Texts of Islam

Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: Remarks on the Mystic Doctrine and Poetry of the Ṣūfīs

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This is a prefatory essay from an 1868 British anthology of Afghan poetry, written to prepare Western readers for what they are about to encounter. Raverty argues that Afghan poetry, while sharing the broader tradition of Asiatic verse, is simpler and less bombastic than Persian poetry and draws closer to the directness of ancient Arabic verse — though both traditions require knowledge of Sufism to be properly understood. The bulk of the essay is an extended exposition of Sufi doctrine: its conception of the soul as an exile from God, its four stages of spiritual ascent (humanity, the way, knowledge, and union with Truth), and the severe physical and contemplative ordeals its adepts undergo. Raverty's central practical claim for the reader is that Sufi poetry — which appears on its surface to celebrate wine, earthly love, and sensual pleasure — is in fact a sustained allegory for divine longing and mystical union, with the apparent debauchery serving as symbol for spiritual ecstasy. A quietly distinctive argument runs through the essay: that the Afghans, typically dismissed as rough and martial, have produced Sufi poetry of equal sublimity to the celebrated Persian tradition, a case the anthology itself is meant to demonstrate.

Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: Remarks on the Mystic Doctrine and Poetry of the Ṣūfīs

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