Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr - Abridged Edition

by Louis Massignon

Overview

Abridged from the four-volume The Passion of al-Hallaj, one of the major works of Western orientalism, this book explores the life and teaching of a famous tenth-century Sufi mystic and martyr, and in so doing describes not only his experience but also the whole milieu of early Islamic civilization. Louis Massignon (1883-1962), France's most celebrated Islamic specialist in this century and a leading Catholic intellectual, wrote of a man who was for him a personal inspiration.


From reviews of the four-volume translation:

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691234540
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Series:	Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology , #134
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Herbert Mason is University Professor of History and Religion at Boston University.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations
	Foreword to the Abridged Edition
	Preface
Ch. 1	Biographical Outline	1
I	Prologue	1
II	Chronological Tableau of Hallaj's Life and Posthumous Survival	9
Ch. 2	The Years of Apprenticeship: His Teachers and Friends	24
I	Native Milieu	24
II	The Cultural Milieu of Basra	33
III	Anecdotes from His Years of Apprenticeship: His Hajj (Ghutba)	52
Ch. 3	Travels and Apostolate	72
I	His Modes of Travel: His Dress, His Itineraries, His Stopping Places	72
II	The Two Periods of Public Preaching in Ahwaz (272-273 and 279-281)	74
III	The Other Regions Traveled Through	89
IV	The Social Expression of Hallaj's Vocation, and His Contacts with the Cultural Renaissance of His Time	101
V	The Last Hajj of Hallaj and the Waqfa of Arafat	114
Ch. 4	In Baghdad: Zealous Preaching and Political Indictment	117
I	Baghdad	117
II	Public Preaching in Baghdad	132
III	Political Indictment: The Dawat Ilal-Rububiya, Usurpation of the Supreme Power of God	150
Ch. 5	The Indictment, The Court of Justice, and the Actors in the Drama	157
I	The Indictment and Ibn Dawud's Initiative	157
II	The Definition of Zandaqa, a Heresy Threatening the Security of the State	177
III	The Sovereign Authority and Its Delegation to a Court of Justice; the Court of Justice, Its Powers and Jurisdiction	180
Ch. 6	The Trials	208
I	A Critical Note about the Historical Sources for the Trials	208
II	The First Trial (298/910 to 301/913)	211
III	The Eight Years of Waiting	219
IV	The Second Trial (308/921 to 309/922)	227
V	The Denouement and the Judgment of Condemnation	256
Ch. 7	The Martyrdom	280
	The Peripeteias of the Execution	280

Editorial Reviews

"The French original of this work has stood for most of this century as a model of the way Western scholarship can illumine a foreign culture, not patronize or denature it.... This translation climaxes one of the most focused projects of humanistic scholarship this century has seen."—-Huston Smith, Commonweal

"An incomparable study of the religious forces, the social and political life, and the whole culture of the Islamic world within which [this saint] lived and died."—-Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies

From the Publisher

An incomparable study of the religious forces, the social and political life, and the whole culture of the Islamic world within which [this saint] lived and died.
— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies

An incomparable study of the religious forces, the social and political life, and the whole culture of the Islamic world within which [this saint] lived and died.
— Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

An incomparable study of the religious forces, the social and political life, and the whole culture of the Islamic world within which [this saint] lived and died.

Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies - Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The French original of this work has stood for most of this century as a model of the way Western scholarship can illumine a foreign culture, not patronize or denature it.... This translation climaxes one of the most focused projects of humanistic scholarship this century has seen.

Commonweal - Huston Smith

The French original of this work has stood for most of this century as a model of the way Western scholarship can illumine a foreign culture, not patronize or denature it.... This translation climaxes one of the most focused projects of humanistic scholarship this century has seen.
— Huston Smith

Commonweal