The mysterious Mr Safi ابن صفی
Mahmood Farooqui wrote - I have been reading Ibn-e Safi and thinking about one of the last pieces written by political scientist and activist Arvind Das in the Biblio. He was reviewing a book called, I think, the modern invention of work. Arvind had posited, roughly, that work can coexist with pleasure but what distinguishes it from a pleasurable pursuit is the discipline of work, its regimented structure, it’s time-bound, task-related and its operation in a restricted-space. One may enjoy picking newts off a plant, but it becomes work when one has to perform the task regardless of desire or mood. It is the element of compulsion, the taking away of one’s will that distinguishes work from pleasure. I was thinking of it especially because Ibn-e Safi was a great favourite when I was young but I was now re-reading him after years, at great speed, foraging the novels for ideas. In part because I was meeting a deadline and in part because I was reading him for a particular purpose,