He also authored works entirely devoted to Sufism (taṣawwuf), such as Risālat al-mustarshidīn, Kitāb al-qaṣd, Sharḥ al-maʿrifa wa-badhl al-nāṣila. He guided many of the earliest Sufis, including Junayd al-Baghdādī. His work on tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), Fehm al-Qur'ān, also demonstrates his excellence in this field.
Nabhānī: Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf Ismāʿīl Yūsuf Ismāʿīl Ḥasan Muḥammad al-Nabhānī al-Shāfiʿī is known as a man of letters, poet, Sufi, and judge. He was born in the land of Palestine. After migrating to Egypt, he joined al-Azhar, and was later appointed as a judge in Nablus. He also visited Istanbul for a time, after which he served as a judge in Mosul, chief judge of the criminal court in Latakia, and later moved to Jerusalem. After these posts, Nabhānī was appointed as the head of the Beirut court of law, and it is recorded that he died in his birthplace in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
Nabhānī states that he prepared his Cāmiʿ karāmāt al-awliyāʾ (Nabhānī), a biographical compendium of Sufis, without consulting the earliest sources.
Nawawī: Abū Zakariyyā Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyā Sharaf al-Nawawī al-Dimashqī al-Shāfiʿī was a renowned muḥaddith, jurist, ḥāfiẓ, and linguist, born in Nawā near Damascus in 631/1233. He died in Damascus in 676/1277.
Nawawī authored valuable works related to hadith, such as Minhāj, a commentary on Muslim's al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ, and Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn. His Bustān al-ʿārifīn (Bustān) covers topics of zuhd (asceticism), akhlāq (ethics), and adab (proper conduct).
Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya: The most famous female Sufi in Sufism (taṣawwuf), Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya is believed to have been born in Basra in either 95/713 or 99/717. Divine love forms the basis of her Sufi views. For this reason, she never married and devoted herself to asceticism and worship. The anecdotes about her meeting with Ḥasan al-Baṣrī are not considered historically accurate. She is thought to have died in Basra in either 185/801 or 187/803. Her sayings and anecdotes were collected and published by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī under the title Shahādat al-ʿishq al-ilāhī (Shahāda).
Sāḥib-zāda: Sāḥib-zāda Meḥmed Esʿad Maḥmūd al-ʿUthmānī al-Dimashqī al-Shahrazūrī al-Kurdī al-Naqshbandī was born in Damascus in 1272/1855 and died in 1347/1928. Among the works of Sāḥib-zāda, who was a Naqshbandī shaykh, the most important is Buġyat al-wāḥid fī maktūbāt Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Khālid (Buġya). The title of this work is also pronounced as Baġiyya. The work contains valuable first-hand information about his era and about Mawlānā Khālid.
Sarrāj: Little is known about the life of Abū Naṣr Sarrāj al-Tūsī. Sarrāj, known for his adherence to sharia (the sacred law), zuhd (asceticism), and futuwwa (spiritual chivalry), died in 378/988. His most important known work, Kitāb al-Lumaʿ (Lumaʿ), is a classic of Sufism (taṣawwuf) that was the first to systematically classify spiritual states (ḥāl) and stations (maqām). The work also includes a special section on the errors of Sufis and addresses controversial topics in Sufism.
Sofyavī (Bālī-i Sofyavī): Bālī Efendi of Sofia was born in Ustrumca, now within the borders of Albania. He studied both exoteric and esoteric sciences and authored works on these subjects. Living during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Bālī Efendi received the appreciation and favor of the sultan and participated with him in some campaigns. He died in Sofia in 960/1553, where he is buried. His Kitāb sharḥ fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (Sofyavī), written as a commentary on Ibn ʿArabī's Fuṣūṣ, contains views contrary to some previous commentators of the Fuṣūṣ.
Suhrawardī: Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Najīb ʿAbd al-Qāhir ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ʿAmmūya Saʿd al-Ṣādiqī al-Bakrī al-Suhrawardī studied fiqh and hadith, and later turned to Sufism (taṣawwuf). He died in Baghdad in 566/1167. His work Kitāb ādāb al-murīdīn played an important role in the establishment of the Suhrawardiyya tariqa (Sufi order).
Suhrawardī (Abū Ḥafs): Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Ḥafs ʿUmar Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ʿUmar ʿAmmūya al-Bakrī al-Faqīh, al-Shāfiʿī al-Sūfī al-Suhrawardī, was the nephew of Abū al-Najīb Suhrawardī. He received his initial education from his uncle and from ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī. He is as famous for his political activities as for his scholarly ones. He settled in Baghdad and later brought the futuwwa movement from there to Anatolia. The foundations of the Akhī movement in Anatolia are based on the futuwwa principles introduced by Suhrawardī. He died in Baghdad in 632/1234.
Information About the Authors
His most famous work, ʿAwārif al-maʿārif (ʿAwārif), which deals in detail with the etiquette of tariqa (Sufi path) and tekke (Sufi lodge), was read in Anatolia for centuries. His work Futūwwatnāma is also famous and formed the basis for the organizational structure of the Akhī movement in Anatolia.
Suhrawardī al-Maqtūl: Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-Futūḥ Yaḥyā ʿAbd Allāh Ḥabash Amīrak al-Suhrawardī is called Suhrawardī al-Maqtūl to distinguish him from other Suhrawardīs. He was born in 549/1153 in the village of Suhraward in the Zanjān region of northern Iran. He belonged to the Shāfiʿī school and was a leading figure of his time in philosophy, alchemy, asceticism, and spiritual discipline (riyāḍa). He studied in Marāgha, one of Azerbaijan's centers of learning, with Shaykh Majd al-Dīn Jīlī (the teacher of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī), and in Isfahan with Ẓahīr al-Dīn Fārisī. During this period, he also engaged in Sufi pursuits.
During the reign of the Seljuk sultan Qilij Arslan II, Suhrawardī traveled to Jerusalem and Damascus, then journeyed through northern Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia, before settling in Aleppo under the patronage of the famous Saladin's son, Malik Ẓāhir. Although it is said that Suhrawardī was killed because of his Sufi views, it is also noted that his frankness and intelligence earned him many enemies, which contributed to this outcome. His execution took place in 587/1191.
Suhrawardī generally wrote his works in Persian and is considered the founder of the Illuminationist (ishrāqī) doctrine in Sufism (taṣawwuf). He expressed his views most clearly in his works Ḥikmat al-ishrāq and Hayākil al-nūr (Hayākil). The work Āvāz-i Parr-i Jibrāʾīl (Jibrāʾīl), translated into Arabic as Risālat aṣwāt ajniḥat Jibrāʾīl, also addresses these matters.
Shāʿrānī: ʿAbd al-Mawāhib Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Aḥmad ʿAlī Aḥmad Muḥammad Mūsā Mawlā ʿAbd Allāh al-Zughālī ʿAlī al-Anṣārī al-Shāfiʿī al-Miṣrī al-Shāʿrānī was born in Egypt in 897/1491-92. He is known to have made his living as a craftsman in weaving. Nevertheless, he studied Qur'anic sciences, creed, jurisprudence, grammar, and medicine, and wrote many works on these subjects. He was a member of the Shādhilī tariqa, and the founder of the Shaʿrāwiyya branch of this order. He died in Cairo in 973/1565.
He was especially a follower of the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd (the oneness of being) and conducted studies on the works of Ibn ʿArabī. Among his Sufi works, besides many on Ibn ʿArabī and his writings, his biographical compendium of Sufis, widely known in Sufi circles as Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, is famous. His work al-Anwār (or Nafahāt) al-qudsiyya fī maʿrifat qawāʿid al-ṣūfiyya (Anwār) is also a treatise on Sufi doctrine.
Abd; Abd Ḥumayd, al-Musnad, Cairo 1988
Ādāb; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥārith Asad al-Muḥāsibī, Ādāb al-nufūs, Badʾ man anāba ilallah, ed. Majdī Fathī al-Sayyid, Cairo 1991
Ādāb; Abū al-Najīb ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Suhrawardī; Kitāb ādāb al-murīdīn, ed. Menachem Milson, Jerusalem 1977
ʿAwārif, Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Ḥafs ʿUmar Muḥammad al-Suhrawardī, ʿAwārif al-maʿārif, ed. Muḥammad ʿAlī Bayḍāwī, Beirut 1420/1999; The Principles of Sufism — Translation of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, ed. Kāmil Yılmaz-İrfan Gündüz, Vefa Publishing, Istanbul 1990; True Sufism, tr. Dilaver Selvi, Semerkand Publishing, Ankara 1999
Badʾ; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥārith Asad al-Muḥāsibī, Ādāb al-nufūs, Badʾ man anāba ilallah, ed. Majdī Fathī al-Sayyid, Cairo 1991
Bayān; Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, Bayān al-farq bayn al-ṣadr wa-l-qalb wa-l-fuʾād wa-l-lubb, ed. Nicola Heer, Cairo 1958
Bayhaqī; Abū Bakr Aḥmad Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-īmān, Beirut 1410/1989. Bazzār; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Khāliq al-Bazzār, al-Musnad, Beirut 1409/1988
Buġya; Meḥmed-zāda Sāḥib-zāda Esʿad al-ʿUthmānī al-Naqshbandī, Buġyat al-wāḥid fī maktūbāt Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Khālid, Damascus 1334/1915
Bukhārī; Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, al-Jāmiʿ al-musnad al-ṣaḥīḥ al-mukhtaṣar min umūr rasūlillāh sunanihi wa-ayyāmih, Çağrı Publishing, Istanbul 1981
Bustān; Abū Zakariyyā Muḥyī al-Dīn Sharaf al-Nawawī, Bustān al-ʿārifīn, Egypt 1348/1929
Cāmiʿ; Aḥmad Ziyāʾ al-Dīn Gümüşhānevī, Kitāb jāmiʿ al-uṣūl fī-l-awliyāʾ wa anwāʿihim wa kalimāt al-ṣūfiyya, Egypt 1298/1880
Abbreviations of Work Titles
Jibrāʾīl; Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Ḥabash Amīrak al-Suhrawardī, Risālat aṣwāt ajniḥat Jibrāʾīl / Āvāz-i Parr-i Jibrāʾīl, tr. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī, Cairo 1946. Daylamī; Abū Shujāʿ Shīruya Shahrdār Shīruya al-Daylamī, al-Firdaws bi maʾthūr al-khiṭāb, Beirut 1986
Dīwān; Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ʿAlī al-ʿArabī, Dīwān Ibn ʿArabī, Būlāq 1271/1854
Durar, Abū al-Faḍl Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Abū Bakr al-Suyūṭī, al-Durar al-muntathira fī aḥādīth al-mushtahira, Cairo 1380/1960
Abū Dāwūd; Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān Ashʿath al-Sijistānī, Sunan, Çağrı Publishing, Istanbul 1981
Anwār; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shāʿrānī, al-Anwār al-qudsiyya fī maʿrifat qawāʿid al-ṣūfiyya, ed. Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Bāqī Surūr-Sayyid Muḥammad Idū al-Shāfiʿī, I-II, Beirut 1962. Asfār; ʿAbd al-Karīm Ibrāhīm al-Jīlī, Sharḥ al-asfār ʿan risālat al-anwār, Damascus 1348/1929
Awsat; Abū al-Qāsim Sulaymān Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-awsaṭ, Cairo 1415/1994
Fath; ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, Kitāb al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī wa-l-fayḍ al-Raḥmānī, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, Beirut 1403/1983; al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī, The Key to the Worlds, tr. Osman Güman, Gelenek Publishing, Istanbul 2004
Furqān; Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Taymiyya, Kitāb al-furqān bayna awliyāʾ al-Raḥmān wa-awliyāʾ al-shayṭān, Beirut 1401/1980
Futūḥ; ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, Futūḥ al-ghayb, Egypt 1330/1912
Futūḥāt; Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ʿAlī al-ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya fī maʿrifat al-asrār al-mālikiyya wa-l-malakiyya, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marʿashlī, I-IV, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut 1997; Divine Love, tr. Mahmut Kanık, İnsan Publishing, Istanbul 1988; Gnosis and Wisdom, tr. Mahmut Kanık, İz Publishing, Istanbul 1995
Ghunya; ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, al-Ghunya li-ṭālib ṭarīq al-Ḥaqq ʿazza wa-jalla fī maʿrifat al-ādāb al-sharʿiyya wa-maʿrifat al-Sānīʿ, II, Egypt 1375/1956; tr. A. Faruk Meyan, Berekât Publishing, Istanbul 1986
Ḥākim; Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī, al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, Beirut 1990
Abbreviations of Work Titles Ḥāṭib; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb Aḥmad ʿAlī Thābit al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād aw madīnat al-salām, Beirut 1967
Hayākil; Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Ḥabash Amīrak al-Suhrawardī, Hayākil al-nūr, ed. Muḥammad ʿAlī Abū Rayyān, Alexandria 1956; Statues of Light, tr. Saffet Yetkin, MEB Publishing, Istanbul 1995; Yusuf Ziya Yörükan, Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī and the Statues of Light, tr. A. Kāmil Cihan, İnsan Publishing, Istanbul 1998
Haythamī; Abū al-Ḥasan Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī Abū Bakr Sulaymān al-Haythamī, Majmaʿ al-zawāʾid wa-manbaʿ al-fawāʾid, Cairo 1407/1986
Hujwīrī; Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ʿUthmān Abī ʿAlī al-Jullābī al-Ghaznawī al-Hujwīrī, Kashf al-maḥjūb, ed. Ibrāhīm al-Dusūqī Shitā, Dār al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Cairo 1974; The Unveiling of the Veiled, ed. Süleyman Uludağ, Dergâh Publishing, Istanbul 1982
Iṣṭilāḥ; Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ʿAlī al-ʿArabī, Kitāb iṣṭilāḥ al-