Search Results for “sufism”

• GOWHARIN, SAYYED SĀDEQ

  Peter Avery

  Gowharin came from an old and distinguished family which traced its lineage back to the eponymous founder of the Nurbaḵšiyya, Sayyed Moḥammad Nurbaḵš (1392-1464). Himself a Sufi of the Ḵāksār order, his interest in mysticism went far beyond that of an academic.

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• ABU’L-FAŻL ḴOTTALĪ

  H. Algar

  (d. 453/1061?), preceptor of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Hoǰvīrī (d. 465/1073), the author of the celebrated Persian treatise on Sufism, Kašf al-maḥǰūb.

• INDIA xxv. MUTUAL MYSTICAL INFLUENCES

  cross-reference

  See under SUFISM.

• EXEGESIS

  Multiple Authors

  (Ar. tafsīr), commentary on or interpretation of sacred texts.

• HADITH

  Shahab Ahmed, A. Kazemi-Moussavi, Ismail K. Poonawala, Hamid Algar, Shaul Shaked

  term denoting reports that convey the normative words and deeds of the Prophet Moḥammad; it is understood to refer generically to the entire corpus of this literature and to the thousands of individual reports that comprise it.

• ABŪ ḤAMZA ḴORĀSĀNĪ

  B. Reinert

  (d. 290/903), Sufi born and active in Nīšāpūr.

• ʿAWĀREF AL-MAʿĀREF

  W. C. Chittick

  a classic work on Sufism by Šehāb-al-dīn Sohravardī (1145-1234)

• JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ

  Multiple Authors

  ABU ʿABD-ALLĀH (ca. 702-765), the sixth imam of the Imami Shiʿites. He spent most of his life in Medina, where he built up a circle of followers primarily as a theologian, Ḥadith transmitter, and jurist (faqih).

• HAMZA NİGARİ

  Tahsin Yazi

  (Ḥamza Negāri) Ḥāji Mir Ḥamza Efendi b. Mir Pāšā, Sufi and poet from Azerbaijan, who wrote in both Persian and Turkish (d. 1886).

• ABŪ BAKR KALĀBĀḎĪ

  W. Madelung

  author of the well-known compendium of Sufism al-Taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwof.

• ABU YAʿQUB HAMADĀNI

  H. Algar

  Important figure in the history of Iranian and Central Asian Sufism, largely neglected by both Iranian and Western scholarship (440-535/1048-49 to 1140).

• JĀMI

  Multiple Authors

  ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN NUR-AL-DIN b. Neẓām-al-Din Aḥmad-e Dašti, Persian poet, scholar, and Sufi (1414-1492).

• ḤOSAYN KARBALĀʾI

  Leonard Lewisohn

  TABRIZI BĀBĀ-FARAJI, popularly known as Ebn Karbalāʾi, a major Persian historian of Sufis and Sufism of 16th-century Persia and a poet (d. 1589).

• ABŪ ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SOLAMĪ

  S. Sh. Kh. Hussaini

  (325-412/937-1021), Sufi, traditionist, and hagiographer.

• ŠARḤ-e TAʿARROF

  Nasrollah Pourjavady

  an extensive commentary in Persian on Abu Bakr Moḥammad Kalābāḏi’s Sufi manual Ketāb al-Taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwuf.

• KAŠF AL-MAḤJUB of Hojviri

  Jawid Mojaddedi

  the only surviving work of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli b. ʿOṯmān Hojviri (d. between 1073 and 1077) and the oldest surviving independent manual of Sufism written in Persian.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD vi. ON MYSTICISM AND PERSIAN SUFI POETRY

  Lloyd Ridgeon

  By the turn of the 20th century the Sufi tradition in Iran no longer enjoyed the popularity and following that it attracted in previous centuries.

• EBĀḤĪYA

  Hamid Algar

  or EBĀḤATĪYA; a polemical term denoting either antinomianism or groups and individuals accused thereof.

• ʿALĪ AṢḠAR BORŪJERDĪ

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton

  author of several works including the ʿAqāʾed al-šīʿa, written in 1263/1874 and dedicated to Moḥammad Shah Qāǰār.

• HOJVIRI, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALI

  Gerhard Böwering

  B. ʿOṮMĀN B. ʿALI AL-ḠAZNAVI AL-JOLLĀBI (d. ca. 1071-72), author of the Kašf al-maḥjub, the most celebrated early Persian Sufi treatise.

• FARḠĀNĪ, SAʿĪD-AL-DĪN MOHAMMAD

  William C. Chittick

  b. Ahmad (d. 1300), Sufi author from the town of Kāsān in Farḡān.

• FŪŠANJĪ HERAVĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ,

  Gerhard Böwering

  correctly BŪŠANJĪ; b. Aḥmad b. Sahl (d. 958/959), an important exponent of the fetyān (javān-mardān) of Khorasan.

• AḴYĀR

  H. Algar

  “the chosen” (Persian, bargozīdagān), a category sometimes encountered in accounts given by Sufi writers of the unseen hierarchy known as reǰāl al-ḡayb (“men of the unseen”).

• ʿALĪ, ḴᵛĀJA

  H. Horst

  also known as SAYYED ʿALĪ ʿAJAMĪ (b. ca. 770/1368-69, d. 830/1427 or 832/1429), an ancestor of the Safavid royal family, the son of Shaikh Ṣadr-al-dīn and grandson of Shaikh Ṣafī-al-dīn Ardabīlī. 

• DEYLAMĪ, ABUʾL-ḤASAN ʿALĪ

  Gerhard BÖWERING

  b. Moḥammad (fl. 10th century), an obscure yet important author on the early Persian Sufism prevalent in Fārs.

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED B. ZAYD

  P. Nwyia

  (d. 177/793), Sufi, the leading personality among the ascetics trained in the school of Ḥasan Baṣrī.

• ABDĀL

  J. Chabbi

  An Arabic technical term designating one of the categories of awlīāʾ (“friends of God,” Muslim saints).

• INDIA

  Multiple Authors

  This series of entries covers Indian history and its relations with Iran.

• ARBERRY, ARTHUR JOHN

  E. P. Elwell-Sutton

  British orientalist (1905-1969).

• GISU-DARĀZ

  Richard M. Eaton

  or Gēsu-darāz (b. Delhi, 1321-d. Gulbarga, 1422), the popular title of Sayyed MOḤAMMAD b. Yusof Ḥosayni, the most important transmitter of Sufi traditions from North India to the Deccan plateau.

• BADAḴŠĪ, MOLLĀ SHAH

  H. Algar

  (also known as Shah Moḥammad; 1584-1661), a mystic and writer of the Qāderī order, given both to the rigorous practice of asceticism and to the ecstatic proclamation of theopathic sentiment.

• EBN BAZZĀZ

  Roger Savory

  author of the Ṣafwat al-ṣafāʾ, a biography of Shaikh Ṣafī-al-Dīn Esḥāq Ardabīlī (d. 935/1334), founder of the Safavid order of Sufis and the eponym of the Safavid dynasty.

• ʿĀQEL, MOḤAMMAD

  M. L. Siddiqui

  entitled Korīǰa, mystic of the Panjab (d. 1229/1814). 

• GÖLPINARLI, ABDÜLBAKI

  Tahsin Yazıcı

  (1900-1982), Turkish scholar noted in particular for his studies of the Turkish Sufi orders. He joined many Sufi orders without remaining in any of them for long. His greatest interests were in Shiʿism and the Mevlevi (Mawlawiya) order.

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• EBN ABĪ JOMHŪR AḤSĀʾĪ, Moḥammad

  Todd Lawson

  b. Zayn-al-Dīn Abi’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ḥosām-al-Dīn Ebrāhīm (b. ca. 1433-34; d. after 4 July 1499), Shiʿite thinker.

• BEHBAHĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ

  Hamid Algar

  (1731-1801) B. MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER, ĀQĀ, Shiʿite mojtahed celebrated primarily for his ferocious hatred of Sufis.

• PANDIYĀT-E JAVĀNMARDI

  Farhad Daftary

  a Nezāri Ismaʿili book originally written in Persian and containing the sermons or religious admonitions to the true believers, seeking exemplary standards of ethical behavior and spiritual chivalry.

• ANJEDĀN

  F. Daftary

  village located 37 km east of Arāk (former Solṭānābād) in Markazī province.

• ĀL-E ʿABĀ

  H. Algar

  “The Family of the Cloak,” i.e., the Prophet Moḥammad, his daughter Fāṭema, his cousin and son-in-law ʿAlī, and his grandsons Ḥasan and Ḥosayn.

• ASMĀR AL-ASRĀR

  S. S. K. Hussaini

  (Night-discourses of secrets), theosophical treatise in Persian composed by a 9th/15th century Češtī Sufi of India, Sayyed Moḥammad Ḥosaynī Gīsūdarāz (d. 825/1422), popularly known as Ḵᵛāǰa-ye Bandanavāz.

• DEHLAVĪ, ŠĀH WALĪ-ALLĀH QOṬB-AL-DĪN AḤMAD ABU’L-FAYYĀŻ

  Marcia K. Hermansen

  (1703-62), leading Muslim intellectual of India and writer on a wide range of Islamic topics in Arabic and Persian; more than thirty-five of his works are extant.

• ADĪB NĪŠĀBURĪ

  J. Matīnī

  Persian litterateur and poet (19th century).

• ARDABĪLĪ

  W. Madelung

  known as MOQADDAS and MOḤAQQEQ ARDABĪLĪ, Imamite theologian and jurist of the early Safavid age. 

• SAIFPOUR FATEMI

  Lotfali Khonji

  journalist, political figure, and university professor.

• ḴERQA

  Erik S. Ohlander

  term for the tattered cloak, robe, or overshirt traditionally worn by the Sufis as a symbol of wayfaring on the mystical path.

• HĀNSAVI

  S. H. Qasemi

  (1184/85-1260/61), Shaikh, mystic, poet, and author.

• BARĀQ BĀBĀ

  H. Algar

  (b. 1257-58, d. 1307-08), a crypto-shamanic Anatolian Turkman dervish close to two of the Mongol rulers of Iran.

• ʿALĪ AṢḠAR ČEŠTĪ

  K. A. Nizami

  Mughal hagiographer, chiefly known for his Jawāher-e Farīdī, compiled in 1033/1623 during the reign of Jahāngīr (1014-37/1605-27). 

• HADITH iv. IN SUFISM

  Hamid Algar

  In keeping with all other categories of Islamic literature, the writings of the Sufis are replete with not only Koranic citations but also quotations of Hadith.

• JAWĀHER-E ḴAMSA

  Carl W. Ernst

  title of a Persian work on Sufi meditation practices composed by the well-known and controversial Šaṭṭārī saint, Moḥammad Ḡawṯ Gwāleyārī (1500-1563).

• BORHĀNPŪRĪ, BORHĀN-AL-DĪN

  Richard M. Eaton

  Indo-Persian Sufi of the Šaṭṭārī order (d. 1089/1678).

• ʿĀLAM II, SHAH

  S. S. Alvi

  Mughal emperor (1173-1253/1759-1806).

• JAHĀNĀRĀ BEGUM

  Stephen Dale

  (1614-81), the eldest surviving daughter of the Mughal Emperor Šāh Jahān and his favorite wife, Momtāz Mahal.

• GANJ-E ŠAKAR, Farid-al-Din Masʿud

  Gerhard Böwering

  Popularly known as Bābā Farid, a major Shaikh of the Češtīya mystic order, born in the last quarter of the 6th/12th century in Kahtwāl near Moltān, Punjab.

• BAḤRĪ, MAḤMŪD

  R. M. Eaton

  Sufi and poet of the Deccan (fl. late 17th century).

• BĀBOR, ABUʾL-QĀSEM MĪRZĀ

  M. E. Subtelny

  Timurid prince (1422-1457), the youngest son of Bāysonqor and a great-grandson of the conqueror Tīmūr.

• MIRDREKVANDI, ʿALI

  Philip G. Kreyenbroek

  nicknamed “Gunga Din,” author of “Irradiant,” a popular epic written in broken English in the mid-20th century.

• AYYOHAʾL-WALAD

  I. Abbas

  a short treatise by Abū Ḥāmed Moḥammad Ḡazālī Ṭūsī (fl. 450-505/1058-1111), originally composed in Persian.

• BAḤR-AL-ʿOLŪM

  H. Algar

  (1155/1742-1212/1797), a Shiʿite scholar who exercised great influence both in Iraq and in Iran through the numerous students he trained.  

• JĀMI iii. And Persian Art

  Chad Kia

  Jāmi’s writings are among the most frequently illustrated in the history of Persian manuscript painting.

• BOḴĀRĪ, JALĀL-AL-DĪN

  Richard M. Eaton

  (1308-84), SHAIKH, popularly known as Maḵdūm-e Jahānīān and Jahāngašt, a celebrated Indo-Persian Sufi of Uch in the southern Punjab.

• ʿAṢṢĀR TABRĪZĪ

  Z. Safa

  poet, scholar, and mystic of the 8th/14th century.

• ALLĀHDĪĀ ČEŠTĪ

  G. Sarwar

  Mughal author of Sīar al-aqṭāb, a biography of the masters of the Ṣāberī Češtī Sufi order (17th century).

• BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN SOLṬĀN WALAD

  M. I. Waley

  (1226-1312), MOḤAMMAD, Sufi shaikh and poet, son and eventual successor of Mawlānā Jalāl-al-Dīn Rūmī.

• ḴALIL-ALLĀH ŠAH

  Nasrollah Pourjavady

  (or Sayyed) BORHĀN-AL-DIN (b. 1373-74, d. 1455-56), the only son of the Sufi master, Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali of Kermān.

• BĀṬEN

  B. Radtke

  (inner, hidden), the opposite of ẓāher (outer, visible). Both terms can be predicated of living beings. Most frequently, however, they are associated with the concept ʿelm (knowledge).

• SOUTHEAST ASIA ii. SHIʿITES IN

  M. Ismail Marchinkowski

  Along with Sufism, Shiʿite elements too entered Malay-Indonesian Islam, certainly by way of southern India, where it was well represented.

• ABŪ NOʿAYM AL-EṢFAHĀNĪ

  W. Madelung

  famous traditionist and author of the collection of Sufi biographies Ḥelyat al-awlīāʾ.

• ANQARAVĪ, ROSŪḴ-AL-DĪN

  H. Algar

  (also known as Rosūḵī Dede; d. 1041/1631), a shaikh in the Mawlawī order and author of the most important traditional commentary on theMaṯnawī of Jalāl-al-dīn Rūmī.

• ḤOLWI, JAMĀL-AL-DIN MAḤMUD

  Tahsin Yazi

  biographer of the leaders of the Ḵalwati Sufi order and minor poet (1574-1654).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪM NAṢRALLĀḤ KHAN

  Hameed ud-Din

  “QAMAR,” government official, historian, biographer, translator, and grammarian in British India (19th century).

• BARĒLVĪ, AḤMAD ŠAHĪD

  Q. Ahmad

  Indo­-Muslim saint, author of Persian works, known for his reformist ideas, military ventures, and eventual martyr­dom (1786-1831).

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ḴARAQĀNĪ

  H. Landolt

  (352-425/963-1033), Sufi shaikh of Ḵaraqān, some 20 km north of Basṭām in Khorasan.

• ʿENĀYAT-ALLĀH KANBO

  Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi

  (b. Burhanpur, 31 August 1608; d. Delhi, 23 September 1671), Sufi and scholar, descendant of an old respected Lahore family that had converted to Islam in Punjab.

• ḤOSAYNI BALḴI

  ʿAbd-al-ḥayy Ḥabibi

  13th-century translator into Persian of Wāʿeẓ-e Balḵi’s no longer extant Arabic work, the Fażāʾel-e Balḵ.

• HANBALITE MAḎHAB

  Merlin Swartz

  a school of Sunni law and theology named after Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (d. 855) which was founded largely under his influence in Baghdad.

• ČELLA

  Mahmoud Omidsalar, Hamid Algar

  term referring to any forty-day period. i. In Persian folklore. ii. In Sufism.

• AHMAD SERHENDI (2)

  Demetrio Giordani

  Shaikh (1564-1624), Indian Sufi known as Mojadded-e alf-e Ṯāni, the Renovator of the second millennium (of Islam).

• EMDĀD-ALLĀH ḤĀJĪ

  Barbara D. Metcalf

  (b. Thana Bhawan, India, 1817, d. Mecca, 1899), spiritual guide and scholar.

• FAYŻ-E KĀŠĀNĪ, MOLLĀ MOḤSEN-MOḤAMMAD

  Hamid Algar

  b. Šāh Mortażā b. Šāh Maḥmūd (b. 1598-9, d. 1679), prolific and versatile scholar of the Safavid period, celebrated chiefly for his Sufi inclinations.

• ŠARIF KHAN, Moḥammad

  Fabrizio Speziale

  (d. ca. 1807), physician at the court of the Mughal emperor, Shah ʿĀlam II (r. 1760-1806), author, and the eponymous founder of the Šarifi family of physicians.

• ABŪ ḤAFṢ ḤADDĀD

  J. Chabbi

  an ascetic who was born and lived in Nīšāpūr, d. between 265/874 and 270/879.

• ḠAZĀLĪ, MAJD-AL-DĪN Abu’l-Fotūḥ AḤMAD

  Nasrollah Pourjavady

  b. Moḥammad b. Aḥmad (ca. 1061-1126), outstanding mystic, writer, and eloquent preacher.

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER JĪLĀNĪ

  B. Lawrence

  noted Hanbalite preacher, Sufi shaikh and the eponymous founder of the Qāderī order.

• AVICENNA v. Mysticism

  D. Gutas

  a philosopher whose philosophical system, rooted in the Aristotelian tradition, is thoroughly rationalistic and intrinsically alien to the principles of Sufism as it had developed until his time.

• GIBB MEMORIAL SERIES

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  or GMS; a series of publications, which has continued for almost a century, mainly, but not exclusively, dedicated to editions and translations of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts.

• DEYLAMĪ, ŠAMS-AL-DĪN ABŪ ṮĀBET MOḤAMMAD

  Gerhard Böwering

  b. ʿAbd-al-Malek ṬŪSĪ (d. ca. 1197), original though obscure Sufi author of the 12th century.

• FĀRŪQĪ DYNASTY

  Carl W. Ernst

  of Khandesh, lit. "land of the khans" in present-day Madhya Pradesh (1370-1601). The prosperity of Khandesh depended upon trade and the production of fine textiles. Patronage of Češtī Sufism also was an important element of Fārūqī state policy.

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• YAZICI, Tahsin

  Osman G. Özgüdenlı

  (1922-2002), Turkish scholar of Persian language, literature, and culture. During fifty-five years of scholarship, Yazıcı wrote, translated, and edited many books and articles. His translations from Persian into Turkish include Aflāki’s Manāqeb al-ʿārefin, the Persian version of Abu’l-Qāsem Qošayri’s Resāla, and the Aḥwāl-e Mawlānā of Faridun b. Aḥmad Sepahsālār.

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• ABŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR

  Kh. A. Nizami

  (also known as SHAH BŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR), Indian poet and saint, d. 725/1324. His mausoleum at Panipat remains a popular center for pilgrimage.

• HERMELIN, AXEL ERIC

  Bo Utas

  (1860-1944), Swedish author and prolific translator of Persian works of literature.

• ʿANDALIB, NĀṢER MOḤAMMAD

  A. Schimmel

  Sufi writer (b. in Delhi 1105/1693-94, d. 1172/1759).

• BĀBĀ SAMMĀSĪ

  H. Algar

  (d. 1354), Central Asian Sufi of the line known as selsela-ye ḵᵛājagān (line of the masters) which was inaugurated by Ḵᵛāja Abu Yaʿqūb Hamadānī.

• MIR FENDERESKI

  Sajjad H. Rizvi

  (1562/63-1640), Sayyed Amir Abu’l-Qāsem, renowned philosopher and mystic during the Safavid revitalization of philosophy.

• BĀQĪBELLĀH NAQŠBANDĪ

  J. G. J. Ter Haar

  (d. 1603), ḴᵛĀJA ABU’L-MOʾAYYAD RAŻĪ-AL-DĪN OWAYSĪ; As a Naqšbandi, he represents the sober type of Sufi, adhering to the Islamic law (šarīʿa) and averse to ecstatic mystical experiences.

• BAQĀʾ WA FANĀʾ

  G. Böwering

  Sufi term signifying “subsistence and passing away,” that is, passing away from worldly reality and being made subsistent in divine reality.

• ABŪ ḤAYYĀN TAWḤĪDĪ

  W. M. Watt

  an outstanding man of letters and essayist of the Buyid period.

• ḤĀL

  Jean During

  (lit. condition, state), an essential notion in Persian arts, especially music, which is supposed to bring about a meditative state.

• KETĀB AL-ʿĀLEM WA’L-ḠOLĀM

  David Hollenberg

  (The Book of the sage and the youth), a work attributed to the Ismaʿili missionary Jaʿfar b. Manṣur-al-Yaman (d. ca. 960).

• GOLŠAN-E RĀZ

  Hamid Algar

  lit. "The Rose Garden of Mysteries"; a concise didactic matnawi in a little over a thousand distichs on the key terms and concepts of Sufism, which has for long served as a principal text of theoretical mysticism in the Persian-speaking and Persian-influenced world.