The inside of this mirror undulates like the sea

December 27, 2018 4:34 PM

The first 100 dreams that the sixteenth-century Ottoman Turkish sultan Murad III sent to his Sufi teacher have been translated and posted by Ozgen Felek and Walter G. Andrews.

The dreams combine mysticism and religious symbolism with the surreal transitions common to all dreams:

This humble servant witnessed in a dream that they set up a throne saying, “Sit down.” So we sat. This throne was moving on land like a ship moves on the sea. They said to us, “Each step of yours becomes a year-long road.” Then one also witnessed that we were flying in the air. We were going even faster than a thunderbolt.

posted by yarntheory (11 comments total)

While I am not going to rule out the possibility that all of these are dreams actually had by Murad III, who Allah gives a different class of dreams than we mere peons have, those first two dreams sure do sound like the things you feel like you're "supposed" to see in a dream instead of actual dreams.

I imagine that the Shaikh's interpretation of those are exquisitely politely worded versions of "That's very nice and you are a very pious person, now write down a real dream next time please."
posted by egypturnash at 4:54 PM on December 27, 2018 [7 favorites]

Man, we sure do love being the first one to call something fake on this site.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:11 PM on December 27, 2018 [6 favorites]

Not as much as we love being the first one to call someone out for calling someone out for calling something fake!
posted by Earthtopus at 5:39 PM on December 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Walter is a colleague of sorts and a super nice guy.
Coincidentally he was an English teacher to a teenaged Orhan Pamuk. I saw him interview Pamuk a few years ago and it was magical.
posted by k8t at 7:30 PM on December 27, 2018 [5 favorites]

While I am not going to rule out the possibility that all of these are dreams actually had by Murad III, who Allah gives a different class of dreams than we mere peons have, those first two dreams sure do sound like the things you feel like you're "supposed" to see in a dream instead of actual dreams.

This seems an odd criticism. Maybe they are made up or not Sultan Murad's dreams at all, but why would you expect the dreams of a man who presumably grew up in a royal court, steeped in a religion different from yours and a culture different from yours, with an attitude to dreaming different from yours, and who is clearly in the middle of some sort of spiritual journey different from yours, to be like your dreams?
posted by tavegyl at 9:36 PM on December 27, 2018 [6 favorites]

On the other hand, dream #10 starts out all holy and crap

In a dream, this humble servant witnessed that we were reading a book. On it was written “Ode in Praise [of the Prophet]” and an endless Ode to the Prophet pbuh was inscribed [therein].”

And I'm all, like, yeah of course, and then

There was fish, as well. We ate of that fish. My sultan’s will be done.

That, to me, sounds like an actual dream. Kinda boring, unless you particularly love fish, but still.
posted by hap_hazard at 10:50 PM on December 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

A Divine Inspiration comes saying, “Jesus and Moses each planted a seed. Jesus’ has become basil; Moses’ has become a radish.”

I have no idea what this means, but I like it. I also liked the one where one guy's stone remained a stone and the other turned to cheese. They seem dreamlike enough to me!

But then, I'm working on a book of dreams myself. And I've recently dreamed that I'd buried a shell containing my destiny down a set of stairs, beneath a trap door, in a pool of glowing, swirling silt; that aliens let me know I was done with servitude, that I was free; that I kneeled to a goddess in a store aisle and invited her to guide me. So this all seems reasonable enough?!
posted by limeonaire at 12:07 AM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]

Now I want to read limeonaire's book.
posted by oheso at 12:22 AM on December 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Having had dreams of both kinds -- since dreams seem to have been divided into two categories here, the "real dreams" that are sort of mundane and nonsensical, and the "pious invented dreams" or rather, perhaps, the " wow what was THAT?" dreams -- I can say that I love this thread and would also like to read limeonaire's book. Have saved the PDF linked in the OP to read later and slowly.
posted by luaz at 3:31 AM on December 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

There are literally no limits on what a dream can be. It can be nonsensical, it can have a tightly woven plot, it can reference past dreams, you can wake up and be trapped in it, it can be deliriously religious or as mundane as pushing boxes around in a dark room. It is also probably almost impossible to entirely accurately capture on paper the contents of a dream both because dreams are ephemeral by nature and our ability to accurately recollect even real-world events is spotty at best. So of course gaps are filled in and details embellished.

That said, reading the dreams, they are short and fairly generic. There is little reason to doubt their authenticity. I have had dreams far more wild than this sultan.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:37 AM on December 28, 2018 [5 favorites]

I sometimes have dreams that are like parodies of dreams. It's like "Oh, come on!"

I also sometimes have dreams that are structured exactly like Hollywood movies, even including popcorn.
posted by ovvl at 4:21 PM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]