Sufism in an Age of transition: ʻUmar al-Suhrawardī and the Rise of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods (Islamic History and Civilization)

191 Pages·2008·21.15 MB·English

by  Erik S. Ohlander

Islamic History Sl.l:fism in an Age
and Civilization of Transition
CUmar al-SuhrawardI and the Rise
EditorialBoard
of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods
Sebastian Giinther
Wadad Kadi
By
Erik S. Ohlander
VOLUME 71
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
Anonymous, $ii&ib silsila al-Suhrawardf. MS. in private collection (Lahore),
bookis printed on acid-freepaper.
....Iurarvof Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
AC.I.P. record for this bookis available from the Libraryof Congress.
For my family
ISSN 0929-2403
ISBN 978 90 04 16355 3
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill N\!, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke B,ill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
mc Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP'
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmittedin any form orby any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recordjngorotherwise, withoutpriorwritten permission
from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopyitemsfor internal orpersonal use isgranted by
Koninklijke BrillNV proyjded that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, I'vlA 01923, USA.
Fees are subjectto change.
PRINTED INTHE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgments Xl
A Note on Transliteration and Dating Xlll
Abbreviations xv
Introduction ..
Chapter One Situating al-SuhrawardI in Time, Space,
and Text 15
The Political Setting 16
The Institutional Setting 27
The Textual Setting 42
Chapter Two The Makings of a Sufi Master 57
The Banil 'Ammilya 66
Enter al-Na~irli-Dln Allah 89
Meetings with Remarkable Men 113
Chapter Three Writing Authority 137
Genealogies of Mystical Knmving 140
The Interior Dimension 154
The Geography of the Mystical Path 165
Chapter Four Ma'rift Disciplined and Institutionalized 187
The Exterior Dimension 190
Master and Disciple 198
Mendicants, Servants, and Lay Affiliates 226
Chapter Five Imperial and Other Projects 249
A Sufi Creed 257
A Sethian Genealogy.............................................................. 271
Polemic in Service of Statecraft? 291
Conclusion 305
·
III CONTENTS
321
UST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
of Persons and Places 339
Index of Book Titles 351
Index of Terms and Concepts 355 Charts
1. The BakrI Genealogy of the Banu (Ammuya 68
2. aI-SuhrawardI's nisbat talqfn al-dhikr 71
3. Early Initiatic Lineages Associated with Abu 'I-Najlb
al-SuhrawardI 78
4. al-SuhrawardI's nisbat al-khirqa 211
5. Suhrawardiyya Lineages Associated with (AIl b.
Buzghush 316
6. Early Suhrawardiyya Lineages in India (Simplified) 317
7. Early Suhrawardiyya Lineages in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt 318
Tables
I. Correspondences between the Hierarchy of the Sufi ribiit
and the Hierarchy of thejUtuwwat-khiina 287
2. Prophetic and Philosophic Consciousness 301
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could not have been written without·the generous support
of numerous individuals·and institutions. First, I would like to thank
my teachers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who helped
me conceive the initial work on which this study is based: Kathryn
Babayan, Michael Bonner,juan R.I. Cole and, especially, Alexander
Knysh, whom I am certain could have easily written another book
of his own in the time he chose to spend preparing me to write my
own. The initial research for this project was made possible through
the financial support of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, the
Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and the Center for
Middle Eastern and NorthAfricanStudies atthe University of Michi
gan. Similarly, Iwouldlike to thank the AmericanResearch Institutein
Turkey, Istanbul, and my friends in the ilahiyat Fakiiltesi (lf Marmara
Universityfor theirhospitality, aswell as the Siileymaniye, Kopriilii, and
Beyazlt Devlet Libraries for providing me with access to their collec
tions. The same goes for the manylibraries at home and abroad whose
collections I utilized inpreparing this work. I would also like to thank
my colleagues and students atIndiana University-'---Purdue University,
Fort Wayne, for creatinga pleasant environmentinwhich tbwrite this
book, the Purdue Research Foundationfor a Summer FacultyGrant
which allowed metofinish it, TrudyKamperveen atBrillfor her efforts
in helping to actualize it, and a certain anonymous reviewer for help
ing me to polish it. A special debt of gratitude is owed to the many
colleagues and friends who have aided or encouraged in various ways
over the long course of this project; you know who you are. All faults,
of course, remain mine and mine alone. Finally, I would like to thank
my wife Tara, whose extraordinary patience borders on the sublime.
A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND DATING
In keeping with recent English-language scholarship in Islamic studies,
the transliteration of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu words gener
allyfollows the simplifiedscheme derivedfrom theEnryclopaedia ifIslam
used in the InternationalJournal if Middle r-astern Studies with two main
exceptions. First, names, titles, and words of Turco-Mongol origin are
rendered in modern Turkish orthography whenever possible. Second,
although the vast majority of the sources employed in this study were
written in Arabic, I have not let that eclipse the presence of the other
languages in whichal-SuhrawardI, his teachers, students, disciples, and
later biographerswrote orspoke, and thus have made some allowances
for the orthography and pronunciation of Persian and Urdu. For those
words, place names, and titles which have become significantly angli
cized, deference hasbeenmade toThe Unabridged010rdEnglishDictionary.
Naturally, such words are not italicized. In the case of Arabic personal
names, the definite article al- is not alphabetized. As pre-modern (and
most modern) Muslim historiographers use only the Islamic lunar
calendar for dating, dates are given first according to the hijricalendar
and then in Common Era (Gregorian calendar), separated by a slash.
Thus, the 1st of Mul).arram, 632-which corresponds to the 26th of
September, 123+-wouldbegiven as 1Mul).arram, 632/26 September,
1234. Bibliographic references to materials published in Iran note the
Iranian-Islamic shamslyear with the abbreviation sh. followed by the
corresponding Gregorian year in brackets.
ABBREVIATIONS,
Primary Sources '
.
AdM Abu 'I-NajIb"al-Suhra,waidI, X'i,liib iidiib ai-m~rimn.
"
AH 'Umar al-SuhrawardI,A'laT1{ai-huda wd~'dqUlataibab ai-tuqa
,' .~i. ~ 'Umaral-Suhra.\VardI,'Awarif al-ma'aij
AMKh 'u';.n'ar al-Suhra"YardI, Ajwjba{'anmasa'il bd'rja'immat Khurasa1J,
BN Ibn Kath,I'r,, al-B'i"dl,iy"a,wp-l,-~'i,~l'iy,~J'f",i,-l"("1-',;rik,h
DhR Abu Shama al-]>AaqclisI, Dhdyl,'ala"'hawrjatay'n
DhTB Ibnal-l'~ajjar, Ph~l7jz)ri"1 B,ag~d.4d '.
GE R. GramliCh (trans.), Die'Gdben'4~rErkerznlnisse des 'Umar,as-
Suh~~fvarrfz
GhT 'Abd al-Qadir aI:JI1anI, ai-Ghunya ii-tiiiibftariq ai-~aqq
_••:l. i HT 'Umar al-SuhrawardI, Huda ai-tiiiibfn wa-m~bii~ ai-siilikin
IrM 'Umar al-SuhrawardI, Irshiid ai-murfdin wa-injiidai-tiiiibin
JM Ibn al-Sa'I, al-Jami' ai-mukhla$arJi 'unwan al,tawarikh wa-'~n
ai-siyar '
!
JQjJ 'Umar al-SuhrawardI,Jadluihiib al-quiiib ilamawfifilat ai-malJ,biib
KF 'Umar al-SuhrawardI, Kaslif ai-jarf,a'0 ai-yiiniiniyya wa-rashf al~
nQ$a'i~ aHmiiniyya,
Klf (pseudo-)Ibn al-Fuw<lp, Kitiib ai-~wiidith
KM HujwrrI, Kaslif ai"'1n(JJgiib
KT Ibn al-Athlr, ai-KiimiiJi 'i-ta'rZkh
i,
KW al-$afadI, Kitiib'al-wijfibi-i-wtifayiil
LTA Ibn al-AthIr, ai-LubiibJitahdhib:ai-:ansfib
ill N. PurjavadI, ed; Majmu'a-yi"athiir-:i,Ab.ii 'Abd ai"':Ra~mii'n al-
Suiami "
M] alWafi:r;,Mir'atai-jinan wa-'ibriit ai-yaqi,an,",
MS" Tashk6prozade,"Mifta~ai-sa'iidawa-mQ$ahi~aFsiyiida
MT Ibn al:JawZI, al-MuntazamJita'rikhai~muluk wa+umam
MZ Sibt Ibn al:JawzI, Mir'at ai-zamanJita'r'ikh al-ayiin "
NZ Ibn TaghrIbirdI, ai-Nujiim ai-zahi'raftmuiiikm~waH-qahira r ,
PGB Najm aI-DIn RazI Daya, Mir~iid; H. Algar(trans:), The Path if
God'!; Botuismen',',.
- ShDh Ibn aI-'Imad, Shadharat ai-dhahabJiakhbiirman<ihahab
XVI ABBREVlATlONS ABBREVlATlONS XVll
SL Abo Na~ral-Sarraj, K al-luma(; R. Gramlich (trans.), Schlag WZKM Wlener ZeitschriflfUr die Kunde des Morgenfandes
lichter uber das Sufitum ZDMG Zeitschrift del' Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschafi
SN al-Dhahabl, Siytira'!iim al-nubalii}
SQ al-QusharyI, Risiila; R. Gramlich (trans.), Das Sendschreiben
Manuscript Collections
al-QySayris uber das SUjifilm
TFSh Ibn Kathlr, Tabaqiit al-jUqahii'al-shiifi'fyin
C.B. The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
TFSh2 Ibn<{as'I Sh~l1bq,Tabaqiital-jU~ahii)abhiiji'iyya
Kop. Koprillu Library, Istanbul
TIbW Ibn al:W~rdl,.7a'rzkh/bnal-Wardi
Silley. Suleymaniye Library, Istanbul
TIr Ibn al-Mus~a~l,..7a)rfk0Irbil
Tub. Universitatsbibliothek, Tubingen
TIsl ~l~])l1ah~pl,1iJ)rJk~al~isliim wa-wafa.}iiital-mashahtr wa-l-a'liim
TMA Ibn al-Fu"Xlltl, 7alkh4<flqjma(al~iidiibfi mu]'amal-alqiib
TSh al-Isn~~rI,...Tabaqiit~I-~0iifi(iyy~ Miscelfaneous Abbreviations
TShK al-Subki, Tabaqii,t~f~f0iifi(iy'ya.al-~ubr~
= =
TW a.1-Mtl.~~iIi,al~.1iJ~rlJifa .li-lfPftyiit~l-naqafa fo1. foliolfolios (a recto; b verso)
WA Ibn Khallikan, Wtifayiit al-ayiin wa-abnii'al-zamiill 1jz. ijiiza ('license')
K kitiib ('book')
MS. manuscript
Secondary Sources
R. risiifa ('epistle')
W w~yya ('testament')
BSOAS Bulletinif the SchoolifOrientalandAjiican Studies
El' Encyclopaedia if Islam, First Edition
E1< EniyclOpaedia ifIslam,<Second Edition
EIr EncyclopaediaIranica
GAL C. Brockelmann, Geschichte del'Arabischen LitteratUr
IJMES InternationalrJournalifMiddle EastStudies
JAOS Journal if theAmerican OrientalSociery
JIS Journal if Islamic Studies
JMIAS Journal if the Muf?yiddinIbn{Arabi:Sociery
JRAS Journal if theRoyalAsiaticSociery
JSAI Jerusalem Studies inArabic andlslam
JSS Journal if Semitic Studies
MIDEO Melanges del'Institut Doininicain d'Etudes Orientalesdu Caire
Nii~. A Hartmann, An-N~rli-DlnAlliih. Politik; Religion, Kultur in
der spiifen'Abbiisidenzeit
REI Revue desEludes Islamiques
RSO Rivista.degli Studi Orientali
StI Studia Islamica
Suh. 'A'ishaYOsufal-Mana'l,Abiilfqfi 'Umaral-Suhrawardl:J;ayiituhu
waJta}awwujUhu
mv.tA
Turkiye Diyanet Valifi islam Ansiklopedisi
INTRODUCTION
Over the course of the 6thl12th and early-7th/13th centuries, a not
entirely disparate group of charismatic Sufi masters beg~n·to emerge
across the Abode of Islam: 'Abd al-Qadir al:JI1anI (d. 561/1166) and
Al;lmad al-Rifa'I (d. 578/1182) in Iraq, Najm aI-DIn Kubra in Tran
soxiana (d. 61711220), MU'IIl al-DIn Chisha (d. 63311236) in India,
Abu'1-l:Iasan 'AIral-ShadhilI(d. 656/1258) inNorthMrica, and, in the
heart of the old imperial capital of Baghdad, Shihab al-DInAbu l:Iaf~
'Dmarb. Mu1).ammad al-SuhrawardI (539-63211144 or 1145-1234).
Although each of these Sufis had much in common, their most signifi
cant affinitylayin theirnames beingever thereafterinextricablylinked
witha complexofsocial, religious, and cultural trends subsumedunder
the rubric of what is generally identified as a fundamental institution
of Islamic mysticism following the Mongol invasions of the 7th/13th
century: the Sufi order, or tariqa (pI. turuq), particular 'initiatory ways'
associated with the teachings of an eponymous Sufi master reflexively
'passed down' by his spiritual, and in no small number of cases blood,
heirs to their own confraternity of disciples and, in an oftentimes
divaricatingfashion, they to theirs in a mannerstrikingly similar to the
Zen Buddhist lineages of pre- and early-modernJapan or the shoshalot
of the Hasidim.
Although a good deal has been writtenon the historyof Sufism as a
system of thought, its teachers and theorists, major personalities, liter
ary productions, and general presence in Islamic social, cultural and
intellectual history over time and space, the·processes which contrib
uted to t~e emergence of the earliest tariqa lineages, however, are still
not well understood. Simply put, our collective understanding of the
nature, scope, andfactors behindthe institutionalizingdrivein medieval
Sufism-andtheeventualfraternalizationofformerly decentralized Sufi
tariqasinto transnationalfraternities overthecourseofthe late 9th/15th
to the 12th/18th centuries----'-is, to put it mildly, defective and·uneven.
In large part,this can be attributed to.thesimple fact that many of the
key personalities involved in the process have not yet been thoroughly
examined,partiallyasa resultofthe (nowlargelyabandoned) paradigm
of classicism.and decline, and partially as a result of the (still quite
vigorous) tendency to privilege Sufism's mystico-philosophic content
3
2 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION
over and against reading it as part and parcel of the broader histori In. recent years,,an'ambitious group ofFrench scholars have setout
cal patterns informing pre-modern Islamic societies. It is of course a to reeyaluate the.phenomenon of tanqa-based'sufism,ffiostnotably the
platitude to fault either the personal predilections of previous genera histoiyof the Sufi orders in their,diverse regional and,sectarian con
tions of Orientalists or the ideological and institutional biases which texts.4 In large part; however,the,focus of this body o£.workconcerns
promoted such neglect,'hut thisiscertainlya curious state ~f affairs the articulation: of, ta7iqa~based Sufism following the,age in which the
cOIl~iden~g, thatitisthe S~fib<rotherhoodsflnd,~()tSUfis~'s'~IassiC'al' eponyms,of the majortariqaJineagesJivedand'worked,and'makesno
t~eoreticala~dliteraryh~rit~gewW'¥'come tb,ITtind,~he~ th~ word comprehensivehistoriographicalortheotetkalrevisionstCl'olderpara~
'i~awwuT)s'evoked ill c(jntemporary Isiamic.coptext~. !~' digmsconcerning,the,deve!opment,rise,anddiffusionoftheearlytariqa
! ,',','
When it' is 'p1e~tioned; inlarg(';' part'account~ of the g~nesis and lineages. For this, scholars,of Sufisrn must still seekrecourse with,the
development oftmiqa~based,S.ufis~between th~ 6th/12th-Qth/15th standard,.and still,very'influential, models ofJ. Spencer Trirningham
cei1turies as we)llid the,min.thes,t~nda~d.~extbooksonthe~iitoryof and Marshall,G:S.'.Hodgson, two accounts which despite their age
S}l6~m gen~rally!~re1essth~Il'sati~fa~t9,ry.}n,hf~' n9w ?lassic M!sticql stillplay a sigriifit;ant (olein informing schOlarshiprelating tothe rise,
Dimensions ofIslam, Tor instance, the lat~Annermlrie Schimmel offered development,spread,andsocialandpoliticalsignificance'oftanqa~based
>':';:'.' ,..''; ",
(c",I,,':u' rsory read'ii'I,l'g"'''oi'',,f..""',,t:,;h.<e,,,;d,:e",~''v~,''e''''l<o,::p,>~e;~,n';","t::'::O:,f';J.(."J_nq.,\a:',"~.~,b,:":a;;s~,d'"S-0l':;,;l"f,;i~.I:11.:'sa'.'y,"ing Sufismfrorn the 6th/12th centuryforward. "
th'at: "i(musth~vebee~arespo~s~!to~n iriner n~edqf the com~unity ,Predicated olta three,.tiered·model,"Trimingham's'readingmf;this
th~t.was. riot be,~I,l;g m~tspirituiyyhy" the scJ'lolasti~ism of'orthodox development posits,that'the history of the Sufi orders_should'he'seen
more
theol.ogians; p,eople craved a intimate andp'ersonal 'ieIation- as occurring in three distinct stages" namely: 1) the "khiinaqiih.stage'
Sh•IPW!l.•~-:.hG()d~:>a__::ll.-d,,- W_•I•t,h'.t'he P.ro<p~-e-t-',, the ~S:--uf-.i.bi-o;p~t:h_;_f.;rhIo.odsc,-:l',i_terall.y' which came. to prominence in the 4th/lOthcemury,and which was
'\;9n~e,ftingSu~srn ~n~ass~oveme,nt, a~overm~it,i~w~ich,t,h~ chatacterized,byan individualistic and,elitist mastera,ncl a,circle of
into, "
high~biti~ns()f#ed~sicalSufiswere <;onsid~rablyw,atered dO~>2 pupils,frequendy itine.tantand,having,litdeorno communaLifegula~
Similarappra.is~swere,offered,earlierby,AJ./~rb~rry in ~',yhapter'~f tion; 2)the,'tariqastage',,oriformative'period;of the·6th/12th:"':9tl,1115th
his introduction,,'to Sufism'entitled "The Decay ofSufism", and by century,alargelybourgeoismovementcharacterizedbrthe appearance
G.c: §nawa~'alld<LouisGardet, Marjian Mole, andl'azhir::Rahman of'silsila~tanqasandthe conforming,of theeOrigillalmystical~spirit to
just to cite'the most represeiltative:3 ' ,~, a,neworganizeclstandard>Qf tradition and legalism;"and, 3) the.'WifO.
, \ < stage',which begf:\.n.in the 9th/15thcenturywith.theconsolidatiQnof
(Dttorrtanh~geriloIlY!andwas characterized,bythe transmission of,an
allegiance alongside the proliferation of new sub"-orders withim.exist~
,I:Ontheconstructionof'OrientalmystiCism'genetally,.see:'RichatdKing,'Orienlalism iilg;tanqa.lines':>iTrirningham qualified his·typology,chowever,.positing
and,ReJigWn:Postcolonw.lTheory,,·Ind.iaandthe.'1.'vfysticEast'(London:Routledge,19,99),esp.
that it:gives theimpressicm ofa precision;which did~;not exist,and is
7-35.James M,orris makes a similar aPPraisal in,his "Situating Islamic '¥ysticjsm':
Between Written Traditionsand'Popular Spirituality," in Mystics ijth£ Book: Therh.es, no more thanageneraliiation oftrends, for'as he quite rightlypoints
Topics, aruJljpologies, ed:;RobertA Herrera (New York:.PeterLangPublishing, lue:;
outinthefinaLstage,thethree inoneway,oranothercontinuedto,exist
1~~3),,29~-~3~,(~W3Q,8::;310).Op"the,cqlQni~c,qg~trp~,tj()qof.Svfisf:\v~san,o9j~~t
of ~tl!dyand ~ts ~odeI'l1repe~Cussiops,th~,c?m~egts?fCad E~I1~t are insightful contemporaneously.,Although,his,typology"had""beenmuch',criticized
(The Shambllall/GiHde toSujism[Boston & London: Shainbnala, (997]; 1~18i arid;
idem,'"Between Gyientalismand,Fundamenialism:'I)roblematizing !be Teaching of
Sufism,:'iq Teachinglslmn, ed.J3,rannonWheeler [Newyork: Oxford University Press,
2003]: 108'-'-123). ,," ). )' . ' .
2 AnneinarieScltimmel,MystWalDimensi.onsqfIslain:(Chapel Hill,NC: Universityof 4 Most notablythe collecti~evol!lmesedited by,A1exan~e Popovic,an9 ?~les
North Cw;olinaPr.t:,ss, 1975),,2~1, 239..• ; , , . . , " Veinstein:Us ordies mystiquesaans l'islalTl:cI!eminem~lts;et S1./uatwn ae.tuelle(pans:,EditIons
3,~J.l\rberry1SufisT(L' An Accqun,tqf 0elvIystics qf Islam (Lond~n:.Georger).Lien &. dd'Ecole'd6 Hautes:Etudesen SciencesSociales,A986); and;Les voies d'Allah.: Us
Unwm,'Ltd., 1950), 119'-'-133';GeorgesAnawati andLoWs'Gardet,Afjstiquerhusilbiiane, ordtesmystiquesldtJrt$!£,,'ffjOTllk,mtISU~n'desorigines,t1,a,gourd'!p.ti,,',(P<iris:lAbr;urie~c~e
4th'e:d. (Paris:J. Vrin;:1986)",66+'73;,'Marjia;n:Mole,us mystiquesmUJ'ulmlztls.(paris: Ea.ya,rq, 199/.il)";,, ....,,~,:i'" ,):";\i'T,"', /':":',"f'''''"",'' ." "
Pre~?e~pnjveI:.sitair~s,de,Xr<)l1ce,)965),)J~122; ~l1d,Fazlur Ra,1:lman, Islam, 2nd,ed, 5,j;Sperice~Trirn1ngham,TIwSuji.()rdersin1slam(OXfdrd: Oxford,'UniversityPress;
(Chicago: The·University of Chicago Press, 1979), 150~166. ' 1971). • '