Words Clothed in Light: Recollection (Dhikr), Colour and Synaesthesia in Early Kubrawi Sufism

Abstract

Islamic societies and cultures have been, and at times still are, regarded as phono-centric and placed in opposition to supposedly ocular-centric Western traditions. While these binary characterisations have been challenged, much remains to be understood regarding Islamic traditions and their own notions of a hierarchy of the senses. It is worth exploring Kubrawi Sufi thought in this regard since it betrays a movement towards ocular-centrism in twelfth and thirteenth century Sufism. By analysing the work of early Kubrawi authors, this article investigates Sufi concepts of sound, speech and vision in discussions of dhikr, or recollection. For the early Kubrawiyya, recollection facilitates and induces the perception of coloured lights. While much attention has been given to the significance of visions in Kubrawi Sufism, the interconnection between auditory recollection and visionary experiences has not been the subject of a dedicated study. Nor, to my knowledge, has there been a study dedicated to the phenomenon of synaesthesia in medieval Islamic thought. In this article I argue that early Kubrawi Sufis utilised theological notions of speech, and philosophical notions of colour, to arrive at a mystical theory that accounted for the phenomenon of auditory-visual synaesthesia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In doing so Kubrawi thinkers developed a theory which facilitated an ocular-centric framework for mystical experiences. This study will also highlight the importance of synaesthetic experiences for the identity of the Kubrawi Sufi community.