meditation is described through the metaphor of“massaging the clay of
Adam with my hands,”similarly combining the form of man–made by
God from the clay of Adam–and the form of letters.^62 Thus the tale
provides an apocryphal reason for earlier generations of calligraphic inno-
vation which intimately ties the word, its form, sensual human beauty, and
Sufimetaphors of divine love with divine creation.
The seventeenth-century calligraphic master Baba Shah of Isfahan simi-
larly praises master calligraphy by Sultan‘Ali of Mashhad:
Hisalifswere like tall sapling-figures that give peace to the soul, and the eye of his
sadwas like the eye of youthful sweethearts. Hisdalandlamwere like the tresses of
heart-ravishing beloved, and the circles of thenunwere like the eyebrows of
devastating beauties. Every one of his dots was like the pupil of the dark-eyed,
and every one of his strokes was like the water of life in the darkness of running
ink.^63
Jami’s calligraphic metaphors engage in a practice common with the Sufi
madhab-i ishq(sect of love). Shahab Ahmed’s discussion of love in the
ghazalpoetic form applies as well for Jami’s integration of love into his
poetry.
Love in theghazalis at once carnal love, as well as chaste Platonic love, and love
for/of the Divine; the beloved is at once the tantalizingfleshly object of physical
desire, as well as a beautiful youth who manifests and thus bears witness by virtue
of his/her chaste beauty to the Beauty of the Divine, or is simply God himself.^64
Yusuf’s beauty thus signals divine beauty. Yet as a prophet, a mere man
and patently not divine, he also serves as a warning against idolizing the
Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, whom he metaphorically represents.
More than the theme of sexuality, the novelty of Jami’s work emerges in
the inextricable combination of the sexual and the visual, as repeated
through the dream, the elaborate palace with its numerous paintings, the
idol, and ultimately Zuleikha’s blindness which opens her to inner sight.
The romance reflects the ethics of a more didactic portion of Jami’sHaft
Awrang, the collection that includesYusuf and Zuleikha. Jami says:
It is said that a disciple went to a Sufimaster
That he might guide him upon his journey:
The master said,“If you have not set foot in the realm of love;
Go! First, become a lover–and only after that come back to us!
For, without having emptied the wine-cup of the Form (surat)(^62) Ernst, 2003 : 436. (^63) Ernst, 1992 : 283. (^64) Ahmed, 2015 : 36.
244 The Transgressive Image