Which al-Muzaffar?
Editorial clarification: this account concerns Abu Said Muzaffar al-Din Gökböri, ruler of Erbil, whom the source dates as deceased in 630 AH. It does not describe the Ayyubid al-Malik al-Muzaffar Baha al-Din Ghazi to whom Ibn al-Arabi’s ijaza was addressed. The old shared heading about the ijaza was misleading. The following sections translate the body of the supplied account.
Erbil and its festival
The account begins by crediting the ruler and builder of Erbil, Abu Said Muzaffar Gökböri ibn Zayn al-Din Kuchuk Ali, with initiating the celebrations described. It praises his generosity, gives his death as 630 AH and describes his burial at the shrine of Ali in Kufa.
He greatly magnified the celebration of the Prophet’s birth. Delegations of jurists, Sufis, preachers and Qur’an reciters came from Mosul, Iraq, Kurdish regions and Persian lands. The author describes celebrations beyond the ability of observers to convey fully.
Preparations and public gatherings
Preparations and the arrival of visitors began at the start of Muharram. The festivities themselves began on the first day of Rabi I, when people set aside their occupations. Decorated wooden structures with several levels were erected between the citadel and the khanqah. Each level housed singers, performers of shadow entertainment and other amusements, and people circulated among them.
Each day after the afternoon prayer the ruler descended from the citadel and joined the people. This continued for six or ten days, according to the date chosen for that year’s Mawlid: the eighth in one year, the twelfth in another, in recognition of differing views about the date.
Food, procession and preaching
Two days before the Mawlid, large herds of camels, cattle and sheep were brought to the main square between the citadel and the khanqah, accompanied by drums and performers. Slaughtering and the preparation of many dishes continued as cauldrons were set out.
On the eve of the Mawlid, the ruler prayed at the citadel, then held a gathering of recitation and remembrance. A procession preceded by hundreds of large candles crossed the square to the khanqah. The next morning, dignitaries, residents and visitors assembled in the square. A preacher’s chair and a wooden tower-like seat for the ruler overlooked it, with scholars and leading figures seated nearby.
The troops were reviewed while preachers rose in turn to address the people. The ruler alternated between observing the review and listening to the sermons. Dignitaries and visiting guests were called forward and presented with robes of honour.
Hospitality and departure
Near midday, after the review, two meals were laid out: one in the square for the public and the poor, and another at the khanqah for those seated near the ruler and preachers. Food was also sent to particular households. The meal continued until close to the afternoon prayer.
The ruler spent the following night at the khanqah in a gathering of sama, or devotional listening, until morning. Departing guests received money for their journeys. The Arabic account attributes to Ibn al-Jawzi, from an attendee, an estimate of three hundred thousand dinars spent on these celebrations. This is the attribution and figure as supplied, without independent verification.
Ibn Dihya and writing about the Mawlid
The account connects these gatherings with the composition and public reading of works on the Prophet’s birth. It reports that in 604 AH the travelling scholar, hadith specialist and linguist Abu al-Khattab Majd al-Din Umar ibn al-Husayn ibn Dihya al-Balansi al-Andalusi visited the ruler. The source describes his legal affiliation as first Zahiri, then Hanbali. It gives Ibn Dihya’s later death in Cairo as 633 AH.
Seeing the ruler’s attention to the Mawlid, Ibn Dihya composed al-Tanwir bi-Mawlid al-Siraj al-Munir. He read it in the ruler’s presence from the preacher’s chair during the celebration and appended a poem beginning, in prose translation, “Were it not for the tale-bearers, our enemies, who found fault.” The ruler rewarded him with a thousand dinars.
Reading the work became customary for the ruler, who often read it himself; the account says that the judge Ahmad ibn Khallikan heard it from him. It concludes that other rulers followed this example, gatherings for Mawlid readings spread in the East and scholars composed further works after Ibn Dihya’s model.