‘Imad Faqih Kirmani

‘Imad Faqih Kiermani, ‘Imad al-Din ‘Ali (d. 1371), a mystic and poet with the nom de plume ‘Imad, known as Khwaja ‘Imad Faqih, and bearing the title Shaykh al-Islam. A skillful poet of the fourteenth century, he was a contemporary of Sultan Abu Sa’id Bahadur Khan and early Muzaffarid sultans. His name and titles have been recorded at the end of a manuscript of a collection of his ghazals, copied in his lifetime in 1361 and provides the most reliable date. His titles and appellations, recorded in sources, reflect his exalted position as a religious and Sufi authority: The Great Chief of Islam, The Model of the Notable Chiefs of the World, the Guide of Great Sultans, the Pillar of Faith and Religion, ‘Ali, the Jurisprudent, may God prolong his auspicious and noble blessings.’ His exalted rank have been acknowledged in Dawlatshah Samarqandi’s Tadhkirat al-Shu’ara’; Jami’s Baharistan; and Ghiyath al-Din Mirkhwand’s Habib al-Siyar. Dawlatshah thus makes mention of him: ‘The Pride of the Erudite, the One Chosen from the Scholars and Mystics Khwaja ‘Imad Faqih Kirmani, may God sanctify his great secret, is a mystic, scholar, and man of intuitive vision and one of the sources of pride of the scholars of Kerman. He is widely recognized for his nobilities and great disposition and Khwaja ‘Imad Faqih was the religious authority for the elect and the laity in Kerman under Muhammad Muzaffar and his descendants and everyone was inclined towards conversation with him and despite his being a scholar and ascetic of high rank, he was a perfect poet as well. Jami makes mention of him as ‘a Sufi master in charge of a Sufi spiritual center’ which is reiterated by Khwandmir. He was contemporary of Hafiz and the Muzaffarid Jalal al-Din Shah Shuja’ (1357-1384) was his disciple. It is worthy of note that the political and social milieu was not directly reflected in the poetry of a Sufi poet like ‘Imad Faqih, but it must be born in mind that he was impressed by all the events and changes in his time and merely changed his sentiments into Sufi and mystical emotions and feelings. Since he regarded indifference towards spirituality and religious beliefs the results of moral decadence, social corruption, and injustice, he maintained that it would be possible to cause inward changes in powerful but worldly-minded people through sermonizing and admonitions such that their faith becomes so strong that they may be delivered from corporeal desires and worldly attachments. Our pious jurisprudent, therefore, calls the rulers of his time to piety and warns them against injustice and its vicious consequences and thereby fulfills his mission in supporting religion, defending the oppressed, and rising against oppressors in the garb of valuable wise counsels. Shah Shaykh Abu Ishaq Inju was one of those worldly minded kings who despite his great recognition in Shiraz was at all times devising stratagems to extend his sway to Yazd and Kerman. He led seven military campaigns to Kerman and Yazd and held sway in Shiraz and Isfahan for fourteen years. Compared to historians, poets held him in higher esteem. Most of historians have termed him as imprudent, obstinate, and unfaithful, but poets and people of a literary mind have extolled him for his generosity, good disposition, and patronage of arts. His lifestyle must have been in further harmony with poets and artists rather than historians. Endowed with poetical vigor, Shah Shaykh fully veneered scholars and belletrists and what he obtained by plundering the conquered regions in Yazd and Kerman he spent on the poets who satisfied his ambitiousness and egotism by their hyperbolical eulogies. Poets like ‘Imad Faqih, Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz, Shams Fakhri Isfahani, and Nizam al-Din ‘Ubayd Zakani eulogized him and obtained his patronage. Khwaja ‘Imad was a Sufi master in his spiritual center and propagated Sufi teachings in his sermons and lecture sessions in Kerman under Amir Mubariz al-Din who, because of his sincere devotion to ‘Imad ordered his son, Shah Shuja’, to obtain the Sufi master’s spiritual guidance. In some of his poetry, ‘Imad, as a Sufi master, besides according attention to mystical and wise delicacies and religious doctrines, he included valuable counsels addressed to Mubariz al-Din urging him to support the poor and attend to moral counsels. After the death of Amir Mubariz al-Din, Shah Shuja’ changed his attitude for a while. It has been reported that such inward evolution was due to his association with the Sufis of Kerman, particularly ‘Imad, who had warned him that his restlessness was due to neglecting his religious obligations and, like his father, he had to abide by them. ‘Imad, recognized as the highest authority in orthodox disciplines as well as Sufi teachings, served as a teacher and a guide at schools and Sufi spiritual centers. Disciples and notables from different regions gathered in his Sufi center to learn from him. Endowed with an intuitive, mystical, and poetical turn of mind, Shah Shuja’ was devoted to him for years, since he had studied under him from his early youth and was devotedly attached to him, since Shah Shuja’ maintained that thanks to ‘Imad’s influence, he could better rule Kerman and he could thus satisfy his mother, originally a Turk from Kerman, by the favors he rendered to the Sufi master. In return, ‘Imad Faqih held Shah Shuja’, his student and disciple, in great esteem, praising him in many of his verses and dedicating four epistles, out of a total of ten, to him. Therefore, ‘Imad enjoyed Shah Shaykh’s favaors, though ‘Imad’s exhortations merely stemmed from the spiritual affection normally cultivated between disciples, guides, students, and teachers. Our Sufi poet, despite composing eulogies on his contemporary rulers, not only reflects his simple-mindedness and optimism as befitting a Sufi, but also aimed at urging them to heed the obligations expected by people as social demands. He has made his utmost poetical endeavor in this respect. He made use of different occasions to call others towards piety by his particularly delicate aphorisms contained in his eulogies. He spoke, many a time as a preacher, to rulers about intransience of the world, evil consequences of tyranny, death, and its afflictions to warn them against worldly power and possessions as the source of vanity of faithless mammon worshippers. Such admonitions draw a neat distinction between his compositions and those of court eulogists whose works are imbued with false eulogies. Regarding ‘Imad Faqih’s death, Mihrabi states, ‘What caused the death of the Khwaja was the blow which, according to various reports, had been inflicted by Shaykh Muhammad Kaku or Shaykh Mahmud Ziya’ al-Din. The date of his death has been reported by Dawlatshah as 1371, though it has been inaccurately reported by Azar in Atashkada and Hidayat in Riyaz al-‘Arifin as 1293. He is one of the greatest of poets. Shaykh Azari is thus quoted by Dawlatshah Samarqandi in his Tazkirat al-Shu’ara’, ‘Erudite scholars maintain that earlier and later poets have in certain instances used redundancies, but Khwaja ‘Imad Faqih’s poetry is an exception and prominent critics have acknowledged that there exists no instance of redundancy in his compositions, in terms of meaning and form. His words smell of ambergris to men of art and intuitive knowledge, but it smells sweeter than spirit. His diction is indubitably strong, perfect, devoid of formal and semantic flaws, and embracing delicate and exalted themes.’ His complete works include mathnawi, qit’a, qasida, ghazal, quatrain, mukhamma, and marthiya. His mathnawi include: Suhbat-nama, in the meter of mutaqarib muthamman maqsur on the etiquettes of different classes dedicated to Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad ibn Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah, the vizier to the Ilkhanid Sultan Abu Sa’id; Mahabbat-nama, composed in 1322 in eight chapters in the meter of hazaj musaddas maqsur, including debates between soul, body, magnet, straw, amber, honey, palm-tree, candle, moth, flower, nightingale, atom, the sun, mosquito, and elephant. It has been dedicated to Taj al-Din ‘Iraqi, the vizier. His works also include: ten epistles in the meter of hazaj musaddas maqsur addressed to Shah Shuja’ and a number of Sufis and loving friends; Safa-nama or Munis al-Abrar, an ethico-mystical composition in verse in three chapters dedicated to Shah Shuja’ composed in the meter of sari’ in 1364 on the model of Nizami’s Makhzan al-Asrar; Tariqat-nama, a detailed mathnawi in about 2,800 couplets, in ten chapters, and in the meter of hazzaj musaddas maqsur devoted to an exposition of fundamentals of Sufism. As mentioned by the poet, Tariqat-nama, dedicated to the Muzaffarid Amir Mubariz al-Din Muhammad, is based on ‘Izz al-Din Mahmud ibn ‘Ali Kashani’s Misbah al-Hidaya to which certain materials were added from ‘Awarif al-Ma’arif and al-Ta’arruf li-Madhhab al-Tasawwuf.

 Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (3, 985-995); Divan-i ‘Imad-i Faqih-i Kirmani (287-290).