Join us as we engage in enlightening conversations with eminent scholars and poets from around the world to explore these and other questions. Focusing on Sufi ...
Available Episodes
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Episode 12: Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse
Imam Fakhruddin Owaisi and Adnan Adrian Wood Smith join us to discuss of the Poetry of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975). Probably the most popular and influential African poet of the 20th century in any language, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse was born in 1900, Tayba in Senegal, a town founded by his father, the Sufi master and scholar Abdoulaye Niasse. The young Ibrahim Niasse was something of a prodigy, quickly mastering all of the Islamic disciplines his father taught him, including classical Arabic poetry. Niasse excelled in writing poetry praising the Prophet Muḥammad (madīḥ nabawī), and as Niasse became recognized as […]
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1:32:45
Episode 11: Bedil
Professor Hajnalka Kovacs and Ahmad Rashid Salim join us to discuss the poetry of Bedil Dihlavī (d. 1720), one of the greatest and most influential Persian-language poets of the Indian subcontinent. He wrote over 2,800 ghazals, four mathanwis (a genre of narrative verse in rhymed couplets), and other poetic texts, all of which circulated throughout the Indian Subcontinent, Central Asia, and the Safavid and Ottoman Empires. Known for its complex and ambiguous style, creative metaphors and images, and adaptations of Sanskrit and Hindu themes and figures, Bedil’s poetry is highly philosophical, brilliantly translating and thinking through the issues of Ibn […]
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1:33:07
Episode 10: Misri, Bursavi, and Ottoman Sufi Poetry
Professors Nurullah Koltaş and Vitoria Holbrook join us to discuss the poetry of Niyazi Misri (d. 1694) and Ismā’īl Ḥaqqī Bursawī (d. 1725), two of the greatest Sufi poets of Ottoman Turkish. Highly-esteemed scholars, authors, and Sufi masters of the Halveti order during their lives, their poetry is still sung today in Turkish tekyes, or Sufi lodges, forming the basis of many popular ilâhis. Their poetry is characterized by a marriage of Akbari metaphysics, Persian ghazal symbolism, and the directness and profundity of the earlier Turkish Ashki tradition. One of Niyazi’s poems even alludes to the title of this podcast: […]
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1:10:26
Episode 9: Hafez
Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr joins us to discuss the poetry of Shams al-dīn Muḥammad Shirāzī (1325-1390), better known by his pen-name, Hafez. Widely considered the greatest master of the Persian ghazal, his poetry was acclaimed even during his lifetime, winning him fame as far as Bengal. His Divān, or collection of poetry, is one of the most beloved, studied, and commented upon works of literature in Islamic history, even influencing non-Muslim poets like Goethe and Tagore. Enjoying the patronage of the various rulers of Shiraz during this tumultuous period of its history, Hafez was known for the exceptional musicality and […]
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53:59
Episode 8: Ibn al-'Arabī
Professors Michael Sells and Hany Ibrahim explore the poetry of Muḥyī ad-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī (1165-1240), the Andalusian scholar, mystic, poet, and author known as the Shaykh al-Akbar, “The Greatest Master.” One of the most influential Islamic thinkers and spiritual figures of all time, Ibn al-‘Arabi is best known for his voluminous Futuḥāt al-Makkiya, The Meccan Openings, once called “the greatest spiritual encyclopedia ever written by a single author,” and his highly influential and shorter philosophical-mystical work, al-Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, The Ringstones of Wisdom; both works are filled with his unique style of spiritually didactic poetry. But Ibn al-‘Arabi was also a […]
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1:12:41
About Logic of the Birds
Join us as we engage in enlightening conversations with eminent scholars and poets from around the world to explore these and other questions. Focusing on Sufi poetry, this podcast series will explore some of the great poets and poems in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Wolof, Hausa, Swahili, Panjabi, Malay, and more. Our conversations will examine how these traditions cultivated perspectives and popular literary traditions that wedded the sensual and intellectual, the aesthetic and the ethical, the affective and rational, the logical and the spiritual, the philosophical and mystical.