Murshid Sharif Graham
Biographical Remembrance
by Qahira (Anne-Louise) Wirgman
The Nekhbakht Foundation
Dear Friends,
Many of you will already have heard the sad news of Sharif Graham. The board has asked me to write this newsletter devoting it to his work at the Nekbakht Foundation and memories of our friend.
Sharif grew up in Arizona in the western United States. He studied at Yale University and also the University of California, Berkeley. He became a professor of Literature and Comparative Religion at the University of Arizona and then at Pima College. Here is Sharif’s own description of his studies with grateful thanks to Paul Ketelaar for sharing his email exchanges with Sharif with me. All the parts in italics which follow are Sharif’s own words taken from their exchange.
In graduate school at Yale, I took a course with Dorithee Metlitshy called "The Middle Eastern Background of Medieval English Literature" during which we were assigned to read, among many other books, the classical books of Reynold Nicholson and A J Arberry. I believe that was my first acquaintance with anything Sufi.
In 1970 he attended an event given by Pir Vilayat in Paradise, Arizona when he was twenty eight and began studying Pir o Murshid Inayat Khan’s teachings from that point. In 1982, on a visit to Suresnes for the centenary celebrations of Murshid’s birth, he rang the bell at no. 34 rue de la Tuilerie where Munira van Voorst van Beest was carrying on the work of the Biographical Department. The name was given by Murshid to the work of his mureed Nekbakht (formerly Sakina) Furnée. Nekbakht took down Murshid’s lectures in shorthand from 1922 to 1926.
I was initiated in 1970 and did a lot of Sufi work in America before coming to Suresnes in 1982 for the Centenary celebrations and meeting Munira van Voorst van Beest. I immediately saw the importance of her work, and was delighted that she accepted my offer to assist her. I was discovering the purpose behind the academic training I had received at Yale from 1959 to 1967. Munira was very willing to accept my many suggestions about making the Complete Works conform to the conventions of scholarly editions.
As the story was told to me, Munira rarely allowed people in to visit the archives, but she invited Sharif (Munir at that time) in and they got on extremely well. From that point he would devote the long summer break from his university work to travel to Suresnes and work with Munira on The Complete Works of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan. Together they went through the files, comparing texts, verifying whether a lecture was indeed by Murshid and then comparing it to other documents on file. He told me they would have long discussions on what should go into the index and he always talked of Munira with such affection and respect. He wrote a beautiful dedication to her creation of the format for The Complete Works in the 1922 Volume I, speaking of her overwhelming, untiring dedication to her task. Their work together produced the volumes 1922 I and II and 1923 I and a new edition of the Gayan.
Sharif and Munira at the back of 34 rue de la Tuilerie, August 1989
After Munira’s death in September 1990, Sharif continued to work on the volumes with Berthi van der Bent who took on the work of transcribing the shorthand. Finally in 1998 he moved to Suresnes with Koré Jeanne Salvato and their daughter Elodie. Many who visited Suresnes will remember his participation in Pir Vilayat’s conferences, as a Cherag in Universal Worship services and above all in his very deep love for Murshid which shone through when he was telling stories of Murshid’s life. He would talk of the dream he had early on in his mureedship where he was in Murshid’s presence and asked permission to touch the curl of his hair – the curl of the beloved. He also helped Pir Vilayat on his books and would open the archives to researchers. As well as his involvement in the Suresnes sufi community he continued his work for the Foundation editing the lectures given on Murshid’s last US tour in 1925/1926 which became 1926 Volumes I and II; the 1924 Volume I with Berthi van der Bent Hamel and Jane Parish; 1924 Volume II; and 1925 Volume I with myself as co-editor. Koré worked with him project managing and proofreading the volumes and Iman Julianne Damm transcribed lectures into digital format and entered the many footnotes. Margaret Lesley and Anne King worked with Berthi on the shorthand transcripts and would visit with her in Suresnes working with Sharif on the volumes.
I think it was 2010 when he began to think about returning to the States and that year he contacted me to see if I was interested in taking on the role as Archivist and Editor. We had first met in 2002 at the Zenith Sufi Camp. Gulrukh Patel and I had been working at the London Sufi Order UK office and invited him to London to talk about Murshid’s life. But I really got to know him during his visits to Suluk Europe for the classes Gulab and Paravana where he gave a series of talks about Murshid’s life. We had a handover period of five months in 2012 and he returned to Suresnes in 2013 and 2014 for long visits and to answer my many questions. When he was packing up to leave he was going to take the picture below but I persuaded him to leave it in the archives and each time I passed it I would think of him and smile. It is there still.
His was a full life and he touched so many lives—there are other books he worked on, the magazine The Message that he produced for over ten years, the lectures he gave—but my brief here was to talk of his work for the Biographical Department, you will find many memories of him over all the websites of the Hazrati organisations as he was involved with all of them and gave his time and expertise to all. One last quote from Sharif himself
I had very extensive interaction with the Sufi Movement. In fact, I was the Secretary General of the Movement from 1982-88 (although I had no duties). I had extensive interactions with Sufi Contact, and a warm personal friendship with Gawery Voùte.
He was in Delhi at the end of January this year for the Urs, happy to be back at the dargah of his beloved master. He wrote me this email: I am in India again for the Urs. Thinking of you, dear Qahira with this photo attached – after talking about Munira I had asked him if we could visit her grave which we did.
Qahira, Sharif and Lola at Munira van Voorst van Beest’s grave, Rueil Malmaison, June 2012
So dear Sharif, I am thinking of you too, with love and laughter; with such deep gratitude for your work and wishing you God speed dear friend into the light.
Yours,
Qahira (Anne-Louise) Wirgman
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