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

Thc Sufis of Baghdad

15

wlth both meanings), though for Niri ecstasy could never become a pretext for lmproper behavioun 'He who does not observe propriety in his moments [of
findlng/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

'Soneone asked Abu'l-Husayn an.Nnri, God be compassionate wirh him, 'How is it rhat inrellects cannot reach God while God .an be knom only through *'e inrellect?' 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 ha no 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?

hlmself over to God and remained attentive to His call. The parh that led to Ood actually was to be found in the hearl Intimate 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 unifiation (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. And when 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 in Lt 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 suides rvhom He rill to his LhC lQir'en 24 (al-Nnr):351.67

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 'watchtulness' (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: 'He whose 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

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 of liltllng 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 *rat hc 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

Nnri to rhe

('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,
edges of acceprable speech on many occasions

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 in h[ 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

16

Sufism

The Stlin

rlflglrrd

t7

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

Mrrrcovcr, Junuyd conceptualised Buch clissolution of self-consciousness nor as cxlircnnul srxrc bur irs c 'rcrurni ro a pnmordial .late rhrr human being, Itarl hrftrrc tlre creatron on the Day of rhe Covenanr.
u ttr.w

Mllltq,'fi

c Primordial CovenanC

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 the created', 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 the peculiar notion of /ana'.

'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, they UllL "()h yc!, we so testifu." Lesr you say on ludgmenr Day,,We were unaware of lhhl"r (Qur'!rn, 7 [al-A'rEflr rzz). Accordinc toJunayd, this primordial covenant Flurrlcll 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 in
Oorl'r nrlrrclr

lin,,wr,rntl onlv He !. atrdr 01 Cod knos. rheir el,n(nce: enbra.rng rhem ne ilt'r rhcrn in fie beginnine when they are non-exstem and unaware of theit tuture .rlucrce in this world.76

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 oFexistence xr lx rNlrally atrributed ro codt neaturesi h is a rrpe o{ existence rhich onlv Cod

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 him in 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 selfconsciousness 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

Tlnr. lnltlrtcd by Cod as divine ideas, humans are rhen created as individual tn 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 Illli thEm inro rhe experience offdni', which is literaliy a re-enacrment of ihr pt|n,'rdlal covenanr. Passing away from consciousness ofearrhly existence, liuwr,vcr, h not total annihilation of the individual since even after /ana,, the filf ftrrvlvcs in a transformed fashion.

fdtrl,'urhliety'

.}ltr

e wlro cxperlence

fltl

/atu'do nor

subsist in that stare o{ selfless absorption

in

l,rrr finLl themselves rerurned to

6eir

senses bv

God. Such rerurnees

fro-

thp r.x|trlcncc ofscLflessness are thus reconstituted as renewed selvs:

he has not been truly himelt Hc is present in himseL{lnd in ,rltcr hnvins bcen present io God and absent in hin$ett This 6 becase he h$ l(li r h( ltl r{)xi.ition of Codt overwhelming giakba (victory), md comes ro rhe r li(ily ,)l k,l,ricty, .nd conremplation is on e more restored to him so that he can l,rrt rv.,yllrins ln irs rishr place and assess it corectly. Once rnore he assumes his
( l,trl

ll(, li ltin$(lf, ;,frc!

'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 whn I love him, I become his
ear

l,y ( I,\1.

Ir||!,.1,,.r1,,llrih, c..ifrur./an.r Hr.lcr.on.lq:.trrre.p.rr.r rnhrmanJhr.acror. rl,t. w,,rl.I sl,un h( h:" rcichrJ rhc zen.rh ,, .ptrjr dt d(nie\ernenr \o r. h,a.e.l

ln l\a.{ r, | t.r hF ' 'r(rn

rull. w

hrn

7r

wifi

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

llrflli olrt, th(jr(forc, thnr

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

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

18

Sufism
NPeciul mlssion

not only retumed to their earthly existence buc are glvcn thc
guiding others to God.

of

The spiritual elect While the struggle to af6rm Godt uniqueness by erasing the
sense of self

might

be 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 of believers' ($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 seket 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 bore the 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 tear away 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'

rYrIl|rr

(r'irrr('c

s'rcs

(, rrc !r(rrrr (n r)lt;

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 lr|urrir picty. Otcarly, thcsc early Sulis were most concerned with obtaining ',1 rrtn,r[,rri,rl knowlcdgc (maitfa) of Godl unity, with disdllins the reality of tlr lr,lLrrrrir pLofcssion of faith 'There is no god but God' into their daily lives.
journey towards the ever-elusLr.e goal of to draw near God. Srrli viewed as God-servants, had experienced lrr l,trqrcctive, human beings, 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 the r,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
I

llrr rhr

{r

rrr rr r lili rrlcscntecl itself ro rhem lrl"v|rr lruc 'God-consciousnesJ,

r:

as a

as an on-going anempr

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 agreeln,'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 ofthis rr,,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
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 identity l.,,rrr1,,sr,l irr rlrt irnrqje r)l (itl rftcr lrtirrs rh,)rr,rrghly rlcconstructed during
u
r

lr tr,,\,11 ( lilli(

2A

SuEsm

'I hc Srriis of I)nghrlrrcl

)l

form of circles of fetlowship, mutual mentoring and relationships of master and disciple. Not all hurnan beings ever became wa),farers, let alone grew close to God: tharp vilese war, ir seems, reserved for the few,friends ofGod, (auliya,) who were highly conscious of their special srarus and viewed themselves as the spiritual elect. Many friends, much like the prophecs, saw themsetves as God!
special agents among humans, rendered distincr by their special srarus as intermediaries between rhe divine and human planes of being. In rheir view thev channelled Cod! mercy ro hum,nl,nd and..ned ro increa:e Cod..on,crorr. ness among rhe otherwise heedless, self-absorbed human race through their personal example and rheir tireless advocacy o{codt cause in hurnan affairs. The special status of the ftiends manifested rtself in a number of practices that simultaneously underscored their disdncrness frorn the common Lelievers ('auarnrn) and served ro forge bonds of fellowship, toyalcy and mutual allegiance among the spiritual elecr (l<iau,riss). They began to asemble in certain lhces of congregarion (the Shtnizi,rya mosque for rhe cncte around lunavd) and to

rhe Sufr joumey. All agreed, however, rhat rhe ultimare Suli experience was to be viewed as the passins away or re,absorption of rhe created human being into the only uue/real (iaqq) beins of God, and, mosr emphatically, not as a divinisation o, the human. More generally, the encounter between the Sufi and God was a 'unidirectional merger, whereby dre former was rhought to flow into the latter bur movement in the orher direction \{as off limits or, at the very least, extremely limited, since such aflow fiom the divine into the human could pave rhe way to divinisarion of rhe hurnan and thus lead to the suspect, even hererical, doctrines of incarnation and inherence (hrrj). No matter what their approach to the rhornv issue of encounrer with the Divrne. rho.e uho.hated rhe.ommon aim or dr,rurng clo.e ro Cod rhrough experiential knouing enjoyed a special camaraderie with one arLother in rhe

't )thrnitn al.Makkt kl. zerleoj-a), Abt'l.fluslyn al-Nrri (d. zqslqoz), Junayd rrl.llrrshdadi (d. ze8lero), Ruwaym ibn A[mad (d. :o:/qrs 16), lbn 'Ara' and, a eeneration 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 for rurrrc crnbeltLshment oftheu learning by the later Suf tradition, these 6rst Sulis ,lrruly formed an incellectual elite who were highly literate and learned in the l.),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, the Suli$ wcre at best sceptical, and at worst dismissive, of scholarly pursuits other rhLrr strdy of the Qur'an and the fadrrh such as jurlsprudence (fqh), mtional alrr 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 or olh( Mise, ler alone any reliance on human reason as a tool ro aftain proximi.y trr (l,rcl. lnrcr,

It, loelezrz
AbI

or 3rrl9z3-4), Khayr al.Nassaj (d. zzzlqzi

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

narel n grouo.. thev Jereloped d,nincrve frdyeljrud..,n rhe form,,irhe invocation (dhilr) and the audirion to poerry and music Gama,) thar frequenrly led to rapture or ecstasy (u,,r,,iJ), and rhcy adopted speciai initiation practices, notably the invesrirure wLth the white woollen robe (/rturqa) and the clipping ofrhe moustache.s'k seems likeiy, though dilficuk t" th.t other i.iciarii

()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 denial or 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 alien r,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, of rrlxnthood 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 crcation rurrs, irrstead, one of intimac\,, for some even 1ove, and while the sAar/a laid rlr. iitrmdanon for che house of God's presence in the heart of the believer,

ot z8qlqoz), Abt Sa'id al-Kharraz (d. u 86/899 or

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 in Baghdad in the second halfofthe third/ ninth cenrury Most prominenr amons iL. rnember. were rhe followins ngure.: Abn Hrmza al-B,rehrttjJr (d. ,6u/qq1-i
a fcw ycrrs

crrlicr), ,Anrr i|ir

lr (,,lll(l nor build ir by irself.3, The Su6s thus direcred rheir energies io the r 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 enterI'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 represenr,rrivrl ol ). tlrcrrlctlcrrl tllsclpllnts, unLl to Jrrtlgc hy rviclcncc fLorn thc carly

22

Srrlisrl
r

lrl

Srrfis

ol Ih6hLl,rLl

)l

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 $s " clcarly accommodating towards rhem, while Ibn Surayj (d. 3o6/9r 8), perhaps rhe leadirg She6'i jurlst of rhe dan who visited a sessn,n of]unayd out of curiosiry and refrained from issuing a /atora about Hallaj 'declaring himself ignormt of his [Hallaj's] source ofinspiration', mry have been favourably disposed towards rhe mysrics.ss Ho$,evcr thc Mutazila, and possibly most Hanalis, were dismhsive 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, not to mention esote c Qur'an inte$retation, could have pleased tull-fledged rationalists in kal,rn or qh. On the other hand, in their scepricism roward the use of human reason in the marten ofGod, the firs. Sufrs were alisned with che 'cradirionalLsrs' who had fornred especially around the example of Alrmad ibn Hanbal \t6+-z+rlt8o 8ss). These latcer,like the Su1is, were opposeLl to the utilisarionofcommonsense and reason (ra'r) nr legal and rheological issues and honoured only scripruary evidence (inclusive of iaditrr reporrs) on rhis front. Ho$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 scmLrarionallst 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.lltn)nnlists'irc. In thc cvcnt, thc shalcrl srrrrntl hrtwcen rh( trirlirnnrrlisrs rmJ

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 'deparr, r' lrrnn snnctnrne.l belief and practicc' (bid'a), which was worthy of supres1,,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
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$,een males and femates did nor l,y Lrrry rrrcrm consrinrte a clear departure from the Sunna, allegatrrns of sexual rrrtr,,rrlrrct bctween the sexes among rhe Su6s would certainly have caughr I llr rlirr Khalil'.s attention.r' \&4ntever the reat cause of this lattcr! persecution ,,1 rlx S,,tis, the suspicion of bid'a rcmained, equally during the second halfof tlr tlrirtl/ninrh cenrury and rhe Iollowing cencuries, rhe fault-line hetween the r ,llri,r[lists and the later Hanbalis on rhe one hand and the Suis on the other lr rrrl, hrr it ls imporranr to nore rhat the relarionship between thern was not rr, r$irily coDfronrarional and was, insread, frequently quite cordial. I lr, guliyya was a dLstincrly urban phenomenon, and although our informall r ,nt rhc rocial hackgrounds of its members is aclmittedly rather thin, rhcy n,.r,, r,' l ve been middle-class urbanites of artisnnal ard merchant origiru. ( l1 r , r l:,sscs rvere also represenred: Shibli r,;as a highanking ollicial of the 1 , 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. OI r,.,r., r,,l,l. *lcirl origins, the Su6s by and largc also appear to have remaincd \1,rr l U r r 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,

r linru ofsrr{ms oppositn)n n) plovcLl rLrr|,rurlisrrr, to hc srlxrurr ial, lnJ thoLc werc lcw clashes berwcen them, \\'Ih rh(. irr(luisitnn ofChulam Khalilns fic major example. Thrs incident, we

lrr

Srrlis, c$tr(r irrlly rh!.crrlt ivrrt iorr ol rhc /railul rrs

{1,t!,r

in ffial behavbLrr. Othcm were not thar idiosyncrntic iD ,,,rrlLrrt, ytt many of them including lunayd, Nuri, and Abu Hamza 1ul,lr, li,r,l,,l.rl, rptx,rrr n) have opted our of the miinstream social practices oI rrrrrrl,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,rwrrrLlsllrnilyrndeconomicacrivityasaprincipled rr rrnrl r, r L,rrr[ rrrn rrrrurirgc rrs wcll rrs work, conbined with a distinct preferrr,. i,,r (.lil) x y ,,,r1 ,,voiLl,urre oi rrctivc scarch for susrenance.ra Their srance ' ,1r r'lr)l r livinl is exurt)liIu(l il r h(, li,llowirrs reporr rhout.Junaydr ' 'r
rlr, tr r r,rrsglesslrrrs

rrflr.

Nnn xD.l in farticular Shibti, for instance, were wcll,known for

24

Sulisn,

lh,

srrlis,n

l}rghd,ul

25

A group ol peopLe approached lunayd and asked, ,Whcrc rh td we sceh ou susrenancel He said, 'Ifyou know where it s, go seek ir rhcrct' Thcy said, 'should we ask God for Lr?' He mwered, 'lf you know thar He has fotgotten you, rhen request 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 a job did not rranslare into a toral rejection olhuman social life and its basic 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{ renunciants who were so prevalenr in che lirst three centuries of Islamic history. In contrast to these and other approaches located beyond the boundaries of mainstream urban life, the Sufis planted rhemselves litmly inro rhe social fabric of Baghdad, ah\ough they occupied the 'grey areas' on many social ftonts. tn this, rheir rooledness wirhin urban society, they resembled the majoritv of the scholars, the'i.hma', who occupied &e social centre ofmajor toms in lslamic polities ofthe time. In brief, rhe $ufrna, Iike scholars of drscursive knowledge, took shape ar the very hearr of 'Abbasid urban cuture in Baghdad, and put forrvard dreir claim to be central players on the main stage in the unfolding drama ofauthority in urban Muslim commumties. In comparison to rhe more extremisi renuncianrs, all rraditionalists, ofthe lirst century of 'Abbasid rule (mid,rhird/ninth to mid,fourth/renth century), who tended to be severely critical of the social mainsrream and the political shrus quo, the Baghdad Suiis were limly 'cenrrisl in rheir social and political orientation. Aparr fiom an activist srreak characterised by willingness to 'command righr and forbid wrong' (exemplifred in Nrrit provocarive act of smashing wine jars that belonged ro the caliph), which rhey may have interited from the earty ascetic Mu'razilis, the Baghdad Su6s were as a rule polirically inactive and quietist.r6 Shibli, for instance, quit politics upon his conversion to Sulism at around rhe age of fonn even though he was a high,lcvel govemment ofliciaL earlier in life and continued ro have comrecrions in the upper echelons ofgovernment Lntilhis death. As a Su1i, he incurred rhe criricism of his menttr Junayd, rvho, probably because ofhLs preference for quietism, dLsapproved 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 accepting posts 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,

holding

trrvellul rvLcloly as a popular preacher and a rhaumarurge and acquired a considlirll,wing in rhe lands he vlsired, inctudine Khuresan, Transoxania. and lrr,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 themes r ,,l, rrrlrl his preaching. Hallaj spent rhe tast two decades of his life mostlv in lr,'xlnl.hl. wh.re he b.(ane irr.n.elv conrroverjirt hsure wirla hiqh nu;ber "n .,r -,trr{1rF rnd derracror.. qrnrhtanrtv. tr. rnenJ: rn rf,c.aprroi in.tudeL rw,, 1rl1 rrrrihcnt Sufs, Shibli and Ibn 'Aqa,, \r,ho continued to belriend him until rh. 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 pur l , , , 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 around tr ,,1,11, ,, ( )i rhc Ka'ba that he had built h his yard. His miracle-mongerins may lr,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,,bour I hll,rl, Lrrrrl whcn fiis latrer publicly deDounced the vizier,s policies insread, he l,r I llrr 'A1r' hcatcn to death. No other Sufi, including Shibli, rose ro defend ILrll,rl, slri[ j,,rxyr, who had assumed rhe mantle of Junayd, is said to have 1 t lt lr r lrc,lelth scntence against him.es 'r1r,", 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 unique rrr' r[. , I'k,ry rhrrr wcnr well ltyond the dornain of the rhinking and behaviout 'l ,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
r,rrrl,[.

lo nccd ro m,)nit(,r this pious group unless charscs of heresv 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 Iiabilitv r,,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 iwo y',,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 break rltrlr '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 ofhis lllln ,, rclentless social and polidcal activisr, a ffansformation thal proved to l" rrrr[ccptable to his Suli masters. During the zToslssos and ,soy8eos, Hallej
l,rrt tlrcy elc,rrly s,rw

r'r,

26

lrt' Srrlis oI

llrrghJ,r(l

27

or between God and the Suli at the highest levet of experiential knowledge. Unable to comprehend rhe subtleties of the complete meltdown of human selfconsciousness 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 of incarnationism (lp,al) and condemnedhim to dearh. As this legend would have ir, therefore, Hallaj was executed as a Suliby the political esrrblishment because he had attempted to rcveal che shockng truth at the heart of Suli thought and practice to those who could nor have possibly unders.ood ir.,*

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

\,'te. r fhe m,st comprchcnsive r

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

Michacl D. Bonner, Arirtofatc Vpleme dnd Hol) !(ar: Stdies in Lqe Jihdd and de ArrdBlqanrhe Fronria (Neiv Haven, CT Anerican OrieDral Sociery, ree6), r,5

(roo5),555-73. Major prnnary $urces on lbn Adhan arc lsted in Getharit l\iiw.rii,s, 'Early Sulism between peEccurion and heresy', in Islamic M)sri.iw
d: Tirrteen Cenrnies o/ Cohlrooersies and Polni.s, ed. Frederick de Jons rnd Radtke (Lciden: BrilL, 1999),46, n. r, and these are used fully in Cmmlich, Alr. Vorbiuer, r35-,E2. llinvcrnrg, M)sti.d/ Vsion,4?i Louis Ma$ignon, E$d) m rAe Orl8lns o/ rie Tccirnicdl l-arlragc o/ lslanic Mysricirm, tram. Beniamin Clark (Norre Dame, IN, Univcrsrry L,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 fuiiryl rrrl 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 ) rrlJ r. "n 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 2; see ibid., r o,ff r on 'Abbadeni also Knysh, SAon Hisr, )n, r 6 9e -7 ), 96ff;
ll(11r.1 (

3o; 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

i,r.st

involvement in high Baghdad politics was uniquely personal and did not revolve around his identiry as a Sufi. More signifcanrly, there is no evidence that Hallaj ever uttered the sratement 'l am the Tiurh' which is artribured ro him in later sources. Even if he had, there is the fact rhat mosc Baghdad Sufis do nor seem to have viewed the los ofself-consciousness at the threshold o{the divine realm as complete identificationofrhe human with the Godhead, so thac ifHallaj actually said'l am the Tiuth'and meant it in the sense ofdivinisarion of the human, rhen he 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 othcr rhan 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 rhe vizicr 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 Sulis by policical and relisious nurhorlties hosriie ro SuG ideas.,., In summary, the casc of Hallaj does nor invatidate our eartier observation about rhe centrist orienrattun of Baghdad Su6s in social and political matters. The plight offlatlajdeeply wounded Shibli and moved lbn,Ata,to take a stance against 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 intellectual elites of Baghdad, in between rhe rarionalist and semi-rationalist legalists and theologians on the one hand and rhe consetative traclitirrrralisrs,,rr the other, with onc foot in cnch camp, thc Sutis hncl ,rrrivc(l r() srlly.,"!

This legendary account is clearly inaccurare and anachronisric. Hattajt

.t (

,llrritzMeicr,,46rSa'id-iAbal-jay(j57-qqol967 r oqd : Wi'](Iichkln lnil ) 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. lrLrrr'linc Chabbi, 'Fudayl h. 'lyad, ur prcureur 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

lirisrorher Mclchen, 'The HanabiLaand rheearlySu6s',Aral,i.a 58 (,oor

) tr4 rri

i i

il,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 Strdies L, 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

li,,Irl,yJiscussi()noFthethemcoftaubaamongerlyrenuncianrs,sceBinlrrinrr, lr ,, I SL,h$n', 45-5oi on doalii , se rhc derailed suNey Reinef, Le]rri. ll!, ( lLrslernrs ol drc themes of inns lifc', 'inner nraning of rhc Qur'an', rtrd

l( irlti,, , Irl .(Lr,

r,ti ul,,'i,

nr

(llrr[!ll lr

r(1. l.ih(h,y

ltix.r (lI,rrt)tll M tr.n)lll:n I{clucnee LISA, :oos), 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 des saints 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: Mtrhel ahooker(:,)e,ro,

h. Srrlis ol

ghLlrril

29

Cr

ro

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).

r$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

in dp Doc.line of lirn Arali (Canbridee: Islami. 'i" Society, 1993), r?-46. Two more recent rrearments Terts are Gerald Elmore,Istamic Sdhfiood 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 Medieeat
Samts I ProfAerAood a?d
S ainthood

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 Muharnmad l)ryl nri, A ?catiy on MlrricalLo,e, loseph Nonnenr Bell and Ha$an Mahnood Ah(hrl l-itifAl Shaie (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univcrsitr Press,2oo5), rr, (l owe r1 'll(\liitrri (Bxs!Im,),
rhihks t(, Hdhann Landok for brinsing this publication to my arrention). Bayazid', EIi 4: 18l-6 (Cerhard Bdrverng), md mote recently lv,lohrmoud Rira Shaf i-Kadkanr, Ddfto-i tMshxnqi: az mtdt-i ,htatti Ba.JazidlJl,$(ani (Tehranr lnrsharet-i Sukhan, r:8+/:oos), esp.67 73; I ore thmtc to Mrrll: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-i rr(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 Dalnri ra(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-i

these ligures, see Knysh, SlDfi HlsroD, chs r 2 i his references should be supplemented by 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,, in Self NA Self-Tthsfurudon itr rtu H,r,orr o/ Rel,s,oru, ed. David Shulmar and Guy G. 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;

This is not meant to be a .onplete lisr. Foi a recent discussion of ihe 6rsr four of

Sa'rd, r,{8-84. Bayauid is discussed below. Female renuncianrs of thh early period *ere recorded by Abn ,Abd al.Rahnan atSulani (d. 1r 2A 02 r ) in his biosnphical noti.es oD l,omen devors and Sutis, and

Alrrl,,r)6,/re82).Theieisalso!docroraldsseitationonhimrhatIhavenorseen:

l)lm lihrani,
I

ro

rr

later, by Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 5e?h2or), in his Sda, at-rdlua; see comptete text of the fonacr work md selections liom rte latter nAbl'Abd al-Rahmrn Muhammad ibn al.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 but comprehensive treament, see Laury SilverwAlario, 'Wornen, eender, and earLv Su[ wohen', forthconing in Enqclnpedid of Wown ond tslanic Cdrres, 6 vols (Leiden: Brill,2oo3 7). 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 recovered much more recendl: Sularni, Eadl Suf l/om,276-83. See also'Abd at-Rahorn Badawi, ShaAida al-'Ah4 al-ilahi Rabi'a dl-'AAav l1n lcaho: Makraba al.Nahda alMiiriyya, 1962), and for a.oncise rrea.menr,'Rrli'a al-'Adawiyyd al-KaysLiTa,, EI 8: t51b :156a (M. Smirh ICh. Pellad). 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. 'Abd aL-SaLatl Muhammad Harnn, lrd edn (Cairo, r188h968), l: r,7. Ct SuLami, Ea,b

lIi!u

'Bayazid Bistami: an analysis of early Persian mrsticism, (Colunbia 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
1..1t,

rl

r,,k

(innlich (Sruttg,rr E Steiner, r99o), 522 (rz+.r);

nr the Englmh secrion, roz (with minor changes).

this passage trans. by

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 Paulist
,,)16), 244 50; the quote is lroD 249. 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 found lr, 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,+;

lr l,r tll

llr$,

suf \Yme\ 276-7

r2

AIso from al-Boan ea dl-railin, (Cairo, 1332), 3: 85, rrmlatins from rhe Arabic s 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,

'Alr(l xl-Kxrnn ibn lilw,zin Qushayri, dlnnab dj-Q6Ad)nla, ed. .Abd (Catro: Drr ai-Kutub at-H!dith!, M,r|rrlJ Dr,l l\lahm.d ibn "l-Sharrf r I i,,/,u(,),88 erl l)$ Sd \.hrciben al-Qdalrir ,6er da S,,un, n,ns. Richad Lh[]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-

i,trl

lr

rl ll.rlr n

rl

ro?

8.

On R.bi'a bnrt Isma'il ol Syrii, scc S,nirh, ttrr)iir,

Mr,rn, rl8-4r, rl&J61 5ol(11trn(lll\iirnrl,trildr

rro t;

rrnil Srrl]rnrr,

li[tr

Slrli

Srrrm.s 0rr

Atrrr l tl,r

A1,i,t-

,IrL$l,,rs, lr(nn lirwi(l A. N4(,i]trltlr.li, ]fu lli,rsrat,Ai.dl ]adidotr in S"rsm: Ttu ldl',,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,

',J/rl,r'

Dr[{

(cx|,,r Mrkrnlt nl-Khnnji, re,]2 tj), ro: 40!

rransLarion .eFroduced, wirh

Thc Suis of Boghdad

1',|

El rr 559b (Cenevi6ve Gobillot)! on questions of poverry and wealdr, see Leah Klnberg, '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 rhese enrlle$ rrf'si in rhis study, Radtke announces a fonhcoming publicarion rirled Mareti,,lie .w aben isLanischen Ftr;nmrg,ir rha Myslil, which will presuMbly include cvcn more new evidence on the prehisrory of Su6sm. Precisely what differentiared 'wool-weare.' renunciants from their renuncimt counterparrs is difficuk to idenrqri for nn excellent discussion, see Chrisropher Melchert, 'Bsrm origim of cla$ical sufrun,, Der istah 8, (,oo5): ,,r-4o. Thc irst appearance of the collective noun rt )la in rhe sources appears to be in l-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 catalosuc of the ascetics of the second/eighth century, see Massignon, Essat, r 13 19; for ItnUer tieaxments, see ibid., 14? 6oi lsnrc Goldzihen Inr'oducti.n talslalnnTlualosJ lml Lar, t.ans. Andra, Hanori and Ruth Hamori (Princeton: Princeron U.ivesiry lrLcss, 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,

issue of the 'pre-history' of Suftm are Melchert, 'Baeran orisins', which supercedes Melcherrt earlier article on tM 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:646i t ilx,ft but comprehensive bibliosaphic essay s Muyam Sha'bdnzada, 'Abn Sa'id-i Klrrrrilz', 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)j

Thc most conpreheroive recenr treatmenrs o{ the

I lnrvc n,,i $een this work.

lirlLllek, Mlsricai kiam, ao. ln 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 .ora17

lli

Nwylr,

Ex.rxAso

(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 s6t t 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

coraaiqne,234fi shich includes a complete ranslation of this work

2r

eo. varentn zhukovsky ( rehran. Ki6lrkhena,i lahnri,13141199 , 43 I Rewlation o, fie M)s,?D Kashf al-Mahjtb), trans. Reynold A. Nicholson (Accord, NY: Pir Press, Ipps), r8u; md Abul-Fadl Muhammad ibn 'Ali Sahlaci, Ktnb al,nnt nin k lmt, Ari Tayrr, ed. A. R. Badawi (Cairo, 1949), 136. '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 derail ln Mojaddedi, Biosraplical Tradrion. 4 Ess, Theologie, 4: te5-2o9. Major nonosraphic ffearments include jo6ef van Bs, Die Gedml,rnueh AesHdfi!al-Mrlr,nsibl (Bonn: Selbsrverlag des Gientalischen Seminds

der 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 for his connection to Su6sn. z4 Selections 6on TIe Boot m Ob*ruance o/Godt Rigirs are rraslared inro Enslish in Sells, Ea& Isll1mic M)sri.iM, r7r-95; fm the forms ofegoism, see p. r?2.

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 of commentary 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 23ol selections in English: Sells, Earl) irlrmic M)srr'c6m, i5 s9. 28 For a synopsis, see Baldick, M)srical Ishm, jo-z; for focused discussion, Gdmn Ogn, 'Did fie rerm !uli' exist Lefore the Suds?', Aca Otientdia a3 \1982). r 481 srill indispensable N Maslsnon, Essa1, ro4 6. Fo. other derivaiions and a total of seventy.eishr deiritions of Sufisn, see Rernold A. Nichotson, .An hisrorical enquiry .onccmins rhe orisin and deveiopment of Sulisn', Jo,f,raj o/ r.ie Rolal Asidrc
Crussol, Le roh dz la Societ)

,5 ,6

Smidr, Mu,haibi, 87-ql.

The earliesr use of rhe rerm is said to be with respect to a certain Abn Hashim of Kuli (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 ibn Muhammad 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 llih Aratui 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 Amy Singer (Albany: State Univesiry of New York Prcss, 2oo3),25. Fo. the meaninp of we 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 ,,

,9

l8 (1906),3o3

48.

3Z later Sun writeB (Sa.r-j, Sulami

Suiisrn

llrt
,

Suts ol llrrghclrrd
ir r

jj

dd 'Aftar). C(

rhe t.anslarion in Os6n, 'Relisious

4o

Paul

Nq'la,

de L'Untueni,l Saint-loseph 44

'Textes rnysriques inddits d'Abn.l.Hasan (r 968 ): 2a8.

ai-Nlri (m.295leo7),,

Mdtonges

mllch, Alk Vrl,irler, r , 38a thinks thcsc rnay have been separate incidenrsi Emsr,. iy' lcstasy, 99, suggests that several of fisc ihcidents may be unaudrentic; md llilw(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
lV,

th

4r

Bemd Radtke, 'The concep. of eila)a in ea.ly Su[sm', in C]dsi.al Pcrsian S"fsn fm irs Ong,ns .o Rlmi, ed. Leonard Lewsohn (London: Khaniqahi Nimatull.rhi Prblicarions, 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 wirh Gramlich, 'Abn Sulalman ad.Dd.eni', who, hoxver, is silcnt on rhis issuei fo. ibn Abi'l.Harvari, see Cramlich, Al,c YotiiLio, r: 38,. Bur Khantu\ .titicism misht
have been also directcd at Tusrari, discussed in

(r

J. A rbcrry, Pdser /rom t,re

vihiL|J,
Siilnl,

l,.r-,),

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 Muhanmad ibn al-Husayn sulami and aL-Hakim al-Trmidhi, TA/ee Earry s,, ftftr, tnns. Nicholas

( 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 and

(zz.:). For rnore infromarion on and c.ithtrr 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/urz), who had seen Nrlri in Raqqa in 2?o, about ths laaer's rerurn to Baghdad r+

384. Lrima , r9l-4l Scilas/ichter,

whitc thc last

is by

Kiab al-lma' (London, r s41) , 5 I Schlt$ichter, 54e-5o Ibn al-Jawzi and 'Aqter; see note 28 in Gramlich, Alre

,per

Heer and Kennerh HonnerLamp (Louisville, KY: Fons Vuae, :oo3), rr-56, which * 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 on Nirri. 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:
may insread be a sork of Nori,

Khaniqahi Nimatullali Publications, reet),59-64.

An a.counr of his ftials in

rhai contain this

4a

EnsLish is found in Ernsr, Wods o/Ecsras), 97 ror. Qushayri, Ri&rla, r23 / Sendrcireiben, ?o (r.25). Orher sou.ccs

report 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-...

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,, where fiis 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. This erent occurred under the caliph al.Mu'r,hid (2i6-?e/8?o !,), rhouph ihe 45 ml , e,'^h,.L,orl-ry,1,,-.,.. lMuuJ,"e.J. /?8180r,.o, r^-J, 1e,.ee Mel.her H/n.'l ,ld (oo On Ll urc n I l-l l *.. n ..r .onpreh.n.r', ti. M"he larra. 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: :Srt a6 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 ,Ahl l.Wnhnt hadirA 4dri, 'divinc sayins' ('ashiqdni sa'rl\hiqtuht) nnlrrcd fnnD ibn Zayd with rn artrihurion ro trl.1.lnsiD

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,

is about how Nnri refrained liom hreaking onc las. jar when he 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 much rn,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
l

ln .xlirh, which
a

,l,,tccrd

r4zrl:oor), z: 353. 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

s,L i, Lxtu', 6l / Schlslichter, 8r (r8, r).

Press,

See

(( nnl!nlsc, Cdmbridec Unive.sLq

(n,J itr Clu$i.al S"fsm: Fo&nddriiru ol islamic Mlstica/ Ttreologl, ttans. l{(,ni (New YorL Paulist Press, zoo+),66. 1,,11 ' r, 1/ Alr!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. L Drtrlrrrrr on Qul.n a [al.Nisa']: r:8, reproLluced in Ar:bic in Nwria,'Tbxres 1,, ry,,ri,tLr\', r4i; Sulimi, Hd4d'iq, r r63.

rlll,llt\1 ir narhtcd from I ccrtain Abn Bakr al-Sabbak. iL, r rl , l-{,ia', 58 / S. aslicl er, ?6 ( r 6.6) , translatiorl reproduced
(y'

1989),49 50, where this repon ebout the

from John Renard,

lir{i,1.,1i.

l.l rii

src Mrsri{nrrr, Jjsrrr,

HH

rrlt

tjss,

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,'Textes nyrrlLtrtr*', r44rSrlnrnl, IJdd i,l, r 54. r,r rnll,lr,AIr, V rilil,r, r:,rru.

'rr

34
64 Comhntary on

Srrlisrn

llrr

Srrlis

ol

llrrglrtllcl

)5

6l
66 6? 68 69

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

ql,, \.rr'rttr,, 'r, r\,rlr:1,.,,ri/rw.'r,..\tr.r.',r',,n-i1!rl.((.\(iir,unli.l'. ,,.ri,.. :.'iri7i\: rn'rh,l..*.'l,n:llr1'er.rcrcr,c,..r.,,tr-,.1,-rnrlr(Lvu.,,t Ni

Qushayri, Rndia, 563/ Ser&cLftiben, e6 Nu.yia, 'Texres mysriques', r38, ch. 12.

(qz.i)_

Qushayri, Rnala, zr7 r8/ SendscltriDn, r16 (2.6). 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 AbdelKader, 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 movement that was especially prominenr in the third and fourrh/ninrh and temh cenmries; see'Mu'tazila', EI r: ;8:a-rq.la (D. Ginaret).

llouy ; on travclling in baDds, see Meier, Abn Sa'tl,:e6-q; on rhe rcbc rnJ hririirri,,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
rrrl
\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

Itl

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

7, fh<,iri'ronot'h.,c\rnBarl(.erubFr,nnneofpo*ibtlrnen..,r.rul,rhjn.lhJI of Sulism must have contribured to its popularity! see eushay.i, R6ata, 28 {/ Sendq
h'prbP, , )t ro 8r. Abdel-Kader, Jrroyd, Arabic 5,+, English r?5i Siile).man Ates, Cii&e\d-i Bdiaa

rl

llt

Ha)dr.r..,r"q.pVci.eplafl.l.,cnbul:jr,nncr\Fr,,\,r.rooo,.Ar.,oLrt.trr\r
154.

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 ,lr, Srrli onhorloxl', Dcr islam rr (r9o+), to: z.

i irl{rilqrfich', in Fesh.Art Afred DrAler, ed. Carl AugNt Schm,lz (Basel, Pha(x V,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).
isr

?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 u,rh sp,.Ll Fc/.ren.e r, rhc trore Sa),ng or HalrrA Qldsi (The Hasue: Mouton, 1977), 173-4 (saying ,+9), nith tuU text and ample referenccs to orher occurren es, including the tradrh collcctiom of
Bukhari

/r

(orr.p..

ud

Kabtu, rt6rfu9s2), rS r9 (no. a,). 76 Abdel-Kader, Janayl, Arabic4r, English 76; Ates, Crne)d, Arabic aa, Turkish rar

Aiiilis-i Mahali (Tehrah: Amn

Ahniad ibn Hanbal, to which oDe can add Badi ai-Zlnan Furnzantar.

rr

AMeL-Kader, Jmard, Arabic 52, English

riz

(retained hcre)iAres,

Cr,r\il. Arahic

78 The

Lawson (London:

evidence oflredesrinariinisn in

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 sccs
lun,yd! rhinkihs
abour sanctrtv.

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

lhl l!in! S.h Ir rlo N',r,inacflieArng (Krtab al-I4iis.rd) (Bcnui: Orienr-lmritui der De!rsch!,) Mor,{0rlirr 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(l r,, 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,,
,

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,

,. AbJ.l.r.,l.,.,,n"\d. Ar b. zr.frrsti.t- r4, aueprodu..Jhe.etrl-..1(reln.n)i Ar...., 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. sh,t r,.., qryr,,n. ". f-r ref, r, n.* "r,
8r
inent ngure in his own right, see notc 9: bclou For in-rlcprh fteatmcnr of Jrnayrlls unage iI rhc SLrli t\i,,!rirIl,kirt Mojrd(lc(li, lli,)r'r{,/ri.di li,ilnii,r.

,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.lr Ni rl,,r rlr lNr.' encolriaed s.xuil rn)hiscuiry amoDs hh folloivers, isonc ol rltr "iili(,n drcsrrritns li! ths rccusattn thrt bccomcs a standard componem oi

'/\lr M,rh

u,,

rr(liri,n,

sro

lrrtrt,,r,lr.r Mrlclut,'Thc tlvcrsrrics ofAhD ltn Ha.bal', Ardbica 44 \1997)1 rr , 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

nr. !c.n lerci,

Hanbahs dcfndcd Hall6ji lavourablc atrltudcg to htm among Hanbqhs 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 Georgc Mokdlll, 'Thc Hsnbalt ,chool and Sutum', H&r aaiora Islanica z lryli:62. Scc thc pcnctrattve remarks of Meier about Hallaj in Flitz Meir,'An imporranr munurcrlpt find for Sunsm', in Es$)s on Islaric Piery and M)sdcisn, trans. ,ohn O'Knnc (Leide Brill, rqqo), r8a-s. Thh pslpectivc reaches its culminarion in the works of the Persian poet Farid alDtn 'Anar (d. alier 6r8hz:r u ), see 'flalla;', Elr :. 5er (Jawid MojaddedD, md

r85j4, which surveys Suli approaches to the llucrtlon of'mystical union' with Cod. Rrr n concise yet comprchensive discNsion of his trial, larsely on rhe basis of Mnulgnont 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, betwen tlrc Su6g and other sroups of inrellectuals such as the nascenr philosqhers (/ah{ia), the govemment secterades (lrtra.b) and the litterareun (daba'), but for
'rhc
leads, see Sobieroj,

Ernrt, Words o/ Ecsrasy, rto-2. Scc Bcmd Radtke, 'Mystical mion',

rh

Hafif.

36

Sufigm

tEditionalisl,
Press, 1998),

as wll as tarionalisC in this conrexr, see Btnyamln Abmhamov, IsLain Theolos!: Tn4nioMlisn ani Rarionatsm (Edinburd. Edinburch Unive6ity

ix-xi.

9r

Since the exact reason for Ghulam Khalil! anee. asainsr the Sutu is nor kno$n. admittedly ail specularion abour this incident i6 conjectuiat, but see Ess, ,Sufsm,, :78. On Sumnnn, see'Sumnnn', EI, new edition, 9: 873a b (B. Reinert)i his role in the inqlisition is described in A. I. Arbeny, Pas6 fm tl? Kjtab al,lma, (London, rya7), 8 I Schl,d,ichlfi, 55a (r3a.3); summarsed in Abdel-Kader, Jma)d,3e. Two female disciples oI Khaftaz are included in Sulami, Ea'b Srfwonen,4a 5, qzsee 'Shibli, Abu Bakr Dulaf b. Djahdar', El e: 432a-b (Florian Sobieroj) and Cnmlich, AI:z Va$ibet, | 5r3 565j Sobieroj has written an unpublished 'HabilitarionsschriF titled 'Abu Bakr al.Shibli: Dichtung, tafsir und Aspekte der ,Asa,, Uberli.I".u"g' (1h,"" seen rhis work). On rbn U""tg.o", i^r;*, ,, "ot '"" e3 and Richard Gramlich, Abu l,'AbLrds b. 'Ar,r'| srf md KoaM,sles' (Stut.sarrl

e2 On Shibli,

Deutsche Morgenl.indische Gesellschaft Konmissionsverlss, F. Sreiner, 1995), and on Ruwayn, see Cramlich, AlteYorbi],j(]r, t 447-82. 93 Jmayd, Ndri, and Abt Hama Bachdadi possibly lived as celibates and reporredly shded the same female sermt, Farima nicknamed 'Zaytnna'i see Sulami, Earb 5r,6 Worun, r585r; also Abdel-Kader, J,na!.I, ro, with turrher references. The starus of celibacy was a debated, and therefore open, issue at rhis time, wirh arrenrion (Qutan 5? [al-Hadid]: 2?) ed, later, on focused on L\e Qur'anic term 'ahkni)]d the non-cannonical ,ralith 'ln rdhbdnilyata fi'Lnkm','there is no monkery in lslan,; see Masrisnon, Essa),98 r oa; 'Rahbanilya', 81 8: 396b (A. J. \?ensinck); and Sviri, 'Wa,nhbeniyyaran ibtada'nher An malysis of rradidons concernina the and evaluation of Christian mondricism', JeruaLm S tuiies in Atdbic anl. bbm 4

(reeo): r95-,o8.

For a discussion of rhe issue of reftainin 6om eaming a livins amons renunciants, whi.h piovided d1e backsound for the disrinct app.oach of the Baghdad Suds, see

95

Qushald, R6,tla, 427 / Senacireiben, 2aa (r9.r8).

Reineit, Leire, r?o-9o, 2.,242, Md 42-8a. Fot ftrfier conirmation of rhe afti de ro eamin a lirins and havins a fami\', see especialLy rhe relerant chapters inSarraj.L!ru', r95-? (eamingaliving) and req-z@ (family) / Scilaalichrd, 3oe2 (28) md tos ; (8o).

96 On early wool-wearers who 'commmded right and forbade wrong', see Melcherr, 'Hanabila', j54. These activist uool-weaters might have been the Suns of dE Mu'tazila', *ho were othe* ise known for forbidding gaintul employmenr (rairim al, sLngle political ruLer;see Es, Ttuologre,3: r3o-3; ci Sobieroj, 'Mutazila and Sulism', 69-7o. 97 GnmLich, A/te Vdb,lder, r : 5 i 9-,2 (on hs conveBion), 5 5 i-6o (on his relatios with lunayd); see also 'Shibli, Abn B:kr Dulaf b. Diahdd', EI q: +::a-b (F. Sobierq). 98 See Ma$ignon, Pdssion, in four volumes, bur also avaiLable in an ab.idged edition (Princeion: PrincetonUniversiry Press, rqqa). Forcondensed reatments,seeHerhert Mason, Al-HaUaj (Richmond, Suney: Cunon, 1995) and'Hallaj', Eh rr 589-92 0awid Mojaddedi). On the quesrion ofhis miracles, see Ess, ,Sutism',:o-g. On tbn 'Af5"s dath and Jurayrl's srance, see MasslSnon, Pa$ion, I| 5r?-32, lbn,A!r,t sup. porr of Halldj may have heen ln n{ut occssloned by hts HanLalr alleslance, $lne

rulaisil,)and denied dE need fora