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Barghouti, Dia. 2021. Performances of the Sufi Ascent in Ibn ‘Arab’S Metaphysics, Tunisian Ara and Dhikrrituals, and Three Sufi Plays: Journeys in God’S Vast Earth

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Barghouti, Dia. 2021. Performances of the Sufi Ascent in Ibn ‘Arab’S Metaphysics, Tunisian Ara and Dhikrrituals, and Three Sufi Plays: Journeys in God’S Vast Earth Barghouti, Dia. 2021. Performances of the Sufi Ascent in Ibn ‘Arab’s Metaphysics, Tunisian ara and DhikrRituals, and Three Sufi Plays: Journeys in God’s Vast Earth. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29998/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] Performances of the Sufi Ascent in Ibn ‘Arabī’s Metaphysics, Tunisian Ḥaḍra and Dhikr Rituals, and Three Sufi Plays: Journeys in God’s Vast Earth Dia Barghouti Part Submission for the Degree of PhD (1) Goldsmiths, University of London 1 I Dia Barghouti hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date:17/11/2020 2 Acknowledgements Over the last five years I have met countless people in Tunis, London, Istanbul, Ramallah, and Beirut who have helped me complete this thesis. The names of those who helped me during my research on the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya communities are endless. Nonetheless, I shall try to thank those whom I can. To Maria Shevtsova, who, like the great Andalusian saint Muḥyiddīn Ibn ‘Arabī, has been an example of what it means to be truly human. I am eternally grateful for her patience, guidance, and kindness. To Stefan Sperl for his valuable feedback and encouragement. To my parents, Rita Giacaman and Mustafa Barghouti, for their unconditional love and support. To Selima Bin-Chedli, who taught me more about life than Sufi rituals. To Mondher M‘ribah, Eskander Derouiche, Sufian al-Shahid, Shaykh Munir, Salah Wargli, Mohammad Farouk Chlagou, Youssef Salma, Maryam al-Akhwa, the shaykhs and caretakers of the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya shrines, the spirits of Sīdī Miḥriz, Sīdī Bin-Ḥasan, Sīdī Bin-‘Īssa, and Sīdī Boū-Sa‘īd, and to those who preferred to remain anonymous, I am eternally grateful that they have allowed me to be part of their community. To Faris Giacaman, Zaid Amr, Zeina Amro, Rand Jarallah, Shyrina Rantisi, Serdar Coskun, Shaden Powell, Amer Abu Matar, Akif Yerlioglu, Belgin Tekce, Huda Zurayk, Weeam Hammoudeh, George Giacaman, Lisa Taraki, and Alexandra Corrigan who have been incredibly supportive throughout this journey. To Wafi Bilal, Dina Amr, Hedaia Ghannam, and Emma Playfair for making London feel like home. To Sadok Aidani, Erik Ehn, Marcus Gardley, and Lara Khaldi for encouraging me to continue writing plays. To my grandmother Emily Giacaman, who always encouraged us to pursue knowledge. 3 Abstract The story of the Night Journey describes the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous ascent to the heavens. In several Sufi communities, the ascent has become part of the Sufi path, symbolizing the different spiritual stations adepts encounter in their journey to God. Tunisia is home to many Sufi orders, including the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya, who perform the ascent in dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals. Drawing on the philosophical-theological writings of Muḥyiddīn Ibn-‘Arabī (1165-1240), this thesis explores the dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals through the framework of Islamic metaphysics in an attempt to examine what constitutes performance from an Islamic Sufi perspective. The purpose of this practice-as-research thesis is to examine the metaphysical concepts and cultural contexts that have given rise to these rituals and provide both theoretical and concrete principles by means of which theatre practitioners can experiment with Sufi modes of performance. My practice-based component – in the form of three plays – demonstrates how Sufi understandings of language and embodiment can create new avenues for theatrical experimentation. Methods of writing, corporeal techniques, and a religious culturally specific understanding of performance are embedded within the dhikr and ḥaḍra. They have not been explored specifically in terms of the theatre – a lacuna that my plays, written within the frames of reference of the religious, spiritual, philosophical and other relevant research of the theoretical part of my PhD submission, which is integral to my thesis as a composite whole, begin modestly to fill. 4 My plays focus on the tension between the transcendent and immanent attributes of God, one of the most fundamental principles of Ibn ‘Arabī’s ontology, embodied in dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals. Three characters travel through various landscapes in search of God until they realize that the divine is both within and beyond the forms they witness in the Sufi journey that has no end. 5 Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………...7 Chapter One: Methodologies…………………………………………...14 Chapter Two: The Spiritual Doctrine of Muḥyiddīn Ibn ‘Arabī…….68 Chapter Three: Performances of the Sufi Ascent in Tunisian Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya Rituals……………………………………………….….106 Chapter Four: Sufi Ritual, Ontology, and Language: Performing the Infinite Transcendent…………………………………………………..168 Chapter Five: Situating and Annotating The Sacred Triangle of Silence, Paths to the Infinite Forest, and the Eternal Seed……………………..206 Conclusion…………………………………………………………........257 6 Introduction Tunisia is home to a wide range of indigenous performance traditions, including the dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals of the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya Sufi orders. Indigenous Arab performance practices like the dhikr and ḥaḍra are generally understudied and have only recently begun to receive attention from pioneering theatre studies scholars such as Marvin Carlson, Khalid Amine, and Deborah Kapchan who have stressed the importance and value of these traditions as theatrical forms.1 While ethnomusicologists and religious studies scholars have done some of the most important research on Sufi communities in North Africa, their work does not provide a comprehensive study of Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya rituals in Tunisia, nor does it examine these religious practices as a performance form.2 The aim of my practice-as-research thesis is to explore the dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals as performance events within an Islamic intellectual framework so as to explore what constitutes performance from an Islamic Sufi perspective, and how this culturally specific understanding of performance can help to alter theatrical practice with a focus on playwriting. My three plays, which form the practical component of this thesis, provide an example of how theatre-makers can experiment with the metaphysical ideas and performance principles examined in the theoretical part of this thesis. There are several reasons why I chose the writings of the twelfth-century Andalusian saint Muḥyiddīn Ibn ‘Arabī as the primary theoretical framework through which to examine the dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals. First, Ibn ‘Arabī’s writings provide a comprehensive Islamic framework 7 that summarizes some of the most important metaphysical and theological issues of vital importance to the Sufi orders such as the notion of sainthood.3 Second, members of the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya hold Ibn ‘Arabī in high regard and the more advanced adepts are familiar with his books. Although the majority of adepts do not read his works, they explore some of the most important aspects of his ontology through embodied performances. Such performances include the dhikr and ḥaḍra that contribute to the integration of Islamic metaphysics into Tunisian Sufi culture, which manifests itself in the practices of everyday life. Third, there is a historical connection between Ibn ‘Arabī and the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya orders through the figure of Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shushtarī, a thirteenth-century Andalusian saint. Al-Shushtarī made Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophy much more accessible to the public by incorporating his ideas into popular songs composed in Andalusian vernacular.4 Members of the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya attribute several of the songs and poems performed in their rituals to al-Shushtarī, who is one of the many saints affiliated with these orders. The Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals are oral traditions which constantly change as they are passed down from one generation to the next. It is therefore impossible to determine the exact sources from which these traditions have emerged, including the poems attributed to al-Shushtarī that cannot be traced back to the historical figure. However, a comparison of al-Shushtarī’s poems with ‘Īssāwiya and Shādhiliya songs and litanies reveals that they explore many of the same metaphysical themes discussed in detail in Ibn ‘Arabī’s writings, suggesting that al-Shushtarī played an important role in the dissemination of these ideas. 8 Fourth, for both Ibn ‘Arabī and members of the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya, the story of the Prophet Muhammad’s ascent (mi‘rāj) has become part of the Sufi path, representing the different spiritual stations, encounters with prophets, and esoteric knowledge acquired in the journey towards God.5 Both also stress that there is no end to the journey of ascent that gradually and endlessly brings adepts closer to the Absolute (God) which cannot be known except through its revelation in finite forms that constantly change, reflecting one of the infinite divine attributes.6 The ascent is performed in dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals
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