Al-Busiri

An Egyptian poet and Sufi renowned for his odes in praise of the Prophet, above all the Qasidat al-Burda; he belonged to the Shadhili path. His full name is Abu Abd Allah Sharaf al-Din Muhammad ibn Sa'id ibn Hammad ibn Muhsin al-Busiri.

He was born on 1 Shawwal 608 (7 March 1212) in Bahshim, a dependency of the town of al-Bahnasa in Upper Egypt. The sources record that he was of Berber descent, from a family known as the Banu Habnun at the Qal'a of the Banu Hammad in the Maghrib; his nisba al-Sanhaji likewise points to Maghribi origins. He is called al-Busiri because his father was from Busir and al-Dalasi because his mother was from Dalas; at times he also used the compound nisba al-Dalasiri.

He spent his youth in Dalas, where his family had settled; no details of his schooling survive. He then went to Cairo and attended the lessons at the mosque of Shaykh Abd al-Zahir, studying the Islamic sciences together with language and literature, and occupying himself especially with hadith and the Prophet's biography. His refutations of Jews and Christians show that he had studied the Torah and the Gospels.

When a post in the hisba was offered to him he declined, saying: "I know nothing of the affairs of the market." For a time he worked for the vizier Zayn al-Din Ya'qub ibn al-Zubayr; when his patron was dismissed (1261) he moved to Bilbays, where he served as a secretary and accountant in financial affairs. An ode he wrote in 1265 to Sultan Baybars I shows that he was in Cairo by that date. In Cairo he opened a school (kuttab) for children to read and memorize the Qur'an, but finding little interest he closed it and went to al-Mahalla. In his poems he complains of, and satirizes, the late payment of his salary. At al-Mahalla he broke his leg and then moved to Saha.

He is known to have been initiated by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, founder of the Shadhili order. In a 142-couplet elegy rhyming in dal, addressed to Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi, who succeeded the shaykh after his death, he calls him the pole and imam of the age. The source states that, together with Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari, he was the shaykh's favourite disciple; while Ibn Ata Allah treated the theme of divine love, al-Busiri sang of love for the Prophet.

Short and frail, al-Busiri lived a life of hardship: many children, straitened means and the corruption of his colleagues troubled him. Because of his scrupulousness where truth was concerned he could not stay long in any one post. Towards the end of his life he was paralysed; according to a report he was cured of this illness through an ode he had written for the Prophet. He died in Alexandria in his eighties. The sources differ on the date: according to Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi 696 (1296-97), according to al-Suyuti 695 (1295-96), according to Katib Chelebi 694 (1294-95).

His Poetry and Sufi Line — Nearly all of his work is in verse, most of it odes about the Prophet. His poems are exceptionally sound in structure and style and lyrical in tone; literary historians judge them finer than those of his contemporaries al-Jazzar and al-Warraq. The Burda, which the poet titled al-Kawakib al-durriyya fi madh khayr al-bariyya, became famous as al-Qasida al-mimiyya because its rhyme letter is mim, and as Qasidat al-Burda because of the report that it was the means of his cure; in the Ottoman milieu it was also called Qasidat al-Bur'a. It consists of ten sections and numbers 160 couplets in its oldest manuscripts, reaching up to 165 in later ones: the amatory prelude, complaint against the self, praise of the Prophet, his birth, his miracles, the excellence of the Qur'an, the ascension, jihad, remorse and hope, and supplication. Composed in the basit metre, it has been recited for centuries in every region of the Islamic world at religious gatherings, on blessed days and nights, and at circumcisions, weddings, festivals and funerals, and as a weekly litany; from couplet 140 onward it is recited for seven days for the healing of the paralysed. Calligraphers usually wrote this ode in their practice lessons. It was commented on during the poet's lifetime by Abd al-Salam ibn Idris al-Marrakushi and Abu Shama al-Maqdisi. According to one study the commentaries, glosses, takhmis, tasdis and imitations written on it number 330; the commentaries exceed a hundred and the takhmis number around sixty. It has been translated into almost every language spoken by Muslim peoples, and also into Greek, Latin, Italian, French, English and German.

His Works — ① Qasidat al-Burda (160 couplets). ② Diwan al-Busiri: the poet did not himself collect his poems in a diwan; Muhammad Sayyid Kilani compiled and published them (Cairo 1374/1955). ③ al-Qasida al-hamziyya (Umm al-qura fi madh khayr al-wara): his most famous work after the Burda, 455 couplets. ④ Dhukhr al-ma'ad fi wazn Banat Su'ad: a 204-couplet imitation of Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's ode. ⑤ al-Makhraj wa-l-mardud ala al-Nasara wa-l-Yahud: a 284-couplet refutation mixing verse and prose. ⑥ al-Qasida al-mudariyya: a 39-couplet ode of blessings on the Prophet found in nearly every litany collection. ⑦ Taqdis al-Haram min tadnis al-daram: a 98-couplet ode on the fire of 1256 in Medina that burned the Rawda and the Prophet's chamber. Besides these he wrote odes to statesmen and many poems criticizing the social and moral life of the Egypt of his day.

His Tomb and Complex — According to the source, his grave is in Alexandria near the shore, in the right-hand maqsura inside the mosque that bears his name.