Razi Path of God's Bondsmen from Origin to Return [translated]

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4835-5559-1
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 537 Seiten

As unusually comprehensive survey of the main concerns of Sufism, The Path of God's Bondsmen from Origin to Return is a summation of the Sufi tradition as it had developed by the seventh/thirteenth century. It first discussed the theoretical bases of Sufism, showing in conclusive detail their grounding in the Qur'an and the exemplary model of the Prophet Muhammad. It then turns to an examination of man's inner morphology - the soul, the heart, and the spirit - the means of advancement on the Sufi path, and the supra-sensory phenomena that accompany spiritual progress. The work concludes with a section on the wayfaring of different classes, valuable for the light it sheds on the structure of classical Perso-Muslim society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Razi, Najm Al-Din

Leseproben

Introduction

I

Sufism, the inner dimension of Islam, began, it is said, as “a reality without a name.” Its beginnings are coterminous with those of Islam itself, for it is firmly rooted in the Qur’anic revelation and the exemplary person and model of the Prophet Mo?ammad, upon whom be peace. Yet the word Sufi does not occur in the text of the Qur’an, nor did it exist in the lifetime of the Prophet and his companions. It emerged, rather, in the process of a historical elaboration that made explicit and differentiated what had previously been implicit and undifferentiated; the inner and outer dimensions of the religion each attained a separate identity within the subsuming framework of its total structure. The early elaboration of Sufism is parallel and complementary to the establishment of the discipline of jurisprudence and the emergence of the law schools; both phenomena occurred at approximately the same time, the second and third centuries of the Islamic era (eighth and ninth centuries of the Christian era).1 In this period, lines of mystical affiliation grew up; an expository literature was written; a technical vocabulary was elaborated; paraliturgical practices were formalized; and distinct institutional forms came into being.

The stages of this process cannot even be sketched here; suffice it to say that numerous channels of development converged in the seventh century of the Islamic era (thirteenth century of the Christian era) to produce one of the richest and most brilliant epochs in the history of Sufism, almost as if all that had gone before constituted a preparation for what has been termed “a fresh flowering or second youth” of Islam.2 This flourishing of Sufism took place against a somber background of barbarian invasion—the Crusaders descended on the Islamic world from the west, and the Mongols from the east—and it may almost be regarded as a kind of compensation for the political disasters of the period. From the Islamic west arose the supreme master of Islamic theosophy, Ebn ‘Arabi (d. 638/1240), whose career embraced Cairo, Damascus, and Konya, where he gained a number of disciples who assured the dissemination of his teachings throughout the eastern Islamic world. Several Sufi orders emerged in Egypt, including the Badawiya of A?mad al-Badawi (d. 674/1276) and the Ša?eliya of Abu’l-?asan Ša?eli, who died in 656/1258, the same year as the Mongol conquest of Baghdad, and whose order, with its numerous derivatives, continues to dominate the spiritual life of North Africa down to the present day. Anatolia witnessed the career of Mowlana Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 672/1273), who composed some of the greatest literary monuments of Sufism in the Persian language and founded an order that enriched the cultural life of the Turkish people for almost five centuries. In India, the Cešti order arose under the auspices of Mo‘in al-Din Cešti (d. 633/1236), and the Sohravardi order, brought to the subcontinent by Baha al-Din Zakariya Moltani (d. 665/1267), began to take firm root. And finally in Central Asia we encounter the figure of ‘Abd al-?aleq Gejdovani (d. 616/1220), the spiritual ancestor of the Naqšbandi order; several important shaikhs of the cognate Yasavi order; and, most important, the Kobravi order to which was affiliated Najm al-din Daya Razi, author of the present work.

The founder of the Kobravi order, Najm al-Din Kobra, was born in 540/1145–1146 in the city of arazm to the south of the Aral Sea; although he traveled for many years in other regions of the Islamic world, he spent the major part of his life in his birthplace and died there. He was in a sense the patron saint of arazm, and it was there, and in contiguous regions of Central Asia, that his order initially spread. He began his career as a scholar of prophetic Tradition (?adi) and theology (kalam), traveling wide in the cultivation of these disciplines. His interest in Sufism was awakened in Egypt, where he became a morid of Shaikh Ruzbehan al-Wazzan al-Me?ri, who had been initiated into the Sohravardi line. After a number of years in Egypt, he went to Tabriz to pursue his studies of kalam, but came instead under the influence of a certain Baba Faraj Tabrizi, who persuaded him to abandon his concern with the external religious sciences and devote himself fully to the Sufi path. He then spent some time in the company of two other preceptors, ‘Ammar b. Yaser and Esma‘il al-Qa?ri, before returning to Shaikh Ruzbehan in Egypt. Ruzbehan evidently regarded Kobra by then as fully mature, for in about 540/1145 he sent him back to arazm with full authority to initiate and train his own disciples.

Kobra swiftly gathered a large following in arazm, including an extraordinary number of individuals who attained prominence in their own right as gnostics and writers on Sufism. He is, in fact, frequently designated in the traditional literature as vali-taraš, the “manufacturer of saints.” Among the foremost disciples of Kobra we may mention Majd al-Din Ba?dadi (d. 616/1219), Sa‘d al-Din ?amuya (d. 650/1252), Baba Kamal Jandi, Seyf al-Din Ba?arzi (d. 658/1260), Razi al-Din ‘Ali Lala (d. 642/1244), and Kobra’s namesake, the author of this book, Najm al-Din Daya Razi.

The major emphasis in the writing and teaching of Najm al-Din Kobra was on the analysis of visionary experience that unfolds itself to the wayfarer on the Sufi path, and the morphology of man’s inner being. He examined the differing significances of dreams and visions; the degrees of luminous epiphany that are manifested to the mystic and their origins; the various classes of concept and image (?ava?er) that engages the Sufi’s attention and their significance; and the nature of the heart, the spirit and the “mystery,” as well as the interrelation between these subtle centers of cognition (la?a’ef). He transmitted these emphases to his followers, including Daya, who as we shall see enlarged upon the terminology and classification of his master in one respect.3

Najm al-Din Kobra died during the Mongol conquest of arazm in 618/1221; according to the traditional accounts, he refused an invitation by the Mongols to leave the city before they proceeded with their massacre of the inhabitants, and died at the head of a band of his followers while engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the attackers. He is reputed to have been buried at the site of his ?anaqah (hospice) outside the city. His tomb, located in what subsequently became known as Köhne-Ürgenj, became a center of pious visitation, and is said to retain this function even under Soviet rule.4 Various disciples perpetuated his line, and even took a kind of revenge on the killers of their master by presiding over their meek conversion to Islam. Seyf al-Din Ba?arzi established a well-endowed ?anaqah in Bokhara, some time between 644/1246 and 651/1253. Berke ?an, the fifth ruler of the Golden Horde, came to it to proclaim his acceptance of Islam.5 Another disciple, Sa‘d al-Din ?amuya, initially took refuge in Syria from the Mongol invaders but later turned eastward again and set up his ?anaqah at Ba?rabad in Khorasan. The direction of the ?anaqah was inherited by his son, ?adr al-Din Ebrahim, who in 694/1295 presided over the conversion to Islam of ?azan ?an the Ilkhanid, ruler of another branch of the Mongol empire.6

Other members of the Kobravi line continued to cultivate the analytical and speculative interests of Najm al-Din Kobra. For example, ‘Aziz al-Din Nasafi, a morid of Sa‘d al-Din ?amuya, wrote an important treatise on the Sufi concept of the Perfect Man, the dominant theme of all Sufi anthropology.7 Rokn al-Din ‘Ala al-Dowla Semnani (d. 736/1336), connected by two links of the initiatic chain with Razi al-Din ‘Ali Lala, further elaborated the analysis of man’s subtle centers begun by Najm al-Din Kobra and Daya, and formulated a critique of the theosophy of Ebn ‘Arabi that had much influence on Indian Sufism, particularly in Naqšbandi circles.8

The major works of these writers have been published and made the object of scholarly analysis; far less well known is the subsequent history of the Kobravi order, both in its Central Asian homeland and in more distant regions. Badr al-Din Samarqandi, a morid of Seyf al-Din Ba?arzi, traveled south-ward to India and established a branch of the Kobraviya that came to be known as the Ferdowsiya.9 Its most important...