This article presents two famous collections of the lives of saints: ʿAṭṭār’s Taḏkirat al-awliyāʾ and Jāmī’s Nafaḥāt al-uns. Every collection of the lives of saints shares the common tradition of Arabic-language works. Indeed, Hujvīrī’s Kašf al-maḥjūb and Anṣārī’s Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyyah ensured the transition with Sufi literature written in Arabic. However, the Taḏkirat al-awliyāʾ is the first truly original work in Persian. ʿAṭṭār and Jāmī sought to make known to their respective communities of belief the words and deeds of spiritual masters, but they did so in two different ways. ʿAṭṭār chose a limited corpus of saints that, in his eyes, represented the primary movements of the first centuries of Sufism. Jāmī instead favoured exhaustiveness, amassing a great number of biographies, especially on the shaykhs of the Naqshbandi order. While Jāmī conveyed the paths of saintliness in accordance with the religious orthodoxy of his order, ʿAṭṭār showed a special attachment to the ecstatic masters. The Taḏkirat al-awliyāʾ and Nafaḥāt al-uns thus represent two different ways of commemorating the memory of the spiritual masters who embodied the mystical thought of Islam.
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Yarshater 1968, 23.
Sublet 1991, 169.
Ibid., 95.
Ibid., 95.
Davis 1984, 13.
Bruijn 1997, 17.
Losensky 2009, 14.
Bruijn 1983, 119-139. The text is dedicated to the Ghaznavid Sultan Bahrām Šāh (r. 512-547/1118-1152), who was a great patron of Persian literature.
Bruijn 1999, 361-379. Rūmī based his mas̱navī-i maʿnavī on the model of the Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqah.
Lewisohn 1992, 30.
Ernst 1999, 337. On this type of poetry, see Bruijn 1992, 75-86.
Matīnī 1989, 118.
Landolt 2006, 8.
Landolt 2006, 10.
Bruijn 2002, 83.
Arberry 1958, 450. Divergent views exist with regard to his work; see Algar 2013 chapter “Further Readings.”
Lewisohn 1992, 19-20.
Ibid., 21; Kitāb al-Lumāʿ fī l-taṣawwuf, 16.
Bruijn 1992.
Massignon 1997, 145.
Zarrinkoob 1970, 202.
See Paul 1991.
Gibb 1902, 8.
Bruijn 2002, 82.
Flemming 1994, 63.
Bruijn 2002, 82.
Algar 2013, 130.
See Losensky 2009, 15-18; Idem 2007, 107-119.
Losensky 2009, 19.
Losensky 2009, 19.
Amri 2008, 147.
Algar 2013, 78.
Losensky 2006, 77-78.
Ibid., 78.
Talat Halman 2013, 217.
Losensky 2007, 109.
Losensky 2009, 17-18.
Algar 2008.
Taylor 1966, 97-113.
Algar 2013, 87, following Maḥǧūb 1984, 414.
Algar 2013, 87-88.
Ibid., 167.
Ibid., 169.
Morimoto 2014, 106-124.
This expression is taken from Morimoto 2014, 111. The ʿulamāʾ are guided by the divine light (al-nūr al-rabbānī), but their acquired knowledge is that of the šarīʿah. Samhūdī adapts the discourse of Sufis in order to elaborate his own concept of ʿulamāʾ-awliyāʾ; see ibid., 116.
Pourjavady 2012, 127.
Ernst 1985, 17. Junayd collected the šaṭḥ of Bāyazīd in a work entitled Tafsīr al-šaṭḥiyyāt.
Sells 1996, 216.
Ibid., 358.
Amri 2008, 202. On the model of the prophetic mi‘rāǧ and its role in sainthood, see ibid., 201-216, and on the other voyages of saints, see chap. 8.
Lory 1996, 224.
Lewisohn 1992, 20.
Massignon 1982, vol. 1, 379-380.
Lewisohn 1992, 20, citing Massignon 1982, vol. 1, 384.
Ernst 1999, 332.
Aflākī 2002, 399 [570]. Jāmī similarly relays these words in Nafaḥāt al-uns, 599.
Rypka 1968, 317.
Ibid., 334.
Jolles 1972, 217.
Ibid.; Trans., Algar 2013, 106-107.
Algar 2013, 107.
Mojaddedi 2001, 208, n. 12.
Chodkiewicz 1995, 10.
Ibid., 31.
Ibid., 375-413.
Ibid., 375-377.
Ibid., 406-413.
Ibid., 413.
Algar 2008.
Mojaddedi 2001, 83-84.
Algar 2013, 88. The silsilah of the Naqšabandiyyah was initially of the uwaysī type: from Ǧaʿfar Ṣādiq to Bāyazīd and then Abū l-Ḥasan Kharaqānī; see Algar 1990, 3-56.
Haar 1992, 314.
Ibid., 151.
Expression adopted from Boureau 1984, 253.
Boureau 1984, 253-254. On the success of this text, see Reames 1995.
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This article presents two famous collections of the lives of saints: ʿAṭṭār’s Taḏkirat al-awliyāʾ and Jāmī’s Nafaḥāt al-uns. Every collection of the lives of saints shares the common tradition of Arabic-language works. Indeed, Hujvīrī’s Kašf al-maḥjūb and Anṣārī’s Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyyah ensured the transition with Sufi literature written in Arabic. However, the Taḏkirat al-awliyāʾ is the first truly original work in Persian. ʿAṭṭār and Jāmī sought to make known to their respective communities of belief the words and deeds of spiritual masters, but they did so in two different ways. ʿAṭṭār chose a limited corpus of saints that, in his eyes, represented the primary movements of the first centuries of Sufism. Jāmī instead favoured exhaustiveness, amassing a great number of biographies, especially on the shaykhs of the Naqshbandi order. While Jāmī conveyed the paths of saintliness in accordance with the religious orthodoxy of his order, ʿAṭṭār showed a special attachment to the ecstatic masters. The Taḏkirat al-awliyāʾ and Nafaḥāt al-uns thus represent two different ways of commemorating the memory of the spiritual masters who embodied the mystical thought of Islam.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 562 | 62 | 5 |
Full Text Views | 229 | 4 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 1 | 0 |