Written work · Essential works
The Book of the Tawasin
كتاب الطواسين (Kitab al-Tawasin)
Al-Hallaj's main work: eleven meditations in rhymed prose, sometimes with diagrams of circles and dots, on the Prophet's pre-existent light, God's unity and the impossibility of expressing it. The chapter on "understanding" introduces the moth approaching the lamp: it sees its light, feels its heat and truly knows it only by burning in it. The longest, on pre-eternity, defends Iblis as the absolute monotheist who refused to bow before Adam out of fidelity to God, and compares his case with Pharaoh's and the author's own. It is a difficult, allusive and intensely charged text that influenced Ahmad al-Ghazali, Ayn al-Qudat and Ruzbihan.
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Authorship note
Essentially authentic: eleven short treatises edited by Louis Massignon (Paris, Geuthner, 1913) from Arabic manuscripts and from the Persian version commented on by Ruzbihan Baqli (12th c.). Probably written during his imprisonment (913–922). Chapters: 1. Ta-Sin al-siraj (Of the lamp); 2. Ta-Sin al-fahm (Of understanding); 3. Ta-Sin al-safa' (Of purity); 4. Ta-Sin al-da'ira (Of the circle); 5. Ta-Sin al-nuqta (Of the point); 6. Ta-Sin al-azal wa-l-iltibas (Of pre-eternity and ambiguity (Iblis)); 7. Ta-Sin al-mashi'a (Of the divine will); 8. Ta-Sin al-tawhid (Of divine unity); 9. Ta-Sin al-asrar fi l-tawhid (Of the secrets of unity); 10. Ta-Sin al-tanzih (Of transcendence); 11. Bustan al-ma'rifa (The garden of knowledge).
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
Al-Hallaj
The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj
The Conscious LibraryThe Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj
Diwan Press, Berkeley, 1974
Translation: Aisha Abd ar-Rahman at-Tarjumana
Sin ISBN en el catálogo.
العربية
Al-Hallaj
Kitab al-Tawasin (texto árabe, versión persa de Baqli y traducción francesa)
The Conscious LibraryKitab al-Tawasin (texto árabe, versión persa de Baqli y traducción francesa)
Paul Geuthner, París, 1913
Translation: Louis Massignon (ed. y trad.)
Edición princeps. Sin ISBN.
Al-Hallaj
Kitab al-Tawasin
The Conscious LibraryKitab al-Tawasin
Maktabat al-Muthanna, Bagdad
Reedición árabe registrada en Open Library; año no indicado.
Other works by Al-Hallaj
Sources
- Ibn al-Nadim. Kitab al-Fihrist (987), maqala V, noticia «al-Hallaj» y lista de sus libros (texto árabe en Wikisource).
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