This is a Sufi I have been listening to a lot lately. I think this video, especially the second half, informs the Bewilderment essay... and I think he's wonderful.
I'd love to see some of this guy's sources about a "misinterpretation" of Sufi theology as the origin of the European poetic tradition of courtly love — aside from courtly love as a tradition mostly being an 19th century retroterm/fabrication, isn't it generally taken that courtly love was derived from feudalism (in that marriages were often arranged and love thus transgressive, and also in the vassal/lord metaphor for the pursuer/pursued)? I've heard of Muslim lyric having similarities to courtly style (from the crusades and Muslim influence in Spain — a quick google search says this is the "Arabist hypothesis") but never anything about Sufism. [The courtly love genre has some overlap with the pastoral mode, which is my main interest, so anything on the topic at hand is fascinating to me.]
I was thinking about your Sufi post when I was reading the essay. Amazing how relevant it was!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see some of this guy's sources about a "misinterpretation" of Sufi theology as the origin of the European poetic tradition of courtly love — aside from courtly love as a tradition mostly being an 19th century retroterm/fabrication, isn't it generally taken that courtly love was derived from feudalism (in that marriages were often arranged and love thus transgressive, and also in the vassal/lord metaphor for the pursuer/pursued)? I've heard of Muslim lyric having similarities to courtly style (from the crusades and Muslim influence in Spain — a quick google search says this is the "Arabist hypothesis") but never anything about Sufism. [The courtly love genre has some overlap with the pastoral mode, which is my main interest, so anything on the topic at hand is fascinating to me.]
ReplyDelete