Lost in a Sea of Letters

Cyril V. Uy II, Ph.D. (2021), Brown University, is Assistant Professor of Religion at James Madison University.

• AcknowledgementsList of FiguresNote on Transliteration and UsageIntroduction1 Ecce homo2 Theory and Method (or, How to Read Ḥamūya)3 Progression of Themes (Lead Sheet)1 Riffing on the Real: Letters and the Language of God1 (In)coherence of the Philosophers2 Ḥamūya and the Ḥurūf3 The Science of Letters in Ibn ʿArabī’s Meccan Revelations4 Dynamism and Difference5 Conclusion2 Sufi Free Jazz: Prayer, Deconstruction, and Boundless Play1 Body and Soul: The Sufi Manuals of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī, and Shihāb al-Dīn ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī2 Both Directions at Once: The Levels of Joy as Sufi Free Jazz3 Meditations: Prayer as Spiritual Technology?4 Ascension: Ḥamūya’s Prayers as Free Jazz Improvisation?5 Conclusion3 Calculating Infinity: Diagram and/as Devotion1 Repetition and Difference: The Mirror of Spirits as Sufi Devotional Text2 Dada Talismans? Deconstructing Visual Language3 Diagramming Devotion: The Mirror of Spirits as Abstract Machine4 Conclusion4 Genealogies of Knowledge: Shaykhs, Sufis, and Spiritual Inheritance1 Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūya and the All-Powerful Sufi Shaykh2 Najm al-Dīn Kubrā and ʿAmmār al-Bidlīsī3 Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī and Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī4 Spiritual Inheritance and the Politics of Citation5 The Ḥamūya Clan6 The Ayyūbid Context: Ḥamūya and the Chief Sufis of Egypt and Syria7 The Mongol Context: Ḥamūya and the “Golden Kin”8 Conclusion5 Real Talk: Language, Revelation, and Human Perfection1 Prophecy and Sainthood: An Overview2 Prophecy and Sainthood as Relational Principles3 Endless Deferrals in The Book of the Beloved4 Inimitability, Incomprehensibility, and Wonder5 ConclusionCodaAppendix1: Biographical EssayAppendix2: Literature ReviewAppendix3: List of Ḥamūya’s WorksAppendix4: Mirror of Spirits StructureBibliographyIndex