Martin Lings
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Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din) (January 24, 1909 – May 12, 2005) was a lifelong student and follower of Frithjof Schuon and a British scholar on Islam[1], specializing in Sufism.
Lings was born in Burnage, Manchester in 1909 to a Protestant family. The young Lings gained an introduction to travelling at a young age, spending significant time in the United States due to his father's employment.
Lings attended public school at Clifton College and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford (BA (Oxon) English Language and Literature). At Magdalen he was a student of C. S. Lewis, who would become a close friend of his. After graduating from Oxford Lings went to Vytautas Magnus University, in Lithuania, where he taught Anglo-Saxon and Middle English.
For Lings himself, however, the most important event that occurred while he was at Oxford was his discovery of the writings of the French Muslim metaphysician René Guénon and the German spiritual authority and metaphysician Frithjof Schuon. In 1938 Lings went to Basle to make Schuon's acquaintance, and he remained Frithjof Schuon's disciple and expositor for the rest of his life. Having found an authentic and orthodox spiritual path (in the form of the Islamic tradition) was for him the most important event of his life and he devoted the rest of his life to the spiritual path and serving God.(see also: Sufi studies)
In 1939 Lings went to Cairo, Egypt in order to visit a friend of his, who was an assistant of René Guénon. Not long after arriving in Cairo, his friend died, and Lings began studying and learned the Arabic language.
Cairo became his home for over a decade; he became an English teacher at the University of Cairo and produced Shakespearean plays annually. Lings married Lesley Smalley in 1944, and lived with his wife in a village near the pyramids. Despite having settled comfortably in Egypt, Lings was forced to leave in 1952 after anti-British disturbances.
Upon returning to the United Kingdom, he continued his education, earning a BA in Arabic and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). His doctoral thesis became a well-received book on Algerian Sufi Ahmad al-Alawi (see Sufi studies). After completing his doctorate, Lings worked at the British Museum and later British Library, overseeing eastern manuscripts and other textual works, rising to the position of Keeper of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 1970-73.
A writer throughout this period, Lings output increased in the last quarter of his life. While his thesis work on Ahmad al-Alawi had been well-regarded, his most famous work was a biography about Muhammad, written in 1983, that earned him acclaim in the Muslim world, and prizes from the governments of Pakistan and Egypt. His work was hailed as the "best biography of the prophet in English" at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad.[2] He also continued travelling extensively, although he made his home in Kent. He died in 2005.
In addition to his writings on Sufism, Lings was a renowned Shakespeare scholar. The unique contribution to Shakespeare scholarship was to point out the deeper esoteric meanings found in Shakespeare's plays, and the spirituality of Shakespeare himself. More recent editions of Lings's books on Shakespeare include a Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales.
[edit] Books
- Splendors of Qur'an Calligraphy And Illumination (2005), Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0-500-97648-1
- A Return to the Spirit : Questions and Answers (2005), Fons Vitae, ISBN 1-887752-74-9
- Sufi Poems : A Mediaeval Anthology (2005), Islamic Texts Society, ISBN 1-903682-18-5
- Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now (2004), Archetype, ISBN 1-901383-07-5
- The Eleventh Hour : the Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition and Prophecy (2002), Archetype, ISBN 1-901383-01-6
- Collected Poems, revised and expanded (2002), Archetype, ISBN 1-901383-03-2
- Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions (2001), Archetype, ISBN 1-901383-02-4
- The Secret of Shakespeare : His Greatest Plays seen in the Light of Sacred Art (1998), Quinta Essentia, distributed by Archetype, (pb), ISBN 1-870196-14-7
- The Secret of Shakespeare : His Greatest Plays seen in the Light of Sacred Art (1998), Quinta Essentia, distributed by Archetype, (hb), ISBN 1-870196-15-5
- Sacred Art of Shakespeare : To Take Upon Us the Mystery of Things (1998), Inner Tradition, 0892817178
- A Sufi saint of the twentieth century: Shaikh Ahmad al-°Alawi, his spiritual heritage and legacy (1993), Islamic Texts Society, ISBN 0-946621-50-0
- Symbol & Archetype : A Study of the Meaning of Existence (1991, 2006), Fons Vitae Quinta Essentia series, ISBN 1-870196-05-8
- Muhammad : His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (1983), Islamic Texts Society, ISBN 0-04-297042-3
- The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination (1976), World of Islam Festival Trust, ISBN 0-905035-01-1
- What is Sufism? (1975), University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-02794-9
- The Heralds, and other Poems 1970
- The Elements, and Other Poems (1967), Perennial Books
- The Book of Certainty: The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Wisdom and Gnosis Abu Bakr Siraj al Din 1952, 1970, 1992,
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Obituary from the Guardian (May 27, 2005)
- Obituary from the New York Times (May 29, 2005)
- A list of books by Martin Lings
- Titles by Martin Lings
- Works of Martin Lings in Hungarian
