Article

2021,  Vol. 9(2) 157­–174

Visualizing the soul: Diagrams ! The Author(s) 2021

and the subtle body of light Article reuse guidelines:

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DOI: 10.1177/20503032211015299
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al-Daylamı’s The Mirror of
Souls (Mir6a t al-arwa
h: )

Eyad Abuali
Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany

Abstract
Light is a discursive tool that Sufis have drawn upon over the centuries in order to elucidate
systems of thought and practice. In medieval Islamic thought, light was closely associated with the
soul as well as conceptions of sight and the eye. It also occupied an important place in cosmology.
By the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries, Sufis began to consider notions of light more system-
atically, creating close correspondences between vision, cosmology, and anthropology within Sufi
thought. This coincided with the increased production of complex diagrams in Sufi texts. This
article shows that these developments were interrelated. By analyzing Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı’s
(d. 587/1191) diagrams alongside his theories of light with respect to the nature of the soul and
body, it demonstrates that the theory of the soul as light played an important part in shaping Sufi
thought, practice, and visual culture.

Keywords
Sufism, diagrams, subtle substance, body, Daylami, light

Introduction
Discourses of light recur in Sufi texts written over the centuries. This enduring theme in Sufi
thought indicates that light has been, and remains, an important discursive tool that Sufi
thinkers have drawn upon throughout history in order to articulate Sufi ontology,

Corresponding author:
Eyad Abuali, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Hannoversche Straße 6, Berlin, 10115, Germany.
Email: abualiey@hu-berlin.de
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epistemology, cosmology, and practice. The works of Shahab al-Dın Yah: ya al-Suhrawardı
(d. 587/1191), Najm al-Dın Kubra (d. 616/1220), and Muh: yı al-Dın Ibn al-6Arabı (d. 638/
1240) stand out in this regard and have received much scholarly attention. Theorizing the
nature of light was an important aspect of many other medieval Sufi thinkers’ mystical
frameworks. In this study I examine a lesser studied work, Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı’s
(d. 587/1191) The Mirror of Souls (Mir6 ah: ) and those passages therein that detail
at al-arw
the nature of the soul, understood as a subtle body (jism lat: ıf) of light.1
Further, I will demonstrate how this conception of the subtle body as light makes pos-
sible the depiction of the soul in the form of a diagram in the text. I contend that this
diagram plays an important role in al-Daylamı’s Sufism, drawing together a complex con-
stellation of Sufi thought, practice, and visual culture that is predicated on the conception of
the soul as a light. As Bender and Marrinan have argued, diagrams concretize processes of
knowledge and “generate understanding” relationally, in the visual meeting of user and
image. The knowledge produced through this visual practice therefore depends upon the
user’s “orientation and expertise” (Bender and Marrinan 2010, 52). As they put it, “users
process this information by tapping individual reservoirs of experience to produce knowl-
edge” (60). The production of complex diagrams in Sufi texts in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries then is not coincidental. This was a period that saw the institutionalization of
Sufism that shaped the lives of Sufis, along with the systematization of Sufi theory that
imbedded Sufis within a shared cosmology. The prominence of diagrams in this period then
indicates that, firstly, Sufis were expected to adhere to a set of formalized bodily practices in
a communal setting that shaped their experiences and habitus. And secondly, that Sufi
thought became increasingly systematic, especially regarding the nature of the soul and
its attachment to the body.
Sufi diagrams often elude contemporary scholarship. The full significance of these dia-
grams may never be completely grasped through historical research since they are intended
to be esoteric and obscure to the uninitiated. My aim is not to provide an explanation for all
the possible uses and meanings of al-Daylamı’s diagram in this study. In his own words, this
is something that is only realized through Sufi discipline, and is revealed in moments of
experiential gnosis. Rather, my goal is to ask what role this diagram that depicts the soul
might play in mediating the unseen. By drawing on scholarship from Islamic studies and
religious studies, this article sheds light on the nexus of Sufi thought and practice at a time
when detailing the nature of the soul and body came to be an increasingly salient feature of
Sufi discourse. By focusing on the practice of ocular contemplation within Sufism, this study
aims to elucidate the place of diagrams in medieval visual and sensory regimes, that is, how
these diagrams “operate in the context of embodied, habitual practices of looking, display
and figuration” (Meyer 2015, 335).

Diagrams in Sufi texts

Diagrams were a common feature in many Arabic-Islamic texts, especially those that con-
cerned the structure of the cosmos. Cosmological diagrams commonly feature in philosoph-
ical and scientific texts as well as Sufi treatises. They usually took the form of concentric
circles, often divided and organized into further geometric forms, and tended to convey a
Ptolemaic understanding of the cosmos (Karamustafa 1992, 71–74). Such depictions helped
the users of these diagrams conceptualize the relation between the cosmos, existents on
earth, and human beings (Nasr 1964, 70).
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Some of the earliest Sufi diagrams however were not necessarily concerned with cosmol-
ogy. Despite this, the circular motif does emerge in these Sufi texts as well. For example,
Mans: ur al-H aj’s (d. 309/922) Ṭ
: all awasın contains a number of diagrams that are intended to
elucidate his mystical experiences. Some prominent diagrams in the Ṭawasın feature con-
centric circles, while others consist of disjointed letters, squares, and lines (al-H : all
aj 2002,
175, 201, 203, 207, 209). These early diagrams do not have a particularly cosmological
significance since al-H : all
aj’s focus is on the mystical experiences of the Sufi. However,
these images indicate an early attempt to move beyond language, to a more abstract
visual representation of mystical experience. This seems only natural since mystical experi-
ences were largely considered ineffable. Although al-H : all
aj (2002, 207) explains the mean-
ings of these figures, he does not present a detailed description of each image and rather
points to their meanings through allusion (ish ara). They are therefore intended to be under-
stood within the context of Sufi devotional practices. Although al-H : all
aj does not explicitly
ask the reader to contemplate these images, there seems to be a precedence here for the
practice of contemplating diagrams that we find in later Sufism.
Later Sufi texts indicate a stronger alignment with Greek cosmological schemes, largely
adopting the standard cosmological accounts that were prevalent in philosophical works at
the time. In addition, the human soul and body were commonly understood as a microcosm
that reflected the organization of the macrocosm. This seems to have influenced Sufi depic-
tions of the soul. Ab uH : 
amid al-Ghazalı for example details the faculties of the soul in the
form of concentric circles, in a manner that references its microcosmic nature by referring to
each faculty of the soul as a world (6 alam).2 Diagrams become a far more common feature in
Sufi texts that were written after the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the thirteenth-
century, Ibn 6Arabı produced much more complex cosmological diagrams featuring over-
lapping circles in the manner of a Venn diagram. As Karamustafa (1992, 85–86) has noted,
these diagrams are not intended for mystical contemplation unlike al-Daylamı’s diagram.
Despite the uniqueness of Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı’s diagram, it has not received much
scholarly attention. While studies have rightly highlighted al-Daylamı focus on visionary
phenomena, his diagram has not been the subject of a detailed study. Bowering (1987, 233)
has mentioned the diagram briefly, dedicating a paragraph that focuses on its cosmological
significance. Al-Daylamı himself however indicates that the diagram covers far more than
cosmology, primarily representing the soul itself, and is intended to be used in contemplative
visual practice. Al-Daylamı also emphasizes that he beheld the figure of the diagram in a
vision. It therefore acts as proof of his capacity for spiritual sight as well as an object of
contemplation and a guide to al-Daylamı’s disciples (al-Daylamı a, fol. 66a).
While this particular use of diagrams was not necessarily pervasive at the time, some
other contemporaries of al-Daylamı also began to use diagrams in similar ways. The case of
Ah: mad al-B unı (d. 618/1225) stands out in this regard. Al-B unı’s writings feature many
diagrams that also appear as objects to be contemplated, facilitating “visionary access to the
invisible worlds” (Gardiner 2017, 419). Diagrams begin to acquire spiritual significance as
agents of mediation through vision in this case. We can therefore point to at least one other
case where ocular experiences were made sense of in a shared conceptual framework and
based on the lived experiences of Sufis. This indicates a shift towards diagrams that were
intended to generate moments of mystical insight through visual practice.
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In addition to this shift towards contemplation, al-Daylamı’s diagram also departs from
previous Sufi diagrams in terms of organization and shape. It notably abandons the circular
motif that structures most other diagrams. Its detailing of the human’s various spiritual
faculties reserves a circle only for the state of spiritual perfection. The remainder of the
diagram consists of geometric shapes, that together with the circle, represent a human body
in an abstracted form (with the circle standing in place of a head).
A further unique feature of al-Daylamı’s depiction is its role in structuring the text of the
Mirror of Souls. Its chapters are arranged so that the image is discussed in order, from the
bottom to the top. Alongside this visual depiction of the soul, the text also theorizes its
nature, functioning as a guide to understanding the diagram. The diagram therefore is
directly related to al-Daylamı’s conception of the soul as a subtle body of light.3 This is
because al-Daylamı asserts that light is a substance that is both bodily and spiritual, and this
accounts for the immaterial soul’s attachment to the material body. This has implications
for Sufi notions of psychology and phenomenology. It also outlines the importance of Sufi
practice, and allows for the visualizations of the soul and the hidden world (al-ghayb). This
theory therefore informs al-Daylamı’s depiction of the soul in the shape of an abstract
human body, hinting at its liminal state between the bodily and spiritual.
It is widely acknowledged that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw the transition of
Sufi groups from loosely structured communities to centralized institutions (Ohlander 2008,
1–15). Many studies have already detailed the social, historical, and institutional changes
that facilitated these transitions (Paul 1998, 76–77). However, that these social and institu-
tional transitions accompanied changes in Sufi visual culture and theoretical configurations
of the body has not been widely studied. These interrelated developments however reinforce
one another, since the spiritual significance of visual experience is understood in relation to
the lived, embodied experiences of Sufis.
Elizabeth Alexandrin has noted that al-Daylamı’s works prioritises the “ephemeral and
episodic quality of embodied visionary experiences” while drawing on medieval medicine,
philosophy, physiology and optics (Alexandrin 2013, 526–527). In my view, al-Daylamı’s
attention to mystical visions in this respect also explains his tendency to include visual
depictions in the form of diagrams in his works. Here, diagrams are not simply explanatory
guides to one’s spiritual anatomical make-up, but are depictions intended to elicit kinaes-
thetic and affective responses in the viewer. This in turn imbeds the viewer’s habitus within
Sufi theoretical frameworks, shifting the boundary between the body, cosmos, and Sufi
community through visual practice. In al-Daylamı’s text, it is the conception of the soul
as light that binds these aspects of Sufism together, making possible the depiction of the soul
as an abstracted body.

The text of the Mirror of Souls

The Mirror of Souls exists in two manuscript versions. The complete text is found in the
Suleymaniye library in Istanbul, while an abridged version of the text is found in the Gotha
library’s Arabic manuscript collections.4 The structure of the shorter version of the text can
significantly alter the implications of certain passages. Given that al-Daylamı was known to
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revisit and rework his material (Bowering 1987, 232), I tentatively treat it here as one of al-
Daylamı’s works which can supplement the reading of the more extensive text. I discuss the
abridged version in some places as its shortened structure serves to emphasize certain
aspects of al-Daylamı’s thought that are less apparent in the more extensive version of
the text. It should be noted that both versions of the text open with the same diagram of
the human soul.
Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı is a little studied twelfth-century author who nevertheless wrote
substantial works of Sufi theory (Bowering 1987, 231–232). Not much is known about al-
Daylamı other than being identified as the teacher of Mah: m ud al-Dın al-Ushnuhı in
fifteenth-century hagiographical literature (Alexandrin 2012, 217). We therefore cannot
concretely determine the extent of al-Daylamı’s significance for the institutional changes
of Sufism in this period. Nevertheless, his work is indicative of wider trends in Sufism at the
time and a connection to Ushnuhı is likely to have existed in some form.
Bowering has suggested that al-Daylamı’s writings bear certain similarities to those of
Kubrawı Sufis (Bowering 1987, 235), a nascent school of Sufism in this period, well known
for emphasizing visionary mystical experiences. Early Kubrawı writers laid much of the
theoretical groundwork in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that prefigured the emergence
of more detailed conceptions of the subtle centers of the soul (lat: a8if) in the fourteenth-
century (Elias 1995, 81–85). I posit therefore that al-Daylamı’s text, was part of a wider Sufi
trend that theorized the nature of the soul to a greater extent and conceived of vision as an
advanced form of mystical experience.
Alexandrin has noted that al-Daylamı’s visionary cosmology helps to “re-map the inter-
nal schema that the human being embodies” (Alexandrin 2012, 219). What is peculiar to al-
Daylamı is his use of diagrams in this regard. The salience of visual practice in order to
effect these re-mappings is striking. For example, at the end of the section detailing the
diagram in the Mirror of Souls al-Daylamı makes clear that only the elect Sufis, who have
activated a spiritual mode of seeing, will be able to understand this diagram (al-Daylamı a,
fol. 66a). Along with the notion that al-Daylamı had beheld the shape of the soul in this
form in a spiritual vision, the reproduction of the image on paper is clearly intended to
mediate the perception of the hidden world.
The interconnection of Sufi thought, practice, and visual culture is concisely illustrated in
The Mirror of Souls since the very organisation of this text is informed by the diagram
placed at the beginning of the work. As mentioned, the text itself is presented as a rumina-
tion on the graphic image. Al-Daylamı opens the Mirror of Souls stating that the image of
the diagram was revealed to him in a vision that was witnessed by his heart. He then
inquired about its name and was told that it is the “reflected form” (s: urat al-wij ah) that
contains signifiers to the essence of the human souls (fıh a ish
ara il
a m ah: ). He
ahiyyat al-arw
then explains the structure of the book, dividing it into two sections. The first is dedicated to
detailing the meaning of the image, while the second concerns interpretations of his visions
that are intended to act as guides to his disciples (al-Daylamı a, fol. 39b).
The subject of al-Daylamı’s treatise therefore is the figure itself. In his own words, al-
Daylamı’s treatise regards the significance of images, whether graphic and drawn, imagined
in dreams, or revealed in spiritual visions. Graphic diagrams and spiritual visions were
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therefore closely related. This has been highlighted by Henry Corbin who noted that Najm
al-Dın Kubr : all
a’s focus on circles in his visions recalls the centrality of circles in al-H aj’s
diagrams (Corbin 1971, 83). Al-Daylamı’s diagram points to a synthesis between his Sufi
theory that explains the nature of visions and the soul. It highlights that bodily practices
inculcate the potential for spiritual vision within the Sufi. And in doing so it also shapes Sufi
material culture in the form of texts and graphic figures. The image drawn in the text is
revealed to al-Daylamı in a vision. It is then drawn and becomes an object of mediation that
points to hidden truths. The centrality of the graphic image is exceptional for a Sufi of his
time. Karamustafa (1992, 85) for example has shown that diagrams in the works of Ibn
6Arabi were often not particularly integral to the text, serving a more didactic function.
As mentioned, the organization of the text follows the organization of the depiction. Its
chapters discuss each faculty of the soul in order, from the bottom of the image to the top.
Al-Daylamı begins his discussion of the image at the lower plane of the body (badan) and
ends with the circle (al-d a8ira). In the unabridged version of the text, the image is summa-
rized in this manner before moving on to more extensive discussions of each faculty. The
concordance of image and text is further accentuated in the shortened version however. This
abridged version of the text omits the more technically complex passages. It reads as a more
accessible, concise guide to understanding al-Daylamı’s diagram. The visual representation
of the soul then reinforces the theoretical and organizational structures of Sufism, creating a
close connection between image, text, theory, and practice.
Moreover, this depiction of the soul is remarkably evocative of human anatomy, clearly
representing a head, chest, and stomach in abstracted form. Here, the lower faculties of the
human being, including the lower soul (nafs) and body (badan) are placed below the
stomach-like structure, while the intermediary faculties such as the heart (qalb), innermost
soul (sirr), and rational faculty (6aql) are placed within it. The higher faculties of the soul, the
spirit (r
uh: ) and mystery (khafı), are located in the chest-like structure, while the highest
spiritual faculty of the higher spirit (al-r uh: al-a6l
a) is represented by the square. Finally,
what al-Daylamı terms the head (al-ra8s) is placed in the circle which signifies spiritual
perfection. No faculty of the soul is assigned to the circular head since spiritual perfection
consists of the complete negation of the soul and its subsistence within God. Moreover, the
soul’s organs map onto differing realms of the cosmos, such as the physical world (al-
duny a), the hidden world (al- akhira), and the world of abstract intelligible knowledge
(6
alam al-6ul um al-6aqliyya). The image then highlights the soul’s microcosmic nature. This
depiction of the soul not only represents that part of the human being that is hidden, but the
hidden cosmos that is simultaneously external and internal to the human’s composition. To
fully appreciate the function and significance of al-Daylamı’s depiction of the soul, we must
first turn to his theory of the soul as light. It is al-Daylamı’s conception of the soul as light
that allows for the representation of the soul in the diagrammatic form below in Figure 1
(al-Daylamı b, fol. 77a).
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Figure 1. Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı’s diagram of the spiritual body at the beginning of the Mirror of Souls.
Courtesy of the Gotha Oriental Manuscript Research Library.
Source: reproduced with permission from Gotha MS Orient A70, fols. 76b–85a.

The subtle body of light in al-Daylamı’s Mirror of Souls

Like other Sufis of his time, al-Daylamı came to think of the soul as a light that was attached
to the dark substance of the body. This was not necessarily uncommon. The reception of
Avicennan philosophy in Sufism in this period led to the emergence of highly systematic Sufi
psychological and cosmological theories. Notions of light in this context proved to be useful
for systematizing epistemic frameworks based on experiential gnosis (Treiger 2012, 68–70),
and led to increasingly sophisticated conceptions of the human soul and body. On the one
hand, Sufi texts began to speak in terms of light when elaborating upon the psycho-spiritual
progression of the Sufi. On the other, the soul came to be understood, in a literal sense, as a
subtle substance of light shrouded by the darkness of the materially complex human body.
Theories of light and darkness then serve to map out the relation between the soul and body,
resulting in what came to be known in later Sufism as lat: a8if, the subtle centers of the soul that
corresponded to certain points in the body (Mayer 2010, 271).
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With the reception of the Greek philosophical tradition in the Islamic world, the notion
that all material existents on earth were composed of the four elements of air, water, earth,
and fire, came to be commonly accepted by many philosophers such as al-Kindı (Adamson
2007, 181). Particular mixtures of elements were commonly understood to form the humors
that constituted the human body. Changes in the composition of the humors produced
changes in the body and could lead to its corruption. Yet unlike the material body, the
immaterial intellect was unaffected by such changes (Mcginnis 2010, 129). This understand-
ing of the composition of the body was adopted in Sufism and formed part of Sufi psycho-
logical theory. For example, al-Ghazalı explains various emotional dispositions with
recourse to the composition of elements within the body. To rid oneself of the dominance
of these dispositions over the soul, al-Ghazalı prescribes spiritual disciplining (Al-Ghazalı
2011, vol. 4, 596–612). Al-Daylamı’s Mirror of Souls also discusses at length, the effects of
the humors and the need to regulate them (al-Daylamı a, fol. 43b–44b).
Amongst contemporaries of al-Daylamı affiliated with the Kubrawı school of thought,
the human body was considered to be the most complex material existent, containing the
potentialities of mineral, vegetable and animal. Hence, a notion of the human body as the
most obstructive to light is found in the work of Najm al-Dın al-Razı (d. 654/1256) for
example (Al-R azı 1982, 124). Such discussions accompany an increasing trend in Sufism to
characterize the soul as a subtle light (lat: ıfa nur
aniyya) of divine origin that must be brought
forth from beneath the density of the human body as Najm al-Dın Kubra (d. 617/1220) does
in his Faw a8ih: al-jamal wa fawatih: al-jal
al (1993, 129). Like all other bodies in existence, the
human body too was thought to be composed of a mixture of material that acted as a barrier
to light. The notion of the soul as a light that found itself mixed with an opaque material
body therefore seems to have become common among twelfth- and thirteenth-century Sufis.
In the Mirror of Souls, Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı speaks of the composition of the body
as a mixture of four elements along with a fifth, the “fermenting agent” (khamra) of God’s
light, or the soul. According to al-Daylamı (a, fol. 57a), this mixture distinguishes the
human being’s composition from all others in existence. al-Daylamı goes on to explain
that this mixture inculcates four natures within man: angelic, meek, savage, and satanic.
However, added to these potentialities is a fifth which is spiritual light, and it is with this
faculty that the human is able to transcend these four lower natures. In one section in the
text, al-Daylamı explains that the body itself will be transformed into light upon spiritual
completion. He makes this claim with reference to a theory of the elements being able to
transform and change into one another. Just as earth can become water, then air, and then
fire and light, so too can the human faculties undergo such a transformation from the bodily
and dense to the spiritual and subtle, through Sufi training (Al-Daylamı a, fol. 56a).
Underlying al-Daylamı’s discussion of the body and soul here is a common debate in
Islamic thought regarding the place of the soul after death. This discussion largely pertained
to whether or not the soul was material and bodily, therefore disappearing after death until
it was resurrected, or whether it was immaterial and non-bodily, surviving in some other
form after the passing away of the body. Particular understandings of the nature of the soul
had implications for whether the soul would experience the afterlife as an imagined or
external reality (Sinai 2015, 92–93). The former position was sometimes seen as problematic
and contradictory to Islamic scriptures. In the Mirror of Souls al-Daylamı presents various
theological and philosophical positions regarding the afterlife before proceeding to put
forward his own theory of the soul (Alexandrin 2012, 221). His understanding of the soul
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as a subtle body of light attempts to provide an answer to this eschatological dilemma by

arguing that the soul is both spiritual and bodily.
Al-Daylamı explains this in more detail at a later point in the text where he discusses his
theory regarding the nature of light. Here, he states that light can be either bodily, spiritual,
or maintain an in-between state between the spiritual and bodily. While the sensory world is
filled with bodily lights, only one type of light occupies this intermediate state between the
two. This is the light of the sun which al-Daylamı describes as a “subtle body” (jism lat: ıf),
the same term he uses to describe the soul. Al-Daylamı explains that it is bodily in that it has
a measurable length, width, and depth, yet spiritual as it is beyond time and space. The latter
characteristics are demonstrated, al-Daylamı says, by the fact that if the sun’s light were
truly bodily it would obstruct and collide with other lights; yet, instead we find that it
merges with them. It therefore diverges from the usual behavior of bodies with respect to
space. In addition, it is spiritual with respect to time as al-Daylamı explains:

These rays reach distant places without travelling the distance between two points. Do you not
see it to be the case, that when the sun rises from the east, its rays reach the [earth’s surface] in
the west, from the moment it rises. (Al-Daylamı a, fol. 68b)

His account of the soul then avoids committing to either a fully bodily or spiritual under-
standing of the soul. This conception of the soul may have proven useful for later thinkers
and their approach to eschatology. It is perhaps telling that the fourteenth-century Kubrawı
author al-Simn anı conceives of the subtle substance lat: ıfa as a faculty of the soul which
allows it to experience the “pleasures and pains” of the afterlife (Martini 2018, 108). Hence,
this conception of the subtle substance as something between the bodily and spiritual may
prove to be a useful eschatological concept.
Al-Daylamı’s understanding of light as bodily in one respect and spiritual in another
recurs throughout the text. For example, discussions regarding the nature of light also
allows al-Daylamı stratify the various organs of the body and soul. For al-Daylamı the
light of the eyes remains bodily as it is bound by time and place, while the light of the human
intellect and its power of reason is subtler as it is not limited in the same way. Above the
light of the intellect are the lights of the human’s spiritual faculties which are found in the
heart (qalb). The first is the innermost heart (sirr) which, in al-Daylamı’s scheme, arrives at
truths from the spiritual world through visionary experiences such as dreams. This is fol-
lowed by the even subtler mystery (khafı). The hierarchy seems to end in the essence of the
human soul which is understood by al-Daylamı to be the most spiritual light in creation,
being the subtlest and most pure light in existence (Al-Daylamı a, fol. 69b). This is termed
the subtle body (jism lat: ıf) that is the center of the heart and the ultimate locus of mystical
perception (Alexandrin 2013, 536).
By discussing these spiritual faculties with reference to his conception of light then, al-
Daylamı details his own spiritual anatomy. In earlier Sufism the human soul is traditionally
divided into the lower soul (nafs), the spirit (r uh: ), the heart (qalb), and the innermost heart
(sirr). The lower soul is understood to be the most bodily of these substances being the cause
of blameworthy dispositions, as such it requires conditioning through discipline (Schimmel
1975, 112–113). By stratifying these faculties in accordance with his conception of light al-
Daylamı attempts to systematize a hierarchy of subtle centers that increase in subtlety as
they approach the innermost faculties of the soul.
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Light and Sufi psychology

Al-Daylam�ı’s ideas seem to find precedence in Ab� uH : �
amid al-Ghaz�al�ı’s (d. 505/1111) thought.
In his treatise Mishk� at al-anw� ar (The Niche of Lights), al-Ghaz�al�ı stratifies the human faculties
involved in acquiring knowledge into degrees of perfection (al-Ghaz�al�ı 1964, 53-54). In the
Mishk� at, al-Ghaz� al�ı refers to knowledge attained by each faculty of the human soul or body as
a light. According to al-Ghaz�al�ı, bodies that are luminous in themselves are more deserving of
the name “light” than those that require illumination by another source. For al-Ghaz�al�ı,
modes of knowing are ranked in degrees according to this conception of light. For example,
physical sight requires an external light to function and cannot perceive itself whereas the
rational faculty is not bound by time and space and has a form of self-awareness. It therefore
attains more accurate forms of knowledge than those perceived by the sense of sight, making it
worthier of the term “light” (al-Ghaz�al�ı 1964, 49–51).
Al-Ghaz� al�ı describes the soul as a mirror to God’s light, reflecting it to varying degrees of
perfection. The purified soul receives and manifests God’s light fully, whereas the imperfect
soul whose heart is not polished receives imperfect imprints upon the mirror of the soul,
manifesting it imperfectly (al-Ghaz�al�ı 1964, 18). For al-Ghaz�al�ı, the psycho-spiritual faculty
of the heart functions as the soul’s faculty of perception, receiving imprints of any of the
realities perceived according to the degree to which it has been spiritually cleansed. Hence,
the soul may remain at the level of an imperfect light by simply remaining in its bodily state,
or ascend to a perfected mode of knowledge akin to a light which is luminous in itself and
illuminates that which is other than itself (al-Ghaz� al�ı 1964, 51). The soul’s attachment to the
body therefore generates this hierarchy.
At one point in the Mirror of Souls al-Daylam�ı likens the soul to sight, which can
apprehend things far beyond the boundaries of the body (Al-Daylam�ı b, fol. 77b). Here
al-Daylam�ı relies on an account of sight whereby the eye is thought to send out rays that
establish contact with the surfaces of visible objects.5 This account of sight, known as
extramission, is employed by al-Daylam�ı to account for the soul’s ability to transcend
time and place while being attached to the body. Just as the organ of the eye can emit
rays that sense distant objects, so too does the soul travel great distances, perceiving things
beyond the temporal world without detaching from the body.
For this higher mode of gnosis to be realized, the soul and body require disciplining. In
his description of the innermost heart and the intellect, and their connection to the heart, al-
Daylam�ı sets the theoretical grounding for the importance of Sufi discipline:

Their darkness is not with respect to themselves, but is due to the heart, which is like a glass. For
if the glass is blackened, the light [of the innermost heart and the intellect] which is transmitted
through it from the inside of the heart to the lower soul is rendered black. Just as if the glass
were clear, so would the light being transmitted through it be clear . . . If the sun shines upon a
glass window, the rays transmitted from the window, to the house would be coloured accord-
ingly by the glass. . . Therefore, if the glass of the heart is blackened by sin, the rays transmitted
from the innermost soul and the intellect to the lower soul are blackened by the attributes of sin.
Therefore, those rays do not add anything to the lower soul other than darkness, wrongdoing,
and sin. (al-Daylam�ı a, fol. 47a–47b)

Here al-Daylam�ı explains that rational knowledge will not lead to the advancement of the
soul. Since these faculties are found within the heart, purification of the heart allows one to
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progress to greater degrees of knowledge and certainty by elevating the rational faculty of
the intellect, and innermost heart. In this passage, the effectiveness of Sufi practice for
spiritual progression is contrasted with the ineffectiveness of reasoning, probably in refer-
ence to scholastic modes of learning. The combination of spiritual light and bodily darkness
present within the human being therefore necessitates adherence to certain bodily disciplines
in order to progress spiritually. The assertion that the intellect and innermost heart cannot
discipline the lower soul is in fact an argument for the necessity of Sufi practice. Given al-
Daylamı’s insistence on contemplating diagrams, it is worth asking what role visual practice
plays in this conditioning of the soul.

Bodies, sensation and practice

In this period, particular Sufi practices such as recollection (dhikr), audition, and fasting came
to form a standardized curriculum of Sufi training. Certain Sufi practices also came to act as
markers of social relations, expressing belonging to particular Sufi institutions. Conceiving of
the human being as a mixture of light and darkness in anthropological terms also coincided
with the proliferation of Sufi training manuals in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries such as
6Umar al-Suhrawardı’s 6Aw arif al-ma6
arif. These modes of belonging often overlapped with
other networks of social and political loyalties (Mottahedeh 2001, 190).
In his study of Sufi literature regarding the body, Shahzad Bashir has posited that the body
acts as a “tableau for mapping social as well as cosmological relations” (Bashir 2003, 3). This is
demonstrated by the notion of subtle centers that are located within the body. As Hermansen
has argued in an analysis of the theory of subtle substances in later Islamic mystical traditions,
Sufi conceptions of the human body may “transcend the visible or physical order to postulate
parallel, subtle, or spiritual bodies.” This provides “an especially flexible and malleable field
for mapping concepts of the human individual and relating these to wider metaphysical and
ideological systems” (Hermansen 1988, 1). These theoretical systems are in turn enacted in
bodily, and sensory practices. Al-Daylamı’s detailing of the nature of the subtle body in the
Mirror of Souls signifies new ways of representing the soul and body. At the very beginning of
the Mirror of Souls, al-Daylamı discusses the boundaries between the soul and body that seems
to justify its depiction in the form of an abstracted body:

The soul bears the same shape as the body and is present within all its extremities and limbs, for
it is the agent of action, intellection, speech, and will. And the body is unaware of any of that,
but is the instrument and vehicle of the soul. The soul is in fact greater in size than the body, but
is compressed within it. It is a subtle body, similar to air, and its size, whether large or small,
varies. The very smallest the soul can be is the [exact] same size of the body: no more and no less.
The human in this case is one whose soul only gives him the capacity to live and die; [even] many
animals exceed this. As for the largest the soul can be, it may come to such a size that cannot be
contained between the heavens and earth and what is beyond them. It cannot, however, exceed
the world of God’s dominion (malak ut)—for it is of the world of bodies—unless it has achieved
the same purity and contentment as the innermost heart and mystery, and has ascended and
risen to the highest point. Then, it is spiritual and beyond [the corporeal]. (al-Daylamı a, fol.40a)

Al-Daylamı then explains that the soul in its baser state is like a scent that is diffused
throughout the body, but if purified and elevated, becomes like the light of the eye that
moves well beyond the boundaries of the bodily world and enters the higher world of God’s
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might (jabar
ut) (al-Daylamı a, fol.40a). Al-Daylamı goes on to adjust the boundaries of the
soul and body as he explains that despite this ability of the soul to transcend the body, it
remains attached to it:

And despite that, it remains fixed within the body, unsevered from it during its travels in the world
of the truth and reality. It is like the rays of the sun that you see emerging from the very sun itself
while they radiate to the Eastern and Western parts of the world. (al-Daylamı a, fol.40a)

With recourse to his theory of the soul as light, al-Daylamı shifts the boundaries of human
existence beyond the world of sensible things to hidden spiritual realities, a notion articu-
lated in older Sufi discussions of cosmology (Lange 2016, 188). As the soul transcends the
bodily and spiritual worlds, it attains new modes of perception, as al-Daylamı explains that
the soul can perceive things from the spiritual realm by means of the bodily senses (al-
Daylamı a, fol.40a-b). This serves to reinforce the notion that by Sufi adherents acquire new
modes of perception alongside new experiences of embodiment.
That Sufi practice is central here is evident from the anxieties al-Daylamı expresses
regarding the potential abandonment of Sufi devotion and Islamic legal requirements. At
one point in the text al-Daylamı responds to the question of whether one may dispense with
religious obligations (taklıf) once spiritual completion is attained and true freedom (h: uriyya)
is realized. He responds that the obligations of the sharı6a “are not lifted [from the Sufi] as
long as reason remains, and [one’s rational] capacity is present” (al-Daylamı a, fol. 58a). Al-
Daylamı’s conclusion then seems to suggest that Sufis are never free from the religious
strictures so long as they are alive and are not deemed to have lost the capacity to reason.
Moreover, al-Daylamı is wary of “traps” along the Sufi path that may lead the Sufis to
delusions and bar them from spiritual completion. In his Muhimmat al-w as: ilın, al-Daylamı
states that God is represented in the Sufi’s mystical experiences as a vision of a spiritual
light. Yet such visions are in themselves veils to God and can mislead the Sufi initiates,
potentially leading them to the incorrect assumption of God’s incarnation within one’s own
body, or the assumption that God may inhere within a body or image (h: ul ul). According to
al-Daylamı (1966, 51–52) this mistaken belief arises out of an improper understanding of the
relation between the body and soul, which in his view explains the heretical doctrine of God
incarnated as Jesus in Christianity. It is worth noting here that conceiving of the soul as a
light that is both spiritual and bodily undermines the possibility of inherence. Furthermore
al-Daylamı’s solution to such dangers along the Sufi path is engagement in Sufi discipline
and practice under the guidance of a Sufi master (al-Daylamı 1966, 53). Anxieties regarding
bodies and spiritual visions are brought to the fore here.
This is more apparent in the abridged version of the Mirror of Souls, where a close
connection between the spiritual heart and body is cultivated. Here al-Daylamı explains
that the spiritual and physical heart are intertwined “as oil is within sesame seeds” (al-
Daylamı b, fol. 78b; al-Daylamı a, fol. 46a). In this version of the text, the discussion of
the heart and body is directly related to the concept of the heart as a light, as he goes on to
explain that its dual bodily and spiritual nature is a consequence of it being a subtle body
with a form, or flame, like that of a candle and a subtlety similar to the subtlety of the sun
(al-Daylamı b, fol. 79a). Bodily discipline is therefore required to realize the true nature of
the soul that can never fully dispense with the body before death.
In this period, it was common for Sufis to distinguish between scholastic modes of
learning and mystical training under the guidance of a Sufi master. The twelfth-century
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hagiographical work Asr ar al-tawh: ıd for example contrasts knowledge of books with Sufi
practice when the well-known Sufi master Ab u Sa6ıd ibn Abı al-Khayr (d. 440/1049), who
whilst studying his books prior to his conversion to the Sufi path encounters a blind man
who proclaims “The Shaykhs have declared: true knowledge is what is unveiled in the
hearts” (Ibn al-Munawwar 1992, 81). Ab u Sa6ıd is later said to have abandoned the study
of all sciences and withdrawn from society in order to engage in constant prayer, recollective
meditation (dhikr), and bodily austerities (Ibn al-Munawwar 1992, 91).
Such accounts served to stress the importance of bodily discipline for the reception of
spiritual truths. This training also affected the conception of the body and its perceptions. In
the hagiographical narrative, Ab u Sa6ıd describes the effects of these practices as vivid
visionary and kinaesthetic experiences. In response to one particularly frightening vision
of a threatening dark figure Ab u Sa6ıd says: “Night and day, out of dread and fear of him, I
shook and burned. I never fell asleep or was neglectful. And this continued until every one of
my atoms came to cry out: Allah, Allah, Allah!” (Ibn al-Munawwar 1992, 91). This episode
from Ab u Sa6ıd’s hagiography indicates the type of somatic training a Sufi was expected to
undertake. These hagiographical accounts also reveal a close interconnection between
visions, the kinaesthetic and affective responses induced by Sufi practice, and belonging
to the Sufi community.
This link between initiation and spiritual modes of “seeing” can be seen in further
examples such as the case of Shi’ite esotericism highlighted by Amir Moezzi, where “vision
by the heart” is associated with the belief in the Shi’ite imams’ “pre-existential luminous
entity” and “subtle anatomy” (Moezzi 1994, 44). The association of the prophet
Muh: ammad with light is pervasive in the early Shi’ism and the notion that he existed
pre-eternally in the form of light that was then partly transmitted to the Shi’ite imams
was common in esoteric Shi’ism (Rubin 1975, 114). Al-Daylamı’s conception of the soul
as a subtle body of light provides a theoretical basis that can account for such interconnec-
tions in the Sufi context, mobilizing the Sufi viewer’s lived experience alongside Sufi theory
in moments of spiritual vision. It is initiation onto the Sufi path that allows the subtle body
to be activated and perceived in mystical visions and in the contemplation of diagrams. This
points to the interconnection between conceiving of the subtle body as light and the emer-
gence of particular visual regimes.

Visualising the spiritual body of the soul

As well as detailing Sufi theory and reinforcing the need for bodily discipline, al-Daylamı’s
understanding of the soul and body in terms of light and darkness informs Sufi visual
practices, cultivating distinct modes of seeing. As discussed above, Sufi practice presents
the possibility of attaining new modes of perception in the bodily and spiritual world. In this
context, diagrams indicate the emergence of distinct bodies of knowledge by offering their
users visualizations of complex and often disparate information beyond the usual limits of
sight (Bender and Marrinan 2010, 60).
This betrays the fact that systematizations of Sufi thought, practices, and organizational
structures were accompanied by shifts in Sufi sensory regimes. In this period, there emerged
a greater emphasis on visual contemplation in Sufi thought and practice, with more detailed
attention being given to the interpretation of dreams and visions, for example (Qudsi 2012,
206). We may also speak of an emerging ocular-centric framework of mystical experience in
certain Sufi communities at this time (Abuali 2019, 12–13). Outside the realm of Sufism, it
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seems that other Muslim thinkers began to consider the significance of images in more
detail. The twelfth-century scholar Muh: ammad b. Mah: m ud al-Ṭusı’s 6Aj
a8ib al-makhl
uq
at
(dated between 562/1167 and 573/1194) for example, conceives of images as intermediaries
between the perceptible world and the spiritual, hidden world (Pancaroglu 2003, 38). As
Pancaroglu (2003, 40) notes, in Ṭ usı’s work “images are harnessed to explore and give
meaning to the movable boundaries of human knowledge and vision.” Hence, the
twelfth-century seems to witness an increased interest in images amongst Arabic-Islamic
thinkers.
The emphasis on the primacy of vision in this period accompanied an increased and more
elaborate usage of diagrams in Sufi texts. As discussed, diagrams depicting the cosmos or
the soul can certainly be found in Sufi treatises prior to al-Daylamı. However, they are
relatively infrequent, often simpler, and do not play a central role in structuring texts as the
diagram of the soul in the Mirror of Souls does. The steady emergence of increasingly
complex and detailed diagrams then coincides with a time when greater value was placed
on the visual and visionary experiences in Sufism. Evidently, this was not confined to
changes in Sufi manuscript traditions but was part of a wider trend that emphasized
ocular experiences in Sufi practice as well.
In al-Daylamı’s work, conceiving of the soul as a light that could transcend the body,
while remaining anchored to it, transforms the human being in his or her entirety into an
intermediary between the hidden and manifest worlds. Not only does the body itself act as
such an intermediary, but once the Sufi achieves an advanced spiritual state, the boundaries
between the hidden and manifest world seems to collapse. Al-Daylamı’s depiction of the
spiritual body too, is rendered an image that grants access to the hidden. This understanding
of the body and its perceptions is demonstrated by al-Daylamı’s diagram, as its microcosmic
composition seems to blur the lines between the soul and that which is external to it. The
visualization of the soul both depends upon and reinforces these changes in Sufi thought
and practice.
As Meyer has noted, visual media may act as bodies that are “incorporated by, and at the
same time form their beholders and shape their habitus” (Meyer 2015, 345). This is certainly
the case regarding diagrams found in Sufi texts. As Gardiner has highlighted with regard to
the Sufi occultist Ah: mad al-B unı, access to the hidden world through contemplation of
diagrams requires the Sufi to adhere to a set of practices including fasting and recollection
(Gardiner 2017, 19). This is true for al-Daylamı as well. Contemplation of the diagram must
therefore be accompanied by the appropriate theory and wider repertoire of Sufi disciplines.
This is clearly stated by al-Daylamı who emphasizes that only those who have attained an
advanced spiritual station are able to grasp the meaning of the diagram:

Be aware that we have drawn this image (shakl) so that the Sufi initiate may contemplate it. If he
is of the people of mystical unveiling (muk
ashafa), he will strive until its doors open. But if he is
not a wayfarer upon the Sufi path, he is not permitted to look at it, and will be beguiled by it.
Rather, he should be a believer in the Sufi path, a lover of Sufism, affirming the Sufi masters
(mash ayikhihim) and not doubting their teachings. [In this case] he will be permitted to contem-
plate this image, from which he can know the stations of souls in Sufism. (al-Daylamı Gotha,
fol. 84a; al-Daylamı a, fol. 66a)

Here al-Daylamı stresses that belonging to the Sufi community entails particular modes of
seeing. The ability to comprehend the image is predicated on experiential knowledge gained
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through Sufi training under the guidance of a Sufi master. This allows the Sufi to realize the
anatomical composition of the soul in embodied practice, as well as through the visual
practice of contemplation. As Gruber has shown, in Islamic societies images were often
thought to lead the viewer to more abstracted meanings, being fully understood with one’s
capacity for insight where “both the maker and beholder of an image can be dared to rise
above the creation or perception of an outer form in order to engage with an inner form”
(Gruber 2009, 233). In this case, al-Daylamı instructs the Sufi disciple to contemplate the
image until its “inner form” becomes apparent. Proper visual practice then is only accessible
to the advanced Sufi whose habitus has been shaped through spiritual exercise.
Given the bodily shape of the soul depicted in the diagram, the Sufi initiate is encouraged
to associate certain psycho-spiritual faculties, and their corresponding spiritual-affective
functions, with particular locations within the body. Hence, the heart with its accompanying
an) is associated with the stomach.6 The spirit
spiritual states of love (mah: abba) and faith (ım
and mystery, along with their respective mystical states are associated with the chest. And
finally, the highest spiritual states of annihilation (fan a8) or bewilderment (h: ıra) are associ-
ated with the head. Given that much of Sufi training would involve inculcating the appro-
priate kinaesthetic and affective dispositions as part of one’s habitus, often in response to
sensory stimuli such as when witnessing a mystical vision, practicing recollection (dhikr), or
in musical audition (sam a6), the visualization of the soul acts as a means to reinforce the
stratification of certain affective states by mapping them onto the spiritual and physical
body, as well as the cosmos.
Placing the lower faculties of the soul in or near the stomach like structure of the diagram
therefore accords with general Sufi thinking that perceives the stomach and waist to be the
primary ways through which the lower soul may dominate one’s inner being, as it is associated
with gluttony, sexual desire, and ritual impurity (Alexandrin 2013, 528; al-Tirmidhı, 12).
Moreover, the beginning stages of the Sufi path often required controlling the humoral com-
position of the body through diet and fasting. Once the stomach is disciplined, the Sufi may
purify the heart that acts as the locus of mystical perception, progressing to higher stages of the
path and deriving knowledge of the hidden world. As Alexandrin (2013, 535–536) has noted,
overcoming these impediments leads to the lifting of the barrier to the unseen and makes
visionary experience, or perception with the inner eye, possible. This barrier is itself depicted
in the diagram at the point at which the spiritual stomach meets the spiritual chest. Moreover,
each section of this “spiritual body” maps onto a given cosmological realm, hence the stomach-
like structure lies firmly in the physical world of the duny a, the chest lies between the hidden
world (akhira) and the realm of annihilation (6 alam al-fana8). Finally, the head-like structure is
identified with the world of the unknown (al-majh ul).
The latter annotation reminds us of the fact that when language is present within Sufi
diagrams, it is often esoteric and obscure to the uninitiated viewer. As Merinnan and bender
have noted, while “explanatory text keyed to the imagery may attempt to stabilise this flux of
information,” the text “cannot fully specify all the ways in which users employ diagrammatic
material.” And the knowledge created by a diagram does not rely on any single “element” but
arises from the “unspecified interaction of varied components” (Bender and Marrinan 2010,
34). This is evident when it comes to Sufi diagrams that rarely make sense to those outside the
Sufi community. Here, knowledge arises in a relational manner between the Sufi’s visual
practice and embodied experiences. The practice of contemplating al-Daylamı’s diagram of
the subtle body of light is therefore intended to generate experiential knowledge through visual
practice. This permits Sufi initiates to inhabit the Sufi cosmos and community.
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Conclusion
In this article, I have highlighted the relevance of a lesser studied work of Shams al-Dın al-
Daylamı to the study of Sufism. Discussions of the nature of light were central to al-Daylamı’s
understanding of the soul and body. As I have shown, aspects of al-Daylamı’s thought seem to
have been echoed by later authors such as al-Simnanı who developed a much more intricate
system of subtle bodies. For al-Simnanı these subtle centers increase in subtlety in the following
sequence: the subtle center of the bodily frame, followed by the lower soul, then the heart, the
innermost heart, the spirit, the mystery, and finally the subtlest substance of the soul’s reality
(h: aqiyya) (Elias 1995, 81–85). Al-Daylamı’s account of the subtle bodies as varying degrees of
light seems to prefigure these developments. Furthermore, these ideas influenced later thinkers
such as Sh ah Walı Allah (d. 1172/1762) whose system of subtle centers is far more intricate and
complex, and was integral to his project of religious reform, reconfiguring notions of the
individual with implications for wider society (Hermansen 1988, 7, 24–25). Studying al-
Daylamı in this regard then offers an insight into these theoretical discussions regarding the
subtle centers of the soul when they were still relatively nascent.
Twelfth-century Sufism was characterized by a number of transitions. Apart from more
centralized communities, Sufis in this period also cultivated a synthesis between theory and
practice that was realized in the emergence of new sensory regimes. In al-Daylamı’s case,
these elements of Sufism were bound together by the conception of the soul as light.
Emphasizing the soul as a substance of light that is both bodily and spiritual strengthened
the case for embodied spiritual training. Part of that bodily discipline was the inculcation of
a mystical mode of vision, as a means to access spiritual truths and the unseen. The diagram
of the Mirror of Souls represents the hidden imperceptible soul that is only fully understood
through Sufi practice and training. In turn, it informs the Sufi’s understanding of the human
body and soul. Moreover, since the text of the Mirror of Souls is structured according to the
diagram, a close connection between practice, theory and depictions of the soul is realized.
This in turn shifted Sufi understandings regarding the boundaries of the body and the
senses, transforming them into intermediaries between the hidden and manifest worlds
that facilitate belonging to the Sufi community.

ORCID iD
Eyad Abuali https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4763-0312

Notes
1. There is some ambiguity regarding the date of al-Daylamı’s death. Pieter Coppens has demonstrat-
ed that the most likely date is that of 587/1191 (Coppens 2018, 64).
2. For examples of earlier diagrams see Ab u H: 
amid al-Ghazalı’s Ris
alat tajrıd al-tawh: ıd, which
contains a simple diagram of three concentric circles, depicting the three layers of the human
soul, referring to each one as a world (6
alam). See the British Library manuscript, Or 7746.
3. The term “subtle body” refers to particular faculties of the soul that, in later Sufism, came to be
associated with particular areas of the body while not being identical to them (such as the heart,
brain, and liver) (al-Qushayrı 2001, 123; Hermansen 1988, 2).
4. For the Istanbul manuscript see: Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı, Mir6 at al-arw
ah: , MS Shehidalipasa
1346, fols. 39b-81b. For the Gotha manuscript see: Shams al-Dın al-Daylamı, Mir6 at al-arw ah: ,
Gotha MS Orient A70, fols. 76b–85a.
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5. See Adamson on extramission theory who explains that this theory claims that “we see because rays
are emitted from our eyes. When these rays fall upon visible object, we see that object” (Adamson
2006, 209) in contrast to how we think of sight today where light enters our eyes instead. See also
(Elias 2012, 190–197).
6. The spiritual states of love and faith are placed in the stomach in the diagram of the Gotha
manuscript, MS Orient A70, fols. 76b–85a.

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Author biography
Eyad Abuali received his doctoral degree in Middle Eastern studies from SOAS University
of London. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at The Berlin Institute of Islamic
Theology at Humboldt University. His work examines the intellectual, cultural, and societal
realties of medieval Sufism with a focus on the history of the senses and emotions. His
current research project analyses the history of emotions in the Sufi traditions of medieval
Iran, Central Asia, and the Middle East.