In the Sphere of Arabian Love!
Often, we engage in dialogues, exchanging words of love in various languages. In Arabic, love is a fundamental and constant term in many conversations. An opinion is formed based on the love for something or its absence. I loved the food, or I did not; I cherished your opinion, or I didn’t. An opinion might be beloved due to the affection I hold for its bearer, regardless of the content of the opinion itself. We are subjugated by love, in language and thought, whether we like it or not. All our ideas and beliefs are molded in a template of love, or entirely outside of it, in the absence of love. If we love one another, we accept our collective existence at any moment. If we do not love one another, dialogue becomes impossible without reason, unless we consider the absence of love as a cause.
In Arabic, hatred does not oppose love, as the emotion of hatred is another category of love. The opposite of love is the absence of love, which is indifference, a lack of concern, an absence of emotions altogether.
The word for love, “حُبّ”, distinguishes Arabic from all other languages. It begins with a sound that emerges with one’s breath from the throat, not the tongue. In its sound, one can sense the embrace, tenderness, and encompassment. “حُبّ” is actually a plural form, with its singular being “حِبّ”, with a vowel under the initial letter. In the lexicons, “حِبّ” is the one who loves, the actor, and the beloved is the one who is acted upon or for whom the action is performed, which is also one of the meanings of “حِبّ”. “حِبّ” also refers to wild spices, the herbs, and vegetables used in cooking to flavor and scent the food. I find this meaning not far from the concept of love in people’s lives, as it perfumes the lives of both the lover and the beloved, bestowing upon them a unique flavor and value… I heard this beautiful interpretation from the olive farmers in Idlib, Syria, who say that the tree not swayed by the wind deserves to be cut down and discarded.
We accomplish our tasks out of love, just as I conduct my research and studies because I love the subject and enjoy delving into its details. I also love presenting it to people with all my heart. If this love is absent, my work also disappears and its existence becomes null.
Our Arab views on love are fundamentally built upon two bedrocks; the first being its architecture by Greek philosophy from the mountain of Hellenic religions with the philosophies of Iraq and the Nile Delta. The second is an accumulation of Islamic and Syriac Christian customs that have accumulated on the first rock, releasing some meanings and obscuring others… Greek philosophy divided love into six stages, or six categories. However, as long as these categories can blend, ascend, or descend in their roles, I believe they deserve to be called stages, and the first is:
The first is Agape (ἀγάπη), which is the love of charity, the benevolent love that does not expect its giver to be compensated.
The second is Eros (ἔρως), which is love with the passion of desire and infatuation. This love in Christianity is intimate love, as is the intimacy of love.
The third is Philia (φιλία), which is fraternal love, the affection between friends. We can also consider self-love as one form of Philia (Philia).
The fourth is Storge (στοργή), which is the sentimental love, the love of the follower, what parents offer to their children… It is also the love of celebrities, like our love for a football team, for example, or a famous star. It’s a one-sided, blind giving relationship.
The fifth is Philautia (φιλαυτία), which is self-love, similar to Philia, but Philautia sometimes leads to self-aggrandizement. Greek philosophy divided the love of Philautia into two natures, beneficial and harmful. The beneficial one is empathy with the self, while the harmful one is obsession with the self.
The sixth is Xenia (ξενία), which in our Arab conception is generosity and nobility, the love of giving. From it came the Arab expression “Zenah customs,” i.e., customs of hospitality, sheltering passers-by, providing protection, and other forms of honoring.
And we return to Arabian love…
It is said that Ibn Zaydun once declared: “By Allah, my heart remains entangled in your love, my soul yearns for your company, my eyes anticipate your sight, and my entirety craves all of you. If separation is inevitable, let it be after my demise. And if life is unavoidable, let it be under the shade of your contentment.”
If there were anything more delicate as love and the sincerity of love, the Arab mind would be devoid of it. How then can the Arabs be falsely accused of harshness and insensitivity? Such harshness is not of us but has been imposed on us by the methods of others.
The aforementioned words are from a Qurayshi man from Bani Makhzum, one of the princes and rulers of Córdoba in the 11th century. He is Abu Al-Walid Ahmad bin Abdullah bin Zaydun Al-Makhzumi Al-Qurashi. He fell in love with an Umayyad princess, and most of their love was through correspondence, so it reached us. Their correspondence was collected and published after their deaths, contributing significantly to the creation of romantic literature.
What was not written in their correspondence took place in public squabbles — an open love witnessed by everyone, from the poets and writers of Córdoba. Ibn Zaydun was then arrested and fled in exile to Seville, and the connection between the lovers was severed. Wallada, the minister’s daughter, married Abu Amir bin Abdous.
In the 13th century lived a lovely poet from the poets of Khwarazm in Uzbekistan. His fame spread to many countries, especially Central Asia and India. He is the poet Pahlavon Mahmoud, a wrestler indeed, who spent his life wandering throughout the Islamic East, in Central Asia, Iran, and South Asia… He was born and lived on one of the mountains of mystics in Khwarazm, grew up on asceticism and spirituality, and chose a life of wandering. Furthermore, he wrote his poems in Turkic, Persian, and Arabic, but they did not spread until after his death in the 14th and 15th centuries. He left many quatrains… For instance, he said about love:
“Abstaining from food and desire is the only way to salvation, but a hungry heart cannot be honest. For the hungry are always in a state of stupor, as they do not know when the food will come.”
And he said: “The worst sorrow in the world is parting, but the strangeness of the self is more destructive. It is stronger than my ability to leave you, you are my soul, and leaving it means departing (death).”
And he said: “In the evening, I wiped my mirror, when it was clean, I took a brief look. I saw many of my flaws in it, and immediately forgot about the flaws of others.”
Here, I seize the opportunity to speak also about the Bukharian love, taking advantage of a miniature from the Bukharian miniatures. One of the miniatures of the Bukharian teacher Davron Toshev, an Uzbek artist from the city of Bukhara, a master of Bukharian miniatures who apprenticed under the teacher Mahmoud Muzahhib, revives the arts of medieval Bukharian miniatures. Following in the footsteps of the mathematics teacher and creator of miniatures Kamal al-Din Behzad, who lived between the years.
Bukharian miniatures often embody love stories and their poetic tales. The framework is a fundamental element in Bukharian miniatures; it is the scene. It determines the beginning and end of the story, enabling the handful of words that the artist wants to reach you, without addition or subtraction. For chaos is at odds with Bukharian ideas and is not suitable for them. The frame in Bukharian miniatures is a signaling tool.
The elements of romantic love and its colors in Bukharian miniatures have remained the same for at least three thousand years, inherited from Sumerian philosophy and Babylonian miniatures. We always find the pomegranate flower in the miniature, whether in its fruits or flowers, or even in an engraving on the lover’s dress. The pomegranate flower and pomegranate seeds are the lover’s flattery of his beloved. The beloveds' heart is a pomegranate in her chest that she gives to her lover, so her heart beats for him in the heart of his heart.
