Book Review: Disfiguring the Martyr: A Critical Review of Carl W. Ernst’s Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr

Translating the poetry of Ḥusayn b. Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj (244–309 / 858–922) is no ordinary literary endeavor. To render into another language the ecstatic expressions of one of Islam’s most enchanting mystic-martyrs is to engage with a body of speech that is simultaneously devotional, metaphysical, highly stylistic, and liturgical. It is not merely poetry, but verbal unveiling (kashf), spiritual invocation (munājāt), and metaphysical testimony (shahāda). To extract Ḥallāj from the sacred orbit of these dimensions is to flatten his legacy and misrepresent his voice.

In Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr, Carl W. Ernst offers a modern English rendering of 117 poems attributed to al-Ḥallāj, along with a lengthy introduction and scholarly apparatus. A respected scholar of Islamic mysticism, Ernst approaches the Dīwān with a stylistic and conceptual framework that he explicitly defines as literary, rather than theological or hagiographical. While this decision may be understandable from a modern academic standpoint, it raises serious concerns from the perspective of those committed to the integrity of Sufi tradition and the inner grammar of its poetics.

This review critiques Ernst’s translation project on several grounds: its secularizing epistemology, its misreading of poetic structure, its reductive treatment of mystical vocabulary, its problematic judgments against previous scholars—particularly Louis Massignon—and its failure to capture the performative, theological, and martyrial voice of Ḥallāj. In addition to structural critiques, the review will offer direct comparative analysis of select translations, revealing the extent to which Ernst’s rendering at times distorts or misrepresents the sacred force of the original.
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Journal of Islamic Sciences, Vol. 17 (Summer-Winter 2024) No. 1

Muzaffar Iqbal

Muzaffar Iqbal is the President of the Center for Islamic Sciences and the General Editor of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾan.