Sufi connection with Gilgameš (1)

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The name of Bulūqiyā is also found in a composition, where it is given to a Christian monk Bulukhya. About this monk, the story is told that he held the secret of why the news of Muhammad’s coming had been withheld from the Torah, and imparted it to a very wise Jew from the Yemen, Kaˁb al-Ahbar, who was then converted to Islam late in life. This tale and a version of the Tale of Bulūqiyā told by early Arab writer Thaˁlabi, contain evidence that the story was popular and prestigous among Sufis. Thaˁlabi, whose stories in general emerged from a circle of mystics in Baghdad, mentions al-Jawzaqī, a sage of Nishapur (died in 988 CE) as the authority and his source. The biographical details of the latter make it clear that the Tale of Bulūqiyā was popular in an ascetic circle in northeastern Iran. Some of the stories of Thaˁlabi were interpreted as mystical stories symbolizing the stages through which a mystic proceeded towards communion with God. Within the format of the Tale of Bulūqiyā one can discern the essential ritual and the states through which the mystic must pass to acquire fundamental knowledge and come into contact with supernatural beings. Since many early Sufis lived in central and southern Mesopotamia as mystics and theurgists, it seems clear that theirs is one milieu in which tales of Bulūqiyā flourished.

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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