Intellectual Life in the Ḥijāz before Wahhabism: Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī’s (d. 1101/1690) Theology of Sufism

372 Pages·2022·4.087 MB·English

by  Naser Dumairieh

IntellectualLifeintheḤijāzbeforeWahhabism
Islamicate Intellectual History
studies and texts in the late medieval
and early modern periods
Editorialboard
JudithPfeiffer(UniversityofBonn)
ShahzadBashir(BrownUniversity)
HeidrunEichner(UniversityofTübingen)
volume 9
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/iih
Intellectual Life in the Ḥijāz
before Wahhabism
Ibrāhīmal-Kūrānī’s(d.1101/1690)Theologyof Sufism
By
NaserDumairieh
leiden | boston
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Names:Ḍumayrīyah,NāṣirMuḥammadYaḥyá,author.
Title:IntellectuallifeintheḤijāzbeforeWahhabism:Ibrāhīmal-Kūrānī's
(d.1101/1690)theologyofSufism/byNaserDumairieh.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2022.|Series:Islamicateintellectualhistory,
2212-8662;9|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:lccn2021052522(print)|lccn2021052523(ebook)|
isbn9789004499041(hardback)|isbn9789004499058(ebook)Subjects:
lcsh:Kūrānī,IbrāhīmibnḤasan,1616or1617-approximately1690.|
Muslimphilosophers–SaudiArabia–Hejaz–Biography.|Hejaz(SaudiArabia)–
Intellectuallife–17thcentury.|Hejaz(SaudiArabia)–History–17thcentury.|
Sufism–History–17thcentury.
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction:WhenAllRoadsLedtotheḤijāz 1
1 TheSeventeenth-CenturyḤijāzinItsGlobalandLocalContext 18
1 TheSeventeenth-CenturyḤijāzinitsGlobalContext 19
1.1 EuropeanNaviesintheIndianOcean 19
1.2 Iran’sConversiontoShīʿism 23
1.3 TheMughalEmpire’sGenerousDonationstotheḤijāz 27
1.4 OttomansandtheḤijāz 35
2 TheSeventeenth-CenturyḤijāzinitsLocalContext 42
3 Conclusion 48
2 IntellectualLifeintheḤijāzintheSeventeenthCentury 50
1 EducationalInstitutionsintheḤijāzintheSeventeenthCentury 51
1.1 Madrasas,Ribāṭs,andZāwiyas 52
1.2 Libraries,Book-Binders,andBookScribesinMedina 57
1.3 TheoreticalandPracticalSciencesintheḤijāz 61
1.3.1 Medicine 61
1.3.2 Agriculture(ʿIlmal-filāḥa) 62
1.3.3 Astronomy 62
1.3.4 Chemistry(Ṣanʿatal-kīmiyāʾ) 63
1.3.5 MusicTheoryandPractice 63
2 RationalSciencesintheḤijāz 64
3 IsnādasaSourceforIntellectualLifeintheSeventeenth-Century
Ḥijāz 76
3.1 TheIsnādofIntellectualTexts 80
4 HowtheRationalSciencesReachedtheḤijāz 83
4.1 Al-Taftāzānī’s(d.793/1390)Works 83
4.2 Al-Sharīfal-Jurjānī’s(d.816/1413)Works 84
4.3 Al-Ījī’s(d.756/1355)Works 90
4.4 Al-Dawānī’s(d.908/1502)Works 91
5 Conclusion 94
3 Ibrāhīmal-Kūrānī’sLife,Education,Teachers,andStudents 97
1 Al-Kūrānī’sLife 98
1.1 Al-Kūrānī’sEarlyLifeandStudiesinHisHomeland 99
vi contents
1.2 Al-KūrānīinBaghdad 99
1.3 Al-KūrānīinDamascus 101
1.4 ThroughCairototheḤijāz 102
2 Al-Kūrānī’sEducation 103
3 Al-Kūrānī’sTeachers 110
4 Al-Kūrānī’sContactswithOtherScholarsofHisTime 120
5 Al-Kūrānī’sStudents 121
6 Al-Kūrānī’sAffiliationtoSufiOrders 130
7 Conclusion 134
4 Al-Kūrānī’sWorks 138
1 Al-Kūrānī’sWorks(Examined) 140
2 Al-Kūrānī’sWorks(Inaccessible) 167
3 WorksMisattributedtoal-Kūrānī 170
4 Conclusion 171
5 Al-Kūrānī’sMetaphysicalandCosmologicalThought 175
1 GodisAbsoluteExistence(al-wujūdal-muṭlaqoral-wujūd
al-maḥḍ) 178
2 God’sAttributesandAllegoricalInterpretation(taʾwīl) 184
3 God’sManifestationsinSensibleandConceivableForms 193
4 Nafsal-amrinal-Kūrānī’sThought 202
5 AshʿaritesandMentalExistence 207
6 Realities:UncreatedNonexistentQuiddities 211
6.1 ClassificationsofNonexistents 216
6.2 TheDescriptionofNonexistentandtheConceptof“Thing”
(shayʾ) 217
7 God’sKnowledgeofParticulars 220
8 Creation 222
9 UnityandMultiplicity 229
10 DestinyandPredetermination 240
11 Kasb:FreeWillandPredestination 245
11.1 GoodandBadAccordingtotheIntellect(al-ḥusnwa-l-qubḥ
al-ʿaqliyyayn) 253
11.2 LegalResponsibility(al-taklīf) 256
12 TheUnityoftheAttributes(waḥdatal-ṣifāt) 258
13 Waḥdatal-Wujūd 260
14 Conclusion 268
contents vii
6 Al-Kūrānī’sOtherTheologicalandSufiThought 271
1 TheFaithofPharaoh 272
2 ThePrecedenceofGod’sMercyandtheVanishingoftheHellfire
(fanāʾal-nār) 277
3 SatanicVerses 282
4 PreferencefortheRealityoftheKaʿbaorfortheMuḥammadan
Reality 288
5 God’sSpeech(kalāmAllāh) 294
6 Conclusion 301
Conclusion 303
Appendix1:Al-Kūrānī’sTeachers,AdditionaltoThoseMentionedinthe
Text 315
Appendix2:Al-Kūrānī’sStudents,AdditionaltoThoseMentionedinthe
Text 318
Appendix3:Al-Kūrānī’sWorksOrderedAlphabetically 323
Bibliography 328
Index 358

Acknowledgements
Many professors, colleagues, and scholarly institutions contributed to this
research through discussions and observations, or through the support and
basic resources they provided for this research. It is difficult to mention all
thenames,butIwillreferinparticulartoRobertWisnovsky’shelpandsup-
portduringmyyearsatMcGill’sInstituteofIslamicStudies.Manythankstoall
theInstitute’sfacultymembers,administrators,andlibrarians,especiallyJamil
RagepandStephenMenn.IamalsosincerelygratefulfortheInstitute’sfinan-
cialsupportduringmyresearchperiod,andtothefrqscgrantthatallowed
me to revise and improve the primary draft of the current work during my
two-yearfellowshipattheUniversitédeMontréal,Institutd’étudesreligieuses
iér.Manythankstol’Institut(iér)andallitsstaff,especiallyDamienJanos
andAlainGignac.MydeepestappreciationalsoextendstoPashaM.Khanand
Mohammed Rustom for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions.
Manyotherinstitutes,libraries,andresearchcenterswereveryhelpfulinpro-
vidingaccesstomysources,especiallymanuscripts,toallofthemmysincere
gratitude.
Amongthefriendsandcolleagueswhoimpactedmywork,Iwouldliketo
mentionbynameHasanUmut,LeilaEl-Murr,BrianWright,PaulineFroissart,
IanGreer,andGiovanniCarrera.AndspecialthankstoJessicaStilwell.
Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Judith Pfeiffer and the edi-
torsoftheIslamicateIntellectualHistorySeries,aswellasmytwoanonymous
reviewers.
Academicresearchcanonlybedoneattheexpenseofotheraspectsoflife,
includingthefamily,soIwanttoapologizeformylongpreoccupationaway
frommyfamily,anddedicatethisworktomyfamilyinSyriaandtothetwo
starsofmylife,FlorenceandNeijem.