A Digital Atlas of Sacred Geography

Saints

1113 records · Page 33/47

Remembered in Jumada al-Awwal

Saints whose death anniversary falls this Hijri month (sourced).

Hayreddin Barbarossa

Celebrated Ottoman seaman and grand admiral (kapudan-ı derya). His original name was Hızır ; he is known as Barbaros after the name Barbarossa , which Europeans first gave to his elder brother Oruç because of his carrot-red beard, and as Hayreddin (Khayr al-Din), a title given him by Sultan Selim I. He was the son of a sipahi named Yakub who came from Vardar Yenicesi and settled on Lesbos (Midilli) after its conquest; he is estimated to have been born around 1478. According to his own account in the Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa , he was the third of four brothers. In his youth he began trading between Lesbos, Salonica and Euboea with a ship he had built. When the flight of Muslims forced to leave Andalusia under Spanish pressure upset the balance of the region, he turned with his brother Oruç to the western Mediterranean; the two brothers began to appear on the North African coast after 1504. When Oruç Reis fell as a martyr in the battle of Tlemcen in 1518, Hızır, now alone, turned to the Ottoman sultan with the petition of the people of Algiers dated October 1519. Sultan Selim I sent a noble rescript recognising him as ruler of Algiers, saying “Hızır Reis is the victory of the faith (nasr al-din), the good of the faith (khayr al-din).” Algiers, where the Friday sermon was now read in the sultan's name, thus joined the Ottoman lands, and Hızır came to be called Hayreddin Pasha . The Muslims of Granada , subjected to many kinds of pressure and oppression, found great support in him: these Muslims forced to leave their homes (the Moriscos) were carried on Turkish ships to the African coast, and the number of Andalusian Muslims brought to Algiers reached 70.000. In the inscription of the mosque he built in Algiers (April 1520) his title is given as “al-Sultan al-mujahid mawlana Khayr al-Din ibn al-amir al-shahir al-mujahid Abi Yusuf Ya'qub al-Turki.” Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent summoned him to Istanbul to command the fleet; he was received by the sultan on 11 Jumada al-Akhira 940 (28 December 1533) and appointed grand admiral with the rank of beylerbeyi of the Aegean Islands (Cezayir-i Bahr-i Sefid) (6 April 1534). The office of grand admiral was thereby raised to the rank of beylerbeyi. In 1538, off Preveza, he routed the allied Crusader fleet under Andrea Doria; with this victory Turkish supremacy was established in the central Mediterranean after the eastern. His last great campaign was the Nice expedition of 1543, undertaken after a decision for joint action with France. Thereafter he was occupied mostly with the affairs of the arsenal. He died after a short illness on 6 Jumada al-Ula 953 (5 July 1546) and was buried in his tomb beside the madrasa he had built during his lifetime in Beşiktaş . The chronogram “Mata ra'is al-bahr” (The chief of the sea has died) was composed for his death; its abjad value is 953. His son Hasan also served as beylerbeyi of Algiers. According to contemporary sources he was of large build with a tawny complexion; having spent his life at sea he knew the Mediterranean languages well — Greek, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and French — and he also loved music. His Circle of Influence — In his time Ottoman naval power reached its peak, and thanks to the able seamen trained in his school and the organised arsenal this power endured for some time longer. At Preveza he had given the right wing to Turgut Reis and the left to Salih Reis; returning from the Nice expedition he freed Turgut Reis, then a captive in Genoa. In later periods it became a tradition for the fleet setting out for the Aegean to anchor at the Hayreddin Pier in Beşiktaş. His Works — During his lifetime he dictated his memoirs to Seyyid Muradi. These memoirs, entitled Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa , were composed in two forms, one in prose and one in verse; the prose version was translated into French, Italian and partly into Arabic, and has also been published in simplified form. His Tomb and Complex — The tomb in Beşiktaş, opposite the Sinan Pasha Mosque and next to the Naval Museum, is a work of Mimar Sinan ; according to its inscription it was built in 948 (1541-42), near the waterside mansion where Barbaros lived in his last years; the mansion later disappeared. The inscription over the entrance reads “This is the tomb of the conqueror of Algiers and Tunis, the late gazi kapudan Hayreddin Pasha, God's mercy be upon him — year 948” ; in the arch above it, in monumental thuluth, is the phrase “Allahumma'ftah lahu abwaba rahmatik” (O Lord, open to him the gates of Your mercy). The tomb is octagonal in the classical manner and built of cut stone; before the door is a portico resting on two columns. In the centre of the dome, in a medallion, verse 89 of Surat al-A'raf is written in gilt together with the basmala. In the four cenotaphs inside lie Cafer Pasha, Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha, Cezayirli Hasan Pasha and Barbaros's wife Bala Hatun. The tomb also holds a hair from the Prophet's beard (sakal-ı şerif), a wooden Qur'an case and a calligraphic panel signed by Seyyid İbrahim and dated 1816. Over time a large graveyard had formed around the tomb; when a Barbaros monument was decided upon here around 1944, the surroundings were cleared, the graveyard removed and the tomb restored.

İstanbulDied 953 AHView

Ibn Kemal (Kemalpaşazade)

Ottoman şeyhülislam, historian and many-sided scholar; he is counted among the greatest representatives of Ottoman learning and culture in the first half of the XVI century. His real name was Şemseddin Ahmed ; he is known as Kemalpaşazade, Kemalpaşaoğlu or Ibn Kemal after his grandfather Kemal Paşa, tutor (lala) to Prince Bayezid (Bayezid II). He was born on 3 Dhu al-Qa'da 873 (15 May 1469); his birthplace is disputed (see Multiple Perspectives). His father was Süleyman Çelebi, who had taken part in the conquest of Istanbul and was appointed warden of Amasya in 879 (1474); his mother was the daughter of Küpelioğlu Muhyiddin Mehmed, one of the military judges of the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror. After becoming a hafiz of the Qur'an and studying Arabic language and literature, logic and Persian with the scholars of Amasya, he first entered the military profession and took part in Bayezid II's campaigns as a cavalryman of the six regiments. As Taşköprizade relates from him, at an assembly of the grand vizier Çandarlı İbrahim Paşa he saw Molla Lutfi, professor at Filibe, seated above the famous raider commander Evrenosoğlu Ahmed; concluding that the standing of the ulema was higher than that of the commanders, he resolved to join the learned profession. He attended the lessons of Molla Lutfi at Edirne and then of scholars such as Kestelî Muslihuddin Mustafa, Hatibzade Muhyiddin, Muarrifzade Sinaneddin Yusuf and Müeyyedzade Abdurrahman, completing his education. With Müeyyedzade's support he became professor at the Ali Bey (Taşlık) Madrasa in Edirne; meanwhile he was charged with writing an Ottoman history in Turkish. He taught at the İshak Paşa Madrasa in Skopje (911/1505), at the Halebiye and Üç Şerefeli madrasas in Edirne, at the Sahn-ı Seman in Istanbul (914/1508) and at the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa in Edirne (917/1511). Under Selim I his fame grew with an epistle he wrote against the Safavids; in 921 (1515) he was made judge of Edirne and on 14 Sha'ban 922 (12 September 1516) military judge of Anatolia. On the Egyptian campaign, in which he took part in this office, he won great favour with the sultan and served as assistant to Hayır Bey in the survey of Egypt. It is related that on the return from the campaign mud splashed from his horse's hoof soiled the sultan's kaftan, whereupon Selim I said that “the mud splashed from the feet of the ulema is a source of adornment and a cause of pride”, and willed that this kaftan be laid over his coffin after his death. In 924 (1518) he was charged with the survey of Karaman and the next year removed from the military judgeship; early in 926 (1520) he became professor at the Darülhadis of Edirne, in 928 (1522) at the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa, and in 930 (1524) moved to the Fatih Madrasa in Istanbul. Finally, in Sha'ban 932 (May 1526), he was appointed şeyhülislam in succession to Zenbilli Ali Efendi. He died in this office on 2 Shawwal 940 (16 April 1534) and was buried in the graveyard of the Mahmud Çelebi lodge outside Edirnekapı. In his testament he had asked that his funeral be conducted in dervish fashion and that no tomb be built over his grave, only a stone set up. The chronogram composed on his death, “Irtahala al-'ulum bi al-Kamal” (With Kemal the sciences, too, have died), expresses his scholarly stature. His Circle of Influence — Among the scholars he trained were Muhyiddin Mehmed b. Pir Mehmed, Sa'di Sadullah Efendi, Muslihuddin Mustafa, Celalzade Salih Çelebi and Şeyhülislam Ebussuud Efendi. Among the Ottoman ulema he was called “the first teacher” (al-mu'allim al-awwal) for his scholarly power, and his pupil Ebussuud Efendi “the second teacher”; for his skill in giving fatwas he received the epithet “mufti of the two worlds” (mufti al-thaqalayn). Taşköprizade says that he made the scholars before him forgotten; al-Tamimi likens him to al-Suyuti for the number of his works and judges him superior in grasp of questions, reasoning and disputation. His classification of jurists into seven ranks according to their competence in ijtihad (mujtahid in the law, mujtahid in the school, mujtahid in particular questions, ashab al-takhrij, ashab al-tarjih, ashab al-tamyiz and muqallid) influenced later Hanafi literature; Arab scholars such as Ibn Nujaym, al-Haskafi and Ibn 'Abidin also cited his views in their works. Through his efforts to bring the kanunnames into line with the sharia, his role in drafting the kanunname of Egypt and the first independent treatise that can be identified on the legitimacy of cash waqfs, he led the way in establishing many practices in Ottoman society. His Poetry and Sufi Line — According to the source he was not opposed to Sufism: he held that the Sufi path is sound, that one should believe in the states of the saints and hope for help from their spiritual presence, and he advised seeking their prayers. He made the soundness of Sufism conditional, however, on its not exceeding lawful bounds; he stated that saying “my shaykh said so” cannot count as Sufism, and issued severe fatwas on the whirling (devran), dance and audition in dhikr (see Multiple Perspectives). In the Arabic fatwa he wrote on Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi, which was inscribed on his tomb together with the fatwa of al-Firuzabadi, he used very respectful language towards him and defended the Fusus al-Hikam and al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya . This fatwa influenced Selim I, who on his return from Egypt built at Damascus a tomb over Ibn 'Arabi's grave, with a mosque and an imaret beside it. At the order of Süleyman the Magnificent he examined İbrahim Gülşeni's Ma'navi and reported that the people of the outward cannot grasp its meaning and that the work contains many divine secrets. His Works — He wrote in Turkish, Arabic and Persian in many fields; it is hard to give a firm figure for their number: Jamil al-'Azm ascribes to him 214 works, Brockelmann 179, Nihal Atsız 209, Şamil Öçal 226. His principal work in history is the Tevarih-i Al-i Osman : written at the wish of Bayezid II, whom he presented with a history in eight volumes reaching the events of 916 (1510), it was later continued at Süleyman's request to the end of the Mohács campaign, that is, to 933 (1527), becoming a work of ten books. His other principal works include the Divan , containing more than 400 ghazals; the mathnawi Yusuf u Zeliha in 7777 couplets; the Kaside-i Bürde Tercümesi , a translation of al-Busiri's ode; the Nigaristan , modelled on Sa'di's Gulistan ; the Afdaliyyat Muhammad 'ala Sa'ir al-Anbiya' ; the gloss he wrote on Hocazade's Tahafut ; and the Akaid-i İslam , dealing with the foundations of faith, worship and ethics. His fatwas, too, are important documents reflecting the religious, legal, political and social life of the Ottoman society of his day.

İstanbulDied 940 AHView

Ruwayfi ibn Thabit al-Ansari

Ruwayfi ibn Thabit al-Ansari, a Companion present at Khaybar who took part in the conquest of the Levant and narrated hadith; under Mu'awiya he was appointed governor of Tripoli in 46/666. He died as governor of Barca (Cyrenaica) in 56 AH (c. 675) and was buried in today's al-Kawa quarter of Bayda, which long bore his name 'Sidi Rafi.' The tomb and mosque stand and are open to visitors. (Sources: classical tabaqat; Wikipedia.)

BeydaDied 56 AHView

Aisha al-Manoubia

A Tunisian woman saint, known as Sayyida Aisha . Her full name is Aisha bint Imran b. Sulayman al-Mannubiyya. She pledged herself to Abu 'l-Hasan al-Shadhili, founding master of the Shadhiliyya, and was revered among the people as a saint. She was born in the village of Mannuba , 8 km west of the city of Tunis. The sources that describe the Hafsid dynasty ruling Tunis in her day and the village of Mannuba do not mention her; what is known of her life rests on a short hagiographical work compiled from the collection of legends written by the imam of the Mannuba Mosque. According to this work her inclination to Sufism was evident while she was still a child; she is said to have memorised the Qur'an at an early age. When her family sought to marry her to her paternal cousin she refused the match in an ascetic spirit; she fled to Tunis, took refuge in a caravanserai outside Bab al-Gorjani , and lived by the wool she spun and wove with her own hands. She pledged herself to Abu 'l-Hasan al-Shadhili. It is recorded that her spiritual life developed and deepened with time and that miracles began to be manifested through her. At about seventy-six years of age, on 16 Shawwal 653 (18 November 1255) or 21 Rajab 655 (4 August 1257), she died — according to the report, while reciting the verse "Truly God is with those who are God-fearing and those who do good" (al-Nahl 16/128) — and was buried in the Maqbarat al-Sharaf cemetery at Bab al-Gorjani. Her Circle of Influence — Many legends about her circulate among the people. The widespread giving of the names Sayyida and Aisha to girls and Mannubi to boys in Tunisia stems from her living fame; the shrine built over her grave became a place of visitation for the women of Tunis. Her Poetry and Sufi Line — Her line is one of asceticism and charity. It is related that she kept nothing for herself but distributed what she had to the poor, and that one night, having gone to bed without giving away a dirham she had with her, she said, "Today our servanthood is deficient." She is said to have completed 1520 recitations of the whole Qur'an in her lifetime. Her understanding of remembrance is summed up in her saying, "There is no good in remembrance made by the tongue alone unless the heart takes part." Her Tomb and Complex — In the early XX century one of those excessively devoted to her memory, claiming that al-Mannubiyya's grave had been revealed to him, built a wooden shrine over it, and the place became a site of visitation for the women of Tunis. Around the caravanserai where she took refuge after leaving her family and spent her life, a mosque, guest rooms, several houses and shops were built in time, and a small lodge came into being there. The house where she was born became a place held sacred in the reign of the Husaynid Muhammad al-Sadiq Bey (1859-1882), and with its zawiya, private apartments and a covered courtyard where the order's rites were performed collectively it turned into a full lodge. The source records that these buildings are in ruins.

TunusDied 665 AHView

Sidi Mahrez

The shaykh with whom the Sufi movements of Tunisia are held to have begun; the sources also give his name as Shaykh Muhriz b. Khalaf . His grave is among the foremost places of visitation in the city of Tunis. He has no independent entry in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam; what is known of him is confined to a few sentences in the culture and civilisation section of the TUNISIA article. According to it, Sufi movements in Tunisia began in the IV (X) century with Shaykh Muhriz b. Khalaf. Supported by the state, Muhriz and his disciples played an active role in the struggle against the Shi'is in Tunisia. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He is counted among the poets of the Zirid age: together with poets such as 'Ali b. 'Abd al-Ghani al-Husri, Ibn Rashiq and Ibn Sharaf he was present at the court of the Zirid amir al-Mu'izz b. Badis. On his Sufi line the source gives no more than that the Sufi movements of Tunisia began with him and that he and his disciples enjoyed the support of the state. His Tomb and Complex — The grave of Muhriz, who was held in great esteem, is today among the foremost places of visitation in the city of Tunis. The Zawiya of Sidi Mahrez , which bears his name, lies in the north of the old city (the Medina), in a district dense with markets; the zawiya building dated 1862, with its cells around a domed central space and a tomb section under a distinct vaulted roof, is a variation on the Tunisian zawiya plan. The adjoining Sidi Mahrez Mosque takes its name from this zawiya: a small mosque on the site was demolished and the present mosque built in its place, begun in 1104 (1692-93) by Muhammad Bey al-Muradi, continued after his death by his brother Ramadan Bey, and completed in 1110 (1698-99) by Murad Bey. For this reason some sources also call it the Muhammad Bey Mosque; with its centralised plan and Iznik tiles it stands as the representative of classical Ottoman art in Tunisia.

TunusDied 413 AHView

Abd al-Salam al-Asmar al-Fituri

Abd al-Salam al-Asmar al-Fituri (b. 1475, Zliten), a major North African Sufi regarded as the 'second master' of the Arusiyya order. He trained under Abd al-Wahid al-Dukali and founded a zawiya in his town. He died in 981/1574; the mosque-zawiya around his grave is one of Libya's most important pilgrimage sites, beside al-Asmariya University. The zawiya-tomb was damaged by Salafi groups in 2012 and rebuilt/reopened from 2019. (Sources: TDV; Wikipedia.)

ZlitenDied 981 AHView

Sahnun ibn Sa'id al-Tanukhi

A jurist who contributed greatly to the formation of the Maliki school and its spread in North Africa; author of al-Mudawwana . His full name is Abu Sa'id Sahnun 'Abd al-Salam b. Sa'id b. Habib al-Tanukhi . He was born in 160 (777; according to another report 161/778), probably in the village of Manzil al-Siqlab, about 100 km. from Kairouan. He came from an Arab family of Syrian (Homs) origin. He became famous by the nickname “Sahnun” (the less favoured reading is Suhnun), the name of a sharp-sighted bird, on account of his intelligence and strong understanding. He studied with Kairouan scholars such as al-Buhlul b. Rashid, 'Abd Allah b. Ghanim and Abu Zayd al-Ru'ayni. Since the fiqh of Iraq and of Abu Hanifa prevailed in Kairouan, and Sahnun wanted to learn Malik's views as thoroughly as possible but had no opportunity to travel to Medina and study with Imam Malik himself, he joined, on al-Buhlul's advice, the circle of Ibn Ziyad al-'Absi in Tunis — the first to transmit the Muwatta' in Ifriqiya — heard the Muwatta' from him and received his licence (ijaza). The teachers who influenced him most were al-Buhlul, Ibn Ziyad and Ibn al-Qasim. He then set out on a journey east in search of knowledge. In Cairo he studied with Imam Malik's students Ibn al-Qasim, Ibn Wahb, Ashhab and 'Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Hakam; in Medina with Malik's other students; in Mecca with Sufyan b. 'Uyayna; and in Damascus with al-Walid b. Muslim. Perhaps the chief reason for his going to Egypt was to present to Ibn al-Qasim, for correction, al-Asadiyya , which his fellow townsman Asad b. al-Furat had prepared with Ibn al-Qasim — in the copy Sahnun had assembled through others, having been unable to obtain it from Asad. Probably in 188 (804) he went with his teachers to the Hijaz, stayed more than two years in Mecca and Medina, and returned to Kairouan in 191 (807) with a strong body of learning. The most important source he brought back was the draft of the compilation later to be called al-Mudawwana . His student Ibn Waddah says that he taught his students twenty-nine sama' records and that he had never met anyone with such a rich store of learning. On his return he probably settled in the village of Manzil al-Siqlab and formed his teaching circle; many students from outside Kairouan, especially from al-Andalus, attended his lessons. He took no fee for his teaching and earned his living by farming, probably from a large olive grove inherited from his father. His relations with the Aghlabid emirs were limited and tense: he avoided meeting them unless obliged, refused their gifts and aid, and left their requests for fatwas unanswered. He explained this stance by a scholar's religious responsibility and his wish to preserve his scholarly independence; yet his opposition stayed within the bounds of classical Sunni opposition, which does not include rebellion against rulers. When Abu Ja'far Ahmad b. al-Aghlab launched the mihna over the createdness of the Qur'an (231/846), he was kept under house arrest for a year for declaring that the Qur'an is uncreated; he was released when Emir Muhammad I regained power and ended the mihna. When he was offered the judgeship of Kairouan he at first refused; after a year of intense pressure he accepted on condition that he pursue the corruption of the Aghlabid house and officials and take no salary. He took office on 3 Ramadan 234 (31 March 849); for the first time in Ifriqiya he established an independent hisba organisation attached to the judgeship of Kairouan, and using his mazalim authority he supervised the rulers' unlawful practices. He was the first to ban the disputation sessions in the Great Mosque of Kairouan, open to members of all schools and sects, and he ended the Mu'tazilis' and Kharijites' posts as teachers, imams and muezzins. His judgeship lasted six years, until his death. He died in Kairouan in Rajab of the year 240 (December 854). The Aghlabid Emir Muhammad I led his funeral prayer at the Bab Nafi' prayer ground, and he was buried at the same place. His Circle of Influence — It may be said that the foundations of the Maliki school in Ifriqiya, in the sense of a school attributed to a person, were laid by Sahnun; over more than forty years of teaching he built a Maliki teaching tradition based on this heritage. The greatest share in the formation of his fame and authority within the school belongs to his students, who numbered 700; he is regarded as the Maliki imam who trained the most students after Malik, and is counted first of the four imams who kept the school alive. His three most famous students were his son Muhammad (Ibn Sahnun), Ibn 'Abdus and Yahya b. 'Umar al-Kinani; among his Andalusian students were Muhammad b. Ahmad al-'Utbi, Baqi b. Makhlad and Ibn Waddah. Abu al-Hasan al-Qabisi (d. 403/1012) ranked him above Ibn al-Qasim and regarded him, like Malik, as an undisputed authority. His Poetry and Sufi Line — His understanding of fiqh largely reflects Malik's; its most distinctive feature is extreme caution in giving fatwas: he avoided ruling on questions where he had not reached certainty, often made the questioner wait several days, and said that in this he was following the tradition of the scholars of the Salaf. In matters of creed he adopted the creed of the Salaf and opposed interpretation (ta'wil) and debate on such subjects as God's attributes. He saw fiqh as a mindset and way of life, was scrupulous in avoiding the forbidden, and was usually in debt because he gave so much in charity. He attached importance to standing guard in the ribats of the Sahel, spending especially the months of Ramadan there; the Qasr Ziyad ribat, built at his encouragement, became famous as “the house of Malik”. His Works — ① al-Mudawwana al-kubra : he produced it by working at length in Kairouan on the notes of the correction he had made in Egypt. He arranged al-Asadiyya, which had no particular order, by the chapters of fiqh; separated the views Ibn al-Qasim attributed to Malik by transmission and by derivation (takhrij); added Malik's views not found in al-Asadiyya, the views of his other students, and hadith and athar, and at times included his own views. From the III (IX) century onward the work became the basic source of the Malikis of North Africa and al-Andalus in particular; when its most famous abridgement, al-Baradhi'i's al-Tahdhib , came to be called al-Mudawwana, his work was named al-Mudawwana al-kubra . ② Nawazil Sahnun : not a work composed by Sahnun but a fatwa collection in which al-'Utbi gathered his answers to his students' questions. The sources also attribute to him two works, Kitab al-Zuhd and Manasik al-hajj ; the latter is probably an abridgement of his teacher Ashhab's Kitab al-Hajj . His Tomb and Complex — His grave, today near the city of Kairouan in Tunisia and covered by a small tomb, is one of the famous places of visitation.

KayrevanDied 240 AHView

Ibn Arafa al-Warghami

The great Maliki jurist of Tunis, and one of the leading figures of the Maliki school in North Africa. His full name was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. 'Arafa al-Warghammi al-Tunisi . He was born in the city of Tunis on 27 Rajab 716 (15 October 1316). He belonged to the Arabized Berber tribe of Warghamma. He received his first education from his father and from Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Sa'd al-Ansari. He then read exegesis, law and legal theory with the qadi of Tunis Ibn 'Abd al-Salam al-Hawwari, hadith with the traditionist al-Wadi Ashi, and the rational sciences with Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Abili and Abu 'Abd Allah Ibn al-Habbab. From scholars such as Ibn Salama, Ibn Harun al-Kinani, 'Umar b. Qaddah, Ibn al-Jabbab and Ibn 'Andaras he studied, alongside the Islamic sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic and medicine. He travelled to Tlemcen and Tripoli in pursuit of learning. When scholars such as Ibn 'Abd al-Salam, al-Wadi Ashi and Ibn al-Habbab died in the plague that broke out in the middle of the VIII (XIV) century, he filled the gap they left with his learning in law, legal theory, exegesis, Qur'anic readings, hadith and theology. In 750 (1349) he was appointed imam of the Zaytuna Mosque , and in 772 (1370) its preacher; a year later he was charged with the office of chief mufti. In 792 (1390) he made the pilgrimage; in Egypt, where he stayed for a time on the journey, he met Sultan Barquq. He declined the offers of judgeship made to him. He taught, especially exegesis and law, in various institutions, above all the Zaytuna Mosque and the Tawfiq Madrasa; as his fame spread beyond Tunis, people began to come to him from many regions to seek his legal opinions and study with him. He was a man of asceticism and piety; apart from prayer and his teaching circle he was seldom seen in public, and he did not meet statesmen except for official appointments and invitations to give his opinion on certain scholarly questions. He founded endowments for charitable works and for the freeing of slaves, and gave material support to many people, his students first of all. He died in Tunis on 24 Jumada al-Akhira 803 (9 February 1401) and was buried in the Jellaz Cemetery , near the tomb of Sharif Husayn. His Circle of Influence — Through his legal opinions, his works and his pupils he contributed significantly to the development of Islamic thought in the Islamic world, and especially in North Africa. His best-known pupils include Ibn al-Jazari, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani , Ibn Naji, al-Mujari, al-Burzuli, Abu Hamid Ibn Zahira, al-Ubbi, Ibn Marzuq al-Hafid, Burhan al-Din Ibn Farhun and Ibn Qunfudh. His opinions were preserved, besides his own works, especially in collections by his pupils such as al-Burzuli's al-Nawazil and al-Wansharisi's al-Mi'yar , and have been compiled and prepared for publication by Sa'd Ghurab. His Poetry and Sufi Line — His line was law and theology: in matters of creed he upheld the views of the Ash'ariyya. His Works — ① al-Mukhtasar fi'l-fiqh ( al-Mukhtasar al-kabir , al-Mukhtasar al-fiqhi ): his most important work, on which his fame rests; on Maliki law, in five large volumes, composed between 772-786 (1370-1384), with manuscript copies in the libraries of Fez and Marrakesh. ② Hudud Ibn 'Arafa ( Kitab al-Hudud ): compiled from the definitions of legal terms in the Mukhtasar , and published with the commentary of Muhammad b. Qasim al-Rassa'. ③ al-Mukhtasar fi usul al-fiqh : a work of about 500 pages written to complete Ibn al-Hajib's Mukhtasar , drawing especially on al-Amidi's al-Ihkam ; completed in 799 (1397). ④ Mukhtasar al-Hawfi fi'l-fara'id : an abridgement and commentary of al-Hawfi's Fara'id . ⑤ al-Mukhtasar al-shamil fi usul al-din : it treats theological questions in the arrangement of al-Baydawi's Tawali' al-anwar ; completed on 27 Ramadan 789 (11 October 1387). ⑥ al-Mukhtasar fi'l-mantiq : completed before 789 (1387), small in size but important. ⑦ Tafsir Ibn 'Arafa : notes taken by his pupils in his exegesis lessons, the most famous being those of al-Ubbi. The sources also mention other works such as al-Mabsut fi'l-fiqh , Manzuma fi qira'at Ya'qub , al-Tusa'iyyat and al-'Ushariyyat fi'l-hadith .

TunusDied 803 AHView

Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine

A Kabyle (Berber) Ash'ari scholar and founder of the Rahmaniyya order, counted among the seven patron saints of Algiers. He founded his zawiya in the Casbah/El Hamma in 1792 and died in 1793-94; by legend his body was placed in two graves, hence 'Bou Qobrine' (the one with two tombs). (Sources: Wikipedia; Wikidata Q29512550.)

CezayirDied 1208 AHView

Abd al-Rahman al-Tha'alibi

The great Qur'an commentator and Maliki jurist of Algiers; known for his commentary al-Jawahir al-hisan and remembered for his piety and asceticism. His full name is Abu Zayd 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Makhluf al-Tha'alibi . Because his lineage goes back to Ja'far b. Abi Talib he is also known by the nisba Ja'fari . He was born in 786 (1384) at Wadi Yusr near the city of Algiers, the homeland of his ancestors the amirs of the Tha'aliba. After memorising the Qur'an he received his first religious instruction. He then went with his father to Tlemcen for study and, in 802 (1399), to Bougie, where he stayed a year. On his father's death he returned home; later he went again to Bougie, where he stayed seven years and studied law, legal theory, exegesis, Qur'an readings and hadith under teachers such as 'Ali b. 'Uthman al-Miqlati and Abu al-Rabi' Sulayman b. Hasan. In 809-817 (1406-1414) he stayed in Tunis, the Hafsid capital, and profited from scholars such as Muhammad b. Khilfa al-Ubbi and 'Isa al-Ghubrini. In 817 (1414) he followed at al-Azhar in Egypt the lessons of Muhammad 'Ali b. Ja'far al-Bilali, Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Bisati and especially Ibn al-'Iraqi, from whom he benefited in hadith. According to the source, some sources record that he then went to Bursa, where a lodge was built in his name for him to teach and guide. From there he passed to the Hijaz for the pilgrimage and profited from its scholars. In 819 (1416) he returned by way of Egypt to Tunis, taught at the Zaytuna and distinguished himself in hadith. In the same period he followed the lessons of his teacher al-Ubbi and received his licence; having obtained from Ibn Marzuq al-Hafid a licence for al-Bukhari and al-Muwatta' , he returned home about 820 (1417). He took up the post of imam and preacher at the Great Mosque (al-Jami' al-A'zam) of Algiers. For a time he served as qadi, but not for long; he devoted himself to writing, teaching, preaching and guidance. He took particular care not to keep company with rulers. He enjoyed great fame; in the source's words, his birthplace came to be called after him Jaza'ir Sidi 'Abd al-Rahman . He died on 23 Ramadan 875 (15 March 1471) ; some sources give the date as 876. The source does not state his place of burial. His Circle of Influence — Among his pupils are figures such as Muhammad b. Marzuq al-Kafif, the theologian Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Sanusi , Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah al-Jaza'iri al-Zawawi and Zarruq . His Works — The sources record that he wrote about ninety works. The most famous is al-Jawahir al-hisan fi tafsir al-Qur'an ; this tradition-based commentary, completed in 833 (1429) , was so named in the belief that it is full of the finest wisdom and of jewels of sound traditions. It is in the nature of an abridgement of Ibn 'Atiyya al-Andalusi's al-Muharrar al-wajiz ; about 100 sources were used in preparing it, some criticisms are directed at Ibn 'Atiyya and choices are made among opinions. It treats the occasions of revelation, variant readings and lexical explanations; the legal verses are explained mostly according to the Maliki school; and of the rare Isra'iliyyat reports it states that they are not sound or must be interpreted. Among his other works: al-'Ulum al-fakhira on the states of the hereafter; al-Mukhtar min al-jawami' , a commentary on the versified al-Durar al-lawami' on the reading of Nafi'; Rawdat al-anwar on law; al-Anwar fi ayat al-nabi al-mukhtar on the miracles of the Prophet; al-Mara'i , in which his own dreams are related; al-Jami' al-kabir ; a commentary on Ibn al-Hajib's compendium of Maliki law; al-Anwar al-mudi'a in the forty-hadith genre; Jami' al-ummahat on the rules of worship; Riyad al-salihin ; Nafa'is al-marjan on the stories of the Qur'an; Haqa'iq al-'aqida ; Riyad al-uns ; the autobiographical catalogue Ghanimat al-wafid wa-bughyat al-talib al-majid , in which he relates his journeys in search of knowledge, the teachers who licensed him and his chains of transmission; a Mu'jam on rare words; and Arba'un hadithan fi istina' al-ma'ruf , an epitome of a commentary on forty hadiths on doing good.

CezayirDied 875 AHView

Ahmad Zarruq al-Fasi

Founder of the Zarruqiyya branch of the Shadhiliyya; a Maliki jurist and Sufi who made jurisprudence the foundation of Sufism and sharply criticised innovations and corruption in Sufi circles. His full name was Abu al-'Abbas Shihab al-Din Zarruq Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Isa al-Burnusi al-Fasi . He was born in Fez in 846 (1442). He belonged to the Berber tribe of the Baranis, living in the region between Fez and Taza, from which his nisba al-Burnusi (al-Barnusi) derives. He received the epithet Zarruq ("blue-eyed") from his grandfather, whose eyes were blue. When he was only a week old both his parents died of the plague. His father had named him Muhammad, but his maternal grandmother Fatima Umm al-Banin began to call him by his father's name, Ahmad, and Zarruq preferred this name. He was brought up by his grandmother, a pious woman and a jurist; when she died, at the time he completed memorising the Qur'an at the age of ten, he went to work for a shoemaker. Later a desire for study awoke in him: he read treatises with 'Ali al-Sitti and 'Abd Allah al-Fakhkhar, the Qur'anic sciences with Muhammad ibn Qasim al-Qawri and al-Zarhuni, and theology and jurisprudence with 'Abd al-Rahman al-Majduli, and in the lessons of the Qarawiyyin Mosque and the 'Inaniyya Madrasa he took a particular interest in jurisprudence and hadith. Turning to Sufism, he was drawn to the Shadhili masters, above all Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari, and in 870 (1466) he took initiation from Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Zaytuni , shaykh of the Shadhili lodge in Fez. After a time he fell out with his stern shaykh, left Fez for Tlemcen and visited the tomb of Abu Madyan; there he benefited from scholars such as Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Sanusi and Abu Zayd al-Tha'alibi. In 873 (1468) he left Fez for the pilgrimage and stayed about a year in Cairo, passing through Cairo again in 876 (1472) on his way back; he attended lessons at al-Azhar and studied hadith methodology and jurisprudence with al-Sakhawi. In this period he met his second shaykh, the Qadiri master Ahmad ibn 'Uqba al-Hadrami , who had come from Yemen and settled in Cairo, and continued his spiritual training with him according to the Qadiri path. Returning to the Maghrib at his shaykh's command, he stayed more than a year in Tripoli, studied in Tunis in 878 (1473) and in Bijaya the following year, and began his work of guidance in Bijaya. He returned to Fez in 880 (1475), but because he sharply criticised innovating Sufis and narrow-minded jurists he left Fez a second time in 884 (1479) for Bijaya. His shaykh al-Hadrami warned him in letters about his uncompromising attitude and advised him to withdraw from the world. He stayed seven months with his shaykh in Cairo and performed the pilgrimage a second time; in this period he held the Maliki imamate at al-Azhar and taught jurisprudence. It is reported that some 6000 people, together with his disciples, attended his lessons. In 886 (1481) he went to Tripoli. He spent the last four years of his life in Misrata , which he said God had chosen for him, in teaching and guidance, and died there in 899 (1493-94). His Circle of Influence — After his death his deputy Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Laqani returned to his village of Laqana in Egypt; the activities of the order were probably carried on by Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman, the builder of the lodge. Among the scholars who received Sufi training and instruction from him are Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Qastallani, Nasir al-Din al-Laqani, Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Kharrubi, al-Hattab al-Ru'ayni and 'Abd al-Wahid al-Wansharisi. Many branches issued from the Zarruqiyya, among them the 'Asimiyya, the Bakriyya (Abu al-Hasan al-Bakri, d. 909/1503), the 'Isawiyya, the Rashidiyya, the Nasiriyya, the Darqawiyya, the Madaniyya, the Yashrutiyya and the Sanusiyya (Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Sanusi, d. 1276/1859). His Poetry and Sufi Line — As the source reports, Zarruq explains Sufism through the concepts of ihsan and istihsan : creed is the station of faith, jurisprudence the station of Islam and Sufism the station of ihsan , and perfection is reached only through ihsan . What distinguishes him from other Sufis is that he takes jurisprudence as the foundation: Sufism alone, without jurisprudence, is not sufficient; the saying "Be a Sufi jurist, but not a jurist Sufi" sums up this view. Holding that the real hostility to Sufism came from its own adherents, he strongly opposed an understanding of the path that weakened the stations of the sharia and of the truth, yet he was equally opposed to the idea of removing Sufism from Islamic life. He approaches sama' with caution and considers sama' with musical instruments forbidden. He likens the shaykh to a physician; in his view the shaykh must have experience as well as knowledge. His Works — He wrote many works close to one another in subject, and commented several times on Ibn 'Ata' Allah's Hikam . Among the chief ones: Qawa'id al-tasawwuf , setting out the principles of Sufism so as to reconcile the sharia and the truth; the commentary on the Hikam ; al-Nasiha al-kafiya on the principles of the Zarruqiyya; 'Uddat al-murid al-sadiq on the ways of purifying Sufism of superstition and taint; al-Wazifa al-Zarruqiyya , the daily litany he gave his followers; commentaries on Bukhari and on al-Ghazali's creed; a commentary on the Risala of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani; a commentary on al-Shadhili's Hizb al-bahr ; and al-Kunnash , which also contains information on his own life. His Tomb and Complex — His disciple Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman built a mosque beside his grave. As visitors increased the place became known as the Zawiya of Ahmad Zarruq ; it turned into a madrasa where the Islamic sciences were taught to students coming from Libya and Tripoli, and for many years it functioned as the first madrasa in Libya. In the unstable climate that followed the popular uprising of 2011, an extremist group hostile to Sufism destroyed the cenotaph in the tomb on 25 August 2012, opened the grave and carried away the remains inside it.

MisrataDied 899 AHView

Sidi Bou Said (Abu Said al-Baji)

Sidi Bou Said (Abu Said Khalaf ibn Yahya al-Tamimi al-Baji, c. 1156-1231), an Arab Tunisian saint and Sufi scholar born in Beja. A disciple of Abu Madyan, known as the teacher of Abu'l-Hasan ash-Shadhili. He retired to a ribat on Mount El Manar overlooking the Gulf of Tunis; the town around his shrine bears his name. (Sources: Wikipedia; Wikidata Q3483202.)

Sidi Bou SaidDied 628 AHView

Arif Riwgari

A Bukharan master of the Ḵᵛājagān line; one of the four successors of ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq Ḡojdovānī , regarded as the head of the Ḵᵛājagān, and the youngest of them. In the source his nisba also appears in the form “Rīvgarawī”. Like almost all the masters of the Ḵᵛājagān, he was born and lived in Bukhara. Ḡojdovānī's other three successors were Ḵᵛāja Aḥmad Ṣeddīq (d. 657), Ḵᵛāja Awlīā-ye Kabīr, known as Awlīā-ye Kalān (d. 627), and Ḵᵛāja Solaymān (Salmān) Karmīnī (d. 658). Three of these four trained successors of their own and so continued the chain of the Ḵᵛājagān. According to Faḵr-al-Dīn ʿAlī Ṣafī's Rašaḥāt and Moḥammad Yūsof Mojaddedī's Jawāher-e Naqšbandīya , he died in 657 . His Circle of Influence — ʿĀref Rīvgarī stands at the head of the chain of Ḵᵛājagān masters that leads to the Naqšbandīs. For this reason Naqšbandī hagiographers and compilers of biographical dictionaries paid particular attention to him and his successors and recorded notable information about them. His successor was Ḵᵛāja Maḥmūd Anjīr Faḡnawī , from the village of Anjīrfaḡnī in the Wābkanī district of Bukhara; from him the chain passed to ʿAlī Rāmītanī. His Works — A treatise entitled ʿĀref-nāma is attributed to him (Mojaddedī). For the hagiographical tradition about Ḡojdovānī and Rīvgarī the source refers to the Maqāmāt-e ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq Ḡojdovānī wa ʿĀref Rīvgarī , published by Saʿīd Nafīsī.

BuharaDied 616 AHView

Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari

Founder of the Naqshbandiyya order and the great Sufi who gave it his name. His full name is Khwaja Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Bukhari ; among his followers, especially in Turkey, he is known by the title Shah-i Naqshband . He was born in 718 (1318) near Bukhara, in the village of Qasr-i Hinduvan, later renamed Qasr-i Arifan . As a three-day-old infant he was accepted as a spiritual son by Baba Muhammad Sammasi , his grandfather's spiritual guide, who was then in the village; Sammasi charged his accompanying disciple Amir Kulal with the boy's Sufi training. No detailed information exists about these relationships. He remained with Amir Kulal for many years; his guide assigned him to carry ablution water to the lodge. In this period, while learning the rules and conduct of the path, a dream led him to attach himself to the spiritual presence of Abd al-Khaliq Ghujduvani , who had died about a century before his birth (617/1220), and he received the epithet Uwaysi ; his many years of benefiting from the spiritual presence of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi are connected with this as well. It is related that one day, walking among the graves of Bukhara, he beheld in the world of meaning the Sufis reaching from Sammasi back to Ghujduvani; Ghujduvani counselled him to keep the commands and prohibitions of religion, to hold to strict rulings rather than dispensations, and to follow the way of the Prophet and his Companions. This event turned him from vocal to silent remembrance . His devoting himself thereafter to silent dhikr alone caused dispute among the dervishes, yet his respect for his shaykh did not change, and Amir Kulal defended him before his disciples. Amir Kulal then called Baha al-Din, who was carrying bricks for a mosque being built in Sukhar, Amir Kulal's native village, and told him that he had completed his wayfaring and could now benefit from all Turkish and Tajik shaykhs. He then joined the gatherings of Mawlana Arif Dikgarani, and later formed ties with two Turkish shaykhs of the Yasawiyya: his connection with Qusam Shaykh was brief, while with Khalil Ata he stayed twelve years. After this long period of discipleship he returned to his birthplace Qasr-i Hinduvan and began training disciples. Thereafter he left Bukhara three times, twice for the pilgrimage. On his second pilgrimage, in Herat, where he stayed three days, he visited Zayn al-Din al-Khwafi, founder of the Zayniyya; some time later he went to Herat again as the guest of the Kart ruler Mu'izz al-Din Husayn and explained to him his Sufi understanding and the principles of his order. The teachers of the madrasas respected him as much as the Sufis of his time, and he in turn honoured the scholars; he submitted his Sufi views to Mawlana Hamid al-Din, asking to be corrected if anything was mistaken. His refusal to accept sama and seclusion as ways of spiritual growth is closely tied to the importance he gave to silent dhikr. He held that attachment to a chain means nothing in itself and gave little value to miracles; his avoidance of a particular dress for his disciples and his dislike of sitting in the lodge are mentioned in the source as features recalling the Malamatiyya. He died in his native village on 3 Rabi al-Awwal 791 (2 March 1389). He had asked that this couplet be recited at his funeral: "We are great paupers in your lane, O king; from your beauty we beg something for God's sake." His Circle of Influence — His sayings have come down through the works of others, the most important being the Risala-yi Qudsiyya of his khalifa Khwaja Muhammad Parsa (d. 822/1420), one of the leading scholars of Bukhara. Khwaja Ala al-Din Attar emerged as chief successor, while his most important khalifa for the continuation of the chain was Mawlana Ya'qub Charkhi (d. 851/1447). Charkhi's disciple Ubaydullah Ahrar (d. 895/1490) made the order the most important in Central Asia and spread it across the Islamic world. The path, called tariq-i khwajagan since Yusuf al-Hamadani, became known from Baha al-Din onward as tariq-i Naqshbandi ; his insistence on silent dhikr determined the order's identity. The source also stresses that the Turkish influence on his spiritual growth through the Yasawiyya should not be overlooked. His Works — No work containing his Sufi views has survived. Most of the poems and treatises attributed to him can hardly be his; only the al-Awrad al-Baha'iyya , which bears his name, is said possibly to have been composed by him. His Tomb and Complex — In later years Qasr-i Arifan took his name ( Baveddin in the Bukharan pronunciation), and as the Naqshbandiyya spread a large complex grew up around his grave. At the end of the XIX. century the complex's monthly rental income amounted to thousands of rubles. The people of Bukhara called him "Khwaja-yi bala-gardan" (the khwaja who wards off calamity) and regarded him as the city's spiritual protector; his spiritual presence was an important factor in Bukhara becoming a centre of learning and sanctity for the Muslims of Central Asia.

BuharaDied 791 AHView

Prophet Ayyub (Chashma-Ayub maqam)

A place of visitation in Bukhara attributed to the Prophet Job (Ayyub) ; its name comes from the Persian chashma (spring, source) and means "the Spring of Job". It is not a fixed grave but a maqam : the atlas records it as a structure attached to the memory of a prophet, not as his tomb. The building stands within the Historic Centre of Bukhara , inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993. According to UNESCO's statement of value, the old town — with the exception of a few important vestiges from before the invasions of Genghis Khan in 1220 and Timur in 1370 — bears witness chiefly to the urbanism of the Shaybanid period from the 16th century onwards. Chashma Ayub is named among those early vestiges: the statement says that from the 11th-century Karakhanid period survive the Poi-Kalyan minaret along with most of the Magoki Attori mosque and the Chashma Ayub shrine. The Encyclopaedia Iranica article devoted to the monuments of Bukhara gives the Timurid phase of the building: in 781/1380 Timur built the Chashma-ye Ayyub mausoleum, a complex structure dominated by a tall, conical dome. The same article mentions it after the Chaghatayid mausoleums, at the head of Timurid building activity in Bukhara. The city in which the shrine stands was, according to UNESCO's criterion (vi), between the 9th and 16th centuries the largest centre of Muslim theology in the Near East, particularly for Sufism, with over two hundred mosques and more than a hundred madrasas. In the same historic centre stands the Samanid dynastic tomb, held to be the best surviving example of 10th-century architecture; UNESCO counts both buildings together among Bukhara's early monuments. The sources call the building a "shrine" and a "mausoleum"; they contain no statement that the Prophet Job is buried here. Popular narratives concerning the spring are not found in the sources used for this record and are therefore not reproduced.

Imam al-Tirmidhi

Hadith scholar, author of al-Jami' al-sahih (the Sunan ), one of the Six Books. His full name was Abu 'Isa Muhammad b. 'Isa b. Sawra (Yazid) al-Tirmidhi . Scholars are unanimous that he was a trustworthy ( thiqa ) traditionist; his being called imam , a title used for the foremost scholars, shows his eminent place in the science of hadith. He was probably born in 209 (824) at Tirmidh, today within the borders of Uzbekistan — or in the village of Bugh, a dependency of Tirmidh. By his own account he belonged to a family that had come from Merv and settled in Tirmidh; he is also called al-Sulami , after the Banu Sulaym of the Qays 'Aylan tribes. Around the year 235 (849) he began the study of hadith, first in Tirmidh and then with scholars of other regions, above all Khurasan, Iraq and the Hijaz. He benefited from Ibn al-Muthanna and from Muhammad b. Bashshar, known as Bundar — each a teacher of every one of the imams of the Six Books — and from traditionists such as Ishaq b. Rahuya, Qutayba b. Sa'id, Hannad b. al-Sari, 'Ali b. Hujr, Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim and Abu Dawud. It appears that he never went to Baghdad and so did not study with Ahmad b. Hanbal; most probably he did not travel to Egypt and Syria for learning either. For a long time he was a pupil of al-Bukhari , transmitting many hadiths from him and learning from him the jurisprudence of hadith. In his own words, since there was no scholar in Iraq and Khurasan superior to al-Bukhari in the hidden defects of hadith, its narrators and its chains, he drew heavily on his teacher in these matters too. Al-Bukhari in turn esteemed his learning and intelligence and, as al-Tirmidhi reports, said to him: "In truth, what I have gained from you is more than what you have gained from me." That he nevertheless took no hadith from al-Bukhari in his al-Jami' al-sahih , and only one each from Muslim and Abu Dawud, is explained by the fact that the three generally transmitted from the same teachers. Since the schools of law had spread in his time, he learned the principal views of each school from the leading pupils of its imam; like the other imams of the Six Books, he adhered to no school. His powerful memory became the subject of reports: al-Dhahabi relates that on his way to Mecca he met a shaykh whose narrations he had earlier written down in two fascicles, and recited those hadiths to him from memory. According to al-Hakim al-Kabir, one of his teachers said that after al-Bukhari's death no scholar remained in Khurasan like al-Tirmidhi in learning, memory, asceticism and piety, and that he wept out of piety until he lost his sight. He is known to have been a man of deep feeling, who kept away from anything that might bring reproach upon him, set no value on worldly goods and strove with all his effort to build up his hereafter. After completing al-Jami' al-sahih he showed it to the scholars of Khurasan, Iraq and the Hijaz and received their appreciation and approval. He died on 13 Rajab 279 (9 October 892) in the village of Bugh, a dependency of Tirmidh. His Circle of Influence — Among his many pupils, Abu'l-'Abbas Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Mahbub al-Mahbubi, Abu Sa'id al-Haytham b. Kulayb al-Shashi (also the transmitter of the Shama'il ), Abu Dharr Muhammad b. Ibrahim al-Tirmidhi, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan b. Ibrahim al-Qattan, Abu Hamid Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah al-Tajir and Abu'l-Hasan al-Fazari are famed as transmitters of al-Jami' al-sahih . The traditionist Hammad b. Shakir al-Nasafi and Makhul b. al-Fadl al-Nasafi are also named among his pupils. Ibn Khalfun al-Andalusi identified his teachers in his work Shuyukh Abi 'Isa al-Tirmidhi . His Poetry and Sufi Line — His line is the science of hadith. Ibn Hibban says that the qualities required of a traditionist — collecting, arranging, memorizing and discussing the hadiths he learned — were all found in him. He is one of the very few scholars with a complete mastery of the hidden defects ( 'ilal ) that impair the soundness of hadiths and are extremely hard to detect. Because of this competence, when he found no sound hadith on a subject he admitted some weak ones, but criticized their chains and stated how far their narrators could be trusted. He maintained that, apart from two hadiths, every report in his book was one acted upon. Among his services to hadith scholarship is the particular meaning he gave to the term hasan : according to some scholars he was the first to use hasan as a technical term and so began the threefold division of hadith (sound, good, weak). Some scholars held that, owing to his authority in 'ilal and in the criticism and validation of narrators, his book ought to rank third after the Sahihayn . His Works — ① al-Jami' al-sahih : his work included in the Six Books; it has many commentaries and abridgements, and among its many editions are cited those of Delhi and Bulaq and the editions prepared by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, Muhammad Fu'ad 'Abd al-Baqi and Ibrahim 'Atwa 'Awad. ② al-Shama'il al-nabawiyya : the first work in its field and regarded as the most perfect written on the subject; most of its hadiths are sound, a significant part good and very few weak; many commentaries, glosses and abridgements have been made of it and it has been translated into various languages. ③ al-'Ilal al-kabir : written before al-Jami' ; its original is unknown, and the arrangement by chapters of law made by Abu Talib al-Qadi has been published. ④ al-'Ilal al-saghir : it stands at the end of al-Jami' as its fifty-first book and serves as its introduction; Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali wrote a commentary on it. ⑤ Tasmiyat ashab al-nabi : it begins with the ten promised Paradise and arranges the names of the Companions by their first letters; according to its two copies in the Süleymaniye Library it gives the names of 730 Companions. ⑥ Kitab al-Ta'rikh : nothing is known of it. ⑦ Kitab al-Asma' wa'l-kuna : Ibn Hajar evidently saw it. ⑧ al-Zuhd : Ibn Hajar mentions it but states that he did not see it.

TirmizDied 279 AHView

Imam al-Bukhari

The great hadith scholar known for al-Jami' al-sahih , regarded as the most reliable book after the Qur'an (d. 256/870). His full name was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Isma'il b. Ibrahim al-Ju'fi al-Bukhari . He was born at Bukhara on Friday 13 Shawwal 194 (20 July 810). His great-great-grandfather Bardizbah was a Zoroastrian; because the latter's son al-Mughira became a Muslim through the governor of Bukhara, Yaman al-Ju'fi, al-Bukhari is also known by the nisba al-Ju'fi. His father Isma'il had learned hadith from scholars such as Malik b. Anas and 'Abd Allah b. al-Mubarak; he died while al-Bukhari was still a child, and some of his hadith books passed to his son. His mother is mentioned as a pious woman whose prayers were answered. Around the age of ten he began to learn hadith from Bukharan traditionists such as Muhammad b. Salam al-Bikandi and 'Abd Allah b. Muhammad al-Musnadi. At about eleven he drew attention by correcting some errors made by his teacher al-Dakhili while transmitting; by sixteen he had entirely memorized the books of Ibn al-Mubarak and Waki' b. al-Jarrah. At that time he went on pilgrimage with his mother and his brother Ahmad; while they returned home he stayed in Mecca and studied hadith with scholars such as Khallad b. Yahya and 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr al-Humaydi. Then he began to travel among the centres of learning: he went to Baghdad more than eight times, meeting Ahmad b. Hanbal on each visit; he went to Basra four or five times and to Balkh several times, where at the request of its people he dictated one hadith from each of the 1000 teachers from whom he had learned. He learned hadith from Abu Mushir in Damascus, stayed six years in the Hijaz, went to Hims, travelled many times to Kufa, and also studied in Medina, Merv and Egypt, which he visited twice. In Nishapur, which he visited first in 209 (824) and last in 250 (864), he taught hadith for five years. He says that the number of scholars from whom he wrote hadith was 1080; a treatise by Ibn Manda gives the names of 309 of his teachers from whom he transmits in al-Jami' al-sahih . From the hadiths gathered on his long journeys he built up a large library; he said that one night, staying awake, he reckoned up the hadiths he had written until then and found he had recorded 200,000 hadiths with continuous chains. The most famous example of the strength of his memory is the Baghdad test reported by Ibn 'Adi: the traditionists mixed up the chains and texts of 100 hadiths, gave them to ten men, and these asked al-Bukhari about them in turn. Al-Bukhari said that he knew none of the hadiths in the form in which they had been read, and then, beginning with the first questioner, told each of them the correct chain and text of the hadith he had asked about. He too suffered from the controversy, long continuing in the Islamic world, over whether the Qur'an is created. When he came to Nishapur the people and the traditionist Muhammad b. Yahya al-Dhuhli received him with great honour; but when he was asked whether the Qur'an is created, his answer caused a great dispute among those present. Faced with al-Dhuhli's influence in the city, he recited the verse "I commit my affair to God; surely God sees His servants" (al-Mu'min 40/44), said that he had not come to Nishapur for any gain, and left the city the next day. He went on to Merv and from there to Bukhara. He withheld his knowledge from no one who sought it, but kept away from men of state and regarded going to their palaces as demeaning to learning. When the governor of Khurasan, Khalid b. Ahmad al-Dhuhli, let him know that he wished to hear his works from him, he replied that he could not carry learning to other people's doors, and that if the governor wished he should come to the mosque where he taught or to his house; he also refused the governor's request to teach only his own children, on the ground that he could not reserve learning for particular people. Thereupon the governor had men close to him allege that he held views incompatible with the Sunna, and exiled him from his homeland. Al-Bukhari set out for Samarqand; while visiting relatives in the small town of Khartank , 3 miles from Samarqand, he fell ill and could not reach Samarqand. He died on the eve of the Feast of Breaking the Fast of the year 256 and was buried there the next day (Friday 1 September 870). All that is known of his family is that he had a son named Ahmad. He was of medium height, thin and slight of build; he spoke little, did not covet what others possessed and paid no attention to food and drink. Many of his actions are reported to show his generosity and his indifference to worldly goods: to those who advised him to collect through officials a debt long unpaid, he said, "If I ask them for help, they will ask me to give fatwas as it suits them; I cannot sell my religion for the world." Even of the narrators he criticized he spoke with great moderation and fairness, and used to say, "I hope that God Most High will not call me to account for backbiting." He loved archery. His Circle of Influence — His famous pupil al-Firabri says that 90,000 people heard al-Jami' al-sahih from al-Bukhari. His other best-known pupils are Imam Muslim , al-Tirmidhi , Abu Hatim, Abu Zur'a al-Razi, Muhammad b. Nasr al-Marwazi, Salih Jazara and Ibn Khuzayma. His teachers and contemporaries spoke of him with praise: Nu'aym b. Hammad and Ya'qub b. Ibrahim al-Dawraqi used to say, "Al-Bukhari is the jurist of this community"; Ishaq b. Rahawayh advised the traditionists, "Write hadith from this young man"; Imam Muslim told him, "I bear witness that there is none like you in the world"; and Ibn Khuzayma said he had seen no one under the vault of heaven who knew the hadiths of the Messenger of God better. Because he was the first to bring the sound hadiths together and because of his superiority in detecting subtle defects ( 'ilal ), he has been accepted as an undisputed authority in the science of hadith. In creed he is counted among the first Sunni scholars who contributed to the formation of the Ahl al-Sunna; his view that the recitation of the Qur'an is created paved the way for the later Sunni theological distinction between "verbal speech" ( kalam lafzi ) and "inner speech" ( kalam nafsi ), and his contemporaries Muslim and Ibn Qutayba adopted this view. His Poetry and Sufi Line — It is recorded that the moral verses found in some books reflect his taste for poetry. In his scholarly line he was, in general terms, attached to the creed of the Salaf, and he criticized the Jahmiyya, the Mu'tazila, the Khawarij and the Shi'a. While most hadith scholars regarded the discussion of doctrinal questions as innovation, he held such discussion necessary when beliefs contrary to the texts arose, so that the view conforming to the Qur'an and Sunna could be established and defended. For him the Qur'an is the speech of God and is not created, while reading and writing the Qur'an are acts of the servants and are created. On the attribute of bringing into being, on not declaring grave sinners unbelievers, and on faith and Islam being the same thing he followed Abu Hanifa; on faith increasing and decreasing he followed Ahmad b. Hanbal. He is also known as a great jurist; because the chapter headings in al-Jami' al-sahih reflect his legal views it has been said, "Al-Bukhari's jurisprudence is in his chapter headings." His Works — ① al-Jami' al-sahih : known popularly as Sahih al-Bukhari ; he said that he produced it in sixteen years, selecting from some 600,000 hadiths, and that before writing each hadith he performed the full ablution and prayed two cycles. He began writing it in Bukhara and continued in Mecca, Medina and Basra; hundreds of studies and commentaries have been written on it. ② al-Tarikh al-kabir : begun before he was twenty and, in his own words, "by the Prophet's grave on moonlit nights", it establishes the degree of reliability of nearly 13,000 narrators; he kept renewing and completing it until a late stage of his life. ③ al-Tarikh al-awsat and ④ al-Tarikh al-saghir : abridgements and summaries of the great history. ⑤ Kitab al-du'afa' al-saghir : it contains 418 narrators. ⑥ Kitab al-kuna . ⑦ al-Adab al-mufrad : it gathers hadiths on good character, 1322 hadiths in 644 chapters. ⑧ Khalq af'al al-'ibad : written to show that the servants' utterance of the Qur'an, like their other acts, is created. ⑨ Raf' al-yadayn fi al-salat and ⑩ Kitab al-qira'a khalf al-imam . The source also lists other works whose names appear in his writings and in the sources, such as al-'Aqida (al-Tawhid) , al-Tafsir al-kabir and Birr al-walidayn . His statement that he wrote all his books three times shows that he read them to his students and revised them each time.

SemerkantDied 256 AHView

Abu Bakr al-Qaffal al-Shashi

A Shafi'i jurist; a scholar counted among the authorities of his age in Qur'anic exegesis, hadith, fiqh, legal theory, kalam, Arabic and poetry, who brought about the spread of Shafi'i law in Transoxiana. His full name is Abu Bakr al-Qaffal al-Kabir Muhammad b. 'Ali b. Isma'il al-Shashi . He was born in Shash (Tashkent) on 15 Sha'ban 291 (2 July 904). The by-name Qaffal derives from the locksmith's trade; he is called al-Qaffal al-Kabir or al-Qaffal al-Shashi to distinguish him from 'Abd Allah b. Ahmad al-Marwazi, known by the same by-name. He is the scholar generally referred to simply as "Qaffal" in works of tafsir, hadith, kalam and legal theory; in books of fiqh, where he is mentioned less often than 'Abd Allah b. Ahmad, he appears mostly as al-Qaffal al-Shashi. In 309 (921) he set out in search of hadith to Khurasan, Iraq, the Hijaz and Syria. He heard hadith from scholars such as Ibn Khuzayma, Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, Abu 'Aruba, Ibn al-Baghandi, al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, Ibn Durayd and Abu'l-Qasim al-Baghawi. Having studied various sciences, he returned to Shash and taught there. Al-Hakim al-Naysaburi describes him as the most knowledgeable in legal theory among the Transoxianan jurists of his time and the one who travelled most in search of hadith. He appears to have gone to Rayy with the army of Khurasan and Transoxiana raised against Byzantium (354/965). He composed a satirical poem in refutation of the qasida written at the order of the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas and sent to the Abbasid caliph al-Muti' li-llah, which disparaged the Muslims on account of the capture of Massisa and Tarsus (352/963). Many men of letters and poets from Khurasan, Syria and Iraq wrote refutations of that qasida, but Qaffal's was chosen and sent to the emperor. The texts of both poems were also quoted by al-Subki; the poem, a fine example of diplomatic language in verse, has been studied in works on international relations. He died in Shash in Dhu'l-Hijja 365 (August 976). His son Abu'l-Hasan al-Qasim (d. c. 400/1010) studied fiqh with Abu 'Abd Allah al-Halimi and became one of the important figures of the Shafi'i school. His Circle of Influence — Scholars such as Abu 'Abd Allah al-Halimi, 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad al-Idrisi, Abu 'Abd Allah Ibn Manda, Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Sulami and al-Hakim al-Naysaburi transmitted hadith from him. His Tafsir al-Qur'an , particularly for the Mu'tazili views it contains, is among the sources of al-Razi's Mafatih al-ghayb and al-Suyuti's Asrar al-tanzil . His views are quoted in Shafi'i sources. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He was the first jurist to write on dialectic ( jadal ). At first he adopted Mu'tazili ideas, defending views such as that using analogy and single-transmitter reports as proof in legal rulings is rationally obligatory; later he turned to the school of Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari and learned kalam from him. For this reason Mu'tazili ideas are found in some of his works, above all his Tafsir al-Qur'an . He also held independent opinions departing from the school's position, such as that a sick person may combine prayers and that it is recommended for an adult to offer the 'aqiqa sacrifice for himself. His Works — ① Mahasin al-shari'a fi furu' al-Shafi'iyya : written in answer to a question about the rationales of legal rulings; one copy each is held in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library and Yale University Library. ② Jawami' al-kalim fi'l-hadith min al-mawa'iz wa'l-hikam . His other works mentioned in the sources: Sharh al-Risala , Dala'il al-nubuwwa , Adab al-qadi , Kitab al-Usul , Tafsir al-Qur'an . A work titled Jawami' al-kalim fi'l-mawa'iz wa'l-hikam registered under his name in the Hacı Selim Ağa Library has been shown by research to belong to al-Muttaqi al-Hindi. His Tomb and Complex — The Tashkent article lists the tomb of Qaffal al-Shashi (Hazrat Imam) among the city's architectural monuments and names Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Qaffal among the scholars Tashkent produced. In the middle of the XIIth (XVIIIth) century one of Tashkent's four main districts bore the name Qaffal al-Shashi (Sibzar) .

TaşkentDied 365 AHView

Abdul Khaliq Ghijduwani

The Sufi who laid down the principles of the way of the Khwâjagân; one of the founding links of the Naqshbandî chain. He was born in the village of Ghujduwân , some thirty kilometres from Bukhara. His father was 'Abd al-Jamîl the Imam, who was obliged to migrate there from Malatya; his descent is traced to Imam Mâlik. At Bukhara he studied Qur'anic exegesis under Imam Sadr al-Dîn. It is reported that he learned the silent remembrance (dhikr-i khafî) from Khwâja Khidr. At about the age of twenty-two he joined the disciples of Yûsuf al-Hamadânî . He gathered the principles of the way into eight rules called the kalimât-i qudsiyya : hûsh dar dam (awareness in every breath), nazar bar qadam (turning the gaze to the foot), safar dar watan (the journey of casting off human traits), khalwat dar anjuman (solitude within the crowd), yâd kard (remembrance), bâz gasht (return), nigâh dâsht (guarding) and yâd dâsht (keeping awake). His Circle of Influence — He had four successors; through one of them, Khwâja 'Ârif-i Rîwgarî, the chain of the Khwâjagân continued and reached the Naqshbandiyya. The eight principles he laid down became in later centuries the common language of this way. His Works — The Risâla-i Sâhibiyya and the Wasâyâ , which gives moral counsel to disciples, are attributed to him. His Tomb and Complex — He is buried at Ghujduwân, where he was born.

BuharaDied 575 AHView

Gozli Ata

A highly venerated Sufi saint buried in the desert-mountain country of the Balkan region in western Turkmenistan. By tradition a dervish linked to the Najm al-Din Kubra lineage; his exact death date is not fixed (roughly 13th-14th century). His mausoleum is one of Turkmenistan's foremost domestic pilgrimage sites. (Sources: Wikipedia; silkadv.com.)

Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani

Founder of the Hamadaniyya branch of the Kubrawiyya order; a Sufi who had an important influence on the Islamisation of Kashmir. His full name is 'Ali b. Shihab al-Din b. Muhammad Hamadani ; he is known by titles such as Mir Sayyid 'Ali, Amir-i Kabir, Sayyid 'Ali Hamadani, 'Ali-yi Thani and Shah-i Hamadan. He was born in Hamadan on 12 Rajab 714 (22 October 1314). His lineage goes back to the fourth imam, 'Ali Zayn al-'Abidin, son of Husayn; his mother Bibi Fatima was also a descendant of 'Ali. His father Shihab al-Din was governor of Hamadan. He began his education with his maternal uncle Sayyid 'Ala' al-Din. On his uncle's advice he became a disciple of Mahmud Mazdaqani , deputy of the Kubrawi shaykh 'Ala' al-Dawla al-Simnani. After staying for a while in his shaykh's lodge at Mazdaqan he met another of Simnani's deputies, Taqi al-Din 'Ali Dusti, and received the cloak from him as well; after Dusti's death he returned to Mazdaqan. Mazdaqani advised him to travel and to meet other shaykhs in order to reach perfection. Having received the cloak of futuwwa from Muhammad Azkani, one of Simnani's deputies, Hamadani set out; on this journey, which lasted twenty years, he travelled through Turkestan, Transoxiana, India, Iraq, Syria and Anatolia. In the reign of Sultan Shihab al-Din of Kashmir he went to Kashmir with 700 sayyids (774/1372) and stayed there four months. On his second visit, seven years later, he was received by Sultan Qutb al-Din, brother and successor of Sultan Shihab al-Din. His good relations with the sultan, and his success in persuading him to abandon practices contrary to the principles of Islam, were influential in the acceptance of Islam by the non-Muslim people of Kashmir. After staying two and a half years he set out to return to Hamadan; learning that Timur had driven the sayyids out of Hamadan, he passed through Turkestan and Khuttalan and returned to Kashmir again in 785 (1383). He did not stay long in Kashmir; on the pilgrimage journey he undertook he fell ill and died at Kabrusvar (6 Dhu al-Hijja 786/19 January 1385). His body was first taken to the town of Khuttalan, where his deputy and son-in-law Khwaja Ishaq Khuttalani lived, and was later buried in Kulob, today within the borders of Tajikistan. His Circle of Influence — In his lifetime many disciples gathered around him, and they contributed greatly to the Islamisation of Kashmir; the source records that many mosques and lodges were built in Kashmir in this period and that some Hindu temples were converted into mosques. After his death his son Mir Muhammad continued this activity in the reign of Sultan Iskandar. After the shaykh's death some members of the Hamadaniyya followed his deputy Khwaja Ishaq Khuttalani. When some followers of Khuttalani, who was executed by Shahrukh in 826 (1423), pledged allegiance to his deputy Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh (d. 869/1465) and others to his other deputy 'Abd Allah Barzishabadi (d. 872/1468), the Hamadaniyya split into two branches: the Nurbakhshiyya and the Dhahabiyya (Ightishashiyya). There is also a further branch called the Barzanjiyya, attributed to Sayyid 'Isa al-Nurbakhshi al-Barzanji. Qiwam al-Din Badakhshi, who accompanied him on his journey to Kashmir, and 'Abd Allah Shattari, founder of the Shattari lineage, are also named among his disciples. Devotion to the Prophet's family continued in his deputy Khwaja Ishaq Khuttalani and in Nur al-Din Ja'far Badakhshi, author of his hagiography Khulasat al-manaqib . His Poetry and Sufi Line — His holding some ideas different from those of his shaykhs, his writing many works on Sufism, and his disciples' spreading of Islam through the lodges they founded in Kashmir led to the emergence of the order named after him, the Hamadaniyya. Because many of his writings have not yet been studied, little is known about this order; according to the source, he generally remained faithful to the principles of the Kubrawiyya while adding some new elements. He was also drawn to Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi, wrote a Persian-Arabic commentary on the Fusus al-hikam known as Hall al-Fusus , and sought to reconcile the principles of the Kubrawiyya with Ibn 'Arabi's views. Some of his poems are collected in Chihil Asrar . His Works — He wrote more than 100 works, most not exceeding four or five pages. The principal published ones are: ① Dhakhirat al-muluk : a Persian work of the mirror-for-princes genre in ten chapters; Muslih al-Din Mustafa Sururi (d. 969/1562) translated it into Turkish, and a certain Muhammad b. Husayn also translated it in the name of Sultan Ibrahim as Hilyat al-muluk ; a copy of this translation written in the translator's hand in 1052 (1642) is in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. ② Risala-yi Futuwwatiyya : it shows the relationship between the Kubrawiyya and the institution of futuwwa . ③ Risala-yi Talqiniyya ( Risala dar Tawba ). ④ al-Risala al-i'tiqadiyya and ⑤ Risala-yi Bayan-i I'tiqad . ⑥ Risala-yi Dah Qa'ida : a translation of Najm al-Din Kubra's al-Usul al-'ashara . ⑦ Chihil Asrar . ⑧ al-Waridat al-ghaybiyya : in the manner of the intimate prayers of Harawi. ⑨ Risala-yi Dhikriyya and ⑩ Risala-yi Quddusiyya . ⑪ Masharib al-adhwaq : a commentary on thirty-two couplets of Ibn al-Farid's Wine Ode . ⑫ Kitab al-Mawadda fi al-qurba : a work in fourteen chapters containing hadiths on the virtues of 'Ali and the Prophet's family. ⑬ Awrad al-fathiyya : the litany he arranged. ⑭ Kitab Asrar al-nuqta : a commentary on the saying attributed to 'Ali, “Knowledge is a single point; the ignorant multiplied it.” His Tomb and Complex — The source states that his body was first taken to Khuttalan and then buried in Kulob, today within the borders of Tajikistan; it gives no information about the tomb building.

Kûlâb (Kulob)Died 786 AHView

Najm al-Din al-Kubra

The great Sufi of Khwarazm and founding master of the Kubrawiyya order. He was known as shaykh-i wali-tarash (the shaykh who carves saints) because he brought his disciples to the station of sainthood. The epithet Kubra , which gave the order its name, is an abbreviation of the Qur'anic phrase "al-tammat al-kubra" (al-Nazi'at 79/34), which signifies the Day of Gathering; it is recorded that his teacher gave him this epithet, together with the name Najm al-Din, in his youth on account of his superior intelligence and his decisive victories in scholarly debate. Some of his disciples are also said to have called him "ayatullah al-kubra". He is held to have been born in 540 (1145) at Khiva in Khwarazm, though the date is not certain. He grew up in a merchant family that valued religious education. He relates that as a child, left alone at night to guard the cloth shop from thieves, he saw visions that overwhelmed him; from this it is understood that the roots of the visionary experiences he often had after entering Sufism reach back to his earliest years. After spending his youth in Khwarazm he left home in pursuit of learning. He studied hadith at Nishapur with Abu 'l-Ma'ali al-Farawi, at Hamadan with Abu 'l-Ala al-Hamadani and Muhammad b. Abi Sulayman al-Hamadani, at Isfahan with Abu 'l-Makarim Labban and Abu Ja'far al-Saydalani, at Mecca with Abu Muhammad al-Tabbakh, and at Alexandria with Abu Tahir al-Silafi. As he relates in the Fawa'ih al-jamal , while in Alexandria the Prophet appeared to him in a dream, gave him the kunya Abu 'l-Jannab (he who shuns this world and the next), praised him for his occupation with hadith, and advised him to devote his nights to reciting the Qur'an. He pursued his studies until the age of thirty-five, then set out to find a shaykh to whom he could pledge himself. Falling ill at Dizful, he was received as a guest in the lodge of Isma'il al-Qasri , one of the city's noted Sufis; when the shaykh invited him one night to the sama' ceremony he attended despite his irritation at the sounds the dervishes made, and found that he had recovered in the course of it. The next day he pledged himself to al-Qasri. Perceiving that his wide learning in the outward sciences might breed pride, al-Qasri sent him to Ammar Yasir al-Bitlisi , deputy of Abu 'l-Najib al-Suhrawardi. When, imagining himself superior to his shaykh, he behaved in ways contrary to the discipline of the path, al-Bitlisi ordered him to Ruzbihan al-Wazzan al-Misri in Cairo; once the purpose of that journey was achieved he returned to Ammar Yasir for the next stage of his training. In his works he names only Ammar Yasir among his shaykhs, and recounts how he abandoned his first forty-day retreat under his supervision after ten days, and how the shaykh rebuked him to complete the remaining days. In 580 (1184) he returned to Khwarazm and devoted his life to training his disciples, whose number is recorded as about sixty. Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi, Najm al-Din Daya, Radi al-Din Ali Lala, Sa'd al-Din Hammuya, Jamal al-Din al-Jili, Baba Kamal al-Jandi and Sayf al-Din al-Bakharzi are counted among his foremost disciples. The report that he met the anti-Sufi theologian Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in Khwarazm is genuine. From his mention of a visit by an unnamed vizier it is understood that he was on good terms with the court of Khwarazm; the presence at the Khwarazmshah's court of Baha al-Din, brother of Majd al-Din, suggests that the latter secured this relationship. He died during the massacre carried out by the Mongols in 618 (1221) at Gurganj (Kunya-Urgench, Turkmenistan), the capital of Khwarazm. According to Rashid al-Din Fadlallah, Chinggis Khan gave him leave to quit the city, but he replied that he could not accept his life being spared while the city was burned and razed. Yafi'i, however, records that before the massacre he ordered his disciples, among them Sa'd al-Din Hammuya and Radi al-Din Ali Lala, to leave the city, then entered the battle and died a martyr. His Circle of Influence — The founding of the Kubrawiyya, one of the three great orders of Central Asian origin (the others being the Yasawiyya and the Khwajagan), may be dated from his return to Khwarazm in 580 (1184). In the thirty-eight years between that date and his death he trained nearly sixty deputies who attained the rank of sainthood; through his guidance and theirs the order spread in the XIII and XIV centuries from Central Asia to India and Iraq. His chain of initiation runs through his shaykh Ammar Yasir and Abu 'l-Najib al-Suhrawardi to Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, and from him through Imam Ali al-Rida to Ali; in this respect the Kubrawiyya may be regarded as a branch of the Suhrawardiyya, but the geographical shift of his return from Egypt to Khwarazm and the original choices in his Sufi emphases gave it the character of an independent order. His interest in analysing visionary experience was carried on by later Kubrawis, above all Najm al-Din Daya and Ala al-Dawla Simnani. The source stresses that, despite later attempts at reconciliation, he was unquestionably Sunni. His Works — Four works are recorded. ① al-Usul al-'ashara ( Aqrab al-turuq ): his best-known and most influential work. It opens with the three degrees of the path (those of outward works, those of striving and discipline, and those who journey inwardly to God); the nearest way to God is the third. Then follow the ten principles (repentance, renunciation, trust in God, contentment, seclusion, constant remembrance, orientation, patience, vigilance, acceptance). Amir-i Kabir Ali Hamadani translated it into Persian; Abd al-Ghafur Lari and Kamal al-Din Khwarazmi wrote Persian commentaries and Isma'il Haqqi Bursawi a Turkish one. ② Risala ila 'l-ha'im al-kha'if min lawmat al-la'im : in ten chapters; it holds that no one may enter the divine presence without outward and inward purification, attainable by observing ten matters (ritual purity, retreat, constant silence, constant fasting, constant remembrance, submission, banishing passing thoughts, binding the heart to the shaykh, sleeping only from necessity, moderation in food and drink); the author himself translated it into Persian. ③ Adab al-sufiyya : treats Sufi etiquette in seven chapters (donning the cloak, sitting, rising, entering the lodge, receiving guests, attending sama', travel). ④ Fawa'ih al-jamal wa-fawatih al-jalal : the work best known to Western scholars, centred on his personal states and visions. He divides vision into lower and higher, and says that the sky beheld in the state of absence is not the sky seen with the eye of this world. Lights are of two kinds, one rising from the heart and one descending from the Throne; when the veil between them is lifted they unite and become, in the Qur'an's words, "light upon light" (al-Nur 24/35). The colours of the lights are at the same time meanings — green signifies the life of the heart, yellow sickness. Counted among the most original works in the history of Sufism, the book was edited by F. Meier with an extensive study and has been translated into Turkish and French. The commentary Ayn al-hayat attributed to him in the sources is in fact the Bahr al-haqa'iq of his disciple Najm al-Din Daya; the confusion arises from their sharing the same name. Quatrains are also attributed to him, some of which may be his. His Tomb and Complex — Outside Gurganj (Kunya-Urgench) a grave attributed to Najm al-Din Kubra and a lodge founded in his name have survived to the present day. Ibn Battuta mentions the tomb during his visit to Khwarazm in 732 (1332) and says that food was distributed to travellers at the lodge. The Russian archaeologist A. Y. Yakubovsky concluded from his investigations in 1929 that the tomb was standing between the years 1321-1333. According to oral tradition the tomb was built by Timur; the report must relate to Timur's repair and enlargement of it. In the XIX century it was restored by Muhammad Amin Khan, Khan of Khiva. The Qajar official and man of letters Rida Quli Khan Hidayat visited the tomb when he travelled to Khwarazm on a diplomatic mission and left an account of its condition at the time. Though visitors dwindled in the Soviet period, the tomb has remained a focus of attention since the XIX century.

Köhne-ÜrgençDied 618 AHView

Arystan Bab (Arslan Baba)

The figure said to have been the first spiritual guide of Ahmad Yasawi , founder of the Yasawiyya order. In the Yasawi legends he is remembered as the one who, centuries later, delivered to Yasawi the date that had been entrusted by the Prophet. Some sources record his name as Baba Arslan, Arslan Baba or Arab Arslan Baba. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. According to the Yasawi legends he was of black race, one of the great Companions, and lived 400 or 700 years. According to the legend, many centuries later he found the newly orphaned seven-year-old Ahmad Yasawi in the town of Sayram in Turkistan and delivered the trust to him; by some accounts he also clothed him in a cloak given by the Prophet. He taught Yasawi the thousand-and-one remembrances , announced that he would shortly die, and ordered him to lead his funeral prayer. Following his last indication, Ahmad Yasawi went to Bukhara and continued his training under Shaykh Yusuf al-Hamadani. The source states that this information is wholly legendary, while allowing that Arslan Baba may nonetheless have been a real historical person. Fuad Köprülü suggests that he may have been the brother of Shaykh Ibrahim, father of Ahmad Yasawi. His Circle of Influence — All sources agree that Mansur Ata , chief deputy of Ahmad Yasawi, was the son of Arslan Baba. Besides Yasawi he is recorded to have trained a man named Sufi Muhammad Danishmand . Hasan Nisari, author of the Mudhakkir-i ahbab , and Hazini, who wrote several valuable works on the Naqshbandiyya and the Yasawiyya, also claimed descent from Arslan Baba. His Tomb and Complex — Where he is buried is not known for certain. Some sources say he lies at Otrar, others in the tomb of Ahmad Yasawi at Yasi (Turkistan); by another account the Arslan Baba Tomb in the Bazar-Korgon district near the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan is his. The source records that the site of this tomb, demolished in 1964 by order of the Kazakh Communist Party, is still visited by the people today.

Sheikh Burhan al-Din Sagarji

A mystic of the 8th century AH; the Ṣadr-e Jahān whom Ibn Baṭṭūṭa met in Ḵatā and who became the leader of the Muslims in China. His name is not mentioned in most biographical dictionaries; his father's name, his birthplace and the dates of his birth and death are unknown. According to the Qandīya , a treatise that recounts his life and miracles, his lineage goes back to ʿOmar b. al-Ḵaṭṭāb; the nisba “Sāḡarčī” derives from his having been for a time governor of the small town of Sāḡarč in the region of Samarkand. In Baghdad he went to Shaikh Nur-al-Dīn ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Esfarāyenī (d. 717) and became one of his beloved disciples; the shaikh preferred him to his own successor ʿAlāʾ-al-Dawla Semnānī (659-736). He then stayed for a time in Mecca, and afterwards went to Ḵatā, that is, northern China. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (703-779), who met him several times in Ḵatā, describes him as one of the great preachers, a generous and open-handed man who would sometimes borrow money and give it away to people. When the sultan of India heard of him, he sent him forty thousand dinars and invited him to Delhi. Borhān-al-Dīn paid his debts with the dinars and declined to go to India, saying that he did not wish to go to a king in whose presence scholars had to stand. He then went to China; by order of the Khan he became the leader of the Muslims there and received the title “Ṣadr-e Jahān”. His Circle of Influence — He is one of the shaikhs who granted permission to guide disciples to Mīr Sayyed ʿAlī Hamadānī and to Shaikh Nāṣer-al-Dīn ʿOmar b. Moḥammad b. ʿOmar b. Aḥmad al-Kabīrī. His Works — Five lines of a prayer ( monājāt ) by him have survived (Aḥmad Monzawī, Fehrest-e nosḵahā-ye ḵaṭṭī-e fārsī ). His Tomb and Complex — In accordance with his will he was buried in Samarkand , near the southern wall of the citadel (arg), beside the grave of Shaikh Nur-al-Dīn Baṣīr (d. 646) ( Qandīya ; Abū Ṭāher Samarqandī, Samarīya ). Amīr Tīmūr (736-807) restored the dome of his tomb. According to Abū Ṭāher Samarqandī, a copper vessel containing a single hair of the Prophet (peace be upon him) hangs from the ceiling of the tomb.