The Exoteric Aḥmad Ibn Idrīs : A Sufi's Critique on the Madhāhib and the Wahhābīs /
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The Moroccan mystic and theologian Aḥmad b. Idrīs (1749-1837) was one of the most dynamic personalities in the Islamic world of the 19th century. Through his teachings and the activity of his students important Sufi orders were founded which exerted wide-ranging social and political influence, orders such as the Sanūsiyya in Libya and the Khatmiyya in the Sudan. To date, publications dealing with him have especially focused on his biography and particular aspects of his mystical doctrines. In the present work an Arabic edition and translation with commentary of two texts are made available which throw light on Ibn Idrīs' attitude towards the religious-dogmatic questions of his day and age. The first text, Risālat al-Radd 'alā ahl al-ra'y , provides information about Ibn Idrīs' relation to the Islamic schools of jurisprudence, in particular his position regarding the ijtihād-taqlīd debate which was so significant in the 18th and 19th centuries. Like many similarly minded scholars of his time, Aḥmad b. Idrīs categorically rejects the authority of the established schools of jurisprudence and favors instead the application of personal methods in deriving a legal judgement. The second text presented here is a vivid report by one of his students describing a debate which Ibn Idrīs, at an advanced age, entered into with a Wahhābī theologian in the Yemenite city of sabyā in 1832. The text makes clear with regard to which points Ibn Idrīs hoped to establish agreement with the Wahhābīs, and where it was not possible to reach any mutual understanding. The introduction of the present book examines the tumultuous political circumstances in which both Arabic texts were composed and sketches the larger cultural and intellectual context which shaped Ibn Idrīs' world of ideas.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004492004
9789004113756
The Sufi doctrine of man : ?adr al-Din al-Qunawi's metaphysical anthropology /
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In The Sufi Doctrine of Man , Richard Todd examines the life and thought of Ibn 'Arabī's chief disciple, Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī (13th century C.E.). Making use of manuscript sources, he analyzes and contextualizes Qūnawī's esoteric vision of the nature and purpose of human existence, a doctrine which incorporates core elements of Qūnawī's metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, and eschatology. Qūnawī's thought is placed in relation to Ibn 'Arabī's and that of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā', and his interaction with the Avicennian tradition is explored by focusing on his dialogue with the philosopher al-Ṭūsī. Although not as famous as his master, Qūnawī is shown to have been a sophisticated metaphysician in his own right, who had a major impact on Sufi thought.
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004271265 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
'Ala' al-Dawla al-Simnani between spiritual authority and political power : a Persian lord and intellectual, in the heart of the Ilkhanate, With a critical edition and translation...
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In ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī between Spiritual Authority and Political Power: A Persian Lord and Intellectual in the Heart of the Ilkhanate , Giovanni Maria Martini investigates the personality of a major figure in the socio-political and cultural landscape of Mongol Iran. In pursuing this objective, the author follows parallel paths: Chapter 1 provides the most updated reconstruction of Simnānī's (d. 736/1336) biography, which, thanks to its unique features, emerges as a cross-section of Iranian society and as a microhistory of the complex relationships between a Sufi master, Persian elites and Mongol rulers during the Ilkhanid period; Chapter 2 contains a study on the phenomenon of Arabic-Persian diglossia in Simnānī's written work, arguing for its socio-religious function; in Chapters 3 to 6 the critical editions of two important, interrelated treatises by Simnānī are presented; finally, Chapter 7 offers the first full-length annotated translation of a long work by Simnānī ever to appear in a Western language.
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1 online resource (525 pages) :
9789004356740 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Islamic sufi networks in the western Indian Ocean (c. 1880-1940) : ripples of reform /
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In the period c. 1880-1940, organized Sufism spread rapidly in the western Indian Ocean. New communities turned to Islam, and Muslim communities turned to new texts, practices and religious leaders. On the East African coast, the orders were both a vehicle for conversion to Islam and for reform of Islamic practice. The impact of Sufism on local communities is here traced geographically as a ripple reaching beyond the Swahili cultural zone southwards to Mozambique, Madagascar and Cape Town. Through an investigation of the texts, ritual practices and scholarly networks that went alongside Sufi expansion, this book places religious change in the western Indian Ocean within the wider framework of Islamic reform.
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004276543 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Le Livre des Haltes (Kitâb al-Mawâqif), Tome III /
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The third and final volume of the "Livre des Haltes" of the Algerian 'Abd al-Qâdir contains the chapters 299 to 372. It comprises 524 text pages and, in addition, the following indices: lexical index of subjects, index of proper names, index of qur'anic quotations, index of hadiths, index of logical and exegetical principles, index of remarks on the Arabic text (omissions, textual differences, corrections). A concise bibliography rounds off the volume.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004453555
9789004127630
Le Livre des Haltes (Kitâb al-Mawâqif), Tome II /
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This second volume, out of three, contains the chapters 216 up to 320 of the alltogether 372 chapters. Based on the Dār al-yaqaza al-'arabiyya (1966-1967) and on the manuscript of the Library of Alger, this translation has taken into account the work accomplished by Michel Chodkiewicz (Éditions du Seuil, 1982) and by A. Khurshīd (Alif Ëditions, 1996). It deals with mystic comments on Qur'anic verses and prophetic translations inspired by Ibn 'Arabi's work. This volume also contains long comments on the Futuḥāt . Chapter 248 deals with the synthesis of Shaykh al-Akbar's view on the world, which helps to get an idea of this rather well organised vision, which is however often hard to understand.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004453227
9789004121447
Louis Massignon et la mystique musulmane : Analyse d'une contribution à l'islamologie /
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À la faveur d'éléments historiques et biographiques inédits, cet ouvrage offre une analyse approfondie de l'œuvre consacrée par Louis Massignon (1883-1962) à la mystique musulmane. Il souligne l'importance de certaines découvertes de l'islamologue pour les études islamiques concernant la période formative du soufisme. Plus encore, ce livre sonde le regard porté par Massignon sur les vocations mystiques en islam et examine à la lumière des travaux récents sa vision de la « sainteté » et de la figure d'al-Ḥallāj (mort en 309/922). Par suite, ce travail fait émerger la question de la posture du chercheur en sciences des religions ainsi que celle des précautions à adopter afin que sa subjectivité ne reconstruise pas le réel, mais l'éclaire et le révèle. This book provides an extensive analysis of the work of Louis Massignon (1883-1962) on Muslim mysticism, based on previously unpublished historical and biographical elements. It highlights the importance for Islamic Studies of certain discoveries made by the Islamicist concerning the formative period of Sufism. More than that, this book probes Massignon's view of mystical vocations in Islam and examines, in the light of recent work, his vision of "holiness" and the figure of al-Ḥallāj (d. 309/922). This work opens, more broadly, the question of the posture of the researcher in the study of religion and the precautions to be adopted so that their subjectivity does not reconstruct reality, but illuminates and reveals it.
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1 online resource (450 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004548176
Dreams, Sufism and Sainthood, The Visionary Career of Muhammad al-Zawâwî.
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Based on Muhammad al-Zawâwî's extraordinary diary of 109 dream conversations with the Prophet Muhammad, this study provides a rare, intimate view of 15th-century North African Muslim life. The study reconstructs Zawâwî's lifestory over a critical ten-year period and examines his career as a sufi in the historical context of North Africa and Mamluk Cairo. Psychological aspects of Zawâwî's religious experience are thoroughly explored. The concluding chapter provides an introduction to the role of dreams and visions in medieval Islam. Particular attention is paid to the way Zawâwî and his successors used their visions to legitimate claims to being awliya' , or living saints.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378926
Sufi Institutions /
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"This volume describes the social and practical aspects of Islamic mysticism (Sufism) across centuries and geographical regions. Its authors seek to transcend ethereal, essentialist and "spiritualizing" approaches to Sufism, on the one hand, and purely pragmatic and materialistic explanations of its origins and history, on the other. Covering five topics (Sufism's economy, social role of Sufis, Sufi spaces, politics, and organization), the volume shows that mystics have been active socio-religious agents who could skillfully adjust to the conditions of their time and place, while also managing to forge an alternative way of living, worshiping and thinking. Basing themselves on the most recent research on Sufi institutions, the contributors to this volume substantially expand our understanding of the vicissitudes of Sufism by paying special attention to its organizational and economic dimensions, as well as complex and often ambivalent relations between Sufis and the societies in which they played a wide variety of important and sometimes critical roles. Contributors are Mehran Afshari, Ismail Fajrie Alatas, Semih Ceyhan, Rachida Chih, Nathalie Clayer, David Cook, Stéphane A. Dudoignon, Daphna Ephrat, Peyvand Firouzeh, Nathan Hofer, Hussain Ahmad Khan, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, Richard McGregor, Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Alexandre Papas, Luca Patrizi, Paulo Pinto, Adam Sabra, Mark Sedgwick, Jean-Jacques Thibon, Knut S. Vikør and Neguin Yavari"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004392601
9789004389076
ʿAql u ʿishq yā Munāẓarāt-i khams /
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Ibn Turka Iṣfahānī (d. 835/1432) stemmed from a well-educated family in Isfahan. In 789/1387, following Tīmūr Lang's (d. 807/1405) massacre of the population of Isfahan, he and his older brother were among the artists and scholars whose lives were spared and marched off to the capital Samarqand. Ibn Turka studied the Islamic sciences under this brother for 25 years. He then went on a study tour that took him to the classrooms of such great scholars as Shams al-Dīn Fanārī (d. 834/1451) and Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī (d. 805/1403), to finally return to Isfahan. With more than 50 philosophical works to his name, Ibn Turka is seen as a key figure in the amalgamation of voam, Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophy and mysticism, leading eventually to the Transcendent Philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1045/1635). Written in a beautiful Persian, the present work describes the struggle between divinely-inspired love and reason, ending in their glorious unification.
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1 online resource. :
9789004401778
9789645568274
Pure gold from the words of Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh =al-Dhabab al-Ibrīz min kalām Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh /
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Around 1720 in Fez Aḥmad born al-Mubārak al-Lamaṭī, a religious scholar, wrote down the words and teachings of the Sufi master ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh. Al-Dabbāgh shunned religious studies but, having reached illumination and met with the Prophet Muḥammad, he was able to explain any obscurities in the Qurʾān, ḥadīth s and sayings of earlier Sufis. The resulting book, known as the Ibrīz , describes how al-Dabbāgh attained illumination and access to the Prophet, as well as his teachings about the Council of the godly that regulates the world, relations between master and disciple, the darkness in men's bodies, Adam's creation, Barzakh, Paradise and Hell, and much more besides. This 'encyclopaedia' of Sufism with its many teaching stories and illustrations provides a window onto social life and religious ideas in Fez a generation or so before powerful outside forces began to play a role in the radical transformation of Morocco.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [933]-944) and indexes. :
9789047432487 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi : Sufism through the Eyes of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311) /
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The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi examines the life and doctrine of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), a little-known Ḥanbalī Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). The first part of this book follows al-Wāsiṭī's physical journey in search of spiritual guidance through a critical study of his autobiographical writings. This provides unique insights into several important manifestations of Sufism that he encountered as he travelled from Wāsiṭ to Baghdad, Alexandria, Cairo, and finally, Damascus. The second part focuses on his spiritual journey through a study of his Sufi writings, which convey a distinct type of Sufism that was specifically formulated within the boundaries of traditionalist theology as he understood it.
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1 online resource. :
9789004377554
9789004431294
Politics, poetry, and sufism in medieval Iran : new perspectives on Jami's Salaman va Absal /
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In Politics, Poetry, and Sufism in Medieval Iran Chad Lingwood offers new insights into the political significance of poetry and Sufism at the court of Sulṭān Ya'qūb (d. 896/1490), leader of the Āq Qoyūnlū. The basis of the study is Salāmān va Absāl , a Persian allegorical romance 'Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492), the great Timurid belletrist and Naqshbandi Sufi, dedicated to Ya'qūb. Lingwood demonstrates that Salāmān va Absāl , which modern critics have dismissed as 'crude' and 'grotesque,' is a sophisticated work of political and mystical advice for a Muslim ruler. In the process, he challenges received wisdom concerning Jāmī, the Āq Qoyūnlū, and Perso-Islamic advice literature. Significantly, the study illustrates the extent to which Jāmī's compositions integrated the Timurid and Āq Qoyūnlū realms.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004255890
Sharḥ al-Taʿarruf li-madhhab al-taṣawwuf /
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The Kitāb al-taʿarruf li-madhhab al-taṣawwuf by Abū Bakr b. Isḥāq al-Kalābādhī (d. 380-85/990-995) is one of the most famous early manuals on Sufism. Written in Bukhara under the strongly orthodox Samanids, it consists of four parts: an explanation of the term ṣūfī and a listing of famous Sufis with a typology of their writings, an exposition of the Sufī creed and its conformity with orthodox Islam, an explanation of the spiritual path of the Sufi with accompanying terminology, and a description of Sufi conduct and of their special relation with God. The work saw four commentaries, the present one by Ismāʿīl Mustamlī Būkhārī (d. 434/1043) being one of them. Starting each time with a brief quotation from the original Arabic, the commentary in Persian. This is a facsimile edition of a manuscript from the Bhīravī collection in the National Archives of Pakistan, dated 473/1081. The manuscript is incomplete, with about half of the commentary missing.
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"Nuskhah bargardān bih qaṭʻ-i aṣl-i nuskhah-i khaṭṭī bih shumārah-i 207.1959. M. N. Mūzih-i Millī-i Pākistān (Karāchī), kitābat-i 473 H." :
1 online resource. :
9789004406216
9786002030634
Unity in diversity : mysticism, messianism and the construction of religious authority in Islam /
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What are the mechanisms of change and adaptation in Islam, regarded as a living organism, and how do they work? How did these mechanisms preserve the integrity of Muslim civilization through the innumerable hazards, divisions and devastations of time? From the perspective of history and intellectual history, this book focuses on a significant, though still largely under studied, aspect of this immense issue, namely, the role of mystical and messianic ferment in the construction and re-construction of religious authority in Islam. Sixteen scholars address this topic with a variety of approaches, providing a fresh outlook on the trends underlying the evolution of Muslim societies and, in particular, the emergence and consolidation of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires. Contributors include: Abbas Amanat, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Paul Ballanfat, Shahzad Bashir, Ilker Evrim Binbaş, Daniel De Smet, Devin DeWeese, Armin Eschraghi, Omid Ghaemmaghami, Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Todd Lawson, Pierre Lory, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, A. Azfar Moin, William F. Tucker.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004262805
Tafsir as mystical experience: intimacy and ecstasy in Quran commentary : the Tafsir Surat al-Baqara by Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad, the Bab (1819-1850) /
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In Tafsir as Mystical Experience , Todd Lawson shows how the Quran may be engaged with for meaning and understanding, the usual goal of mystical exegesis, and also how it may be engaged with through tafsīr in a quest for spiritual or mystical experience. In this earliest of the Báb's extended works, written before his public claim to be the return of the hidden Imam, the act of reading is shown to be something akin to holy communion in which the sacred text is both entrance upon and destination of the mystic quest. The Quran here is a door to an "abode of glory" and an abiding spiritual encounter with the divine through the prophet, his daughter Fāṭima and the twelve Imams of Ithna-ʿasharī Shiʿism who inhabit the letters, words, verses and suras of the Book. Cover calligraphy by Burhan Zahrai of Quran 53:11
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004385436
Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia : sufi dimensions to the formation of Bosnian Muslim society /
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In Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia , Ines Aščerić-Todd explores the involvement of Sufi orders in the formation of Muslim society in the first two centuries of Ottoman rule in Bosnia (15th - 16th centuries C.E.). Using a wide range of primary sources, Aščerić-Todd shows that Sufi traditions and the activities of dervish orders were at the heart of the religious, cultural, socio-economic and political dynamics in Bosnia in the period which witnessed the emergence of Bosnian Muslim society and the most intensive phase of conversions of the Bosnian population to Islam. In the process, she also challenges some of the established views regarding Ottoman guilds and the subject of futuwwa (Sufi code of honour).
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1 online resource (xii, 198 pages) : illustrations (mostly color), map. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-193) and index. :
9789004288447 :
1380-6076 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The comfort of the mystics : a manual and anthology of early Sufism /
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This critical Arabic text edition of Salwat al-ʿārifīn wa-uns al-mushtāqīn, a manual of early Sufism by Abū Khalaf al-Ṭabarī (d. circa 470/1077), is based on a very old manuscript preserved in Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīya of Cairo, Egypt and copied in 459/1067. It is introduced by a detailed analytical study of the author and his work. Salwat al-ʿārifīn forms an integral part of Sufi literature and reflects Islamic developments in Nishapur in northeastern Iran. This crucial Arabic text, published for the first time, is especially valuable because of its great philological accuracy and sound textual tradition. It represents an essential source for the intellectual history of Islam during the middle of the 4th/10th to the middle of the 5th/11th century.
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1 online resource (726 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004233621 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Fritz Meier, Nachgelassene Schriften, Band 1. Bemerkungen zur Mohammedverehrung, Teil 1. Die Segenssprechung über Mohammed /
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The centre of Islamic piety is the Prophet Mohammed whose perfection was eternal from pre-existence and who stands completely within God's grace. For the believers he occupies the most important role of intermediary between themselves and God. The Prophet's intercession is accepted, and through his intercession the believers hope their prayers will be heard and their wishes fulfilled. Invoking blessings on Mohammed is a means for attaining the effective help of the Prophet. Along with expressing thanks for the benefits mankind has received from Mohammed, it constitutes a preliminary to the intercession one hopes for from the Prophet. Fritz Meier, in part one of his Bemerkungen zur Mohammedverehrung Observations on the Veneration of the Prophet , has written a monograph about the tasliya which surveys the use and meaning of invoking blessings on the Prophet in the life of a Muslim.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004491076
9789004121102