4to. Volume I: 196 pp., / Volume II: 320 pp., Arabic lithographic text within borders, al-Kashani text printed on margins, modern hard back binding, lower part of last page is lacking, paper browned, title page of Volume one foxed, printed at al-Matba’a al-Qahiriya, Cairo, 1123 A. H./ 1711.

Synopsis

Omar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fārid (1181-1235) was an Arab poet, esteemed the greatest mystic poet of the Arabs. His poetry is entirely Sufic. Some of his poems are said to have been written during ecstasies. Unlike many other respected poets of the day such as Ibn Sana al-Mulk, Ibn Unayn, Baha al-Din
Zuhayr and Ibn Matruh, Ibn al-Fārid refused the patronage of wealthy governmental figures, which would have required him to produce poetry for propaganda, preferring the relatively humble life of a teacher that allowed him to compose his poetry of unhampered enlightenment. One time al-Malik al-Kamil, who was the Ayubbid Sultan at the time, liked some of his odes so much that he sent the poet an exorbitant amount of money and offered to build a shrine for him. Ibn al- Fārid denied both the money and the offer of the shrine, choosing to trust in God to supply for his needs. His position as a teacher at the Azhar mosque allowed him to provide for his family of three children.