{"title":"The Ethical Turn of Neo-Traditionalism: Karāmāt al-awliyāʾ in Nuh Keller’s Sea Without Shore","authors":"E. Kulieva","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10028","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article focuses on the concept of karāmāt al-awliyāʾ in the contemporary Sufi manual Sea Without Shore by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (b. 1954), an American convert and a major representative of the neo-traditionalist camp. Through situating Sea Without Shore within the context of early Sufi manuals, this article analyses the specificities of Keller’s interpretation of karāmāt al-awliyāʾ. I argue that his approach represents an ethical turn, as his discussion aims to lessen anxiety about the metaphysical aspects of miracles and instead direct attention towards the ethical standards that make the awliyāʾ extraordinary. By emphasizing the ethical over the metaphysical, Keller’s handling of the subject of karāmāt al-awliyāʾ does not challenge modern “rational” sensitivities, but instead re-frames the idea of miracles for the modern age. In the wider context, this article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the ways that neo-traditionalists are interpreting and adapting Muslim traditions to modernity.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42420248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Kizilbash/Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia: Sufism, Politics and Community, written by Ayfer Karakaya-Stump","authors":"V. Schubel","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341338","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45246856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1163/22105956-01201000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-01201000","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135170266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ibn ʿArabī on the Circle of Trusteeship and the Divine Name al-Wakīl","authors":"Atif Khalil","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10026","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000With special reference to chapters 119 and 558 of the Meccan Revelations, the article draws out Ibn ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) understanding of the divine Name al-Wakīl (“The Trustee”) and the nature of trusteeship (wakāla). In the process, it demonstrates how for our mystic trusteeship forms a circle that begins with the human being entrusting his affairs to God, and returns to its point of origin with God entrusting him to be His vicegerent (khalīfa). Trusteeship, which finds its archetypical perfection in the divine Wakīl, descends through various degrees of perfection, to all levels and strata of human society. The capacity to embody and manifest the Name al-Wakīl is, for Ibn ʿArabī, itself made possible by the theomorphic nature of the human being, a child of the primordial Adam fashioned in the image of God.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45075845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"We are Lovers of the Qalandar”: Piety, Pilgrimage, and Ritual in Pakistani Sufi Islam, written by Jürgen Wasim Frembgen","authors":"Robert Rozehnal","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341339","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47526474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Love and the Brethren of Purity: A Comparative Study of Human Intimacy in Islamic Philosophy","authors":"Javad Fakhkhar Toosi, Shafique N. Virani","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article is a study of the Brethren of Purity’s thirty-seventh epistle, The Essence of Love. It compares this work with the treatises on love written by the Muslim philosophers Ibn Sīnā, Suhrawardī, and Mullā Ṣadrā, the leading representatives of the Peripatetic, Illuminationist, and Transcendental schools of Islamic philosophy, respectively. A fundamental distinction of the Brethren’s approach is their positive impression of love between human beings, including its romantic and conjugal components. Such love is not entirely under human control; the celestial spheres also exercise their influence. The Brethren contend that society and civilization prosper because of love. Unlike several others, they are intent on reconciling divine or “real” love with love between individuals. While the Brethren praise the benefits of romantic love and conjugal relations, Ibn Sīnā judges them harmful, and Suhrawardī a distraction. Mullā Ṣadrā, though, takes an intermediate position, influenced by both the Brethren and Ibn Sīnā.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46603751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tadhkira-yi Ṭāhir Īshān: A Neglected Source on the History of the Naqshbandī Sufi Tradition in Central Asia","authors":"A. Shanazarova","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The present study is intended to introduce and explore a hagiographical compendium known as the Tadhkira-yi Ṭāhir Īshān which was compiled in the middle of the eighteenth century in Khwarazm and Bukhara. Although this work has drawn minimal scholarly attention, it is a critical text for understanding the Naqshbandī history in Central Asia prior to the transformation of the local Sufi communities in the wake of the arrival of the Naqshbandī-Mujaddidī groups in the region.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43116800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Visions and Virtues: The Minhāj al-Tarbiya of the ṭarīqa Karkariyya","authors":"John C. Thibdeau","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Founded in 2006 by Shaykh Muḥammad Fawzī al-Karkarī as a new branch of the Shādhiliyya, the Karkariyya have grown as an international Sufi order that is distinguished by their multi-colored patchwork robes called the muraqqaʿa and their publication of video testimonials describing experience during spiritual retreats (khalwa). This article examines these practices using ethnographic and textual sources to demonstrate how they are situated within a curriculum of ethical education (minhāj al-tarbiya) aimed at the cultivation of virtuous piety (iḥsān). I show that this ethical education is integral to a program of learning to see (tanwīr) that culminates in visionary experiences (mushāhadāt) and analyze the conceptual dimensions of those visions. In demonstrating the link between tarbiya and tanwīr in the minhāj of the Karkariyya I aim to consider Sufism as a practical ethical tradition linked to philosophical ethics (akhlāq) and proper conduct and comportment (adab).","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44250646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mapping the Unseen: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Maps in Chapter 371 of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya","authors":"Ali Karjoo-Ravary","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341336","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper examines a series of sequential cosmological and eschatological maps drawn by Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) in his second recension of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi 1845+). These images, drawn from the visual language of the rational sciences, map the images of revelation into the cosmology of the day so as to show the vastness of God’s cosmos and the limits of the intellect. Ibn al-ʿArabī, aware of the limits of his medium, explicitly states that these should be a “single composition.” He uses visual cues to mark shifts of perspective, helping the reader visualize the interconnections that bind together this multidimensional representation of the cosmos. By considering their placement and their relation to the narrative, I also argue that the final two maps are a representation of two eyes, identifying the cosmos and the reader as reflections of God, a contemplative use that is lost in their transmission history.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45777254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Religious Practice and Social Services in an Ottoman Sufi waqf Foundation","authors":"F. C. Güner Zülfikar","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article investigates the endowment (waqf) foundation established by an Ottoman Sufi master of the Jilwatiyya order, ʿAzīz Maḥmūd Hudāʾī (1541–1628), and the impact of his philanthropic works on religious, social, and cultural life in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Istanbul. While providing his disciples with space for spiritual training in his Sufi lodge, Hudāʾī’s waqf also funded public services at his mosque. In contrast to the perception of the Ottoman Empire as an “Oriental despotism,” this article sheds light on the development of Hudāʾī’s waqf foundation as part of a public sphere and foci of the vibrant civil society that emerged in Ottoman lands. Such investigation also aims to demonstrate how the philanthropic work of a single individual living in Ottoman Istanbul could provide a space for solidarity building and collective activities among local communities and spur their engagement in civic services and additional charitable donations.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44410614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}