{"title":"The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi: Sufism through the Eyes of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), written by Arjan Post","authors":"C. Bori","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341325","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46852782","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":"Walāya between Lettrism and Astrology","authors":"Mohammad Amin Mansouri","doi":"10.1163/22105956-bja10011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-bja10011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī’s occult narratives of sainthood (al-walāya) with a focus on his Naṣṣ al-nuṣūṣ fī sharḥ al-fuṣūṣ, a voluminous commentary on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. I argue that Āmulī uses lettrism, astrology, and alchemy to construct occult narratives that advocate for the supremacy of sainthood over prophecy (al-nubuwwa). I first examine the relation between Āmulī’s lettrism and Shiʿism by concentrating on Shiʿi narratives about the mysterious occult books, Jafr and Jāmiʿa, that are transformed into the macrocosmic and microcosmic books in Āmulī’s work. The focus then shifts to Āmulī’s analysis of the complex relation between alif, bāʾ, and the dot written under bāʾ as the first three components of the basmala formula. As will be seen, Āmulī uses astrology in a similar fashion to illustrate the supremacy of sainthood by associating the heavenly planets with prophecy and the zodiacal signs with sainthood. He also draws on alchemy, or what he identifies as “spiritual alchemy (al-kīmiyāʾ al-maʿnawī),” to argue for the supremacy of sainthood.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47089201","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":"Dreams and Visions as Diagnosis in Medieval Sufism","authors":"Eyad Abuali","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341313","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In recent scholarship the notion that dreams and visions in Islamic societies are phenomena with no relevance to historic events or societal concerns has been challenged and overturned. However, the theoretical underpinnings of Sufi oneirology in the medieval period have yet to receive a full exposition. Furthermore, the relevance of such seemingly abstract texts to Sufi organisational and institutional structures has not been realised. This article argues that understanding the development of Kubrawī oneirology offers important insights into Islamic thought and society. Focusing on the first generation of Kubrawī Sufi thinkers, this article accounts for the emergence of diagnostic oneirology in the sixth/twelfth and seventh/thirteenth centuries in two steps. Firstly, by detailing the systematisation of oneiric theory which occurs in early Kubrawī thought. And secondly, by demonstrating that this systematisation crafted a close relation between Sufi theory and the communal and institutional bonds that allowed the Sufi community to adapt to changing socio-political circumstances.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341313","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41922820","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}
Mansure Rahmani, Ahad Faramarz Gharamaleki, Hassan Arif
{"title":"Journey in Sufism","authors":"Mansure Rahmani, Ahad Faramarz Gharamaleki, Hassan Arif","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341310","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Journey (safar) is strongly relevant to Sufism and mysticism. It has been considered as a paradigm for the various stages of spiritual transition. The problem addressed in this study concerns different uses of the word for analysis of the process of its conversion into a mystical term, and the criticism of this process. Sufis used the term journey in its literal meaning because of its important role in achieving mystical goals, utilizing it as a metaphor for death, life and the transition of one’s states influenced by religious sources. Journey as a metaphor for transition of one’s states was considered literal by the method of the “metaphysicalization” of sensual concepts. This new literal use of journey came to be employed as a paradigm to order the process of the mystical path. As such, the method of the metaphysicalization of sensual concepts needs linguistic arguments, as it cannot be applied to all words.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341310","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45712324","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":"Wisdom in Controversy","authors":"A. Keeler","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341305","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Sufi authors, such as Abū Naṣr al-Sarrāj (d. 378/998) and Ruzbihan Baqlī (d. 606/1209), were concerned to explain the shaṭḥiyyāt, often translated as “ecstatic utterances”, of earlier mystics and defend them against the condemnation they received from those who had neither the experience nor the purview to understand them. Among the shaṭḥiyyāt explained by these two authors are a number of the most infamous utterances of Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī. Yet the controversial speech of Abū Yazīd (or Bāyazīd) appears not to have been limited to that which he uttered in a state of ecstasy, nor were those who objected to such speech solely the scholars of outward knowledge, as is commonly held. Drawing on the corpus of sayings attributed to Bāyazīd and anecdotes about him as recorded in some of the earliest available sources, this essay will look more closely at reports of his engagement with his contemporaries and reasons why he may have been at odds with certain groups in the community. It will consider the significance some of his most controversial and paradoxical sayings, as well as the contradictory nature of some of his own statements about himself, bombastic and apparently boastful on the one hand, and extremely self-critical on the other. Lastly it will consider the shatḥ (plural shaṭaḥāt or shaṭḥiyyāt), its definition by Sufis and the aptness of its translation by French scholars, starting with Henri Corbin, as “paradoxe”.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341305","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47552901","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":"Sufis and Coffee Consumption","authors":"H. Mahamid, Chaim Nissim","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341311","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000From the tenth/sixteenth century, coffee consumption spread from Yemen northwards, mainly via the Sufis and their disciples, who claimed that drinking coffee helped their ritual activity. This caused an extended debate among the ulama of different schools, who viewed the Sufis’ coffee drinking as a negative innovation opposed to the sharīʿa. The controversy first focused on whether coffee was permitted, or rather forbidden, like wine. However, as coffee became widespread, the lack of religious proofs for its prohibition and the religious and political authorities’ inability to forbid it moved the debate to the moral aspects. The supporters of forbidding coffee drinking were mainly ulama in official positions such as judges. These ulama needed the help of rulers to enforce the prohibition. Due to Sufis, by the eleventh–twelfth/seventeenth–eighteenth centuries, coffee consumption became a social phenomenon both in homes and in public spheres, as coffeehouses.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341311","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41529433","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 Ring Analogy according to al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and Its Implications for Understanding walāya in Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam","authors":"A. Palmer","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341306","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The ring analogy is generally associated with Ibn ʿArabī and his Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. However, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī uses this same analogy as a way of expressing various aspects of walāya within his original and multi-layered doctrine of the concept. The present article’s understanding of Tirmidhī’s ring analogy and its relationship to his doctrine of walāya builds upon the work of Radtke and others who have sought to explain the major features of Tirmidhī’s doctrine. The use of the ring analogy by Tirmidhī and Ibn ʿArabī after him leads us to posit a shared mode of thought and expression that helps situate and elucidate Ibn ʿArabī’s esoteric doctrine of walāya within a framework developed by Tirmidhī.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341306","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47431588","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":"Weighing Knowledge","authors":"R. Ames","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341312","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies the influence of late Qajar cultures of politics and ethics upon a Sufi theory of knowledge. It argues that Mīrzā Ḥasan Iṣfahānī (known in Sufi circles as Ṣafī ʿAlī Shāh) performed the role of public intellectual in his treatise on knowledge and ethics Mīzān al-maʿrifah (The Scale of Knowledge). I propose that the text’s ethical directives actually serve to dictate the conditions under which a particularly modern subject can claim knowledge. Being someone who knows does not mean being someone who has access to data; it means being someone who can look, and act, as a knower should. Humanity is book’s titular “scale of knowledge,” but, in that text, to truly be human entails the cultivation of virtue and the correct performance of one’s role, as coded in norms of class, profession, and gender, norms conveyed within many of the text’s explanatory analogies.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341312","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46998046","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":"ʿAyn al-Quḍāt between Divine Jealousy and Political Intrigue","authors":"M. Rustom","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341307","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Modern scholars have been interested in the great Persian Sufi martyr ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131) for over six decades. Despite this fact, many aspects of his life and thought still remain terra incognita. Our knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his death is a case-in-point. Although we have a fairly good understanding of the factors which led to ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s demise, there are other “causes” which simultaneously complement and problematize this understanding. Chief amongst these are the underlying reasons for ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s critique of the Seljuk government, as well as something which ʿAyn al-Quḍāt saw as a more subtle cause for his death several years before his anticipated state execution.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341307","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45276834","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":"Companionship, Human Perfection, and Divine Union in Thirteenth-Century Persian Sufism","authors":"Aydogan Kars","doi":"10.1163/22105956-12341308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341308","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article reevaluates Rūmī’s approach to divine union in the light of the larger institutional and normative context that orchestrates it. Via key terms “spiritual companionship” [ṣuḥba] and normative Sufi “conduct” [adab], I situate Rūmī within the Khurasanian Sufi milieu wherein divine union was perceived as a communicative and communal process whereby the existentiating divine mercy overflows to, and reflects from, embodied companions. Not only Rūmī’s, but also Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s approach to divine union can be better appreciated in this normative Sufi setting where the perfection of human soul, body, speech, and agency coincide with an apophatic communion of companions.","PeriodicalId":37993,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sufi Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22105956-12341308","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45882921","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}