Dec 20, 2025
A prolific poet, Jami, is the embodiment of the photo-Ottoman Bengal-to-Balkans cosmopolitan Sufi intellectual.
- Jami was born in 1414 near the border of modern day Iran and Afghanistan during the tail end of the era of the shadow Abbasid caliphs before the Ottoman claim to the Caliphate. He worked for the local Timurid court. And at the end of his life, Islamic rule ended in the Iberian peninsula and a sea voyager called Columbus set out to find a better route to India.
- He appears to come from a scholarly Sunni family and had a specific interest in the teachings of Ibn Arabi. What more do we know about his life?
- His works are many and some appear influenced by Nizami whom we covered in episode 62. Tell us about them.
- What translations and secondary resources would you recommend on Jami?
- And finally let’s end with a sample and translation.
Further reading
Jami by Hamid
Algar
The Persian Mystics: Jami by F. Hadland
Davis
Yusuf and Zulaikha: A Poem by Jami by Ralph T.H.
Griffith
Ali Hammoud:
https://alihammoud7.substack.com/
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