Najm al-Din Razi

Najm Daya Razi, Najm al-Din Abu Bakr ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Shahwar (1177-1256), writer, Sufi, and poet with the nom de plume Najm and well-known as Daya and Najm Razi. He was a distinguished mystic flourishing in the thirteenth century. Born in Ray, he was raised in his hometown. His nickname was Abu Bakr. Daya (Razi) was a disciple of Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubra. He commenced his journeys in his youth. Having gone on pilgrimage to Mecca, he traveled in Syria and Egypt and visited Shaykh Maj al-Din at the suggestion of Najm al-Din Kubra in ca. 1203 from whom he received mystical and spiritual guidance. Consequent to the murder of his master, Majd al-Din Baghdad, he returned to Khurasan. Following the Mongol invasion, he fled to Iraq ‘Ajam. After a while, he traveled to Hamadan where he settled. According to Muhammad Amin Riyahi in his introduction to Mirsad al-‘Ibad, he then departed for Irbil whence he traveled to Asia Minor and the seat of the Seljuk state. He arrived in Caesaria via Diyar Bakr and visited Shaykh Shihab al-Din ‘Umar ibn Muhammad Suhrawardi in Malatya and it was at the suggestion of the latter that he joined audience with the Seljuk ‘Ala’ al-Din Kayqubad (1219-1236) and dedicated his Mirsad al-‘Ibad to hom which was highly regarded by the sultan. Najm al-Din Settled in Baghdad for a while. Then, he joined audience in Arzanjan with ‘Ala’ al-Din Dawud ibn Bahram Shah to whom he dedicated Marmuzat-i Asadi dar Mazmurat-i Dawudi. His travel and stay in the region lasted four to five years. He joined the audience of Khwarazmshah Sultan Jalal al-Din in 1225; then he returned to Asia Minor and traveled in that region. He associated for a while with Sadr al-Din Quniyawi and Mawlana Jalal al-Din Balkhi (Rumi) in Konya. In his travels in Asia Minor or Baghdad, he visited Awhad al-Din Kirmani. Finally, he departed for Baghdad, where he died. His tomb is in Shuniziyya, Baghdad, adjacent to the tombs of Shaykh Sari Saqati and Shaykh Junayd Baghdadi. He spent his childhood and the time of studies in Rayy in the last quarter of the twelfth century. According to Yaqut Hamawi, many people were killed or lost their homes in Rayy in 1186 and the city fell into ruins. The Hanafis and the Shafi’is laid devastation to the Shi’is and then the Shafi’is vanquished the Hanafis. Najm Razi was a nine year old child at that time and as he was, according to some reports, a Hanafi, his family must have been affected by the unrest. The young Sufi, consequent to the unrest, departed his hometown for Khurasan and Khwarazm. Following the Sufi traditions, he spent all his life in travelling to different lands. During his stay in Baghdad, he wrote a Qu’anic exegesis in Arabic, entitled Bahr al-Haqa’iq wa ‘l-Ma’ani, manuscripts of which are available. His Sufism was the intertwining of love and worship. On the one hand, his works reflect his keen interest in the enforcement of religious laws and devotions and prayers as an obligation and on the other and above all they reflect that love is the final goal of mystical knowledge and wayfaring. Such views are clearly reflected in the four chapters of Mirsad al-‘Ibad and his other works. His works include: Mirsad al-‘Ibad min al-Mabda’ ila ’l-Ma’ad (1221 and 1223), his magnum opus, treating the spiritual wayfaring and attainment to the world of certitude, guiding the human soul, and gaining knowledge about divine attributes. It falls into five sections (bab) which further divide into 40 chapters (fasl). The first section consists of a prolegomenon; the second section deals with the origin of beings, the third is devoted to the life of the people, and the fourth section is on the resurrection of the souls of the fortunate and the unfortunate, and the fifth section concerns the wayfaring of different groups. His other well-known work is Mi’yar al-Sidq fi Misdaq al-‘Ishq, also known as Risala-yi ‘Aql wa ‘Ishq. Compared with Mirsad al-‘Ibad, this work possesses further consistency and fluency in style and it is interspersed with the author’s numerous poems in the forms of qasida, ghazal, and tarana; the Arabic Qur’an exegesis by Najm Razi, recorded in Kashf al-Zunun by the title Bahr al-Haqa’iq wa ‘l-Ma’ani fi Tafsir al-Sab’ al-Mathani; Namarat al-Sa’irin ila Hazrat Allah wa Maqamat al-Ta’irin bi-llah, in Arabic, which includes the materials contained in Mirsad al-‘Ibad, treating the accounts of the spiritual states of the mystics and their miracles, compiled 35 years before Manarat al-Sa’irin, as recorded in Mirsad al-‘Ibad in which case Manarat must have been completed in his last year, viz. in 1256; Risalat al-Tayr, also known as Risalat al-Tuyur, written in an ornate style, reportedly in his youth when he lived in Rayy. It is in the epistolary style, in the form of a letter from the oppressed of Rayy addressed to a vizier by the name of Jamal al-Din Sharaf Salghur Bulfath, who had seemingly inhabited Ray, though he had departed from the city and the people of Rayy requested his return; Risalat al-‘Ashiq ila ‘l-Ma’shuq, an exposition of a discourse on the uncreatedness of the Sufi by Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Kharaqani and also a commentary on Marmuzat-i Asadi dar Mazmurat-i Dawudi which he had dedicated to ‘Ala’ al-Din Dawud Shah ibn Bahram Shah, the ruler of Arzanjan. The themes of the chapters of the work include mystical knowledge, wayfaring, wayfaring of the rulers, statecraft, counsels addressed to rulers, historical accounts of rulers from the time of Adam, giving respite to the tyrant, philosophical aphorisms, and the signs of the resurrection day. In the opening of the work, Najm al-Din states that he arrived in Asia Minor via Diyar Bakr in 1221 where he stayed for three years to the time of authoring the work when he went to Arzanjan. He was a poet as well and some of his poetical compositions have been included in Mirsad al-‘Ibad, Marmuzat, and Risala-yi ‘Aql wa ‘Ishq. He closes his ghazals with his nom de plume, Najm or Najm Razi, and his appellation, Daya. However, compared to his poetry, his prose style is more distinguished owing to his exquisite fluency, vigor, and eloquent diction, notwithstanding employment of numerous Arabic words and frequent use of rhymed prose and figurative devices. His prose style is fluent, simple, but at times epistolary, adorned with elegant usage of words. His works reflect his interest in alluding to Qur’anic verses, prophetic traditions, and Persian and Arabic poetry aiming at reflecting the Sufi lore; however, his diction is free from affectation, though his mastery of prose style, vast erudition, and his poetical vigor, his style is attractive and at times intertwined with different embellishments, hence its serving as a model of Persian vigorous prose style down the centuries. His works are marked by his particular attention, following the traditions of his contemporary Sufis and religious scholars, to Persian compositions in prose and poetry. In addition to his exalted mystical rank, he is a perfect writer, and at times prose stylist, who successfully makes use of the literary style and intertwining it with epistolary adornments.

Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (3/ 1189-1196); Mabani-yi ‘Irfan wa Ahwal wa Athar-i ‘Arifan (460-465).