The Sufi Doctrine of Man: Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī's Metaphysical Anthropology

250 Pages·2014·2.206 MB·English

by  Richard Todd

The Sufi Doctrine of Man
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Islamic Philosophy, Theology
and Science
Texts and Studies
Edited by
Hans Daiber
Anna Akasoy
Emilie Savage-Smith
VOLUME 90
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ipts
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The Sufi Doctrine of Man
Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī’s Metaphysical Anthropology
By
Richard Todd
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Walters Manuscript W.633 folio 88b: A mosque scene with preacher and congregation;
from an anonymous 16th-century manuscript of Hafiz’s Divan. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Todd, Richard, 1968-
 The Sufi doctrine of man : Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi’s metaphysical anthropology / by Richard Todd.
  pages cm. -- (Islamic philosophy, theology and science)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-27123-4 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-27126-5 (e-book) 1. Theological
anthropology--Islam. 2. Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, Muhammad ibn Ishaq, -1273 or 1274. 3. Sufis--Biography.
4. Sufism. I. Title.
 BP166.7.T63 2014
 297.4092--dc23
              2014008343
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations ix
Glossary of Philosophical and Sufi Terms x
Notes on Transliteration xviii
Introduction 1
1 Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī 1
2 Qūnawī’s Anthropology in Context 2
3 The Political Setting 6
4 The Cultural and Intellectual Climate 7
5 Qūnawī’s Biography in Medieval Sources 9
Part 1
Qūnawī’s Life and Work
1 Life and Times 13
1 Early Life and Education 13
2 Travels and Teaching in the Near East 17
3 Konya 21
4 Students and Disciples 23
5 Final Years 26
2 Qūnawī’s Works 28
1 Qūnawī’s Corpus 28
2 Qūnawī’s Methodology 29
3 Miftāḥ ghayb al-jamʿ wa tafṣīli-hi 31
4 Iʿjāz al-bayān fī taʾwīl umm al-Qurʾān 32
5 The Correspondence with Ṭūsī 35
6 Nafthat al-maṣdūr wa tuḥfat al-shakūr 39
7 Risālat al-nuṣūṣ fī taḥqīq al-ṭawr al-makhṣūṣ 40
8 Al-risāla al-murshidīya 41
9 Al-nafaḥāt al-ilāhīya 42
10 Al-fukūk fī asrār mustanadāt ḥikam al-Fuṣūṣ 42
11 Sharḥ al-aḥādīth al-arbaʿīnīya 43
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vi contents
3 Intellectual Currents and Debates 45
1 Qūnawī’s Work in Relation to Ibn ʿArabī’s 45
2 The Critique of Rational Inquiry 51
3 Qūnawī’s Doctrinal Synthesis 55
4 Cosmology 65
1 Qūnawī’s Cosmology in Context 65
2 Cosmological Questions in Qūnawī’s Letters to Ṭūsī 73
3 The Sublunary World 78
Part 2
Qūnawī’s Anthropology
5 Man’s Metaphysical Origins 83
1 Indeterminacy and Determination 83
2 The Cognitive Relationship 86
3 The Divine Affairs 88
4 The Immutable Essences 90
5 The Common Measure 94
6 The Barzakh 95
7 The Five Presences 98
8 The Divine Secret 101
6 The Human State 107
1 The Perfection of the Last 107
2 The Stages of Lodging and Settling 109
3 The Soul 115
4 Sustenance 120
5 The Separation of Body and Soul 125
6 Man’s Posthumous States 133
7 Liberation 137
1 Providence 138
2 The Law and the Way 141
3 Reorientation 148
4 Love 155
5 The Spiritual Ascent 159
6 Theophany 164
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contents vii
8 The Reception of Qūnawī’s Thought 170
Conclusion 177
Appendix 1 Critical List of Qūnawī’s Works 179
Appendix 2 Qūnawī’s Ijāzas to Farghānī and Jandī 193
Appendix 3 Translated Excerpts from Qūnawī’s Epistemological
Texts 195
Bibliography 214
Index 223
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to Dr Anna Akasoy for her invaluable comments on an
earlier draft of this book. Thanks are due likewise to the Arts and Humanities
Research Board of the British Academy for their generous support.
Richard Todd
Edinburgh, June 2013
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