Iraqi

Shaykh Fakhr al-Din Ibrahim Iraqi (1204–1289) was a noted Persian Sufi, mystic, and poet. Born near Hamadan, he studied religious and literary subjects there before travelling to India with a group of dervishes. He spent many years under the guidance of the celebrated Sufi Baha al-Din Zakariya of Multan and later married into his family.

Iraqi travelled widely through India, the Hijaz, Syria, and Anatolia. In Konya he encountered Jalal al-Din Rumi and was deeply influenced by his presence and thought. Divine love and the unity of being stand at the centre of Iraqi’s poetry and prose.

His principal works are the Divan, the masnavi ʿUshshaq-nameh, and Lamaʿat, a celebrated prose work on Sufism. Lamaʿat in particular became an important text of Persian mystical literature and influenced many later Sufi writers.

Iraqi died in Damascus in 1289. He is remembered as a writer who gave the themes of love and spiritual knowledge an especially graceful and compelling form.