ABSTRACT
The introduction to the first major poem of Nizami Ganjavi’s Quintet (Khamsa or Panj Ganj), The Treasury of Mysteries (Makhzan al-Asrar), features a retelling of the Prophet Muhammad’s ascension to heaven (mi'raj). In other contexts, the ascension narrative has been used as an etiological myth, to frame sectarian or inter-religious debates, and to train new Muslims in proper ritual practice. In Nizami’s retelling, the Prophet Muhammad is a paradigmatic mystic whose journey to God can be emulated by others—but who remains distinct from and superior to them because his ascension was embodied. His embodiment is highlighted, most notably, through two senses: scent and touch. As Muhammad rises through the heavens, we see him subdue Scorpio’s tail with his breath and perfume the sky with his musk. In Nizami’s worldview, touch and scent are not unrelated, since scent involves touching that which is smelled. In the context of the larger poem, Nizami’s insistence on Muhammad’s embodied ascension reveals the importance of the physical body to Sufi understandings of mysticism and the role Muhammad’s body played in distinguishing his encounter with God from that of later mystics.
