ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN KĀŠĀNĪ, MAḤMŪD

 

ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN KĀŠĀNĪ, MAḤMŪD b. ʿAlī Naṭanzī, an author and Sufi of the early 8th century (d. 735/1334-35). All that is known about ʿEzz-al-Dīn’s life is that he was a Shafiʿite of Ashʿarite persuasion, studied under Ẓahīr-al-Dīn ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Shaikh Najīb-al-Dīn ʿAlī Bozḡoš Šīrāzī, and received his mystic training from Nūr-al-Dīn ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad Eṣfahānī in Naṭanz (hence his nesba Naṭanzī in some sources). ʿEzz-al-Dīn is known for his Meṣbāḥ al-hedāya, a valuable Persian manual of mystic ideas, mainly based on Šehāb-al-Dīn Sohravardī’s ʿAwāref al-maʿāref (q.v.) and containing useful information about the rites and customs in the ḵānaqāh. It is arranged in ten chapters, each chapter being further divided into ten sections. In spite of the frequent use of Arabic vocabulary and phrases, the luciditity and variety of expressions and idioms in Persian make it a valuable text for the students of Persian. The poet ʿEmād Faqīh Kermānī’s Ṭarīqat-nāma is a versified version of the Meṣbāhá.

ʿEzz-al-Dīn is also the author of Kašf al-wojūh al-ḡorr le-maʿānī naẓm al-dorr, a commentary in Arabic on Ebn al-Fāreż’s mystical qaṣīda “al-Tāʾīya al-kobrā.”

 

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):

Sayyed Ḥaydar Āmolī, Jāmeʿ al-asrār wa manbaʿ al-anwārbe-enżemām-eNaqd al-noqūd fī maʿrefat al-wojūd, ed. H. Corbin and ʿO. Esmāʿīl Yaḥyā, 2nd. ed., Tehran, 1368 Š./1989, pp. 78, 700.

ʿEzz-al-Dīn Maḥmūd Kāšānī, Meṣbāḥ al-hedāya wa meftāḥ al-kefāya, ed. J. Homāʾī, 3rd ed., Tehran, 1367 Š./1988, editor’s intro. Nūr-al-Dīn ʿAbd-al- Raḥmān Jāmī, Nafaḥāt al-ons, ed. M. ʿĀbedī, 3rd ed., Tehran, 1375 Š./1996, comm. p. 869.

Ṣafā, Adabīyāt III, pp. 1264-65. Tārīḵ-e gozīda, ed. Navāʾī, comm., p. 674.

(Māšā-Allāh Ajūdānī)

Originally Published: December 15, 1999

Last Updated: January 20, 2012

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Vol. IX, Fasc. 2, p. 132