Shakespeares

Sufi or not Sufi? That is the question Islam week at the Globe Theatre will link Shakespearewith a mystic Muslim sect Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondentSunday October 24, 2004The Observer http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1334860,00.htmlThe influence of William Shakespeare on westernculture has made him arguably Britain's greatestexport. Now it is being claimed that his workresembles the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect.The argument will be put forward next month atShakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. It comes aspart of a week of events focusing on Islam to addressconcerns raised by the 'war on terror' and improveunderstanding of the links between Islam and Britishculture.While it has been suggested that Shakespeare dabbledwith espionage and Catholic political activism, thenew theory will attempt to persuade Shakespearescholars that the playwright was a member of areligious or spiritual order which can best becompared to the philosophy of Sufism.The respected academic Dr Martin Lings will putforward this thesis in his lecture on 23 November.'Shakespeare would have delighted in Sufism,' saidLings, who is 96 and an adherent of Sufism. 'We cansee he obviously knew a lot about some kind ofequivalent sect or order.'Lings argues that the guiding principles of Sufithought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. Theplays, he believes, depict a struggle between thedawning modernist world and the traditional, mysticalvalue system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright isfirmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism.'It was the end of the Middle Ages and the birth ofatheism,' he says. 'It was the beginning of the ideasof enlightenment and the beginning really of themodern era. Shakespeare is the last outpost oftradition.'Lings believes that characters in some of the bestknown works exemplify the Sufi quest for purification,while others represent Shakespeare himself.'I am going to say that it is wrong to say we knowvery little about Shakespeare because he is present inhis plays to a remarkable degree,' said Lings, who waskeeper of oriental manuscripts and printed books andin charge of Koranic manuscripts at the BritishMuseum. He argues that the journey of Edgar, in KingLear , is like the Sufi's search for truth, in whichthe seeker is helped by angelic characters and impededby diabolic agents.While the magician-like figure of Prospero,orchestrating the action in The Tempest, and themanipulative Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure arecommonly seen as Shakespeare's alter egos, Lingstraces the teachings of a spiritual order akin toSufism in their words.The famous line of Prospero's 'We are such stuff asdreams are made on' is a complete fit, he claims,adding that King Lear's words also eerily echo Sufiideas when he tells his faithful daughter: 'Upon suchsacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throwincense.' Lings makes the point that the Bard is'quite at home' with 'Gods' in the plural.The International Shakespeare Globe Fellowship Lecturewill take place in the middle of the Islam AwarenessWeek on the 22-28 November and will be preceded by alecture from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, the founder of theZaytuna Institute in California, who will look atShakespeare's sonnets from a Sufi perspective.Throughout the week the outside walls of the theatreon the banks of the Thames will be illuminated withscenes of Islamic culture.On the final weekend a souk will take over thepremises, with stalls selling eastern wares. The weekwill also form part of the 4th centenary celebrationsof the first recorded performance of Othello , whichwill be marked by staged readings of four playsfeaturing Moors and Turks.Echoes of Sufism'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the godsthemselves throw incense'King Lear to his daughter, Act V, Scene III'We are such stuff as dreams are made on'Prospero in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I