8 - Adam’s Sister: Tree Symbolism in Premodern Mystical Islamic Cosmology

Summary

If you say: What is the Tree? We say: [It is] the Universal Man (al-insān al-kāmil) who governs the Crow's structure. And if you say: What is the Crow? We say: [It is] the Universal Body (al-jism al-kullī) […]

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya.

ARBORE AL RE PRESE NTATIONS AND symbolism in the premodern Islamic imaginary are extensive and multidimensional. They can be traced in both religious and non-religious literature as well as in art and architecture. In the non-religious sphere, we find rich poetic and aesthetic engagements with the tree's perceived feminine form and beauty by poets and scholars indulging in recreational activities in gardens and natural settings. We also find discussions of the tree's social, emotional, and medicinal benefits in various literary texts and botanical manuals. In historical and biographical accounts, we find trees presented as markers of significant events. The shajarat al-bayʿa (‘tree of the pledge’), for example, is a famous tree at al-Ḥudaybiyya (a place located 14.5km outside Mecca), under which the Prophet Muḥammad is said to have received his companions’ pledge to fight the tribe of Quraysh that had prevented them from reaching Mecca. The tree was subsequently venerated by Muslims, as the pledge of allegiance to Muḥammad marked the start of a series of victories that culminated in the triumph of Islam. The pledge became known as bayʿat al-riḍwān (‘pledge of gratification’) and was mentioned in the Quran. In art and architecture, consistently recognisable arboreal imageries and patterns covered the surfaces of Islamic buildings, carpets, textiles, objects, and illustrated manuscripts across the great cultural and regional diversity of the vast Islamic world. This ubiquitous presence of arboreal representations has shaped Islamic artistic taste and influenced Muslims’ aesthetic preferences for abstract expressions of natural beauty. In the religious sphere, the focus of this chapter, we find ample references to trees in the sacred texts of the Quran and Hadith, and the extensive commentaries on them, as well as in the religious and mystical discourses associated with them.