karamustafa - sufis of baghdad

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t4 Sufism

remained silent. Then He rubbed it [irs eyes] wirh the light of lHisl sincleness and

it said "Your are God". So reson cannot know God except by God.E5

'Soneone asked Abu'l-Husayn an.Nnri, God be compassionate wirh him, 'Howis it rhat inrellects cannot reach God while God .an be knom only through *'einrellect?' He replied 'How can a beins wirl, rempoal limlts comprehend one who

hm no such limLrs? How can a being beset with fralkies comprehend one who hano weakness or inimiryl Or how cm one whoe being is.ondidonal know the one

who has fmhioned conditionality itseH Or how can one whose beins presumes a

"where" know the one who has given "where" a place md named ir "where"?56

Th€ only way is to tum the reins over to God:

To the question 'by what [means] did you come to know God' he replied 'By

omissionlack of al1 determination. \Uhatever I thought and contemplated about

happened otheMise. And whatever I did He ruined.'5?

Since God is humankindt best friend, there is litde need for believers to be

concemed with questiors about rheir ultimate destiny or about matters ofpredes,

rination; for their part, all they need to do is to choose God over everlthing else:

'Temprarion is being occupied wirh something other rhan God.'53 Clearly, rhe

body is one source of temptation: 'The body necessarily leads [one] to oppose God

under all circumsrances, [since] it cove6 what is harmful in desiring this world.'5e

\Tealth too leads away from God, and de believer should choose poveny. But

poverty extends to and merges with altruism: 'The description of lhe poor man

is fiat he shouid be quiet when he possesses nothing and generous and unselfish

when he possesses something.'6' The mark of true poverty, however is joy:'You

recognise them [the poor] by their characteristic of having joy in their poverty

and their composure on occasions when misfortune visits them.'6' Such joy is

the rcsult o{ being oriented towads God at all times instead of being bogged

down by one's attachmenls to everyrhing other than God: 'The highest station

of rhe people oFreaiities is the severance ofall attachment.'6'Continuous orientation towards God cakes the form ofan intense 'watchtul-

ness' (rur,.z4abd) of Godt action on earth; in an amusins anecdote, Nori tells

fellow Sufl Shibli that he leamed such vigilance from a cat lyinc in ambush

in front of a mousehole.63 Nuri's favourire medium of vieilance was, however,

'hearing' Ganut'). By 'hearing', Nuri meant not so much an 'audition', an acrive

act of listening ro a recitation of poerry or a song, bur keeping his ears open

for detecting mystical meaninss that lay behind the level of sound. One who

learned to listen in rhis manner ultimately 'heard' and was moved ro answer: 'Hewhose ear Ls opened to hearing, his tongue is moved to answer.'64 This ability

to lend an ear to God and the urge ro aruwer Him was no doubt what took

Nnri to rhe edges of acceprable speech on many occasions ('vobal trespass')

and also tumed him into a poet, wirh many veNes picleNed in hii n0me.65

Such momenrs of response toCod were momcnts of'find ing' gnd 'lcstrry' (uajd,

wlth both meanings), though for Niri ecstasy could never become a pretext for

lmproper behavioun 'He who does not observe propriety in his moments [offindlng/ecstasyl, his is [a momenr ofl detestarion.'66 In the attempt to be oriented

towards God, the Suf urmed away fiom everything other than God, tumed

hlmself over to God and remained attentive to His call. The parh that led to

Ood actually was to be found in the hearlIntimate knowledge of God is located in the heart. The heart, created by

Ood as the locus of the human encounter with Himself, is composed of four

loyers, breast (ylr), hean proper (qalb), inner hearr (fu'ad) and heartt core

llrrbb). These four layers harbour, respectively, Islam, faith (,r7lin), intimate

knowledge (ma'n&) and unifi€ation (talllttd). klam activares rhe outer layer

lnd correct practice leads to fie activation of the level of faith, and this process

of a deepening spiritual awakening conrinues urtil only Godt love remains in

The 6rst thing created by Cod in the heart of one for whom He wishes happiness is

llsht. Then rhN lisht becomes brishtnes, then nys, then a moon, then a sun. Andwhen the lidr appears in the heart, this world md what is in lt srows cold to his

heart. And when Lr [dre heart] becomes a moon he renom.es fie nexr world 6nd

what is in it. And when ir bemmes a sun he sees neither rhe world and whar is inLt nor the next world and what is in it: he tnows nothine but Cod. And his body

h light and his heart is light and his speech s light, 'Light upon lisht, God suidesrvhom He rill to his L€hC lQir'en 24 (al-Nnr):351.67

Once rhe heart is ta[en over wrth God's light, the stage of'unification' (1'am')

rct* in and the Su6 anives at God Himsell This is more a continuous game ofliltllng and losing than a losing of the self in God: 'For twenty years I have been

hrrween linding and losing. IThen I frnd my Lord, I lose my heart, and when

I lind my hean, I Iose my lod.'63 But the seeker does not cease ro hope *rathc rnighr just merye with God: 'Common people don fie shirt of obedience;

tho clite the shirt of [acknowledging God's] lordship and do nor pay heed to

olrr.Llience; but the chosen ones God pulls ro Himself and effaces them from

luxayd (d. 2981910)

Ahu'l.Qasim al-Junayd ibn Muhammad al-Khazaz, a silk merchant of Baghdad

wlro r:xcelled in the srudy of law early in life, was by common consensus of both

|r .tr(xlcrn and rnodern aurhoriries one of Sufrsmt major architects. He was

hrrrrr nncl raised in the 'Abbasid capital, which he seems ro have left only once inh[ llie on pilgrimase ro Mecca. In his youth, he was a prodigious srudent ofjuris,

nfildrnce undet the eminent iurist Abn Thawr (d. zao/855), and he continued

fo cuLlvare legalsclenc Lnto h{s adult yeats, slnce he could escape the round,up

uf Sulir durLng thc lnquisltloh of Chuhm Khaltl by declaring himself to be a

Thc Sufis of Baghdad 15



16 Sufism

jurrst.T'Several ofhis treatises of various lengths as well as a number of Letters

rhat he wrote to some ofhis companions are extant in a single manuscript, and

other liagments of his writinss are prese ed in later Sufi works.z' A perusal of

lunaydl works reveals that his thought revolved around the following pillan.

Deep meditation on the meaning of Godt unity

No fewer rhan eight of lunaydt short rrearises are on the question of ,a{rhid,

literally 'uni6cation'. In focusing on this central concept, Junayd was operating

firmly within mainsrream Islamic ihought of his time. Already by rhe beginning

of the third/ninth century the exacr meaning of God's uniry and uniquenes

had become a major bone of contention among a growing number oF specialists

in the intellecrual and confessional foundations of lslam.T' Junayd's delinition

o{ awbid as ifrad a|-qidam'an al-haAath, 'the isolation ol rhe Eternal from thecreated', was exemplary and gamered much pralse for him from posterity.?3

What set him apart from others, however, was his assenion that the attempt

ro attain true unification could succeed only if rhe individual abandoned any

pretence ro having powers of intellecrion and intuirion in unde$tanding the

issue of Godt uniqueness and tumed himsell over completely to God's hands:

'Know that you are veiled from Him through youne[ and that you do not reach

him through yourself but that you reach Him through Him.'ra In other words,

the realisation of divine unity required the annihilation of human agency and

denied the possibiliry ofindividuality to all but God Himsell Junaydt insistence

on divine agency to the exclusion of all human agency led him to elaborate thepeculiar notion of /ana'.

Fdn ', 'the passing away of self-consciousness'

Junayd thought that when rhe human individual approached God wirh his

customary sense of being a self-conrained, separare entity, ir proved impossible

for him to afirm Godt unity since hrs own self-consciousness imprisoned himin himself. The only solurion was for him to 'pass away {iom his sense of self',

fanr', and thus to arrive ar God's presence denuded of his oun individuality.

Only when all awareness o( self drsappeared rhrough a total annihilation of self-

consciousness was it possible to ralk of'affrmation of Godt umty'or raufid. In

order to exemplifu this state, lunayd referred to a well,known lzdirh 4uds,, an

'extra-Qur'anic divine saying':

My senant draws near to Me by means of nodring dearer to Me than that which

I have established as a duty for hin. And My seNant continues drawins nearer ro

Me through supererogatory acrs until I love him; and wh€n I love him, I become his

ear wifi which he heds, his eye with which he sees, his hand wuh which he grasps,

,nd his foor wirl whi.h he walks.r5

Mrrrcovcr, Junuyd conceptualised Buch clissolution of self-consciousness nor as

u ttr.w cxlircnnul srxrc bur irs c 'rcrurni ro a pnmordial .late rhrr human being,Itarl hrftrrc tlre creatron on the Day of rhe Covenanr.

Mllltq,'fi c Primordial CovenanC

'V/hcn your Lord broughr torrh off prins from rhe rhildren or Adam. rrom Lherr

trutr, nnJ had rhem re.rify regarding rhem-elve- {m I nor rour Lordt, theyUllL "()h yc , we so testifu." Lesr you say on ludgmenr Day,,We were unaware oflhhl"r (Qur' rn, 7 [al-A'rEflr rzz). Accordinc toJunayd, this primordial covenantFlurrlcll ln the Qu.'an marked the true and perfect type of human existence as

nlllcrr cxl$tcnce in God, presumably as non-individualised spiritual endries inOorl'r nrlrrclr

Ir r lrls vc$c Cod tells you that He spoke to them at a time when they di.l not exisr, .xecPl () frr.s rhet exhted in Him. This existence is not the same rlle oFexistencexr lx rNlrally atrributed ro codt neaturesi h is a rrpe o{ existence rhich onlv Codlin,,wr,rntl onlv He . atrdr 01 Cod knos. rheir el,n(nce: enbra.rng rhem neilt'r rhcrn in fie beginnine when they are non-exstem and unaware of theit tuture.rlucrce in this world.76

The Stlin rlflglrrd-

Tlnr. lnltlrtcd by Cod as divine ideas, humans are rhen created as individualtn wtrrpped in a body and placed on earrh. But the memory oftheir divine,plctcly spirirual existence on the Day of the Covenanr haunts rhem and

t7

.}ltr e wlro cxperlence /atu'do nor subsist in that stare o{ selfless absorption in

fltl l,rrr finLl themselves rerurned to 6eir senses bv God. Such rerurnees fro-thp r.x|trlcncc ofscLflessness are thus reconstituted as renewed selvs:

Illli thEm inro rhe experience offdni', which is literaliy a re-enacrment ofihr pt|n,'rdlal covenanr. Passing away from consciousness ofearrhly existence,

liuwr,vcr, h not total annihilation of the individual since even after /ana,, thefilf ftrrvlvcs in a transformed fashion.

fdtrl,'urhliety'

ll(, li ltin$(lf, ;,frc he has not been truly himelt Hc is present in himseL{lnd in( l,trl ,rltcr hnvins bcen present io God and absent in hin$ett This 6 becase heh$ l(li r h( ltl r{)xi.ition of Codt overwhelming giakba (victory), md comes ro rher li(ily ,)l k,l,ricty, .nd conremplation is on e more restored to him so that he canl,rrt rv.,yllrins ln irs rishr place and assess it corectly. Once rnore he assumes hisIr|| ,.1,,.r1,,llrih, c..ifrur./an.r Hr.lcr.on.lq:.trrre.p.rr.r rnhrmanJhr.acror.r rl,t. w,,rl.I sl,un h( h:" rcichrJ rhc zen.rh ,, .ptrjr dt d(nie\ernenr \o r. h,a.e.ll,y ( I,\1. ln l\a.{ r,

' | 'r(rn t.r hF rull. w hrn 7r

llrflli olrt, th(jr(forc, thnr those who transform their earthly seives through the

Flrhhca ofpn$$lng lway frorn sclf,conrclrrusness and reclaim their primordialtpn ln wltno+rcs o[Ootl's l(r.dlhlp by rc.cnrl*lng thc Drry of the Covcnant are



18 Sufism

not only retumed to their earthly existence buc are glvcn thc NPeciul mlssion of

guiding others to God.

The spiritual elect

While the struggle to af6rm Godt uniqueness by erasing the sense of self mightbe seen as a serious blow to any conception of human agency, for the select few

who are picked by God specially for this purpose, /arul' and dre return from it

lead in fact to the formation of new or 'reclaimed' selves reconsdtuted in God's

image. Such reconstituted individuals, now operating as Godt instmments on

earth, sewe to shepherd dre community towards God. It is clear that Junavdt

doctrines of the covenant, passing away, and sobriety apply only to the spiritual

elect, and not to the generality of humankind.T3 The elect are a tightlv-knit

group of 'brethren' thar Junayd designates by such phrases as the choice ofbelievers' ($ar{ua rnin'ibad) or the pure ones' (Lhulaia' min k}rak). Thev plav

signifrcant roles in the community of believers:

God has made them mfurled tlags oI trurh, lighthoues erecred for suidance, bearen

pads for humanity. These are indeed rhe scholats among the Muslims, the trulv

tsrins anong the fairhJul, the noblest of those who are pioc They are those who

euide in the crlses of reLision, and thei6 is dre light uhich leads in the darknes

of ignorancei tte biiliimce of their knowtefue shines *rough darkness God hm

made then the synbol of His nercy for His creatures, md a blessins for whon He

chooses. They are the hstruments whereby He irutructs the ignorant, reninds the

negligenr, guides the se€ket aiight .. The brilliance of their light shlnes clearlv for

their fellow creatures ... He who follows in their foo6reps is guided on the right

parh, he who fouows their mode of lLfe wiil be happy and never depesed ?'

Junayd, then, viewed Sufrs as a select company of companions who were privi'

Ieged with the God-given ability of truly affirming Godt oneness by blotting our

their earrhly identities but who also borethe responsibility of acting as guides

to humankind in all aspects o{ life. Indeed, all of lunayd's writings belong to

the category of correspondence with fellow Su6s, and he clearly inrended these

lerters solely for rhe intemal consumption of rhe spiritual elect, and not for

the general public. k rs reported that when fellow Suf Abu Bakr al-Shibli (d.

33al9a6) wrote him a Ietter that he considered too explicit, Junayd sent the

letter back to Shibli with the following note: 'oh, Abu Bakr, be caretul with

the people. Always we devise some means of camouflaging our uords, splirting

them and discussing them between ourselves, yet here you come along and tearaway the veil '3o Daring in his spiritual vision and leamed in the science of law,

Junayd was a caurious fgure in public life, who sat on the fence between private,

inner devotion and public piery.s'



,llrr rhr l)iriis o,'thc frcccdirrg rcvicw of somc undisputed Suli masters of

l\rsl',Lr(|, ir is now fl'ssiblc to clraw n portrait rfearly Sufism as a dLstincr mode

',1lr|urrir picty. Otcarly, thcsc early Sulis were most concerned with obtaining

rrtn,r[,rri,rl knowlcdgc (maitfa) of Godl unity, with disdllins the reality oftlr lr,lLrrrrir pLofcssion of faith 'There is no god but God' into their daily lives.

I I rrr r: rr r lili rrlcscntecl itself ro rhem as a journey towards the ever-elusLr.e goal of

{r lrl"v|rr lruc 'God-consciousnesJ, as an on-going anempr to draw near God.lrr Srrli l,trqrcctive, human beings, viewed as God-servants, had experienced

al, l, I'rl,xirniry to theLr Lord belore the beginning of time when God granted

tlr,,rrnl ,ruiience on the Day of the Covenant, and they were promised an

r\ r r rurt iotimare closeness to Hirn at rhe end of dme in paradise. While on

lrrrlr, lr,,wcvcr, rhey had ro strive to preserve and renew the memory of rheir

l,r lllxn(lIrl proximity to their creator by rurning thetr backs on everything other

rlr,rrr i i,rl rrnd hy Living their lives in constant recognition of Hrs presence.

lrr 1'rrcticc, this meanr training and domestication of the lower self rhrough,r11,r,1,r irrrc rncasures rhar included concinuous cukivacion of the hearr and, for

rrr,rrry lrrr not all Su6s, ascericism as well as seclusion and poverty. The heart

w,rn rrrllL,Lsrrnd as the spiritual organ of Godl presence in the human pcnon,

rxl lr\ ( hirf sustcnance was 'recollecrion and invocarion' of God (dhilr) and

lir,r,.lvilg Codt activity on earrh through 'hearing and vigilant observation'

(r'rrrr,t' rrrrLl mrraqaba). Paradoxically, the journey G at) towards the Lord

rt'rrt,rl ,rrrl c,ntinued only when the Sufi realised his own weakncss as an agent

,rrr,l ," hrrrwlc,lged God as the only true actor in the universe. Only when ther,lr\ w.r( rrrrned over to Cod did the human individual become a wa)'farcr

lr,tlilr) ,rl(l hcgin the journey towards &c goal of achievins proximity to the

llris jrrrmcy was normally envisaged as a path (a,riq or iariqd) narked by

r,rrr,,rlJ sr,)l)fins places (mantil, pl. mmazil), stations (n qdm, pl. maqamad

rrrrrl rr,rtrs (lril, ll. ahual) rhat the wayfarer passed thrrugh, even though at this

rnrltr',r srr1x. o1 Sufrsm rhere was no systematic thinking, 1et alone any agree-

ln,'l'r, ,,ll rlrr nrrml)er, nature and order of these stages among the early Sulis.tl,,r w rr rlrirc rr consensus on the destinarion of rhe journey. Everyone agreed

rlr,rr ,l,""rxssr,r(li nonnally enrailed a sharp tumfrom louer concerns ofthisrr,,rl,l (iInrya) r,,w,,lls the realm of ultimate matrers (athira), a movemenr away

rr,,rrr rlr l,'wcr scll (ri{s) rowards the inner locus ofGodl presence (qalb), bur

lr tr,,\,11 ( lilli( u l r o chrrac tcrise the 6nal encounter wich God located at the

rrr,l,,l rlrr i,,rrrrrcy. Whilc some, like Khan.z and Nun, described the highest

rlng,, ol iu[,rx(y wirh (ixl as thc dissolurion of all self-consciousness, others

Itlr lrrrrry,l virwtrl rhc Lrlriuratc goal rs a'Lcconstituted'self, a human identityl.,,rrr1,,sr,l irr rlrt irnrqje r)l (itl rftcr lrtirrs rh,)rr,rrghly rlcconstructed during



2A SuEsm

rhe Sufr joumey. All agreed, however, rhat rhe ultimare Suli experience wasto be viewed as the passins away or re,absorption of rhe created human beinginto the only uue/real (iaqq) beins of God, and, mosr emphatically, not as adivinisation o, the human. More generally, the encounter between the Sufi andGod was a 'unidirectional merger, whereby dre former was rhought to flow intothe latter bur movement in the orher direction \{as off limits or, at the veryleast, extremely limited, since such aflow fiom the divine into the human couldpave rhe way to divinisarion of rhe hurnan and thus lead to the suspect, evenhererical, doctrines of incarnation and inherence (hrrj).

No matter what their approach to the rhornv issue of encounrer with theDivrne. rho.e uho.hated rhe.ommon aim or dr,rurng clo.e ro Cod rhroughexperiential knouing enjoyed a special camaraderie with one arLother in rhe

form of circles of fetlowship, mutual mentoring and relationships of master anddisciple. Not all hurnan beings ever became wa),farers, let alone grew close toGod: tharp vilese war, ir seems, reserved for the few,friends ofGod, (auliya,)who were highly conscious of their special srarus and viewed themselves as thespiritual elect. Many friends, much like the prophecs, saw themsetves as Godspecial agents among humans, rendered distincr by their special srarus as inter-mediaries between rhe divine and human planes of being. In rheir view thevchannelled Cod mercy ro hum,nl,nd and..ned ro increa:e Cod..on,crorr.ness among rhe otherwise heedless, self-absorbed human race through theirpersonal example and rheir tireless advocacy o{codt cause in hurnan affairs.

The special status of the ftiends manifested rtself in a number of practicesthat simultaneously underscored their disdncrness frorn the common Lelievers('auarnrn) and served ro forge bonds of fellowship, toyalcy and mutual allegianceamong the spiritual elecr (l<iau,riss). They began to asemble in certain lhcesof congregarion (the Shtnizi,rya mosque for rhe cncte around lunavd) and tonarel n grouo.. thev Jereloped d,nincrve frdyeljrud..,n rhe form,,irhe

invocation (dhilr) and the audirion to poerry and music Gama,) thar frequenrlyled to rapture or ecstasy (u,,r,,iJ), and rhcy adopted speciai initiation practices,notably the invesrirure wLth the white woollen robe (/rturqa) and the clippingofrhe moustache.s'k seems likeiy, though dilficuk t"

"erify,th.t other i.iciarii

acts rhat came to he characterisric of Sulism, such as .he handclasp (muid/aha,bay'a), the bestowal wirh the rosary Grblz), and the entrusring oi the initiatewith the dh,Lr formula, were aiso practised by rhe first Suiis o{Baghda.t.33

This inward-lookins porrrair of rhe initial phase of full-fledeed Sufism needs,o be \ ieu eJ ,n i., pr.per hi.ro, i al .ind.. \ ial . on,c\,. Thc Si,hv\d de\ eroped r.a convergence ofmanydispamre ideas and pracrices inro adistinct movement inBaghdad in the second halfofthe third/ ninth cenrury Most prominenr amonsiL. rnember. were rhe followins ngure.: Abn Hrmza al-B,rehrttjJr (d. ,6u/qq1-iot z8qlqoz), Abt Sa'id al-Kharraz (d. u 86/899 or a fcw ycrrs crrlicr), ,Anrr i|ir

'I hc Srriis of I)nghrlrrcl

't )thrnitn al.Makkt kl. zerleoj-a), Abt'l.fluslyn al-Nrri (d. zqslqoz), Junaydrrl.llrrshdadi (d. ze8lero), Ruwaym ibn A[mad (d. :o:/qrs 16), lbn 'Ara'

It, loelezrz or 3rrl9z3-4), Khayr al.Nassaj (d. zzzlqzi and, a eenerationlnrcr, AbI Bakr al.Shibli (d.33alea6), al-Jurayri (d.:rrlqu: +), Abo'Ali a1.

It0ill)l,iiri (d. 322l9ll-a), and la'far al.Khuldi (d.348/e5e).3a Even allowing forrurrrc crnbeltLshment oftheu learning by the later Suf tradition, these 6rst Sulis

,lrruly formed an incellectual elite who were highly literate and learned in thel.),railn, the hdd,ti and much else besides. However, since they looked askance

lt rhc use of human reason in rhe attempt to atrain knowledge of God, theSuli$ wcre at best sceptical, and at worst dismissive, of scholarly pursuits otherrhLrr strdy of the Qur'an and the fadrrh such as jurlsprudence (fqh), mtionalalrr rrlation on the foundations of hlam (lalnm), and even belles lzmes

{adab).lr lr r rue, for instance, rhar Junayd had srudied jurisprudence under Abu Thawr(rl, r+o/8ss) and later in his life made use ofhrs scholarly credentiais to avoid

rlx. lnquisition srarted by Ghulem Khahl (he claimed to be a juflst, not a Suli),lnrl his own extant wrirings do not evince any fondness for scholarship, legal orolh( Mise, ler alone any reliance on human reason as a tool ro aftain proximi.ytrr (l,rcl.

()n the ocher hand, rhe decidedly distanced attitude of the Sulis cowards rhe

rnr$(cnt legaland theological schoiars of their time w3s not rhe rcsult ofa denialor r{r emnation of God: law Glar'a). Enthusiasric and total acceptance and

lmplcrnenradon of Cod's commands formed the foundarion of dre whole Sufi

rrrrlpise, and the idea that che divine stipularions could somehow prove ro be

irrr.[vant to the endeavourto become true God-servants would have been alienr,r rhr SLrns. In maintaining rheir distance from the represenratives of discursive

t h,,lrrrship, rhe $ofryyarvere, rather, motivrred by the conviction that scholarly

lrr,rwlcdge of Codt Iaws could only be rhe beginning, and not the end-goal, ofrrlxnthood to God I'ubndal'ubad.ity) and rhat the sldri'd was not and could

rn rt l)c thc sole or even the primary aspect of rhe broader relarionship berween

t iorl ancl Hrs human servanrs. The bond between the Creator and rhe crcationrurrs, irrstead, one of intimac\,, for some even 1ove, and while the sAar/a laidrlr. iitrmdanon for che house of God's presence in the heart of the believer,

lr (,,lll(l nor build ir by irself.3, The Su6s thus direcred rheir energies io ther rrltlvrrtion of the hearr, and ro the extent that preoccuprrion rvirh legal and

tlu,llrgicrl scholarship tendecl ro distract one from rhis central excrcise, it was

lrrrvir,rhlc rJrat thcy wouid view the increasingly 'professional' scholarly enter-

I'rl{s wirh N mixnrrc ofcautnrn, suspicion, alarm and, at times, even disdain.

lrrilt,crl, no Suli particrpared in the hurgeoning, inrerconnected lields of kakrn,rtr,l rrgloi,/ir1ir (\rlncqrlcs oflrLispnrdcDce'); quite the contrary rhe advocates

,rl rxt)(Iicoliil Irrowletlgt nsurrrcrl an nntngoDisric posturc towarcls represen-

r,rrivrl ol ). tlrcrrlctlcrrl tllsclpllnts, unLl to Jrrtlgc hy rviclcncc fLorn thc carly

)l



22 Srrlisrl

fourrh/tenrh cenrury they were especially crirical of thc thco[,gical clisputations

ofthe rarionalist Mu'tazila.36 On the professionaL side too, thc Su6s apparendy

held rhe practical dimensions of dre juristic enterprLse in low esreem. Junayd

was incensed at fellow Sufr 'Amr al-Makkit decision ro accepr rhe tirle of the

,1,11, ofJidda and larer refired to preside over his funeral for this reason. He was

equally displeased with Ruwaym when the laner became a deputy ro rhe chlef

4ddr or I1JgnoJo, Irnd ir rbn l\nrq trhe,omc tLJgc who h rd r(qurrrcd r\ufi dnd

thc orhcr Sufis, including Ruwaym himsclf, &om thc charge ofhcrcsy).s)

For their parr, the scholars and lawyers mainrained a variety of atritudes

towards the Sulis thar ranged from curious, and ar times symparhetic, observarion

ro"

cpn. irn,nd e.cn, on,emp, Thc MJI Ii, hi, r ]udec,,mJ'il ibn I.hrq $sclcarly accommodating towards rhem, while Ibn Surayj (d. 3o6/9r 8), perhaps rhe

leadirg She6'i jurlst of rhe dan who visited a sessn,n of]unayd out of curiosiryand refrained from issuing a /atora about Hallaj 'declaring himself ignormt of

his [Hallaj's] source ofinspiration', mry have been favourably disposed towards

rhe mysrics.ss Ho$,evcr thc Mutazila, and possibly most Hanalis, were dismh-

sive of the Sulis, whom they criricised as antirational obscuranrists at best and

ignorant imposters as worst. Theywete especially irritated by miracles attributed

to the Sulis by the populace and tended to view these as plain sorcerr (sihr).3e

Neither the Suli approach to knowledge nor che Suli docrrine of selection, notto mention esote c Qur'an inte$retation, could have pleased tull-fledged ratio-

nalists in kal,rn or qh.

On the other hand, in their scepricism roward the use of human reason inthe marten ofGod, the firs. Sufrs were alisned with che 'cradirionalLsrs' who had

fornred especially around the example of Alrmad ibn Hanbal \t6+-z+rlt8o8ss). These latcer,like the Su1is, were opposeLl to the utilisarionofcommonsense

and reason (ra'r) nr legal and rheological issues and honoured only scripruary

evidence (inclusive of iaditrr reporrs) on rhis front. Ho$ever, Suli scepticism

rowards reason did nor exrend as far as to denounce 'semi-rationrlism' in iaw'as evidenced by the fact that mnny Sufis were affili:rtcd with thc nasccnr scmL-

rarionallst schools oI law \nlrtihhll.b, pl. n.l:.nhahib\ Junayd wrs a followcr of Abu

Tharvr (,:1. z+o/8s+); 'Amr ibn'Urhman and Ab[, 'Ali al-Ridhblri were Sh:ii'isi

Shibli $,as a Malikii and Ruwaym was n Zahiri. On rhc other hand, only one

Sufi, lbn'Ata', adhered to rhe more tradirionalist Hanbali schoot, and thcrc was

cvcn onc Suli, Jurayri, u,ho bclonged to the rnore rationalist Hannfi school.'q"

For their part, the tr:ditbnalists did not approve of the nascent schools rf iaw,

most ofwhich had allowed the use ofreson ar varnrus levels in law and theology

(Hmafis were nostly rarionalists, ancl Abu Thalvris, She6'is, Melikis, and, to

a lesser extent, Zahiris were semi,ratonalists), rnd thr nfnliatn)ns of thc Sulis

with the schools might have been suflicicr,t to unkc thcnr inr,r r:al.gcr:s of trr.ll-tn)nnlists'irc. In thc cvcnt, thc shalcrl srrrrntl hrtwcen rh( trirlirnnrrlisrs rmJ

I lrl Srrfis ol Ih6hLl,rLl )l

r lrr Srrlis, c$tr(r irrlly rh .crrlt ivrrt iorr ol rhc /railul rrs r linru ofsrr{ms oppositn)n n)

rLrr|,rurlisrrr, plovcLl to hc srlxrurr ial, lnJ thoLc werc lcw clashes berwcen them,

\\'Ih rh(. irr(luisitnn ofChulam Khalilns fic major example. Thrs incident, we

lrrvr str, wrrs mr*t likcly prompterl by Noris use of the non-Qur'anic verb'rrrlirlr irrstcnJ of rhc QLrr'5uic lrabba (both rncan 'ro tove') with respect to God,r rls rlc rhnr iLl drc eyes of Ghulam Khalil must have amounred ro a 'depar-

r, r' lrrnn snnctnrne.l belief and practicc' (bid'a), which was worthy of supres-

1,,o. ll,,r, rhcrc nrc vasue sisns that Chulen Khalilt ire was rarsed by ralk of{,x(llrl l)r(nniscuity at Su6 meetings, possibly caused by intermixing between

1, rxI rs,rDd nssociatn)n of adu lt males rvith male adolesceno ar these gatherings.

'rrrrrrrrrh ihn Hama (or 'Abd A11ah) al-Muhibb (d. zes/ero-rr), one of the',,,lrs , l,iuscJ in Ghulam Khalilt inqursi(m, and Kharraz had fcmale disciples,

rrr I rvrrr thotrgh reacher-pupi1 relationships be$,een males and femates did norl,y Lrrry rrrcrm consrinrte a clear departure from the Sunna, allegatrrns of sexual

rrrtr,,rrlrrct bctween the sexes among rhe Su6s would certainly have caughr

I llr rlirr Khalil'.s attention.r' \&4ntever the reat cause of this lattcr persecution,,1 rlx S,,tis, the suspicion of bid'a rcmained, equally during the second halfoftlr tlrirtl/ninrh cenrury and rhe Iollowing cencuries, rhe fault-line hetween ther ,llri,r[lists and the later Hanbalis on rhe one hand and the Suis on the otherlr rrrl, hrr it ls imporranr to nore rhat the relarionship between thern was notrr, r$irily coDfronrarional and was, insread, frequently quite cordial.

I lr, guliyya was a dLstincrly urban phenomenon, and although our informa-ll r ,nt rhc rocial hackgrounds of its members is aclmittedly rather thin, rhcyn,.r,, r,' l ve been middle-class urbanites of artisnnal ard merchant origiru.( l1

1 r , r l:,sscs rvere also represenred: Shibli r,;as a highanking ollicial of the, rlrl,lr lri|rrc hrs conversx)n ro the Suli path, ancl rhere certainly rvere wcalthy

'{rlr\,,,1 whom Ruwaym and lbn'Ara'were promincnr, ifrare, examples.e. OIr,.,r., r,,l,l. *lcirl origins, the Su6s by and largc also appear to have remaincd

\1,rr l U

rr l)( hi )urld:rrics of mahstream social lifc. Nevenheless, they were clcarly

r,,, , l,,sr r,i thc hordcrline on nany an rssuc, and there weLe alr,;ays some Suds

rl r ixsc,l thc line into unconvenrional, if nor downrighr shocking, si,cial, {1,t ,r rrflr. Nnn xD.l in farticular Shibti, for instance, were wcll,known forrlr, tr r r,rrsglesslrrrs in ffial behavbLrr. Othcm were not thar idiosyncrntic iD

1ul,lr, ,,,rrlLrrt, ytt many of them including lunayd, Nuri, and Abu Hamzali,r,l,,l.rl, rptx,rrr n) have opted our of the miinstream social practices oIrrrrrrl,rrr' ;rrrl crrrring a Iivins, rhough some, like ]bn 'Ata' and Ruwaym, were

rL,rrl,,lly fl,,t)lt)y.J .nrl m,,ried widr chitdreD.',r it nav indeed bc appropriate to,1,,,,i1,r ,rl ,ir:rri((klct,rwrrrLlsllrnilyrndeconomicacrivityasaprincipledrr rrnrl r, r L,rrr[ rrrn rrrrurirgc rrs wcll rrs work, conbined with a distinct prefer-

'rr,. i,,r (.lil) x y ,,,r1 ,,voiLl,urre oi rrctivc scarch for susrenance.ra Their srance

' 'r,1r r'lr)l r livinl is exurt)liIu(l il r h(, li,llowirrs reporr rhout.Junaydr



24 Sulisn,

A group ol peopLe approached lunayd and asked, ,Whcrc rh td we sceh oususrenancel He said, 'Ifyou know where it s, go seek ir rhcrct' Thcy said, 'shouldwe ask God for Lr?' He mwered, 'lf you know thar He has fotgotten you, rhenrequest it 6om Hinl'They said,'Should we sray home andplace our tiusr in Himt,He repLied,'To test [Cod] uould mean doubtt'They said,'\0hat is the solu.ion,rhenl' He a.rpered, 'To abandon [the idea ofl a solution,{5

Significantly, this 'fence-sitring' on rhe key social rssues of havine a familv and

holding a job did not rranslare into a toral rejection olhuman social life and itsbasic principles by rhe Sufrs. Hermetic seclusion and isolarion from social life.rhough partially practised by NIri and possibly by some others, were generally

shLrnned. By a]Id large they did not practise itinerant mendicancy and group

withdrawal from sociery, trairs thar were, or could be, characteristic o{ renun-

ciants who were so prevalenr in che lirst three centuries of Islamic history.In contrast to these and other approaches located beyond the boundaries ofmainstream urban life, the Sufis planted rhemselves litmly inro rhe social fabricof Baghdad, ah\ough they occupied the 'grey areas' on many social ftonts. tnthis, rheir rooledness wirhin urban society, they resembled the majoritv of thescholars, the'i.hma', who occupied &e social centre ofmajor toms in lslamicpolities ofthe time. In brief, rhe $ufrna, Iike scholars of drscursive knowledge,

took shape ar the very hearr of 'Abbasid urban cuture in Baghdad, and putforrvard dreir claim to be central players on the main stage in the unfoldingdrama ofauthority in urban Muslim commumties.

In comparison to rhe more extremisi renuncianrs, all rraditionalists, ofthelirst century of 'Abbasid rule (mid,rhird/ninth to mid,fourth/renth century),who tended to be severely critical of the social mainsrream and the politicalshrus quo, the Baghdad Suiis were limly 'cenrrisl in rheir social and polit-ical orientation. Aparr fiom an activist srreak characterised by willingness to'command righr and forbid wrong' (exemplifred in Nrrit provocarive act ofsmashing wine jars

that belonged ro the caliph), which rhey may have interitedfrom the earty ascetic Mu'razilis, the Baghdad Su6s were as a rule poliricallyinactive and quietist.r6 Shibli, for instance, quit politics upon his conversionto Sulism at around rhe age of fonn even though he was a high,lcvel govem-

ment ofliciaL earlier in life and continued ro have comrecrions in the upper

echelons ofgovernment Lntilhis death. As a Su1i, he incurred rhe criricism ofhis menttr Junayd, rvho, probably because ofhLs preference for quietism, dLsap-

proved of Shiblil preaching in public.,7 Nevertheless, a few Su6s, like ,Amr

and Ruwaym, did not hesirate ro step into polirically sensirive leSal posirions,

though they did not participare in rhe making ofpolitics as sucl1. tn acceptingposts as judges, they may have been morivated by their desrre ro uphold God's

latr, the .har'a. For rheir part, policicians were ccrrainly aware of rhe SLrlis, and

srme ofthem even paid spccial rttention to rlrc rnysrics irr rhc fomr otr.hrrrity,

lh, srrlis,n l}rghd,ul 25

l,rrt tlrcy elc,rrly s,rw lo nccd ro m,)nit(,r this pious group unless charscs of heresvr'r, t,rrrrutrr :rL,,,n.r rt,un b) r.Jir(,, \ rnflurnrul frgr,rc, rhe.un. drd nor(t t$rlt re n polrtical rhreat; indeed, they were neirher an asset nor a Iiabilitvr,,r r, 'lrrn,rl tUwur. ar rlrrs

"rage.There ua.. however. one tigure a-o, iared wirh

tlrl Srrlis who becamc entangled in poliricalpower struegles at the hiehest levels.url wlr*r m-ly cxr.urion aL rhe order" o[an Abba,rd vr:ie., HJ;,d ,bn xt.'Al,lrns (LL

3 r r/e:4), cast a long shadow over the whote course of subsequent',rrI l,lstorp That figure was al-gusaln ibn Mansur al-Hatlej (d. 3oele22).

I.l,rlliij was a controversial fisure throushout his iife. His Sufr affitiacion is

,1,"'r: ,riginally tutoted in Tirstar by Sahl al-Tusraf (discussed below) for iwoy',,re lr his early youch, he was later initiated into Baehdad Suf,sm bv ,Amr

.,1 \l,rl.l.r rrr B,r.rz and r..:id ." have mer rhi. hrrei. rea.her lunayd rn ,l-e

lrly lrL,rirxl of his life. Yet, neirher Ls rhere any doubr about his clean breakrltrlr 'Arnr and Junayd wirhin a decade of hrs induction into Su6sm, a ruprure,,r r,[,rrr ly brought about by liallal s emergence in the mature, adut phase ofhislllln ,, rclentless social and polidcal activisr, a ffansformation thal proved tol" rrrr[ccptable to his Suli masters. During the zToslssos and ,soy8eos, Hallejtrrvellul rvLcloly as a popular preacher and a rhaumarurge and acquired a consid-r,rrrl,[. lirll,wing in rhe lands he vlsired, inctudine Khuresan, Transoxania. andlrr,l|r I |c cxact nature ofrhe ideas that tuetled his a.riv6m remains rhe subjecc,rl a lr,rlur1y controversy, especially about whether or not extremist Shi i themesr ,,l, rrrlrl his preaching. Hallaj spent rhe tast two decades of his life mostlv inlr,'xlnl.hl. wh.re he b.(ane

"n irr.n.elv conrroverjirt hsure wirl- a hiqh nu;ber.,r -,trr{1rF rnd derracror.. qrnrhtanrtv. tr. rnenJ: rn rf,c.aprroi in.tudeLrw,, 1rl1 rrrrihcnt Sufs, Shibli and Ibn 'Aqa,, \r,ho continued to belriend him untilrh. l,trrr,r rncl. Afrer nine years of house arresr at the courr and an extended

1u,u rr srnrggle betwcen his political enemies and a ies, Hallaj was bruraly purl , , , l, Lr l r in lo9/922 on the charge rhar he had advocated the substirurion of the

r rr,, ,l ,,l,liAriion ofpilgrimage (fa|) wirh a private pilgrimage performed aroundtr ,,1,11, ,, ( )i rhc Ka'ba that he had built h his yard. His miracle-mongerins maylr,rr,, Lrl", lrcn among rhc charges. Shortly before havine Hallai execuced, the,, ,,, ll ,,,j,.r jl| ,..'Ahb5. ,n errocr,"d rhe \un tt-n A,r.n hr.,rru,,bourI hll,rl, Lrrrrl whcn fiis latrer publicly deDounced the vizier,s policies insread, hel,r I llrr 'A1r' hcatcn to death. No other Sufi, including Shibli, rose ro defendILrll,rl, slri[ j,,rxyr, who had assumed rhe mantle of Junayd, is said to have

'r1r,",1 t lt lr r lrc,lelth scntence against him.es

W,r I.l,rlliii ,, SLrii? Clearln he absorbed and intemalised Suti ideas and

1,r r,.ttL r :, c,rrly in liic, but it is crtuilh obvious .har he forsed his own uniquerrr' r[. ,

'l I'k,ry rhrrr wcnr well ltyond the dornain of the rhinking and behaviout,rl tlrr. llrglrLhJ Srrlls.o, Thc ircr thrt hc stoocl wirh one foor inside and rhe,,tlr,,r , rrtsi,le ll rglrrl,r,l Srrlisrrr, corrlnctl wirh his nnn friondship with iwo highty



26

prominenr Sulis until the end of his life, meanr rhar he rem.rincrl a controversiallisure for larer generations ofsuns. \yas Hallajt triai and exccurion an unmis-rakable example of persecurion of Sufis by political authorities becarae of theirSufi views and practicesl This question is complicated by rhe existence of alegend, extremely popular among laterSufis, rhar Hatlajwas executed because ofhis explosive uttemnce'l am the Trurh' (and' l-id4q). According to this account,lallaj suffercd rhe corxequences ofexposing the secret of the

,union,or

,merger,

between God and the Suli at the highest levet of experiential knowledge.Unable to comprehend rhe subtleties of the complete meltdown of human self-consciousness that cakes place when the human comes too close to the Divine,the polirical authorities mistook Hallaj starement ,t

am rhe Truth, as a clairn ofincarnationism (lp,al) and condemnedhim to dearh. As this legend would have

ir, therefore, Hallaj was executed as a Suliby the political esrrblishment becausehe had attempted to rcveal che shockng truth at the heart of Suli thought andpractice to those who could nor have possibly unders.ood ir.,*

This legendary account is clearly inaccurare and anachronisric. Hattajtinvolvement in high Baghdad politics was uniquely personal and did not revolvearound his identiry as a Sufi. More signifcanrly, there is no evidence that Hallajever uttered the sratement 'l am the Tiurh' which is artribured ro him in latersources. Even if he had, there is the fact rhat mosc Baghdad Sufis do nor seem tohave viewed the los ofself-consciousness at the threshold o{the divine realm as

complete identificationofrhe human with the Godhead, so thac ifHallaj actuallysaid'l am the Tiuth'and meant it in the sense ofdivinisarion of the human, rhenhe had depaned from rhe 'mainsrream'Suli pe.pectives on proximity to God and,ro that exrenr, rvns not represenrative of rhis mainstrcam.,., Finally, no Suti othcrrhan tbn'Ara' was embroited in rhe Haltaj aifair, and Ibn,Aca,, as we have seen,was kiUednocbecause ofhis Su6 views but becauseofhLs willingnes to rebuke rhevizicr for hLs usurhus policies. tndeed, the Sulis ofBaghdad continued to thrive

evcn after rhe execution of Hallaj, under rhe leadership of]urayri. k is, therefore,an erorto view Hallajt sruelinsordeal as a,l insrance of the persecution of Sulisby policical and relisious nurhorlties hosriie ro SuG ideas.,.,

In summary, the casc of Hallaj does nor invatidate our eartier observationabout rhe centrist orienrattun of Baghdad Su6s in social and political matters.The plight offlatlajdeeply wounded Shibli and moved lbn,Ata,to take a stanceagainst the cruel and unscrupulous \,rzier Hamid, which proved to be afatal step,but FJallal s trial and execudon rvas not a rrial and condemnation of the Sujis.u h^ werc nerr her rcdi,.rl .ed n,r,L r, en unders,,und r. a,..:tL oi.hrr e,enr.Having succesfully inserted rhemselves inro thc midsc ofmainstream intellec-tual elites of Baghdad, in between rhe rarionalist and semi-rationalist legalistsand theologians on the one hand and rhe consetative traclitirrrralisrs,,rr theother, with onc foot in cnch camp, thc Sutis hncl ,rrrivc(l r() srlly.,"

l lrt' Srrlis oI llrrghJ,r(l 27

\,'te.

r fhe m,st comprchcnsive survey ol trrAd in this period is Rich{r.l Gramlich, W.L-wTicht: Grwlbgen untl\\teirn Islam*.Aer Asleie (Wiesbaden: HarrassowLtz, rqqr).lndiv ual portraits ofmanr prominent early .cnuncianrs appear in Glamlich, A[e

r Michacl D. Bonner, Arirtofatc Vpleme dnd Hol) (ar: Stdies in Lqe Jihdd and deArrdBlqanrhe Fronria (Neiv Haven, CT Anerican OrieDral Sociery, ree6), r,53o; rhc quotes are from pages rz6 aDd rz8; and Deborah Tor, 'Privatized jihad and

1rrlrlic order in tlre pre-SeLjuq period: the role ofthe nLtatduvi'a',ItMi Sal/liet 38(roo5),555-73. Major prnnary $urces on lbn Adhan arc lsted in Getharitl\iiw.rii,s, 'Early Sulism between peEccurion and heresy', in Islamic M)sri.iw( i,r.st d: Tirrteen Cenrnies o/ Cohlrooersies and Pol€ni.s, ed. Frederick de Jons rnd

ll(11r.1 Radtke (Lciden: BrilL, 1999),46, n. r, and these are used fully in Cmmlich,Alr. Vorbiuer, r35-,E2.

t llinvcrnrg, M)sti.d/ Vsion,4?i Louis Ma$ignon, E$d) m rAe Orl8lns o/ rie Tccirnicdl

l-arlragc o/ lslanic Mysricirm, tram. Beniamin Clark (Norre Dame, IN, UnivcrsrryL,l Norre Dame Press, r99?), 106-7, esp. note roj. Sources on'Abd al-W.hi ihn/,,y(l{rc lisied in Bernd Rdtkc, 'Hory can mm reach the mystical union: lhn fuiirylrrrl thc divine spar[', in Th" WoA o/lbn Tdql, ed. Lawrence 1. Co.irl (lri(l(,n:ll,,ll, ree6), r9o, n. 22r, and J(trcfvan Ess. Ttuoloele md cesellsciarr

"n) rrlJ r.

l, rhlunilcrt Hilchta: Eine G.s.lic[k .]s r.lB.isfl Dd,.e,-s im trAen Llam ( Ihr lirll I )r,

( ifuy(cr, r 9e r -7 ), 2; 96ff; see ibid., r o,ff on 'Abbadeni also Knysh, SAon Hisr, )n, r 6

.t ( lirisrorher Mclchen, 'The HanabiLaand rheearlySu6s',Aral,i.a 58 (,oor ) tr4 rri,llrritzMeicr,,46rSa'id-iAbal-jay(j57-qqol967 r oqd : Wi'](Iichkln lnil I ) fi,rl( lihftn: Bibltuihiqne Pahlavi, r976), 3oer. For the'Sulis ofthc Mu'rruih,, *r. t,ir,/)roi4ic,3: r3o l3; ard Florian Sotieroj,'The Mu'razila anJ Suliur', ltr hl,i r,

Mlvirirm Carcnel, cd. Jons and Redrke,68-?0.

r lrLrrr'linc Chabbi, 'Fudayl h. 'lyad, ur pr€cureur Ju hanbalsmc', l li'ril ,l'lirnhl( ),i,"r,rl* de l'I rn,r Franqdis rlr Daro 3o (r978):33r-a5, and Mi.hnrl()tr,tr,Ain,r l,,\ \i ?l

Ar.rbic Biosr4h], Th" l.lcor ofrhe P/opAas in rh. Agc o/al-Ma,n,hr (C,, n,l,rl, i (:rri,lrnls. Univenity Piess, zooo), r5,+ a?. Ca Bilwerine, 'Earlr Srrtisr',I' air,

i li,,Irl,yJiscussi()noFthethemcoftaubaamongerlyrenuncianrs,sceBinlrrinrr,lr ,, I SL,h$n', 45-5oi on doalii , se rhc derailed suNey Reinef, Le]rri.

i ll , ( lLrslernrs ol drc themes of inns lifc', 'inner nraning of rhc Qur'an', rtrdil,r ll rx. ,,1 sclc.tn,n' i\ srs8esred by Bernd Radrke in'Baren', EIr j: 8se-6r (quore,{, r(r)). litr rhc crrlicst rhase o[ rhe rrch For inner meanins of rhc Qnr'.n,{r (ii. r,(l lliuc.ing,'Tlic QuCen.ommcntary of al.S(lani', in Islamic StrdiesL, i lll,,l r,, (r/rdrl.r /. Arlami, cJs (/ael B. llallaq and Donald P Litdc (Leiden:

llll l rt)i) r),41 5rr, rrrlCcrhrrnl Bdwerins,'Thc major soorces ofSullmi's muu(.r,tr'n,, (,nrrleDtitry', (,i.ns l5 (r9oO)r3t 56. A compfuhcnsive new rreatmenr is

',,rrl\, Sl/i (i,nrr.nr,oirr. lil r(lrcise hur c(nfrchcnsive sNeys on rhe idca of,lr rr q,l(1rIrr ns.xt .rsml 1ry rlrr rcrrrs ualri.roiril,ila, st 'Wrhyah', Encydr4rcltr

4 l( irlti,, , Irl .(Lr, r(1. l.ih(h,y ltix.r (lI,rrt)tll M tr.n)lll:n I{clucnee LISA, :oos),r,ti ul,,'i, nr (llrr[ ll lr l,,|)r 'Wrlr,rtn.rr. l SLrrvry', lil r r: rorrr rrrh (t]



28 Srrlisn

Radrke)j Mi.hel Chodkiewicz, 'La Saintet€ er lcs sainrs en Islam,. in Le C r dessaints daro le moh.ia m6,lman. ed. Henri Chanbert-Loir md C. Cuiltor (p,ris:

E(ole rrJnqai.e d l-rr';me Orien,. roolr. rJ-22: ro Mtrhel ahooker(:,)e,ro,

'i"Samts I ProfAerAood a?d S ainthood in dp Doc.line of lirn Arali (Canbridee: Islami.

Terts Society, 1993), r?-46. Two more recent rrearments are Gerald Elmore,IstamicSdhfiood in tAe Frlln*s o/ Tirut lbn al-' Anabi\ Book of tAe Fab&to6 ODp/ton (Leiden;Bdl1, r99q), ro9-3o;md Richard l. A. Mccreeor, Sanmr and Mlsricisn in Medieeatr$D,. rtr. $/ar,' sJ, o/de. and a? r.sa- or ihn q,ahiAtban;, sa,e r .,e,.ir)of New Yo* Pre$, 2oo4),8-26. 'AbdaL', EIr i: rzl-a 0. Chabbi) s somewhat

8 This is not meant to be a .onplete lisr. Foi a recent discussion of ihe 6rsr four ofthese ligures, see Knysh, SlDfi HlsroD, chs r 2 i his references should be supplementedby dre follouing: Gramlich , Alte Va"tliLl ,2. t342 lan Shaqiq); Sarah Sviri,.The

seLf and irs ffatufomarion in Snism, wLrh special reference ro earty luerarure,, inSelf NA Self-Tthsfurudon itr rtu H,r,orr o/ Rel,s,oru, ed. David Shulmar and GuyG. Srroumsa (Oxford: Oxford Univesity Pre$, 2oo2), r95 2r5 (partly on Shaqia)Richard Gramlich, 'Abu Sulaymen ad-Darani'. One6 y (rys2)t 22 85; ,Du,t-Nnn

Me ri', Elr 7: 5?u-t (G. Bowerins): and ]osef van 86, 'Dei Kreis des Dhu,l.Nnn,,De \x,teLt .Ls O"ients 11 (rq8r); qq-ros. On Yahye iln Mu,adh, see Meier, Abr;Sa'rd, r,{8-84. Bayauid is discussed below.

9 Female renuncianrs of thh early period *ere recorded by Abn ,Abd al.Rahnan at-Sulani (d. 1r 2A 02 r ) in his biosnphical noti.es oD l,omen devors and Sutis, andlater, by Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 5e?h2or), in his Sda, at-rdlua; see comptete text of thefonacr work md selections liom rte latter nAbl'Abd al-Rahmrn Muhammad ibnal.H6ayn Sulami, Edrb Slf Wamen: Dhilr an.nnud dl-h,a'a,6dft dysrfDdr, ed.and lrans. Rkia Elaroui Cornell (Louisv le, Kn Fons Vrtae, i999)ifora concise butcomprehensive treament, see Laury SilverwAlario, 'Wornen, eender, and earLv Su[wohen', forthconing in Enqclnpedid of Wown ond tslanic Cdrres, 6 vols (Leiden:

Brill,2oo3 7).ro The rnot comprehemive treatmenr of Rabi'a is Margarer SmLrh, Rali.aj Th Life

" Wo^ at Rabid o.n ALhc" whan M)"ri. i/ l.laa ruri. i.l: On(uorld. r99;r

he:81), thoueh rhs does not include the valuable discus$ion of Sulani recoveredmuch more recendl: Sularni, Eadl Suf l/om,276-83. See also'Abd at-RahornBadawi, ShaAida al-'Ah4 al-ilahi Rabi'a dl-'AAav l1n lcaho: Makraba al.Nahda al-Miiriyya, 1962), and for a.oncise rrea.menr,'Rrli'a al-'Adawiyyd al-KaysLiTa,, EI8: t51b :156a (M. Smirh ICh. Pellad).

rr luLian Baldick, 'The Lgcnd ol Rabi'a ofBaqra: Christian aniecedenrs, Muslim coun.terpartl, Relgron 19 (r99o),2ja, .raoslaring fiom al-Eardn ua al,rahifl, ed. 'AbdaL-SaLatl Muhammad Harnn, lrd edn (Cairo, r188h968), l: r,7. Ct SuLami, Ea,bsuf \Yme\ 276-7 .

r2 AIso from al-Boan ea dl-railin, (Cairo, 1332), 3: 85, rrmlatins from rhe Arabics reproduced in Bldawi, Siuitda al-'ishq, rlTi ct Sulami, Earb S,f Worun, ,?s e.Smithl readine of rhis statemenr as being about mhaclcs is forced, Smhh, Ral,i,a,ro? 8.

rl On R.bi'a bnrt Isma'il ol Syrii, scc S,nirh, ttrr)iir, rro t; rrnil Srrl]rnrr, li[tr SlrliMr,rn, rl8-4r, rl&J61 5ol(11trn(lll\iirnrl,trildr Srrrm.s 0rr Atrrr l tl,r A1,i,t-

I h. Srrlis ol I ghLlrril 29

l.llrwilrr irre lisrc(l in Oramlich, Wcltucrrichr, :6 r, tu)tc a38. For orhei R.bi,as, see

l\il(li(k, 'l-c8cnd ol Rrbi'a', who rhinks that R.hi'a ofSyria did nor exsr (p. 2jz).r4 'llrthi'rr rl,'ALlawiyya rl'Kaysiyya', EI 8,355b (M. Smirh ICh. Peuatl)i in addition

r,, rl,e kiurces menrioied there, now see also Ahul-Hman,Atr ihn Muharnmadl)ryl nri, A ?catiy on MlrricalLo,e, loseph Nonnenr Bell and Ha$an MahnoodAh(hrl l-itifAl Shaie (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univcrsitr Press,2oo5), rr, (l owerhihks t(, Hdhann Landok for brinsing this publication to my arrention).

r1 'll(\liitrri (Bxs Im,), Bayazid', EIi 4: 18l-6 (Cerhard Bdrverng), md mote recentlylv,lohrmoud Rira Shaf i-Kadkanr, Ddfto-i tMshxnqi: az mtdt-i ,htatti

Ba.Jazid-

lJl,$(ani (Tehranr lnrsharet-i Sukhan, r:8+/:oos), esp.67 73; I ore thmtc toMrrll:rrrud RiTa Shafi'i.Kadlani for senerousl) sendins ne a copy of ths book$ rvell rs copies of his two recent wotks on Kharaqani and Abn Sa.id. Dalrar-irr(J/tr,r:bi is , complere Pe6iln translation of Abu'l-Fadl Muhahhad ibn .Ali

s,r[rrgiis (t. 477lro84) Arabic work, Krrdb ai,nrr min lalmd, Ari Ta)irr, which is

tln. nr,* Jetailcd biography of Btyazid availahle. K,rz] al,nat wm edited Ly A. R.litrlrwi (C.irc, r9,{9), but Shafii-Kadkani hd hdsed hs Persian ffanslatioD on his,rvrr ucw cttition of thc Arabic original soon to be published in Beirur, see Dalnrira(rhorr4t, r+. A usefuL compiLation of infomation on Bayazid in p mary sources

r, '41,{1 il.Rafi' Haqrqar, S,lran al:dr'tfrn BaJa\iLi Ba{dmr (Tehran: tntchdrat-iAlrrl,,r)6,/re82).Theieisalso docroraldsseitationonhimrhatIhavenorseen:l)lm lihrani, 'Bayazid Bistami: an analysis of early Persian mrsticism, (ColunbiaI lIi u ry, r999).

rrt Sl,r(|', Ill e:.l6rb (Carl Emsr); in-deprh ftearmenl Can Emst, W.,.ds o/Ecsnsl h\r/r\u (Albrny: State University olNew York Press, r985).

r 7 Alrr Nqr'Abd AlLah ihn 'AIi Sarej, Krr.ib al-l"mr. f,l-rm:auo[t ed. Reynold A.NIL l ,ln,r (LonJon: Luuac & Co., rera), 382 / Scirlzsi.Arrr irlo d6 Slf n, rals.Itr,l,nrrl (innlich (Sruttg,rr E Steiner, r99o), 522 (rz+.r); this passage trans. by1..1t, r,,k nr the Englmh secrion, roz (with minor changes).

rl l{,.yrr,lll A. Nicholson, 'An e,rly Arabic ventun of the mitaj of Abu Yazid al.lll,rrri', hldmica, (re26):ao3 8, ransl,tcd in Michael A. Sclls, L-drl) Ishmi.]\jljri, i r, S,i,

Q,r'an,Mirdj, Poeni and Theologdl Wn,ings (New

York Paulistllr$, ,,)16), 244 50; the quote is lroD 249.

lr l,r tll r,rrllcst of such commeht,rics, mosr notably hy Junayd (d. 298iero), see

',,,ixr, l-rnrl, lilee5 / S.hlda,chrd,5,ej4 (chs r2j 7)i ftanslatcd in Sells, Earj)lrl trk Mlvniitr,2,4 3r. SeLls also translates (234 4z) sayinss of Baya?nl foundlr, Alr AI,LI xlltrhmin Muhdmmad ibn aL-Husay. Sulami, Tabd4a. al, rr))a, ed.

l..l ,, ,l 1),, shui,yb (Cairo, Makraha ,i,Khanji, r+o6lryE6 lrrzlrysn,6.t t,+;i,trl lr 'Alr(l xl-Kxrnn ibn lilw,zin Qushayri, dlnnab dj-Q6Ad)nla, ed.

.Abd

rl ll.rlr n M,r|rrlJ Dr,l l\lahm.d ibn"l-Sharrf

(Catro: Drr ai-Kutub at-H dith ,r I i,,/,u(,),88 erl l)$ Sd \.hrciben al-Qdalrir ,6er da S,,un, n,ns. RichadLh[]r l, (Wl$hi,,lu,: F Sn,incr, re89),5o-z (r.ro).

ai' /\lmr,xl illr 'Ah,l Allilr Abn Nu'.yrn al,llfahani, HilJat al.aulild' w-?1ba4dt al-

',J/rl,r'(cx|,,r Mrkrnlt nl-Khnnji, re,]2 tj), ro: 40 rransLarion .eFroduced, wirh

Dr[{ ,IrL$l,,rs, lr(nn lirwi(l A. N4(,i]trltlr.li, ]fu lli,rsrat,Ai.dl ]adidotr in S"rsm: Ttuldl',,tn I i,rnr /i,,rr dl S,Iolr r,, ],nrr, (lin.h In(1, Surcyr (irra)n, 2oor), 54i rhis,,,t{r r rr r.tullll lll I (r a{n( r nr h ns'Alr ihr 't ]rl'nri[r I h,iwni, (a1/r'd-Mah]rb,



Thc Suis of Boghdad 1',|

ln

17

lli

El rr 559b (Cenevi6ve Gobillot) on questions of poverry and wealdr, see LeahKlnberg, 'Compromise of comnerce a study of early tmditiotu conceming poveny

nnd wealth', Der Islan 66 (ry8d1 rs3 2t2, and an tawal<kul, see Reinen, Le,il€.

Bernd Radtke, Nerc hrdsclt€ Gdnge: Zu St,,nA md Aufgaben der Sufkforchmg

(Utrechr Houtsma, zoos),259 80, presents sysrematically the evidence (or rheseenrlle$ rrf'si in rhis study, Radtke announces a fonhcoming publicarion rirled Mare-

ti,,lie .w aben isLanischen Ftr;nmrg,€ir rha Myslil, which will presuMbly includecvcn more new evidence on the prehisrory of Su6sm. Precisely what differentiared

'wool-weare.' renunciants from their renuncimt counterparrs is difficuk to idenrqrifor nn excellent discussion, see Chrisropher Melchert, 'Bsrm origim of cla$icalsufrun,, Der istah 8, (,oo5): ,,r-4o.Thc irst appearance of the collective noun rt )la in rhe sources appears to be inl-Kindi, Tk Goomors aad J"Cges o/ Esrpr, ed. Rhuvon Guest {London, rer2),

16r, as noted by Mssisnon, Esat, ro7, note ro3 and Melchen, 'flanabila', 35,1,notc ro;now lieshly ttarulated in Bernd Radrke, Knrische Gange, z7&q- For a cata-

losuc of the ascetics of the second/eighth century, see Massignon, Essat, r 13 19; forItnUer tieaxments, see ibid., 14? 6oi lsnrc Goldzihen Inr'oducti.n talslalnnTlualosJ

lml Lar, t.ans. Andra, Hanori and Ruth Hamori (Princeton: Princeron U.ivesirylrLcss, rs8r), r16-:+; r Andne,ln tle Garden of M.trnzs: Sndies ih Earl Islamic

M)r,icism (Albany: State Univesiry of New York Press, 1987).3J-54; and Ess,

Thc most conpreheroive recenr treatmenrs o{ the issue of the 'pre-history' ofSuftm

are Melchert, 'Baeran orisins', which supercedes Melcherrt earlier article ontM srme ropic ('The ftansition from asceiiciso ro mysricism ar the middle of rhe

hlnth century c.E.', S,ldta Isldm,.a 83 [1996]:5r-?o), and Bernd Radrke, Knni.h€( llir{c, 25r-rr, esp. 28c5, which is also a criricism of Melhert's 1996 arricle.

Irurr Sc4rin, Gesciici& dzs ardbisctun Sci,/, mr (Leiden: Brill, re67 ,ooo), r:646it ilx,ft but comprehensive bibliosaphic essay s Muyam Sha'bdnzada, 'Abn Sa'id-iKlrrrrilz', Ma'dri/ r 9, no r (zooz ): r 3 r-44. On his lLfe, see 'Abn Sa'id al-Kharraz', EI

4 rotll-4 (W Madeluns). There is also a PhD dssertarion on hnn by Nada Srab,

'M yrt lcrl language and theory in Sui writinss of al.Khafttz' (Yale University, ,oo4)jI lnrvc n,,i $een this work.

lirlLllek, Mlsricai kiam, ao.

A hf sn'tuI Khirrrz, Ttu Book ofTruttfulne$ (K.nb al.iAq), Ar&ur J. Arbeny (London:( )rii,r(l UDivqsiry P.ess, r937),66.'lhr lulhrwing covcrage of al-Kharre.t epsdes is based on Npyia, Exdsase .ora-

Nwylr, Ex.rxAso coraaiqne,234fi shich includes a complete ranslation of this work(r1rr {r7), rcrLls 1/at, as docs Sczsin, GAS, r 646, relying on A. AteF in Or.k6 5(rolr) ru, hut Slmarl'il edition h,s it as iai.', which nakes berter sense. Gdren( )sch,'l{cllsl,)Lrs ccshsy in classicnl Sunsm', in neiisioa E.riar) Baled on Papers Read

dl 1fi., Jirmporilrfl r)n Relidoff Ecsra:, HeU at Abo, Fihlarn, on the 26rh 28th al A s6tt 0N r (StrElholmr dlstrlbuted by Almqvist & Vikseu Inrernarional, r 98, ), 2jo, also

rrptr lor thc rcndlrrg sfa',Nwyhr,ltxdgdic comniql{ , 162-1, As Nwyln,rorcs, n vcrsion ofrhispassage was appar,

rxly (outrlncJ lll u l.xt cphtlc .)l Khrufl, (Kld[ dr,rhr) 0nd repftx rced by somc



eo. varen n z u ovs y re ran. r ena, lahnri,13141199 , 43 I Rewlationo, fie M)s,?D Kashf al-Mahjtb), trans. Reynold A. Nicholson (Accord, NY: PirPress, Ipps), r8u; md Abul-Fadl Muhammad ibn 'Ali Sahlaci, Ktnb al,nnt nink lmt, Ari Tayrr, ed. A. R. Badawi (Cairo, 1949), 136.

2r 'Besrdmi (BasFmi), Beydid', Elr 4: r8a (cerhard Bowerins). Cl his sratemenrs

reporred by Sulami, Iaba4a,, ?4, tra$lared in Mojaddedt, Bi.fl'alhical'rl,atition,2\in which he disringuishes experienrial knowledge ofcod from renm.ialion also see

p. 26 for Mojaddedit own comments on Sulami's porrrayal of Bayeid as an 'dr'r.

22 The evolution of Beyazidt imge in fie Suli bio8raphical tradition is naced h derailln Mojaddedi, Biosraplical Tradrion.

4 Ess, Theologie, 4: te5-2o9. Major nonosraphic ffearments include jo6ef van Bs, DieGedml,rnueh AesHdfi al-Mrlr,nsibl (Bonn: Selbsrverlag des Gientalischen Semindsder Universitiir Bonn, rq6r); Margaret Smid1, Ai-M,iasibi; An Ea,l) M)sri. o/BasAdad (London. The Sheldon Press, rors); and Yolade de Ctussol, le dte dz

la rasm dats l ftfLenon CkkM d'al-M4dsibir 'aql er .mrredon cher al-Mddsibi,16512$ 28218:,/ (Patis,Concep, 2oo2). Mssienon, Essar, 16r-rr is still usetul forhis connection to Su6sn.

z4 Selections 6on TIe Boot m Ob*ruance o/Godt Rigirs are rraslared inro Enslish inSells, Ea& Isll1mic M)sri.iM, r7r-95; fm the forms ofegoism, see p. r?2.

,5 Smidr, Mu,haibi, 87-ql.,6 Crussol, Le roh dz la raon, 365-7o. De Crussol gives a conpdison of Muhasibi and

]unayd, :+sf.,7 Paul Nwyia, E{dgase coraaiqw d lanlaee rrystique: now)el essai sw b lexi4ue Echn14r.

&s mlstiq,es ma,lndns (Beirur Dar el-Machreq, r9?o), 156-208; Arabic rexr ofcommentary attiibured ro ]a'far is in Paul Nul'ia, 'Le ra6ir mystique artiibu6 e6a.far

$adiq: €ditions critique', Mllnnses dz lu^i'aJsiti SaitrJosepi 43 (rq68): r8r 23olselections in English: Sells, Earl) irlrmic M)srr'c6m, i5 s9.

28 For a synopsis, see Baldick, M)srical Ishm, jo-z; for focused discussion, GdmnOg€n, 'Did fie rerm uli' exist Lefore the Suds?', Aca Otientdia a3 \1982). r 481srill indispensable N Maslsnon, Essa1, ro4 6. Fo. other derivaiions and a totalof seventy.eishr deiritions of Sufisn, see Rernold A. Nichotson, .An

hisroricalenquiry .onccmins rhe orisin and deveiopment of Sulisn', Jo,f,raj o/ r.ie Rolal AsidrcSociet) l8 (1906),3o3 48.

,9 The earliesr use of rhe rerm is said to be with respect to a certain Abn HashimofKuli (d. r5oh6? 68), and it was delinlrely in circulation during the 6rst haf of dre

third/ninrh century, see Massignon, Essay, ro5. On Abn Hashim, see,Abd Al16h ibnMuhammad A$eri al.Hara$i, Tahrqdr dJ-srf))a, ed. ,Abd

al-Hayy Hablbi (Tehmnl

In.sharer.i Furnghi, ryqzlry6t), z; ct Mojaddedi, Biasa2hical Ttadition,7\ a

English transLaiion ofthis notice on Abn Heshim is in A. G. Ravan Fdhndi, 'Aht llihAratui of Hent ( rca6-rc8e c.E. ) : An Earb gr, Mascer (Richmond, Surrey: Clrzon,1996), 4? 9 turrher references in E$, Tieol,sre, r: 228, nore s.

30 The quote is fron Mi.hael Bome., 'Poverty and chariry in rhe rise of Islam,, in pooen)

Mi Cha,iry in MidAb E6rJm Con,efls, ed. Michael Bonner, Mine Enen and AmySinger (Albany: State Univesiry of New York Prcss, 2oo3),25. Fo. the meaninp ofwe ine wool durins the second/eighrh cenrury, see Bs, Ttuolosro, :, 88. On &l]d, see

Leah Kinberg, '\Vhor ls meanr hy r d?'Sndia tulamtca,6r (r985)r 2?-44 nnd,ZLrh ,,



3Z Suiisrn

later Sun writeB (Sa.r-j, Sulami dd 'Aftar). C( rhe t.anslarion in Os6n, 'Relisious

4o Paul Nq'la, 'Textes rnysriques inddits d'Abn.l.Hasan ai-Nlri (m.295leo7),, Mdtonges

de L'Untueni,l Saint-loseph 44 ( r 968 ): 2a8.

4r Bemd Radtke, 'The concep. of eila)a in ea.ly Su[sm', in C]dsi.al Pcrsian S"fsnfm irs Ong,ns .o Rlmi, ed. Leonard Lewsohn (London: Khaniqahi Nimatull.rhiPrblicarions, 199.1), 485 6. The view that the auli),r' were sulerior to the prophers

was apparently held by Abn Sulayman ll-Darani (d. 2r5l83o), rhe premier discipte

of 'Abd a1-l(/thid ibn Zayd, as well as Darenit own disciple Ahnad ibn Abi,l-Hawari(d. u:o/8e.1-S); see Maslgnon, Esa], 15: 4, now to be read in conjunction wirhGramlich, 'Abn Sulalman ad.Dd.eni', who, hox€ver, is silcnt on rhis issuei fo. ibnAbi'l.Harvari, see Cramlich, Al,c YotiiLio, r: 38,. Bur Khantu\ .titicism mishthave been also directcd at Tusrari, discussed in Chaptet belo$l

42 N$yia,'Textes mysriques', 13r-2. Cl A iieaaie on rie Heaft arftihured io Tirmidhi(rvho s dsc(ssed in Chapter z belorv) that appears in Abt'Ahd al,Rahman Muhanmadibn al-Husayn sulami and aL-Hakim al-Trmidhi, TA/ee Earry s,, ftftr, tnns. NicholasHeer and Kennerh HonnerLamp (Louisville, KY: Fons Vuae, :oo3), rr-56, whichmay insread be a sork of Nori, * noted by Nicholas Heq on p. r?.

,{3 Cramlich, Al,e Vorbild"r, r: 38r-,{46 is the most detailed and up-.o-date accounr onNirri. Also see Annemarie Schinmel, 'Abu'l-Husayn aL-Nnri: "Qibla of rhe Liehts,,,,

in CL6rical Persidn S,fsn foh fti Ori8r6 m Rrhi, ed. Leonard Lex,isohn (London:

Khaniqahi Nimatullali Publications, reet),59-64. An a.counr of his ftials inEnsLish is found in Ernsr, Wods o/Ecsras), 97 ror.

4a Qushayri, Ri&rla, r23 / Sendrcireiben, ?o (r.25). Orher sou.ccs rhai contain thisreport are listed in Cramlich, Alt Vdb,lder, r: j82, n. re. However, eamihE a livinp,n"rde ro.penJ r'..n,h. por tr.,,r..r i..e\rer) ,. ..g .e.r, ro J re t-...eirher acomtuon praciice or, more likcln a'tloatins litc.ary morif,j see, for insrance.

Abu al'lraraj 'Abd aL-Rahman ibn'Ali Ihn al,Jawzi, ftlbis lblrr, cds.,tram Hanstini

and Muhammad Ib.ahnn Zaghli (Betrul Al-Malub al-lslami, r99a), ,o,, wherefiis same relolt is arrached ro Demd ibn Ahi Hind, an earLier frsrre. ILu al-lapzi

sives another variarion of ths thcme abour Abn Hafr Haddad on p. 4?r.45 This erent occurred under the caliph al.Mu'r,hid (2i6-?e/8?o ,), rhouph ihe

ml , e,'^h,.L,orl-ry,1,,-.,.. lMuuJ,"e.J. /?8180r,.o, r^-J, 1e,.eeMel.her H/n.'l ,ld (oo On Ll urc n I l-l l *.. n ..r .onpreh.n.r', ti. M"helarra. and Seb$ri.n Ciinrher, 'Qul.m ttalil und das Krrab J44 64utu: Erstc Ersel,-

nsse elrer Srudie zum KonseNatisnus hanbalitischei F,irbune im lslam des 1./o.I l-,hunder.'. 2ct,,,h.1. J", Ue .hp" Vd-ocard,d^,heh Cp.r/r,.tdtr r5l ,ro;lr.6-16, esp. 2.1 6 on hh 'in$rsirion'; atso Melcherr, 'Hanebil,', 36@,ilosefvan Ess,

'Suliur and its opponenr:s: reileciioN on ropoi, rribuLarbns, ,nd rraDsformarions,,in lJlamic Mls&Lis,i Contulted: Thiffien Centwies af Conn-ooersies and Potzmics, ed. E

deJ{,ng and lSernd Radrke (Leiden, Biill, reee),26-8; and Ess, TAcotog.k,4: :Srta6 Emst, W@& of Ecsr15), 98, ctrine tiom A. I. Artrcoy, Pages lron the Kttab at.tM,

(London, r94?), 5 / Scltl4srichter, 549 (r3z.r). This sayirs of Niiri was trcrualy a

hadirA 4dri, 'divinc sayins' ('ashiqdni sa'rl\hiqtuht) nnlrrcd fnnD,Ahl

l.Wnhntibn Zayd with rn artrihurion ro trl.1.lnsiD l.l rii src Mrsri{nrrr, Jjsrrr, HH rrlt tjss,

llrt Suts ol llrrghclrrd

,

t

jj

( ir r mllch, Alk Vrl,irler, r , 38a thinks thcsc rnay have been separate incidenrsi Emsr,.

lV, th iy' lcstasy, 99, suggests that several of fisc ihcidents may be unaudrentic; mdllilw(tins, 'EaLly Su6sm', 55, does not cornment on wherher the accusations were

r. I rr Ld (o thc inquisition of Ghularn Khal-rl. The 6nt four of the 6ve reports are from J. A rbcrry, Pdser /rom t,re Kiab al-lma' (London, r s41) , 5 I Schlt$ichter, 54e-5o(r l,.r-,), whitc thc last is by Ibn al-Jawzi and 'Aqter; see note 28 in Gramlich, AlrevihiL|J, t 384.Siilnl, Lrima , r9l-4l Scilas/ichter, ,per (zz.:). For rnore infromarion on and c.it-I htrr ua Nnrit shocking behdviour, see e,pecially lbn al-]awi, Talbis, 468 72.( iriDlich, Ahe VobiLld, | 3854, based on a long report by Ibn al.A'rabi (d.

r+ r/urz), who had seen Nrlri in Raqqa in 2?o, about ths laaer's rerurn to Baghdad( r rqrorted by Dhahabi, Si^1* a'kmal-mbala', .t4:14-5).

( ir rnrlich, Alre Vtrbil{zr, r:38? helyhg on Dhahabi, S}d,, ra:?61; and E mr, Wdds

rrl li*asy, e9 [from Chuali,Iir)d']. The rest of lhe conveGarion between Nnri andl ln .xlirh, which is about how Nnri refrained liom hreaking onc las. jar when he

,l,,tccrd a growing sense ofcomplacency in hs Iower so I, might actullly conrain a

hrcr Sufr .ritique ofunbridled moral activsn.Sifij, I-,md', r95 / ScilagLiilr, 299 (?7.5). Nnri allowed *Le Sufis to rake as muchrn,iic), as they wanted and oncc it was all gone, he remarked, 'Your distance 6on( i,,J ls t{, be meaurd by thc amount of money you have taken and your closeness

r,' llinr by your avoidance ofitl'Sirirj, L"md', 2ro, 29o / S.AlaslicAtr, 32t-a (88.a) and ar8 (ro,.5). Orher .eporrs

rh{I Nnri\ death, *ir}, conflicrins information, are lisred in Cramlich, Alte

V,,l,illcr, r 188 9; ct Meier, Ab, Sa'd, r?.

s,,rrii, I- ma', 6t / Scilaglc/lrer, 8r (r8, r).( irrnrcntary on Qulen ?2 [al.]innl: 3, repioduced in Aralic in N$.yia. 'Textes

ysrntucl, r47i Ab['Abd al-Rahmen Muhanmad ibn al-Husain Sulani, Ha4a'iq,rl r,y'llr, {1. Sayyid'lmran (Beirur; Ddr al.Kurub al-'Ilmiyya, r4zrl:oor), z: 353.s,L i, Lxtu', 6l / Schlslichter, 8r (r8, r). See Atn Baki Muhamhad ibn Itrrahim(,,hl,iilhi, dl-li1'arrJ li-madliub ajrl al-taiawd, ed. Ahmad Shams al-Din (Beirut:

l)l nl-Kurub nl-'llmiyya, rygt), T I The Dctxire of.lte sr/is, ftans. A. l. Arbefy

(( nnl nlsc, Cdmbridec Unive.sLq Press, 1989),49 50, where this repon ebout therlll,llt\1 ir narhtcd from I ccrtain Abn Bakr al-Sabbak.

r iL, r rl , l-{,ia', 58 / S. aslicl er, ?6 ( r 6.6) , translatiorl reproduced from John Renard,

lir{i,1.,1i. (y' (n,J itr Clu$i.al S"fsm: Fo&nddriiru ol islamic Mlstica/ Ttreologl, ttans.

1,,11'l{(,ni (New YorL Paulist Press, zoo+),66.

1/ Alr r r, f,.lxq.ir, t4,1.. tr ( ,{Nrurlrtry.n Qur'in 2a [aL-Nnr],63, reproduced in Aubic in N*'yia, 'Textes

,,,y,1lLt,k,s', ,46i Sul.ni, Haqd'4,2: 57.

1,, L Drtrlrrrrr on Qul.n a [al.Nisa']: r:8, reproLluced in Ar:bic in Nwria,'Tbxres

ry,,ri,tLr\', r4i; Sulimi, Hd4d'iq, r r63.

r,,l.,l,rl,r,ll,r,L',,n,Lrr2ll),crinc,86,Arbety\rransLationpreserveJ.hr ( Lnrndr ry irl Q,r'-n z lal-Bagaral: 273, reproduced in Arabic in Nwyia, 'Te\tes

|l|rrrlLto(J, r44iSIlrrnri, Hati'q, r: 8'1.

r, (,rlrtr1x,ry (r\ (\r/i,,,li,l.R,,rt nl:4, rctrxluccd in Arahic inNwyia,'TextesnyrrlLtrtr*', r44rSrlnrnl, IJdd i,l, r 54.

r,r 'rr rnll,lr,AIr, V rilil,r, r:,rru.



34 Srrlisrn

Comh€ntary on Qulan 6 [al.An'am]. 36, rcprodu.cd in Arabic in Nwria, ,Tixtcs

mystiques', r,{5; Sulami, Haqd'iq, 1: r97.See, fo instance, Kalebadhi, Td'arxl, index, where Nnii is one of rhe most cired

64

6l

66 Qushayri, Rndia, 563/ Ser&cLftiben, e6 (qz.i)_6? Nu.yia, 'Texres mysriques', r38, ch. 12.

68 Qushayri, Rnala, zr7 r8/ Sendscltr€iD€n, r16 (2.6).69 Comnenrary on Qur'd.3 [AI'lmian]: r52, repn duced in Arabic in Ns" ,ia.,Texres

mrnr.r re.'. r44: -uldmi. H.4o'Lq- tt t rt.zo Qushayri, Risala,5o3l Se sclneiben,345 (:6.:); also cLted in Ali Hassan Abdel-

Kader, Tie Lfe, Persomliry dtul\yl inss of at-l nq,t (rl:]ndon: Luac, rq6,), .r8.

7r -r'grn, Ue . ririr., r (J4, 5o?, For iturance, taoiid was one of the 6ve prihciples of the Mutazila, the rarionalisr

theologicaL movementthat was especially prominenr in the third and fourrh/ninrhand temh cenmries; see'Mu'tazila', EI r: ;8:a-rq.la (D. Ginaret).

7, fh<,iri'ronot'h.,c\rnBarl(.erubFr,nnneofpo*ibtlrnen..,r.rul,rhjn.lhJIof Sulism must have contribured to its popularity see eushay.i, R6ata, 28 {/ Send-q h'prbP, , )t ro 8r.

rl Abdel-Kader, Jrroyd, Arabic 5,+, English r?5i Siile).man Ates, Cii&e\d-i Bdiaa :

Ha)dr.r..,r"q.pVci.eplafl.l.,cnbul:jr,nncr\Fr,,\,r.rooo,.Ar.,oLrt.trr\r154.

?5 Abdel.Kader, fum)r, Arabic a3, English r54; Are , C,inryd, Arabic 16, Turksh 116.'I l,e Lnsli.l- rcn.lJrion ,. f,on 'fi/ilLdm A. Crdhjr. Dn,n" u/o/d rn l lioDh"trJ \X;d, Ld"l) r.la4, A R.,on,.lrdnbn.r /r (orr.p.. u,rh sp,.Ll Fc/.ren.e r, rhc troreSa),ng or HalrrA Qldsi (The Hasue: Mouton, 1977), 173-4 (saying ,+9), nith tuUtext and ample referenccs to orher occurren es, including the tradrh collcctiom ofBukhari ud Ahniad ibn Hanbal, to which oDe can add Badi ai-Zlnan Furnzantar.Aiiilis-i Mahali (Tehrah: Amn Kabtu, rt6rfu9s2), rS r9 (no. a,).

76 Abdel-Kader, Janayl, Arabic4r, English 76; Ates, Crne)d, Arabic aa, Turkish rar

rr AMeL-Kader, Jmard, Arabic 52, English riz (retained hcre)iAres, Cr,r\il. Arahic

78 The case for lunaydls docffine of selecrion is made in Ahnrr T. Karamusra{a.'Wal.yah according ro al-lunayd', in Rcdsm and lrul,raEd itr IJIami TAeoloE,Phro.oDr' ,, V).r,,,.n ,, Mr.rin th@clr. tr i I tur ol H, run, rlad tr, ed. toJ I

Lawson (London: i. B. Tauiis in aso.iarbn with the Insrirure of tsmaili Srudies.,ool,.oa /o. loui.Ma.,Jnon. /h"P,-,o ordl Hartd/ V).,.. d-ii \,ta{,, tt.lrn,trm. Hcrbert Ma")n (hin.eton: Prin eton Universitlr p.ess, r9s2), r: 26 sccsevidence oflredesrinariinisn in lun,yd rhinkihs abour sanctrtv.

,. AbJ.l.r.,l.,.,,n"\d. Ar b. zr.frrsti.t- r4, aueprodu..Jhe.etrl-..1(reln.n)iAr...., riaP.J.A 'l,. :.. lrrlr.h r:q.

80 Saraj, Lmu', 2r.l 4, as translated by Abdel-Kader, J,n4d,5r / S.itaxric,rer, 156(oo rt. On ,n,'r'...o.r'. n...c rbrd.. r. ". f-r ref, r, n.* "r,

sh,t r,.., qryr,,n.inent ngure in his own right, see notc 9: bclou

8r For in-rlcprh fteatmcnr of Jrnayrlls unage iI rhc SLrli t\i,, rirIl,kirt rr(liri,n, sroMojrd(lc(li, lli,)r'r{,/ri.di li,ilnii,r.

llrr Srrlis ol llrrglrtllcl )5

'r, r\,rlr:1,.,,ri/rw.'r,..\tr.r.',r',,n-i1 rl.((.\(iir,unli.l'. ql,, \.rr'rttr,,,,.ri,.. :.'iri7i\: rn'rh,l..*.'l,n:llr1'er.rcrcr,c,..r.,,tr-,.1,-rnrlr(Lvu.,,t Nirrrl llouy ; on travclling in baDds, see Meier, Abn Sa'tl,:e6-q; on rhe rcbc rnJhririirri,,r, scc Ma$isnon, Pasion, r: 7z and ro3; on the earliesr phasc ofSufi praytr

tr .ri.c, sc.'DckL', Eh ?:21o, col. ii (Cerhard Brjwering), {nd on sa,ra', see csp.

Srtr rlll, i.x ra', ,67 too / Sc a8ri.Atd, 389-a28 (chafters 95 r 06 ), which h discusscd

lr (l( r,ril in Kcnncth S. Avclr A Pilchol,8) o/ Earl) S,f SMd': Listenh[ MA ALuei\r,irri (l-rr or: Rcrrtledge Curzon, 2ooa). Massisnon, Pdssim,l: 226 4 conrains a

roy rrsclul, albeir brief, catalosue ofrituals leculiar ro rhe Su6s, many of which musr

luvr heeo rrd.tiscd b)' the Baghdad Sulis.

Itl lly (,rnrast, the use of rhe prayer tug, salld.A, and its use as invesriture, docs nor(rrr r(, drLc h,ct ro rhc rhird/nn1th cenruryi rhe earliest artcstarion of rhe usc

,,t rlt rqi.iJd by Sulis, as noted by Hetmann Landolt, 'Cedanken zum islanischcD

i irl{rilqrfich', in Fesh.Art Afred DrAler, ed. Carl AugNt Schm,lz (Basel, Pha(xV,1 Lg, r e65 ), 2,{?, is a passm8 releience in thc Krrab di,l"m' of al.Sanaj who d icd

rr t78/r88i see Saraj, L,m',2or / ScAldpicirar. 3o8 (8r.r). For a depicrion,)f

Iuuyll with a rosary, scc Qushayri, R6dla, r re / sendr.hreiben, 68 (r, 2a).

llt I lrls li( is reploduced, with ninor changes, from Knysh, Strort Hrrory, 67.

rl,r ( )r rhr rcl.tidrhip bcrvcen die Su6s and rhe slar;'a, see Bernd Radrkc, ",X/ffunr isr

,lr, Srrli onhorloxl', Dcr islam rr (r9o+), to: z.dn s,,l,i(1(,i, 'Mu'tazila and Suiism', 8r-o.I/ ( r 'Antr .n.l Junayd, scc Florian Sobieroj, Ibn Haff aJ-Sir,r, lhl l in S.h Ir rlo

N',r,inacflieArng (Krtab al-I4iis.rd) (Bcnui: Orienr-lmritui der De rsch ,) Mor,{0r-lirr tr li",hcn Cesells.hafr in Komhis$ion bci F Sreiner Verlas Stutrsn n , r eq8 ), r,r i,, lrLnr nl'Khafib al.Bashdedi, TardiA Baghla,l (Cauo, r349/193r) r:: r14. 'Arrnvrx,, ,r(/rdlrt/r and aulhor of fieatises that did nor trvive; he apparcntly rlt,rrhrl rh, rl,r. i'l inncr srares, see Ma$isnon, Pd$ion, r: ?2-5, and Sobieroi, i|n1., 5 | t, I l||l{,rv,,y,tr xn(l lunayd, see Abn Nu'aym L-lst,h-ni, Hibar dl,A@lild', ro: ,6N, ( lrr(lr,, s,,hiooj, ibid. Gcc 257-9 for more infornation.n this topic).

rirl 'llrL, s,,hyJi, Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad ibn'Umar', EI 3:gaea (J. Schaclrr)1 SrrlrlcrL,l,

tl\ tl,Lli, h. 4. On his opi,lion ofHallaj, see also lbn rl-Jawzi, tuli,rr, rr4, wlnlr

lr' lr Lt,()re(l rs sryine 'l do not undertand xhat he [Hallrj] says'i rn(l lirrsr, V/,,h,/l virr-, ro, l. Cl Ahdcl'Kader, Jrna)d, 5; the Later sources uscrll,y Al (l Krh.r(rirl,lir ,rnl Il,n xl-Krrhir) sccn to have porftayetl rhe reLationshif hciw((n lL riryLl

rtl llt SLrrayl as a mrch ck*cr onc than Lt proLably was.

llt] Nl irrrilr xllirtrk's towards rhe Sufis arc documented in Sobieroj, 'Mu'rrll,, nxl'i,lrnri lr this irri.lc, Sobirrcj teproduccs rhe details ofrhe Mr'tazili writer Ah,,'/\lr M,rh ,ssin ihn 'Ali il.Tinnkhi's (l2rE4/e4r-e4) crLricism ofSuns, in firri.uhr, r lnr (hilll, Shihli, Ilu8rym an.l HaU-j. IIis charee asainsr lbn Khafil wl\i.lrNi rl,,r rlr lNr.' encolriaed s.xuil rn)hiscuiry amoDs hh folloivers, isonc olrltr "iili(,n drcsrrritns li ths rccusattn thrt bccomcs a standard componem oi

u,, t lrrtrt,,r,lr.r Mrlclut,'Thc tlvcrsrrics ofAhD ltn Ha.bal', Ardbica 44 \1997)1rr , ri Mrl(l'(yr ,r( ,r)ks rh( crsfs oi lln 'Alit'nnd Jur rri rvhcD hc $rrtcs rlrir,t , sL,l,r rilkr\l r,, rh. I Ii,|1,rli rrrrl rh. I.l,urrli rhNlsi rtn rlrr ,trdhha/, ,)fl,trryd,rr.M,rnHrrr,,llari,nr,,,?8'l'1n,i.rr'*,lri.I i,, llisr'lsMcl(lx.is.li,rrhcr( n



Sufir of Bachdad 37

r $oup of Hanbahs dcf€ndcd Hall6ji lavourablc atrltudcg to htm among Hanbqhsnr. c.n lerci, as evldenccd, for tnstance, by the fact that Ibn'Aqil (a3r*5r3ho4o-, r rg) wrotc a trcatlsc ln dcfence of Hallaj's mhacleo tn hts youth, see GeorgcMokdlll, 'Thc Hsnbalt ,chool and Sutum', H&r aaiora Islanica z lryli:62.Scc thc pcnctrattve remarks of Meier about

Hallaj in Flitz Mei€r,'An imporranrmunurcrlpt find for Sunsm', in Es$)s on Islaric Piery and M)sdcisn, trans. ,ohnO'Knnc (Leide Brill, rqqo), r8a-s.Thh pslpectivc reaches its culminarion in the works of the Persian poet Farid al-Dtn 'Anar (d. alier 6r8hz:r u ), see 'flalla;', Elr :. 5er (Jawid MojaddedD, mdErnrt, Words o/ Ecsrasy, rto-2.Scc Bcmd Radtke, 'Mystical mion', r85j4, which surveys Suli approaches to thellucrtlon of'mystical union' with Cod.

Rrr n concise yet comprchensive discNsion of his trial, larsely on rhe basis ofMnulgnont oe&Lre on Hallei, that comes ro rhis conclusion, see Emr, WordJ o/

Thcrc rcems to be precious little informarion on the relatiorEhip, if any, betwe€ntlrc Su6g and other sroups of inrellectuals such as the nascenr philosqhers(/ah{ia), the govemment secterades (lrtra.b) and the litterareun (daba'), but for

'rhcleads, see Sobieroj, rh Hafif.

karamustafa - sufis of baghdad

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