Allah

(dhikr-e-kashf-e-qubur)
of

ensuring
of

in his

Shah

dhikr

graveside

in a dream,

and
from

shaykhs
world,

in Kashkul-e-katimi,

However,

to its
practitioner,

dead

the Muslim
the

1281

(d. between

summoning

circumambulate

recommended

known

on

throughout

his heart.106

performed.107
was

'Aziz Nasafl

and

advice

the deceased
a

sleeping

master
encounter

visionary
in tombs

in order

102

See D. Terzioglu,
"Man in the Image of God in the Image of the Times: Sufi Self-Narratives
and the Diary of
(1618-94)", Studia Islamica 94 (2002), p. 157.
Niyazi-e-Misri
103
'Abd al-Wahhab
(1971), pp. 220-225. See also J. G. Katz, "An Egyptian Sufi Interprets His Dreams:
Trimingham
al-Sha'rani, 1493-1565", Religion 27, 1 (1997).
104
For more on popular medieval
to al-Qarafah,
see T. Ohtoshi,
and guidebooks
"The Manners,
pilgrimage
Customs
and Mentality
to the Egyptian City of the Dead:
of Pilgrims
1100-1500 A.D.", Orient 29 (1993) and
C. S. Taylor, In the Vicinity of theRighteous: Ziyara and the Veneration ofMuslim Saints inLate Medieval Egypt (Leiden,
1999).
105
See W.

The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern

Crooke,
India, 2 vols (Westminster,
1896), vol. 1,
to Crooke's informants, the saints become especially annoyed when "discovered in deshabille"
p. 229. According
by
unannounced
visitors.
106
'Aziz Nasafi,
al-Insan al-kamil, ed. M. Mole
(Tihran/Paris,
1962), pp. 236-237. The section is translated in
(1998), p. 146.
Ridgeon
Kalimullah
Jahanabadi,

The

Scallop Shell,

(Being a Sufite Practical Course

on Divine

Union)

(Madras,

pp. 46-47.

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1910),

Nile Green
308
to summon

that was

dreams
two

of

performance

common
of prayer,

cycles

to both

sufis

istikharah

could

and

ordinary

also be

in mosques

accomplished

the

of

practice

was

entire

Ghawth

Some

famous

place,

as the many

of

as

specific

Similar

places

certainly

own

whose

AD),

written

a whole

with

along

and

developed
to have

is said

al-Zubayrl

practices,

Nevertheless,

in the Jawahir-e-khamsah

compiled

to encounter

places
great

the visionary

interred

the Jilawgah-e-imam,

place

of performance.

place

'Abd Allah

istikharah.

(d. 1562-3

The

them.
for

saints

the men

Abu

famously

famous

to summon

practices

were

with

the

of

Indian

is one

mausoleum

host

of

of
sufi,

the most

subcontinent.109

were

shrines

of

subject

Gwallarl

in the

magnificent

in

the

or

time

the

al-istikharah

in the Maghrib.

procedures,

Muhammad

such

on

book

occult

other

namaz

associating

to

reference

any

common

especially

an

without

though

in

and

a basic version of this

the home. The Prophet himself had advised on the way of performing
practice,

the

Following

pilgrims.108

there.

special
was

quality

it is the

however,

is one
as well

and his grandsons

by Mir

celebrated

as "a
paradise

eulogised

specific

in Sind

little Makkah')

the Prophet

was

or without

with

beings
('the

of

there

appearance
This

In Morocco,

of God".110

atMakll

necropolis

Makll

where

visionary

on

shrine

of

'All

Shir Qanl'

earth...

the

visiting

the king

of

the jinn,

Sldl Shamharush, in the foothills of the Atlas that ismost famous for the visions witnessed
by its pilgrims, including visions of Sldl Shamharush himself leading his armies of followers
In Iran, it is arguably the shrine of Shah Ni'mat Allah Wall

drawn from the jinn.lu

that has

AD)

acted

reminiscences

the

of

of one

account
of morning

of his

tomb.112

caught

short

of

building
spot.

Some

their

existence

to demand
great

witnessed

no

Christianity

in recent

pilgrimage
that were

at Mahan.

shrine

another

pilgrims,

sleeping

sufi

AD)

(d.1899

to the

at many

of

concrete

residue

dervish

described

closely

Among

we

earlier

amid

(d.1431

centuries.

mentioned

There,

an

find

scene

observed

seeing

the most
to a

the

pilgrimage

and

particular

city

shrines

earlier

even

and most
class
or

appeared
a

elaboration

of Mazar-e-Sharlf

complete

obscure

of dreams

above

which

Shah Ni'mat

of

fairly

regular

basis

for

themselves

a shrine

in northern

sites

pilgrimage
in which
around

Afghanistan

have
level

sepulchre.113

a
their

holy

Islam,
to demand
on

in this way

personage

purported
was

were

visited

al-ZawawI
In premodern

mausoleum

visions

believers

anthropomorphic

saintly

like

experiences.

of Muslim

and

the

pilgrims

on

world

at a less

while

hovering

visionary

prophets
or

famous

construction

lights

and

the Muslim

throughout

in worship,

green

of

shrine

shrines

engaged

tombs

saints

less,

other

glowing
the

a memorial
of

a saint

of

glimpses

the

themselves

108

and

Similarly,

many

Ironically,

Shah

of

to gently wake him up from his sleep before quietly returning to the privacy

have

pilgrims

'All

Safl

centre

active

sufi visit

such

tea-making

Allah coming

The

as the most

originally

as in
the
given
owe

appears
burial
built

site.
as a

See T. Fahd, "bUkhara", in Eh. The practice reflects (though may not necessarily relate to) the custom of
in Greek and Roman
temples, particularly in the form associated with the cult of Asclepius.
trans. Muhammad
Ghawth Gwallari, Jawdhir-e-khamsah,
(Dilhl,
Beg Naqshbandi
Shaykh Muhammad

incubation
109
Hadrat

n.d.). [Urdu]
110
in A. Schimmel,
Islam in the
Mir
ed. S. H. Rashdi
'All Shir Qani', Maklinama,
(Haydarabad, 1967). Quoted
Indian Subcontinent (Leiden, 1980), p. 127.
111
See A. Chlyeh, Les Gnaoua du Maroc: itineraires initiatique, transe et possession (Casablanca,
1998), especially
pp. 60-62.
112
See Homayuni
p. 267.
(1371/1992),
113
See e.g. T Canaan, Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine (London, 1927).

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 309
of one

result

'AlT, whose

son-in-law,

else

body

the Prophet

been

interplay

existed

such

occasions

case

of Mazar-e-Shanf

Asian

Such

medieval

main

at

who

the

made

of

literary

this

traffic

the mausoleum

works

led

to

the

the

The Dream
The

frequent

between

interplay

able

saints

to

interact

of

On
in the

of

and

through

terrestrial

geography

of

visionary

as

such
of human

or

and

in

in a dream

In ways

site.

literary

and

the

the Mughal

appeared

vision

the

even
the

ritual

concrete
in

geographies

its ethereal

with

behind

the medium

architectural,

and

as PanchakkT
one

burial

of

landscape

al-ZawawT

by

there,

own

of

the Muslim

hidden

Muhammad,

world

intangible

counterparts.117

in Hagiography

and Vision

dreaming

continual

and Central

the

known

buried

his

through

physical

of

visited

shrine

the

overlapping

confused

that deliberately

of

expressed

between

the

throughout

the Islamic world,

recognition
were

worlds

such

narratives.115
geographies,

feature

and were

after Dust

built

following

whether

creativity,

times

end of

landscape

a common

NaqshbandT

to demand
subtle

and

the

in al-Qarafah

cenotaph

the original

dot
were

al-ru'yd)
lay

case

(d.1385 AD),

sacred

or

saints
in the

As

'AlT for Afghan

for

place

divinely

in Najaf.

eighteenth-century

devotee

and
At

world

up

physical

perception
means.

the

by

dream

rival

by

earlier

demonstrates

process

of

the Prophet's

earlier

be buried.

hagiographical

burial

also

the other

lies a large modern

modern-day

these,

many

of others.116 At

Awrangabad

to

while

others

This

and

local
shrine

(mashahid

mausoleum

soldiers

famous

vision-shrines

Syria,

thousands

a more

vision-shrines

known

site of

instructed
should

the development

augmented

his more

lesser

burial

centuries

been

themselves

cults

pilgrimage

have

brought

as shrines.

revered

positing

than

Muslims

in turn

between

dreams

However,
world.

are

tombs
that

there

themselves
they

true

of KashmTr, Sayyid 'AlTHamadanT

of the famous patron of theMuslims

dream-located

secretly

in which

as the

revealed

sufTs have

cases,

the places

about

site was

the

had

In other

camels.114

guided

in which

dream

such

burial

death,

and

meant

enshrinement,

that

stories of the dreams and visions of the saints and their followers played an important role
in Muslim
experiences
featuring
of many
themselves

possessed
in
of

and

their

rhetoric

powerful

sufT hagiography.
these

such

Possessing

hagiographies.

sufTs whose
successors

On

that was

sociological

visions

were

also

at the centre

lay

to

claims

best

level,
known
of

the

truth,
often

of

leitmotif

exploited

recorded

important

shrine

that
in

the memory

literary

cults.118

visionary

its frequent

through

it is noteworthy
and

the

This

form

by

was

the

See R. D. McChesney,
Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in theHistory of aMuslim Shrine (Princeton,
1991).
115
See D. DeWeese,
and Kubrawi Hagiographical
in L. Lewisohn
Traditions",
(ed.), The
"Sayyid 'All Hamadani
Legacy ofMedieval Persian Sufism (Oxford, 1999), p. 149.
116
On such vision shrines, see J.Meri, The Cult of Saints amongMuslims andJews inMedieval Syria (Oxford, 2002)
and Taylor (1999), pp. 32?33. As is sometimes revealed in foundation
founded as the result
inscriptions, mosques
of visions also existed.
117
in Arabic Oneirocritical Works",
See G. J. van Gelder, "Dream Towns of Islam: Geography
in A. Neuwirth
(ed.), Myths, Historical Archetypes and Symbolic Figures in Arabic Literature: Towards a New Hermeneutic Approach
(Stuttgart, 1999).
118
See M. K. Hermansen,
"Citing the Sights at the Holy Sights: Visionary Pilgrimage Narratives of Pre-Modern
South Asian Sufis", in E. Waugh
and E M. Denny
(eds.), Islamic Studies inAmerica: Fazlur Rahman (Atlanta, 1997),
inNorth African Islam", Princeton Interdisciplinary
and Sainthood
J. G. Katz, "Visionary Experience, Autobiography

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Nile Green
310
case with

the great Ruzbihan

Abu

sufT visionary
of

the

of

sainthood.

whose

YazTd,
The

Il-Khans.119
As

al-HakTm

often

at

visionary

and

enlarged
an

therefore

narratives

no

al-TirmidhT

was

shrine

early
was

vision

such,

and

BaqlT

times

less

beautified

essential

also

the prototypical

than

the period

during
in

element
an

entertained

the

rhetoric

element

com

of

petition.

Accounts

of the life of Sayyid

of

descriptions

as an

dreams
recount

hagiographers

how

lent an especially

'AlTHamadanT
of

expression

the Prophet

the

saint's

miraculous

in different

appeared

to

important place
HamadanT's

powers.120

to urge

dreams

people's

them

to follow the saint, while HamadanT himself frequently both appeared in the dreams of others
and

the dreams

interpreted
to

of KashmTr
ethnogenesis.

thus

Islam,
Such

of kings.

dream

linking
also

stories

the

containing

arrival

in the

to
oral

the

predicted
of

traditions

traditions

collective

and

history
Asian

South-East

of

conversion

saint's

Islam,

the conversion of a king as having been effected through

a sufT
by

of

dream

royal

narratives

proliferate

particularly in the motif describing

a dream

such

One

after which

ship,

the king

wakes

up mysteriously

circumcised.121
Dream

feature

episodes

the Tadhkirat

al-awliya

in the most

prominently

of'Attar

(d.c.1221

famous

for

AD),

Muslim

example,

In

works.

hagiographical

the Prophet

in a dream

appears

to chastise a self-satisfied follower of Dhu'l Nun MisrT (d.861 AD), while a follower of the
deceased Ma'ruf KarkhT (d.815 AD) dreamed of seeing his master standing stupefied with
love beneath the throne of God.122 In the great Nafahat al-uns, JamT (d.1492 AD) describes
a dream
hints

al-Zaman

of'Ayn
at

same

the

that we

have

al-dm

Jamal

of

weighing

epistemological

discussed

one

GTlT,

Before

earlier.123

of

visionary

out

al-dm

versus

experience

to seek

off

setting

of Najm

the disciples

his master,

book-learning
several

GTlT packed

near to

books on logic ((aql) and tradition (naql) to accompany him on his journey. When
his

s centre

al-dm

Najm

travel

with

bag.

him

and

which
accounts
KubrawT

sack

act Najm
sufT, Sa'd

GTlT
felt

two more

This

?) .124 The
stared

for

HamawT,
others

at the

of

empty

bench

he was

not

to realise

for GTlT
the

that
into

books

told

at the

also

coming
saw

gathering

on which

Journal ofMiddle Eastern Studies i (1992) and F. Malti-Douglas,

Studia Islamica 51 (1980).
Biographical Notice",
119
To this day Iranian sufis still go on vision quests by passing

to attend

he

Sa'd

saw Muhammad

"Dreams,

river

the Blind

the

for

Bactrus,

other

the many
seen

a sufT musical

al-dm

away

referred

the dreams
the

a vision

describes

throw

of which

second

his sufT robe (khirqah).Among

JamT

to

any possessions

carrying

in the

al-dm,

Najm

the Prophet

present

he was

in which
felt

threw

same work,

in the

he

him,

promptly

invested him with

and visions
al-dm

since

containing

out
GTlT

time,

a dream

had

puzzled

dreams

the matter

spelt

al-dm

of dreams

as he

GTlT

waking,

of books.

(majlis-e-sama
propriety

at Khwarazm,

it took

master

exasperated
to his

On

that

Kubra,

standing

by

another

gathering
with

great

seated.

and the Semiotics

of the

the night beside the tomb of Abu Yazld at Bistam.

(Author's personal observation.)
120
See De Weese
(1999).
121
Mary Turnbull
(personal communication).
Farid al-din Attar, Muslim Saints andMystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya', trans. A.J. Arberry (London,
1990), pp. 93 and 165.
123
ibn Ahmad Jam!, Nafahat al-uns min hadarat al-quds (Tihran, 1375/1955),
'Abd al-Rahman
p. 432.
124
Ibid., p. 429.

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 311
the

from

Hagiographies

of

tales

spectacular

are

subcontinent

Indian

visionary

for

noteworthy

particularly

In his Jawahir

encounters.125

their

often

the North

al-awliya,

Indian

Shaykh 'Uthman Bukhari (d.c.1687 AD) described the prophetic

visions of his spiritual ancestor, Shaykh Makhdum Jahaniy an of Ucch (d.1383 AD).126 Shaykh
Suhrawardl memorialist
had

Makhdum
instructed

him

by

the

of

performance

frequently

by

saint

cults

or

visionary

earlier

concerning

prayers

popular

involve

and

kings

initiated

the world

into

In some

who
of

sufis

in the

expression
and

one

Persian

like

if such

folklore

of

as

they

see

Jabra'il

at

in the

in worship.
also

congregations
time

invoking

in the Bengali

feature

religious

instructed

engaged

same

the

personally

affect

then,

and Hindu

legends

in the oral

still recounted

of

tradition

and his vizier

emperor Awrangzeb

are

that

from

the

sufi

to be
into

However,

exist

many

which

Dakan

Shah Palangposh

the

tradition

such
also

(d. 1699 AD)

accounts

found

the motif

describes

of

greatest

it is onlookers

has
of

"a wild

into

himself

Here

versions

literary

eighteenth-century

transform

form.

There
a motif

lions,

to commit

able

another

considered.
and

tigers

Asia.

South

seen

shape-shifting

into

the

are

it is rightly

themselves

hagiography

screaming
a

angel

thus

dreams

saints

that of

into the tent of the sleeping sufi master,

out

the

theMughal

in stories

texts, Muslim

in the vision,

transforming

Visions,

himself had been

often

episodes,
Royal

the vision

accomplishments,

partake

dhikr.

(d.1692 AD).127

Asian

South

of

and was

to Madlnah

shared Muslim

with

in the Dakan

of

of Shah Nur HammamI

all visionary

of

forms

a vision

oneiric

emperors.

the legendary Satya Pir, while

are

efficient

sphere, just as the Prophet

ritual

surrounding

a visit

during

Prophet

the most

about

in the human

practice
Stories

the

encountered

thieves

rich
exist

also

sneaking

only to be chased

tiger with

eyes

popping

peacock's".128

Conclusions
most

Although

our

of

and

dreams

context

have

as a means

rufyd

Pamuk

the
even

of political

a programme

the

to

limited

has

framework

roles

played

early

to

continue

amid

the

the

past,

national

cultural

revival.130

assembled
novel

Kara

traditional
Kitap,

social

political

More

Muslim
while

Swahili

the Muslim

reform.129
developed
in their

justice

the Turkish

recently,
theories
manuals

of

is by no

religiosity. This

of Muslim

and

of visions

recounting

throughout

Iraqi writers

twentieth-century
Utopias

his

the

flourish

discourse

portraying

Iraqi

from

drawn

of

intricately
for

that

groups

reform,
of

of

sufi

been

to be an important aspect of Muslim

and dreams has continued

means

have

examples

world

In a different
the genre

of

the

promotion
writer

of

Orhan

the

dream

and

vision

of

dream

interpretation

as

see respectively
For details of visionary episodes in medieval
and modern
South Asian Muslim
hagiography,
B. B. Lawrence, Notes From a Distant Flute: The Extant Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian Sufism (Tehran, 1978) and
C. Liebeskind, Piety on itsKnees: Three Sufi Traditions in South Asia inModern Times (Delhi, 1998).
126
See Qamar-ul Huda, Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercisesfor Suhrawardi Sufis (London, 2003), pp. 103-104.
127
See N. Green, "Stories of Saints and Sultans: the Oral Historical Tradition of the Aurangabad Shrines" Modern
Asian Studies (forthcoming)
and T. K. Stewart, "Satya Pir: Muslim Holy Man and Hindu God" in D. S. Lopez
1995).
(ed.), Religions of India in Practice (Princeton,
128
Shah Mahmud Awrangabadi, Malfuzat-e-Naqshbandiyyah:
Halat-e-Hadrat
Baba Shah Musafir Sahib (Haydarabad:
Nizamat-e-'Umur-e-Madhhabl-e-Sarkar-e-'Ali,
p. 37.
1358/1939-40),
129
See M. Gaborieau,
the Sufis: The Debate
in Nineteenth
India", in E de Jong
Century
"Criticizing
B. Radtke
(eds), IslamicMysticism Contested: 13Centuries of Controversies and Polemics (Leiden, 1999).
130
See W. Walther,
and Starkey (1998), pp. 234-236.
"Folklore", inMeisami

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and

Nile Green
312
some

form

The

coast.131
of

the most

of

all

classes

visions

have

of

society

roles

of

For

But

by Muslim
thus

new

booksellers

in

in no way

religious

life

form

dreams

and

literary

these

Evidently,

the modernity

upon

impinge

African

in the

resonance.

and

functions

the East

along
a role

play

while

world,

cultural

experience

to

continued

the Muslim

develop

useful

recent

of

aspect

in

the

neutral

the most

perhaps

to understand

attempts

of

the

of what

ground

of

aspect

rewarding

the

cultural

framework

it allows us to treat premodern Muslim

in which

in Islam is the way

narratives

disbelief.

has

are found.132

they

of the imagination
visionary

right
to

one

scholars

across

imaginative

in which

societies

stocked

of dreams

continued

continued

titles

popular

interpretation

used
the

to

simply

be

of Muslim

study

called

dream

suspended

and visionary

traditions is the way inwhich they alert us to the different roles played by the imagination
in formulating the diverse ways in which believers broadened the boundaries of what it
means
the

to be Muslim.
character

can

of visionary

came

itself

experiences

to be mutated
out

make

clearly

of dreams

and

recounted

Whether

into

literary

the different
have

visions

by

was

often

form.

But

social,

been

for

altered
in all of

cultural

and

or

historians

hagiographers,

ends

specific

their

political

experience
we

in such writings

diversity,
uses

autobiographers,
when

towards

accounts

which

directed.

and the poetry of William Blake, the most famous visionary

and
literature are probably those related to Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Aside from Piers Plowman

in English

episodes

de Quincey.

Thomas

Both

history.

the

various

a considerable

played
of

preparations

a central

were

Africa)

also

fantasies

opium

and

opium

in North

majnun

Such

of

element

cannabis
the

inMuslim

role
(as bhang
of

practices

the

cultural

in South

or

Asia

for

qalandariyyah,

Dihll

maljuzat texts from the circle of Nizam al-din Awliya (d.1325 AD) in
show how qalandars often flaunted the usage of such drugs to the displeasure of their

more

sober

example.133 Medieval

'Inayat Khan

companion
of

sub-genre
both

us of
The

Islam.135

tales

the

the

secular

from

dying

humorous

remind

arts of

In

colleagues.

the

describing

the

of

this

famous

of opium

ravages

of

such

however,

subject,

and

less

the popular
the

of

Arabic

medieval
eaters

of hashish

visionaries

respectable

must

boon

ofjahangir's

painting

adventures

picaresque

contributions

undoubted

exploration

the

sphere,

the

fall beyond

remit

to

the

of

this

article.
To

the

discourse
each

of

cultural
on

the

the uses

oneirocritical

historian,

finds

imagination
to which

visionary

expression
narratives

and

visionary

texts

in different
have

been

reveal

historical
put,

below

contexts.
each

in which

the ways

Yet

entrapment

beneath
of

the

131
Orhan Pamuk, The Black Book, trans. G. Gun (London, 1996).
13
in
ofWorlds"
and the Pakistani Saint: The Interpenetration
See e.g. K. P. Ewing, "The Modern Businessman
"The
G. M. Smith and C. W. Ernst (eds), Manifestations
of Sainthood in Islam (Istanbul, 1993) and V.J. Hoffman,
in Contemporary
Role of Visions
Life", Religion 27, 1 (1997). Extensive accounts of the dream
Egyptian Religious
are also found in Azam (1992), pp. 33-103.
lives of contemporary Muslims
in A. Popovic and G. Veinstein
On the activities of such groups, see J. Baldick, "Les Qalenderis"
(eds), Les
Voies dAllah: Les ordres mystiques dans le monde musulman des origines a aujourd'hui (Paris, 1996) and A. Karamustafa,
God's Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Later Middle Period, 1200-1550 (Salt Lake City, 1994).
in the Religious
Life of the Delhi
See S. Digby, "Qalandars and Related Groups: Elements of Social Deviance
in Y. Friedmann
and Fourteenth Centuries",
Sultanate of the Thirteenth
(ed.), Islam in India, vol. 1 (Jerusalem,
1984).
135
Bodleian Library, MS. Ouseley
Muslim Society (Leiden, 1971).

Add.

171b, fol. 4 verso.

See F. Rosenthal,

The Herb: Hashish

Versus Medieval

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The Religious and Cultural Roles ofDreams and Visions in Islam 313
quiet

itself.

experience
tropes

and

monastic
election
by

of

eloquence

images

be

abbot

of Brakelond
in

of portentous

the

and

cloisters

to the

as familiar

1182

one

monk

Each
even

universal

AD)

quality

new

morning

seeing

of

broken

these

The

time

were

St Edmunds

of

the

haunted

dreams

spread

St Edmund

of

body

the

of

experiences,

at the

how

accounts
the

such

as of
Christianity.

recounts

of Bury

monks

reported

to

aura

the

lingers

of Buddhism

scholar

(d.c.1202

the worried

dreams.136

there

of writing,

is an unquestionably

there

ofjocelin

the new

of

world

in the blunter

dream

that will

chronicle

all manner

around

the

Often

himself rise from his tomb amid all of the disquiet of the abbey. Through the shared qualities
of the dreams of the monks of Bury and the visions of the likes of Ruzbihan BaqlT, the
freshness
individual

of

such

glimpses

humanity

136
Jocelin of Brakelond,
1989), pp. 18-19.

of

into

another

soul

ultimately

serves

to

remind

us

of

the

living

the past.

Chronicle

of the Abbey

of Bury St Edmunds,

trans. D. Greenway

and J. Sayers

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(Oxford,