The Meaning and Etymology of Barzakh in Illuminationist Philosophy
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CHAPTER 6 The Meaning and Etymology of Barzakh in Illuminationist Philosophy Malihe Karbassian Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191),1 the Iranian founder of Illuminationist philosophy (ḥikmat al-ishrāq), frequently attributes the source of his thoughts to early Iranian traditions preserved in ancient texts.2 His refer- ences remain unverifiable, but the relationship between his usage of ancient terms versus their common usage has been studied by lexicographers and students of philosophy and merits re-examination. One such term is barzakh, “body” in Suhrawardī’s usage, a term that in New Persian denotes a realm be- tween paradise and hell3 and has other connotations in Persian and Arabic in the medieval period as well. The following is a brief review of various definitions and interpretations of barzakh in major sources, beginning with classical lexicons and texts where barzakh is identified as an Arabic term. In Arabic lexicons, barzakh is defined as “barrier,” “a barrier between two things,” “a barrier between paradise and hell,”4 as well as “the grave,”5 and “wall”.6 1 For his life and works see: Ziai, Knowledge and Illumination, pp. 9–11; Ziai, “The Source and Nature of Authority”, pp. 304–344; Walbridge, The Leaven of the Ancients, ch. 2. 2 See, for example, Corbin, Les motifs zoroasrtriens, pp. 22–62; Corbin, En Islam iranien, vol. II, pp. 96–104, 141–159; Walbridge, The Wisdom of the Mystic East, pp. 42–50. 3 Pākatchī, “Barzakh”, p. 697; al-Tahānawī, “Kashshāf iṣṭilāḥāt al-funūn,” p. 322; Gheissari, “Fawākih al-basāṭīn,” p. 791. The place between paradise and hell, called aʿrāf in Islamic tradi- tion, is hamastagān in Zoroastrianism. The reason why these two terms have been replaced with barzakh merits examination. 4 al-Farāhīdī, Kītāb al-ʿayn, vol. 4, p. 338; al-Jawharī, Ṣiḥāḥ al-lugha, vol. 1, p. 419; al-Ṭurayḥī, Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn, vol. 1, p. 186; al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-ʿarūs, vol. 4, p. 260. 5 al-Ṭabarsī, Tafsīr Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 7, p. 209. 6 Mashkūr, Farhang-i taṭbīqī, vol. 1, p. 60. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���8 | doi ��.��63/9789004358393_007 Meaning and Etymology of Barzakh 87 In three Qurʾanic verses, barzakh signifies the distance between two rivers (Sūrat al-Furqān, verse 53; Sūrat al-Raḥmān, verse 20) and between this world and the next (Sūrat al-Muʾminūn, verse 23),7 or more generally, distance.8 In Sufi and mystical traditions, barzakh stands for the visible world between the realm of non-material, simple meanings and that of material objects,9 or in Ibn ʿArabī’s words,10 suspended forms (ʿālam al-mithāl al-miqdārī). To Sufis, the “all-inclusive barrier” (barzakh-i jāmiʿ) or the “barrier of barriers” (barzakh al-barāzikh) signifies the “presence of supreme unity” (ḥażrat-i aḥadiyyat) and the “first essence” (ʿayn-i awwal), which is the origin of all barriers (barāzikh). As such, it is also called the “greater barrier” (barzakh-i akbar) and the “first barrier” (barzakh-i awwal).11 As noted by Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī, some think- ers consider “the barrier of barriers” to be the first creature, or, in Aristotelian terminology, the First Intellect from which all other creatures are generated.12 Suhrawardī uses barzakh to signify bodies (ghasaq), i.e., created beings in this world, which al-Tahānawī and Muṣāḥab explain as follows: To Illuminationists, barzakh refers to the body ( jism). Sharḥ Ḥikmat al- Ishrāq describes the divine lights (anwār ilāhīyya) and explains that to Illuminationist sages, barzakh indicates the body because it refers to the barrier between two things. Opaque bodies share the same quality.13 Illuminationist sages call the body, which is dark and cannot be illumi- nated until it is connected to a foreign light (nūr-i ghayr), barzakh.14 While al-Tahānawī characterizes an “opaque body” as a barrier, he does not elaborate on the nature of things separated by a barrier. Assuming one side of the barrier comprises non-materiality, what, precisely, lies on the other side? It cannot be bodies ( jismānīyyāt) because the body, the barzakh, acts as a barrier. As for Muṣāḥab, he observes that a “dusky body” cannot exit darkness without 7 al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt gharīb al-Qurʾān, p. 43. 8 Zaki, “Barzakh”, pp. 204–207. 9 Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, p. 41. Unfortunately, Jurjānī uses the vague term Sufi without further explanations, as does ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī in Muʿjam-i iṣtilāḥāt al-ṣūfiyya, p. 63. 10 Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makiyya, vol. 3, p. 46. 11 Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, p. 45. 12 Āmulī, “Naqd al-nuqūd”, p. 688. 13 al-Tahānawī, Kashshāf iṣṭilāḥāt al-funūn, p. 322. According to Corbin (En Islam iranien, vol. II, pp. 108–109), barzakh is a barrier against light because it is darkness; barzakh as a barrier causes the light to appear. 14 Muṣāḥab, Dāʾirat al-maʿārif-i fārsī, vol. 1, p. 405; for original sources see Shahrazūrī, Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, p. 288; Quṭb a-Dīn Shīrāzī, Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, p. 285..