A Comparison of Nizam and Marianne in the Poetry of Ibn‘Arabī and Goethe

The romantics in the West are paying close attention to Eastern mystical literature and poets such as Hafiz, Rumi, and Sa’adi. The intellectual similarities of Goethe, the great German poet in the ۱۹th century, with Ibn-al-‘Arabī, an Islamic mystic and philosopher, and the common characteristics of the beloved in Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan and Ibn ‘Arabī’s Tarjoman Al-Ashwaq, have made some call them “spiritual brothers”. The purpose of this study is to explain the role of earthly love in human spiritual transcendence in the lyric poems of two great Arab and German poets. This research, using content analysis method and the approach of the American school of comparative literature, examines the characteristics of the two beloveds in Ibn-al-‘Arabī’s and Goethe’s work, namely, Nizam and Marianne (Zulikha), and how this earthly love has become the basis for transcendental love for the two poets. The results of this comparison show that although there is no mention of Goethe’s acquaintance with Ibn ‘Arabi in the former’s biography, there are similarities in issues such as unity of existence, transcendental love, and the union of the lover and beloved. For the two poets, love is the ladder for their spiritual excellence. In the eyes of the two poets, love turns any plurality into unity and reveals the beloved in different shapes and forms.

Keywords:

Ibn‘Arabī , Goethe , Tarjoman Al-Ashwaq , The West-Eastern Divan , Marianne , Nizam , mystical love