m rather than in the east. This
hypothesis, like the other, presents no geographical difficulties.
Many Arab authors, such as Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn
Rushd) were influenced by Greek Philosophy: Neoplatonists are said to
have taken refuge in Persia at the Court of Nushirwan (_c._ A.D. 532):
the Fihrist (_c._ 988) mentions Porphyry and Plotinus. If, therefore,
Sufiism, early or late, presents distinct resemblances to
Neoplatonism, we need not hesitate to ascribe them to direct
borrowing, remembering that Neoplatonism itself contains echoes of
India. But, admitting that much in the doctrine of the Sufis can be
found to the west as well as to the east of the countries where they
flourished, can it be said that their general tone is Neoplatonic?
Amongst their characteristics are pantheism; the institution of
religious orders and monasteries; the conception of the religious
life as a path or journey; a bold use of language in which metaphors
drawn from love, wine and music are freely used in speaking of divine
things and, although the doctrine of metempsychosis may be repudiated
as too obviously repugnant to Islam, a tendency to believe in
successive existences or states of the soul. Some of these features,
such as the use of erotic language, may be paralleled in other ancient
religions as well as Hinduism but the pantheism which, not content
with speaking of the soul's union with God, boldly identifies the soul
with the divinity and says I am God, does not seem traceable in
Neoplatonism. And though a distinction may justly be drawn between
early and later Sufiism and Indian influence be admitted as stronger
in the later developments, still an early Sufi, Al-Hallaj, was
executed in 922 A.D. for saying Ana 'l-Haqq, I am the Truth or
God, and we are expressly told that he visited India to study magic.
Many important Sufis made the same journey or at least came within the
geographical sphere of Indian influence. Faridu-'d-Din Attar travelled
in India and Turkestan; Jalalu-'d-Din er-Rumi was born at Balkh, once
a centre of Buddhism: Sa'di visited Balkh, Ghazna, the Panjab, and
Gujarat, and investigated Hindu temples.[1170] Hafiz was invited to
the Deccan by Sultan Muhammad Bahmani and, though shipwreck prevented
the completion of the visit, he was probably in touch with Indian
ideas. These journeys indicate that there was a prevalent notion that
wisdom was to be found in India and those who could not go there must
h