Shaykh San'an visits the Christian Maiden, Persia, Qajar, second half 19th century

Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, 5 June - 6 September 2009; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 16 May - 8 August 2010

L. Akbarnia and F. Leoni, Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam, Houston, 2010, no.24

This imposing painting depicts an episode from Farid al-Din ‘Attar’s Mantiq al-Tayr (‘Language of the Birds’). The story follows a respected Shaykh from Mecca named San’an who dreams that he prostrated himself in front of an idol in Rum. He subsequently travels to Rum in search of the meaning of this dream, where he falls in love with a Christian maiden. His encounter with the maiden brings his dream to fruition as she challenges him to abandon his faith if she is to love him. In the scene illustrated here, she offers Shaykh San’an a fateful cup of wine, much to the despair of his followers who gaze on in the lower right, one of whom tears open his robe in distress.

The impoverished Shaykh San’an is unable to pay a dowry, and instead agrees to tend to the pigs for a year at her demand. Seeing the Shaykh in this state of abjection, his followers abandon him and return to Mecca where they are reproached by his close disciple. In response to the prayers of his followers, Shaykh San’an revives his faith and returns to Mecca. He returns for the Christian maiden, sensing that she had true faith in Islam. Regretting her deeds, she also converts to Islam. Further representations of this scene are published in Diba 1998, p.84, figs.29A and 29B.