From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn Al-Farid, His Verse, and His Shrine

by Th. Emil Homerin

Through a detailed examination of a renowned Arab mystical poet, Th. Emil Homerin provides one of the first case studies to illustrate an obscure aspect of popular Islamic faith--the sanctification of saints and the creation of shrines in medieval times. Despite the fact that Muslims have venerated saints for more than a thousand years, Islam has never developed a formal means of canonization, and the process of sanctification remains an important but largely neglected dimension of Islamic scholarship. In "From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint", Homerin explores this uncharted territory by following the fortunes of a single Sufi saint over seven and a half centuries.
Regarded as a saint within a generation of his death, 'Umar Ibn al-Farid (1181-1235) is still venerated at his shrine in Cairo. Contemporary religious singers and writers, including Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, continue to cite the poet's verse. Using biographies, hagiographies, polemics, legal rulings, histories, and novels, Homerin traces the course of Ibn al-Farid's saintly reputation. He relates the rise and fall of Ibn al-Farid's popularity to Egypt's changing religious, cultural, and political environment.

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

Reviews

[Tatyana]

"Return sleep to my eyes —
perhaps your phantom
will visit my bed
in the darkness of dreams."

"Pass round remembrance of one I love,
though that be to blame me,
for tales of the beloved
are my wine."

"I desire — though time has passed —
one glance from you,
but, oh, how much blood will flow
before I reach my goal"

"For you never loved me
so long as you
aren’t annihilated in me,
And you aren’t annihilated
so long as my form
is not revealed in you"

[Lumumba Shakur]

It is a decent overview of Ibn al-Farid and focuses a great deal on his reception as a poet amongst the religious community and literary community for his controversial verse.

[Ahmed Omar]

Overview about Umar Ibn Al-Farid.

I`m astonished, How those non-Arab people aware of this huge amount of information about Islamic heritage !