~"

~ preface of the staff of glasgow university, through a grant which enabled me to make a study tour in north mrica in 1960. my thanks are also due to my colleague, professor nicola ziadeh, for his help ]. s, t. in reading my draft and calling my attention to mistakes beirut and to matters which needed clarification. september .1969
abbreviations

contents
ix of schools of
1 31

i.

the

formation

mysticism i i. the chief tariqa lines iii. the formation of ta'ifas

67

v. nineteenth-century revival movements v. the mysticism and theosophy of the orders vi. the organization of the
vii. ritual and ceremonial

15
133 166
194
218 24-5

orders

viii. role of the orders in the life of islamic society ix. the orders in the contemporary islamic
appendices

world

a. relating to early silsilas

26 i

b. fis, malamatis, and qalandaris 264 c. suhrawardi silsilas 27 d. qadiri groups 276 271 e. independent orders of the badawiyya burhaniyya 274 f. shadhili groups in the maghrib deriving from al . j azli g. madyani and shadhili groups in egypt and syria h. rifa'i ta'ifas in the arab world 278 and 280

viii
bibliography

contents
282

r
i

indexes

abbrevia tions
300 315

glossary of arabic terms general,index

a.i.e.o .

annales de l'institut d'eudes orientales de l'universite d' alger. archives marocaines. ibn = son of. bulletin de l' institut franais d' archeologie orientale du' caire. der islam, berlin. encyclopaedia of islam, st edition, 2nd edition. hastings' encyclopaedia of religion and ethics. brockelmmn, carl, geschichte der arabischen literatur. supplement to g.a.l. e. j. w. gibb memorial series. journal asiatique, paris. journal of the royal. asiatic society, london. muq.ammad. middle east journal, washington, d.c. melanges de i:institut dominicain d' etudes orientales, cairo. mitteilungen des seminars fr orientalische sprachen, berlin. the muslim world, hartfofd. revue des etudes islamiques, paris. revue du monde musulman, paris. rivista degli studi orientali, rome. zeitschrift der deutschen morgenliindischen gesellschaft, wiesbaden.

i i,

archiv. maroc. b. b.i.f.a.o.

d. s. e.i.', e.!.' e.r.e. g.a.l. g.a.l.s. g.m.s. j. asiat. j.r.a.s. m. m.e.j.

m.i.d.e.o.

1 :1 1 1. ' 1 iii

ii i ! ,. i

m.s.b.s. m.w. r.e.i. r.m.m. r.s.o. z.d.m. g.

~"

i
wh~ dothed themselves in coarse garments of of wool the formatian of schools he term fi was first applied to muslim ascetics (f). from t comes the form taawwuf for i

to islamic mysticism and all that is necessary by way of introduction is to give same idea of how i am us ing the terms ufi and sufism in the context of this study on the mystical ways and their expressian in orders. i define the word fi in wide terms by applying it to anyone who believes that it is possible to have direct experience of god and who is prepared to go out of his way to put himself in a state whereby he may be enabled to do this. many will not be happy about this definition, but i find it the only possible way to embrace all the varieties of ;>eople involved in the orders. ' the term sufism as used in this book is equally comprehensive. it embraces those tendencies in islam which aim at direct communion between god and man. it is a sphere of spiritual experience which runs parallel to the main stream of islamic consciousness deriving from prophetic revelation and comprehended within the shari'a and theology. this contrast is the reason for the enmity legalists have always borne towards sufism, for it means that the mystics are daiming a knowledge 'of the real (al-lfaqq, their term for god) that could not be gained through revealed religion which in islam became codified religion. m~sticism is a particular method of approach to reality (ljaq~qa, another special sufi terrn), making use of intuitive and emotonal spiritual faculties which are generay dormant and lat~nt u:l~ss called into play through training under .. guidance. . y it is t 1 : no prmar y ntellectual the process, ','hs tra:ng, thought of an as 'travelling path' though the (salak at-tariq), e?ere~ce of the mystic led to the formulation of ams at dspersing the veils which hide the self from various the real types and o mystcal philosophy, but rather a reaction against the the~eby become transformed or absorbed into external undifferentiated unt

'mysticism'. there are excellent guides mysticism

i .. ,

r ," i , i i i i

. i

.
!
2

the formation of school s of mysticism

rationalization of islam in lawand systematic theology, aiming at spiritual freedom whereby man's intrinsic intuitive spiritual senses could be allowed full scope. the various ways (turuq, sing. tariqa) are concerned with this process, and it is with the historical development, practical organization, and mo des ofworship of these ways that this book is concerned. early sufism was anatural expression of personal religion in relation to the expression of religion. as a communal matter. it was an assertion of a person's right to putsue a life of contemplation, seeking contact with the source of being and reality, over against institutionalized religion based on authority, a one-way master-slave relationship, with its emphasis upon ritual observance and a legalistic morality. the spirit of qur'anic piety had flowed into the lives and modes of expression, as in the form of 'recollection' (dhikr), of the early devotees (zuhhiid) and ascetics (nussiik). sufism was a natural development out of these tendencies manifest in early islam, and it continued to stress them as an essential aspect of the way. these seekers af ter direct experience of communion with god ensured that islam was not confined within a legalistic directiye. their aim was to attain ethical perception (we shall see how this was to recur in later developments) and this was redirected or transformed to the aim of the sufis to attain mystical perception. sufism was a natural development within islam, owing little to non-muslim sources, though receiving radiations from the ascetical-mystical life and thought of eastern christianity. the outcome was an islamic mysticism following distinctive islamic lines of development. subsequently, a vast and elaborate mystical system was formed which, whatever it may owe to neo-platonism, gnosticism, christian mysticism, or other systems, we may truly regard, as did the sufis themselves,as 'the inner doctrine of islam, the underlying mystery of the qur'1in'. sufism has received much attention from western scholars, yet the study of the development, writings, beliefs, and practices of the orders which are its objective expression has scarc~ly been attempted. sufism in practice is primarily contemplative and emotional mysticism. as the organized cultivation of religious experience it is not a philosophical system, though it developed such a system, but it is a 'w ay', the way of purificatioh. this practical aspect is our main concern. sufi teaching and practiee

m ters of the way say that every man as n erent wt n hi: the possibility for release from self and union with god, but this is latent and dormant and cannot be released, except the formation of school s of mysticism 3 hout the islamic world through the withd certain gifted by god, without guidance . . g ff d illuminates i h growth d weredssemnate among . ir ' . t e peop ways which throu from a were use e i d medium of religious orders, an as a re gous of partteu a h th leader. move throug e the early masters were more concerned with ment displayed many aspects. . r and disciple, in arabc murshd (drector) experiencing than .d and . t f .f d to guide h sought h they murd with theosophical theorizing. . o mas e traversed (aspirant). it was natural the to accept te aut who had stages (maqiimiit) of.gu the . orty an rather than hthe foundation h h r and h of the orders. s the ~yste~ sufi path. directing teach, the aspirant in ways of meditation ance oose t relatonsh)' whereby he himself acquired ~nsight into s'piritual truth and was shielded against the dangers of illusions. sufism in practice consists of feeling and unveiling, since ma'rifa (gnosis) is reached by passage through ecstatic states. consequently teaching succeeds rather than precedes experience. abu i;iamid al-ghazali, a theorist of ethical mysticism, writes of his own realization that what is most peculiar to sufis 'cannot be learned but only attained by direct experience, ecstasy, and inward transformation'. the drunken man knows nothing about the definition, causes, and conditions of drunkenness, yet he is drunk, whilst the sober man acquainted with the theory is not drunk.! aighazali's own intellectual back ~round, his inability to submit himself unreservedly to guidance, mpos:d too great a barrier for him to attain direct sufi experience. teachng about the state of ianii' (transmutation of self) will n?t help anyone to attain it, only guidance under an experienced d~e~tor. hence the great importance.the .' . i per guides and t to g attached d , msson ac to on, recite adhkiir (mystical exercises) and ea ng through a successon of 'stages' undertake re~re~ts.' for thereby the burden is adjusted ai-ghaziili al m 'dh of ' the ndvdua. toi the capacity
'

',- arqa was a practicalmethod (other terms were madhhab, ~! a~a, and sulk) to guide a seeker by tracing a way

at

124-5.

unq mn atl-tlaliil, damascus edn., 1358/1939, pp.

4 the formation of schools of mysticisl\1

(maqiimiit, in integral association with psychological experience called 'states', af:wiil) to experience of divine reality (f:aqiqa)s at first a tariqa meant simply this gradual method of conternpla~ tive and soul-releasing mysticism. cirdes of disciples began to gather around an acknowledged master of the way, seeking train. ing through association or companionship,! but not linked to him by any initiatory tie or vow of allegiance. two contrasting tendencies came to be distinguished as junaidi and bistami, or 'iraqi and khurasani (but must not be taken too seriously or called schools' of thought) af ter two men, abu'!qasim al-junaid (d. 298/910) and abu yazid taifr al-bistarni (d. 260/874), who captured the imaginations more than any other of their contemporaries. these two are held to embody the contrasts between the way based on tawakkul (trust) and that on malama (blame),2 between intoxicated and sober, safe and suspect, iliuminate and conformist, solitude and companionship, theist and monist, guidance under a this-world director (with a chain of transmitters to regularize in conformity with standard islamic practice) and guidance under a spiritshaikh. 'ali al-hujwiri refers3 to bistami's teaching, which he calls taifri, as characterized by ghalaba (rapture, i li '-ul;ba wa 'd-dars wa 'r-riwaya 'anku. ecstasy) and sukr (intoxication); whereas that derived from see appendix b.
tr. r. a. nicholson, london, i936, pp. 84-5. celebrated of junaid all doctrines, and all the shaykhs have 4 ibid., p. 89. as the aposde of moderation (though he in adopted it, notwithstanding there is much fact hem esoteric views) sought to tone that downand explain away his ecstatic utterance~, see saying sarriij, luma', 380--9. on of al-bistiimi see difference in their on pp. the ethics fiism.'4 'abd ar-ral;miin badaw, skat!;lit a-fiyya: . abu yazid al-bistami, because won the approval of a orthodoxy as relatively cairo, i949, he which inc1udes (pp. 37-i48) biography entided an-nr 'safe', al-junaid comes to to beas-sahlaji. regarded 'the shaikh of min kalimat abi raifr, attributed theas ideas of a far more significant contemporary, a-aakim at the way', the common ancestor '(d. c. 295/908), fen into oblivion until resurrected by the oftirmidhi most subsequent mystical congregations, even genius of though many followed heterodox teaching; his indusion ibn al-'arabi.

arantee of orthodoxy, for asound isniid can support a . was a gu . s were very loose and moble; members rou e multitude of hereses. . . p 'd seeking masters, some eamng t er way, ot ers g th iy travelled h h supportng es . ~ ;selves upon alms. but foundations came into being which t :ved as centres for these wanderers. in arab regions many were :~tached to frontier-posts or hostels called ribiit;! those in khu asan were associate d with rest-houses or hospices (khiinaqiih2), ~hilst others were the retreat (hhalwa or ziiwiya) of a spiritual director. all these terms came to mean a sufi convent. an early rimi was found on 'abbadan island (the name itself is significant) on the persian gulf, which grew up around an ascetic cal1ed 'abd al-wal:id ibn zaid (d. 177/793), survived his death, and became especially well known.3 other ribiis were found on the marches with byzantium and in north africa. centres for devotees are mentioned at damascus around 15/767, at ramlah, capital of palestine, founded bya christian amir before a.d. 800,4 in khurasan about the same time, whilst 'there appeared in alexandria an organization (tii' lfa) calling itself a-fiyya' in the year
a.h. 200.5

the formation of schools of mysticism

"

r
t~

i
i . i, i
i
i1

alunaid 'is based on sobriety (af:w) and is opposed to that 3j abu '-aasan 'ali al-julliibi al-hujwiri (d. c. 465/i072), kas!f alofmaj;jilb, the tayfris . . . it is the best-known and most

in their genealogies

bykhane-gah the fifth/eleventh century organize d convents of a (monastery, doister). quite different character hadp. u8; become 3 ,see sarriij, luma', p. 429; al-maqdisi, yiiqt, iii.numerous, 598; l. though they stili retained their character as collections massignon, of individuals pursuing their lexque mystique, p. i57. own way, even though associate d with and . lami, najal;at al-um. ca1cutta,they 859. p. 34; though this reference sought guidance from experienced men and ascribed is too themselves to such guides. the was personnel ofby88 these iate to any value by itself (the book written in a.h. tobe beof adab a-ul;ba, by as-sulami (330/94i-4i2/i02i), edited m. j. kppears ' ster ! 954 .. places was ai ,stili impermiment . . and migrant, and they i h , i a ujwiri refers to a number of treatses though based i h i exp anng t e material). adopted the bare minimum of institutional rules co nupon earlier ru p.q; see kashj.day-to-day p. 338. ceming their life. such sufi 'companionship' ~-kindi, qwjat mir,eventually ed, r. guest, i9i2, p. 62. .. (uf:ba) rules became a religious obligation.6 he first s,:!ch work, though concerned with general ethical ai-maqdisi, whose range of interests was wider than relatlonshps, a that of

.
i

on rim/s, see chap. vi, pp. 67-8.

,.

6 the formation of schools of mysticism

most geographers, gives some information about sufi groups. be says that in shiraz 'fis were numerous, performing the dhikr (yukahbir) in their mosques af ter the friday prayer and reciting blessings on the prophet from the pulpit'. organized
i

tt d me among them and began questonng me. en t ey thataman it was as easy to be a false sufi in those days as at sent

the formatlon of school s of mysticism 7

well as showing

as an

movement he shows that the karramiyya2 in his time (he is writing around a.d. 975) was more effective, having khiinaqiihs allover islamic asia,3 and it seems that it was from them that sufis adopted the khiinaqiih system. the only reference i have come across in al-maqdisi to a khiinaqiih where sufi exercises take place is, 'there was a khiinaqiih in dabil (dwin, capital of armenia] whose inmates were gnostics ('iiri/s) in the system of taawwuf, living in the straitest poverty.'4 yet the karramiyya ~as relatively short-lived (two centuries) whereas the sufi movement went on from an individualistic discipline to change the whole devotional outlook of muslims. in the syrian jawlan mountains al-maqdisi writes: 'i met abu is~aq al-ballti with forty men, all wearing wool, who had a place for worship where they i al-maqdisi, a~an at-taqiisim shiraz in 375/985), ed. congregated. i found out (completed that this in man was a learned de goeje, p. 439, cf. 43. a non-sufi usage of the that term their dhikr jurist of1906, the school ofp. sufyan ath- thawri, and has to be looked for. al-maqdisi writes that in jerusalem (iliya) were sustenance consisted ofstory-tellers acorns (ballt), fruit size 'mudhakkirn who are [piousj (quii),a and the the followers of l;ianifa have a majlis dhikr in the aqa mosque where they ofab1 dates, bitter, which is split, sweetened, ground up recite from a.book'; cit., p. 182, and cf. p. 327. and then mixedop. with wild barley.'s . foundedby muq.ammad ibn karram, d. 255/869. al-maqdisi calls ai-maqdisi was assiduous new them men of zuhd and ta'abbud in (p. seeking 365). it was a experiences revivalist and ascetic school by a special mode of dress. they were by as well as distinguished geographical information, and the following no means happy with the sufis, especially with the' quietists. engaging account shows that organized congregations 3 and even outside, for they had their own section in fatimid fustat; existed in his 202. time and that see al-maqdisi,p. 4 op. cit., p. 379. references the in the section on you needed to belong to like one tofollowing gain insight into sufi khurasan experience, as
are common: 'the karramiyya have a group (jalaba) in herat and gharch of the sher, ,and khawiiniq in ferghiina, khuttal, and g1zganan, and in marv ar-r1dh a khiinaqiih, and another in samarqand' (p. 323). 5 al-maqdisi, op. cit., p. 188.

. . . centres, piety. became. people began me [to obtain baraka] and 1 touching permanent those which were. .no ti emse ves mgrants. '.there were . " broadcasting grou af 1 s o peop e possessng wh ecome dscples of alan 1 self-contnua based upon th:d bh . .' p ve orders but sm ar splrltu honoured master wth my fame, saying that they had never seen a more excellent

showed sur asranju!a, d i as directed to a congregaton of sufis. as i approached ;~ise at my reluctance and .absen~ion th hfrom t~eir they took ceremoniai. i felt ~nl' ~anted that i myself was a sufi and.welcomed me with drawn to associate wth ths congregaton and open find out about their method, and leam the true nature [of sufism.]. arms. they so i said within myself, 'this is your opportunity, here where t or g " you are unknown.' i therefore threw off all restraint with them, stripping the veil of bash fulness from off my face. on one occasion i might engage in antiphonal singing with them, on another i might yell with them, and at another recite poems to them. i would go out with them to visit ribti!s and to engage in religious recitals,' with the result, by god, that i won a place both in their hearts and in the hearts of the people of that place to an extraordinary degree. i gained a great reputation, being visited [for my virtue] and being sent presents of garments and purses, which i would accept but immediately hand over intact to the sufis, since i was well off, having . ample means. every day i used to spend hs h h anaqa w ic were supported by endowments engaged in devotions, and what devotions! and they used to (awqiif) suppose i did it out of

any other: :e b;ing food. i felt ill at ease about taking the food since i i sought out the main i entered sus [in khuzistiin] l ". had not h mosque, concernng ponts o .a t . k' shaikh whom i mg t queston fhd . .( h see ng a .. a group wen with . b fc . o sociated such before this they i occasion. d b it chanced that i was wearng aj~ a o yprot woo an a b

ii ii ii . ii , it ~ , ii ii i

;:

aspliatons who reputaton of of a hparticular broke up af ter his faqir. t so eit bond allegiance master was purely personal.., went on until, when the time came that i had penetrated into death. most e eleventh century marks a turning-point in the their masters were th secr~ts historyand of learnt all that i wished, i just ran away from them
at dead of nght and by moming had got well clear.2

elearly not a quest' f . . al-maqdisi o ' on o acceptng normal hosptalty but aritual whilst some centres of withdrawal, more especially the ribii!s meal. and kh ' p. ct., p. 415.

! i

8 the formation of school s of mysticism

islam. among other things it was characterized by the suppressian of shi'ism, which had attained political power in the dynasties of the fiitimids of north mrica and the byids of persia, where even then it seemed likely to become the persian form of islam. the overthrow of political shi'ism was brought about by the se1juq rulers of turkish nomads from central asia. in a.d. ~55 they gained control of baghdad and took over tutelage of the 'abbiisid caliph from the byids. in the maghrib and egypt the power of the fiitimids weakened luntil finally they were overthrown by the kurd saladin in a.d. 117i. the turks were upholders of the sunna and opponents of shi'ite tendencies. the counter-revolution they accomplished in the islamic sphere took the form of the reorganization of the madrasa from a private school, a circle around a learned master, to an official institutian to which the seljuqs ensured the recmitment of masters sympathetic to their religious policy. in these institutions the stress was placed on the religious sciences, whilst the profane sciences which had flourished equally under the early 'abbasid and shi'ite dynasties were discouraged or banned. the new form of madrasa soon spread from iraq into syria, egypt, and eventually the maghrib.2 . but islamic religious spirit could not be limited and confined within this institution alone and the cultivation of the deeper spirituallife to ok the form of the parallel institution of the organized, endowed, and supervised khiinaqiih with which the seljuqs were familiar from those of the karramiyya in central asia and iran. the institution is a means of control, but it is to their credit that they encouraged the foundation of khiinaqiihs and endowed them liberally. the speculative sufi spirit was viewed with suspicion. the dissociation of sufis from recognized religious leaders had always been suspected and resented by the 'ulamii' (doctors of law), and provoked a reaction to which shihiib ad-din yal)yii as-suhrawardi
the zirids of ifriqiya, berber vassals of the fatimids, repudiated the!r authority. al-mu'izz's reeognition of the 'abbasid ealiph in the khutba s aseribed to various dates between 433/1041 and 437/145, in far western isa~ other namads, the murabitn, ensured the triumph of sunnism in its m~li i form when anhaja from westem sahara overwhelmed moroeeo (at the tme the seljuqs were taking baghdad) and then spain (battle of zal1aqa in a.p,
[

for inducing ecstasy, which w~s more e y to provo e t e i i mystical , ' i but it was the formation of esateric f and outside the regular organzaton o s am, h t' ns reacton _' fell vctm. . '. . or i spntua toget er ' h f ical organzaton o tesama, litur f the than suspect g h horthodox congrega o . ,deas. concert ik i k h t e fifth century o b the end wt of the a.h. the change in the attitude of
'

the formation of schools of mysticism 9

isla~ic legalists towards a grudgi.ng .an~ qualified a~:eptance of sufism, begun by as-sulami and hs. ~scp!e alqushar, had be.en brought to a conclusian by al-ghazal, whlst t~e need for. assoca tions ca ring for religious needs other than the ntual sanctfied and fixed by the law was recognized. the association of sufism in its kliinaqiih form with the official favour of nr ad-din, saladin, and their lieutenants and successors had made sufi associations respectable. when the formation of separate congregations for liturgical 'recitals' became possible there began the 'development of an inner islam with its own leaders, hierarchy, and forms of worship. but though accommodated in this way orthodoxy and mysticism followed not only separate but divergent paths. this is shown by the parallel institutional development of madrasas and khiinaqiihs. the next stage is the formation of mystical schools consisting of circles of initiates. when this reconciliation or compromise was accomplished sufism was still a way which appealed only to the few, and the sunni doctors had no conception of what was to happenj ub' when h it was mediated to the . . people in the ii form of popular mavement. salad" .a ar, ~ trave ed (a.d. 1183-5) n the near east 10 n s tme, of damascus: fr,om the wrtes eleventh century the ziiwiyas and khiinaqiihs which provded temporary resting-places ribtits for sufis l' h h for wandering sufis spread num~ro th' ere go under the name of khawiiniq, are ' w c e h stngus ed from the tar/qa leaders 8arnc nisba the n~~ life throughout the countryside y the devotional h ' h 't h m through bearing the qtl palaces . , which flow ornamented all of b i . us. ey are eplt et al-ma and of played colu't arslan ii and h' ' e artyr , e taught n anataha at the thsqilij suhrawardi is to b d" . 'oplucal works befor h i~ son, and wrote a number of remarkable theo a d,ecsve role in the islamization of borderland and crthodox 'lamij' of eal e was tred and e~eeuted, martyr to the fanatidsm of non-arab the regons in central asia and north africa. by the tl. age of 38 in s87/ii;~po, by al-malik a?-zahir at the order of saladin, at twelfth century many khiinaqiihs had become rich and flourishing establishments and bn

1086). d

lo

the formation of school s of mysticism

i
i

streams of water, presenting as delightful a picture as anyone could wish for. the members of this type of sufi organization are realiy th kings in these parts, since gad has provided for them over and aba\': the material things of life, freeing their minds from concem with the need to eam their living so that they can devote themselves to his service. he has lodged them in palaces which provide them with a foretaste of those of paradise. so these fortunates, the favoured ones among the sufis, enjoy through god's favour the blessings of this world and the next. they follow an honourable calling and their life in comman is admirably conducted. their mode of conducting their forms of wor , ship is peculiar. their custom of assembling for impassioned musical recitals (sama') is delightfui. sametimes, so enraptured do same of these absorbed ecstatics become when under the influence of a state that they can hardly be regarded as belonging to this world at all. 1

the formatlon of schools of mysticism

ii

however, it was not through such establishments that the next development i~ sufi institutionalism took place but through a single master, sametimes settled in a retreat far from the distractions of khanaqah life, sametimes in his zawiya home in the big city, frequently a wanderer travelling around with his circle of disciples. ibn }ubair occasionally mentions these humble ascetics of desert or mountain if something speciai calls them to his attention, such as when he finds christians paying tribute to their dedication to the religious iife.2 from the beginning of the thirteenth century certain centres (if we think of the centre as being a man, not a place) became the sees of tariqas, mysticai schools or teaching centres. this happened when a centreor circle became focused on one director in a new way and turned into a school designed to perpetuate his name, type of teaching, mysticai exereises, and rule of life. each such tariqa was handed down through a continuous 'chain' (sizsila), or mysticai isnad.3 the i the travels of ibn jubair, ed. w. wright and m. ]. de goeje, '2nd derivative shaikhs are, therefore, the spiritua! heirs of edn" the founder. 197, p. 284. ' ibid., iink p. 287. the of a person with this silsila acquired an 3 see appendix a for some early silsilas. whereby the seeker esateric character, and initiation, swore an oath of allegiance to founder and earthly deputyand received in return the secret wird which concentrates the spirituai power of the chain, was the means of gaining this link. bn khallikan describes fuqara' having
2

. ' da i'ti qad) with bn ar-rifa'i ., (d. a.d. 1182),1 ( d h. the eariiest consclous i y mamtame whose .2 babl y . .1 a :. such te uq , cam. . h 1m 1 1 sls a s pro . anization which the sufis regarded asth a .' or ' g i e sizsila-path was not mtended to rep ace can t e be necessary . to human frality. s eve opment i d th on (ruk ) concess . re gous . the process whereby the orma us hsa m beginning of . d as the . ... d d anne e mto an creatve b h d m of the mystic was to eii c . f ' : en~es.. regar e never develope~ sectaran these paths ten th d d msttutlon. ree o . .er oun e~s aintained carefui linkswth the orthodox msttutlon and dd ~ot repudiate the farrnal duties of islam. one of their fun~tions in islamic life was to fill the gap ieft through the suppresslon of shi'i sectarianism. the difference between the paths lay in such aspects as ioyaity to the he ad . of ~he order and belief i~ a particu~ar power-line, in types of organzaton, methods of teachmg, pecular practices and ritua!. they differed considerably in their inner beliefs, but their link with orthodoxy was guaranteed by their acceptance of the lawand rituai practices of islam. all the same they formed inner coteries within islam and introduced a hierarchical structure and modes of spirituai outl~ok and worship foreign to its essential genius. how this process of ascription came about is not clear. pupils had normally traced or ascribed3 their madhhab (method), or f,ariqa (course), to their revered teacher, for he was their guarantee o~ validity and e ng to the mass orthodox muslims. two condemned training, but so of far this had been the primarily a drect firsects tl . are ' .' o erve t h'ali er name from(d. the doctrne of personal iink. it is true ai-hujwiri c. 467/174) . s y, hullis wh d' . . -' i the mcarna (h d i) . orat p d enumerates . twelve schoois of ( ) sufism: . u u an the s-i' ' mcor on mtzaj ,an wth whom are 'is who ' the halla j y the whole body of aspirants to sfiism is composed of connected tion , . , a m sect of anthropomorphists; and secondl twelve sects two of which are condemned (m~rdd), while the ~bn khal~i~an. wa!iyat. i. 95. remaining tentirya ar~al h "bb' . ee al-waslti. appr~v~d (maqbi). the latter are the mul;asibis, the tb.rce silsilas culmin f ~ h:u. n, caro. a.h. 135. pp. 5-6, which qaaris, the gives
'

,i i' 'ii i i i ii , 'i li

i "i' i,: i

i , , i' i i i, i
i

llre obscurethe figures a ~g~; ~. most the of the links linking him :a~furs, junaydis, the nris, sahiis the hakimis

with al-junaid the khar

\!!erc chains were not invented as so razs later. th kh ft ,w e mples that the .'.' many b i' e a i s, and the sayyaris. all these assert the truth

and

j imasaba inta

. ma. and tasamma are the terms used.

12

the formatlon of schools of mysticism

have abandoned the sacred lawand have adopted heresy, and with whom are connected the lbal)atis and the farisis.1 but these are theoretical ways, none of which developed into silsila-tariqas. their teaphing was modified by their pupils in accordance with their own mystical experiences. in fact, al. hujwiri singles out as exceptional the transmission frm ab '1- 'abbas assayyari whose 'school of fiism is the onlyone that has kept its original doctrine unchanged, and the cause of this fact is that nasa and merv have never been without some person who acknowledged his authority and to ok care that his foowers should maintain the doctrine of their founder'.i the names of certain of these early masters were incorporated in the mystical isniids of the tariqas. the key figure in the lines of most tariqas is abu 'i-qasim aljunaid (d. a.d. 910), yet dh 'n-nn al-miri, though continuay quoted in support of mystical thought,3 is missing from the isniids. similarly, i;iusain ibn manr al-i;iaaj is not normay found in them (though a way was later attributed to him), where as al-bistami is found in the chains of many orders (for example, the naqshabandiyya).4 ai-wasiti, writing around a.d. 1320 when the ways were fully established, says that there were two distinct primitive sanads to which a the then existing khirqas went back, the junaidi and the bistami,s and two extinct lines, the bilaliyya and the uwaisiyya.6 the grounds for incorporation in the chains, or for their rejection, are not made clear. it is not a simple question of condemnation by orthodoxy. some figure as founders of artificial tariqas, and we have just mentioned that attributed to al-i;iallaj;7 that is, spedfie i kashf al-ma?jb, pp. 130-1. these schools are studied in esoteric doctrines, dhikrs, and rules were ascribed to the kashf on them in books of khirqa lines such as as-sansi's pp. 176-266. salsabil, . kashf, p,and 251. certain masters would claim to initiate into 3 although of these'figures. sayings may not of be the authentic it must be the dhikrs most of these one earliest was remembered uwais al-qarani, a yemeni contemporary of the that inspired inventions had,to be in line with the sufi's known genuine thought, prophet.8 the method (tariqa or madhhab) of al-junaid 4 as-sansi, salsabil, p. 121. was s ai-wiisiti, tiryaq, p. 47,
6 ibid., p. 44., '
7 as-sansi, salsabil, p., ~7' d 8 he was unacquainted with the prophet and is said to have been intate af ter his death (traditionally in a,h. 37) by the spirit of the,prophet, hence

d h t h rteent i hu c . h .m j'wiri i and is mentone . et . century dh k h h h i[i! ~n 'a .. allah's treatise on t e r2 w c gves t eh eg t h d. own to a , was not "id, ib n. ta f his wa y. this method, though, .d or d sconfined pu atons . ut was inherited by a the una ers.3 t j bto one me, o i as had a new e yt i ement, not mere i h s 'zsila- q t h e il relationshp whch had preva ed so far, but 1 tari th e rue '.. . p the f full of director and dscple. tcace er-pu . . a new aura emanates rom .. tb er o~r as a wali(protege) of god, which eventuay, ' status with god. the sufi f !fe iio r.eco d e~ton d an ~e. in the third taton now becomes ass?cated a ime and of e ma:as increasingly to become belief in his wth mediumship ascrpto~ so fa; as intercessory the majority of sufi asprants were concerned. murshds stage, . (gude initiators) bestowed the tariqa, it~ wird, ~ormulae, a~d symbol~, as from their dead master and guded ther own pupds along hs way in his name. this was primarily a consequence of the islamic ideal of providing oneself with an isniid of guarantee and authority. the distinction within sufism between sufis and malamatis now becomes defined, the sufis being those who submit to direction and conformity and the malamatis are those who retain their freedom,4 the change in the sufis can be seen in the nature of the bond which unites them. the earlier groups had been linked by en were prepared to foow his path and transmit it th,usasm, common devotions, and methods of fu themselves pp, 49-50; and cf. d'ohsson, tableau, iv. 2, 619-21. spiritual discipline, to ture generations. t' 'p' ; ". i 9. wlth the ,.bo ara'am alliih of m' stripping the soul and eliminating self to attain ,:d'nvishes had n144,' d' " . iftal; al-falal;, mnrgin of sha'riini, lata'if alc::.ro,who ~357, ii. ~ion of is reality. they integrated by &udbution i t' ( 6 oh rect were, mtator therefore, were frequently called uwaisis. minan, p 8 such spirit and ~t !lny .jrom n qnrly da te, i t ~entury?), th?ugh as a sufi figure uwais was ium than by any formalorganization, and time arather sufi mi h b . were, known in fact, , i8!osno\lsi, sals:b;1 see ashf al-mal;jb, pp. 83-4. on his dhikr nd, for loose example th g t- e told, 1~ a dream to convey al-]unaid's very organizations. the change came with way. the attribution see j.":vivify the tarfq a: ~usuf ~i.a.ami al-kriini (d. 768/1366) 'was development of s~ch a collegium pietatis into a ,i s!\c k.asm the collegium initiati whose members
'

the fo .!'. .
,{<

r mation of schools of mysticism 13

i .1 'i i'
i:

t!? cairo, a.h. 13:5 ..a 6]unad m egypt af ter ts obliteration'; ,11. o.

scnbed themselves to their initiator and his spiritual sha'riini, ancestry, appendix b. ud
4 see

1 il

14 the formation of schools of mysticism

the transformation of sufi companionships into initiato colleges began with the sunni triumphs over shi'ite dynas/y (buyids in baghdad, a.d. 155: fatimids in egypt, a.d. 117:)8 . and was settled during the. troubled time of th~ mongol conquest~ (baghdad, a.d. 1258), whch were accompaned by considerabl sufi migrations whereby it became a rural, as well as urban, rnove~ ment of the spirit. a significant feature of the change is that th groups, about the time of saladin, to ok over the shi'ite custo~ of bai'a, initiation with oath of allegiance to the shaikh. there was also some linkage with and transmi~sion from artisan futuwwa orders, anather compensatory reaction against the suppression of open shi'ism. futuwwa orders were brought into prominence by caliph an-nair's (a.d. 1219-36) attempt to create a knightly futuwwa, with whose patronage the great murshid, shihiib ad-din abu i;iaf as-suhrawardi, was associated, acting as an-nasir'8 envoy in girding those grandees whom the caliph wished to honour. the tariqas which became the most significant for the develop ment of institutional sufism were the suhrawardiyya attributed to piya' ad-din abii najib as-suhrawardi (d. a.d. 1168), but . developed by his nephew, the just-mentioned shihiib ad-din ab i;iaf (d. a.d. 1234); the qadiriyya attributed to 'abd al-qadir al- jilani (d. a.d. 66), whose line of ascription did not extend before the fourteenth century; the rifa'iyya deriving from a~mad ibn ar-rifa'i (d. a.d. 82); the nomadic yasaviyya of a~mad al-yasavi (d. a.d. 66); the kubrawiyya of najm ad-din kubra (d. a.d. 1221); the chishtiyya of mu 'in ad-din m. chishti (d. a.d. 1236), mainly confined to india;. the shadhiliyya deriving from abu madyan shu'aib (d. a.d. 97) but attributed to abu '1i;iasan 'ali ash-shadhili (d. a.d. 1258); the badawiyya of a~mad al-badawi (d. a.d. 1276) centred in egypt; the mawlawiyya inspired by the persian sufi poet, jalal ad-din ar-rumi (d. a.d. a.d. 1273), which was restricted to anatolia; and the central as~an
{
of school s of mysticism 15 orm ation 'i'he f
.

rvany o -.. 1: anyya but unlike the qadryya, w e so was a hah 1 lor ong 1 cl 0.11' ers, . 1: . .. h 1 d f d t~nded in sliraz by ruzbihiin baqli (d. a.d. 129), . t d familyorder, dd not ea to t e ormatan o stnc ' ds h h r bh .:~rc e .' which became

ter when other masters, such '. l ext cha . as.ja~mad al p . _ - d 'ali al-kharaqani, op1 ayed an mportant ro1 e n dmt en w h 1 i an . . ,za . . . es but do not have a l s l s a name a terh t em, w d f 1e b dmgi m un .' nition that s ther ue. 1 d r . th g . \ten e . 1: . . eco rou s contnue a tme as . arn or oca ze f ucy dlor 1 1 1uzdi 'ways such those just mentane was t e gas p . . "... ther

;;editary from the death of the founder1but did not spread out side fars or even survive for very long. bn khallikan mentions the kiziiniyya founded in cairo by abu 'abdallah mu~ammad, known as bn al-kizani (d. 562/67),2 as such a tariqa manque. of another he writes: ylious ibn ysuf ibn musa'id ash-shaibani, shaikh of the fuqarii' known af ter him as the ynusiyya, was a holy man. i asked a group of ha followers who was his shaikh and they replied, 'he had no shaikh, hfwas a majdhb.' by this word they designate one who has no shaikh .~j11:' ,has been d.icd in 619 (a.d. 1222-3) in his viiiage of al-qunayya in the province of ai{a [in the jazira], where his tomb is well known and attracts pilgrims.3 ~us's great-grandson, saif ad-din rajihi b. sabiq b. hilal
on d b. kazerniyya .:' ,lll" " qa ar'uc. 'aji
. r

attracted (judhiba) to a life of piety and sanctity

. . .

he

. '."ii wl, h i

)(d. 706/1306) went to liye in damascus where ~trus lr 'a" zi/wwar 1 - u-. asm unad shirazi, shadd al-iziir fi khatt tehran, 1328t -mazar (wntten 791/1389), ed. m. qazwini and he was 'abbas !tu famous whenli~o, fp. - 227~3.9, ':he tomb"khallik- t~me t feil mto oblvion. th~ hous~ of the wazir amin 243-54: ad-dawla for his an, na/ayat al ,- . centre in shiraz ~ ziiwiya as ~)(arnples of h' -a yan, caro, a.h. i 199, ii. 391; tr. de si ane ix junaid shirazi'sn o att.uta vl~lted th~t clty m 13z5 (paris ' p:etry' are giv.en. in alal: ad-din khalil a-afadi; 'bi' - w ajayat, c ;~ edn., ii.a 83), p t' o.: 5 his line ritter, lepzg/lstanbul, 1931, i. 347 ':::1 a: v:~e n t.he ghuta. from that time

s ~ smp e ta ja, a denvatve of the . ged ts ro ie mto a re igo-commercal guld. accounts . . " ' ater uz c an """9 an grandsons of r - boh-' i an s w were als o invested with the suhr; ( oh b e gven y ab 'i q j .

_.

. ~~d

k.ballikan o

became a edlta~ ta lfa, wth a branch . l b. , in jerusalem, and was al u ' ""', still in '" :a r ta rkh al-quds, extrats tr. by >ls alt~ce n 150.4 wa' ~ , i the r2bihaniyya -':.f "

i ii ~

naqshabandiyya, a mystical school, first called khwajagan, whch ,

16 the formatlon of school s of mysticisl\1

there were many other smail independentlineage tariqas wh' had only a restricted local influence, i but those mentioned ab lch
.

these were founded, i and the tendency h . . s fi accelerated . a e tes w en ,'the ayybids. saladin welcomed satc u s to gypt

[~ ;ormation of school s of mysticism 17

and nd his followers fo~nded and, ~~d.wed many together with the western turkish khalwatiyya,2 were ~hiinaqii~~, the fou;;e, d ziiwiyas of whch al-maqrz gves a long lst.2 mu]r tion iines sponsoring distinctive ways of mystical ~~~ a~as accounts of these places in j erusal:.m, thought ~ spiritual exercises. through the se tariqas the sufi message :n ~ebro~, .and mediated to the islamic world. as ]l)a.roascus.3 saladin in 585/118.9 endowed a the silsil~-founders belo?ged to two main ~chools khanaqah alal.~a of sufi thought whch may be desgnated as the n.' 1 erusalem, 4 d~vertiilg fo~ ths purpose junadi and bistan" t~e p~lace, of the _latm schools, or the mesopotamian and central asian, p@l'iarch.5 his heutenant m egypt, qaraq~sh though' th~ bn abdallah al exponents were not confined to these areas. later, asmli, 'erected a ribiit at. al-maqs',6 whlst maghribi sufism, deriving from abu madyan (d. a.d. mu?affar ad-din 1197), was to forn a third area with its own special gfkbri, saladin's brother-m-iaw (d. 63/1233), characteristics, but though the 1m11t two kliinaqiihs [at irbil] for the sufis, which housed a main silsila-founder, ash-shadhili, came from the large maghrib . jtrnober, both of residents and visitors. festival days used he and his successors only received recognition and to draw l o?1 a~d 179, but the isma'iii fatimid state in egypt . _~ther so numerous a concourse that everyone marvelied. encourage~ h. sauvaire, 1876, p. 159, mentions a zawiya-ynusiyya in jerusalem k h qah al b -' th fi survived o wa< both were - e.ndowed a ah e to rst provide new-type all eonvent that was in ale needed by in his in egypt and his line of attribution did not ment pp 'sh by 7 "] 1. ana , ams . f d ,. time (a,d, 1500). those staying .ch of whom must accept his expenses al-khawl 'i there, ' become popular. in the maghrib until much later. , 'f when he wa u u,, ree man of rlwan bn tutush, in 509/ iantinomian one sueh early family tariqa which were had great influenee upon hj when he departed. 1qod to visit them frequently tendencies stronger in isl~mc khorasan aghb at-tabbiikh, i'lam an-nubala' fi y' . gkbri cppo 1 2 6qu::e~o~er: 1alab, o~:hat, elty; see ab dharr (d. 8 in hadramawt and has survived until the present day is the 'alawiyya n and associate with them in con1*,1js.7 ta'rikh 9 3himself and central asia, though by no means exciusive to ed tin .kunz -' , v. 21 . -21. 884/1479) sou81 .~,. ' ,then . a,h. 1324-6, v. 271-306 t". klita , i.bj khailikan describes the pomp with which he these areas, but such elements are not seen in the arabia, founded by mul:ammad ibn 'ali of the ba 'alawi tribe (574/1~\' 11$ a/-}a/il alread e d ' silsila-founders, who were frequently men trained in celebrated ~;!>;rophet'.s birthday at irbil in a.d. 127 when 653/1255) who was initiated into the way deriving from abu madyan sh? re, 'des~ription yd;e ~rre ~o, and ~or damaseus the translation of ' an zawyas (pp. 387the legal sciences. they were strong among the large he passed the . ao~ ,n.377-81) 521, . i12; tr,, iv. ,97), rims (pp. am~s 1-. 547. asat. ser. ix. v (1895), khanaqahs 403). mu j'ir ad d -ntrhs' . ~uvare, 1876, pp. 77,166. numbers of vagrant way. dervishes (maliinatis, and but developed his independent he is said to have been the first to nt,; xbo khallikan ' auikiin, 18' .ta !stenng to ii: sufi gkbri also built a n, khiinaqiih at t 3concerts. , r. 20 qalandaris) unattached to any recognized master or i' . '" {>0.8 ~ line, who were above the law. but once silsilas were duee sufi diseipline (tal;kim) into hadramawt (see f. wstenfeld, die ~i/'~. snuvaget(tr.) lesperle 5 373 h '", 1429) 7 ibd.n lll. 195; tr. ii, 538, seems , e difference between the institutions mentioned to be hs shija' al-gharamfi akhbar estabiished and recognized as sunni they in sd-arabien, gttingen, 1883, p. 5; e.i.2 i.829). an example of a , ,.'p. names so 'b m lb.nac':-ch~l;~a, ,p al)mad al-fiisi (a.d.6) ,195 c o~esd beirut, fift . 1933, ~.the rimt was an arab type of hostel or trainingcouldincorporate all sorts of other elements. ant ,,1-1, , were founded about '. e y r ats n meeea (i. 330p, 100. 7), the (cairo centre;9 sufism had now become a profession this ~:laram seen~ f~mily z:!oz:;~ya whieh survived for some ti~e and witho~t e:ear 52of ra gate, riimusht hths tme. example, i fem " ,534], gwe t as for a waqf in the 'the yribat period 7~~alj" is charac. terized by a great growth of 9 pan?in.g " ' e usve i syria a'a from ic scljuq tr eonquest of of northern and damaseus was qq eompleted ' a es, wh o wear the mura aq ; i. 332 unspecialized sufi founded establishments'j the popularity of riimusht , nd f e, i. qawamyya-balsyya, by ab bakr bn qawam bn ~i,i, a ;q 232. ' a the persian-type hospices in particular is asso~ ciated al-fiirisi [as-siri;; ~se name was ~haikh ab 'i-qasim fa a,d' (584/rr88-658/1260). an aeeount his life is from given in bnlist shiikr with the seljuq period as canof be seen any of:s brahim
"

'"

'

al-wafayat (bulaq, a.h. 1283, i. 101-2). h ptl 2 diseussion of' the khalwatiyya has been reserved for the third c a see pp. 74-8.

tnale sufis ex

16 the formatlon of school s of mysticism:

there were many other smail independent-lineage tariqas who ,

e ;ormation of schools of mysticism 17

."

had only a restricted local influence, i but those mentioned ab ich

together with the western turkish khalwatiyya,2 were the fou:;e, lsu mu]1r tion iines sponsoring distinctive ways of mystical ~~~ a::as accounts. of these places n j erusalc:.m, thought ~ spiritual exercises. through the se tariqas :ebro~, .and the sufi message ~n mediated to the islamic world. as :aa:nascus.3 saladin ~n 585/1 1~9 endowed a khanaqah the silsil~-founders belo?ged to two main ~chools alal:~a n; j erusalem, 4 divertng for ths purpose the of sufi thought whch may be desgnated as the palace of the latn junadi and bistan" pftiarch.5 hs lieutenant n egypt, qaraq~sh bn schools, or the mesopotamian and central asian, 'abdallah al though' th~ ,assdi, 'erected a rimi at, al-maqs',6 whlst mu?affar adexponents were not confined to these areas. later, din maghrib" ,~kbri, saladin's brother-n-law (d. 63/1233), jstenng to sufi concerts. gkbr also bult a khiinaqiih ":''':tfii sufism, deriving from abu madyan (d. a.d. 1197), built two khiinaqiihs [at irbil] for the sufis, which at housed a large was to for~ ~14i:p'po, 8 . -nbcj', both of residents and visitors. festival days a third area with its own special characteristics, but , ~e difference between the nstitutons mentoned h. sauvaire, 1876, p. 159, mentions a zawiya-ynusiyya in ] g-centre'9 used to draw though the seems to be erusalem the in hi! . tig$:her so numerous a coneourse that everyone marvelied. a,d' l main silsila-founder, ash-shadhili, came from the , ri time (a.d. 1500). !'~the ' ribiit ,;t: was an arab type ofali hostel orstate both 1fti endowed to provide that was by o?1 a~d 1079, but the isma'iii fatimid in egypt 1 were h k . needed anaqah al-bal fi maghrib t of i one such early family tariqa which had great influenee wa .. 171. m.i;o scljuq a, eth rst northern new-type eonvent syriaaeeept and n ale damaseus was . tranin pp o sh l eonquest those staying there, qrd of whom must his expenses ' ,.y ams f d ' survved upon isla,mc i~ he and his successors only received recognition and a -khawl 'i ' eompleted when he gkbri ~ visit them ibn frequently and ,..,hlln h departed. a u u, reeto man of rlwan tutush in 509/ 110 in hadramawt and has survived until the present day is the encourage: y' . raghb at-tabbakh, ['lam fi ta'rikh i~ associate himself with them n eon qm.7 "tlihab, of ~hat. eity; see ab an-nubala' dharr (d. 884/1479) 1 9 ,v. ppo 'alawiyya n sou8" 6218-21. ~'--. - ' cq:~:e~o~er: 23 ment in egypt and his line of attribution did not qrz, klzi'a' ed a h . kunz arabia, founded by mul:ammad ibn 'ali of the ba 'alawi tribe 6 1001 f} khallikan then become popular' in the maghrib until much later. . '." '..describes 1324- , v. the 271- pomp with whch he - ale ' e to, and for damaseus the translation (574/i~7.~ 36. celebrated o d pt d antinomian tendencies stronger in abu khorasan of 653/1255) who was initiated into were the way deriving from madyan j a.e 'ls a/-}a/l, aready referr d ne amas' birthday irbl n s a.d. 127 when he passed -97), riba,s (pp. 377-8) d' '. sat. r. ix. v (1895), khanaqahs i!\.i:rc, 'deser andal. central asia, though by no means exciusive to ~~, ~:p:rophet',s sh~ ' at an zawyas (pp. 387i ~]'bn 403). khallikan'" i but developed his independent way. he is said have been in the the first the these areas, but such elements are to not seen ~' s~uvare, 1876, pp. 77, 166. m4iir ad-din' u.' 521, . to nt,~ 3 silsila-founders, who were frequently men trained in s tr. ' du. ib ... i~; tr. iv. 547. 520 7 the legal sciences. they were strong(see among the large duee sufi diseipline (tal;kim) into hadramawt f. wstenfeld, die c.' ruvaget(tr.),lesperlesc '.., .1 .111.195; tr. ii. 538. ikhallikan, ii.' t~' numbers of vagrant dervishes (maliinatis. and ,lw al:.mad al-fasi (a izoses d ib.nac~-chl;na, beirut, 1933, p. 100. ~lf':1 qalandaris) to recognized master in sd-arabien, unattached gttingen, 1883, p. any 5; e.i.' i. 829). an example of a or 41:::laram (caira .d6)i373-1429) n hs slzija' al-gharamfi akhbar line, who were above the law. but once silsilas were a~] lili were found~di~~ou na~e~ some fifty rimts in meeea (i. 330-7), estabiished and whieh recognized as ti~e sunni seen~ f~mily z:!'?~ya survived for some witho~t they ear 52 9 ~ra .cate. ramusht t tme. for exan,ple, 'the rim, ofy ramusht ra'. , cthsusve es, h w o wear the q , . 332,an d f . q a'acfrom couldincorporate all sorts of other elements. e:rpan?in.g ~~~ih . i. of femal i~ al-farisi232. [as-sir5;h~se q ibrahim muraname was ~hakh ab 'i-qasim ' qawamyya-balsyya, by a ab bakr bn qawam ~i., a fal sufism had nowfounded become profession and bn this period tual e sufis ex i " ,534], gwe t as a waqf in the (584/1188-658/1260). aeeount of his life is given in ibn shakr s is charac; terized an by a great growth of unspecialized al-wajayat (bulaq, a.h. 1283, i. 101-2). . sufi establishmentsj the popularity of the persian-type chapt' hospices in is assoi ciated the seljuq , diseussion of particular the khalwatiyya has been reserved forwith the thrd period as can be seen from any list of: see pp. 74-8.
"
.
.

h n these were founded,i . .and the tendeney . ~ccelerated s fi e da te.s w e saladin welcome satc u s to gypt the ayybids, and ~;~nd his followers fo~nded and ~~do.wed many ~hiinaqii~:., :'tr1jp., d ziiwiyas of whch al-maqrz gves a long

~ i i i

.
,

"'

~,~

'

,, ,
,

,
,

"

,,.

"'" ""

.i

'

l iii

cou

find a place. there were many women sufis, of whom r-b'! al-'adawiyya (d. a.d. 801) is the best known. i during
this p~i~'

there are referenees to eonvents for women. ai-irbilli2 18 thetb formatlon of schools of mysticism uses term khiinaqiih for eonvents for men and rim khiinaqiih was the persian non-training hostel typefor those of womer int d there were seven eonvents for women in aleppo into the of the arab world; ziiwiya was the term alone, alleities found between a.d. 115 and 1250.3_ baghdad also had 'a aprl'., uc i r . o at~ b h 1 d number, <! ermtage was sometmes ca e shaikh dwelt a rawith la. smaller establishments where one 1 raziya whieh the ribii! of fatima (d. 521/1127) n was ' i his p e~, the b mysticism was the only religious sphere where known. in cairo there was ribiit al-baghdadiyya, built wome whilst a khalwa designated the 'retreat' of a single by dervis1up;1 of al-malik a{:-~ahir baibars in daughter 684/1285 for situated a shaik, around ealled a zainab ibnat abi 'lquently a eell mosque square. a barakat, more is ' known as bint al-baghdadiy and her followers,4 whieh stili exists in ad-darb alafar. maqrizi says that the first khiinaqiih in egypt was dar sa ' as-su'ada',s so ealled (its proper name was a-alal:iyya) fr being situated in the eonfiseated house of sa'id as-su'ada', eunueh employed in the fatimid palaee who was enfranchised al-mustanir and put to death in 544/1149.6 it was eonstitul a waqf in a.d. 1173. lts primary funetion was to serve as a hos for foreign sufis, but it expanded its funetions to beeome the ch' 'eentre of egyptian sufism. lts shaikh had the official title of sh, ash-shuykh,7 whieh, however, was only honorifie and did imply any wider jurisdietion than that of his own establishm and later the title was frequently given to heads of other khiinaqii,
'

\lrists and sufis. i " -' 11 battta deseribes these khiinaqiifs and their rules, at the of hi~'visit to cairo in a.d. 1326. he writes: 'eaeh tion of school s of mysticism 19 , ziiwiya2 inma ii for iihs eontinued under the bal:ri ~ ':15 tii'lfa of dervishes, most of whom . f khiinato a q d assigned ' (a.d. r mamlk sueeessors o t e yyu s. nib f h a b d are per d the n atlon o id d y . members unlikely a syra in means egypt and h ave b een erectng ii co ". k hthat n that dy the aa. y . : eges ) perpetuating ast a partieular rule, eertainly not in the of the sciences, and monaste ouses ior t e h h ur sh g . : . purpose sufis] to govern~sponsored follow the i ru es ior acqurng ort o khiinaqiihs. . h d oor the e tcac n [ bi p ox d of behaviour through dhkr exercses an supererogatory -,.\.qalqashandi (d. a.d. 1418) i' ng .. describes briefly the relationship , =-y~hey took over that [custom] ~ro~ t~e preceding ,6 kliinaqiihs of egypt and syria with the mamlk ~alii?hal authority.4 ries, they set up buildings for [t~ose ns~ltutons as these institutions were in the gift of the mamlk mo.rtman gfts] rulers andgndowed [them] with lands that yelded ncome j [sufficent] to pro~'$tipends for students and whom sufi ascetics , v~ry lu:rative to their heads, anyone the . . . as a result, colleges and ibtic houses are numerous ruler wished in cairo.without they now furnish livings for t' savt~c w,th a sinecure affeeting his own poeket was ~tl! gven the appointment. none of the heads of the atyya (or aliil:iyya) khiinaqiih in damaseus (founded c.
' , ,i '

r?) a~ o men of eulture and trained in the way of &n wrtes: taawwuf.'3 is masters, lin organize d group, but it the is s ofthis their the ayybid rulers,
~'

lh) s~ems to have been a sufi.s the first to hold the post ,~, 0.150 carried the eharge of mashyakhat ash-shuykh)6 was
'. khldiin, at- ta'rif d muh '., ,'hesbove tran i t' ~ e . .ammad at-tmjl (caro, 1370/1951), "'dnttuta gene s~ ian s by f. rosenthal, muqaddama, ii. 4356, n. 68. iljlnr but in ra y ~ses th~ word ziiwiya, the term with whieh he was kj1~n unde:e~:r to czro ~e ,has just speeified that he is deseribing

i i
l

see margaret smith, riibi'a the mystic and her fellow-saints i" l! cambridge, 1928. ' . ai-irbilli, madiiris dimishq, ed. dahman, damaseus, 1366/1947, pp. s 3 see j. sauvaget, les perles choisies, 1933, pp. 105-6. 4 maqrizi, khitat, iv. 293-4. . ,r . s ibid. 273-85; bn khallikiin, iii. 5~i, . 6; bn khaldiin, ta tl), i p. 121; as-suyti, ifusn al-muf:llifj.ara, ii. 141 f. 6 maqrizi, khitat, bulaq edn" ii. 415. d' ~ 7 bn faqi aliiih al- 'umari (writing a.d. 1342-9) has preserved the i~ (waiyya) that the ehaneellery of the egyptian mamlk sultans gaye t~al

; ca ira i ' e term hawanq.

)i} h' 939, i. 27. q,as andi, $bh iv 193 .., chs taken by th . , ,221; x1l1. 222-5 . he is espeeially eoneerned ~ list of head ,e ~arous g:oups.
11-80, 301-3 ~ i~ c ~auv~re, .'deseription de damas',

yeditepe

ash-shuykh at the time of his appointment; see at-ta'rif bi 'l-mufta '

!~ z89-90).' . a qas and, $ubl;, xii. 4~, iv. 193. bn jubair university ,shandi $ubh ,. , , , x. 4)0.

a.. --.~-

j. asiat. ser.

u,

co

f ind a p aee. there were many women u s, of whom rb'l

al-'adawiyya (d. a.d. 801) is the best known.

during this p:ri~" 18 the formation of schools of mysticism

khiinaqiih uses tl was the persian non-training hostel type intr d

there are referenees to eonvents for women. al-irbillp

..

term khiinaqiih for arab eonvents menwas and ribiit into the cities of the world;for ziiwiya the term for those of wome ap ol' uc, there were seven eonvents for women in aleppo 'i _ smaller establishments where dwelt with at . all alone, found!! between a.d. one u5 and 125.3 r b shaikh 11 d . h ermtage was sometmes ea a ra ta. baghdad also had a e whieh the ribiit of ' . number, his p, ed,;' i mystieism was the only was religious sp here where fatima raziya (d. 521/1127) the bt known. in cairo sfi ,' 1 khalwa whilst a designated the built 'retreat' women there was ribat al-baghdadiyya, by of a single dervisbup;: daughter of al-malik a~-z;ahir baibars in 684/1285 for a shaikn around a mosque square. a quently a eell situated ealled zainab ibnat abi 'l-barakat, known as bint almore is ' baghdadiy and her followers,4 whieh still exists in addarb al-afar. maqrizi says that the first khiinaqiih in egypt was dar sa, as-su'ada',5 so called (its proper name was aala1.iyya) fr
being situated in the eonfiseated house of sa 'id assu 'ada', eunueh employed in the fatimid palaee who was enfranehised: al-mustanir and put to death in 544/u49.6 it was costitut' a waqf in a.d. u73. its primary funetion was to serve as a ho
,

tll writes: ties. theys set buildings for [t~ose ns:tutons as of up their masters, the ayybid rulers, the . yelded d d y mo.rtman gfts] mdowed [them] with lands that members ' ii co es b een erectng h ave n y dy in egypt and syra :t k h ur is students . 1: h and the aa. ncome [suffieent] to protipends for s~fi h ast -e. teaching of a the eg sciences, and monastc ouses l~r. are te as?etics ',' . as resul~, co~le.ges and asric rules forhouses acqurng oor [sufis] to follow the bl' the p numerous n caro. they now k furnsh ' lvngs for vjwists and orthodox d purpose ng . sufis.1
'i
o

of schools through of mysticism 19 of on behaviour dh r exercses an ati :form supererogatory iihs eontinued under the ba1:ri , . f khiina q (a.d. ther ~~y~hey took mamwk over lundatlon that [custom] ~ro~ t~e preceding a bid h b f sueeessors o t e yyu s. i n o d 7) an o , ~alii?hal
'

in battta describes these khiinaqiifs and their rules. at the bf hi~'visit to cairo in a.d. 1326. he writes: 'eaeh ziiwiya2 in ,,~;s assigned to a tii'ija of dervishes, most of whom are per men of culture and trained in the way of taawwuf.'3 this 's an orgarized group, but it is unlikely that that means a ,,1' perpetuating a particular rule, eertainly not in the govern sponsored khiinaqiihs. !alqashandi (d. a.d. 1418) describes briefly the relationship khi1naqiihs of egypt and syria witl, the mamlk authority.4 ese institutions were in the gift of the mamlk rulers and ry lucrative to their heads, anyone whom the ruler
wished

~de w.ith a sineeure without affeeting his own poeket was ~~ gven the- ~ppointm:nt. _n~ne of the heads of the yya (or ala1.lyya) khanaqah n damaseus (founded c. .) s'::ems. to have been a sufi.5 the first to hold the to c aro ~e has just speeified that he is deseribing t ermkhawanq post . e
nandi, ubh iv 193 :<\ .., shuykh)6 was taken by th ' , ' :<\ i ; xill. :<\:<\:<\-5 i. he is espeeially - eserpton de damas', j. eoneerned t of hea ' e e, varous groups.

for foreign sufis, but it expanded its funetions to

become the cf eentre of egyptian sufism. its shaikh had the offieial title of sh, ash-shuykh,7 whieh, however, was only honorifie and did imply any wider jurisdietion than that of his own establish~t and later the title was frequently given to heads of other khiinaq(
i

iso

ro, 1939, i. :<\7.

carred

the

eharge

of

mashyakhat

ashasiat.

see margaret smith,. rabi'a the mystic and her fellow-saints in

f,i cambridge, 19:<\8.

2

paldn,'dat- ta 'rif ds n h. sauvair '. d f;8<r90).' . a qas and, ubj;, xii. muh . io, 301-3' cf q 1 '~. 1, iv. ub?, xii. lbn 4) o.jubair 4~, 193. t~above transl f '. 'f .ammad at-tanji (cairo, 1370/1951), ~hand

ser. .

al-lrbijli, madilris dimishq, ed. dahman, damascus, 1366/1947. pp. i

t~ta general~ lon s;: . rose:t~al, muqaddama, ii. yeditepe 435-6, n. 68. v , , university 1.1:, but in re y ~ses t ~ word zawya, the term with whieh
he was
own under ~~r

3 see j. sauvaget, les perles choisies, 1933, pp. 105-6.

-'

r, no necessar y au, zawyas were centres lor a genuine tea h" shaikh, whose successors consciously carried on his part~ ~ 20 tre format on of scrools of mysticisi\1 teaching and method. whereas appointments to the a former wazir headsh~u a of khwarazm, sa 'id ibn sahl al-falaki l detained in damascus mal:mud ort b. za: ~l khiinaqiihs was made by by nur the ad-din secular authorities, the pp ca, , \f: superio~ o . ' 1146-73) and given the post to provide for his su slnce a ziiwiya was elected by the ikhwiin (brethren), and it these were waqf foundatons. in 791/1392 bn khald was in the o
appointed to the directorship of khanaqah baibars.1 un w.. that h.ereditary succession began. .in t?~ of whereas the khiinaqiihs were little more thanaccou~ts hostels fo s

matio

n of scrools of mysticism
i

e for

21

" ji b ) at that of shaikh mul:ammad an-najri, i at

s fi 1 the religio: (and concert halls for the great) and ribiits had an in~ fi establshments of the great muslm ctes, ther u, founders, pupii and successors, only of the ziiwiyas character as the establishment of a teacher or preache e do the authors assert or impl'

continuity of nit . battt life. bn

teaching and a particular rule of

lodged in many ziiwiyas and eastem khiinaqiihs distinguished b specific attributions: suhrawardi in isfahan (a.d. 1326), mawla in qonya, and numerous rifa'i establishments in anatolia an caucasus (a.d. 1332), in damascus (!:lariri branch), as well as di founder-centre in the bata'il: of iraq. of qonya he writes: 'in th city is the tomb of . . . jalal ad-din, known as maw1ina. a. organization (tii'lfa) exists in the land of rum whose membe deriye from him,z and are known by his name, being called t

alaliyya, similar to the derivation of the 'iraqian al,madi:ni

[= rifa'iyya], or the khurasanian i;iaidariyya. around his to ., is a large ziiwiya in which food is provided for all migrants,! these, therefore, were sufi tii'ifas in the full sense. bn battuta's narrative also demonstrates how important th , establishments were in the expansion of muslim commerce" accommodation to their hindu environnient, and in the difi'us: of islam. for instance, all along the malabar coast, which
under hindu rulers, he was entertained in khiinaqiihs: at haun
i at- ta 'rif, ed. tanji, pp. 311-13. bn khaldn, though not a sufi~

. ,13o;h ay agar) where he came actoss a company a, an where he lodged in the khiinaqiihs of of fuqarii' ) the(t fi nc ore insurance ( zaund kanbaya (cambay in gujarat), amin rava . su n,~a~ fd .. .company.3 _ h i ) and eru calicut! maqrizi's day (a.d. 1364-1442 t e nes o ervaton were yestablished. thus he writes of t~e fuqarii~ ~1:al:m.ad~y'ya ifitiyya in cairo.4 about the same tme ~he qadr attrbuton i to expand and a branch was formed n damascus towards d of the fourteenth century.s sufis were frequently allowed ,use of mosques for their exercises. maqrizi says that the ;'~ar was open to sufis and dhikrs w~re performed there.6 some even found in madrasas, aqbuga's madrasa in the azhar g a permanent group.7 nian regions do not seem to have developed the officially iored khiinaqah and the change of their sufi hostels to repretion of a holy line (stage three of change) was not marked y change of name but by the addition of an honoured tomb, :h more commonly the later khiinaqiihs were new founda }8 in association with a tomb. later turk and mongol (d 8 56/ i see h rulers d ii i ruht the tombs of famous saints and associate d ' ' g , ere ou se trouvaent un wan, une sa ' convents on b bl des h ' vres consttues en. waqf mosquee, pour ,i i , es . .magnificent ot cque bde 'c al" " , en faveur la lines. ' ii . bl a'et des h , a tatlons pour les t ufis :une trained in these institutionsfounded daughter . ' le s pars lodges in g i i f
jariyy
"
,

il

'

'

'

. " ti j'l unctone nrht dubs and this is an d as pious ~ b~t\ta, cairo edn., 1928, ii. 109-10. o.this ' abd !w. ar- ahmiin " r ~d, ~l, 108, on the l;iaidariyya, see below, p. 39, -.ne of them s fi af w:s a l;ianbali who a number of ter hs death the composed sultan chose for his id, ll, 106, iis-18. u : f 1f ese establishments ' outside his successor ' the ribiit known as the riwiiq dto ii/a" ed, a,h. 1326, iv. 294, referring , arn y' subse one superior b ' ' quent ,rad bn sulaimiin al-batii'il;i (d. 691/1292) an i~troducer of the rifii sputes over the leadership were tto egypt, this building still exists outside 'biib zuwaila iv. 54. eng murdered in a.d. 1515, ,w~'a da'diyya founded by a l;ianbali, abu bakr ibn 'da'd (d. 806/ o 7 ibid. iv. .il225. out 800/1397, but developed by his son 'abd ar~rahmiin
,

il ~

~,

ii l u i i ~
m

. ir o c aracterstcs an ten ences.

'

the thirteenth century was an age of disturballce and ch as the mongol hordes swept over central asian muslim stat an zz the formatlon of schools of mysticis af ter the other, baghdad being conquered in a.d. m, their own countries or in entirely new pasture 1258. ~~es . grounds refugees those parts of the muslim world ..tled in theyto rarely h india. d d maintained direct contact with which see ;he pec more remote from the scourge. among these were institutionl and became independent schools with anatolia in~~ the~ot north-west and hindustan in the south-east. 'many sufis fou a new home within the jurisdiction of the turkish sultanate n. delhi. indian islam seems to have been essentially a holyman isla these migrants in the hindu environment acquired an aura holiness, and it was this which attracted indians to them, rath than farrnal islam. there were two categories of sufis, those ass, eiated with khiinaqiihs and the wanderers. the khiinaqiihs were i, a special
'

schools mysticism ", ~d brmation by riazul of islam in]. of pakistan or. z3 sac. iii (1955), 204. s';ifis
"

:', voiced complaints dedine. d spiritual hs about re,te for whom these khiinaqii orme centres or were numerous and acted as p " cultural i i 1 oo~preading and s am. . cl hos ~,an ii unpredictable and stabzng not opposed to sufis as such. this . traetions of the sufi way declined from the time ni~iim of ad ibn tughluq (a.d. 1325-51), though not in ~ \vas noted for his avoidance of courts and tughluq's son, conse 'iocf the restrictions imposed on and '.\smb, used to visit him he when he was in a leaders state of l,uil convent ilt seems rather that sufism had not yet (trance), and form i'a.ttraet indians, its outburst as taken such a popular was of [later. the decline :d (725/1325)movement at the beginning tughluq's reign, the finds expression in the retlections of latter's ~p mal:md (d. 757/1356), successor to the great shaikh ia'cd in carrying his bier, much to tughluq's annoyance "din awliyii';

ih~"1.ve erng

h . .. sprang up d fi e nte ascrptlons. w d . an ~ ma h o j'ority .wthout );rtot :

se within their sphere of rule, khiinaqiihs

itality, mul:ammad bn tranng,

(bn

ndars had arrived and were staying as guests

of khwajah tt), subservient khtinaqtihs benefited from his patronage.

sense focal points of islam-centres of holiness,

fervou

ascetic exercises, and sufi training. contrary to the arab-wori institutions bearing the same persian name, the indian khiinaqii. grew up around a holy man and became associated with his tari and method of discipiine and exereises. two distinctive tariqas we formed. mu'in ad-din chishti of sijistan (d. a.d. 1236), af ter a lifetin of wanderings, finally settled at ajmer, capital of a powerft hindu state. from him stemmed a silsila which won widespre popularity under his khalifa and successor, qutb ad-din bakhti~ kiiki (d. a.d. 1235), to become eventually the leading i~d tariqa. of other tariqas only the suhrawardi gained a followng india. shihiib ad-din himself designated khalifas for india, t~ chief being i:iamid,ad-din of najore (d. a.d. 1274). others wl the

'~ir ad-din for the night. (the khwajah) said, 'these bn days llu' of darwishes has deereased. in the days of the .that shaykh rukn ad-din as-suhrawardi of multan, grandson of ,'(i.din awliya] darwishes used to eome by twenties bal}ii' and thirties,
~, a~~epted ajtigir 100as villages tughluq for the ,.~liaykb used to keep of them guestsfrom for three days

-olia the seljuq period was significant in that the when upkeep mystical '. an 'urs, the shaykh [ni?iim ad-din] would invite all lt was vitally linked the spread of islamic :t;h: (u. 324, see als o with pp. ioi-z, 201). the hagiographers lash itn of the army] and darwishes would arrive from all sides . culture
give

...

;> there are neither such soldiers, nar such ad-din slaves, gion. both persian refugees like bahii' "~l.1arshness to nair ad-din, successor of ni:;iim ad-din,

..

walad,

l, 'i'have deteriorated. men have to wait [in vain] for xi "'as suspicious of the influence of some of these the dar ~p1e.' shaikhs and
os~ regulation and supervision he exacted led to measures of - who interfered in politics were dealt with severely, but one .:.lat rnany of these leaders were frequently

and other

nor such

nr ad-din was mubiirak ghaznawi (d. 632/1234 kiizerfiiyya one of the exceptions; see p. at z36, delhi) and ba!i

ad-din zakariya (d. a.d. 1z62at multan), probably the an8 z his proper most e/f~ name is fakhr ad-din ibriihim b.,shahriyiir; born tive ~arbj' organizer of the role and chain in india, with a.d. izl3, died z89, and buried near his inspirer, bn ai whom thedamascus, pers qalandari poet, 'iraqi,2 'associated' for some twenty years.

intriguers for "r.

i
i i

e e c, of qonya and there are many references to official patrona 24 the format on of schools of mystc other courts, such as that of mujahid ad-din bihrz .. . turkish . entral' father biibiis from c d of jaliil dad-din bl rmi, b and a imove ibn n 'abd:' cons prefect of iraq under mas 'd ibn ghiyath, who is~e num era ers nto nato a during the th' " founded ai century, at baghdad. especially during theto time of the mongol inv ,irt~: it is important distinguish between the dervish activity mystical orders pr' and such corporations trade-guilds2 was just as strong af ter the as collapse of :ons, and futuwwa order craftsmanship and chivalry,3 which state of rm. the the mystics, manifesting a fervour are known under s term, and s tii'lfa, .e, seland have similar forms of organization y th . and po different from that of legalist i~lam, aspirit which religious aspeets. the differenee between them is one pur alsoof ~rlt and intent, rathersocial than in types of organization and itself the in practical aspects such as hospitality linka' tariqas are purely religious organizations, to tx.pr, but the pur of the guilds was eeonomie assoeiation, eraftsmanship, or t a and religious tii'ija eould not of and care for the sick po or, were mediators strietly be at the same time a or eraft tii'lfa. this isla~avcl -is true in spite of the faet that ther, bn khallikiin, iii. 472. i christians of the region. they had the support of the " inf (pl. a~naf, ~unf), l,irfa (pl. !:iraf), and regional terms like mo~ ~o pl. hanati. theyare referred to more simply as a'lfas. the hanla, akhi orgi tion injalal anatolia was asimilar turkishfutuwwa craft authorities. ad-din rmi was highly honoured b
i

- -- - -

,
.

,eer , : behind the banner of that tariqa that the guild ation of school s of mysticism 25 members .qrm "to['

feature,

ious rites were the predomnant

.
"

corporation. the m~ were called fityan (pl. of fata, 'youth', though not strictly a youth organ except in enrolment) and the head akhi, which term, originally t naturally became associated with arabic akhi, 'my brother', bn j. received hospitality from akhis (c. 1333); see travels, tr. h. a, r: g 418 ff. on these see e.!.", art. 'akhi'. this type of organization dsap during the 15th century with the full establishment of ottom~nr jj po~i
craft orders of a different type were an important aspect of the lfe of s
'

turkey. the kazeruniyya, though it took the name of an eminent ii devcloped rather as a religious-economic

guild association; see bel?w,

~:

. ~ciations, on eeonomc 1: and the ch although seeular centred assoeatlons. veryf orm "' e i f iliut orders o .. . . . osoca socal neither were they sufi orders. ,', . t if in associations d an n a ire gous cu ture i. h "(.,l' ~nct y su . of the orders, however, much t~anization e ii ca i. arowes ether for what we secu purposfs l-~ 'i' , s r~des 1 se g . to that of re1igion. a partlcu ar gm an ts mem i id to . gven d b ter y . l . the . flourisheddunder ers s: these guilds had fatimid a .... b ,:!ietng ,ci arac i :.. and be em nies g linked a partieu ar and tarqa an sant.. t ntatlons o with !t~ite states with the triumph of the re1i ayybids and ,er political shi'ism the necessity for reeognizing them ited by the sunni doetors. we have shown that the encouraged the sufi organization at the stage it had hed-assoeiation in khiinaqiihs. from then, when defined jystical tradition had emerged, :."', the . organization of the ['c c, which were also seeular associations in some . aspects ! rttionship to the life of the eommunity, drew f~! more and " ,;nres from guild organization. as the latter <i had a grand ~i ~if, a.nin, or shaikh al-~irfa) and a hierarehy of appren /tad'), companions (iini'), and mastercraftsmen ~'so the religious orders acquired a hierarchy of noviees, url masters. sinee legal islam tolerated the secret
,?~(nii
'. ,

s '~xcepton , mueh ,~ to and from the 'id prayer-ground. t~ey wes to that of the.id gm s,were and ~ot that

i and that the initial organization of the

3 similarly theyare to be distinguished from the anatolian gmz ~o~. based on the futuwwa principle whose religious affiliation~ w~re w~t t ii darawish. sufis used the term futuwwa, not for an organzaton, r~fid own special sense of an ethical self-offering, as when al;mad ar- i y ported as saying, 'futuwwa means working for god's sake, not for :~ e~

.:.the initiation and oath of the guilds, it had to accept

'igins of the corporations are stressed, the imam

a 'far. being

ttons . of the act of allegiance to the shaikh

\ish w,hich was the essential purpose of certain at-tariqa ractc~ was maintained. medical doctors too, organz~to~s without

liu.t in their traditions. consequently, it may on occa~o~ be

(ai-wasiti, tiryaq, p. 45). onfutuwwa as understood by sufis ~~~'. o ed

'abdallah al-anari al-harawi (a.d. 1006-89). mc.nazil as-sa rn, beaurecueil, cairo, 1962, pp. 47-8; al-qusliairi, risala, p. 103.

~~ngng to a guild, would reeeive simple initiation le seydbat-name, tr. von hammer, r. ii. 90-100. ;~ n as apossible source of spiritual aid to them in",acquired by dr. rashid ad-din 'ali in a.d. 1218, given in

,:;a] asan mongol-period futuwwa orders. the confuslon .is chelebi's description (a.d. 1638) of the various guilds n

,~

26 tre format on of scrools of mysticls

and now we find manifestations of spiritual power b associated with the orders. no dear distinction can h ec, be made between the orders and saint-veneration, sin enct} proteges (awliyii' li ' lliih) are within the orders. sufisrn ce ( a philosophy of election which was diluted and adapte~royi needs of the masses by the orders. not merely the great
\j

but his successors who inherited his baraka (spiritual s.' were mediums of his power. with this was associated po. (visitation) to saints' tombs. as in other aspects of sufi thzt~

and practice between the

::

there

is

an

essential

distinction

which the genuine sufi approached a saint's tomb and the; tice of the people. the mystic carries out a ziyiira for the pur of muriiqaba (spiritual communion) with the saint, finding in material symbol an aid to meditation. but the popular belie that the saint's soul lingers specially associated with him whilst he was on earth or at wk he had manifested himself. at such places his intercession ca sought. the state of sanctity (wiliiya) is characterized by the manif tion of kariimiit, gifted spiritual powers, the earlier spiri leaders dissociated themselves from the working of such pow~ though theyall accepted the principle that saints did perf~ them as gifts from god. ai-qushairi -remarks that though phets needed mirades (mu'jiziit) to confirm the validity i see al-qushairi, of 1 mission, risala saints (cairo, were 1319(1902), under nopp. such 158-9. necessity and ought r~~ to hi de any they had bn kha~~,; marks, 'among the sufis who are favoredwith by acts of involuntarily made. thesome extraordn graces divine grace iswere favoured are a confirmation of t which they able to, exercise an influence uponedify worldly conditions. this, progress and can nevertheless and confirm how~ver~ the faithful: serve to distinguish a real wali from an counted as a kind o(sorcery. it is effected with divine support, impostor. still, a wali does not necessarily, or ec:ql indeed probably, know tha~ one.2 the writings of attitude and approach (of these men) result from prophecy and are a sufis contain a vast amount on ths cons ject of the validity of wiliiya, we are mainly etp of it' (muqaddama, tr. rosenthal, iii. but 167). 2 cf. the f:adith qudsi: 'my saints are beneath my tents, concerned \;
,

about his tomb and places (maqi

none knw but me.'

t an aspect of the people s re g~on. . y t e tm~ ~ of scrools of mysticism 27 t' n 'rmatio ' a. a.d. 155).s the mawlid ~a.d acqured. ,tsfor ociated a new reverence ass t ht him into the category ' lo pmen d brou g ch~ra~terstc t: el i of ular the level, but also led to the : eve c . h not mer h p l y h fhese features and the wrtng ofdspecal . . the ,,' popu ar s prt of muhamma as t e ogos, i tf enpo b the universe. 'ers at . . "rectatons f the e e r for '. the celebraton of of ~ s at least in part, to be a compensaton the o ~ at gatherings belong to the next stage, . d sufi m ay see, ., te d preserve ' 'brth lid demonstrations af d ter . the . f a presson o ubair (travelled a.d. 1183-5) but the ' p . estructon ' } ',. bn ractice. i it was farly wd espread n n ib ' refers to . ;ti.c poem, by al-biri . 2 (d. d p qaidat al-burda, . bl .:sta s h e . regmes. . d. .b .' f h b 694/1295), i .' for it comes under hs con emnaton, ~n during this time. ut t ume,of , the saint-cult with the orders and a ~ding new rever i,the prophet is one aspect of the change. the other is in the constitution of the body of adherents. concern ,~n spiritual welfare had led the devotee and early sufi himself from the world, but the need for spiritual had necessitated the association of sufis. their con hin hospices concerned for the welfare of travellers and bhe sick and unfortunate brought them back into the !(ifhe hospices with their associated tombs became the ,6 religious aspirations man who . . of . the ordinary . er b i f h d sought . .. '. . e e n t e eals for whch the tarqa th the i k dedicated disciples (fuqarii', y valu' ieoall .. ;a. of the saints. od es wth o wors as were compatble f h p ~ mg e m the baraka of the sants . ' darii wth f d f e. l f n towns i and '. ,._!khwii~) o e o such association oa co:ti:ued normal s-u~h rules and m m to devote themselves to ,,~. ascetic ~, ttavels, 2nd edn., 1907, pp. 114-15. . prac l:(ya, majm' fatdwi, cairo, a.h. 1326-9, a.d. 1908-11, i. duues wthm the order, but membership was now 312. ro embrace tertiaries or lay adherents who 'took the ,~ti, /fum al-maqsid fi . amal al-mawlid-a kind of fatwa the the on shaikh or more usually his representative .mncludes that it is a bid'a f:asana, an (khalifa), acceptable'innovation. ,ed to follow their ordinary mode of life. this meant .affirmed th
,

'

28 the format on of school s of mysticl

'

rm\ti01" ~.
.

"t

of schools of mysticism 29

was especially linked with membership of guilds. wh' s one hand, new techniques for the individual dhikr we st, o

dee er l11ysteries the effect of ther stress

f~.n. the dconcerned the letter of ascetlc-l11ystca the law was s.o d bn wth t morally and e towards greater systematzaton eory, .gu rt' d. t e h or f es as d d h c g roduce 8prt ns~ea d s suus ha e;ith han illul11inating their search and f gp d 1 ow i,' ...;mulatng. ,,' rector '-the manua s n as-suhrawar .rence . .l e 'i whilst najib ad-din 1 wrote one o ','. bein '~ it the states f this nature,1 adiib al-muridin, pup als s. o were paets, . .a. - n spiritual directors. other manua s were ajm was his uide, 'awiirif al-ma arif, the medeval . . dd n i est manu g ~. vade
.

i h

with the development of new forms of ofalong this sys::no devotion and adherence belongs to the next stage, when the acceptance parallel to ritual prayer went the process tariqas c of acco represented by local organizations throughout the dating the sciences of astrology, divination, and who~n magic-tech: which professed, not merely to reveal the secrets of the u~il world, but to control them. this development is especi associated with the name of al:mad ibn 'abdallah al-b" (d. 622/1225), who put the seal to the work of his predecess operating less openly by finally systematizing the sciences divination, astrology, and magical invocation. popular wo brought all this within the range of the ordinary practitioner' became part of the equipment of the shaikhs and brethren. it is easy to see why this aspect was so important and how it was to islamize borrowed material. the orders stressed t power of the word of god, and hundreds of booklets have be written on the virtues and properties of the names of god, phrases like the basmala, or qur'anic verses (ayat al-kursi), chapters (sra ya sin). the association of these 'words', as ash-shadhili's ljizb al-bal,r or al-]aziili's dalii'il alkhair.t, giv these magical properties. power d for symbolism in islam is, therefo primarily based on gnificance, r me words. 'every

e this broadening of membership led to changes in e s . ' , , id id fl h wor stra st ~e. ~d, the collective dhikr. tthe full development ,we ng an mmense n uence roughout mo socety.

it pop who ~rote w?~t. deservedl~ shihiib ad-din, ~if.t al-ad.b2 and bn al- 'arabi's al-amr alhas been muj;kam,
" ' ular by many 'ulama' because of its author's

reputation as an 'an. manuals show that the ritual is now a tracedout way,

'of life, by fallowing which the novice may attain union with exercise ry gato perer yer tasks o s su observances additional unded up an a series of ..
i f h

to the b.11.h .com i e ru es o t e novcate was abkarn alornuridin, by .tions fl"

asosularni during (d. 1021) ,

. '

li~rnj' ~~a: a -}aa, a-uqba by rj,t\1al and duties d. of418/1027. islam. it adab involves a noviciate, .'

ilted to god: 'th: tr ute to,d sahl ibnespecially 'abdalliih at-tustari (d. .o tanes, prases, and nvocations (adhkiir, ; ~'the it is n::~e receives ~~ manners, guidance concerned from a shaikh, with and imitation it a.d. is of

all the same, the ideals of the orders were co maintained, howe~

wlls wthout though impulseitor initiative onin its part'; the i'!jconcilin n conte~t, has its place asaj;ziib, and now that thes e~ ' al , cha o 319)' p. 67 god) is ad .tlter manual on th sulami's work . 29-55. pte must be in the hands of his " '~bat the ,rs a,h. novice 1
r. he turn s it

9o:shipper sho id b fi~st stage n tawakkul (dependence upon

mmanded by the law denotes a mystery'. thus the not much they were compromised in practice. (o honour whi islam accords to jurists is reflected by the fact does wul' (ablution) signify the abandonment of that certain of t pr~fane ac ~io silsila founders were wul' also professional jurists. but every action within has its ethical and theyand mystcal th mea successors clung to the externals of islamic practice and ba~1 their litanies solidyon the qur'an. they played an i~mense ~( in enriching the devotionallife of the ordinary musbid; as w~h adepts, within the sphere of the regular islamic institutons. invested orthodox ritual with esoteric si

sc in the hands of the washer of the dead becomes !ftila (cair popular. 3
o.riginal, which is t 'b

.1nted b g faa~f wth orthodoxy. director like of y . meer, 'ein knigge fr fi's', r.s,o. xxxii (1957),

h e ~n the, hands of god like a corpse in the hands

~minates in initiation, which includes investment with a mantle, and headdress.

way under guidance implies a life in common (mu'ashara) "- dedcated group of aspirants and adepts in a convent under ghect supervision of a superior. suhrawardi in the

book just one.d deals with the rules of behaviour in such an institution.4 ~perior allats various pra

iraqian tradition

j unaidi i

s n .1 i

abu 'i-qasim al-gurgani (d. 469/~76)

abu 'i-husain al-busti

mul:d al-i;iamya, d. 1135

.i

abu bakr an-nassaj d. 487/1094

abmad al-ghazali (d: 520/1126)

ll

'abdallah al-anari al-harawi, d. 481/1089

ysuf ibn ayyb alhamadani d. 535/1140

ii

ti

'ain al-qu!at abu 'n-najib alhamadani as-suhrawardi d. 525/1131 d. 563/1168

abu fadl albagh~di

qub ad-din i;iaf r al:mad as-suhrawardi al-bidlisi al-qari al-abhari 632/1234 abhariyya i. i

i i ii

~i
abu 'amma isma'il d.

i i
shaikh zahid = brahim ibn rshan d. c. 1296 t mui)ammad nr aikhalwati d. 1350

al:mad alyasavi d. 562/1169 yasaviyya

luqman perende al-khurasiini

i i

abu'l i barakat i i ynis i

i i i

i d. 1222 i

ash-shaibiini

afiyyaddin alardabm d.1334 afawiyya

suhrawardiyya najm ad-din kubra (appendix c) d. 618/1221 kubrawiyya 'abd ar-ral:man i al-isfara'ini d.717/1317 nriyyai 'ala' ad-dawla as-simnani d. 736/1336 rukniyya

ii

nr ad-din m. 'ali al-hamadani ni'matallah wali d. 834/1431 d. 786/1385 ni hamadaniyya 'matallahiyya

isl:iiq al-khuttalani d.826/1423 ightishashiyya

i i i

sa 'd-addin al jibiiwi d. 1335 jibiiwiyyasa'diyya

'umar al-khalwati d. c. 1397 khalwatiyya yai)yai shirwani d. c. 1460

adr ad-din (msa 1) d. 1393

mul:ammad 'ala' ibn brahim = i;iajji bektash d. c. 1335

i i

'ali (d. 1429)

anwar'

bektashiyya mu'in ad-din 'ali

'qasim-i

d. 1487 --

i . umar rsheni

brahim (d. 1447)

1356--1433

i
i;iajji bairam

mui)amm ad demcrdas h d. 1524

i i;iaidar (d. 1488) i bairamiyya,

unaid (d. 1460) d.1430

i
shiih isma 'il jilwatiyya, (d. 1524) ete.

i i ml:d nrbakhsh 'abdallah d. 869/1465 barzishiibadi

i

dha;abiyya

fai!-bakhsh

nrbakhshiyya

shams addin al-liihiji d. 912/1506 .j, lahidniyya

30

the formation of schools of mys1'

i els

eneral stages in the development of ,ving o . . the sufi organization leadng to the formaton ot schools ofteaching and training we may now say son:ethng abo~t ii ao:..n.alities from whom the great tariqas derve and ther 'ilt development. we have shown that they the chief ar'iqa came into through an outstanding director being succeeded lines utlined theg by ,( combined practical abilities along with spiritual qualities t, who made coliections of his sayings and episodes life, and taught their own pupils in his name. the diffi utilizing the lives of the saints as historical sources is well .d. hagiographa is simply biography designed, and con ~ distorted, to serve the cult of the saints. it forms an aspect of any study of the orders since these qualities, and manifestations are real to the believer, but they . i the historical personality. at the same time, the historian . rned with the effects, if not the reality, of such beliefs, since . mesopotamia ount for the existence of the cult and help to elucidate itscentred on baghdad, embracing syria .8..fism ~ e~pression in an organization. mwn and exten? areas of sufi thought and practice from the point egypt. lines of ascription go back through alof subsequent tariqa development were iunad mesopotamia,

the of the convent. wriid), graded according tosocety a person's stage, together . i be seen from these manuals, y but, as may mortifications as vigils (sahr) and fasts (iyiirn). although the ]' re is r wlt~ the practice of the mystical way had been worked out th'~
a:6~:~!

vanc,

ad a

"

make periodi~ retr.eat~ (khalwa,. i'ti~iif, 'uzla,,"tiziil, or

ofquadragesma) the sufis in association variable, = ndvduauywere n hsstili cellar, f highl conf~sede, limited. there were great variations too between
i

on qalandars, see appendix

the bufi establ

b.

ments. same were rich and luxurious, favoured by autho

whilst others fouowed the strictest principles of poverty unwoddliness; same had no shaikh, others were under authority of one leader and had become attached to one si whilst others were governed by a council of elders. then t were wandering dervishes such as the qalandars, who ma de of these hostels, and had their own rules and linkages bu!

~;

,~di the ~d.maghrib. 298/910)anatolian to ma'rfforms al-karkhi (d. and deriye

organization.

from central zoo/815) .and . . st sufism in india, stemming originaliy from co,qat (d. 251/865). it is here that sufism won a the first qualfied :qucntly ?eveloped along lines of its own and its from the doctors of islamic legalism, on the phases one hand, . stagnaton, and revival owed little to non-indian ine work of 'abd ar-ral;man a-8ulami (d. flz/l0zl),

~'
33 the chief

rariqa

lines

'he chief t ariqa line s 33

the khorasanian traditionalist and historian of early s disciple al-qushairi (d. 465/1072) who taught in b ~fi wrote books on ash'arite theology as well as taa~j d, i:iamid al-ghazali (d. 505/11 ii); and, on the other th all] association with the official favour of nr ad-din, 'sal r~~
their lieutenants and successors, who encouraged the deva i
<

;, .' brother of the ethical theologian abu i:liimid, cte~ to the sufi life, serving his apprenticeship
",

;en whoy devoting hi~self to .the way. ab~

h- alsa a 'ffsi but teachng at nsapur, was hs fbtl,ll' be was 'at one and the same' time withdrawn '1ve in the world, no khiinaqiih sufi but avagrant 'lring villages and the countryside, and even preach 9 the way of approach to god'.2 he spent a period

of parallel institutions of madrasas and khiinaqiihs. e o the mesopotamian tradition is the nearest that we ca an arab sufism and its objective expression, even thou~ of the leaders were not arabs. we find two main line
suhrawardi and the rifi'i. both stand squarely in the

abu 'i-qiisim , 9 r abu 'i-qiisim i see as-subki, at-rabaqat ash-shiifi'iyya, caro, a.h. 1324, iv. , abu 'i-hasan tranng under al-qushari. , aphe( al-gurgiini . not much s known about hs life for he attracted no ha,~~g:, o/.a. al-qushari al-khar~qiini (al-karrakani) khallikiin (wrtng c. a.d. 1356) has only a short account d.465/1073 (wojii,yo d. 425/1034 d. 469/1076

tradition. the rifi 'i, with its family antecedents centred o' basran marshes, haunt of outlaws, ,stressed strongly the' ancestry of al,mad ar-rifi'i a~d his standing in direct succ to arab sufis. it was the only tariqa in this tradition which gl any great following in the seljuqid empire. the suhrai school was distinctively urban and orthodox shafi 'i. the i:ia qadiriyya is also included since 'abd al-qadir, of persian o was a contemporary of the other two; but he does not count i of the i i u1;ba and silsila sufi ascriptions and the tariqa .1 which c his name oiily i abu 'ali alabu bakr an came into e~istence later, and even then it was fiirmadhi nassiij attime before it at-tsi became a universal tariqa. tsi the key figure in this tradition is al,mad ald. 477/1084 d. 487/1094 ghaziili. the" i jin which he, and his equally important master, al-fiirma, combinedi the lines of sufi aqmad devotionalexpression is al-ghaziili shown: at- tsi d at qa ,.1. bn mul,ammadh ( 2 azu abu 'l-futl, al,mad al-g .
i

yoursel . f

fterial he eould find 'i~' h?' s- ~ ,i a.d. 1337-70) brngs h~"bere his sincerity immediately won people's

tted to ?'3
"~i
i

7 ) a s bk ( ~~9\1, i, 49; tr, de slane . 'jrdiyya his elder brother. s tabaqat (iv. 54-5), but he was ..,? l in for a tirne at the ni:?iimiyya, deputizing

'

yii' ad-din
hearts,

~t

iqa may be regarded as going back to di

much

g ed '. . i d fi cl also ' ' ro, 1911, i. 19. although he enga guidan an-niissaj h put myse the guidance crisis of ;jo. the ~ latter was in the throes of his spiritual cein nta course of s under studied und h' of h' 'ad-din ,. iit this stage u sep told ne he received nom b . bu l;iamld qutb ' ' ng diseiplnes un~'~' i e persevered in the task of b i ~~rbe part that he played in his brother's life seeptl . id of his that ~a:e later through e reaity of under the eestatic states of the 'h, ~9 and brother th ernostes m 'xh:~~era as well as ysuf an-nassiij' if until i g refining me f ca a out th " . ysuf an during
,-

for his

""~;4)' quo:':':,',o;:;,.',;': ho vouehsafed '-.d, 'abdrevelations .ram.' then follow i was

wi11 . at first

.-g-

'~n only be uons conjectured. according to m. alof the (waridat) and b, "",,'. d 1 . i i, tmf as-sad' a, i. 8 murtalii, .1, 9), s an account of the dialogue between
l1ba in lf)af as-sada c:urtaqa s ?-troducton to hs ~w god and commen lv. 55, 'dabu l;hi.mid to break the bonds with this world. , ,,~dhi's ~ii az-zab"

34

the chief tariqa lines reat teac ng s a , w ose

ocla

abu 'n-najib as-suhrawardi (490/1097-563/1168)1 . influenee up on his nephew shihab ad-din. he b ~wn family with initiatory filiation (nisbat al-khirqa). he le~to;g(!, as a youth for baghdad where he followed the custo u~ of ul and fiqh. he taught for a while at the ni?ami;a~
it in order to associate with shaikh al:mad al-ghazali
t

. .
,:'fbe cbief tariqa lines

.
35

!b.ot only through his pupls, but through hs ded bath-house and aa garden bui1t him a ribiit, associated with la.rge . for f s fi work, h lu nd lu for ' . hm d h o z h was no theoretlcal exponent . u 1 li y. e 'wtuc ne extended . to 'arif has almost every sufi ractices, such shadd . . as hthe .' h the futuwwa may have encourage th e kh p y h sm a (girding), g . 'ons leader t to he was a ntro t9,ln n
,

upon him the breath of felieity and guided him ala: o path.z he eut himself off from ordinary society in orde; tt life of seclusion and retreat. murids eame to put themselv o him and the fame of his baraka spread widely.'3 he bui: on a ruined site on the tigris, whieh also became a pl refuge. he was the author of adiib al-muridin, a manual f~ aspirants. among his diseiples were abu mul:ammad rz, baqli of shiraz (d. 606/1209),4 lsma'il al-qari (d. ii 93) 'ammar al-bidlisi (d. c. 1200), the last two of whom were m of the great khwarizmian mystic, najm ad-din kubra, from' stems the kubrawiyya line of mystical ascription.5 the man regarded as the founder of the way was 'n-najib's nephew, shihab ad-din abu baf 'umar (539( 632/1234), who received his early training in his unde's: he was no ascetic living withdrawn from the world, tholi passed periods in retreat, but associated with the great. caliph an-nair li dini 'llah realized the importance of th fluence of sufi leaders and showed shihab addin great fa'. he associated him with his aristocratized futuwwa and sene as ambassador to 'ala' ad-din kaiqubad l, seljuq ruler of cr (a.d. 1219-36),7 the ayybid al-malik al- 'adil, and the khwii.ri
i accounts of his life are found in bn khal1ikan, i. 535-6; as~subki,
~g

~ fro: all over the world came to him for , \~it. itiator training,

111l1 i:

,11111

r,

ie.lf made extended stays at khiinaqiihs in various

i

towns,

ln

idnascus and aleppo. they also sent to him ill seeking pf1nions', as is seen from this acc~unt by bn kh~l1ikan: .. ber of those who had attended hs courses and sojourned
> , ii

"i

(t, training under his direction according to sufi ~

custom. .old, turkestan down to the mongollnvasion, 1928, pp. 373-4.

nvn~i, ai-i;iawadith al-jtimi'a, ed. h. jawad, baghdad, 1351/1932,

tl give me an account of the strange sensations

ukftn, ii. 9s; ir. ii. 383. cqrrespqndence became a regular feature which over

.~ of many of hese mystics. in the arab world few cqllections were tlies include theoccasions rasa'il qf al-junaid, edited and translated with during those when they experienced n on his hought and wqtk by dr. ali hassan abdel-kader, the ecstatic flt~ al/d writings of al-junaid (londqn, 1962). ar-rasa'il a wclslern mystic bn 'abbad of ronda (a.d. 1332-90) have been 1). he (beiru, came to whq lrbil as envoy the ~'nwyia 1958), has alsqan writlen a studyfrom of bn 'abbad 'alis of 'and his larger cql1ection (beirut, 1956). the persian maktmt ': ' zi' khair al-ma amir hasan si j y h -dlt al-hamadani d .' in government 1 of sill exist only in manuscript. the letters ( 111\1 :(j' have ~u . been a.~. edited 1356)by were ahmed collected remzi akyrek, by l:iamid istanbul, qalandar. 1937.

.d held assemblies for spiritual counsel, but i had

~~c ~ore cqmmqn in india. fawti'id al-fu'adi the letters of there

,~' \ya ,were collected b not the >. ~. ~tl:ma? bn ya1:ya maniri(d. a.d. 1381), al:ma~ , al-fa~<:.i of seeing him since i was too young. he

'142:j.. 2.4), performed the hs son, mu1:ammad ma'm, and the chshti, gzu fr~quently and sometimes resided near the house

iv. 256-7; yaqt, mu'jam, s.v. 'suhraward'; as-sam'ani, ansab, g.m.,' 2 l:iammad ad-dabbas (d. 525/1131) also gave him some sufi rari a1:mad al-ghazali was his rue guide. subki, tabaqtit, iv. 256. d 4 see junaid shirazi, shadd, pp. 243-7. rzbihan baql travel 3 asi

for a time. i\"ty sufi leaders in other lands used to write to

him putting
,blems, seeking advice in the form of fatwas.3

initiations, but his true silsila, the one he himself passed on, was he ~~z~n of abu is1:aq brahim al-kazerni (d. 426/1034), through

!it~tual insigh_t ?f. shihab ad-din was deeper than that of

j~:a~b b
khafif, into which he was initiated by siraj ad-din ~a1:mu

~c/
~

~~.s

of

the

qadryy.a

and

.ri~a'iyya.

the

(d. i 166), head of the khtinaqtih in shiraz. the rzbihanyya as

suhrawardiyya

d r~rell1

was restricted tq fars, but a later-stage kazerniyya became

,hc! school and hs pupls ntrodueed his. teaehing into

if, and his centre in t?e bata . - e?~nt~ - ~ a

36 the chief tariqa line s

ocus ;; tor sufis in a way that abd al-qadr s rbat n bagh e chief l' ariqa lines 37 ~own ab out the life of ibn ar-rifa'i,2 but ar-raaq al-kashani (d. 73/1329), and sufficient ar-rifa'i (a.d. 1106-82) is no .to 'ali sa 'id ~fontrast the careers of as-suhrawardi o hn t e rf ahma . ' damed. . d i bn a as has been 'ri . th q d d yy ,ofarghani (d. c. dh 700/1300).1 . ted .h con ' s or er eame ' 'abd ' an and al a family silsila h h if , f x:eal nto .. _i" e as an a khirqa line untll later. lis born into arab from familyand spent the .' 1$ a distinctive way hs imuch ~tme, ij~ n . f w er m g d t er uished by peculiar praetces ervng the f whole of d . tin d h. na eg rom ereas te ~ bata'ii:, s " the marshlands of southem iraq between
. ,

all parts of the muslim world. from him only a f organized tii'ifas stemmed. his son, 'imad ad-din m~ r.

succeeded him as warden of ribat alma'mniyya : ~,.

and he by his son, 'abd ar-ral:man,1 but it only s~n . a family tii'ifa. 'abd ar-ral:man al-wasiti, writing abou;vivi says that the suhrawardiyya had more branches (fur,)a.~~, other tariqa, but it is difficult to get confirmation of the t ~ of many. di.stinct tii'ifas as compared with t~e. large nu~~ sufis damng to belong to the suhrawardi smla. ' shihab ad-din maintained a careful orthodoxy and th. continued by his more immecliate followers, among whom ~ mentioned the well-known shirazi shaikh, najib ad-din buz~ (d. 678/12,79),3 and his son and successor, zahir ad-din! bn al-fuwati, ijawadith, p. could 323. hardly be called sufis ar-ral:man. many.who . tiryaq, p. 49, cf. p. 61. receivt\ khirqa from him,4 such as ab bakr m. 3 see mu'in ad-din abu 'l-qasim junaid, shadd al-izar fi ibn al:mad al-qas khall o/s (614/1218-686/1287), founded a school of 'an zuwwar al-mazar, ed. m. who qazwini and 'abbas iqbal, tehran, tradition~( similarly, the great persian poet sa'di of 132 pp. 334-8, and120& ahir ad-din, 338-9. shiraz (a.d. who pp. came under his influence hi 4 such references are incomplete unless one knows what when he was in baghdad, was follower of the sufi type of k i path, though his wide range of understm i~volved. we have to distinguish between the khirqa of embraced teach~ng (t, sufism and the ways of dervishes, and incompanionship his bs! (ubba) which includes training, and guidance refers to (tarb~a). e shihab ad-din's piety and love for his fellow men.": battta was another who loved to s g.a.l.s. i. 809. al-qastallani attacked his fellow andaluss? collect affiliations was invested with a bn sab these 'in, aristotelian gnostican' philosopher, then enjoyin~ suhrawardi favouchn pij khirqa at isfahan in a.d. i; and with anather at outch.8 this shows what in little !le was expelled from mecca but welcomed cairomeaning by sametimes to be attaehed to these initiations. babars, w mss~ later leaders c~ n charge of dar al-i;iadith al-kiimiliyya in 667/1268; see l. . opera ii. 53, 409-10. ing aminara, suhrawardi ascription induded all types of 6 sa'di, bstan, ed. gra:r, p. 15. sufis, n sueh distinctive characteristics as nr 7 tr. h. a. r. gibb, ii. 297. ad-din 'abd a- 8 french edition, iii. u6.
i i

'asit, leaving it only once (a,d~ 1160) to go on pilgrim ~arned in either fiqh or taawwuf, he wrote nothing;
om

attributed to him are probably not genuine. the

t~gion was the nurture eentre for arab sufism. from 'if al-karkhi(d. a.d. 813) whose parents were

.. abians
if s). his shaikh a-u~ba, who invested him with his
,\ife of

:\y (pp. 6 -6 a' '. e

1~

.an u rawardi school s ds

nd the ~~i,~f .affil~tons are given in

.:was 'ali abi 'i-fadl al-qari' al-wasiti, but he also

rij4'i b t a~ ar-~fai i s tryiiq [tmriahe] al-mubibbin fi s h i dar-rifa'iyya 7 812 th 'eligious community called from his 1275

appendix c.

~e, ~an.r al-bata'il:i (d. 54/1145).3 manr gave

tn c~ir~ i a;; ad-dm abd ar-raqman al-wasiti (a.d. '-i to add ~~/,1~8~. subsequent manaqib-type works have

,:ra n hs 27th year and established him in

umm
j

just before his death he invested him a.h. 1355, with the
the biographies of m group

ainly of ~ayi~:s~n's account in lawaqi1; (cairo.

~rt~al jurisdiction) and sajjadat al-irshiid, or

r er m lawaqib. i. 114-16.

'ooks of the o d . anur and other members of the

'

'

'

rnale nernbers so that thej are .un~ e to ~ u ge n

38

the chief t ariqa lines

he was an arab and lived in the bata'il;, at a yillage cau d a large concourse of fuqarii' attached themselves to eh' tl .. and fu.compact of aegiance foowing him [as th g " azn h he d. i t s wh c h are t ereupon extngus sad that in the' .un,' [the marshlands] they ri de on lions and perform dervish order (at-tii'ija min al-fuqara') deriving from similar ~~r ~ f~r tow festival (mawasim) at which uncountable rifa'iyyagatherings or bata'il;iyya. his foowers experience num~es. extr un ~ congregate and are all entertained. ar-rifa'i died during which they eat living snakes and enter witho~: ' ovens bto~d the spiritual and temporal succession i was maintained in tb

~",'.' 'lth'" 'i lnes exe''''''' "grofy the. 39 ci-liefrifii rariqa .. 1 th ' . extingus h ed t entre y. s s h f v>ctory ol y u eculiar characterstc o .t s y th

dl ad bl : d""i,h"h are ,riu nored 10'. the" fire-,,,~tant b ttta rnentions the related ijaidari and ears, ~r9san ..' o pa and group .

f then rolled in the fire, and others 1 '. 1ojp'" 's,unu . ""e of .' . na . . the ep wll take a . large >lnncng, so... cor , cl some of then h h ~ 1 n ~ the flesh and its ternporary ann~laton l eeth until they bte t c ean t i . . j)1 an t st . snake l roug di bret re' . .. absolute ' of mashhad, derived frorn qutb ; ",th t ersot\th 1 ce iron rngs n ther hands, . necks

' 'g properties,4 the 1;ladar~ya spre~d nto

,l a'

iran, ,5 and india6 where t was hnked wth and fnally ,tbe qalandari trend. a notable khiinaqiih was that
i r 'rsi qalandari, situated on the banks of the i

through his brother's children until this day.

\ i
1

although a1.mad was no original thinker, the fame, marshiand retreat spread widely, a focus of attraction for; sufis, four of whom founded independent tariqas: bad dasqiyya, shiidhihyya, and 'alwaniyya.3 in the time battta rifa'i ziiwiyas were deady differentiated; he r them frequently in his travels, as well as to the "extravagan tices for which they were notorious. when his caravan s' wasit in a.d. 1327 for three days he writes: '
this gaye me the opportunity of visiting the grave of the sa: 'l-'abbas al;mad ar-rifa'i, which is at a

river
' ..' jj u arak, as shaikh of an establishment called diir -, d . d b nt through f the ageney th into egypt prese 'iyya adh spread of 'thia' ' esi es uqara an akks the dgntares of
'

. when the afternoon prayers ha1, said drums and a/-maskyakha va '/-vilaya. h' kettle-drums were beaten and the he poor brethreri 2 ibn khallikan, cairo, 1299, i. 95-6. was in fact to dance. af ter by'. this ~~ they prayed the sunset prayer and succeeded, brought repast, consisting ofalso rice-bread, fish, milk son, 'ali ibn 'uthman. bn khallikiin reports that the rfa/ i and dates. when, i eaten and prayed the (d. first night memorized the poems of the local poet, bn al-mu'a1\im 592119, prayer, began to ree! to dhikr, with the to shaikh sang them they at their concerts in order excite themselves e~st~sy al;mad sitting on the prayer-carpet of (o~. cestor above-mentioned, the religious n they began 400). al;mad tried to get him to compose poetry; tryaq; the ra", musical recita\. th discussed subsequentlyi see pp. 4~-51' -::h 3 the first three are prepared loads of fire-wood which they kindled into a ahj1'1 flarne, an was a yemenite tariqa founded by abu 'i-i:fasan af ad-dm cl ~.
'attiif ibn 'alwiin (d. 665/1266), who took the tariqa from ~~a 8'

yillage caed umm t one day's journey from wasit ' . . it is a vast convent in whieh tl} thousands of poor brethren , , i

) ' 9(tbet rmi in the dexcelled hims~1f abu occason jaliil, .ad-din .., . :ni . 4 5, 7 an french edn., ) 1 lll. 43 } i pp. 286--'7. o tes n nda during the tkirteentk century, dance of . ,e gon and p r' . 'iisi~i (d. 632/1234) and into syria through abu

r were

~ire. 'deseription d . 'ali al-i:lariri (d. at bura, capital of the ijawran,

'

tr. gibb, ii. 2

h nix, ~ie al-har-n.e damas, j. sasat, v. 387-9, went toal ser. 'i of 1u 5; kk' -er . ~rr zavya amascus an '" maqrizi whence this branch was known as the i , tat, 'alied. caro, a.h. 1326, iv. 31, 404.

- -, -' .

d d

ijaririyya.8

~ of jbn batma, tr. h. a. r. gibb, ii. 273-4.

in fawiii al~~a iiajr: ~~-din m. b: lsrii'~l (a.~. 603-77),

and al;mad a-ayyad, kha/lfa of bn ar-rifa'ii al-wiisiti, trya1i ~ine of attribute-t'ifas is given in appendix h, most of them sna century family groups. '

djsciple of the qalandari, mul:ammad ibn ynus

~ho

hasan lat_(~i._269)' receved hs kkrqa from jamiil'z~rdi. ad-din

~e l\eeing before the mongol invasion who settled in shhiib

damascus de cair~ lat awalq, a persian qalandari who founded wed in 630/1232. a 'on, iii. 7<)-80. .

l rifii:i gaye, the writer a demonstration of snake- and scorpion

sn~p~~)ugg~ery. he also offered to teach for a consideration

nde'
see below:

see j. asiat. ix, v, 394. 2

u (

3 founded by 'izz ad-din a1:mad a-ayyiid (i,afid a. b.

a.d. 1228-37), but was released by a-ii1i1. ar-rifii'~ 40 the chief '!' ar/qa lines 1273. on him and his successors see mul;ammad abu 'ihudii a~. (1850--199), tanwir al-abd; fi tabaqd as-sddat ar-rifd'iyya, c~

isnii'i! or he was a noted malamati who was ed t mprison

hat he kept away from damascus. another '

4 mujir ad-din, uns, tr. sauvaire, 1876, p. 167.

1306. ; branch

(zawiya talibiyya) was founded by talib ar(dl~ tr. gibb, ii. 436, 445, 449. abiiki has an s rifa'i see travels,
acco~t other,(t syrian

~e chief r ariqa line s 41 ,(l as a great butfigures hs reputaton reds preacher, of saindy of the h d f ll' was cer period, "i ue way to become the insprer o n: 'tions bestower unsermons,l 'of benefits, >ii !~he :d the and content of his t d . .and f from h a evoton d numbers have accorde m ons, a rght up to t ~a if h as , for ,q v ondemnation o pe of orthodoxy, yet h e mse hi d tec is not the slightest indication that tion1 there w b he was

ho would never have ma e suc c ams, !tl a , .'

'

,,

.~ that he struck any new note, and it seems likely ~tion for soundness was used by others who .were '~r such developments as paved the way for ordmary ~cipate in the insights and experiences of sufis. jidir was born in jilan,z where i:ianba1ism was strong,

branehes were the sa' diyya or ]

ii. 23) of how tiij ad-din, great"grandson of al:mad ar-rifii'i,

ibiiwi

vse:

'~

accornpanied by a group of dervishes intriguedin the ] ayya~iyya,3 there was awho ziiwiya whole popula!.

erusalen,i it~a., their extraordinary perforrnances. tiij ad-din it seems settle?

n.

anatoha among turks and ibn battta iodged

since bn battta reports on his corning to umm 'abida to

fre p, receve th,

ture; tr. gibb, ii. (as 273. taqi ad-din al-wiisitithe says that he a1.madi he ealis rifa'is) acco~pa establishments,5 gr: visited

~ came to baghdad in a.h. 488 and pursued a

legalis

one

ad-din ab bakr ar-rifii'i, shaikh riwiiq umm 'abida, on the p the year 720/1321; tirydq al-mul,ibbin, p. 72, 6 tr. h. a. r. gibb, ii. 479; 1928 edn., i. 2ii.

in maehar, had seventy fuqarii', of

jianbali training, refusing to study at the ni?:amiyya

brother f q -d' h, ar- a i s s ero, s cntcsms to a n " a r imse1f, whose undoubted qualities are e o abd al 're nd received the khirqa of first investiture at
, led , e;ough. he shows that shattanawfi's book has

varied origin

, ' -'-' h tm, al:mad had h , his , h sueceeded rif s nce bnal-ghazali, par ty

persians, turks, and greeks.6 a group was even 7

parisfou edn., 1879, iv. 141. jy

.
r

island biography of 8 maldive the rnost elaborate of 'abd al-qiidir, which mahau
comp!ete 1

ash-shaikh 'ab: i ~ .768/1367), khulaat al-mafdkhir miraele a ' n (~. a.d. 1282) did not consider him important "(,! fi c. . and m b . a.h. o btuanes' sh ~'-:' ~ks include aly-li' (d (rom he the ob' " ' i n a<.r s . with 764) account ~, wherein has produced milk the cud equally, and has ,. ibn kh llikii al-qadr and the notice in his mir'dt al

d a sufi subject to al;wdl the p~ ;:~ng that he was and a hands (

it is probably true to say that untii the

?is _~erson~lity and presents him as a great rniraclem~mger, bahj~:;dl

fifteenth cen

albn yusuf ash-shattanawfi(d. 713/1314), was wntten o~er af dh-,

rifa'iyya was the most widespread of ali tariqas, but

after his death (a.d. ii 66). the shorter and stili later notce ~ ba va

century it began to ioose its popularity in favour of the q!

.'1'. (bulaq, 1283/1866, ii. 2-3) contains 'b statements that tuanes are groundless and false, being told on the t inof his ons no'worth. so theyassert that the shaikh took thirteen e collecton of 78 of his discourses this pupil at a a collecf meeting; once when the shaikh was ~l'-rabbtini f and that under w b (trthe dis th on o, 62 "sermons deliyered in a,h. 545-6, ,'\1 works ~re raune le' , -one was moved, hey, said, "youtarq are not moved and 1322/195. feel no .1 falb al-ifaqq, cairo, : rl<ib }',entitled al-ghn' a -p~,g~ 19~3) and a treatise on . hen ' ' e e b .." h d a manifest ycmr delight i", whereupon the lamps 'moved ,qilj>s. , vsted th legalistic '. about i{b..an and wh o. - jami. aiw, a,a i. urng hs wanderngs 4anced' (tr. d. s. margoliouth, loc. cit., p. 310). f: a l;iasani nasab a(j~r sa.?'s that none of(d. the genealogists ~ry~.taqi ad-din 'abd ar-ra1;miin al-wiisiti a.d. 1343), also wf. s book as a tissue of lies. he mentions the names of sup authori yaq, p. so). i that he was a kadhdhdb muttahim, an indicted liar. even though ,nterested

(d. whieh 748/1348), but based bn an-najjiir, edited and to expanded as on a tariqa, though never

master

ter but diri would attrbute to s it

. .nspre . :", ht o have done ,ndthe o~erftow~1'

42 the chief tariqa lines

of the i:ianbali faqih, abu sa' d 'ali al-mukharri . , al-khalir', but there s no ndcation that he rem: b traning until he attended the school of abu '1~~v~d ad-d abbas (d. 525/1131),1 to the disgust of dabbas' alr who resented the ntruson of this i:ianbali. af ter th~s ~ti. have spent some twenty-five years as a wandering asc:r deserts of iraq. only n 521/1127 when he was ove fi old did he suddenly come into prominence as a popu~

teaching and other nateral . 1 f ii . , _ ~x d borrowed. o owers he hs ater bl id not poss y teachng he cou lar gel found ,\6 beng . h , s y f .,., y . ijg of jadhb; . y 1 a state ,r, awra , thngs hke t~e ter qa d 3 ne o u' . ,.' ~~terestng
h' ,

t~ g>i ef

r ariq a l nes

. .,

'l1ire called al-?hawthiyy~ ~r,al-m.ra;yya. . sh'~\'''wfi' ahd ,i-ood'" ~npd' an~ht- h"

,)

in v,riou, parts of the 1,_c world, al al

en muhannad al-bata'i1)i in syria, and mu1)am as~sam~d in egypt. this is unlikely since' abd

n baghdad.2 from that date his reputation grew, but a:ra~

preacher, not as a sufi. he dressed like an 'iilim, not lik : a madrasa with an attached rimf as a residence for hi: large family, and pupils was specially built for him (a,h. 52' there s no evdence that he ever damed to have a path or' anyone or nitiated anybody. no sufis ascrbed themselves: because t was suspect 'abd ai-qiidr's silsila but to such men as al:mad ai-ghaziili, abu najib asrardy than al-hamadiini. qiidri lines, for in suhra:figui and other abu ysuf taqinstance, ad-din althe in sa, salsabil.4 the order wasitiattributions wrote; 'abd was renowned during lifetime his i bnal-qadir aj-athir, xi. 80; m. b. shakir, fawiit his al-wafiiyiit, ii. for 3; al. tityiiq, 54; al-yafi'i, mir'iit al-jiniin, instruetion, iii. 242, h sermop.courses of religious but he 2 it is noteworthy that his biographers give no indication that never at any time prop he ei khirqat at-taiawwuf. however, af ter his death, with any contact, alone training, with any of the great sufis of the the p: of let time, certain people were given his khirqa, then e~j it grew throt da~, baraha and expanded through highland and lowland thi one story of his appealing to y~suf al-hamadani (visite~ two of his children who did not pursue a secular eareer baghdad ~:i ttt were 'a razzaq [a.h. 528-603] al- shows 'aziz [d. bn al-athir, x. 496-7), and ths and very 'abd account hsa.h. lack 602]. these two 9 set to work to propagate their of d 'g b father's way in all sineerity, temp and modesty, and in the story goes that 'abd aj-qadir, troubjed by inner voices or that movement they were assisted by certain and e~l~he sympathetic associates of their father.3 go out and preach, consulted ysuf aj-hamadani, 'the qutb ~yo' ysuf tojd him: 'since you possess the jight of fiqh and the 9u; ao, now preach to the peopje. hesitate no longer! mount the pulplt wasit~, tiryiiq, p~. ~3-~.
(o.ru
4

po . ,y'''''' lot ,lone path, to he in"oduced, and

p

'(l) as margoliouth has pointed out,3 does not

-j~ r bb f l , ' - uyu<,at at- a anyya, caro, a.h. 1353, support '

'

attributed to him produced few famous

'c

his sons propagated his way throughout ~. the muslim

introduced ,ila trditian music and the rhythmic dance were not

t balja, cairo edn., 1304, pp. 101, 10910.

...

gh ';if. q1idiri centres great-grandson, existed in iraq andad-din. syria in 'abd al-qiidir's shams a.d. such ~s
timt n 2, r:aferences to course its influence elsewhere. therules, mongol "jej1tury. in the of time a body of conquest !!\ rame the tomb had acquired and when that teach assiduous tomb

xokrences to the family in the chronides of baghdad,

1,dicates that it spread at all widely or rapidly

~pointment of one of them as shaikh of a newly-built

,\.fuwati, al-i;iawddith al-jiimi'a, baghdad, a.h. 1351, pp. before

3 aj-,' es

,et:ice was formed,4 and in some shaikhs ~t;: went to baghdad 727/1326 he began makes no to initiate ,p. 1"~
mention of it. n, 5.

we read n bn khallkan (11.440) ofjuqara tracng tlemse~v i.qadir"

bim ilaihi) to abmad ar-rifa'i, but no such attributions to 'ab a

~t\lo his name because his fame as an intercessor was. iraq it remained a local baghdadi fii'ifa,5

44

the chief t ariqa lines

in egypt it has never been a popular order. in ind' ,

' onal institutlons and had httle effect h and proes , i life of fazlahin. ciiief rariqa llnes 45

become an estabiished order until the arrival of

ghawth (d. a.d. 1517), who claimed descent from '.abd u, and even then it remained localized. the author of a'i ,a writing ab out a.d. 1600, does not include the tariqa n- '" orders represented in india. around a.d. 155 it was ~~( from hijaz into the funj state of the two niles by 1'/ al-bahari al-baghdadi.2 2. egypt and the during maghrib the turkish expansion egypt andj, the maghrib constitute a special zone, since minor there is no evidence that the qadiri as a orders founded in these regions, mainly in the distinct \, next phase was represented among thea multitudes inascription the maghrib they underwent unique of dei development, di spread far beyand theirofconfines, or atthe least carving out their niches holiness within outside 1 reiigious eciej further, the sufis of the region contributed httle of that region. the order was only introduced in during tl period to the doctrines and method of any matiye de taawwuf. fashion into istanbul through the energetic a number of eminent sufis were egyptians, at initiative of least by rmition: (d.dh 1041/1631 or 1053/1643), who 'n-nn (d. a.d. 860), whose father came fro founded a khang' nubian stretch, the greatest arab sufi poet, tumar tp-khaneh. he is called pir thiini (second ibn al master), which i (d. a.d. 1234), of syrian parentage but bom and that he was the first to introduce it (the first live~ i~ e master, of cours and al-biri (d. a.d. 1296), important because of hs nf!,al-qadir), and he is said to have founded tabd same 4 ( tekkes in the region.3

chief >,gjp , both east and wes~. such ich teaching spread, to become s his khana~ahs, how ~,fron : eventuay one 1h s. 'two egyptian tariq,: f~unders w~o~e orders jnad al-badawi and ib~ahm ad-das~q. al:.mad '6/u99) was an egyptan by adoptlon, for he
'

. h kh- _ htheh. h : ~;,' the electei home ash-shadhili, d ye thoug , h few cities schools ofof mystical insight s had 't the abounde wt a'}aqaw c

~rab family which had emigrated to fez and then,

':e hijaz.' he was orig~~ay a rifati and receiv~d the centre in the bata l:. of iraq~ on the death n ._.bu 'l-fatl:. al-wasiti, khalifa of al:.mad ar-rifati, ;'tl of ash-shiidhili and from a.h. 620 rifati represen t, the 'iraqi brethren sent al:.mad to take his place.2 o tanta, won great renown, and received divine found his own way. he died in 675/1276 and his :a was to become the most famous sanctuary and place $gypt. his order, known as the al:.madiyya but better }, the badawiyya to avoid confusian with other orders name, gave rise to a number of branches,3 not conpt,. ~or it spread into hijaz, syria, turkey, tripoh u.nsa. ,n abi 'l-majd ad-dasqi (c~ 644/1246687/1288) was sufi .but cam~ from the soil of the nile es ~s gven in appendix e. being b ,j ,banks, . a aqat al k b age nto .a baraka-inheriting familyand deriving his ilo~er vllage with ,~ith najrn ad-d- u ra, a.h: 1355, i. 143-58. n which mal:nud al-ifahani? al-wasiti, he was associated. ash tiryaq, \;1isder~b,le notice on him4 consists mainly of quota i jawahr, a book of instructions to murids 'and httle ut his life. he is shown to have been ini~iated into

di, 5 rita 'i, and badawi chains, and then received

i: gives an account f h' r
'

tat al-kubra c' o s fe and dica transmitted by his brother his nisba of' -~r~, a:h. 1355, i. 158-63. he was cal~ d a ~1 through having arrived in egypt wearing ,hiiji berber~ a:h-s~~~t~t~am, 't~e ~uffied', but it is unlikely ,of the eastern a b ran (op. ct. . 160, i. 16) says he wore branch . .ra s) from childhood. at- t

abu madyan, d. 1i97

madyaniyya
\1)n1ad ibn ar-rfii'i, d. 1182

rilii'iyya ysuf b. 'abd ar-razziiq kbaiaf ai-kmi ai- j azli d. 1i80 d. aiexandria
muj).yyiddin bn ai- 'arabi

ii

abu msii as-sadrati

i

~
abu 'il;iajjiij ysuf aiuquri d. luxor, 1244 shammiis an-nbi

i\

d. 124

ai:mad ai-badawi al)mad a-ayyiid d. tanta, 1276 d. 1273

'abd ai-wahhiib ai-hindi

,j pm"'
brahim ad-dasqi

a/pnad b. muj).ammad at'ali ibn maimn tabmsi (dabbiisi) atd. lebanon, isli tnisi

iii

'aiawiin 'ali mm b. 'arriiq 'ali b. al,unad b. 'atiyya d. 1526 ai-kizwiini d. 1530 khawii1iriyya d. 1548 (syria)

al)mad badawiyya d. 1288 ibn 'aiwiin branehes yiiqt ai- 'arshi dasqiyya-burhiimiyya d. 1266 d. aiexandria, 'alwiinlyya (yemen)707/1307
shihab ad-din aimablaq niiir ad-din aimablaq d. 797/1394 shams ad-din muj).ammad aii;ianafi d. 847/1443 l;ianaftyya (egypt)

137

abu sa 'id 'abd ar-ral)miin yal:yii b. ai-hanali ai-haznri 'abd al- 'aziz i d. ai-l;iaj.i iiiiiiiii sa 'id ibn ysuf i i d. 1702 hazmiriyya l;liil}iyya hanaliyya

iii

ya!:ya al-qiidiri (qarafi?) aqmad b. 'uqba al-l;ia;lrami (egypt)

.ci b. al-'ara aqmad azi zarrq i d. c. 1494 i

zarrqiyy a karziiziyy a rashidiyya ete.

i darqawiyya

46

the chief t ariqa lines

"

permission lariqa. 1'h'

to

found

an

independent
"he c cl ht e envyd reputaton strre "'''. ng and ,', -'i h ties of fraternity a:d extrasensory an , hs teac contact al hade 'ulama'; he was summoned to the ' ,}fa, n them. i on hs return he settled at f 'd i ) "cl betwee ,e m?ve an account of., himself and died on
hief tarjqa lines 47

d d t~e the.lbra1:imiyya until a.:a. yy d ~nth century

'

whenl:d~as :' caiing themselves dasuqs. it was also known as th ere from his .laqah burhan ad-din. like the badaw

~
,',

'

ige of 'dbbiid (presumab y a centre o the flsh to gl evotees f s sfi i i f the twelfth-eentury u o. western s am, . #e1'0 . b a b f 'iv v1adyani tii'ifas came nto eng. num er o 'hjg spiritual and way .grandsons to ..'... . ctive sons madyani deriveswen,t from him ~.?!'ptand heand djsu there.2 these ncluded abu 1-l;iajjaj i"fame n yusuf, toms obieer, who founded a ziiwiya at luxor in the 'emple of amun where he died (642/1244) and whose jbecame the most famous in upper egypt.3 another \iajjaj's master, 'abd ar-razzaq al-iazli, who went zawiya aseribed to dh 'n-nn at akhmim and then >,vhere he is buried. other western sufis who found (dial spiritual home in the east were the andalusians :1>i" (d. damascus 638/124), ibn sab'in (d. mecea ;rnd the latter's diseiple the poet shushtari (d. caiied y 668/1269 the 'b rta), a madyani by mystical ascription, ', who c. was to eeome the most in north i 59important 928 wrote . .' " 9 (lawaql., 'h .. ""that abu madyan himself . sent many ii. 19,1. 27) afriea l o e gypt. these ../hslamt poems which have continued to be i i s_~entoned; ;ajjiij al-u ur-s om op. ct., . d d .h ne u e t e son thril:la, rnta, cairo edn.b 1 popular madyan iii!1a{iras from whom to he this day.4 in ierusalem 133. e ste of hi t is. a ziiwiya '~.' a grandson of abu 4ian ofthere ch <; i see.a~-badsi, maqfad (pp. 153-7), ,where his situateq near bab as~ ijaram ashmadyan ined sha' ?s~an ongn,sharif sharnmiis an-nbi, and other whieh still survives. 'com ,y.an's 'v!ay was perpetuated through his ~ vi~ited {i:n~ohas a. notice on him in lawaqil, (i. pupii, 'abd . se poems d m d _. ai 136-7), : mashsh 625/1228), and e.g. the latter's most have ," 1 b, 'atiyy (d. d appeare n a yan crcles, the m. !it- targhi (d qb (i. ~7). another irnmigrant berber eminent i$htariyya' see ;~ . a.~. 1~30), an-nafal,at al-qudsiyya was "i 'l-ijasan 'ali ash-shadhili whose wa fi sharl,
it-qsi (d , at ena, 592/ii96), master of abu 'i-i;!asan n 'qat al- ,imad, shadharat, viii. 218. 'ali .[cs on h~ ena, 613/1216). "'

i~

:111

iii

ii i

111'11

iii i,

iili i~ ili i~i ,i~ 1% ' ii

iili

lll iii iii.

~ )i

!ii~

1 1 ~

% 1
111
iii

11

i'

1 '11

ii~

a.h. 15, w ere e was rawn to t e ria i school a?u 'l-fat\ al- wiisiti as his shaik~ (a.d. 618).
n

.,'

ewel

he beca~ea~~ wth the search for the qutb (pvot) of the universel, 'l-fat\ told him the to return to the west where he 48 chief 'fariqa lines would ~n~ from morocco to egypt and alsa to gain a foliowin . he returned and eventually found in 'abd asarabia. ,g him in s}( sa~ this abu 'l-l;iasan, born in the village of ghun.~ al mashish of fez who 'prepared him for the walaya'.2 . . an i-i y lat 6 h h the advice of 'abd as-saliim, he left morocco go west in 593/1196, received his first khirqa to from into retei a cave near a yillage of ifriqiya called abu ~~~~n f shiidhila, whence deri~ b. l;iarazim (d. 633/1236), a pupil of abu mad nisba. periodicaliy he went out on preaching and teaching t, thereby incurring the hostility of the tunisian 'ulama'. so did the persecution become that, in spite of the support

u
'~i

. to extract from his )f an shadhili tariqa at a s ~e to a .-. urs an s i b h. i ascetic' i ii personal ~ haikh sa' ilj, or 'vagabond ex . . 1 . . (d.did 1ut :ta' 'ata' allah 'abbas caro d ~". yd-din bsibn into any speca ru e or ntua, o ne scp e n his disciples. partlcu nel1t al1 1 ,' not d by . 1 : ) a-mursi (616/1219-686 1287 , anda ar, .i s asd as' , ,-:j,jl 709/1309),2 d d ah ;., . '. hs ed his circle 111 alexan na, was as . roantane . regar. ed th nte pup usan 1 f h of both b '\\,bo )on ; ) aaccount of the life and sayings 'i d a ribiit with a mosque was u t or m. e bis ma . ' dh 1m ll d tor, an ' abu 'i-basan ;~abbas3 and collected their awrad. pupils carried on f ash-shadhili in scattered zawiyas having little con aliye by ''''oup of pupils with whom abu 'i-basan had kept up
son al, '. u-. asan ash-shiidhili, composed ab out 745/

tariqa lines 'fhe cn . able to others. alu cl knew how was 'v

ef 49

,11\\ ii

ii ~\\\

ii

i i

i
ii'
i\\~i

il . '. ilm

ii ~i

egypt, where he won great renown, not onlyamong the pop but surprisingly enough even with 'ulama'. he made a pr~ of going on i,ajj every year and he died at i:iumaithrii on tht sea coast whilst on the way back from one of them in 656/1 we have said that it is usually impossible to pierce throug mists of pious legend to the real men beneath. a few lett abu 'i-hasan have survived which show him as a very l

sultan, abu zakariyya al-l;iafi, he was driven to take ref

th each wafii' other. in ifriqiya his name was kept-' a:nmad (i kn

, tor his a~zab sa so ?~- as m. bal;.r- a-afa) :n~. hs

ii~ ''ii

ndence af ter he had been forced to leave the country.4

;1 in 927/ 60. he -din menf u i n bakhili and he from bn 'ata' ahah.

la from da'"d ,~e sha ran; at-tabaqat al-kubra, 11. 19-

ii

ili

".~ia.n deriyatiye was the wafa'iyya, founded by

shaikh, ~ leader of personal dedicatio

as pilgrimages, sufism whose

'

t was not

so much that his he preached them a smp e of b his not weaken concern to for the welfare hislt:

followers. b addition they enable us to discern he had b how he and other tariqa lt i the quaiities of a spiritual master as is revealed ualil' were able to become the inspirers of enduring he certainly sy~tems, formed no intellectual system, but he ha q correspondence is inaccessible to me but here is a testmony value from p. nwyia:

egyptian hu.nbuki (tcnthrqa lne founded by abu mul;.ammad 'be wafa'iyya spread into syria6 and survived 'abdahah in egypt b<wafii'iyya h,c~n:ury), hence the double name given to f'ffgsent century.
h

.11"$ al-jal:?n.~ a :iiwiya in jerusalem in his time (he died cairo if al-minan shams , . " bn a~mad wafa' (71/1301-760/1359),5 . )-::wafii' caie~' k~,tr. p. . 147. he is to be s d b sauvaire, ,t!c8c short lives of their master, which also include whose son -'wrote u:~), compled about 720/1320' and 'abd an-nr 'tir (cd t " u.am~a i n a.abbagh,ktiib durrat al-asriir wa distinguished f i h selections ibn .. :1'357-807/144) is one of the great names in : with the kh' .,rjlspondence' m ~h " i ",anaqb ab- '(417/1026-501/1107). this abu 'i-wafa'

it of

this

had a decf

" cairo, 1>,11:1 correspondence shows not only that sbadhili i see al;.mad b, m. b. 'abbad, al-mafiikhir al- alyya,

la, ibn 'abbdd de randa, beirut, 1958, p. 124.

t one egyptian line, the i;lanafiyya, came directly from al-mursi; see bie of spirimai genealogies. on the founder muhammad al-hanafi ,~, sae sha'riini, at-tabaqiit al-kubrii, ii. 81--'92 (the ascription' is on mubiirak, khitat jadida, iv. 99-102. abu 'i-wafa',

s 'abdaiii: c s one of the silsilas to which ibn ar-rifa'i was o famous in ~~nv~rte_~. the former highway robber

p. o; and for the qutb see below, pp. 163-5. jurisdict ledge of the sufi teaching of the eastem doctors, ~ waliiya used in this way has the sense of 'spiritual office or 3 see bn battta, 1939 edn., i. 42.

e ata l;. that he ahah was al-iskandari, nicknamedcom taj al-' ,z..man, ?y tiij ad-din aqmad ibn 'ata' arifin. id. 1284, prnted on margin of ash-sha 'rani latii'

~1

. e

i entions2 sx ta jas n western orocco. e

he. s s roug t out n or er to pont the contrast \ " fifteenth-century shiidhili mavement to which the diffu~ abu '1-i;iasan's silsila is largely due, a devational movement

';~;g

from abu muj::amm~d ?iilij:: ibn (yaniiran) "

~
"ii i~

affected every family in the maghrib. i the period of the early marinids of morocco (full 50 the chief t ariqa lines cl)) span, 1195-'147) and early l;iafids of ifriqiya through the circulation of ibn 'atil' allilh's w k (a.d. 1228~ was important the flowering western hili -way began for ~o spre~d in of th~ lv!a?hrib, . ton m 1 hth . h h sufism. like ., a amat, t oug t s term was , . . : g whic~r hsa~hj h i f h i juqs theplacin east, the marinids and i;iafids stro notin used, or e. upon the master. t e cu but tvaton t remaned o t e ntenor an ndvdualistic he. shildhilis trad' . w paralleled the fo . in t cl tion of madrasas with patronage sufi:g leaders o (references to investment with theof khirqa now ed. it g w< and be their zti sa marinid, abu '1-i;iasan, af ter his capture clear the of and no popular form of . devotons was encoura tilimsan i i that th faqr (poverty) b hmeant no life d of mendicity or 1337, sponsored the development of a large withdrawal from normallife, rather the term refers to th establishment ar" c~. tomb of abu madyan by building a mosque, the madrasa, ~ baths, and ancillary buildings. thus fiqh and taawwuf b~ mutually tolerated companions. sufism in the maghrib, as ali nilotic sudan, became a subject for regular teaching comp with the acquisition of legal sciences. this contrasts. with ': relationship in arab near east in: general, where classcal su. was just tolerated. .. it is clear that abasic, continuative madyani tradlto~ maintained in the maghrib quite distinct from the sh~ which was then more egyptian than maghribi, being known
': ''

'l(e. 55o/1155-631/1234), ~ dscple of a?u madyan, he chiefslowly rariqa only westwards, lines not ~enty ale~a~dna on n hs d th-century g years in 1 al -w revva. ast,~nd, wntng ' -' becoming l t h d fif e teen . return-to 5"rea nmadyani tra .ton t e i imsamyya,1 .~ lls the
, ,' '

,\11

w 'ii

. ' an. bn qunfudh in nuclei his al. h uns 't32~, c~ with it provided the from riond a ribiit at af, ntensfied the f l h , . g d iiy concerne wt t e i e and prncpa
51

iii

faqir, '.which t'1385 of,-';1' ,.d. mavement o.ovenen .

,!!socate be t

th

111l

,111'

~he hoiy places. he wrote a talqin al-wird

,

and had 'are fron the enmity of the fuqahii' .3 at the end of the ,.,enth century his order was in a state of confusio ndant, a!::mad ibn briihim al-miigiri, wrote a life ,vhiij al-wiirji~ in order to preserve the
~\\~ !it

\\\1, 1\\1

li' illi

name of the

the charge of bid' a cast upon it by the miiliki

bigots, as

,cont his kariimiit or manifestations of god's favour. ~,)1ed berber groups included: the shu' :uian world sufis blended the two traditions aibiyyun, of interior n. shu'aib b. sa'id, patran saint of .atabu which cameayyub to be linked with the name . !' ttryiq, p. 49. . al of l i to these o~ps gr . ~ w be found in g, s. colin's translaton of 1 ' n with mesopotamian), that associated an a6s) m 1 one and lo~ a.d. and of the masters of abu t e onda b' . aroc. xxvi (1926), 207-8; see also p, d abu yazid " s, rchv ya'azza; wya,
. from " pp. 'm, abu zakariya yaj::yii al-i;iiij::i; the ,', q196. 92-3, a 'ad
anan, turkish, and indi an spheres

, 'crown of the gnostics'. on him see especiaily al-wiisiti, tiryiq, pp,

~ater accou_nt.s are ~o:~~ in ~oilections like sha 'riini,. law~~ii,, ~~'e~~~~~" abdal-qadr al-jlan s sad 'to have frequented hs majls an he rog his baraka', but was not initiated by him (tiryiiq, p, 42), ~o~ ~as ii' ibn as one of abu 'l-wafii's starpupils: 'someone said to shak a~ 50 ci "o my lord, was there among the disciples of abu 'l-wa~~' ~n~rnrepied away by the flashings'of ecstasy as 'abd al-qiidir al-jl?, we fii' se,1

gham ,erut, 1958, pp. xxx-xxxi; a. faure, art. 'hazmiriyyun',

isi, m ," ,f aghmatiyya) or hazmiriyya, from abu zaid

the chief r ariqa lines

53

nystique comme al;med ghazali, cela aurait mieux valu, et il aurait coi1i1u le mystere de la proximite mahometane, comme 52. the chief

r ariqa lines

al).med l'a col1nu, car il n'y a rien de pareil, dans l'univers, a l'amour d'un ma1tre, d'ul1 directeur spirituel, d'un introducteur [des profanes aupres de la divil1ite).
i

al-bistami(mahimati: khurasanian). iranian sufis tended to express greater individualism, divergent tendencies, and heterodox doctrines and practiccs, and consequently it was here that such tendendes are reflected in later orders. many sufis were strongly drawn towards 'ali as the source of esoteric teaching, and imamitwelver (and to a lesser degree isma'ili) ideas survived under the cloak of sufism. later, these were to come into the open and consolidate themselves in neworders (dhahabiyya, nrbakhshiyya, ni'matullahiyya, and bektashiyya), or as with the afawiyya, whose head in the early sixteenth century became the master of iran, actually change from a sunni to a shi'i order. the accompanying tree of spidtual genealogies, which shows some aspects of the merging of the two traditions, serves at least to introduce the names of famous sufis whose leadership and ideas were deeply to influence subsequent orders. two significant figures in central asian sufi history were abu '1-i:iasan 'ali alkharaqani (d. a.d. 1034 at the age of 80), who regarded himself as the spiritual heir of al-bistami,2 and abu 'ali al-farmadhi (d. a.d. 1084). two of the latter's pupils, important in that from them the chief lines of mystical ascription are derived, are al).mad al-ghazali (d. 520/1126), younger brother of the better-known abu i:iamid, and ysuf al.hamadani (441/1049-535/1140). the name of abu i:iamid al-ghazali has been inserted in the tree to show why he counts so little in the teaching as well as the ascriptions of the orders. he comes fully within our definition of a sufi, but, though his mysticism of intellectual insight and understanding is acknowledged, he is not regarded as being a practising sufi by the ecstatics and gnostics. abaki reports jalal adi see al-wasiti, tirydq, p. 47. other early khurasanian shaikhs with strong din rmi as commenting: malamati tendencies included ysuf ibn al-i;iusain ar-razi (d. 31/913), abu i;iaf al-i;iaddad 2.65/879), and abu 'uthman al-ha iri (d. 2.98/911). l'imam (d. mol)ammed ghazali a nettoye la mer de la 2 on al-kharaqani see e. berthel's article in islamica, iii. 5 ff.; science dans le monde des anges; il en 195-7, a leve farid ad-din 'anar, tadhkirat al-awliyd', ed. r. a. nicholson, ii. l'etandard; il est devenu le guide de l'univers et le 2.01-55. de beaurecueil has pointed out (khawdd,ja 'abdulldh andri, beirut, 1965, 65-6) a number of traits which kharaqiini and bistami savant despp. mortels. s'il avait eu un atome d'amour
had in common; apart from the fact that they came from the same district, they were both illiterates who, on their own, without the supervision of any murslid, sought to follow the way to god by direct divine guidance.

the twe1fth century was a period of transition in these regions towards a distinctively persian sufism, for which the way had been prepared by sufi poets like abu sa'id ibn abi 'lkhair (a.d. 967-1049).2 with this movement abu ya'qb ysuf al hamadani al-bzanjirdi (a.d. 1049-1140) is espedally assodated. he left his native lr-kurd village in hamadan province for baghdad, where he studied shiifi 'i jurist, abu isl).aq ash-shirazi (d. a.d. 1083)' he did brilliantly, espedal1y devoting himself to 'ilm an-naar (rationalism), and was put in
i c. huart, les saints des derviches tourneurs, 1918, i. 2.00. see

fiqh under the famous

the chief t ariqa lines

: of a class of students. then suddenly 'he abandoned all the tical speculation to which he had been devoted and took f off into retreatto prepare to dedicate himself to the things really mattered-the personal life of devotion in god's :, to calling people to god, and to guiding his contem~s along the right path'. i he returned to hamadan, then to dividing his time between there and herat. many famous scribed themselves to him, but from two of his khalifas ticular spring two major lines of ascription, one persian, 1 from 'abd al-khaliq alghujdawani, the other turkish, 1 from alfmad alyasavi. paths of these great central asian sufis, af ter taking root iranians, also took hold of the expanding turks, and were jortant factor in facilitating their adjustment to islam. ascriptions and tendencies spread with their dispersion, ess accelerated by the mongol conquests, and became lly influential at the far extremes, in anatolia and india. al- yasavi stands as the prototype of all the turkish sufis; m him derives i:hijji bektashz as a kin d of mythical symbol :lreds of migrating turkish biibiis,3 whose name served as nym of a famous tariqa. the yasavi tradition was strongly 1 from the beginning. alfmad began his training under a 1 shaikh, arslan baba, af ter whose death he went to a, at that time stili largely iranian, to join ysuf alani' s circle, becoming his khalifa number four.4 later, he :l his po si tion to return to turkestan to become the head mp of turkish-ascribed shaikhs (sar-i silsila-i mashii'ikh-i a long line of turkish mystics derive from his inspiration with the migration of biibiis, spread among the turks of i. whereas the mawlawiyya, which thrived in certain khallikan (wafaydt, cairo, a.h. 1299, iii. 426) quoting
ibn an-najjar ~45), who in turn is quoting abu sa 'd as-sam'ani (d. 562/66), hismerv. tasiti shows (tirydq, p. 47) that the derivation of the khirqa of sayyid i-khurasani, nazil bildd ar-rm, from al).mad al-yasavi was accepted 1320. s the turkish term for a missionary or popular preacher. ata is an >mmon designation and title for a holy man. . irst khalifa was 'abd al-khaliq, the second 'abdallah barqi, and the 1 mul:ammad i;iasan al-andaqi (d. a.d. ii 57). it s highly unlikely ad succeeded to the leadership ol the bukharan circle as yasavi asserts. bn i;iusain al-wa'~, rashal;uit 'ain al-l;aydt, pp. 8-9.

the chief tariqa lines 55

drcles in anatolia, belonged to the iranian tradition, the khalwatiyya derived from this central asian turkish tradition, but its treatment has been reserved for the next chapter. having inserted a genealogical table it may be well to remark that the lines of ascription up to this age do not imply the descent of one rule. sufis still wandered about seeking masters, many did not'transmit any one tradition, but formed their own ways from their various sources of enlightenment. this is particularly the case with the order-founders. the difference af ter their establishment is that they become true silsila-tariqas, that is to say, the line traced back through certain figures is consciously maintained. these chains of authority are of ten very complicated. whilst that from the founder to the ancestor tends to become stable, the lines of each individual khalifa back to the founder varied. the main tariqas emerging from the central asian tradition which survived in some form were the kubriiwiyya, yasaviyya, mawlawiyya, naqshabandiyya, chishtiyya, and bektashiyya. we will give a short account of the founder and the development of the tradition, with the exception of l;iajji bektash, whose re1ationship to the order attributed to him is tenuous, whilst the order itself comes more appropriately into the next stage of development. (a) kubriiwiyya from najm ad-din kubra (54/114.5-618/1221)1 stem many chains of mystical ascription or deriyatiye orders, mostly now defunct but important for the historical range of the orders and for their sanads of dhikr practices. although born in khiva (khwarizm) najm addin followed a course of ascetic discipline in egypt under the persian shaikh-sii'ilj, rzbihan al-wazzan al miri (d. 584/1188), disciple of ab najib as-suhrawardi, from, whom he received his first khirqa, but it was not until his search led him to baba faraj of tabriz that he adopted the full sufi life. another teacher was 'ammar ibn yasir al-bidlisi (d. c. a.d. 1200), but hisreal trainingtook place under isma'il al-qari(d. 589/1193), who gaye him the khirqa of tabarruk. he settled eventually in his natiye khwarizm and built a khiinaqiih in which he trained a number of remarkable men, including majd ad-din al-baghdadiz
i on najm ad-din kubra see f. meier's edition of his fawd'il; al-jamdl wa fawdtil; al-jaldl (wiesbaden, 1957) which contains a valuable study of his life and thought. 2 the nisba probably relates to baghdiidak in khwiirizm.

najm ad-din kubrii d. 618jl221 kubrawiyya saif ad-din sa 'id albakharzi d. bukhara 658/1260 badr ad-din firdawsi assamarqandi najib ad-din mul).anunad d. delhi
sharaf ad-din al].mad b. yal).yii al-maniri . d. 1380 , firdawsiyya (in biliar, lndia)

i
i

majd ad-din albaghdadi d. 616/1219

i i i i

farid ad-din 'aniir d. c. 1225

ra4i ad-din 'ali-i liilii d. 642/1244

aq.mad algurpiini d. 669/1270 i nr ad-din 'a.r.

al- isfarii' ini alkasirqi d.717/1317 nriyya

najm ad-din ad-diiya d. i256

sa 'd addin ali;iamya d. 650/1252 i 'aziz adr ad-din b. m. brahi anm nasafi d. d. 1322 661/1263 bal;riibiid ta 'ifa

rukn ad-din 'ala:' ad-dawla assinniini d. 736/1336

,-i, d: 8ofj//jp'5

1 ashrafiyya (oudh, lndia)

r
i \

, abdallah al-barzisha:badi al-mashhadi

mu\)ammad ibn , abdallah al-msa'i =nrbakhsh d.869/1465

din m. al-baidiiwiiri

rashid ad-

dhahabiyya (shiraz)

qasim faiq.bakhsh nrbakhshiyya

'ali al-baidiiwiiri mul).amma d b. iddiq alkhiyshiibi , l;iusain al-khwiirizmi , ya'qb ibn al-h.asan al-kashmiri ya'qbiyya (in india)

shams addin al-lahiji d. 912/1506 lahjaniyya

56 the chief

r ariqa lines

the chief

r ariqa lines 57

(d. a.d. 1219), who was the shaikh of the great persian poet, farid ad-din 'ahar (d. c. a.d. 1225), author of manlig atrair ('speeeh of the birds'), an allegorieal mathnawi whieh traees the spiritual pilgrimage through 'seven valleys' (stages) with deep insight. najm ad-din fell vctim to the mongol saek of khwarizm in a.d. 1221. although most of his works are in arabie he wrote in persian a ifat al-iidiib (rules of eonduet) for the guidanee of neophytes, whieh forms an important landmark in the trend to wards the lranization of sufism. from many of najm ad-din's khalifas no defined braneh orders stemmed but rather a kubrawi tii'ifa loealized a~ound the khalifa's tomb, to whieh were attaehed a eonvent and aneillary buildings. many establishments of this kind were visited by bn battta in a.d. 1333. these included that of najm ad-din himself
ioutside bn battta, paris edn., iii. 5-6. " bn khaldun, 'ibar, bulaq, 1867, v. khwarizml and that of saif 534.

sayyid 'ali ibn shihab ad-din b. m. al-hamadani, b. hamadan 714/1314, d. in pakhli 786/1385, and buried at khotlan in tajikistan. the ~efinitive establishment of islam in kashmir is ascribed to three visits of this vagrant sufi in a.d. 1372, 1379, and 1383. he was associated with a migratian of sevenhundred sufis seeking a haven from the mongols under timur, followed byanother three hundred under 'ali' s son, mir mu1;ammad,1 ightishashiyya,2 a khurasani braneh founded by is1;aq al-khutta lani (assassinated by emissaries of shah rukh in 826/1423), a pupil of 'ali al-hamadani. from him through his pupil, 'abdallah barzishabadi mashhadi, eame the shi'i order of dhahabiyya (centred today in shiraz), the term by which najm ad-din' s line is frequently and confusingly denominated. nrbakhshiyya, a khurasani braneh, deriving from mu1;ammad ibn 'abdallah, called nrbakhsh (d. 869/1465), a pupil of is1;aq al-khuttahini, who developed his own distinctive shi'i beliefs. from him again stemmed two lines: that through his son, qasim fail-bakhsh, carried on the nrbakhshi, and the other through shams ad-din m. al-lahiji (or lahjani, d. 912/ 1506-7), who had a khiinaqiih in shiraz, branehed out independently. as-simnani was a most important influence in the intellectual development of central asian and indian orders, even though his own order was of no great importance. bom in 659/1261 in the khurasanian yillage of simnan into a family with a civil service tradition he entered the service of the buddhist ilkhan arghn (reg. a.d. 128491); then, as a result of experiencing an involuntary /.zal, he adopted the mystical life. af ter surmounting initial diffieulties with arghn he was allawed to pursue his new eourse, and was initiated into the kubrawi silsila by al- kasirqi al-isfara 'ini. af ter accomplishing the pilgrimage and spending same training spells in his master's khanaqah in baghdad, he settled in his natiye place of simnan, founded his own khiinaqah, fiyiibad-i khudadad, and lived there tranquilly until his death in 736/1336. he was the author of numerous works,3 and followed an i ta'rikh-i rashidi, tr. e. denison ross, london, 1895, pp. 432-3. " to be distinguished from the ighit-biishiyya, a khalwati order in anatolia.
3 for his works in arabic see g.a.l. ii. 263; g.a.l.s. ii. 281. on as-simniini see f. meier's art. in e.i.", i. 346-7, and for his ideas, with references to unpub

ad-din al-bakharzi (d.

who reeeived the adherenee of berke, khan of the songs

were sung in turkish golden horde, persian. most were table. sa'd and

3 bn battuta (iii. 27), who attended asama' at the convent when

658/1260),

to islam,2 andbranched whose out tomb eonvent in bukhara .. most derivatives from and one line, that of najm ad-din's built
forceful and independent pupil, majd ad-din al-baghdiidi; seethe kubriiwi under timur's patronage.3 anather khalifa was shi'i, s according to .a'in-i akbari, 1948 edn., iii. 407-8.

\ l...

s8

the chief tar/qa lines

orthodox line, advocating aliteral interpretation of the qur'iin, and strict adherence to the shari'a as the essential foundation for progress along the path. he deprecated current
the chief tar/qa line s 59

corruptions (bida') in sufi thought, though not in practice. he condemned ideas concerning wiliiya and saints' mirades. he1965, disputed the india in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, agra, pp. 36theo 42. there sophical theories bn al'arabi, teaching that et the s also a valuable study by of m. mole, 'les kubrawiya entre sunnsme
shiisme world

in linguistic reconciliation through the poems of a1).mad and his successor dervishes like ynus emre (d. c. 74/1339). the following gives some names in direct succession, famous in central asian turkish folklore: i ahmad al-yasavi
su!aiman baqirgani l;iakim ata d. 86 in khwarizm

i -i
.

luqman perende
i

manr ibn arslan baba d. ii97 'abd al-malik taj khoja d. 1218

is a

aux huitieme et neuveme secles de l'hegire', r.e./. xxix (1961), 61142.

i

reflection, not an emanation, of reality. later, his approach,

al

i i i

isl).a q :baba d. 1239

[ badr

i ii

zengi ibn

sa

'id

mutesavvijlar

taken up by the indian naqshabandi, a1).mad assirhindi, came to

see kprlzade mehmed fuad, trk edebiyatenda ilk

['the first mystics in turkish literature'], pt. i, istanbul, 1919; summarized

be known as wal,dat ash-shuhd (vnity of the witness

[baba' ad-din naqshabandi] shaikh

i malik khaiil ata d. 1347 i khwarzmi

tashkand

t
kama! ikani (ikaniyya)

al). mad sayyi d

uzun l;iasa n

'abd ., al(bektashiyya) shepherd l;iajji bektash d. near d. 1335

by l. bouvat or phenoin r.m.m. xliii (1921), 236-82.

2

turkish incorporated nto ritual practiceal-wujd gaye mena) customs in contradistinction to theand wal,dat

an ethnical

(vnity of the i

colouring to bn the altariqa-types being) of 'arabi. of dress, the saw-dhikr, women's particpation

although such an orthodox sufi in the intellectual

n seances,he and methods of cattle sacrifices whch survved among sphere, derivatves

was a thorough-going ecstatic and adopted and

like the bektashyya. turkish was used n worshp outsde rtual

popularized dhikr

prayer. bn

practices derived from the methods of the y ogis, in form of head-jerks developed by his

battta says addition to (i. 36) that 'ala' ad-din tarmashirin, sultan of transoxiana a particular

(a.d. 1326-34), whose winter camp he visited, rected his dhikr af ter

initiat()r al

the yasaviyya was a tariqa of wanderers; there were few distinctive branches or permanent settlements, except those associated with the tombs of these shaikhs to which pilgrimage became a permanent feature of central asian islam. the yasavi way was a way of holiness and a method of religious practice which displaced the ancient religion of the turks, rather than a mystical way. these wanderers spread the tradition throughout turkestan and among the kirghiz, from eastern turkestan northwards into transoxiana (and the region of the volga), southwards into khurasan, and westwards into azerbaijan and then anatolia, where they contributed in the persons of men like ynus emre to the formation of the popular si de of the new islamic turkish civi1ization, but where the yasavi as a distinctive tradition did not establish tself. the strength of the cult of i:ialrat-i turkestan, as a1).mad was called, in the eighth century a.h. is shown by tinr's readiness to erect an edifice (completed in 801/1398)

kasirqi. momng

he also taughtthat form of 'confrontation'

prayer untl sunrse n turksh.

the chief

tariqa lines

on the sir-darya consisting of a two-domed structure, one over ai.mad's grave and the other over the mosque. 60 the o~der stressed the retreat (khalwa), and the khalwatiyya which developed in the azerbaijan region and spread into anatolia may be regarded as its western turkish extension. it also daimed baha' ad-din an-naqshabandi as a descendant through the der vish-sultan khali1.1 a definite order-descendant was the imniyya, deriving from kamal ikani, fifth in spiritual descent from zengi ata. yasavi shaikhs are stili mentioned in the sixteenth century in central asia and even in kashmir. (c) mawlawiyya this order falls into a special category, since it derives from a persian immigrant into anatolia who belonged to the khurasa nian rather than to the baghdadian tradition. it is also a localized order, its influence being restricted to asia minor and
chief the

ariqa

lines

61

i
_i

rnonths' assoeiation with a wandering dervish cai1ed shams addin of tabriz. so obsessed with shams ad-din did jalai ad-din become and his life so disrupted that his murids plotted against the dervish. to ]aliil ad-din's dismay he disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared. in fact, he had been murdered by the murids with the connivance of one of ]atiil ad-din's sons.1 this experience released ]alal ad-din's creative powers and set him upon a new way which derives its name from the title mawliinii (our master), given to its founder. bn bagta, whose visit to qonya in 1332 we have mentioned earlier, refers to the way as the ] alaliyya.2 the way developed as a self-perpetuating organization immediately af ter ]aliil ad-din's death in 1273. this order is so well known owing to the publieity given to its mystical exereises and the fame of the master' s mystical poem, the mathnawi, that we need only refer to its place in the general context of the tariqas. the famous mathnawi is a somewhat incoherent accumulation of ]alal ad-din's outbursts, anecdotal ruminations, and above all parables, expressed in poetical form. mawlawis regard it asa revelation of the inner meaning of the qur'an, and it was in fact called by ]ami 'the qur'an in persian' (hast qur' iin dar zabiin-i pahlavi). from the c10se assoeiation of the founder with the seljuq ruling authority the order developed aristocratic tendeneies and became a wealthy corporation. it played a considerable cultural role in turkeyand helped in the reconeiliation of certain types of christians to islam. almost from the beginning it was an hereditary order. ] aliil ad-din wa.s succeeded by his vicar, !:iasan !:iusam ad-din, the inspiring genius of the mathnawi,3 but af ter his death (683/1284) the succession passed to ]aliil ad-din's son, baba' addin sultan walad, and thereafter rarely was the dynastic succession broken. the development of the principles and organization of the order around the i see the by h.took ritter place n e.i.2under ii. 393-6. name of artiele mawlana sultan walad. his 2 travels, tr. h.solidarity a. r. gibb, ii. to 431. works gaye the aesthetic and emotional 3 see abiiki, quoted in ]. w. redhouse's translation of the first book of mystieism of the master, and when he died at an the mathnawi, p. age ii3. (712/1312) the order had spread widely advanced throughout anatolia and a number of daughter centres had been founded.

62

the chief t ariqa lines

his successor ]aliil ad-din amir <arif (d. a.d. 1320) travelied widely, consolidating these centres, and in his time the principles ritual, and organization solidified, though its creative inspiratio~ survived into the age of selim iii when the order produced its last great poet in ghiilib dede (me1;med es'ad: a.d. 1758-99). the order remained centralized and was not subject to the spiitting process which so typified the khalwatiyya, but this also meant that its influence was restricted to turkey.
i

the chief t arjqa lines

63

or 'restraint of the breath', byai-khalir, the spirit of isiamic gnosis. the suecession from him is as follows:
i

the members of this order. became famous for their devotion to music and the nature of their dhikr exereises, whence they were known to europe as the 'whiriing dervishes'. the dance, which is symboiic of the universai life of the spheres, infinitely compiex in form yet essentiai1y a unity, is frequendy referred to in latiii

<arif riwgari, d. 657/1259 ma1;md anjir faghnawi, d. 643/1245 (or 670/1272) 'aziziin <ali ar-riimitani, d. 75/136 (or 721/1321) mu1;ammad biibii as-sammiisi, d. 740/1340 (or 755/1354) amir sayyid kulali al-bukhiiri, d. 772/1371 baba' ad-din, ibn who was ad-din a tiijik, served his mu1;ammad m. baba' an-naqshabandi, apprenticeship under both as-sammiisi and kulaii ('the 717/1318 potter').791/1389. but he also had turkish links and there is a romantic story of his eneounter with a turkish dervish ealled khalil whom he had first seen in a dream, and his subsequent association with him until this dervish eventually (a.d. 134) became sultan khalil of transoxiana.2 baba' ad-din served him for six years, but af ter khalil's fall (747/1347) bahii' experience d a revulsion against worldly success, returned to his/bukharan village of rewartn, and resumed his interrupted spiritual career. like most of the men af ter whom tari"qas have been named, bahii' ad-din did not found an organization (whilst his tari"qa he had inherited), but gathered around himself iikeminded devotees prepared to striye towards a quality of mystical life along maliimati lines without show or distracting rites, for, as he said, 'the exterior is for the world, the interior for gad' (a~-~ahir li' l-khalq al-halin li ' l-lfaqq). though modified through the corruptions of time this way never lost the stamp of <abd al-kbaliq's genius in the quality of its leadership and teaching and the purity of its ritua!. from the islamic point of view it was especially important in ensuring the attachment of turkish peoples to the sunni tradition. ad-din' mausoleum and attached most of bahii' these come froms the neighbourhood ofthe bukhara as is evident from nisbas. riwgar, strueture faghna, and riimitan are, !ike ghujdawiin, eonvent (atheir magnifieent was erected in a.d. villages aramir that city. apart from the naqshabandi books the silsila is of given in 1544 ne by <abd al-<aziz khiin) became one the al-wiisiti, tirydq, p. 47. most z bn battta describes the rise to power of khalil (-alliih
i

qazan), french edn., 1877, iii. 48-si. he knows nothing of any dervish
upbringings and says that he was the son of the chagatai prince yasavur.

64 the chief 'l'ar/qa lines

iniportant places of pilgrimage in central asia. the great persian mystical poet jami derives from baha' ad-din through an inter mediary. outside central asia, the order spread into anatolia and the caucasus, among mountain peoples in kurdistan (where it became a factor in kurdish nationalism), and southwards into india, but never became popular in the arab world. (e) chishtiyya from the sixth (thirteenth) century central asian sufis had been migrating southwards into india as well as westwards into anatoha. the formation of various kinds of khiinaqiihs and small associations coincided with the foundation of the sultanate of delhi. apart from the baghdadian suhrawardiyya, the onlyother ord er to be come defined and influential in india during this formatiye age was the chishtiyya. orders which were introduced later, like the shattariyya ('abdallah ash-shattar, d. a.d. 1428), n aqshabandiyya (with baqi bi'ilah d. a.d. 1563), and qadiriyya (by m. ghawth of uchch, d. a.d. 1517), never attained the range of allegiance and influence of these two lines. the chishtiyya1 is one of the 'primitive' lines. mu'in ad-din
chief 'l'ar/qa lines the 65

589/1193, then to ajmer, seat of an important hindu state, where he finally settled and died (633/1236), and where his tomb became a famous centre for pilgrimage. one of qutb ad-din bakhtiyar's initiates called farid addin mas'd, known as ganj-i shakar (1175-1265), is regarded as being the person most responsible for the definition and wider diffusion of this line, since he initiated many khallfas who moved to different parts of india, and af ter his death maintained their khiinaqiihs as independent institutions in which the succession became hereditary. important figures in the chishti silsila are ni~iim ad-din awliyii' (d. 725/1325) and his successor, nair addin chiriigh-i dihli (d. 757/1356), who opposed the religious policy of mu1:ammad ibn tughluq. from the ni~iimiyya many branches diverged. (i) indian a separate line was the iibiriyya derived from 'alii' adsuhrawardiyya din 'ali b. a1:mad a-iibir (d. 691/1291). in the arab and persian spheres few shaikhs attributed themselves directly to as-suhrawardi, as, for example, adherents of the hundreds of tii'ijas in the shiidhili tradition daim that theyare shiidhili. but the suhrawardi silsila spread in india as a distinctive school of mystical ascription to become one of the major tariqas.1 outstanding figures were nr ad-din mubiirak ghaznawi, a disciple of shihiib ad-din, whose tomb at delhi is famous, and i:iamid ad-din of najore (d. 673/1274), shihiib ad-din's chief indian khallfa until he transferred his allegiance to the chishu, qutb ad-din bakhtiyiir kiiki.2 the chief propagandist in sind and
(a.d. 1182

punjab was another disciple, bahii' ad-din zakariyii

1268), of khurasanian origin, who worked in multiin and was succeeded by his eldest son, adr ad-din m. 'arif (d. a.d. 1285), the suceession eontinuing in the same family. but also from him diverged a large number of independent lines, some beeoming known in india as bishar' (illegitimate orders). one orthodox line, the khiinaqiih of ijaliii ad-din surkhposh al-bukhiiri (a.d. see appendix c for the various see bn battiita, iii. 156. 1192-1291) branches. at ucheh, beeame an important diffusion . centre. contrary to the chishti shaikhs of the onlyother order active in india, bahii' ad-din pursued a worldly policy, assoeiating freely

66

the chief rariqa lines

i
i

with princes, accepting honours and wea1th, and building up a large fortune. he and his associates alsa foilowed a rigid arthoda" line, pandering to the 'ulamii' and rejecting samii' (pubiic recital) in the form which prevailed among chishtis.

iii method, tii'ifa is the tariqa is the organization, and though the khiinaqiihs were
hilst

correctly described as tawii'if (plurai of tii'ifa), since they organizations of of separate thewere formatian ta' groups,1 they were still not the orders as we know them. the completion of their development as tii'ifas or orders in this specialized sense during the fifteenth century coincided with the growth of the ttoman. empire. in the maghrib this stage coincided with the appearance of sharifism and what the french call maraboutisme. there are, in fact, four areas of significant change: persia and central asia, anatolia (rm), india, and the maghrib. the fullest development of the variegated robe of sufism had taken place in iranian regions. in the same regions its linkage with the lives of ordinary people had come ab out through the wandering dervishes, iranian and turkish. then had come the mongol conquests. from around a.d. 1219, when the first mongol movements into. khurasan began, to a.d. 1295 muslim asia was subjected to the dominatian of non-muslim rulers and islam was displaced from its pasition as the state religion. with the accessian of ghazan khan (a.d. 12951304) islam once again became the imperial religion in western asia. but there was this difference from its pasition under previous regimes in that sufis replaced the 'ulamii' class as the commenders of islam to mongols and as the significant representatives of the religion. during this period the sufis became for the people the representatives of religion in a new way and af ter their death theycontinued to exercise their influence. the shrine, not the mosque, became the symbol of islam. the shrine, the dervish-house, and the circle of dhikr-reciters became the outer forms of living reiigion for iranians, turks, and tatars alike. and this continues. timur, who swept away the remnant and successor states which had

ifas

-l

i there are many early references to these organizations as tli'ifas. ibn khal1ikiin, we have shown, refers to the kiziiniyya tli'ifa (ii. 391). but for our purpose it is simply a convenient term for the completed organization.

the formatlon of ra'/fas

69

order: very nebulous at first, it became highly organized and

68 the formatlon of 'fa'/fas

centralized, yet parochial, providing a village religion, a system of lodges, and a link with a futuwwa mi1itary order. another turkish tendeney arising out of the haze from the tabriz region, displaying strong distinguished as malamati inspiration, became
1

formed af ter the decline of mongol power, was a sunni, but showed a strong veneration for saints and their shrines, many of which he built or restored. anatolia, where islam's spread followed the westward movement of the turks from ,the thirteenth century until the ottomans became a world power and regulated the religious life of the regions they controll~d, was the scene of religious interaction and confusion, and it is not easy to teli what was happening there. the ghazi states of anatoha in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in order to supply the religious cement, linked themselves with the only islamic organization available in the marches which possessed any dynamic element-the wandering turkish dariiwish, the biibiis from central asia who accompanied, followed, and fortified the warriors. the orders, with their borrowed symbohsm and formulae for initiation, provided the means of consecrating the ghiizi as a dedicated warrior in the cause of islam. paul wittek writes: we find in the biographies of the mevlevi shaikhs, by eftiiki, written about the middle of the fourteenth century, clear traces of a ceremony of granting the tide of ghazi, comparable to that of investiture with knighthood in the west. we are told how one of the emirs of the house of aydn was designated as 'sultan of the ghiizis' by the shaikh of the mevlevi darvish order. from the hands of the shaikh he received the latter's war-club, which he laid on his own head and said: 'with this club will i first subdue all my passions and then kill all enemies of the faith.' this ceremony means that the emir accepted the shaikh as his 'senior' [seigneur], and his words show that the quality of ghazi also involved
ethical obligations.
i

during the seljuq and early ottoman periods heterodoxy was the evident characteristic of many representatives of islam, especia1ly in eastem and southem anatoha. many of the wandering biibiis were shi'i qizil-biish and i:iurfis, others were qalandaris and i p. wittek, the rise of the ottornan ernpire, 1938; reprint, ahdiil, both cover-terms. the yasaviyya, 1,958, p. 39; and see the account in afliiki, tr.dispersing c. huart, ii. from 391turkestan, was a tariqa of wanderers, whose hnk with 2; ed. t. yiiziji, ankara, 1959-61, ii. 947-8. al,mad al-yasavi gaye them a distinctively turkish spiritual ancestry. out of the diverse heritages of heterodox islamic tendencies and christian anatohan and turkish superstitions came the bektashi

the khalwatiyya and bairamiyya. these remained decentralized and fissiparous, spawning many distinctively turkish orders, but also spreading widely through the arab world in localized orders. we have said that this final stage of organization coincided with the foundation of the ottoman empire (by a.d. 1400 the ottomans were masters of anatolia and they triumphed over the syrian and egyptian mamlks in 1516-17). in turkey under the ottomans relative harmony was achieved through toleration of three parallel religious strands: official sunni legahsm, the sufi tekke cult, and the folk cult. shi'ism, which was not tolerated, was forced t9 seek asylum within sufi groups, among wnom the bektashiyya gaye it its fullest expression. the ottomans in their task of build ing up a stable administrative system came to rely upon the regularly constituted 'ulama' body as the backbone i see p. wittek, op. dt., p. of the whole 42. of madrasas became a feature of order. the foundation this allegiance. they were set up in bursa and nicaea, for

the

7 the formation of ra'ifas role in religious, social, and even politicallife, and when it fell they also were destroyed. at the same time as the ottoman state was becoming a world power a sufi order was providing persia for the first time since its conquest by the arabs with a dynasty whose state religion was shi'ite. it is interesting that the region where the movement arose, azerbaijan and gilan, was the nurturing place for the movement of turkish biibiis professing every known type of islam which flooded anatolia (this was quite distinct from the persian sufi current, out of which came the mawlawiyya affecting the iranized' class), and which also provided the impulse and manpower supporting the great shi'ite movement of the afawids. the afawid order continue d to be a largely turkish order for long af ter it became a military movement, and it had a strong following in the turkish provinces of asia minor. even the baghdadian. tradition affected the biibiis, but through an alternatiye stream deriving from the kurdish saint abu 'lwafa' taj al-'arifinl through baba ilyas khurasani. this development into orders, and the integral association of the saint cult with them, contributed to the decline of sufism as a mystical way. spiritual insight atrophied and the way became paved and milestoned. from this period, except in persia. sufi writings cease to show real originality. they become limited to compilations, revisions and simplifications, endless repetition and embroidery on old themes, based up on the writings of earlier mystics. they produced variations on their poems in the form of takhmis, mawlids or nativitie~ in rhymed prose, invocation series like jazli's dalii'il al-khairiit, and manuals dealing with technical aspects of the orders, details conceming the relationship between shaikh and disciple, rules for the disciplinary life and for the reeitations of litanies and liturgies. numerous biographieal .colleetions of saints (tabaqiit al-awliyii') or pure hagiographies (maniiqib al'iirifin) were produeed, together with malf1fiit or majiilis, eolleetions of their table-talk, and maktbiit (eorrespondenee). among the few original writers within the arab sphere we may mention 'abd al-ghani an-niibulsi (d. ii43/1731). initiated into many lines,z his primary way was the naqshabandiyya and he was strong on the eatholistie side of sufism.
on abu 'l-wafii' (die d sol/n07) see above, pp. 49-5. z see al-muriidi, silk ad-durar (cairo, 1874-83), iii. 30-8.
i

formation of ra'ifas

71

whilst it may be true, as theologians assert, that spiritual expres sion is closely linked with the development and vigour of dogmatic
values and that the hardening of

fiqh and kaliim in the ninth

ll "

tenth centuries a.h. led or at least contributed to the decline of taawwuf, yet both are probably symptoms rather than eauses of a deeper spiritual malaise. the tariqas, we have shown, were essentiauy sourceschools. during this third stage men who linked themselves with these older traditions developed neworders, with

isniids stretching both ways from themselves as the central point. as abu 'l-fall al-' alliimi put it: 'any chosen soul who, in the mortification of the deceitful spirit and in the worship of gad,

introdueed same new motiye of conduct, and whose spiritual sons in suecession

72

the format on of rjf'ifas

the formatlon of rjf'ifas 73 never become universal. in the maghrib it became associated with a peculiar reverence for hereditary holiness, so that groups acquire a new genealogical point of departure from asaint or sayyid eponym. the maghribis in a sense reorientated their past, a transformation associated with in many instances also

shaikh ceased to teach directly but delegated authority both to teach and initiate to representatives (khulafii', sing. khalifa). a special cult surrounded the shaikh's person, associated with the power emanating from the founder-saint of the tii'ija; he becomes an intermediary between god and man. if we characterize the first stage, as affecting the individual, as surrender to god, and the second as surrender to a rule, then this stage may be described as surrender to a person possessing baraka, though of course em bracing the other stages. the difficulties of reconciling these ideas with the dogma and law of islam had long been evident; the orders had been bitterly attacked by zealots like ibn taimiya, but now a parallel developed in practice. the founder and his spiritual heirs affirmed their loyalty to the sunna of the prophet as a necessary first stage in their code of discipline. but this is regarded as only the minimum stage for the vulgar. the orders linked their daily 'tasks' (dhikr al-awqiit) with ritual prayer by requiring their recitation immedi

i see above, p. 15. the sa'diyya is a family tti'lfa daiming sa 'd ad-din al-jibawi ibn yftnus ash-shaibiini (d. near jiba a few miles north of damascus in 736/1335) as its founder, who took the tariqa from the yftnisi and rifa'i lines. it is mentioned around a.d. 1320 as the khirqa sa'diyya by al-wasiti (tiryaq, p. 49). it .came into prominence with mul:ammad ibn sa'd ad-din (d. 1020/16) who, af ter being miraculously converted at mecca, returned to damascus to exploit his baraha so successfully that he became very rich. he became shaikh in 986/1578 (ai-mul:ibbi, khultiat al-athar, iv. 160-1). he was succeeded by his son sa 'd ad-din (d. 1036/1626), during whose tenure of the sajjtida syria was convulsed by a notorious scandal concerning the arrest in a brothel of his khallfa' in aleppo, abu 'i-wafa' ibn m. (a.le chatelier, confreries, pp. 213-15; al-mul:ibbi, i. 152-4, 298-9). a1though the order did not spread widely it was active in turkeyand was introduced into egypt by yftnus ibn sa 'd ad-din (not to be confused with the egyptian, yftnus ash-shaibani) where it acquired notoriety through the celebrated biannual dawsa (dsa) ceremony in cairo, when the shaikh rode on horseback over the prostrate dervishes (frequently described, see e. w. lane, modern

arabization. succession in the mawlawiyya has normally been hereditary. the ynusiyya became an hereditary tii'ija in damascus from about 125.1 another hereditary damascene tii'ija is the sa'diyya or jibawiyya2 which still exists. the qadiriyya began as a localized tii'ifa in baghdad with family branches in damascus and i:iama. in hadramawt leadership of the 'alawiyya and of its family offshoots was hereditary in the ba 'alawi family from its foundation by mu.l:ammad ibn 'ali ibn mu.l:ammad (d. a.d. 1255); such a group can only be regardedas an expanded family tariqa. anather deriyatiye of the 'alawi line is the 'aidarsiyya tii'ifa of tarim, founded by abu bakr ibn 'abdallah al-'aidars (d. in aden 914/1509), who acquired a kubrawi silsila, and whose ord er spread through the mavement of members of the family into india, indonesia, and the east african coast, but always remained a restricted lineal tariqa with little influence.3 throughout the sphere of the ottoman empire hereditary succession was becoming widespread in the eighteenth century, but it was still not a universal practice.

74 the formatron

of ra'/fas the formatron of ra'/fas

in turkey proper the most important orders were the rhal. watiyya, bektashiyya, mawlawiyya, and the 75 j{halwati wird as-sattar and maste~ of 'umar rshani) being th~ pir-i thani (the second master), that s, the founder of the khalwat order. this tariqa, therefore, never had a founder or single head or centre, but certain sufis or lodges in the ardabil region noted for their ascetic discipline beeame associated with this name. in this way there came into existence a mystical school which placed its main emphasis on individual asceticism (zuhd) and retreat (khalwa). as a distinctive way it spread first in shirwan and among the black sheep trkmens in azerbaijan, then expanded into numerous tii'ija-convents in anatolia, then into syria, egypt, hijaz, and yemen, following the triumphs of the ottomans. one early introduction of the khalwati line into anatolia was by mul:ammad shams ad-din, known as 'amir sultan' (d. a.d. 1439), whohad migrated from bukhara to bursa, and was the initiator of sulaiman chelebi (ibn al:mad b. mal:md, d. a.d. 1421), author of a famous turkish metrical mawlid. the chief propagators in turkey, from whom stemmed distinctive derivatives, were l;iajji bairam (d. 1429) manifesting a strong malamati tradition, and dede 'umar rshani of tabriz (d. 1487). the khalwati tradition initially had strong links with the cult of 'alpthe lthna'ashari or twelver form, as is shown by the legend that 'umar al-khalwati institute d the twelveday fast in honour of the twelve imams-but finding their strongest support in anatolia the leaders had to reconcile themselves to a sunni dynasty and their 'alid teaching was modified or relegated to their body of secret teaching. the following were the principal anatolian khalwati ta'fas: al:madiyya: al:mad shams ad-din of manissa (marmara village), d. 910/1504. snbhyya: snbl sinan ysuf (d. 936/1529), head of the tekke of qoja mutafa pasha in istanbul. he was succeeded by muhl: ad-din merkez msa (d. 959/1552), whose tombmosque (ne ar yeni-kap), i see ibid. iv. ii. 659-60. famous. with its miraculous well, became sinaniyya: ibrahim umm-i sinan, d. 958/1551 or 985/1577. ighit-bashiyya: shams ad-din ighit-bashr,

naqshabandiyya though, since' "the ways to god are as manifold as the sauls'"
~

there are many thousand ways and rehgious orders'. the maw~

iawiyya was an aristocratic, inte11ectuai, and cu1turai fraternity, finding its fo11owing and patronage in the dasses correspond. ing to these terms. we have said eariier that it was a centralized ord er and did not spread outside asia minor. the qaraman-olu dynasty which succeeded that of the seljuqs (c. 130o) tended to favour the babas, but with the success of the ottomans the maw iawiyya came into its own. the khalwatiyya was a popular order, based on reverence for the ieader with power, areputation for strictness in training its dervishes, and at the same time its encouragement of individuai

the first khalwati ziiwiya in egypt was founded by ibriihim glsheni. of turkish origin (from amid, diyarbakr) he was
76

the formatlon of tji'ifas

77

hved in the muqattam hills for forty-seven years,

was shahin ibn

a disciple of 'umar rusheni of aydin (d. 892/1487), an

the formation of ta.'ifas

exponent of bn al- 'arabi's theosophy, against whom sha'baniyya: sha'biin wali; d. 977/1569 at condemnatory fatwiis qastamuni. were promulgated. ibriihim succeeded to his chair2 and also to shamsiyya: shams ad-din ai.mad siwiisi, d. 1010/1601 the opprobrium under which his master had laboured; (other then af ter sources: d. 926/1520). also called nuriyya-siwiisiyya the afawid occupation of tabriz he became a refugee af ter and even 'abd al-ai.ad nuri siwiisi, d. 1061/1650 in istanbul. tually (a.d. 157) settled in egypt, where he was well miriyya received by or niyiiziyya: mui.ammad niyiizi al-miri of qanawh mter the ottoman occupation he bursa, al-ghawri. d. became exile on figure isle of lemnos i 105/1694. in greece a in popular among in the turkish tekkes soldiers.3 his and in enemies trigued against him in istanbul and he was summoned cairo as well as turkey. to the ]arriii.iyya: nur himself ad-din m. d. heresy. 1146/1733 capital to clear of al-]arriii., charges of not (or only did he do tableau lv. ii. 626. i 1133/1720) d'ohsson, in istanbul. also called nuraddinis. . according to some sources ibriihim's successor at baku was this successfully but left behind him three tekkes in
yal,1yii-i turkey. he lamiiliyya: mui.ammad lamiili b. ]amiil ad-din aqsarii'i died inbut cairo in 94/1534 in ii. his outside shirwiini, evliya chelebi writes (i. 29) ziiwiya that 'umar rsheni biib and edirnewi. glsheni zuwaila.4 b. in amasya, d. 1164/1750 in istanbul were successors of yal:yii. another disciple of 'umar rusheni who founded a ziiwiya 3 sha 'rani, tabagilt, ii. 133. at 'abbiisiyya on the outskirts of cairo was shams ad-din

'}\bdaihih al-jarkasi (d. 954/1547).1 khalwati adherents in egypt had so far come mainly from turkish milieux, but during the twelfth/eighteenth century a khalwati revival spread the order among egyptians and extended into hijaz and the maghrib. a syrian khalwati who was a frequent visitor to egypt, named mutafa ibn kamal ad-din albakri,2 sought a more closely linked grouping by binding various groups together in his own bakriyya. however, the bond was personal and his chief disciples set up their own orders af ter his death. these were mui.ammad ibn salim al-i;iafnisi or i;iafnawi (d. 81/1767),3 'abdallah ash-sharqawi, and mui.ammad ibn 'abd al-karim as-sammani (a.d. 171875), whose orders were known respectively as the i;iafnawiyya (or i;iafniyya), ~harqawiyya, 4 and sammaniyya. from these came other branches: ral:maniyya (aigeria and tunisia). founded by abu 'abdallah m. b. 'abd ar-ral:man al-gushtuli al-jurjuri (a.d. 1715/281793), disciple of al-i;iafnisi.5 its distinctive development took place under his successor, 'ali ibr 'sa (d. 1837), but afterwards the various ziiwiyas became independent. dardiriyya: al:mad ibn m. al-'adawi ad-dardir, ii27/17151201/1786.6 author of a prose mawlid. the !ii'ija is also called siba'iyya af ter his successor, ai.mad assiba'i al- 'ayyan. both are buried in the same mosquemausoleum.7 awiyya: ai.mad ibn m. a-awi (d. in madina 1241/1825), pupil of ad-dardir and of ai.mad ibn idris.8 localized in the hijaz.
i sha 'riini, tabagilt, ii. 166; bn al- 'imiid, shadhariit, viii. 302; karl baedeker, egypt and the sudan, eighth edn., 1929, p. 126. 2

his dates are 1099/1688-1162/1749, see muriidi, sitk ad-durar, iv. 190-200.

mui.am 4 an account of his zilwiya-tomb is found in 'ali mubiirak, khitat

jadida, mad demerdiish (d. bulaq, a.h. 1306, iv. 54.

c. 932/1526).5 a famous ascetic, a

converted

scircassian brief mention in sha 'riini, tabagilt, ii. 133; also 'abd al-ghani an mamluk, initiated by 'umar rusheni in tabriz

who rifla, p. 139, 'ali mubiirak, khitat, iv. 112-13. nabulsi,

he is to be distinguished from another mutafii al-bakri (d. 1709), also a khalwati, who founded the bait iddiqi or bait bakri, whose head functioned as shaikh mashii'ikh a-fiyya until 1926 when someone outside the family was elected. 3 muriidi, sitk ad-durar, iv. 50; al-jabarti, 'ajii'ib, cairo, ii (1959),25781. 4 to be distinguished from the sharqiiwa, a moroccan branch of the jaz liyya at bjiid, deriving from mu1:ammad ash-sharqi, d. 1601. s l. rinn, marabouts et khouan, aigiers, 1884, 'pp. 452-80. 6 ai-jabarti, ii. 157-8; works given in g.a.l. ii. 353, g.a.l.s. ii. 479. 7 'ali mubiirak, khi{at jadida, vi. 27. 8 shams ad-din b. 'abd al-muta'iil, kan;;: as-sa'mati wa 'r-rashild, khar toum, 1939, pp. 12-13.

78 the formation of ta.'ifas tayyibiyya: sammani offshoot in nilotic sudan. founder a1:mad at- tayyib b. al-bashir (d. 1239/1824), pupil of as sammani. from this order came the mahdi of the sudan. other smail egyptian branches included the j)aifiyya, masal lamiyya, and maghaziyya. the bairamiyya, though nurtured within the same tradition as the khalwatiyya, is a separate tari"qa, since i:iajji bairam al anarp derives from the line of afiyyaddin ardabili. his spiritual descendants included: shamsiyya: aq shams ad-din m. ibn i:iamza, khallfa of i:iiijji bairam, 792/1390-863/1459. his long search for a charismatic leader led him eventually to bairam wali, who gave him the power, and he became a famous worker of miracles. he had a suhrawardi silsila from zain ad-din al-khwafi (d. 838/1435), initiator of a turkish suhrawardi line, the zainiyya. one of shams ad-din 's sons was the poet i:iamdi

the formatlon of ta.'ifas muj?,ammad ]ilwati were the hashimiyya (hashim baba, d. 1773) and the fana'iyya ( ?). the bairamiyya was carried to egypt by brahim ibn taimilr khiin ibn i:iamza, nicknamed al-qazzaz, d. 1026/1617. 79 originally from bosnia he travelled extensively and eventually setded in cairo as a tomb-haunting ascetic. he took the tari"qa from mu1:ammad ar-rilmi, from sayyid ]a'far, from 'umar sikkini (d. 1553), from sultan bairam, so there are two names missing betmeen the last two. i leaders ascribing themselves to other ari"qa lines branched out into their own ii'ifas. when aj?,mad albadawi died in a.d. 1276 he was succeeded by his khallfa, alij?, 'abd al- 'ai (d. 1332), who was responsible for building the tomb-mosque in tanta and fostering the aready existing cult which quickly attracted to itself egyptian customs. various groups ascribing themselves to the badawiyya came into existence, though they were each independent and generally loca1ized.2 as a tari"qa the badawiyya lacked any distinctive characteristic such as that shown by the shiidhiliyya. it produced no teaching personalities or writers, but was rather a people's cult, whose manifestations at tanta have at all times been subject to the censure of the 'ulamii', though with iittle effect until the modern age.3 the most distinctive among the later egyptian succession iines in importance and width of spread was the bayyilmiyya.4 born in the village of bayyilm in lower egypt in 08/696-7, 'ali ibn i:iijazi ibn muj?,ammad went to live.n the khalwati ziiwiya of sidi demerdash in cairo, but at about the age of thirty he became affiiiated to the !;ialabiyya branch of the badawiyya, then under the grandson of 'ali al-!;ialabi (d. 144/1634-5).5 he became famous as an iliuminate, leading the noisy badawi &a4ra which took place on wednesdays in the mosque of sidna
see his biography as given in al-muq.ibbi, khulaat al-athar, i. 1617. 2 see appendix e. 3 the 'ulama' were quite ineffeetive unless they eould enlist the support of the politieal authority, and that they eould very rarely do sinee the rulers relied on the sants and. their representatives to provide them with spiritual support. see, for example, the referenees to badawi shaikhs in bn iyas, the ottoman conquest of egypt, tr. w. n. salmon, 1921, pp. 7, 41, 84. 4 the best aeeount of the origins of the bayymiyya is a. le chatelier, les confreries musulmanes du hedjaz, 1887, pp. 182 ff. '5 'ali al-l;ialabi was the author of ,one of the few badawi writings, an
i

(i:iamdallah che1ebi,

- a.d. 1448-1509) who, besides a nativity (mevlidi),

80

the formation of t}f'ifas

al-i:iusain in cairo, and consequently incurring the enmity of the 'ulamii', who tried to stop him using the mosque.i he was able to hold his own and later the shaikh al-islam even offered hirn a chair at the azhar. 'ali' s aim was the reform of the badawi order by return to its supposed original purity, but the ritualistic changes he made2 and his personal ascendancy was such that his foowers regarded him as the initiator of a new way, and he himself decided that this was more likely to succeed than attempting to reform an old fissiparous order. at the same time he retained the red khirqa (=bonnet) of the badawiyya with its silsila and other characteristics to show his filiation. during his frequent journeys to mecca he preached his tariqa and won a following among both citizens and hadiiwin in hijaz. af ter his death (1183/1769) the order spread into yemen, had ramawt, persian gulf, lower euphrates, and the indus vaey. the death of the third shaikh as-sajjiida, mu1:ammad nafi' (time of mu1:ammad 'ali), caused a splt in the order and its weakening. whilst the khalwatiyya was characterized by fissiparous tendencies, the headship of each tii'ifa becoming hereditary, the bektashiyya centralorganization, with maintained a strong this organization was associated with the name of a semilegendary turkish sufi caed i:iajji bektash of khurasan, who emigrated to anatolia i af ter the mongols had destroyed the seljuq state and the 81 formation of t}f'ifas remains of the the caliphate. he probably died about 738/1337, for taqi ad-din al-wasiti (1275-1343) mentions the khirqa bektiish (deriving from a1:mad alyasavi, al-ghujdawani, ete.) without adding riifji alliih 'anhu af ter his name, so he was still aliye about 1320 and known in lraq.2 however, the organization of the bektashiyya did not develop until the fifteenth century and the janissary corps, insttuted by murad i, was associate d with it from the end of the sixteenth century, one consequence of this association with the j anissaries and, so with ottoman authority was that the bektashis were rarely attacked on grounds of doctrine or innovations. ottoman authorities sometimes took severe measures against leaders, but that was through their involvement in the numerous j anissary revolts, not on account of their beliefs and practices. but immediately the j anissary corps was abolished in i 826 the' bektashis fell with them. the orthodox 'ulama' then castigated them as heretics.3 some were killed, their tekkes destroyed, and their properties handed over to naqshabandis. however, because they were not a military order but had deep roots in the life of the people, they survived underground, some groups within other orders, and when circumstances became more propitious they began once more to expand. the heretical and shi'i doctrines and ritual of the bektashiyya do not deriye from i:iajji baktash, though there is no need to assume that he was any more orthodox than other biibiis. 'his name is simply a term to provide apoint of identity. the order grew out of saintveneration and the system of convents into a
i for legends of his investiture by one luqmiin, disciple of abmad yasavi, and his migration see evliya chelebi [a.d. 16r-'79], narrative, ii. 19-21. he appeared in anatolia af ter ]aliil-ad-din rumi was well established (d. a.d. 1273) and' was recognized by a group there who called him the khalifa of one biibii rasul alliih. this it seems was the isbiiq biibii who led his dervishes against the seljuq sultan, ghiyiith addin kay-khusrau ii in 124 (see ]. k. birge, the bektashi order qf dervishes, 1937. pp. 32, 43-4). he does not need to be a direct khalifa. afliiki says of bektiishi that he was 'un mystique au cceur eclaire, mais il ne s'astreignait pas i suivre la loi apportee par le prophi'te' (tr. c. huart, les saints des derviches tqurneurs, i. 296). 2 ai-wiisiti (d. 1343), tiryaq al-mu!:ibbin, p. 47. 3 see assad-efendi mohammed, precis histqrique de la destructiqn du cqrps des janissaires par le sultan mahmqud, en 826, tr. a. p. caussin de perceval, paris, 1833, pp. 298-:329.

the formatlon of 'fa'/fas 83

]\sia minor and kurdistan. many of these were the later affiliated
82 the formatlon of 'fa'/fas

syncretistic unity, combining elements from many sources, vulgar heterodox, and esoteric; ranging from the popular cults of centrai asia and anatoha, both turkish and christian rmi, to the doctrines of the l:iurfis. when the inspirer of the l:iurfi movement, fall alliih ibn 'ali of astarabad, was executed by miran shah in 796/1394 (or 804/1401) his khalifm dispersed widely. one of these, the great turkish poet nesimi, went from tabriz to aleppo, where he ma de numerous converts, 'but the 'ulama' denounced him to the mam]k sultan, mu'ayyad, who had him executed in 820/1417.1 it has been suggested that another khalifa, al-'ali al-a'la (executed in anatoha 822/1419), went to anatoha and there fostered certain l:iurfi doctrines up on a local saint buried in central anatoha called l:iajji bektiish.2 but he was only one among many, for the propaganda of the l:iurfis spread widely, even though they were persecuted, especially under bayazid ii. bektashis themselves do not refer l:iurfi ideas back to bektash, but this organization, tolerated by the authorities, became their depository and assured their perpetuation. the actual role of the ahl-i l:iaqq during the bektashi formative' period is unknown. at any rate, during this fifteenth century when the bektiishiyya was developing into a comprehensive on nesimi, whose name is nesim ad-din tabrizi, see e. ]. w. gibb, organization, it full incorporated other beliefs besides history of ottoman poetry, i. 343 ff. l:iurfi from the new environment and efendi's beyond some an important, though hostile, account is isl:iiq kashij alasrar, in 1291/1874-5. this relates how, af ter the execution were published christian in origin and others came from such of fall aliiih, 'his khalifas (vicars or lieutenants) agreed to disperse sources as the qizilbiish (red-heads)3 of eastem
i 2

nomadic and village group s (alevis, takhtajis, ete.) initiated into ajlegiance to i:iiijji bektash as the spiritual factor in communal life.! the bektashis proper are those who were fully initiated into a lodge. probably the first leader of any true bekt1ishi organiza tion was b1ilim sultan (d. 922/1516), whose title of pir sani, the second patron saint, implies that he is the founder.2 according to tradition he was appointed to the headship of the pir evi, the nother tekke at i:iiijji bekt1ish koy (near qirshehir) in 97/151. a rival head was the chelebi, whose authority was recognized by nany of the village groups. claiming descent from i:i1ijji bekt1ish, he is .first heard of in connection with a rising of kalenderoglu, supported by various dervishes and turkmans, which began in a.d. 1526.3 this office became hereditary (at least from 175)' whereas the dede, the head deriving from b1ilim sultan, was an apostolic head chosen by a special council.

themselves through the lands of the muslims, and devoted themselves to corrupting and misleading the people of islam. he of those khalifas who bore the title of al- 'ali al-a 'iii ('the high, the supreme') came to the monastery of l;iiijji bektiish in anatolia and there lived in seclusion, secredy teaching the jawidan to the inmates of the monastery, with the assurance that it represented the doctrine of l;iiijji bektiish the saint (wali). the inmates of the monastery, being ignorant and foolish, accepted the jawidan, . . . named it "the secret"; and enjoined the utmost reticence concerning it, to such a degree that if.anyone enters their order and afterwards reveals "the secret", they consider his life as forfeit' (tr. e. g. browne, literary history of persia, iii. 371-2; cf. 449-52). the jawidan-nama mentioned was written by fall aliiih af ter his revelation of 788/1386. 3 the turks applied the term qizilbtiih to fuqara', chiefly turkish at first, who wore red turbans. later, af ter shaikh l;iaidar of the afawiyya was divinely instructed in a dream to adopt a scar1et cap distinguished by twelve gores, the term especially designated his followers.

84

the formatlon

of ra'ipas

the spirit had appealed only to a religious elite, but from the niddle of the fourteenth century the way had lost even this appeal and a mystic such as bn 'abbad standsout simply because of the spiritual aridity of the age. at the same time, a popular forn of devotion based on the dhihr had spread, though as yet practised only by urban and ziiwiya groups. shaikh aba isqaq ash-sha!ibi [d. 790/1388] was asked about the position (legitimacy) of a !ii'ija ascribing itself to sufism and self. diseipiine whose members would get together on many a night at the house of one of them. they would open the

his way. the sufi path was henceforth edipsed by this easy j1 o y of attachment to the power of those honoured by god. such
wa s the success of alhe

azli that the governor of afi, which

::d made his centr~, h~d him expelled, and he died, poisoned ccording to format report, n ether 869/1465-or the on of 875/147. ra'ipas t a ai-iazli formed neither lariqa (his way was shiidhili) nor 85

ta'ifa, but from him came something much more universal,

. devotional school with new aims and drive, based on a intense concentration upon the prophet and the acquisition of power through recitation of dalii'i! alkhairiit. from him, however, derive many tawii'i! founded by his disciples and their disciples, and the allegiance diffused so rapidly that many older orders (really ziiwiya-centres) were absorbed or edipsed. the subse quent islamic revival derived force from other causes. it was directed against both the portuguese occupation of coastal places (between 1415 and 1514) and the imperialism of the makhzan, whose energies were for long to be directed towards containing the new tii'i/as by winning the allegiance of the great shaikhs and
depend upon the new religious movement.3 no section of maghribi life escaped their influence, though it was only too of ten to be at the expense of their spirituality. the idea of sanctity lost its integrity and became a mechanical attribute. in the very broadest terms, we may say that, whilst in the east sufism remained basicallyan individual pursuit, in the west it only became popular when it became collectivized.

balancing one against the other. 2 at the same time, this shows how much temporal power had to

proceedings with soltle ejaculating in unison. then go on to engage

themseives in singing, hand-dapping, and making ecstatic utterances,

carrying on until the night was over. during the course of the evening they would partake
of food prepared by the owner of the house.
i

but something more was needed, and this came with

see mumatti' al-asma ii dhikr al-jazli wa '- tabha', tr. in arch. maroc. xix. 278. a ttlifa did in fact stem from his successor, 'the inheritor of his ~araka', abu,fiiris 'abd al- 'aziz at-tabbii', known as alarriir (d. 914/1508), n the jamii'at at-tabbii'iyya in fez. 2 two prominent jazli derivatives in the jebala region were that f 'alliil al-i).iijj al-baqqiil at harii'iq, and that of mui)ammad ibn 'ali berraisul at tazerut. these drew some of their influence and prestige from the struggle against the portuguese. towards the end of the seventeenth century the filiila dynasty encouraged the development of the zawiya of wazziin. by astute policy the makhzan ensred that no ztiwiya in north-west. morocco was capable of stimulating any effective movement; see e. michauxbellaire, 'les derqaoua de tanger', r.m.m. xxxix (1920), 98-100. ' 3 thesa'di dynasty in morocco came to power (93/1523) through reliance upon the followers of al-jazli, and one of the firat acts of ai)mad al-a'raj was to have his father buried beside the tomb of aljazli. later, in 1529, he had both bodies transferred to marrakush to consecrate the new dynastic connection with that city; see mumatti'

86 r.ii'ifas

the

formation

of

the maghrib was a tariqa zone to itself and the orders deriva , tive from al-jazlp did not spread outside that zone, but in the maghrib itse1f they, together with a parahel line, express the re1igious history to the present day. an important deriyatiye was the 'lsawiyya. !ts founder, mul).ammad ibn 'lsa (a.d. 1465-1524), received his authority from al).mad al-j,iarithi (d. between 1495 and 1504), a disciple of al-jazli, whom he succeeded as head of the ziiwiya of miknasa azzaitn. he adopted ecstatic practices, whereby the dervishes became immune to sword and fire, from the rifa'iyya or anoffshoot, either when on pilgrimage or from his syrian companion, beghan al-mal).jb alj,ialabi, who shares the same tomb. af ter his first successor the succession has continued in the founder's family,2 but the centre moved to ouzera near m6dea where the founder's grandson established what has remained the chief ziiwiya to this day. the way the religious revolution revived old baraha lines may be illustrated by the hanaliyya. this derived from a thirteenthcentury abu sa'id al-hanali, disciple of ab mul).ammad ali). (d. a.d. 1234), patron saint of ah, which was revived as a distinct tii'lfa by am ayman sa'id ibn ysuf al-hanali. he served many shaikhs but his inspiration-shaikh was an egyptian shadhili, 'isa aljunaidi ad-dimyati, who gaye him the poem cahed addimyatiyya on the ninety-nine names of god, composed by ab 'abdahah shams ad-din al).mad b. m. ad-dirti addimyati (d. 921/1515),3 which became the wird of the hanaliyya. one day when he was praying beside the tomb of ab '1- 'abbas al-mursi in alexandria he received the call which determined his apostolic vocation, but the ijiiza to propagate and initiate into the shadhili way came from 'ali ibn 'abd ar-ral).man ;ittazemti, muqaddam in the distinctive j azli tradition. he constructed his ziiwiya at ait metrif and died there in 11i4/1702.4 vnder his son and successor, ab 'imran ysuf, the order expanded considerably among the berbers of the atlas ranges, but weakened af ter ysuf was killed by mlay isma'il (a.d. 1727). the linkage of the movement of change with al-jazli may well have been exaggerated, for in addition to the hanaliyya many
i

the formation of r.ii'ifas

87

independent orders were reconstituted from older maraboutic famihes. tomb-cults of early sufis, such as 'abd as-salam ibn mashish, which become single ziiwiya orders, also begin at this time. but the most important sphere of ascription derives from ab '1- 'abbas al-mursi and the egyptian wafa'iyya.l the following are the main orders: wafii'iyya. founder: mul).ammad b. m. b. al).mad wafa' (d. a.d. 1358), deriving from ibn 'ata' allah al-iskandari (d. 709/ 1309), this order is mentioned to show the continuance of the strong egypto-syrian tradition, older than and quite distinct from the maghribi.2 'arsiyya. founded circa a.d. 1450/60 by ab 'l-'abbas al).mad ibn 'ars (d. 1463 at tunis), who claimed also a qadiri chain. libyan branch (salamiyya) founded (c. 1795) by 'abd as-salam ibn salim al-asmar al-fitri of zliten. zarrqiyya. moroccan order founded by ab '1- 'abbas al).mad b. 'isa al-bumusi, known as az-zarrq. bom in morocco 845/ 1441 and died at mezrata in tripolitania in 899/1494 (or between 921/1515 and 93/1524).3 he studied for a time in the ziiwiya of abu 'l-'abbas al).mad b. al-'vqba al-j,ialrami on the nile. his numerous teachers included al).mad ibnmay 'ars.4 among the numerous derivatives we rashidiyya or ysufiyya. founded by a disciple of mention: al).mad azzarrq called al).mad ibn ysuf al-milyani ar-rashidi, d. 931/ 1524-5, tomb at milyana. (a) ghiiziyya. abu 'l-j,iasan b. qasim al-ghazi (commonly known as ghazi bel gasim), d. a.d. 1526, pupil of al).mad arrashidi. (b) suhailiyya. m. b. 'abd ar-ral).man as-suhaili, originally from yanbu' on the red sea, also a pupil of al).mad ar-rashidi. among his order-founding pupils were: see maghribi genealogical table. see appendix g for list of syrian and egyptian (i) 'abd al-qadir ibn mul).ammad (d. shiidhili 1023/1614), orders. 3 according to bn 'askar, dawhat an-niishir, arch. founder of maroc. xix. 93. 4 for his many writings see g.a.l. ii. 253, the shaihhiyya or awlad sidi shaikh of orania. about g.a.l.s. ii. 360-2. a.d. 1780 it split into two groups: sheraga and geraba.

.
i

appendix f gives a list of the principalorders.

. on the '!siiwiyya see r. brunnel, essai sur la confrerie religieuse des 'aissaoua au maroc, paris, 1926. 3 see ash-sha'riini, rabaqiit, ii. 164-5. 4 on sa'id ibn ysuf see especially rinn, marabouts, pp. 385-98.

88

the

formation

ofra'tfas (ii) a1.mad ibn msa al-karzazi (d. 1016/167), founder of the

karziiziyya.

(c) na,;riyya. founde" mu!>amm,d ibn na,;, .d-d""i, d. 1085/ 1674. centred at tamght in wadi dar'a. from it derives the ziyiiniyya of m. b. 'abd ar-ra1.man b. abi zyan (d. 1145/ 1733), commonly known as mulay b-zyan, who founded the ziiwiya of qenadha. once the new conceptons had taken root n the maghrib the berbers inhabiting mauritana and the sudan-belt sahil call1e wthn ther infiuence. 'umar ash-shaikh (d. a.d. 1553) of the arab kunta trbe who s regarded as the ntal propagator, how ever, was ntiated nto the qadiri,r not the shadhili-] azli trad tion, and ths accounts for the almost exelusve prevalence of the

no one could hope to fi11 any role, re1igious or otherwise, regl on of rli'ifas the format 89 less recognized as a descendant of the prophet. the sharifian 1437 of the tomb of mlay idris ii at fez in the reign of~;nasty the of ban sa'd, founded by mu1.ammad ashshaikh i\.v.almarinid, 'abd al-i:iaqq ibn 'ali sa 'id (d. a.d. mahdi (d. even 1557), whose bid for power began in 1524, 1465), and succeeded with the help of these religious leaders. the maghribi revival hadsa'dian litde effect in egypt the lasty brought the dynasty to and power. arab iands, where the trend was towards greater and henceforth, in this greater conformity towards legalistic tradition, at least tua' recognized orders subject to governmental in the supervision and approval. what rea11y happened is that the elamp placed on the exercise of the mind was effective in suppressing speculative sufism, so that litde genuine insight is to be expected from sufi writings, but official condemnations had no effect up on popular practices of the orders and especia11y the cult of saints. there was certainly no blank uniformity; we have men like shahin, the hermit on ]abal al-muqattam, on the one hand, and ash-sha'rani,r on the other, and the most extravagant forms of dhikr and mawlid celebrations. although the shadhili oeder had come into existence in alexandria, it did not take root in syria until the beginning of the sixteenth century. 'the man most responsible for its definitive planting was a moroccan sufi ca11ed 'ali ibn maimn ibn abi bakr (854/1450917/1511).2 af ter a varied career, which ineluded a period engaged in fighting the portuguese,he experience d a conversion and was initiated into the madyani line in tunisia. in 901/1495 he trave11ed east, to cairo, mecca, syria, brsa, back to i:iamat, and then damascus. essentially of a malamati type, he refused to keep khalwa or wear or confer the khirqa. he forbad his fo11owers to take part in normal sociallife, especia11y to seek favours from the great of this world. he did not achieve celebrity in is the syrian world until af ter his a notice on ash-sha'riini given in chapter viii, pp. 220-5. return from rm in shadhariit adh..~ an account of his (=brsa) life is given to by i:iamat bn al- 'imiid, dhahab, vr. he 81-4. 90/155. went to damascus; there his fame as a 3 qabl in sufi, especially shiidhili, terminology refers to the spiritual guide and revivalist attracted vast numbers, until one state day 'he was overcome bya "contraction" 3 whilst in the ali1.iyya [khanaqah] in danascus
i

on

90 the

formation of ta'ipas

which pe''"'ted in 'ticking to him untii he abandoned the lee"", bal and bogon inquidng about places situated in the depth, of valiey, and on the top, of mountaim, until, at the suggestion of mu\>ammad lbn 'a"'q he wen to majdal ma'ush' [lebanon),' where af ter a few months he died. 'al!" compan1on d"'lng his time of "ial, mu!>anun'd iba 'a"'q,' i, mainly ""ponsible fo, the 'p'eadof the madyaniyya in syr1a, whe,. tbe new appmach bmught a h,eath of new life to ' lts decadent sufi'm. bn 'a"'q had bcen a cj,""'ian office,
in abu i;iaf 'unar b. a1;nad (d. a.h. 936: ibid., pp. 218-19), and

ta'ipas 91 l ough its men of power, manifested alsa af ter their death from
the formation of

:l:ir tombs, many of whose structures were raised by mongol rulers. it is significant that two of the first mongol princes to adpt islam, berke of the golden horde and ghazan of tabriz, sought out a sufi rather than a sunni 'iilim before whom to make their public declaration of adhesion to islam: berke (reg. a.d. 1257-67), khiin of the golden horde, went specally to bukhara toacknow ledge islam at the hands of the kubr~wi, saif ad-din sa 'id albiikharzi (d. 658/1260);1 whilst ghazan khan son of arghn sent for the shi'i sufi, adr ad-din brahim, from his khiinaqiih at bal:rabad2 in khorasan to act as officiant at the ceremony on the pasture grounds in the alburz mountains in 694/1295 at which the i see the discussion by jean richard, 'la conversion de berke et les rhan acknowledged before the mongol, rather than the debuts muslim, world his adoption islam as the western de l'islamisation de la horde d'or', r.e.j.of xxxv (1967), 173-84. adr ad-din was the son of of sa 'd ad-din al-i;ianya, on whon see pp. 99, mongol cult,3 symbol 261. his independence of the confederacy of the gur khan of 3 dawlatshiih, tadhkirat ash-shu'arti', ed. e. g. browne, 19~, p. peking. 213; central asia, therefore, was an area of mission, and rashid ad-din, geschichte gdztin khtins, ed. k. jahn, leiden, 194, p. here the 79. dervishes wereturkish all-important.4 at the same 4wandering it is surprising that the westem khalwati tradition nade so little time, mu1;annad al-khalwati impact upon the eastem turks. the order spread into eastem iran muslim sentiment acquired everywhere fixed centres al-khwiirizni d.7si/1350? fron the of devatian in the tombs. these had their guardian tabriz region with the wandering dervishes. rude and unlettered, dervishes and became the they were centre of a shaikh and his circle of devotees. ibn ni:;iim ad-din and kubriiwis despised by the naqshabandis and were probably sajf ad-din battta is a d. 'ishqiibiid (jiin) absorbed by d. herat valuable witness to their widespread diffusion, for 775/1374 the yasavis, for, though a few as individual thaumaturgists gained 783/1381 i i i these places nr ad-din fane, the ,?iihir ab sa 'id
2

, iii

of
abu '1

'

i
i

iii

same wealth who; under the influence of 'ali ibn

=n 'at b. a,""d ".kiz.wilni (d.a.h. 955' ibid., p. ,a7; s,. '>ini, 'l'ohaqii'

a1;nad al- lines eventually died out. the ad-din d. are alkhalwati following a few nanes khwiirizmi 800/1398 i;iabashi associated d. with a semi-iegendary: 820/1418

ii ~

maimn, left

the formatlon of ra'ifas

92 the formatlon of

93

ra'ifas

with their open hospitality were the stopping-places for parties of travellers. in bistam, for example, he stayed in the khiinaqiih attached to the tomb of ab yazid albistami, where he also visited that of ab '1-i:iasan alkharaqani,1 many of the tombs to which khiinaqiihs became attached were not those of sufis, since the possession of baraka has nothing to do with sufism. ibn bahta wrote: outside samarqand is the domed tomb of qutham ibn al-'abbas ibn 'abd al-muttalib who was martyred during the conquest of that city. the people of samarqand go on visitation to his tomb on the nights of monday and friday. the tatars do the same, making vows to him on a large scale, bringing cattle and sheep as well as money, offering them for the he support of include traveliers, theof inmates other non-sufi tombs visited those 'ali arof the khiinaqiih, and the blessed tomb.2 rila (d. a.d. 818 near tus) situated inside a khiinaqiih,3 and 'akasha ibn mil:).an al-asadi, a companian of the prophet, outside balkh,4 whose shaikh took ibn bahta on a tour of the many tombs of that city, which included that of the prophet ezekie1 and the house of the sufi, ibrahim ibn adham, then used as a storehouse for grain. his narrative shows that the nomad turks and mongols shared with muslims the belief in the baraka of the saints. the islamic mavement took varied forms within the two traditions of sunni and shi'i, the ilkhiinid states were officially sunni, but shi'i ideas and loyalties were very much alive as historical sources show, by demonstrating the relative ease with which the afawid revalutian was accomplished. in the sunni tradition the naqshabandiyya played a distinctive role. we have shown5 how bahii' addin an-naqshabandi, who gave s1s1at al-khawajagan its name and form, simply carried on one of the most strongly established sufi traditions. although so cleady iranian and urban, it was adopted by many tatar tribes as a kind oftribal religious linkage, and had its place in their triumphs following the death of shiih rukh (85/1447). during this century the rapid progress of the i ibn battuta, edn., iii. 82. westwards into z ibid. iii. 52-3. s and order, from paris central asia anatolia see above, p. 62. 3 ibid. iii. 77-9. 4 ibid. iii. 62. southwards into the indian subcontinent, led to its division into three main branches:

'ahi' ad-din al- 'awir

ii

bam.' ad-din annair ad-din 'ubaidalliih naqshabandi d. a.d. 1389 i al-al,riir ibn mab.md ash-shiishi' 'a4rat ishiin' 'ali b. mb.d a.d. 144-1490 ya'qb

i ii

al-jurjani jarkhi/charkhi

d.802/1400 d.816/1413 d.851/1447 l

'abd ar-raq.niin jiimi a.d. 1414-92

sultan ad-din sa 'd (sa 'id) ad-din m. mub.ammad al-kashgiiri d. a.d. 1455

'arif bi'lliih 'abdalliih mub.arnmad az-ziihid alahi of simaw i d. a.d. 1490 darwish

i ,i
sa 'id aq.mad al)mad al-amkangi bukhari al-

takiyasi bi'lliih

.
m. biiqi

(d. istanbul)

ii
central

a.d. 1563-1603

western

indian
i

aslan

(turkey)

iiii
usam ab.mad fiirqi b. biiqi bi'lliih zakariyiiz d. a.d. 1640 sirhindi d. a.d. 1633 d. meeea 1050/1640 d. a.d. 1625 ibn ad-din tiij ad-din alahdiid

ii
i

mub.ammad

tashkand was then ealled shiish.

i i i career and eventually found a niehe in tiij ad-din had an interesting

mujaddidiyya muriid b. 'ali

sa'id

meeea away from the rivalrie which ensued af ter the death of zubairiyya biiqi bi'lliih. from this vantage point he had al,saniyya,a.d. mueh to do with 1640-1720 eommending the ma~hariyya 'alamiyya, muriidiyya naqshabandi way to arabs. he translated books like jiimi's nafa~t and ete. (syria) mub.ammad

94

the formatlon

of ra'ifas

jami has been included in this tree, not for any significance in the silsila, but for his influence up on persian, turkish, and indian sufism, as well as for his biographies of sufis, nafamt al um, finished in 881/1476. though not an initiating shaikh, jami is said to have given the naqshabandi tariqa to mir 'ali shir nawa'i (a.d. 1441-15~) when this minister to the timurid sultan, abu 'l-ghazi !:iusain, undertook a period of retreat in 881/1476. 'ali shir was famous as a patron of the arts and as a writer of distinction in prose and poetry, especially as a pioneer poet in chagatay turki. he founded and endowed a khanaqah ikhlaiyya in herat (as shah rukh had also done) as well as some 9 rimts, this term here meaning 'resthouses'; the most influential figure af ter baha' ad-din was khwaja aj.,rar, populariy known as !:ia<,lrat shan, from whom all the three regionallines derive-central asian, western turkish, and indian. members of the order were largely responsible for the spread of islam among the zbegs, among whom khwaja aj.,rar wielded great spiritual power, and among whom he consequently played a political role.2 the heads of all the independent states which succeeded the mongols (except in persia) favoured this
formation of ra'ifas the 95

descent from al-aj.,rarwas muj.,ammad az-zahid, a darwish vuj.,ammad, then aj.,mad al-amkangi who sent him to india. another propagator who settled in lahore was khwand maj.,miid (d. 1052/1642), whose son spread his allegiance. of the various lines diverging from baqi bi'llah two, which contrasted greatly in outlook, were that through his son, !:iusam ad-din aj.,mad (a.d. 1574-1633), following a pantheistic line, and a somewhat bigoted sunni movement inspired by baqi's pupil, aj.,mad farqi sirhindi (a.d. 1563-1624), nicknamed mujaddid-i alf-i thiini (reformer of the second millennium), who, within his sphere of influence, attacked the link of sufism with antinomian mysticism and advocated whit came to be known as the shuhiidiyya doctrine derived from as-simnani. his reaction against akbar's tentatives towards religious syncretism earned him the emperor's disfavour, but his reformist outlook won the support of subsequent mogul emperors. in the ottoman empire the naqshabandi silsila was of significance only in syria and anatolia. introduced into syria in the seventeenth century it did not begin to expand until propagated by murad ibn 'ali al-bukhari.l born in fact in samarqand in a.d. 1640 he went to india, where he was initiated by muj.,ammad ma'm, son of aj.,mad sirhindi. he eventually made damascus his centre, but continued to travel extensively in arab lands and anatolia, training and initiating khalifas indiscriminately, and died in istanbul in i 132/1720. from murad stemmed a number of minor branches, 'abd al-ghani an-nabulsi (a.d. 1641-1731), one of the few arab sufis of the age who possessed any insight, belonged to the naqshabandiyya. the order was d'ohsson refers to him (tableau, v. ii. 626) as murad shami, founder introduced intomul;ammad egypt by khalil aj.,mad al-bana' ibn m. gives adof t~e muradiyya. al-muradi, a descendant, dimyati many bographies (d. ii27/1715) of murad who ibn 'ali was and members initiatedof and the family giveninthe his silk ad-durar. khiliifa in yemen by aj.,mad ibn 'ujai! and 'abd al-baqi ai-]abarti, 'ajd'ib, cairo, 1958, i. 226-9. al;mad ab 'l-wafa' ibn 'ujail al-mizjaji.2 (d. 1664) took the tariqa from taj ad-din b. zakariya in zabid and in turkey the naqshabandiyya was strong in towns; mecca and became the regional naqshabandi in yemen; him see althere being fifty-two tekkes khallfa in istanbul in on the 1880s. mul;ibbi, evliya chelebi khulaat al-athar, i. 346-7, 464. he was succeeded by his son ab 'z

zan msii. 'abd al-baqi was also a local yemeni khallfa (d. 1663: mul;ibbi, ii. 283).

96

the formation of

ra

'lfa s

the formatlon of

ra'lfas
97

wrote : 'well informed men know that the great shaikhs may be classed in two principal orders-that of khalveti and that of nakshbendi.'1 like the eastern, the western branch was divided into many separate and frequentiy isolated groups, each distin guished by its own tii'lfa name.2 the only tariqa of the kubriiwi silsila to achieve any wide spread fame was the hamadiiniyya. 'ali al-hamadiini had con ducted large movements of his followers into kashmir where they formed a number of branches, one of the best-known being the ashrafiyya, deriving from ashraf ]ahiingir simniini (d. 145) who settied at kichhauchha in oudh. the order continued to exist among iranians, and towards the end of the fifteenth century ma de its appearance in syria. one sharaf ad-din yunus b. idris al i:ialabi (d. 923/1517) is reported to have taken it from 'ubaid aliiih at- tustari al-hamadiini. 'he acquired many followers who practised the authentic awriid in al-madrasat arrawiii.iyya

the qiidiri had so far lacked both leaders and any clear attractive sufi doctrine. mul,ammad ghawth, daiming to be tenth in succession from 'abd al-qiidir, is responsible for the definitive introduction of his order into india. born in aleppo, he settled (a.d. 1482) in uchch in sind, long concutioned as a strong suhrawardi centre, gained the patronage of the sultan of delhi, sikandar lodi, and died in 1517, to be succeeded by his son, 'abd al-qiidir (d. 1533). the baghdad centre of the order gained the favour of the ottoman dynasty because of its orthodoxy.1 other members of the family moved also to india, and finding it to be fmitful were followed by more members, who formed independent branches. in the seventeenth century it took on a new lease of life and a surprising change to ok place in its teaching (so far ahiri and non-mystical) and practices. it expanded under various leaders, induding shah abu 'l-ma'iili (d. 1615), miyiin mir (d. 1635), and mulla shah badakhshi (d. 1661). the last two were teachers of diirii shikh, during his eariier and more orthodox period.2 the indian qiidiri shaikhs now exten4 very far the process of compromise with hindu thought and custom. naturally in as diversified a region as india regional orders were formed.j the most important was the shattiiriyya. its origins are obscure. it daims to be in the taifuri tradition, but is attributed to a descendant of shihab ad-din as-suhrawardi called 'abdaihih
i when shiih isma'i! the afawid took baghdad in a.d. 1508 his troops destroyed tombs, including that of 'abd al-qadir (rebuilt af ter hulagu's destruction of 1258), and expelled the family, some of whom took refuge in india. sulaiman the great, af ter conquering the former 'abbasid capital, made donations towards its restoration in 941/1534, and (after shah 'abbas's destruction in 1623) murad iv did the same in 1048/1638. ncreasing prosperity enabled the family to b4ild the present mosque. 2 on this remarkable son of shah jahan see b. ]. hasrat, dara shikh: his life and works, visvabharati, santiniketan, 1953. the names of a few of the more important qadiri ta'ifas in india are given in appendix d. 3 a distinctive' order founded in india a httle earlier, but with a narrow outreach, was the madariyya. nothing certain is known about its founder, badi' ad-din shiih madari, an immigrant (syrian 1) who settled in ]aunpur where he died circa 144, his tomb at makanpur (near cawnpore) becoming the focus of a remarkable festival and fair. this occasion also acquired notoriety through the rite of fire-walking performed by the madari faqirs (see j. a. subhan, sufism, 1938, pp. 305-6; 'a'in-i akbari, 1948 edn., iii. 412). this group is regarded as a bioshar' order, but it is more of a syncretistic sect than an order. assanusi includes it among his forty tariqas and describes its aims and practices (salsabil, pp. 152-4), but he knew nothing about it at first

the formatlon of ra'ifas 99

shi'ite orders. the orders were dosely involved with the in

98 the formatlon

of rjplfas
mul).ammad 'arif (attribution

'nereasing shi'i movement in iranian regions. this is seen in the ~eaders deriving from the kubrawiyya movement of sufi thought;1 and even the naqshabandi order, so definitely sunni, made great concessions to the cult 'of 'ali without in any way becoming lnami shi'ite. of course, most orders trace their origin to 'ali and accord him a special position as the medium through which their esoteric teaching had been transmitted, but in any case remaining sunni. a continuous 'alid sufi chain had been maintained for a long while, certainly since the prohibition on the open profession of isma'ili shi'ism in egypt (a.d. 1171), syria (mayaf a.d. 1260, triumph of baibars a.d. 1272), and the fall of alamut (a.d. 1256), when many shi'is found a home within sufi orders. one of the earliest surviving chains2 which shows the double gnostic pro cession from 'ali (both hereditary and initiatory) is that of adr ad-din m. ibn ij:amuya (d. 617/1220), belonging to a family of persian origin, whose most famous sufi member was the shi'i, sa'd ad-din ibn ij:amuya.

ash-shattiir. unknown?),

his

pir,

sent him to india. he was at first at ]awnpur, capital of brahim shah sharqi (reg. a.d. 1402-40); then difficulties caused him to go on to mandu, capital of the small muslim state of malwa (multan), where he died in 1428/9. his way was spread by his pupils, especially the bengali, mul).ammad 'ala', known as qazan shaari, but owes its full development as a distinctive order to shah mul).ammad ghawth of gwalior (d. 1562/3),1 fourth in succession from the founder, and to be distinguished from the mul).ammad ghawth of uchch (d. 1517), propagator of the qadiriyya in india. his successor shah wajih ad-din (d. 1018/169), should be mentioned, since he was the author of many books, founded a long-lived madrasa, and was honoured as a great saint in gujerat. since the shaariyya does not regard itself as an offshoot of any order (though its chain links with the suhrawardiyya), it may be regarded as a distinct tariqa with its own characteristics in beliefs and practices.2 it was known as the 'ishqiyya in iran and turan, and as the bisamiyya in ottoman turkey, the name in both instances deriving from the name of a propagator called abu yazid al- 'ishqi.3 none of the orders in india could escape being influenced by their religious environment. many branches became very syncretistic, adopting varieties of pantheistic thought and antinomian tendencies. many practices were taken over from the y ogisextreme i mul;.ammad ghawth was the author and of a mi'riij in which he ascetic disciplines, celibacy, vegetarianism. describes his progress along the path of spiritual ascension. the wanderers of the qalandari type abounded. local pantheistic expressions he used caused the 'ulama' of gujerat to call customs were adopted; for example, in the thirteenth for his condemnation for heresy, from which he was vindicated by 'shiih' wajih ad-din who became disciple and successor. other century the chishtis paidhis respect to then their leaders by books he wrote include jawiihir-i khamsa and awriid-i ghawthiyya. ascomplete prostration with forehead on the ground.4 sansi describes the dhikrs of the order, including the jjiyya = yogaj
salsabil, pp. 126-35.
besides the works of mul;.ammad ghawth and his successor, an account of its doctrines is given in lrshiidiit al-' arifin by mul;.ammad brahim

gazur-i ilahi, a contemporary of awrangzaib (1659-1707). 3 the 'ishqiyya is one of the orders given by as-sansi (he calls it 'a fii'lfa of the shattariyya'), but he has 'ishqi's sanad muddled up; see salsabil, pp. 135-6. 4 the custom is referred to frequendy in amir l;iasan 'ala sijzi's fawii'id

descent from the seventh imam, musii kii?:im, was born in ardabil in eastem azerbaijan. he experienced difficulty in finding
formatlon of ra'ipas

the
101

-- - -

100 adirector, but eventually discover-ed a shaikh zahidl the formation of ra'ipas

with whon he remained for twenty-five years until his death (694/1294), when he succeeded him. from afiyyaddin the succession was here. ditary: (2) adr ad-din, d. 1393, (3) khwaja 'ali, d. 1429, (4) ibrahim shiih, d. 1447/8, (5) lunaid, kii1ed in battle in 1460, (6) i;iaidar, also kii1ed in battle in 1488, and (7) shiih isma'il (d. 1524), founder of the afawi dynasty. it is not dear when the ord er became shi'i. khwiija 'ali showed shi'i tendencies andbut when shaikh revised lunaid, tawakkul ibn al-bazzaz around 760/1359, subsequently with and uugwhom
385-94.

its

mented. the book has been analysed b. nikitine in j.chief asiat. of 1957, militant role began, fled toby uzn i;iasan, the

white sheep dynasty, with his ten thousand sufi ' his proper name was taj ad-din brahim ibn rshan of !;ihyakiran in the warriors (ghuziit-i fiyya) khanbali district of gilan. his link, and so that of afi, was with the their perfect
silsiia, but it is better attached to the khurasanian rather than the

suhrawardl

'who deemed the risking of their iives in the path of

baghdadian

director the least ofthat the degrees of devotion',2 he tradition. it is interesting shah 'abbas (1588-1629) appointed the shrine

visited shaikh 'abd al

abdal, a descendant of shaikh zahid, custodian of his shrine at of adr ad-din al-qonawi,j whose incumbent, shaikh shaikhiinbar in ardabil in 1600. so the shrine reverted to the original line (cf. e. g. browne, j.r.a.s. 1921, 395 f.). responsible,
2

several turkish khalwati orders (bairiimiyya and } ilwatiyya), daiming to be sunni, were. iinked with the same tradition, whilst among the many political aspects we may mention the rising in a.d. 1416 of m~tafa brklja supported by shaikh badr ad-din, son of the qiit!i of simaw.1 shiih ismii'il in his bid for power found strong support in such parts as had been influenced, especially among the population of the gulf of adalia, sanjaq teke, whose takhtaji population is said to be descended from immigrant iranian qizil-biish,2 and the ottoman sultan bayazid ii had difficulty in suppressing the rebeiiion of baba shiih kuli in support of shah ismii'ii. the sufi organization upon which the dynasty had come to power continued to exist as the servant of the state, with a klalifat al-khulafii' at the head,j but steadily dedined, until in time sufis became targets for the enmityand persecution of the shi'i mujtahids. the ni 'matuilahi order was founded by nur ad-din m. ni'matulliih b. 'abdallah, who daimed descent from the fifth shi'i imiim, mul,ammad baqir. bom in aleppo in 730/1330 in a family of iranian origin, he went to mecca at the age of 24, where he became pupil, then khalifa, of 'abdallah alyiifi 'i (1298-1367), who traced his mystical ancestry to abu madyan (egyptian branch). af ter 'abdalliih's death, he found his way to central asia, traveiiing from khiinaqiih to khiinaqiih, samarqand, heriit, and yazd; expeiled from transoxiana by timur he settled eventuaily at miihiin near kirmiin, until his death at an advanced age in 834/1431.4 ni'matullah was proiific writer of sufi ephemeras, both prose and poetry. he enjoyed the favour of kings and this partiality for the great of the world was continued by his descendants. w. i vanow writes that this tariqa 'was always selectiye in its membership, and occupied the position of an "aristocratic" organization. later on it became a fashion in the higher strata of the feudal society to be a rnember of this affiiiation . . . a few
decades ago almost the
i see e.!.' i. 869. on this aspect of the qizil-bash and their connections with anatohan dervish orders see f. babinger, schejchbedr ed-din, leipzig and berlin, 1921, pp. 78ff., d. isi. xi (1921), 1-106; h. j. kissling, 'zur geschichte des

latif, denounced him as a heretic. shaikh i;iaidar was in answer' to divine revelation, for instructing his 3 adr ad-din al-qonawi (d. a.h. 1273), a famous commentator on the thought
e. g. browne, lit. hist. persia, iv. 47.

derw:ischordens der bajramijja', sdostjorschungen, xv (1956), 237ff. 3 see r. m. savory, 'the office of khalifat al-khulafa under the afawids', j.a.mer. or. soc. lxxxv (1965), 497-502. 4 on ni'matul1ah see e. g. browne, lit. hist. persia, iii. 463-73, where ejcamples of his apocalyptic and pantheistic poetry are given and

of followers bn al- 'arabl, to whose lectures on the pu inspired the persian .poet 'iraql to compose his lama'iit. adopt the scarlet cap of twelve gores4 signifying the 4 tiij-i duwiizda tarh,later cailed taj-i !;aidari. s 'god! god! and 'ali is the friend of god.' on the shl'i sense of wali see below, pp; 133~s. turkish term qizil-biish

, cf. e.i.' iv. 627.

twelve imams, which led to their being known by the

102

the format on of rji'lfas format on of rji'ifas

the
103

whole of the dass of the junior government derks, petty trades. men, and other similar working people in persia belonged to the "mulla-sultani" or "gunabadi" order, an offshoot of the ni'matu'l-lahis gunabad), with. out in any way forfeiting their shi'ite orthodoxy in the eyes of the people.' mahan has remained the centre of the ord er but it put out other shoots besides the gunabadi2-dh 'r-riyasatain and afi- 'ali-shahi. in the founder's lifetime it spread into india, where the bahmanid ruler of deccan, al:mad shah wali (d. 14-36), fostered it in his dominions. persecuted for a period in iran, it gained ground af ter the rise of the qajar dynasty (a.d. 1779), and is the most active order in iran at the present time. the nrbakhshiyya3 may be dassed among shi'i (with headquarters in baydukht,

this qualification, that any schema implies a distinction more hard and fast than is justified by the facts, the trends may be sumnarized : first (khiinaqiih) stage. the golden age of mysticism. master and his circle of pupils, frequently itinerant, having minimum regulations for living a common life, leading in the tenth century to the formation of undifferentiated, unspecialized lodges and convents. guidance under a master becomes an accepted principle. intellectually and emotionally an aristocratic movement. individualistic and communal methods of contemplation and exercises for the inducement of ecstasy. second (tariqa) stage. thirteenth century, seljuq period. formative period = a.d. i 100-14-00. the transmission of a doctrine, a role and method. development of continuative teaching schools of mysticism: silsila-tariqas, deriving from an illuminate. bourgeois movement. conforming and making docile the mystical spirit within organized sufism to the standards of tradition and legalism. development of new types of collectivistic methods for inducing ecstasy. third (tii'ifa) stage. fifteenth century, period of founding of the ottoman empire. the transmission of an allegiance alongside the doctrine and rule. sufism becomes a popular movement. new foundations formed in tariqa lines, branching into numerous 'corporations' or 'orders', fully incorporated with the saintcult. the organization of what cannot properiy be organized, personal mystical life, arose naturally through the need for guidance and association with kindred aspirants. but organization carried within itself the see ds of decay. through the cult-mysticism of the orders the individual creative freedom df the mystic was fettered and subjected to conformity and collective experience. guidance under the eariier masters had not compromised the spiritual liberty of the seeker, but the final phase involving subjection to the arbitrary will of the shaikh turned him into a spiritual slave, and not to god, but to a human being, even though one of god's elect. in addition, the mystical content of the orders had been weakened. in the arab worid especially, the conflict between the exoteric and esoteric doctriqes of

10+

the formation of

ra'lfas

standards, to make mysticism innocuous by tolerating much of its outer aspects and forms in return for submission. order shaikhs vied with one another in demonstrating their loyalty and subservience to the shari'a, and in the process many orders were emptied of their essential elements and left with the empty husks of mystical terminology, disciplines, and exercises. the orders had now attained their final forms of organization and spiritual exercises. innovations had become fully integrated and their spirit and aims were stereotyped. no further develop ment was possible and no further work of mystical insight which could mark a new point of departure in either doctrine or practice was to make its appearance. the following are the chief features: (a) authoritarian principle. veneration for the shaikh of the ta:ija, inheritor of the haraka of wiliiya, and utter subjection to his authority. (h) developed organization embodying a hierarchical principle, with a general range of uniformity, variations being expressed in secondary aspects. lv efore the nineteenth century the world of islam had suffered no major reverses from the expansion of the west. the maghrib had been menaeed, but a nineteenth-century revival movements state of power equilibrium had been maintained in the mediterranean. i. the directions of revival the portuguese had blocked sultan selim's ambitions to dominate the indian ocean, bul this was offset by ottoman turkey's expansion at the expense of christian europe. europe's earlier expansion by-passed the ottoman empire, which embraced the heartlands of islam. napoleon's conquest of egypt in 1798 is generally taken as a convenient point from which to date the first realization of the threat presented by european expansion. two developments now led to an intensified islam-the wahhiibi movement and revival in the orders. neither was in response to the western menace, for they had their roots in the eighteenth century; rather, they anticipated the need for reform and for countering the lethargy which had overtaken the arab world und er ottoman rule. the first of these movements rejected the validity of the solidified system validated by ijmii' and especially su~h practices as compromised the unity and transcendence of god. it stressed a return to the simplicity of a mythical, unadulterated islam, and interpreted the jikiid against unbelievers as war against those who, like haraka-exploiters, had compromised its purity. the wahhiibi rejects any idea of intermediaries between himself and god since with his view of transcendence no relationship is possible. a ruling tenet was systematic opposition to all innovations, and the wahhiibis shocked the world of islam when, in the territories they conquered, they destroyed the tombs of saints, including that of imam busain ibn 'ali at kerbala in 1802. the political action of the movement was restricted, but its stimulative effect was widespread, and its attack on the orders emphasized the need for reform.

106 nineteenth-century rev iv al movements

all religious organizations flag in their interior life, and l orders were, as we have seen, very decadent. within then ~l e true wayof sufi experience had weakened, though individu and little crdes continued to follow the sufi path. the

the maghrib 107 ~ineteenth-century 2. reviv al movements (a) tijaniyya b raos' they empha,ized the faet that the prophet the new outlook in the maghrib is associated with the

himse1f had tijiiniyya. :,eo abu them '1.'abbiis direcr al:mad permi..ion b. mul).ammad to initiate a way. b. al-mukhtiir the new attijiini was boro in 5o/1737 at 'ain miidi in the south of tari'ias aigeria. ~"e a.<> marked by their revuhion againat

revi a ~ that took place in an attempt to meet the situation stems fron ~ work of three men, all bom in the maghrib. e the revival took two lines, traditional and reformist. that alon traditional lines derives from the inspiration of an illuninat: called ad-darqawi, who enlivened emotional fervour and stinulated the urge towards the contemplative life among adherents within the shadhili tradition. this resulted in a proliferation of branch orders, mainly in north africa, with offshoots in syria and hijaz. the reformist movement derives from al:mad attijani and al:mad ibn idris. the action of the first was centred in the maghrib, and retained this orientation, though it spread into west, central, and eastem sudan. it maintained its unity, its khalifas being immunized against the virus of prophetical inspiration to prodaim their own separate ways. the movement inspired by al:mad ibn idris had its centre in mecca and af ter bn idris's death his chief disciples daimed equally both to perpetuate his way and to have received heavenly directives to found their own distinctive ways. al:mad ibn idris in particular, responding to the challenge presented by the wahhabi movement, sought to preserve the inner (balini) aspect of islam, rejected completely by the wahhabis, along with full acceptance of the ahiri aspect, and vigorously condemned the accretions which had debased the orders. these aims alienated both the 'ulama' and the ordershaikhs in the hijaz. he also had a pan-islamic vision. he sought to bind believers together through full adherence to the law along with an emotionalized islam based on devotion to the prophet and a personal embodiment of divine power at work in the world. all these neworders were moved by missionary fervour to augment their membership. the two al:mads both. stressed that the purpose of dhikr was union with the spirit of the prophet, rather than union with goda change which affected the basis of the

he became affiliated to many orders and a muqaddam aaceticiam and by of the id,;r "reaa on praetica1 activiti... their waya maintained khalwatiyya. the foowing account, said to be derived "tab directly from al).mad, shows sufiam, how he received the call at i.bed li'urgie.! and etbical having tittle in their tilimsiin in method 1196/1782 to found his own independent order: 'the and training that the old sufia would have regarded .. prophet gave myatica1. him permission to initiate during a period when he had 'fb~ i. ,howo by their peaetice, laek of guidance of fled from n,ophyt.., and contact with people in order to devote himself to his personal rejecuon of eanterie teaeling, and by ,ueh ..pec" .. the development, not yet daring to daim shaikhship until kind of given "",terial drawn frnm cl...ical sufiam, ..peciauy the permission, when in a waking and not sleeping state, to prophetie train men u,&tion, which they incnrpoeated inm their manu.!' to in general and unr"'trietedly, and had had ..,igned to
\ i

108 nineteenth-century revival movements

af ter this event he went into the desert; the exact circumstances are obscure but he seems to have got into trouble with the turkish authorities, and eventually settled in the oasis of abi samghiin. it was there in 1200/1786 that he received his final revelation (fatm.r in 1213/1798 he left his desert retreat, again it seems under pressure, and moved to morocco to begin his wider mission fron the city of fez, where he was well received by mlay sulainan and remained until his death in i 8 i 5. a1;.mad developed his rule on strict lnes. at first he had adopted the khalwati line for his chain of succession, though his teaching owes much to the shiidhiliyya; the distinction between guidance and instruction (tarbiya and ta'lim) is evident in his teaching, but did not find its way into the subsequent rules of the order. obligations, as was to be expected in an order designed to expand, were smple. he imposed no penances or retreats and the ritual was not complicated. he emphasized above all the need for an
jawdhir, i. 44. there seems togod have and been yet another with his intercessor between man, thestage intercessor assump tion of the rank of qub al-aqldb in izi4/1799. being jawdhir, himself i. 43. and his successors.
i

nineteenth-century rev iv al movements 109

before a1;.mad's death the wahhiibi movement began to influence north africa directly.r in 1226/1811 sa'd ibn 'abd al- 'aziz, the wahhiibi leader then master of the hijaz, sent a message to mlay sulaiman of morocco inviting its people to follow the path of reform. mlay sulaiman put his son, abu isl:aq brahim, in charge of the annual pilgrimage canivan which was accompanied by 'ulama' who, on their return, had a lot to say about wahhiibi condemnation of the cult of saints.2 they saw affirmation of ,wahhiibi principles as a means of weakening the influence of the marabouts. mlay sulaiman drew up a long statement, in which he dealt with these questions of infringement of the sunna. al:mad supported all this, although he was disliked by the 'ulama', in accordance with the policy of subservience to established authority which was to characterize his order. the khu/ba which was read in all mosques was regarded by the maraboutic element as a declaration of war and set oif an insurrection (1818-22) in which the amhawsh, the head of the wazzaniyya, and the recent illuminate, ad-darqawi, were involved.
al;mad at- tijani

(z) 'ali ibn 'isa

ii

(3) mul;ammad aaghir b. al;mad i at- tijiini 'ain madi zdwiya mul;ammad al-kabir d. 1853 tamalhat zdwiya b. al;mad at- tijiini
d. 1844 d. r8z7

c. 18rs

(5) al;mad (6) ai-bashir d. 189i d. 1911

(7) 'ali

ii

(4) mul;ammad al- 'id

b. 'ali b. 'isa d. r876

(5) mul;amhad a-aghir d. 189z

of

the age

his followers were

although al:mad was buried in f ez, where his tomb became an object of visitation, the direction of the order moved to two centres in aigeria. a1;.mad had nominated the muqaddam of the zawiya at tamehalt near tamasin, 'ali ibn 'sa (d. 1844), as his successor see g. drague, esquisse d'histoire religieuse du maroc, paris, 19sz, pp. 88-9z. and directed that kitdb the al-lstiqsd, succession should al;mad an-nairi, 1316/r898, viii. alternate 145 if. see also al between his own familyand that of ali ibn 'sa. 'ali ]abarti, iv. 151. persuaded a1;.mad's sons to make 'ain madi their home, and when he died

.
i

ho

nineteenth-century

reviv al movements

nineteenth-century revival movements

iii

the succession went to aj;mad's son, muj;ammad aaghir, and then back to the other line. no serious split in the order occurred untii the death of muj;arn mad ai-'d in 1876, when the two groups separated fouowing a dispute over the succession. the result is that these two places came to have only a localized direct authority, and groups have ma de themselves independent au over africa. but the order's expansion was not thereby weakened, nor did the iocal ieaders daim to found new lines; and by the beginning of the twentieth century it had become one of the most important in morocco and aigeria. the order spread south of the sahara into west sudan, then nilotic, and finauy central sudan. it ma de its first appearance in west sudan when it was adopted by maraboutic (zwtlya) groups of the moorish tribe of ida-w 'ali. but it remained a tribal characteristic and would not have spread among negroes had it not been taken up bya tokolor from futa toro caued al-i;iajj

other maghribi movement whieh paraiieled that of the tijanis an d in faet was far more of a popular revival and beeame the most a~despread, numerous, and influential tariqa in north mriea. ~his awakening was set in motion by an eestatie leader in the shadhili-zarrqi sueeession caiied abu i;iamid (aj;mad) al'arabi ad-darqawi (1760-1823) who foiiowed traditional lines. although ad-darqawi was contemporary with at- tijani, the tw6 movements do not eoineide. only af ter ad-darqawi's death did his movement beeome a distinetive way. unlike at- tijani he received no summons from the prophet to found a tariqa, he wrote little, and he says speeifieaiiy that his dhikr derives from his own teaeher, 'ali al-'amran 'aljamal' (d. 1779).1 throughout his life he seems to have been the vietim of eireumstanees over which he had no control. ad-darqawi himself stressed non-involvement in the affairs of this world, he was zealous in preaehing against the baraka exploitation of the established orders, yet his own order beeame notable, even notorious, as a politico-religious movement. he himself bee,ame involved. mlay sulaiman (reg. a.d. 17931822) at first sought to make use of the potential power rising from this illuminate to eonsolidate his position against the, turks in oran and tilimsan, but later, as we have seen, condemned the practices of the orders. ad-darqawi had reaeted against one of his muqaddams, 'abd al-qadir ibn sharif, for attacking the turks in oran (85-8), yet later he supported the leaders of revolts against the rule of mlay sulaiman. he was no leading spirit in this militant mavement, but was use d by others. the sultan beeame hostile, and ad-darqawi was imprisoned. the next sultan, 'abd ar-raj;man (822-59), released him, and then, as his order diversified, its power weakened and ts politieal activities in moroeeo dedined. mter ad-darqawi's death in his ztlwiya at b-berij;, just north of fez, among his own tribe, the banu zarwal, there developed around his name what can be regarded as a new tariqa in that it is a definite line of aseription. his initiates., had aiready spread widely, forming their own ztlwiyas, but retaining the aseription. it beeame the most important order in moroeeo, but

hz

nineteenth-century reviv al movements

and

hijaz.

some

long-estabhshed

ziiwiya

groups

nineteenth-century revival movements ii3

attached then. selves to the new line; these included the amhawsh and the i:iansahyya, who deserted their nairiyya

attachment and joined the darqawiyya reasons. the foiiowing are the more important branches: i. foundation ziiwiya at b beril:, where ad-darqawi and most of his successors are buried. offshoot ziiwiyas agents at tetwan, tangier, ghumara, ete. the headquarters moved to the nearby ziiwiya of amajjt (amjot) af ter 1863. 2. badawiyya. this is the south moroccan tafilalt branch, some times referred to as the shurafa' of madagra. the founder, al:mad al-badawi, disciple of ad-darqawi, is buried in fez, but the branch was organize d (ziiwiya of gaz) by his successor, al:mad al-hashimi ibn al-'arbi, af ter whose death (1892)
i see]. l. michon, art. bn 'adjiba in e.i.' iii. 696-7.
\

for

pohtical rather

than

religious

and

8. algerian branches: (a) ~ehajiyya or qaddriyya. founder: sidi b-'~za a.l vehaji of mostaganam, who was succeeded by hs pupl, vul:ammad b. sulaiman b. al- 'awda al-qaddr of nedroma. (b) 'alawiyya. founded by al:mad al- 'alawi, who, af ter serving his apprenticeship in the 'isawiyya, became a pupil of m. albzidi (d. 199), then declared his independence in 1914. he died in 1934 and is buried in the ziiwiya of tigzit, mostaganam. (c) in addition there are ziiwiyas connected with: mul:ammad al-misn b. m. (sid almisn), chief of the algerian branch, d. 130/1883; 'adda ibn ghulam allah, d. 1860, tomb and ziiwiya near tiaret; al-'arbi lbn 'atiyya 'abdallah abu tawil al wansharishi. 9. madaniyya: (a) tripolitanian and hijazian branch formed af ter ad-darqawi's death by mu1.ammad i:iasan ibn i:iamza al-madani. bom in medina, disciple of darqawi in b-beril:, he retumed to medina, where he initiated many khalifas. af ter ad-darqawi~s death he settled in tripoli, where he formed his own tariqa, anq died in misurata in 1363/1846. under al-madani's son and successor, mu1.ammad zafir, it became a newand distinctive order rather than a branch, and muqaddams were widely dispersed in tunisia, algeria, libya, fezzan, hijaz, and turkey where it played a panislamic role. i from it branched: (b) ra1.maniyya.2 a hijazi branch founded by m. ibn m. ibn mas'd b. 'abd ar-ral:man al-fasi, who went to mecca in 185 where he built a ziiwiya, and died in 1878. (c) yashrutiyya, founded by 'ali nr ad-din al-yashruti, bom in bizerta 1793, died in acre 1891. the order drew its membership from a wide range of social groups. townspeople recited their dhikrs, attended local ~alras, and occasionally went on visitations, but lived their normallife. among mountain tribesmen and villagers attachment through the local muqaddam was felt as a renewed link with spiritual power and evoked an enthusiasm that of ten came into conflict with the older
i

troubles over the succession led to the foundation of rival ziiwiyas.

see below, p. ~6.

. to be distinguished from the khalwati-l;iafnawi-raq.miiniyya founded by mul;aznmad ibn 'abd ar-raq.miin al-geshtuli al-]urjuri, d. 1208/1793.

3. movements deriving from amad bn idris (a) almad ilm idris. the other great reformer was a1).mad ibn idris b. m. b. 'ali,3 born at maisr near fez inmo 1173/1760 into ii4 nineteenth-century revival ve men ts family, he a pious

der the guise of taawwuji. his biographer says that he based ~~ sufi practice solid~y on the q~r'a~ a~~ ~~nna, accepting only hese as uul (foundatlons) and rejectng zjma

nineteenth-century revival movement8 ii5

(consensus), except

orders and resented the political control of a foreign i the usual stages of induction into the passed power through

religious apart from the parasites who attach themselves to disciplines, zawiyas, this and one of his teachers, abu 'l-mawahib 'abd al. order had quite an unusal number of adherents who wahhab lived re. at- tazi, initiated him into his own order.4 another cognizably as dervishes, bearing a staff, wearing the ragged teacher in the sufi way was abu 'l-qasim al-wazir. patched muraqqa'a, and with a rosary of large wooden brought up inbead~ the formal sufi tradition grafted on to the legal.tradition, a1).mad around the necks (forbidden to sansis), wandering reacted against the saint-veneration of the maghrib from place which went to place, reciting litanies and chanting the qur'an. this
resistance to the french occupation of aigeria and the resistance of

wandering

iabout 1836 the muqaddam 'abd ar-ra~iin t1ti became involved in

dervish the dar

2

aspect goes back to ad-darqawi himself. it was

also continued in some form or another until 1907. qawiyya

g. drague, esquisse d'histoire religieuse du maroc, paris, 1951, p. an order which gaye scope to women and in 1942 it is

reported
b, 'abd

266 n.

3 short biographies have been appended to editions of ~ad's kanz

as-sa'ddati wa 'r-rashdd, khartoum, 1939, women pp. 9-18 (by cirde-leaders shams ad-din that there were eight al-muta'iil b. a1:mad b. idris), the collection majm'at ~zdb wa awrdd wa rasd'il, cairo, 1359/1940, pp. 201-5, by 'abd ar-ra~iin b. sulaimiin al abdal, mufti of zabid, pupil of a1:mad; and a collection of ~ad's risa!as entitled majm'a sharifa, cairo, n.d., pp. 119-,;8, mainly concerned wth his ~zdb, pupils, eulogizing qasir;las, and the like. 4 this was the khaliriyya, the line nitiated by 'abd al. 'aziz ibn mas'd ad-dabbiigh in ii25/1713 on direct inspiration from that light 9f

(muqaddamat) in morocco.z

that of the companions up on which the prophet's sunna is based.z ~leariy this came later in his life, af ter he had come under wahhabi 'nfluence. 'his concern was not confined to teaching awrad and ~dhkiir, to urging people to go into retreat and insulate themselves from mankind. such practices might be of advantage for the personal development of the individual disciple, but they were not suitable for the highcr purpose at which he was aiming, that is, the unity of the endeavour of musiims united in the bond of islam.'3 ahmad soon abandoned the maghrib, never to return. af ter acco~plishing the piigrimage in 1799 he settled in cairo for further studies, and then lived obscurely in the viiiage of zainiyya in qina province. he returned to mecca a second time in 1818 and settled there. as a reformist deric, daiming to restore the pure faith as it was before it had been corrupted by the 'ulama', an upstart moreover, nor a recognized member of the religious hierarchy of a place which had just experienced the rigours of wahhiibi domination, he was naturaiiy not welcome. the 'ulama' 'whose hearts were eaten up with hatred and envy, disputed with him, but his divinely inspired floods of eloquence gushed forth and it was demonstrated that he stood squarely in the orthodox path'.4 he became one of the most eminent teachers in the holy city and group ed around himself a great number of pupils, and of the many who took the tariqa from him simply 'to partake of his power'(li 't-tabarruk) was mu1).ammad basan zafir al-madani.5 the enmity of the 'ulamii' was never assuaged and a charge of heresy was brought against him. his life was so much endangered that he had to flee in 1827 to zabid and then to the town of
it is related that 'once the famous saint of the maghrib, al'arabi ad

darqawi, stood naked while he was teaching. he was subject to trances (dl,ib al-~al) and said, pointing to the sayyid (a~ad ibn idris), "behold asaint unlike other saints, a ghawth unlike other aghwdth, a qutb unlike other aqtdb," the sayyid averted his eyes, stripped of! his

3. movements deriving from a~mad bn idr is

ibn idris.

(a) al:mad

nineteenth-century revival movements ii5

the other great reformer was a1.mad ibn idris b. m. b. 'ali.3 born at maisr near fez in 1173/1760 into a pious ii4 nineteenth-century revival movements family, he

der the guise of taawwuji. his biographer says that he based ~~ sufi practice solid~y on the q~r'ii~ a~~ ~~nna, accepting only h se as uul (foundatons) and rejectng ljma (consensus), except th:t of the companions upon which the prophet's sunna is based.2 ~learly this came later in his life, af ter he had come under wahhabi 'nfluence. 'his concern was not confined to teaching awrad and ~dhkar, to urging people to go into retreat and insulate themselves from mankind. such practices might be of advantage for the per sonal development of the individual disciple, but they were not suitable for the high~r purpose at which he was aming, that is, the unity of the endeavour of muslims united in the bond of islam.'3 ahmad soan abandoned the maghrib, never to return. af ter acco~plishing the pilgrimage in 1799 he settled in cairo for further studies, and then lived obscurely in the yillage of zainiyya in qina province. he returned to mecca a second time in 1818 and settled there. as a reformist eleric, daiming to restore the pure faith as it was before it had been corrupted by the 'ulama', an upstart moreover, no~ a recognized member of the religious hierarchy of a place which had just experienced the rigours of wahhabi domination, he was naturay not welcome. the 'ulama' 'whose hearts were eaten up with hatred and envy, disputed with him, but his divinely inspired floods of eloquence gushed forth and it was demonstrated that he stood squarely in the orthodox path'.4 he became one of the most eminent teachers in the holy cty and group ed around himself a great number of pupils, and of the many who took the tariqa from him simply 'to partake of his power'(li 't-tabarruk) was mu1.ammad basan afir al-madani.5 the enmity of the 'ulama' was never ass.aged and a charge of heresy was brought against him. his life was so much endangered that he had to flee in 1827 to zabid and then to the town of
lt is related that 'once the famous saint of the maghrib, al- 'arabi addarqawi, stood naked while he was teaching. he was subject to trances (tib-ib al-~al) and said, pointing to the sayyid (a1:mad ibn
[

orders and resented the poiitical of into a the passed through the usual stages ofcontrol induction foreign power religious
apart from the parasites who attach themseives to disciplines, and one of his teachers, abu 'i-mawiihib zawiyas, this 'abd alwahhiib at- tiizi, initiated him into his own order had quite order.4 anather an unusal number of adherents who lived re teacher in the sufi way was abu 'i-qiisim al- wazir. cognizabiy as dervishes, bearing a staff, wearing the brought up ragged in the muraqqa'a, formal sufi tradition grafted on to the patched and with a rosary of large wooden legal.tradition, a1.mad bead~ reacted against the saint-veneration of thewandering maghrib around the necks (forbidden to sansis), which went from place to place, reciting iitanies and chanting qur'iin. this iabout 1836 the muqaddam 'abd ar-ra1:man titi the became involved
in resistance to the french occupation of aigeria and the resistance of dervish aspect goes back to ad-darqiiwi himseif. it was the dar qawiyya also continued in some form or another until 1907. 2 g. drague, esquisse d'histoire religieuse du maroc, 1951,it p.is an order which gaye scope to women andparis, in 1942 266 n. reported 3 short biographies have been appended to editions of aj:mad's kanz that there were eight cirde-ieaders as-sa'tidati wa 'r-rashtid, khartoum, 1939, women pp. 9-18 (by shams ad-din b, 'abd (muqaddamat) n al-muta'al b. al:mad b. idris), the collection majm'at af:ztib wa awrtid morocco.2 wa rasti'il, cairo, 1359/1940, pp. zoi-5, by 'abd ar-ra1:man b. sulaman al ahdal, mufti of zabid, pupil of a1:mad; and a collection of aj:mad's ristilas entitled majm'a sharifa, cairo, n.d., pp. 119-']8, mainly concemed with his af:ztib, pupils, eulogizing qasit!as, and the like. 4 this was the kha1iriyya, the line nitiated by 'abd al- 'aziz ibn mas'd ad-dabbagh in i iz5/1713 on direct inspiration from that light of saintship, al-kha1ir. he was originally nairiyya and his shaikh was m. b: zayyiin al qandisi. on bn ad-dabbagh see adh-dhahab al-ibriz fi mantiqib 'abd al 'aziz, by a1:mad ibn mubarak al-lamti, his successor and organizer

wandering

u6 nineteenth-century

revival

movements

nineteenth-century reviv al movements 117

abya in 'asir, which at that time stili paid aliegiance to the wahhabis, who left him in peace since he was sympathetic towards their reformist tenets; and he died there in 1837. whereas the tijaniyya remained unified, even later internal troubles not leading to the formatian of new lines, the idrisiyya split up immediately the master died, and his more influential pupils embarked upon independent courses. the most important of these were mul,ammad ibn 'ali a-sansi, founder of the sansiyya, founder of the mirghaniyya. offshoots were these and a number of other only independent tariqas, making and mul,ammad 'uthman al-mirghani,

family, af ter long residence in central asia, made their way to mecca, whose shurafa' recognized their daim to descent from the prophet. mul,ammad 'uthman's grandfather, 'abdallah alvral,jb (d. 1207/1792), was a well-known sufi and mul,ammad 'uthman followed in his footsteps. like as-sansi he sought initiatian into as manyorders as possible, but his real shaikh was ab.mad ibn idris. al,mad sent him as a propagandist of reform to egypt and the nilotic mul,ammad 'ali's sudan (1817) just before

conquest. he was not outstandingly successful, but he took a sudanese wife, and their son, al-basan, was eventually to establish the tariqa as the most important in eastern sudan. mul,ammad 'uthman returned to mecca and then accompanied al,mad to

abya, but af ter his master' s death he returned to

mecca, where he pursued a course of rivalry with al,mad's other pupils, mul,ammad ibn 'ali as-sansi and brahim arrashid. each of these daimed to be al,mad's successor and founded his own independent tariqa. in mecca mul,ammad 'uthman was at first more successful than the others, since his family was known there. he showed himself to be no reformist shaikh like al,mad and won the support of same meccan shurafa'. he makes little acknowledgement in his writings of his debt to al:mad, and like the sansi, ciaims that his tariqa is comprehensive, embracing the essentials of the naqshabandiyya, shadhiliyya, qadiriyya, lunaidiyya, and the mirghaniyya of his grandfather; 'therefore anyone who takes the tariqa from him and follows his path wi11link himself on to the chains (asanid) of these tariqas'.2 he sent his sons into different countries: south arabia, egypt, nilotic sudan, and even india. in each of these countries a nudeus of followers had been formed before his death in 1268/1851 at ta'if, w which he had withdrawn in consequence of the increasing hosti1ity of the 'ulama'. the propaganda was most successful in the egyptian sudan, where his son, al-basan (d. 1869), had settled at kasala and founded the, township of khatmiyya. when ~ul:ammad al:mad proclaimed himself the mahdi in the sudan n 881 the mirghani family, which like all other established orders had vested interests in the turco- egyptian regime, opposed
i h~s works are given in g.a.l. ii. 386; g.a.l.s. ii. 523. popular

cursory acknowledgement of their debt to al,mad ibn idris, and consequently foliowed different lines in their teaching and exercises. the sansi was the only order which retained al,mad's quietistmode of dhikr and which banned music, daneing, and extravagant mavements. attainment of ecstasy in the normal crude sense was not the aim of the sansi dhikr: the ikhwan were expected to work for their living and
see the special invocation series of blessings upon the prophet in were withdrawn from the world ito self-sufficient
i

as

zawiya-centres the dhikr

in oases in the saharan wastes: what was stressed was

sanusi's as-salsabil al-mu 'in, pp. 14 ff,

n8 nineteenth-century revival movements his daims, and during the mahdiyya the family went into exil

nineteenth-century rev iv al movements 119

but with the re-occupation in 1898 mirghani authority once agar

reconstituted itself. the mirghanis strongly opposed the breakin n away of khalifas to found their own branches, but there wa~ one exception whose independence was admitted by mul).ammad 'dthman. this was the isma'iliyya founded in 1846 by !sma'i[ ibn 'abdallah (1793-1863) at elobeyd in kordofan province of eastem sudan. i the islam of eastem sudan, soundly based on arabic, had tempered legalism with mysticism. the religious leaders had combined the roles of faqih (jurisconsult), faqir (sufi), and mu'allim (qur'an teacher) under the one comprehensive term of feki, and their establishment which combined all these functions was known as a khalwa (retreat). the new emphases brought a different type of religious rivalry and order loyalty; no stress was placed upon ascetic and mystical practice and teaching, but complete reliance up on the mirghanis, loyalty to whom earned assurance of paradise. the old familyand tribal orders continued to survive and maintained the old spirit, as against the legalistic fanaticism soon to burst out in the mahdi's repudiation of his sufi heritage. (c) sansiyya. mul).ammad ibn 'ali as-saniisi (1787-1859) had been involved in the disputes over the succession to al).mad ibn idris. he founded (1838) his first zawiya at abu qubais, a hill overlooking th~ ka'ba, but though he won a following he could not maintain himseli against both the 'ulama' and the mirghani family strongly entrenched in mecca. he was forced to leave mecca (1840) and settled eventually (1843) in the hills known as jabal akhlar in the interior of cyrenaica, where he founded az-zawiyat al-baila'. this relatively fertile region in the midst of the bleak desert was centrally situated both for influencing nomadic tribes and for contact with the camvan traftic coming from central sudan. though he
see isma'il's own account in al- 'uhd al-wafiya fi kaifiyyat ijat attariqat al-isma'iliyya, cairo [1937 ?], pp. 2-12; and for a general account see ]. s. trimingham, islam in the sudan, 19+9, pp.
i

.on "" many noma<lic tribes in cyrenaica. he awuened \ittle

""pon'" among coltivato", and urban people attached to the old "defa. and hia miaaionary oudook cau,ed him to look wothwarda '" the _i-pagan. mutuauy hoswe. tribes of the sahara. and beyond them to the black peoples of central sudan. in r856 he tnoved his headquarters from al-baila' to jaghbb deep in see
i

abu 'abdallah m. b. a. 'ullaish (d. 1299/1881), al-fatl; al-

and desert, both to avoid turkish interference the 'ali, libyan

and to strengthen his influence in central sahara. there he founded a

musul

extract translated in depont and coppolani, les confreries religieuses

nulti-function ziiwiya, which resembled the ancient

manes, aigiers, 1897, pp. 546-51'

the salsabil (written in 1260/18+3) is not original but is

ribiit in its

based, as

m. b.
of

frontier-like character but was far more comprehensive 'ali acknowledges (cairo edn., a.ll. 1353, p. 4), upon the risala in its h.usain b.
'ali al-'ujaim\ (d. 1113/172), which gives lslanic and social characteristics.

the dhikrs of the 4 tariqas az-

whichdosely maintain the spiritual equilibrium of islam. al-murta<;la vore than any other of al).mad's successors zabidi (d. 1205/ mul).ammad 1791) also imitated 'ujaimi's work in his 'iqd al-juman.

235-6.
two studies of the order in english may be mentioned: the first, by e. e. evans-pritchard, the sanusi of cyrenaica (oxford, 19+9), is in its
2

1'i8 nineteenth-century revival movements

his ci.i""" ""d ducing 'he m.hdlyy. 'he rumily wcn, in'o '>il, bo, with the ce-o,"up.tion in c898 mugh"", .uthodty once.go;" "consti'u'ed i""lf. the mugh""" "'ongiy ppo'ed the bcealci"g 'woy of khalij", to found theic own bmnches, bu, th"e "'" one exception who" independence wo, 'dmltted by mu!>anun.d 'uthman. tbis w", the i'mii"liyy. founded in c&f6 by i"""
nineteenth-century revival movements ll9

ibn 'abdailiih (c793-'863) ., ei-obeyd in kocdofm pcovin", of eastern sudan.r the mun of ""tem sud"", ,0undiy b'''d on &.blc, b.d

'empe'ed leg.li'm with m)'bticioun. the ,.iigions icade", b.d

comblned the mles of laqih (ju'i"'onmli'), laqir (sufi), 'od

won aver many namadie tribes in cyrenaica, he awakened little respanse among cuhivators and urban people attached to the old orders, and his missionary outlook caused him to look southwards to the semipagan, mutually hostile, tribes of the sahara, and beyand them to the black peoples of central sudan. in 1856 he ti'loved his headquarters from al-bai<ja' to jaghbilb deep in the libyan desert, both to avoid turkish interference and to strengthen his influence in central sahara. there' he founded a nulti-function zawiya, which resembled the ancient rim in its frantier-like character but was far more comprehensive in its islamic and social characteristics. more dosely than any other of al,mad's successors mul,ammad ibn 'ali followed his aims in urging the eliminatian of the causes of disunity among muslims. like al,mad he advocateda return to the primitive sources of qur'an and sunna. since this implied the rejection of ijmii' and qiyas and consequently the whole edifice of legalistic islam, a resuh probably never envisaged by either al,mad or mul,ammad ibn 'ali, the enmity of the 'ulama' was assured.! mul,ammad ibn 'ali daimed that all the silsilas of existing orders had been brought together and unified in himself, and in his book as-salsabil al-ma 'in ji '!-! ara'iq al-arba'in he describes their dhikr requirements to show how his way fulfils them all.2 his writings cannot be called mystical in any strict sense of the term; his al-masa'il al- 'ashar, for example, deals with 'the ten problems' encountered when carrying out ritual alat. he carried on al,mad's aimin seeking to purify practical sufism from extravagant and irregular features. he laid stress on the devational aspects of see abu 'abdallah censuring m. b. a. 'ullaishthe (d. r299/r88r), 'ali, and dhikr recital, noisy al-fatl; and alfrenzied extract translated in depont and coppolani, les confreries religieuses exhibitions with which dhikr had become associated. at musulmanes, aigiers, r897, pp. 546-51. the same time, since he was alsa a practical missionary, 2 the salsabit (written in 1260/r843) is not original but is based, m.forget b. 'ali acknowledges (cairo edn., a.h. r353, p. 4), upon he did as not the needs of the ordinary people and the risala of i:iusain b. 'ali al- 'ujaimj (d. rll3/r702), which gives the allawed practices connected with the honouring of dhikrs of the 40 tariqas which maintain the spiritual equilibrium of saints. islam. al-murtala az-zabidi (d. r205/ r79r) also imitated 'ujaimi's work in his 'iqdsanilsi al-juman. sought to achieve a simple islamic the theocratic
i

120

nineteenth-century revlv al mvements

organization of ,ociety by peacefu] me.ns. rence

i

-wiyas at luxor and dongo a as well as mecca, where he won zapopular following, especially af ter successfully vindicating him :elffrom charges of heresy raised by the <ulamii'.2 anephew and nineteenth-century reviv al mvements 121 pupil of his, called mul,ammad ibn alil,, branched out ibin ahim 1887 ar-rashid (d. at mecca in 1874),1 a shii'iqi of into a derivative, the alil,iyya,3 with its at the p whose authentic successor he daimed to seat be. he d mecca, which became influential in somalia through the established i rtian carried on the propagandist traditions preaching of asomali, ma , sudan, muhammad gled (d. 1918) and the formation of of al, collective eg}' settl~ments. the movement of mul,ammad ibn <abdallah alijasan ('the mad mullah') had its origin among the alil,iyya. mul,ammad al-majdhb a-ughayyar (1796-1832), greatgrandson of i:iamad ibn mul,ammad (r693-1776),4 founder of the majdhbiyya, a shiidhili derivative, in damar district in nilotic sudan, af ter studying under al,mad ibn idris in mecca, retumed to the sudan, revivified his hereditary tariqa and pro-. pagated it among j a <liyyin and beja tribes.
.

he centred.' movemen, m n.cc=;ble reg;ons of tbe sob"., remote &,~ centre, of privege like mecco, for only in . country witbou, , hi,toy w" 'uch '" oim cop.bie of ,chievemen" tbough bi",') w" in f.c' 'o cotch up wi'h "'d overran tbis order. ri, ideal of '.e unity of tbough', wo"'bip, "'d .ction 1ed to tbe most co'"p'~ hensive' zawiya organization. e"ch 10coj zliwiya, . cell of i~""" coi'ure "" in . nom.ilic or .nimistic environmen', tbe me",,, by which .dheren" were orgaruzed "'d tbrough which "'p'u'i"
- etfected. eoch foimed . complex of bui]ilinga
e. e. evans-pritchard, op. cit., constructed

4. the orders in asla the revival which has just been described hardly extended to asia, yet mecca in the nineteenth century was the most important order-centre in the muslim world, almost every order being represented there.5 the wahhiibis had abolished the orders along with the saint-cult in those parts of arabia which they controlled, but af ter mul,ammad 'ali's campaigns their political authority became confined to the najd and the orders flourished in the hijaz.6 in <asir, as we have seen, al,mad ibn idris actually
i to be distinguished from the moroccan rashidiyya (also known as ysufiyya), an order in the shiidhili tradition (but independent of the jazli succession) founded by al:mad ibn ysuf ar-rashidi, d. 931/1524-5.

see a. le chatelier, les confreries musulmanes du hedjaz, paris, 1887,

around an inner courtyard with a well. these embraced

p. u.

pp. 94-7. 3 see j. s. trimingham, islam in ethiopia, 1952, pp. 243-4. 4 see tabaqiit of wad !)aif alliih, ed. mandil, 193, pp. 70-1. 5 c. snouck hurgronje has given us a picture of the life of mecca at the time of his stay there in 1884-5; english translation mecca in the latter half of the i9th century, 1931, especially pp. 201-9 on the orders in mecca. the fundamental study of the orders in the hijaz is a.le chatelier, op. cit. . 6 hadramawt remained a closed area to tariqas other than the 'alawi (and its branches) which for centuries had maintained the region as a family preserve, though they had certainly helped in tempering the uncompromising legalism of the tarim-trained shaikhs.

122

nineteenth-century reviv al movements

found sanctuary under the wahhabis from the persecution of the meccan 'ulama:. his pupils found greater responsiveness in africa than in arabia, yet all orders deriyatiye from him were represented by ziiwiyas in mecca and most of the founders iived there. although the sansi iike al:mad himself found mecca an impossible place in which to pursue his aim of instituting a re formed tariqa his ziiwiya on abu qubais continued to flourish; ziiwiyas were founded in other towns of the hijaz; and the order even gained the allegiance of some of the bedouin.1 in mecca the orders were in an equivocal position. they exereised so great an influence among pilgrims that mecca became a great diffusion centre, for many were initiated into one or more iines, while others returned as khalifas, sporting a tubular case around their necks containing their ijiiza (iicence to teach or propagate). for example, the first indonesian minangkabau shaikh of the naqshabandiyya received his initiation in mecca around 184; though it also worked the other way, for it was primarily from mecca that the indian naqshabandiyya found varying
i
2

nineteenth-century revival movements 123

when mul:ammad 'ali conquered the hijaz in 1813 he instituted the system which had long been in force in many parts of

the ottoman empire, i by placing the orders from the administrative point of view under a shaikh at-turuq, one
being appointed for each town. a. le chatelier wrote:

the role of this agent was apparently limited in that his function was to act as intermediary between the local authorities and the orders in his district in regard to such temporal matters as partidpation in public ceremonies, the practice of the ir ritual in mosques, the admini.. stration of awqiif, and the recognition of the ir dignitaries. these functions do not at first sight seem to be of such a nature as to give him a general authority over the orders. . . but the practice of always choosing as shaikh at-turuq a popularly venerated person or the head of a family enjoying great religious influence, produced a situation whereby in fact his authority came to be substituted for that of the chiefs of the orders. becoming accustomed to address themselves to him in material matters the muqaddams came to recognize him as their spiritual master. charged only with sanctioning their nominations he came to designate them himself and they came to accept him as their hierarchical superior. his taqrir or administrative licence became the equivalent of an i,jiiza or canonicallicence. the first transformation led to a second-the grouping by town of the representatives of each order under the direction of one of them, who, originay personal agent of the shaikh at-turuq, came to impose himself as disposer of religious power and to replace, under the title of shaikh as-sa,j,jiida, the provincial nii'ib. new movements of the spirit in the arab near east found other forms of expression than through mystical orders, few new orders being founded.3 the familyorders were well estabiished
each city had its shaikh ash-shuykh. in damascus the head of the sumaiatiyya khiinaqiih held this post automatically; see alqalqashandi, ubf:, iv. 193, 221, ete., xii. 412. the actual authority of the shaikh varied according to local circumstances. egypt differed .in that the authority of the shaikh atturuq extended over all the orders in the country. at the beginning of the twentieth century thirty-two orders are listed as coming under al-mashyakhat al-bakriyya; see m. tawfiq al-bakri, baii a1-iddiq, cairo, 1323/1905, p. 381. only the main orders it seems were officially recognized for there were many others not given in this list. 2 a. le chatelier, op. cit., pp. 4-5. c. snouck hurgronje says (op. cit., p. 177) that 'when two important sheikhs of one tariqah, or more rarely when two tariqahs, get into conflict with each other, the authority of such a sheikh atturuq is of no value'. 3 the main activity in this respect took place in the khalwatiyya; but is

degrees of of foothold in pilgrims arab in towns. returned pilgrims on the influence such returned indonesia in the nineteenth
century see in c. snouck hurgronje, op. cit., book iv: the lawah. (except 3 on the hostiiity to the order-shaikhs of 'awn ar-rafiq, the grand negro africa) frequently wielded an influence in their sharif

see c. snouck hurgronje, op. cit., pp. 55-6.

homelands (1882-1905) or political head of mecca, see c. snouck h.rgronje, which far outweighed that of the official representatives 'les con of islam. freries religieuses, la mecque et le panislamisme', in his verspreide at the geschrijten, ruiing , 1923, iii. 199.
4 see a. le chateiier, op. cit., pp. 97-9.

same time, the 'ulamii' and shurafii', the meccan

124 nineteenth-century reviv al movements

ad family tradition and communal allegiance assured their con~ tinuity. af ter the wahhabi incursion into syria in 1810 when damascus was threatened, the head of the naqshabandiyya there, qiyii' ad-din khalid (1192/1778-1242/1826), following avisit to india, was moved to undertake reforms.z he succeeded in uniting into a more unified tariqa-ciuster various branches in syria, iraq, and eastern turkey. his attempt did not succeed, in that af ter his death his khali/as regarded their groups in 4leppo, istanbul, and other towns as fully independent organizations. shaikh khalid's propaganda was successful in causing members of important qadiri famihes in kurdistan to change over to the naqshabandiyya, with considerable effect upon the subsequent history of kurdish nationalism. 'abdallah, son of a prominent molla alil,, having become naqshabandi, made nehri his centre and the family came to wield temporal power, especially under 'vbaidallah (1870-83), who imposed his authority over a wide area. he was at enmity with another family, the barzani. one of khalid's khali/as called taj ad-din had established himself at barzan, a kurdish area in northern iraq, and his line became an
nineteenth-century rev iv al mo ve men ts 125

inearnation .of god and himself as his prophe. the prophet survived a few months onlyand the new religion died with him.z the subsequent history of the barzanis has no place in a history of the religious orders.3 although there was no revival in the near eastem world the reformist tendencies of the age affected the orders. they came under bitter attack from those influenced by wahhabi rigorism, from 'ulamii' resentful of their influence, and from the reformers and new men. they were subjected to pressures of various kinds, of ten through government ageney, as, for example, in the suppression of extravagances such as the dsa ceremony in cairo. yet no genuine reform movements took place. this is especially true of turkey, syria, and iraq. the bektashis suffered a severe setback when the janissary corps was abolished in 1826,4 yet under the relatively tolerant regime of 'abd al-majid (1839-61) the order re-established itself and regained widespread influence. this shows that the j anissa'ry link was by no means integral to' the vitality of the order. the main spread of the order into albania took place during this it is not clear whether the idea came from ahmad himself, at any century af ter the suppression of the janissaries; whole rate he communities reacting against, the sunni islam ofthe the did not repudiate it, see report by h.b.m.'s go;ernment to the council of league of nations on the administration 'of iraq, 1927, p. to 23. the order. its turkish conquerors attached themselves 2 ai;mad's aberrations (he became a christian at one time) main centres were in tirana and aqce l:iiar. are to be wderslood as those which to his confused mind he at the same time, thought a maltimati ought during to lake. this century throughout the 3 on the historyworld, of the leaders in modern see c. ]. edmonds, whole islamic the orders still times fulfilled their role of 'the catering for the religious needs and aspirations of vast kurds and the revolution in iraq', m.e.]. xiii (1959), -o. numbers of ordinary though people, and account attacks on meetings them had .4 see the contemporary, hostiie, of the of 'ulama' relatively little effect. the
i

'iii

1 1 1 1

~lh the heads of the leadin$ orders, and the imperial decrees and fatwlis ~sued in mohammed assad-efendi, precis historique de la destruction du corps es janissaires par le sultan mahmoud, en 8:z6, ed. and tr. a. p. caussin de perceval, paris, 1833, pp. 298-329. the three leading bektiishi chiefs were e~eculed, all lodges in constantinople and its environs were destroyed and i ose in the provinces were handed over to other orders, their superiors and many dervishes were exiled, their awqaf, iands, and villages confiscated, and the wearing of their special dress and other distinctions prohibited.

126 nineteenth-century revival movements

causes which led to their virtual edipse during the twentieth century will be discussed in the last chapter. the orders transcend all boundaries of politicalloyalties within islam. sultan 'abd al-i::iamid's attention was drawn to this aspect and its possible value in his pan-islami c vision, through a work written by the son of the founder of the madaniyya (-darqawiyya) order, shaikh mul:ammad ibn i::iamza ?iifir al-madani of misurata in libya. this work, an-n r as-siit" (the briiiiant light), is primarily an account of the teaching of the order following stereotyped lines, but it has a section deaiing with the principles underying the pan-islamic movement. these, we have seen, were found earlier in the work of al:mad ibn idris, though ali his pupils rejected this aspect of his teaching, even the sansi choosing a passivist role in the sahara. shaikh ?iifir contributed
nineteenth-century reviv al movements 127

l most notorious being, abu 'i-hudii m. a-ayyadi (1850 ir chanting sufi songs in the streets of aleppo where tq ~9) branch of the rita'iyya, a long. he dis of the ayyadiyya i d ja , overed that he possesse unusua powers. he next established appears n ;9rnily order ne ar aleppo. abu 'i-hudii began his career ~stanbul, where his singing and extraordinary powers as a simple. in the rita'i tradition attracted the attention of the youth who was to become sultan 'abd al-i:iamid ii (1876-1909). in a remarkable way he was able, through his astrological and divinatory powers, to maintain an influence over the sultan which lasted throughout all changes until his final overthrow. he influenced the sultan' s religious policy. he was a fanatical believer in the divine right of the rita'i tariqa, its saints, and of the arab role in sufism.1 all reformers of the second half of the nineteenth century, such as jamiil ad-din al-afghiini, alkawakibi, and mul).ammad 'abduh, disliked his influence upon the sultan and his views about lineal and traditional islam, regarding him as an example of all that they were countering. in central asia there is little of significance to record for this century. in turkistan and in the caucasus there was a revival of the naqshabandiyya in the 1850s.2 this order had penetrated into daghistan at the end of the eighteenth century and aleader called shaikh manr (captured 1791) sought to unite the various caucasian tribes to oppose the russians. he won over the princes and nobles of ubichistan and daghistan, as well as many circassians who, af ter the suppressian of the murid mavement and theal-ablir imposition russian rulecairo, (1859), r see abu 'l-hudii's tanwir ii tabaqlit of as-slidat ar-rifli'iyya, 1306/ i preferred 888. exile to submission. the order is credited with 2 'the brotherhood of the vaisis, an offshoot of the great sufi the definitive winning over of these caucasian group s fratemity of naqshbandiyya, was founded at kazan' n 1862 by to islam, evenits ifmembership only as a factor mainly uniting the artisans, various bahauddin vaisov. consisted of smail dans. and its doctrine was a very curious rnixture of sufi mysticism, puritanism and russian socialsm-somewhat resembling that in of the the the sufi intellectual gnostic tradition, crushed populists. the vaisis were considered by other muslms as hereties. in arab 1917, the son and successor of the sect's founder, inan vaisov,

received some arms from the bolshevik organization of kazan'. he was kiljed while fighting for the reds in trans-bulak in february 1918' (a. bennigsen and c. lemercier-quelquejay, islam in the soviet union, london, 1967, p. 243).

128 nineteenth-century revival movement8

nineteenth-century rev iv al movements 129

world and the maghrib through the sufis' subjectian to lega1isl11 and conformity, survived in shi'i iran, where what has been caued the isfahan school of theosophy shone in the prevailing gloom with such lights as muua adra and muua,hadi sabziwari (1798-1878). in india in the eighteenth century a naqshabandi caued qutb ad-din a1).mad, more generauy known as shah wali ahah of delhi (173-62), brought a new intehectual impulse to

now come the first warnings of a different sart of change which was completely to bypass the orders. so far most significant rnovements of thought in muslim india had taken place through and within the orders, but af ter shah wali ahah the inspiration for change came from outside them. it is significant thatwali ajliih's son, 'abd al- 'aziz (1746-1824), and grandson, ismii'il (i781-18~1), were important figures in the new outlook which was openng up. parahel with the mu1).ammad-emphasis of the two maghribi al:mads was that of a third, a1).mad barelvi (d. 1831), a diseiple of wali auiih's son, 'abd al- 'aziz, who fouowed fundamentalist and even political lines while maintaining his sufi heritage. aziz ahmad writes: sayyid al,mad barelvi continue d the wali-ulliihi traditionof synthesizing the disciplines of the three major fi orders in india, the qiidiri, the chishti, and the naqshbandi, and uniting them with a fourth element of religious experience, the exoteric discipline which he called tariqa-i mu~ammadiyah (the way of mul,ammad). his explanation was that the three ufi orders were linked with the prophet esotericaiiy, whereas the fourth one being exoteric emphasized strict conformity to reiigious law. . . . he thus harnessed whatever was left of the inward fi experience in the decadent early nineteenth-century muslim india to the dynamism of a reformist orthodox reviva!.1 subsequentchange-in the religious climate of indialies largely outside the scope of this study. within the orders there was little significant mavement, simply sporadic activities such as that of mawliinii ashraf 'ali of thana bhawan (d. 1943). at the same time, the sufi inteuectual background continued to manifest itself in many aspects of indian life and influenced reformers like mu1).ammad iqhal. discussion of the orders in regions where islam penetrated af ter it had attained its definitive form has been excluded from this study, but a brief reference to the orders in south':'east asia in the nineteenth century is necessary in view of the fact that here too their decline in the twentieth century is as marked, so i am told, as in the heartlands of islam. the spread of the orders in the malay peninsula, mainly in the nineteenth century, came about through the medium of the
'

religious thought within the context of the orders, i whilst a some

what earlier contemporary chishti, shah kalim ahah ahana hadi (1650-1729), infused vigour into the sphere of sufi practice and devotion. wali ahah sought to introduce a new spirit into islamic thought and to reconcile the dichatamy
'

between shar' and taawwuf:

he laid the foundation of a new school of scholastic theology; bridged the gulf between the jurists and the mystics; softened the controversy between the exponents and the critics of the doctrine of wa~dat al wudjd and awakened a new spirit of religious enquiry. he addressed ah sections of muslim society-rulers, nobles, 'ulama', mystics, soldiers,

i aziz ahmad, studies in islamic culture in the indian environment, oxford,

in this aspect tesm arty wt an i erence rom west pjrican islam is apparent. the difference between african and
r
130

indonesian muslims in religion derive both from the

reviv al movements 131

nineteenth-century revival movements

different ~l~eteenth-century

pilgrimage. the main orders which sp re ad were the qadiriyy naqshabandiyya, and the sammaniyya. the al.madiyyaidrisi~'

was introduced in 1895 and thrived for a time, though with ~

,

pre-existing cultural background and thefusion, naturethe of l ~ment but by juxtaposition rather than . al repercussions. no creative adaptation is ro ' f .. '. d d ff old and h 1 the early h apparent. en the v 1"" , islamic missionaries. snouck hurgronje showed that the existing parallel to each

restricted range. into indonesia, too, the pilgrimage was the means through which the sufi way penetrated. the first documentary evidence appears in the sixteenth century in the form of mystical poetry and other writings. in sumatra early mystics were bamza faniiri (d. c. 1610) and his diseiple, shams ad-din assamatrani (pasai, d. 163)' these men were gnosticnine on the north-east coast in the early type saints', mysticsactive and consequently sixteenth century, who taught the mystical way and left no enduring organization behind them. one <abd inaugurated a new ar-ra'iif ibn 'ali of era singkel introduced the shattariyya into acheh in life. ~9/ 1679, not from india as might have in indonesian the strongest local emphasis seems to been expected, but from mecca where he was initiated have \ by al.mad qushashi, and he is, came to beinto honoured as been the quest for <ilm: that initiation esoteric the regional saint. later, contact with hadramawt which knowledge became the aim of devotees of the religious became such a feature of earliest indonesian life, led towas the life. the shattariyya, i the known order, settlement from of arabs certain parts who introduced their introduced the in hijaz towards the end of the own seventeenth century. m~l i naqshabandiyya, too, was introduced from mecca the the islamization of from java isturkey) assoeiated with the legend of (and behind that into minangkabau 'the (sumatra) about 1845. disputes arose between its adherents and the established shattari devotees, but largeiyon legalistic and secondary issues rather than mysticism. the sammaniyya entered sumatra through <abd a-amad ibn <abdallah (d. c. 1800), a sumatran pupil of as-sammani who lived in mecca and initiated pilgrims from his own country. the orders spread into all these parts af ter they had acquired their definitive form. desire to maintain the organization and liturgical forms of the parent orders, together with the diffusion of their books in arabic, ensured an over-all uniformity of practice, and the differences are found in omission and response, in minor aspects such as the form festivals take, and in their social and

other. pa it~~ed forms and beliefs were blended into the indian new new human merchants who settled in malaysian and indonesian acq~ ports laid more stress on thinking than upon acting, and this opened the way for the reception of forms of heterodox inysticism. in africa, on the contrary, the whole stress was laid upon acting, and, in fact, in negro africa proper, not only did heterodoxy have no opening, but the mystical way proper did not gain africans.1 there does not seem to be any genuine affinity between africans' belief in the unity of life and the sufi doctrine of al-waj;dat alwujdiyya. indonesians achieved a far greater degree of genuine religious

134

the mysticism and

whole concept of guidance was different from that of the shj'j

132 nineteenth-century revival mvements

sufis adopted their own conception of wilaya, but their the few, the coliective aspects of the orders, !ta/ras, awliy;; and piigrinages (plural of wali) were ordinary men singled out by god. at the to shrines, assumed a reiativeiy minor importance in same time, the conception of a pre-creation wilaya from indonesian eternity muslim life. . was incorporated into sufi thought from eastem the element which stands out from what we have gnosticisn
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v in this book. in the sufi sense dhered to current usage

~

theosophy of the orders

135

written though in this concept never fitted comfortably into the purer stru~ this chapter is that nineteenth-century revivaiism in ture of sufism. they were to ascribe a pre-creation the orders and existence a hierarchical structure to these awliya' and link them was primariiy directed towards and effective in with the missionary activities government of the world by virtue of an-nr almul;ammadi (!it.of the muslim world. in many parts of on fringe areas 'the muhammadan light'), immanent in them all. some africa sufis niiotic and somalia, association was direct, did notsudan, hold that any da'iratthe al-wilaya succeeded da'irat an in wes~ nubuwwa, for theindirect. latter was only a particular mode, mrica it was more finite and passiye, of god's communication with man, whereas wilaya is abiding (ist"qrar) and ever-active and infinite.2 this does not imply

~~e word of gad god,did thenot everliving guide. nubuwwa) was clased, but thenceforth the sufihis guides, like the imams, also possess esoteric leave people knowledge, but, on unlike their for esoteric without guidance the the way imams, to himself. the knowledge has come to them, not by genealogical, but majority, the guide was the revealed law (shar') which is spiritual fact, it came to were them the by a forby the whole progression. community, in and the 'ulamii' twofold of action of as god: by transmission from inheritors the prophets the guardians and interpreters ofof the law. . mul:ammad, through a chain elect masters, an.dalso for exoteric from law, though accepted, was not by others, direct the inspiration god, of ten through the enough. religion is not only revelation, is alsa mystery. mediation of alkhalir, like gabriel to it mul:ammad. for those became known as shi'a (men of the party thesewho three trends of spiritual guidance are fully of within 'ali, shi'at the guide through this they worldwere of divine the 'ali), heritage of islam, though never ' the wisdom (i,ikma iliihiyya) infallible r: reconciled. both sufism was and the shi'ism were imam. attempts to imam was alsa wali alliih and the clasing of the tsolve e equaton >. aqqa, ut t erdilernma ays were qute the sha;' perpetual islamic of a erent. once-for-all prophetical cycle heralded the opening of another-dii' . . and . tawhid final revelation, but they each fully recognized the whilst h al-waliiya.i in mai).y respects shi'is come r b sufis h d dose w irat a shi'i sufi, 'aziz ad-din an-nasafi, once-for-all nature of the final prophetic mode of divine together, explains the shi'i sense of wali: communication. however, they did not think that with des milliers some de prophetes, anterieurement venus, ant in others, fundamental, poles ap art. this the dosing of this stage god'stheyare direct dealings with men successivement cantrilue a l'instauration de la forme hinges were at an end. theophanique qui est la prophetie, et mohammed l'a the mission of bothc'est sufis and shi'is2 was towaliiyat preserve upon their different conceptions of the basis of the achevee. maintenant au tour de la community. sufis are within the main stream of islam, the spiritual sense of the divine revelation. both were (l'initiation spirituelle) d'etre manifestee et de for them the basis is the concerned with manifester les realites esoteriques. or, i'homme de dieu there is no sound evidence for linking shi'i gnosticism with any of en la twelve personne de except qui se perhaps manifeste laa-iidiq. waliiyat, c'est la the imiims, ja'far their aileged sayings, now fonning a vast corpus beginning with ash-sharif ar-rali's ii!ib al-zamiin, l'imam de ce temps.z
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muq.ammad, khiitim al-anmyii' (seal of imam, the the prophets), the cycle of prophecy (dii'irat anlth

wali is tter translated 'protege' of god; like mawla it can be the mysticism and. 'protector' theosophy of the orders e 'patron' as well as 'dient'. with the shi'a it signifies

or .,
~~
::
i

,!

'if

any inferiority of law-transmitting apostles to saints, since every

i --

(d. 406/1015) nahj al-baldgha, devoted to imiim 'ali, being unlikely to forback others, those who came to be known as sufis, go to them. this does not affect their validity for shi'is; for them it is the imiim who speaks, whoever it on paper, but others are direct communion with gad was put possible. their mission, likely toan take a more critical auitude. thisto is not to say that aii the though individual search, was maintain among material in such compilations is spurious; seewhich l. veccia vaglieri, 'sul men a realization of the inner reality made the "nahj al-baliigah" e sul suo compilatore a-sarif ar-rali', annali, nuova shar' valid. this way normaliy involved a guide, but of serie, viii. 1-46; g. oman, 'uno "specchio per principi" deli' imiim 'ali these there many, and their ibn abi tiilib',were annali, n.s., x (1960), 1-35. i see h. corbin, histoire la fought philosophie islamique, paris, 1964, i. writers on sufism de have shy of dealing with the question of for the convenience relationship of sufism shi'ism. l. massignon concemed 45. sake we and distinguish waldya with'was a fatj,a as with the relations of shi'is with al-!;iaiiiij; otherwise the only applying to the shi'i conception and wildya thatbut of the sufis. the term scholars who have attempted to deal with it have approached it from cannot be translated without nisleading implications but the meaning the shi'i viewpoint-we may mention henri corbin, w. ivanow, and will become evident from subsequent discussion. yeditepe sayyid husain nasr. it is not a subject for this book, since i, am only

!il ii

.dealing translated by with h. corbin, op. cit., cursorily the mystical foundations of the orders, yet i feel i. 102. at least indicate university i should my own position on the question.