Lost in a Sea of Letters

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72506-5
Verlag: World Bank Publications

Buch, Englisch, Arabisch, Band 14, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 627 g

Reihe: Islamicate Intellectual History

In Lost in a Sea of Letters, Cyril Uy explores the life and work of Sa'd al-Din Hamuya (d. 1252), a Mongol-era Sufi whose arcane treatises inspired generations of mystics and messiahs. Reading Hamuya in dialogue with contemporaries across Central Asia, Iran, and the Eastern Mediterranean, Uy excavates a world in which knowledge was an embodied sensibility: a way of being that could improvise across all dimensions of human experience. Hamuya’s performative writing reworked the foundations of this knowledge, provoking readers to live reality through the cacophony of his Sufi free jazz. Foregrounding Hamuya’s deconstructive ethos and radical openness to interpretation, Uy reveals how embracing plurality could thrive as a mode of social, intellectual, and spiritual competition.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Uy, Cyril

Uy II, Cyril Villarosa

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Philosophie & Wissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Islamische & Arabische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Note on Transliteration and Usage

Introduction 1 Ecce homo 2 Theory and Method (or, How to Read ?amuya) 3 Progression of Themes (Lead Sheet)

1 Riffing on the Real: Letters and the Language of God 1 (In)coherence of the Philosophers 2 ?amuya and the ?uruf 3 The Science of Letters in Ibn ?Arabi’s Meccan Revelations 4 Dynamism and Difference 5 Conclusion

2 Sufi Free Jazz: Prayer, Deconstruction, and Boundless Play 1 Body and Soul: The Sufi Manuals of Najm al-Din Kubra, Mu?yi al-Din Ibn ?Arabi, and Shihab al-Din ?Umar al-Suhrawardi 2 Both Directions at Once: The Levels of Joy as Sufi Free Jazz 3 Meditations: Prayer as Spiritual Technology? 4 Ascension: ?amuya’s Prayers as Free Jazz Improvisation? 5 Conclusion

3 Calculating Infinity: Diagram and/as Devotion 1 Repetition and Difference: The Mirror of Spirits as Sufi Devotional Text 2 Dada Talismans? Deconstructing Visual Language 3 Diagramming Devotion: The Mirror of Spirits as Abstract Machine 4 Conclusion

4 Genealogies of Knowledge: Shaykhs, Sufis, and Spiritual Inheritance 1 Sa?d al-Din ?amuya and the All-Powerful Sufi Shaykh 2 Najm al-Din Kubra and ?Ammar al-Bidlisi 3 ?adr al-Din al-Qunawi and Mu?yi al-Din Ibn ?Arabi 4 Spiritual Inheritance and the Politics of Citation 5 The ?amuya Clan 6 The Ayyubid Context: ?amuya and the Chief Sufis of Egypt and Syria 7 The Mongol Context: ?amuya and the “Golden Kin” 8 Conclusion

5 Real Talk: Language, Revelation, and Human Perfection 1 Prophecy and Sainthood: An Overview 2 Prophecy and Sainthood as Relational Principles 3 Endless Deferrals in The Book of the Beloved 4 Inimitability, Incomprehensibility, and Wonder 5 Conclusion

Coda

Appendix1: Biographical Essay

Appendix2: Literature Review

Appendix3: List of ?amuya’s Works

Appendix4: Mirror of Spirits Structure

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Cyril V. Uy II, Ph.D. (2021), Brown University, is Assistant Professor of Religion at James Madison University.