Voices of Islam (56 page)

The twelfth century
CE
formed a watershed for the spiritual, intellectual, and artistic landscape of Sufism. Up to this point, Sufis, concerned with culti- vating their own tradition, had largely maintained an inward orientation. However, the alignment of this distinct form of piety with legal and theologi- cal scholarship at the hands of ‘‘academic’’ Sufi like Qushayri and Hujviri opened the floodgates through which legal, theological, and philosophical thinking could flow into Sufism. Indeed, from the end of the eleventh cen- tury, Sufis began to open up to the different intellectual discourses that were widely available in Islamic societies. These included not only legal, theologi- cal, and philosophical speculations but also an array of ‘‘occult’’ sciences, including interpretation of dreams and other visionary experiences as well as divination and prognostication. This influx of various intellectual currents into Sufi thought was accompanied by a concomitant fusion of different pietistic orientations during the same period, so that Sufism, which had been associated mostly with renunciation and asceticism, came to blend with other forms of piety such as messianism, apocalypticism, and esoterism. The expan- sion of the scope of Sufi thought and practice to all levels and aspects of social and intellectual life also resulted in an unprecedented literary and artistic flo- rescence. Poetic and musical expression, which had been a special feature of Sufi from its very beginnings, now reached new artistic heights in all of the cultures (most notably Arabic and Persian) of the Muslim world. This confluence of Sufism with other intellectual, artistic, and spiritual trends pro- duced a stellar array of seminal Sufi figures during this period, of whom Abu Madyan (d. 1197
CE
), Najm al-Din Kubra (d. 1221
CE
), Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240
CE
), and Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273
CE
) are prominent examples. The almost complete blending of Sufism into all forms of Islamic social and cul- tural life from the twelfth century
CE
onwards makes it practically impossible to write the history of Sufism as if it were a self-contained tradition of mystical thought and practice. In a very real sense, nearly all of subsequent Islamic his- tory was colored if not permeated by Sufi themes and practices. Clearly, the Sufi had succeeded in conveying the significance of their central concern, which was to obtain experiential knowledge (
ma‘rifa
) of God’s unity by

266
Voices of Tradition

distilling the reality of the Islamic profession of faith, ‘‘There is no god but God,’’ into their daily lives. This was acknowledged by the great majority of their fellow Muslims in all walks of life.

NOTES

1. This chapter is a much condensed and selective version of my forthcoming study on the history of early Sufism titled
   Sufism: The Formative Period
   (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006).
   

2. For a synopsis of early usages of the term
   sufi
   see Julian Baldick,
   Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufi
   (New York: New York University Press, 1989), 30–32.
   

3. The earliest use of the term,
   sufi
   is associated with Abu Hashim of Kufa (d. 767–768
   CE
   ) and it was defi tely in circulation by the fi half of the ninth century. See Louis Massignon,
   Essay on the Origins of the Technical Language of Islamic Mysticism,
   trans. Benjamin Clark (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), 105.
   

4. For a catalog of Muslim ascetics in the eighth century
   CE
   , see Massignon,
   Essay,
   113–119. For a longer treatment, see Tor Andrae,
   In the Garden of Myrtles: Studies in Early Islamic Mysticism
   trans. Birgitta Sharpe (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1987), 33–54.
   

5. For a pithy discussion of the theme of repentance among early renunciants, see Gerhard Bo¨wering, ‘‘Early Sufism Between Persecution and Heresy,’’ in
   Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics,
   ed. F. de Jong and Bernd Radtke (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 45–50.
   

6. The clustering of the themes of inner life, inner meaning of the Qur’an, and doctrine of selection is suggested by Bernd Radtke in ‘‘Baten,’’
   Encyclopaedia Iranica
   2: 859–861 (quote on 860).
   

7. ‘‘Bestami (Bastami), Bayazid,’’
   Encyclopaedia Iranica
   4: 183–186 (Gerhard Bo¨wering).
   

8. ‘‘Shath,’’
   The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
   new edition 9: 361b (Carl Ernst); for an in-depth treatment of ecstatic utterances, see Carl W. Ernst,
   Words of Ecstasy in Sufism
   (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1985).
   

9. Abu Nasr ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Ali al-Sarraj,
   Kitab al-luma fi’l-tasawwuf,
   ed. Reyn- old A. Nicholson (London: Luzac & Co., 1914), 382; trans. Nicholson in the English section 102 (with minor changes).
   

10. Reynold A. Nicholson, ‘‘An Early Arabic Version of the Miraj of Abu Yazid al-Bistami,’’ Islamica 2, no. 3 (1926): 403–408, trans. in Michael Anthony Sells,
    Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi Quran, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings
    (New York: Paulist Press, 1996), 244–250; the quote is from 249.
    

11. For the earliest of such commentaries, most notably by Junayd (d. 910
    CE
    ), see Sarraj,
    al-Luma,
    380–395. This selection is translated in Sells,
    Early Islamic Mysti- cism,
    214–231. Sells also translated (on pages 234–242) some sayings of Bayazid found in two later sources.
    

12. Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah Abu Nu‘aym al-Isfahani,
    Hilyat al-awliya’ wa-tabaqat al-asfiya’
    (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1967), 10: 40; translation reproduced, with
    

    What Is Sufism?
    267
    

    minor omissions, from Jawid A. Mojaddedi,
    The Biographical Tradition in Sufism: The Tabaqat Genre from al-Sulami to Jami
    (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001), 54.
    

13. ‘‘Bestami (Bastami), Bayazid,’’
    Encyclopaedia Iranica
    4: 184 (Gerhard Bo¨wering).
    

14. The evolution of Bayazid’s image in the Sufi biographical tradition is traced in detail in Mojaddedi,
    Biographical Tradition.
    

15. Massignon,
    The Passion of al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam,
    trans. Her- bert Mason (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982), 3, 226–228 contains a very useful, albeit brief, catalog of ‘‘ritual practices peculiar to’’ the Sufis, many of which must have been practiced by the Baghdad Sufis.
    

16. By contrast, the prayer-rug (
    sajjada
    ) and its use as a form of investiture does not seem to date back to the ninth century. The earliest attestation of the use of the
    sajjada
    by Sufi is a passing reference in the
    Kitab al-luma‘
    of al-Sarraj who died in 988
    CE
    . See Sarraj,
    al-Luma‘,
    201. For a depiction of Junayd with a string of prayer beads, see ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Hawazin al-Qushayri,
    al-Risala al-Qushayriyya,
    ed. ‘Abd al-Halim Mahmud and Mahmud ibn al-Sharif (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al- Haditha, 1966), 119.
    

17. Fritz Meier,
    Abu Said-i Abu l-Hayr (357–440/967–1049): Wirklichkeit und Legende
    (Tehran: Bibliothe`que Pahlavi, 1976), 4.
    

18. For Tustari’s stance on labor, see for instance Qushayri,
    al-Risala,
    421, where Tustari is credited with the saying, ‘‘Earning a living is Sunna, and he who keeps to the Prophet’s state does not abandon his Sunna.’’
    

19. Gerhard Bo¨wering,
    The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Quranic Hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl al-Tustari
    (d. 283/896) (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1980), 64, citing ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani’s
    al-Tabaqat al-kubra,
    two vols. (Cairo, 1315/1897), vol. I, 67. On Tirmidhi’s views of ‘‘friendship with God,’’ see Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi,
    The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism: Two Works by al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi,
    trans. Bernd Radtke and John O’Kane, Curzon Sufi Series (Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1996), passim (for instance 207).
    

20. On the Malamatiyya, see Sara Sviri, ‘‘Hakim Tirmidhi and the Malamati Movement in Early Sufism,’’ in
    Classical Persian Sufi from Its Origins to Rumi,
    ed. Leonard Lewisohn (London and New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 1993), 583–613.
    

21. Detailed information on the spread of Sufism to southwestern Iran, western Arabia, and northeastern Iran can be found in Florian Sobieroj,
    Ibn Hafif As-Sirazi und seine Schrift zur Novizenerziehung (Kitab al-Iqtisad)
    (Beirut: Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenla¨ndischen Gesellschaft im Kommission bei F. Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 1998).
    

22. This confl of Sufi and Malamatiyya is documented in Christopher Melchert, ‘‘Sufi and Competing Movements in Nishapur,’’
    Iran
    39 (2001): 237–247.
    

23. See Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn as-Sulami,
    Early Sufi Women: Dhikr an-niswa al-muta‘abbidat as-sufiyyat,
    ed. and trans. Rkia Elaroui Cor- nell (Louisville, Kentucky: Fons Vitae, 1999), especially the translator’s introduction, where a lost work titled
    Brothers and Sisters among the Sufis
    is mentioned (p. 39). Of
    

    268
    Voices of Tradition
    

    Sulami’s works, there are about thirty titles extant in manuscript, many now published, out of a total of over one hundred attributed to him. See ‘‘al-Sulami, Abu Abd al-Rahman,’’
    The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
    new edition 9: 811b (Gerhard Bo¨wering).
    

24. These figures are listed by Nicholson in Sarraj,
    al-Luma‘,
    xiii–xxii.
    

25. For a concise but up-to-date account on Kalabadhi, see ‘‘Abu Bakr Kalabadi,’’
    Encyclopaedia Iranica
    1: 262–263 (W. Madelung). An English translation is available: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Kalabadhi,
    The Doctrine of the Sufi
    trans. A. J. Arberry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
    

26. Abu Talib Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Makki,
    Qut al-qulub fi mu‘amalat al- mahbub wa wasf tariq al-murid ila maqam al-tawhid,
    ed. Sa‘id Nasib Makarim (Bei- rut: Dar Sadir, 1995), two vols. On Makki, see John Renard,
    Knowledge of God in Classical Sufism: Foundations of Islamic Mystical Theology,
    The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 2004), 33–38, and 112–263 (selections from the
    Sustenance
    in translation).
    

27. ‘‘Abu Noaym el-Esfahani,’’
    Encyclopaedia Iranica
    1: 354–355 (W. Made- lung); ‘‘Abdallah al-Ansari,’’
    Encyclopaedia Iranica
    1: 187–190 (S.L. de Beaureceuil); Abu Mansur is examined by Nasrollah Purjavadi in a number of articles in Persian (too many to list here) published in the journal
    Maarif
    during the 1990s.
    

28. Ansari’s works are introduced with excerpts and further references in A. G. Ravan Farhadi,
    ‘Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006–1089 C.E.): An Early Sufi Master
    (Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1996). However, the best synopsis of what we know on the Arabic and Persian works associated with Ansari is Bo Utas, ‘‘The
    Munajat
    or
    Ilahi-Namah
    of ‘Abdullah Ansari,’’
    Manuscripts of the Middle East
    3 (1988): 83–87. The relationship between Ansari’s
    The Stages of Wayfarers
    and Ibn al-‘Arif’s
    The Beauties of Spiritual Sessions
    is discussed in B. Halff, ‘Le
    Mahasin al- majalis
    d’Ibn al-‘Arif et l’oeuvre du soufi hanbalite al-Ansari,’
    Re´vue des E
    ´
    tudes Islam-
    

    iques
    39 (1971): 321–333. The work of Ibn al-‘Arif is available in a bilingual edition: Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn al-‘Arif,
    Mahasin al-Majalis, The Attractions of Mystical Sessions,
    trans. William Elliot and Adnan K. Abdulla (Amersham, U.K.: Avebury, 1980).
    

29. A section of this work is available in English translation, with an up-to-date introduction on Qushayri by Hamid Algar: ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Hawazin Qushayri,
    Principles of Sufism,
    trans. B.R. Von Schlegell (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1992).
    

30. Qushayri,
    Risala,
    738.
    

31. For an English translation of this work, see Ali ibn Usman Hujviri,
    Revelation of the Mystery (Kashf al-Mahjub),
    trans. Reynold Alleyne Nicholson (Accord, New York: Pir Press, 1999); for an up-to-date account, see ‘‘Hojviri,’’
    The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
    new edition 12: 429–430 (Gerhard Bo¨wering).
    

32. Florian Sobieroj, ‘‘Ibn Khafif’s
    Kitab al-Iqtisad
    and Abu al-Najib al- Suhrawardi’s
    Adab al-Muridin
    : A Comparison between Two Works on the Training of Novices,’’
    Journal of Semitic Studies
    43 (1998): 327–345.
    

33. Mahmud ibn ‘Uthman,
    Firdaws al-murshidiyya fi asrar al-samadiyya. Die Vita des Scheich Abu Ishaq al-Kazaruni,
    ed. Fritz Meier (Leipzig: Bibliotheca Islam- ica, 1948), 369–390 (chapter 30).
    

    What Is Sufism?
    269
    

34. These points are noted and discussed in Fritz Meier, ‘‘Qushayri’s
    Tartib al- suluk
    ,’’ in:
    Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism,
    John O’Kane (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999), 94–95 (fi published in 1963); see also Fritz Meier, ‘‘Khurasan and the End of Classical Sufi ’’ in:
    Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism,
    190–192. These earlier works should now be read in conjunction with Laury Silvers-Alario, ‘‘The Teaching Relationship in Early Sufi A Reassessment of Fritz Meier’s Defi tion of the
    Shaykh al-Tarbiya
    and the
    Shaykh al-Ta‘lim
    ,’’
    Muslim World
    93 (2003): 69–97.
    

35. Both quotes are from ‘Ali ibn Usman Hujviri,
    Kashf al-mahjub,
    ed. Valentin Zhukovsky (Tehran: Kitabkhana-i Tahuri, 1999), 62; see also Hujviri,
    Revelation,
    55.
    

36. For this early phase in the development of the Sufi lodge, see the evidence assembled in the following three entries in
    The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
    new edition: ‘‘Khankah,’’ 4: 1025a–1027a (J. Chabbi); ‘‘Ribat,’’ 8: 493b–506b (J. Chabbi); and ‘‘Zawiya,’’ 11: 466b–470a (S. Blair, J. Katz, C. Hame`s).
    

37. Muhammad ibn al-Munawwar,
    Asrar al-tawhid fi maqamat al-Shaykh Abi Sa‘id,
    ed. Muhammad Riza Shafi‘i Kadkani (Tehran: Muassasa-i Intisharat-i Agah, 1987), 316–317; English translation: Muhammad ibn al-Munavvar,
    The Secrets of God’s Mystical Oneness,
    trans. John O’Kane (Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publish- ers, 1992), 493–495.
    

38. Ibn al-Munavvar,
    Asrar,
    1: 315–316; idem.,
    Secrets,
    491–493.
    

39. On
    baraka,
    see Josef W. Meri,
    The Cult of Saints Among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria
    (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), esp. 101– 118.
    

40. For a detailed discussion of the different aspects of
    ziyara,
    see Christopher Schurman Taylor,
    In the Vicinity of the Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Mus- lim Saints in Late Medieval Egypt
    (Leiden, The Netherlands; Boston: Brill, 1999), and Niels Henrik Olesen,
    Culte des saints et pe`lerinages chez Ibn Taymiyya (661/ 1263–728/1328)
    (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1991).
    

41. Vincent J. Cornell,
    Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism
    (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 112.
    

42. Meri,
    Cult,
    80–81; cf. Taylor,
    Ziyara,
    87.
    

43. Meri,
    Cult,
    117; Taylor,
    Ziyara,
    83–84.
    

44. For detailed coverage of this subject, see the multi-authored entries in
    The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
    new edition on ‘‘Tariqa,’’ 10: 243b–257b and ‘‘Tasawwuf,’’ 10: 313a–340b.