ʿIrāqī

ʿIrāqī (born c. 1211, near Hamadan, Iran—died November 1289, Damascus, Syria) was one of the most outstanding poets of 13th-century Persia.

Very little is known about ʿIrāqī’s early life. There is evidence that he abandoned a teaching career to follow a group of wandering Sufis, or mystics, as far as India in search of higher mystical knowledge. After studying for 25 years with his master, Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zakariyyā, in Multān, he journeyed to the Hejaz and to the city of Konya in Anatolia. At Konya he wrote what is considered to be his greatest work, Kitāb al-lamaʿāt (“The Book of Beams of Light”), a profound work in mixed verse and prose inspired by the mystical philosopher Ibn al-ʿArabī. ʿIrāqī later went to Egypt and finally to Syria. A great poet of mystical love, he also is famous for his Divān (“Collected Poems”) and his ʿUshshāq-nāmeh (Eng. trans. The Song of The Lovers: ʿUshshāqnāma, edited and translated by A.J. Arberry), a mystical work written in masnawi (rhymed couplets) interspersed with ghazals (lyrics).