Letters of a Sufi Scholar (Islamic History and Civilization) (English and Arabic Edition)

561 Pages·2010·5.57 MB·English

by  Akkach

Letters of a Sufi Scholar
Islamic History
and Civilization
Editorial Board
Sebastian Günther
Wadad Kadi
VOLUME 74
Letters of a Sufi Scholar
The Correspondence of ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī
(1641-1731)
By
Samer Akkach
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
Cover image: The last folio of ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī’s original Arabic text of “Zahr
al-Ḥadīqa fī Dhikr Rijāl al-Ṭarīqa,” featuring his own handwriting (MS 7191, courtesy of
Maktabat al-Asad, Damascus).
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Akkach, Samer.
Letters of a Sufi scholar : the correspondence of ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 1641-1731
/ by Samer Akkach.
p. cm. — (Islamic history and civilization, ISSN 0929-2403 ; v. 74)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17102-2 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Nabulusi, ʿAbd al-Ghani ibn Ismaʾil, 1641-1731—Correspondence. 2. Sufis—Syria—
Damascus—Correspondence. 3. Scholars, Muslim—Syria—Damascus—
Correspondence. I. Nabulusi, ʿAbd al-Ghani ibn Ismaʾil, 1641-1731. II. Title. III. Series.
BP80.N23A643 2009
297.4092—dc22
2009023371
ISSN 0929-2403
ISBN 978 90 04 17102 2
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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printed in the netherlands
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contents vii

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Glossary of Key Arabic terms xv
Abbreviations xix
note to the Reader xxi
note on the Manuscripts xxiii
Introduction 1
ʿAbd Al-Ghanī and the Culture of Correspondence 2
The Intellectual Milieu 32
The Letters of the Wasā’il
List and Description 55
Places, towns, and Correspondents 75
Map of the eastern ottoman Provinces 76
Content and significance 79
on Understanding Islam: Letter 1 81
on struggle ( Jihād): Letter 3 86
on Causality: Letter 4 90
on solitude: Letters 6 and 10 96
on Quick-Passing Thoughts (Khawāṭir): Letter 14 99
on smoking: Letter 25 105
on Cosmogony and the Unity of Being: Letters 61 and 62 109
on Piety, spirituality, and ethics: All Letters 114
Bibliography 123
Index 129

preface ix

PREFACE
While in Jerusalem during his major journey, ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī
of Damascus (d. 1731 ce) received a letter from Ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq, a
devoted disciple whom he described as “our spiritual son.” Towards
the end of the long letter, which passionately describes how much he
misses his beloved master, Ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq cites a line of poetry,
which reads:
Though our bodies have been placed far apart
the distance between the hearts remains close.1
The line eloquently describes how space is not always a medium of
separation, how nearness and remoteness are not always measured by
distance, and how distancing the body does not necessarily affect the
closeness of the heart. ʿAbd al-Ghanī’s letters, presented here for the
first time, are in many ways about closeness and distancing in social
space, about the paradoxes of foreignness among close peers and inti-
macy among distant colleagues, and about the power of pen-friendship
in bringing together individuals distanced in body but close in heart.
The correspondence of ʿAbd al-Ghanī documented here is selective,
excluding his exchanges with his disciples as well as a range of other
letters. Written over a period of twenty-nine years, the letters included
in this collection were selected, compiled, and titled by the author
himself as Wasāʾil al-Taḥqīq wa Rasāʾil al-Tawfīq (The Means of Truth-
Seeking and the Letters of Providential Guidance). As means of truth-
seeking, the letters tell personal stories, map regional interests, and
engage with hotly debated issues of the time, thereby shedding signifi-
cant light on the intellectual exchange taking place in the Middle East
during the early modern period. As letters of providential guidance,
they reveal ʿAbd al-Ghanī’s religious wisdom, spiritual authority, and
wide influence as one of the leading Muslim thinkers of the time.
It is not uncommon for radical or controversial thinkers to face
opposition and hostility from their conventional, and often more pow-
erful, adversaries, nor is it unusual for a religious or political establish-
1 Al-Nābulusī, Ḥaqīqa, 1: 381.
”�ُب��ي�ري�� �ِبول���ي���ل�ا �ِب�ي��ب ى�د�ملا �ب إ����ب �ي دِ�عِ���ب�ي� ���ّب�م� د��س����ب إ�لا �ِي���باك� � بإاو“