New sources for the study of Sufism in Mamluk Egypt

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

Volumn 65, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 300-322

  Mcgregor, Richard J A ^a  

^a Institut francais d'archeologie orientale Le Caire   (Egypt)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 64049114181     PISSN: 0041977X     EISSN: 14740699     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0041977x02000113     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. B. Radtke, 'Ibrīziana: themes and sources of a seminal Sufi work', in Sudanic Africa, 7, 1996, 127.
2. Denis Gril has pointed to a number of neglected but important works of this period in his 'Sources manuscrites de l'histoire du soufisme à Dār al-Kutub; un premier bilan ', Bulletin Critique des Annales Islamologiques, 1994.
3. One important recent contribution to the study of the history of Sufism in the central Islamic lands is E. Geoffroy's Le soufisme en Égypte et en Syrie (Damascus: IFEAD, 1995).
4. The Nile needed to reach a certain level before the irrigation dams could be cut, and the agricultural lands irrigated and fertilized properly. The cutting of the dam every year was an important event, marked with celebrations. On this festival, known as yawm wafā' al-nīl, see B. Shoshan, Popular culture in medieval Cairo (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 72.
5. For a perspective from an earlier period, see ch. v, 'The urban river' in P. Sanders, Ritual, politics, and the city in Fatimid Cairo (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994).
6. See also the early-nineteenth century description in E. W. Lane, An account of the manner and customs of the modern Egyptians (1833-1835) (London: East-West, 1981), 485-91.
7. Ibrāhim Dasūqī (d. 687/1288) had been the student of Ahcombining dot below̄mad al-Badawī (d. 675/1276). Unfortunately the sources do not give the death date of Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Najm.
8. See S. 'Ammār, Abū al-Hcombining dot belowasan al-Shādhilī (Cairo: Dār al-Ta'līf, 1951), 30 ff.
9. Ibn al-Scombining dot belowabbāgh, Durrat al-asrār wa tuhcombining dot belowfat al-abrār (Qūscombining dot below: no publisher, 1980), 28.
10. A. Laroui, The history of the Maghreb: an interpretive essay (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), 109 ff., does, however, see traces of a Shiite political sensibility.
11. J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi orders in Islam (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 49, n. 6.
12. Murtadcombining dot belowā al-Zabīdī, Raf niqāb fols 4a-13a. For hagiographical accounts of Tāj al-'Ārifīn see Sha'rānī, al-Tcombining dot belowabaqātcombining dot below al-kubrā, (2 vols in one) (Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1988), vol. II, 134, and the two manuscripts noted in entries no. 23 and 24 in Gril's 'Sources manuscrites'.
13. M. H. Burgoyne, Mamluk Jerusalem: an architectural study (British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1987), 456.
14. Burgoyne's historical account is drawn from Mujīr al-Dīn al-'Ulaymī, al-Uns al-jalīl bi-ta'rīkh al-Quds (Cairo, 1866).
15. Burgoyne, Mamluk Jerusalem, 456, also notes the existence of a Mamluk-period zāwiya in Jerusalem, called the Red zāwiya, which was associated with the Wafā'iyya Sufi order. Unfortuantely, the sources provide few details on this institution.
16. See entry no. 19 in Gril's 'Sources manuscrites', and Trimingham, The Sufi orders in Islam, 278.
17. The full name is Abū al-Wafā' Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf al-Dimashqī. F. de Jong, 'Les confréries mystiques musulmanes au Machreq arabe' in A. Popovic and G. Veinstein (ed.), Les ordres mystiques dans l'Islam (Paris: EHESS, 1986), 213.
18. Ahcombining dot belowmad ibn Fāris Abū al-Latcombining dot belowā'if, al-Minahcombining dot below al-ilāhiyya fi manāqib al-sādāt al-wafā'iyya (Dār al-Kutub al-Miscombining dot belowriyya; Tārīkh 1151, film 14193) (46 fols) (G.A.L. suppl. 2, 149). (The author was the servant of 'Ali Wafa.
19. He is writing around 830/1426. Fol. 8a gives this year as the date of his visit to Ahkmīm.) This manuscript is also noted in G. Vajda and Y. Sauvan, Catalogue des manuscrits Arabes; deuxième partie: manuscrits Musulmans (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1985), vol. III, ms. #1200.
20. See also E. Geoffroy's 'L'élection divine de Muhcombining dot belowammad et 'Alî Wafâ' (VIIIè/XIVè s.) ou comment la branche wafā'ī s'est détachée de l'arbre shādhili' in R. Chih and D. Gril (ed.), Le saint et son milieu ou comment lire les sources hagiographiques (Cairo: IFAO, 2000).
21. Abū al-Latcombining dot belowā'if, al-Minahcombining dot below al-ilāhiyya, 15a
22. al-Nabahānī, Jāmi' al-karāmāt al-awliyā, vol. II, 358, and Abū al-Latcombining dot belowā'if, al-Minahcombining dot below al-ilāhiyya, 7b.
23. al-Sakhāwī wrote al-Qawl al-munbī an tarjumat Ibn 'Arabī, which set the tone for most of the anti-Sufi polemics of both medieval and modern times. For a discussion of these polemics see M. Chodkiewicz, 'Le procès posthume d'Ibn 'Arabī' in F. de Jong and B. Radtke (ed.), Islamic mysticism contested (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999)
24. and A. Knysh, Ibn 'Arabī in the later Islamic tradition (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999).
25. and Ibn al-'Imād, Shadharāt al-dhahab fī akhbār man dhahab (8 vols) (Cairo: Maktaba al-Qudsa, 1932), vol. VII, 70.
26. 'Alī Wafā' himself seems to be answering to these accusations in the following poetic line quoted by al-Suyū̂tī (d. 911/1505) in his Ta'yīd al-hcombining dot belowaqīqa al-'aliyya wa tashyīd al-tcombining dot belowarīqa al-Shādhiliyya (Cairo: al-Matcombining dot belowba'a al-Islāmī, 1934), 73: 'They'suspect me of hcombining dot belowulūl and ittihcombining dot belowād. Yet my heart is empty of all but tawhcombining dot belowīd (profession of Divine Unity).'
27. See M. Chodkiewicz, 'Ibn 'Arabī, la lettre et la loi' in Actes du colloque: mystique, culture et société (Paris: 1983), 35, n. 4.
28. al-Sha'rānī, al-Tcombining dot belowabaqāt al-kubrā, vol. II, 22-65.
29. I have been able to reconstruct most of the Sha'rānī's sources here. The first ten and the last five pages of the entry on 'Alī Wafā', al-Tabaqāt al-kubrā, vol. II, 22-32, 60-65
30. are summaries and quotations from 'Alī Wafā's Mafātīh al-khazā'in al-'aliyya (fols 42-95, 8-30). Pages 41-58, vol. II, are based on the Wascombining dot belowāyā Sayyidī 'Alī Wafā' (fols 3-109). (These two manuscripts will be discussed in detail below.)
31. This entry in al-Tcombining dot belowabaqāt al-kubrā was also the primary source for Massignon's dozen footnote references to various elements of the mystical thought of 'Alī Wafā'. See the index of La passion du Hcombining dot belowusayn Ibn Manscombining dot belowūr Hcombining dot belowallāj s.v. 'Alī Wafā'. These references are almost certainly the first mention of the Wafā's in Western scholarship. Sha'rānī also quotes 'Alī Wafā' in his al-Anwār al-qudsiyya (Cairo: 1962), 95, 96, 118, 119, 120.
32. J.-C. Garcin, 'Index des Tabaqāt de Sha'rānī' in Annales Islamologiques, 7, 1963, 40-43
33. and M. Winter, Society and religion in early Ottoman Egypt: studies in the writings of 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani (New Brunswick: Translation Books, 1982), 54-8.
34. Sha'rānī also compiled epitomes of the work of Ibn 'Arabī; al-Yawāqīt wa al-jawāhir fī bayān 'aqā'id al-akābir, and al-Kibrīt al-ahcombining dot belowmar fi bayān 'ulūm al-Shaykh al-Akbar (on the margin of al-Yawāqīt).
35. al-Bakrī, Bayt al-Sādāt al-Wafā'iyya, 39-40.
36. al-Suyūtī, Ta'yīd al-hcombining dot belowaqīqa, 73, 74.
37. 36Hcombining dot belowājjī Khalīfa, Kashf al-zcombining dot belowumūn, ed. G. Flugel (Reprinted from the 1842 edition by Johnson Reprint Co., New York, 1964) vol. v, 39.
38. E. Geoffroy, Djihād et contemplation (Paris: Devry, 1997), 93.
39. al-Sammān, Risālat al-futuhcombining dot belowāt al-ilāhiyya fī kayfiyya sulūk al-tarīqa al-Muhcombining dot belowammadiyya (Cairo: 1326/1908), 33. My thanks to 'Abd al-Mutcombining dot belowtcombining dot belowalib (McGill University) for bringing this to my attention
40. J. Johansen, Sufism and Islamic reform in Egypt (New York: Clarendon Press, 1996), 123.
41. al-'Asqalānī, in his Durar al-kāmina (Hyderabad, 1929-31) vol. IV, 279 (#783), describes this poetry as being in the tradition of Ibn al-Fāridcombining dot below (d. 632/1235):
42. On Ibn al-Fārid see G. Scattolin, 'New researches on the Egyptian Sufi poet 'Umar Ibn al-Fāridcombining dot below', in U. Vermeulen and D. DeSmet (ed.). Philosophy and arts in the Islamic world (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecto, 87. Leuven: Peeters, 1998).
43. I have acquired a recent printing of Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā's Dīwān, along with a commentary by Muhcombining dot belowammad Sālim, too late to be included in this article. The title is al-Mawrid al-ascombining dot belowfā fī sharhcombining dot below Dīwān Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā' (Cairo, 2000).
44. The 'ayn- ghayn juxtaposition is a much earlier poetic motif. See for example Rūzbihān Baqlī's Kitāb al-ighāna in Quatre traités inédits de Rûzbehān Baqlī Shirāzī, Ballanfat, ed. (Tehran: IRFI, 1998) 87, Arabic text.
45. For more on these important figures Chittick's 'The School of Ibn 'Arabī' in S. H. Nasr and O. Leaman (ed.) History of Islamic philosophy (London: Routledge, 1996)
46. and 'The Five Divine Presences: from al-Qū̂nawī to al-Qaysarī' in The Muslim world, 72, 1982.
47. Also useful is C. Addas' Ibn 'Arabī ou la quête du soufre rouge (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1989).
48. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Kitāb al-azal, 53.
49. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Kitāb al-azal, 54; and (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya), 105b.
50. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Kitāb al-azal, 50.
51. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Kitāb al-azal, 80.
52. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Sha'ā'ir al-'irfān (Dār al-Kutub al-Miscombining dot belowriyya) ms. 23797 b; microfilm #27723, and (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya) majāmī': 1076; Zakī: 41313. (This majmū'a consists of twelve titles from 'Alī and Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', six of which seem to exist nowhere else. The catalogue, Fihris al-kutub al-mawjūda bi al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya ilā 1366/1947 (Cairo, 1948) vol. III, 636, claims this majmū'a was copied in 749/1348, however, my photocopy of the first page, listing the titles, gives no date.
53. The date of 749 is unlikely anyway, since 'Alī Wafā' was not born until 759. Two other copies of Sha'ā'ir al-'irfān have been preserved: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung, #3248, We. 1674, 102 fols
54. and see Fihris maklutcombining dot belowūtcombining dot belowāt Dār al-Kutub al-Zāhiriyya (al-tascombining dot belowawwuf) (Damascus, 1980), vol. I, 224, ms. #1312.
55. Q. 27.83 mentions God gathering together from each nation, on Judgement day, those who have rejected His signs.
56. Cf. ' You (God) have caused the night to run into the day, and the day into the night.' (Q. 3:27).
57. Q. 30:60 runs, 'Do not be made unsure by those who are unsure (in faith) '
58. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Sha'ā'ir al-'irfān (Dār al-Kutub), 2b. (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya), 129a
59. see R. Gramlich, Die schütischen derwischorden Persiens, vol. II, 27, n.100.
60. Also interesting are al-Mursī's comments on this hcombining dot belowadīth. See Ibn 'Atcombining dot belowā' Allāh al-Iskandarī, trans. E. Geoffroy, La sagesse des maîtres soufis (Latcombining dot belowā'if al-minan) (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1998), 55.
61. th century Cairene mystic', forthcoming in Annales Islamologiques, 36, 2002.
62. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Nafā'is al-'irfān min anfās al-Rahcombining dot belowmān, (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya), 75a; and Dār al-Kutub 22b. In the Shii conception of Hcombining dot belowaqīqa Muhcombining dot belowammadiyya, there exists both a divine dimension (jiha lāhūt) and a human dimension (jiha khalqiyya nāsūt). See En Islam Iranien (4 vols) (Paris: Gallimard, 1971) vol. I, 100. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā''s treatment here recalls that of al-Hcombining dot belowallāj writing 'I call to You. ... no, it is You Who calls me to Yourself How could I say "it is You' - if You had not said to me "it is I"?' L. Massignon
63. trans. H. Mason, The passion of al-Hcombining dot belowallāj (4 vols) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982) vol. III, 42, 43. See also al-Hcombining dot belowallāj's Dīwān.
64. 'Los à Celui dont l'Humanité a manifesté (aux Anges) le mystère de la gloire de Sa Divinité radieuse! Et qui, depuis, s'est montré à sa créature (humaine), ouvertement sous la forme de quelqu'un qui mange et qui boit'. 'Le Dīwān d'Al-Hcombining dot belowallāj: essai de reconstruction, édition et traduction' Journal Asiatique, 1931, 41.
65. Kitāb al-ma'ārīj (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya; majāmī' 1076; Zakī: 41313; 19 fols). This appears to be a unicum.
66. See 'The Mi'raj of Bistami' in M. Sells (ed. and trans.) Early Islamic mysticism (New York: Paulist Press, 1996)
67. and J. W. Morris, 'The spiritual ascension: Ibn 'Arabī and the Mi'rāj, part one' in JAOS, 107/4, 1987
68. and 'Part two', JAOS, 108/1, 1988.
69. See also the articles collected in A. Amir-Moezzi (ed.) Le voyage initiatique en terre d'Islam: ascensions célestes et itinéraires spirituels (Louvain and Paris: Peeters, 1996).
70. It is interesting to note that al-Shādhilī is described as a 'master of isrā' and mi'rāj'. See D. Gril (ed. and trans.) La Risāla de Scombining dot belowafī al-Dīn ibn Abī al-Manscombining dot belowūr ibn Zāfir: biographies des maîtres spirituels connus par un cheikh égyptien du VIIè/XIIIè siècle (Cairo: IFAO, 1986), 177.
71. Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā', Kitāb al- ma'ārīj, 157b.
72. On this term Chittick notes, 'Ibn 'Arabī employs it to describe the subtle forms or relationships which tie together different levels of existence'. See The Sufi path of knowledge, 406, n. 6. A raqīqa may also be understood as the initial form of the divine Emanation. According to al-Simnānī's cosmology, the subtle substances (latcombining dot belowā'if), which first saw existence in the Realm of Divinity (lāhūt), descend to the Realm of Jabarūt, where they represent the Attributes of omnipotence, and are known as the ten rare substances (raqā'iq). These ten in turn descend to the realm of Malakūt, and represent the divine Acts. From this level differentiation continues with descent as the one-hundred particulars (daqā'iq) into the Human Realm (nāsūt). See J. Elias, The throne carrier of God: the life and thought of 'Alā ad-Dawlah as-Simnānī (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 72. This understanding of rare substances (or Tenuities) and the subtle substances (or Graces) seems to be in line with what Muhcombining dot belowammad Wafā' is saying here, although he does not seem to have developed a full theory of emanation using this terminology, in the way his contemporary, al-Simnānī, did. A fuller comparison of these two thinkers, however, would produce some interesting results.
73. 'Alī Wafā', Libās al-futuwwa (al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya; majāmī' 1076; Zakī: 41313).
74. 'Alī Wafā', Kitāb al-wāridāt, 206b. This work is also in Berlin, as MS 3494, Pm. 9.
75. 'Alī Wafā', Wascombining dot belowāyā Sayyidī 'Alī Wafā' (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale; ms #1359). There is another copy in Dār al-Kutub al-Miscombining dot belowriyya.
76. For the sources of this hadīth see W. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in early islam (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 130.
77. 'Alī Wafā', Kitāb al-masāmi' al-rabbāniyya (Dār al-Kutub; Tascombining dot belowawwuf 166; film #34913), 2a.
78. 'Alī Wafā' uses the last phrase in a number of places in this and other works.
79. 'Alī Wafā', Mafātīhcombining dot below al-khazā'in al-'aliyya (Dār al-Kutub; Tascombining dot belowawwuf 152; film #33564; 104 folios), 44b and 49a.
80. Various Shii hcombining dot belowadīths report Muhcombining dot belowammad as saying, ''Alī, You are from me and I am from you'. See Alī-Reza Barazesh (ed.), A concordance of the Behcombining dot belowār al-anwār; (30 vols) (Tehran: Ministry of Culture, 1994), vol. XX, 14474.
81. Alī Wafā', Mafātīhcombining dot below al-khazā'in al-'aliyya, 30b.