Sufi studies
Encyclopedia
Sufi studies: a particular branch of comparative studies that uses a.o.the technical lexicon of the Islamic mystics, the Sufis, to exemplify the nature of its ideas; hence the frequent reference to Sufi Orders. It may be divided into two main branches, the orientalist
/academic and the spiritual.
(1625–1695), a professor at the Collège de France
who worked from texts available in Europe, François Bernier
(1625–1688), the physician of the Mughal
emperor Aurangzeb
who spent 1655-69 in the Islamic world (mostly with Aurangzeb), and François Pétis de la Croix
(1653–1713), a diplomat who spent 1674-1676 in Isfahan
, where he studied Rumi's Masnavi-ye Manavi and visited the Bektashi
order.
D'Herbelot's great work, the Bibliothèque orientale (published posthumously in 1697), included an entry on Sufism
(as tasawwuf) and detailed entries on Al-Hallaj, Najmeddin Kubra
, and Abd-al-karim Jili
. There were a number of references to the Masnavi and to Rumi (as Gellaledin Mohammed al Balkhi), and there may also have been entries on them.
Bernier published an article on Sufism entitled "Mémoire sur le quïetisme des Indes" in the periodical Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans in September 1688. Following this article, there is said to have developed in France a view that the French expression of the creed of Pure Love (Pur Amour/Quietism) was in fact a disguised form of Islam
. The debate over Quietism between the bishops Fénelon and Bossuet
was remembered as the "Querelle du Pur Amour". Many Quietists (including Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
) were imprisoned. Others exercised caution and self-censorship.
Pétis de la Croix did not publish himself, but his son (writing later under a pseudonym) gave reasons why he thought "the Mevlevi
are perfect Quïetists" (Ahmed Frangui, Lettres critiques de Hadgi Effendi à la Marquise de G... au sujet des mémoires de M. le Chevalier d'Arvieux, Paris, 1735).
D'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque orientale went through several editions, one of the last of which was the 1777 edition printed in the Hague. It has been suggested that some entries on Sufi topics that were present in the 1697 edition were absent from the 1777 edition. The word "Sufi" appears (vol 3, p. 329).
(1604–1691), published a Latin translation of the Hayy Ibn Yakhthan of Ibn Tufayl. This led to a number of other translations, including the English translations of 1674 (by George Keith) and 1686 (by George Ashwell), and a Dutch translation of 1701. The anonymous Dutch translator, "S.D.B.," gave a concise biographical review of the philosophers related to the text: Al Farabi, Avicenna
, Al Ghazali, Ibn Bajjah
, Ibn Rushd, Junayd
, and Mansur Al-Hallaj
(with a description of his death and a reference to his famous "Ana al-Haqq"). Hayy Ibn Yakhthan may have partly inspired Robinson Crusoe
.
In 1812, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall published a translation of the divan of Hafiz, which was received with delight by Goethe, who was inspired by it to publish in 1819 his Westöstlicher Diwan. A Sufi appears in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
’s play Nathan der Weise
, first produced in 1779, though it is not clear from where Lessing learned of Sufism, perhaps through his association with Johann Jakob Reiske
.
In 1821, F.A.G. Thölluck published Ssufismus sive Theosophia persarum pantheistica in Berlin (in Latin).
's 1825 work, The History of Persia, From the Most Early Period to the Present Time, Containing an Account of the Religion, Government, Usages and Character of the Inhabitants of that Kingdom. Malcolm's treatment, though interesting, is not well informed.
In An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians written in Egypt during the years 1833-1835 (1836) Edward William Lane
noted, and illustrated with his own woodcuts, his close observations of the Rifa'i
derwishes while living in Cairo "in disguise". The success of his work also introduced the success of the "disguise". Sir Richard Burton's Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (3 vol.1855-1856) was undertaken while travelling as a Qadiri, and Armin Vambéry
reached Baveddin near Bokhara to visit the shrine of Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari
in 1863 in the guise of a murid
. Voyage dans l'Asie Centrale, de Téhéran a Khiva, Bokhara et Samarkand, par Arminius Vambéry, savant Hongrois déguisé en derviche was the subject of four instalments of the popular and copiously illustrated "Le Tour Du Monde, Nouveau Journal Des Voyages (Edouard Charton)" Paris, Londres, Leipzig 1865, deuxième semestre -Hachette et Cie ed.
The "disguise" was by no means superficial and necessitated a variety of resources in linguistics and social integration that left marks far beyond the mere popular success of travelogues
.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the resistance to the European conquest of North Africa was often led by Sufis, notably Abd al-Qadir and later the Sanusi order. This drew further attention to Sufis and Sufism, and a number of studies were performed and published. These generally suffered from their authors' preoccupations with security.
http://www.sala.se/turism/aguelimuseet/e-index.html who -inspired by the quasi occult tradition (Symbolist painters, Les Nabis
) developing en marge of the great workshops of Paul Gauguin
and Emile Bernard
- took his intellectual search into the realm of Sufism
proper. This culminated into his initiation, in Egypt
, by Sheikh Rahman Elish Kabir into the Shadhili
tariqa.
When he returned to Paris
from his travels in the East in 1909, he found a mind receptive to his own spiritual affiliation in the person
of René Guénon
whom in turn he initiated into the Shadhili
Order (1912).René Guénon
-who finally settled in Cairo
where he died (1951) a convert to Islam under his adopted name of Abdel Wahid Yahia- had an enormous influence on a circle of friends centered around the periodical "La Gnose", that he had started in 1909. This circle pooled the resources of a.o. Frithjof Schuon
, Titus Burckhardt
, Marco Pallis
, Ananda Coomaraswamy
, Martin Lings
e.a., each with his own focus on Islam
, Buddhism
, Hinduism
... (see also: Gershom Scholem
on Judaism
, Kabbalah
)
René Guénon
focused on a measure of criticism towards what he called "solidified" (petrified) forms of initiation in the West; Freemasonry
in particular which he sought to revive in reference to Emir Abd Al-Qadir whose name was widely respected among Masons.
If one looks at the aspect of Sufi initiation proper the following background to René Guénon
's brand of "Perennial Tradition" emerges. Through his affiliation with the Shadhili
Order he was branched to the Akbari chain, going back to the "Greatest Sheikh" -Shaykh Al-Akbar- Ibn Arabi
.
Seminal research on the inspiration of Ibn Arabi and the Shadili and its projection in the works of Dante
and St John of the Cross came from the great Christian scholar Miguel Asin Palacios
(1848–1853). In 1858 the Imprimerie Nationale (Paris) had printed his "Rappel à l'Intelligent; avis
à l'Ignorant", an essay he had sent to the Société Asiatique in 1855.
The Emir Abd Al-Qadir had been initiated into the Naqshbandi
by Sheikh Diya al-Din Khalid Al-Sharazuri and into the Qadiri by his own father Sidi Muhiuddin who led a North African branch of the Qadiri Order. In 1863, during his Hajj, he met with Muhammed al-Fasi al-Shadili, who became his last living teacher, in Mekka. Muhammad al-Fasi al-Shadili's proper teacher had been initiated into the Shadhili
by al-Arabi ad-Darqawi, some of whose letters were translated by Martin Lings
(1961); they form the background to Martin Lings
' outline of the autobiographical writings of Ahmad al-Alawi
, who was linked to the Shadhili
through ad-Darqawi. Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi died in 1932.
An approach from a different angle may be traced to Sheikh Ahmad al-Tijani
who died in Fez
in 1815 and was said to be the inheritor of the "paths" of his time, a.o. Qadiri and Shadili.
Sheikh Hammalah ben Mohammed ben Sidna Omar, who died in forced exile to France, lies buried in Montluçon, France
. He was the former Qutub al Zaman of the Tijaniyyah
. A moving account of the circumstances of his death is given by the great African traditionalist and cultural ambassador Amadou Hampâté Bâ
, himself a Tijani, in the biography of his own sheikh, Tierno Bokar
.
had tapped proved to be a lively one. René Guénon
's wish to edit a series of Sufi translations was frustrated, but in the meantime Louis Massignon
had prepared himself for the task. By 1922, his introduction to the technical lexicon of Sufism and the Passion of Al-Hallaj initiated the first line of textual study, translation and publication of sources that developed into the watershed of which the chief engineers were Henry Corbin
and Seyyed Hossein Nasr
.
Since the observation is pertinent that thus far the watershed is fed from a distinct French sphere of influence, a mental exercise is needed to broaden the view. It is clear that Seyyed Hossein Nasr
's participation in the collaboration with Henry Corbin
infused this field with a genuine consideration for some of the finer aspects (Irfan
) of Islamic culture as seen from a proper native source – Iran
– and adding a distinct contemporary sting to ecology
.
It may be interesting to compare two contributions to Sufi studies from this same angle -1°)Seyyed Hossein Nasr "Revelation, Intellect and Reason in the Qu'ran" in "Sufi Essays" -London and Albany, New York 1972. -2°)Reza Arasteh:"Psychology of the Sufi Way to Individuation." in "Sufi Studies East and West" Rushbrook Williams ed. New York 1973. Both describe the control over the "nafs", the spiritual "breaths" that color man's essential character; a study comparing intelligence in its western and eastern traditional form. Pr. Arasteh had already introduced this "Sufi Way" in his academical work on psychiatric theory ("Final Integration in Adult Personality" Brill Leiden 1965).
) wrote in honour of Sayyid Idries Shah
, whose stature as a scholar was as fiercely disputed as his communication to a general public was successful. Nevertheless Sayyid Idries Shah
caused the English feed of the watershed to be explored – through his own accessible style of writing, by providing affordable publications of great classical texts, and rebelliously askew on the niceties of an Oxford/Cambridge kind of rivalry over Pr. Nicholson
and Pr. Arberry
– and to exactly what extent can now easily be verified by the student willing to compare for himself the eleven Naqshbandi rules
or exercise-aims listed by Sayyid Idries Shah
in chapter VII of Oriental Magic in 1957 with those presently divulged through the proper channel http://www.uga.edu/islam/11Naqsprin.html. They are indeed the same.
"Oriental Magic" was read as a comparative study at the London Ethnological Institute. Sufi studies in general are directed as comparative studies of human understanding, and can be read as essays in psychosociology (see: Albert Hourani
on "Marshall Hodgson
and the Venture of Islam" in Islam in European Thought – Cambridge University Press 1991).
who wrote (1925–1935) on the history of mysticism in the Near and Middle East from a woman's perspective leading to classic pages on early Christian mysticism, women in the early Christian Church, Christianity and Islam at the beginning of the Islamic era (see:Hanif
), the rise of Sufism and the early ascetic ideal. Two exemplaries of her subject matter she studied in closer detail: Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya and Harith al-Muhasibi
.
The summary of her work reposes in her:
.
The perspectives of these later scholars varied. Some were purely scientific, while some followed in the line of Massignon
, or (sometimes privately) in the line of Guénon
and the Traditionalists
, modified somewhat for an academic environment.
For a contemporary academical "state of the art" see: " Sufism in the West", bibliography pp 190–202 ( Jamal Malik and John Hinnells ed. Routledge: London and New York, 2006 )
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
/academic and the spiritual.
Early Sufi studies in France
The earliest Europeans to study Sufism were French, associated (rightly or wrongly) with the Quietist movement. They were Barthélemy d'Herbelot de MolainvilleBarthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville
Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville , French Orientalist, was born at Paris.He was educated at the University of Paris, and devoted himself to the study of oriental languages, going to Italy to perfect himself in them by converse with the orientals who frequented its seaports...
(1625–1695), a professor at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
who worked from texts available in Europe, François Bernier
François Bernier
François Bernier was a French physician and traveller. He was born at Joué-Etiau in Anjou. He was the personal physician of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for around 12 years during his stay in India....
(1625–1688), the physician of the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
who spent 1655-69 in the Islamic world (mostly with Aurangzeb), and François Pétis de la Croix
François Pétis de la Croix
François Pétis de la Croix was a French orientalist.He was born in Paris, the son of the Arabic interpreter of the French court, and inherited this office at his father's death in 1695, afterwards transmitting it to his own son, Alexandre Louis Marie, who also distinguished himself in Oriental...
(1653–1713), a diplomat who spent 1674-1676 in Isfahan
Isfahan (city)
Isfahan , historically also rendered in English as Ispahan, Sepahan or Hispahan, is the capital of Isfahan Province in Iran, located about 340 km south of Tehran. It has a population of 1,583,609, Iran's third largest city after Tehran and Mashhad...
, where he studied Rumi's Masnavi-ye Manavi and visited the Bektashi
Bektashi
Bektashi Order or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi order founded in the 13th century by the Persian saint Haji Bektash Veli. In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli the order was significantly influenced during its formative period by both the Hurufis as well as the...
order.
D'Herbelot's great work, the Bibliothèque orientale (published posthumously in 1697), included an entry on Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
(as tasawwuf) and detailed entries on Al-Hallaj, Najmeddin Kubra
Najmeddin Kubra
Najmuddīn-e Kubrā or Najm al-Din Kubra, was a 13th-century Persian Sufi from Khwarezmia, the founder of the Kubrawiyya or Kubraviyah Sufi order, influential in the Ilkhanid and Timurid. His method, exemplary of a "golden age" of sufi metaphysics, was related to the Illuminism of Shahab al-Din...
, and Abd-al-karim Jili
Abd-al-karim Jili
Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī, or Abdul Karim Jili, was a Muslim sufi saint and mystic who was born in 1366 at Jil in Baghdad. He is famous in Muslim mysticism as the author of Universal Man....
. There were a number of references to the Masnavi and to Rumi (as Gellaledin Mohammed al Balkhi), and there may also have been entries on them.
Bernier published an article on Sufism entitled "Mémoire sur le quïetisme des Indes" in the periodical Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans in September 1688. Following this article, there is said to have developed in France a view that the French expression of the creed of Pure Love (Pur Amour/Quietism) was in fact a disguised form of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. The debate over Quietism between the bishops Fénelon and Bossuet
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist....
was remembered as the "Querelle du Pur Amour". Many Quietists (including Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism...
) were imprisoned. Others exercised caution and self-censorship.
Pétis de la Croix did not publish himself, but his son (writing later under a pseudonym) gave reasons why he thought "the Mevlevi
Mevlevi
The Mevlevi Order, or the Mevlevilik or Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded in Konya by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet, Islamic jurist, and theologian. They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form...
are perfect Quïetists" (Ahmed Frangui, Lettres critiques de Hadgi Effendi à la Marquise de G... au sujet des mémoires de M. le Chevalier d'Arvieux, Paris, 1735).
D'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque orientale went through several editions, one of the last of which was the 1777 edition printed in the Hague. It has been suggested that some entries on Sufi topics that were present in the 1697 edition were absent from the 1777 edition. The word "Sufi" appears (vol 3, p. 329).
Early translations
In 1671, Edward Pococke (1648–1727), the son of Oxford professor Edward PocockeEdward Pococke
Edward Pococke was an English Orientalist and biblical scholar.-Early life:He was the son of clergyman from Chieveley in Berkshire, and was educated at Lord Williams's School of Thame in Oxfordshire and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
(1604–1691), published a Latin translation of the Hayy Ibn Yakhthan of Ibn Tufayl. This led to a number of other translations, including the English translations of 1674 (by George Keith) and 1686 (by George Ashwell), and a Dutch translation of 1701. The anonymous Dutch translator, "S.D.B.," gave a concise biographical review of the philosophers related to the text: Al Farabi, Avicenna
Avicenna
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
, Al Ghazali, Ibn Bajjah
Ibn Bajjah
Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh , known as Ibn Bājjah , was an Andalusian polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, botanist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace...
, Ibn Rushd, Junayd
Junayd
Junayd is a male given name which means soldier or warrior.-Given name:*Mohammed Junaid Babar, Pakistani-American terrorist*Junayd Baghdadi, a 9th-century Sufi*Junaid Ismail Dockrat, South African Dentist...
, and Mansur Al-Hallaj
Mansur Al-Hallaj
Mansur al-Hallaj was a Persian mystic, revolutionary writer and pious teacher of Sufism most famous for his poetry, accusation of heresy and for his execution at the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn-out investigation.-Early life:Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in Fars...
(with a description of his death and a reference to his famous "Ana al-Haqq"). Hayy Ibn Yakhthan may have partly inspired Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
.
In 1812, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall published a translation of the divan of Hafiz, which was received with delight by Goethe, who was inspired by it to publish in 1819 his Westöstlicher Diwan. A Sufi appears in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
’s play Nathan der Weise
Nathan der Weise
Nathan the Wise is a play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, published in 1779. It is a fervent plea for religious tolerance...
, first produced in 1779, though it is not clear from where Lessing learned of Sufism, perhaps through his association with Johann Jakob Reiske
Johann Jakob Reiske
Johann Jakob Reiske was a German scholar and physician. He was a pioneer in the fields of Arabic and Byzantine philology as well as Islamic numismatics.-Biography:Reiske was born at Zörbig, in Electoral Saxony....
.
In 1821, F.A.G. Thölluck published Ssufismus sive Theosophia persarum pantheistica in Berlin (in Latin).
Early sociological studies
One of the earliest sociological treatments of Sufism is to be found in Sir John MalcolmJohn Malcolm
Major-general Sir John Malcolm was a Scottish soldier, statesman, and historian-Early life:Born at Burnfoot, Dumfriesshire, Malcolm was the son of George Malcolm, a gentleman farmer of Eskdale and Burnfoot. Jock, as he was then known, was one of the four Malcolm brothers who attained knighthoods...
's 1825 work, The History of Persia, From the Most Early Period to the Present Time, Containing an Account of the Religion, Government, Usages and Character of the Inhabitants of that Kingdom. Malcolm's treatment, though interesting, is not well informed.
In An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians written in Egypt during the years 1833-1835 (1836) Edward William Lane
Edward William Lane
Edward William Lane was a British Orientalist, translator and lexicographer....
noted, and illustrated with his own woodcuts, his close observations of the Rifa'i
Rifa'i
The Rifa'i order is an eminent Sufi order founded by Ahmed ar-Rifa'i and developed in the Lower Iraq marshlands between Wasit and Basra. The Rifa'iyya had its greatest following until the 15th century C.E. when it was overtaken by the Qadiri order. Presently the order is said to maintain...
derwishes while living in Cairo "in disguise". The success of his work also introduced the success of the "disguise". Sir Richard Burton's Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (3 vol.1855-1856) was undertaken while travelling as a Qadiri, and Armin Vambéry
Ármin Vámbéry
Ármin Vámbéry, Arminius Vámbéry born Hermann Bamberger, or Bamberger Ármin , was a Hungarian orientalist and traveler...
reached Baveddin near Bokhara to visit the shrine of Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari
Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari
Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari was the founder of what would become the Naqshbandi. He was born in Bukhara which is located in Uzbekistan...
in 1863 in the guise of a murid
Murid
Murid is a Sufi term meaning 'committed one' from the root meaning "willpower" or "self-esteem". It refers to a person who is committed to a Murshid in a Tariqa of Sufism. Also known as a Salik , a murid is an initiate into the mystic philosophy of Sufism. When the Talib makes a pledge to a...
. Voyage dans l'Asie Centrale, de Téhéran a Khiva, Bokhara et Samarkand, par Arminius Vambéry, savant Hongrois déguisé en derviche was the subject of four instalments of the popular and copiously illustrated "Le Tour Du Monde, Nouveau Journal Des Voyages (Edouard Charton)" Paris, Londres, Leipzig 1865, deuxième semestre -Hachette et Cie ed.
The "disguise" was by no means superficial and necessitated a variety of resources in linguistics and social integration that left marks far beyond the mere popular success of travelogues
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the resistance to the European conquest of North Africa was often led by Sufis, notably Abd al-Qadir and later the Sanusi order. This drew further attention to Sufis and Sufism, and a number of studies were performed and published. These generally suffered from their authors' preoccupations with security.
Aguéli to Guénon
One line of 20th century Sufi studies that came to fruition in the West appears to have been born from many colors in a painters workshop. It was the Swedish painter Ivan AguéliIvan Aguéli
Ivan Aguéli also named Sheikh 'Abd al-Hādī 'Aqīlī upon his acceptance of Islam, was a Swedish wandering Sufi, painter and author. As a devotee of Ibn Arabi, his metaphysics applied to the study of Islamic esoterism and its similarities with other esoteric traditions of the world...
http://www.sala.se/turism/aguelimuseet/e-index.html who -inspired by the quasi occult tradition (Symbolist painters, Les Nabis
Les Nabis
Les Nabis were a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists who set the pace for fine arts and graphic arts in France in the 1890s. Initially a group of friends interested in contemporary art and literature, most of them studied at the private art school of Rodolphe Julian in Paris in the...
) developing en marge of the great workshops of Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
and Emile Bernard
Émile Bernard
Émile Henri Bernard is known as a Post-Impressionist painter who had artistic friendships with Van Gogh, Gauguin and Eugene Boch, and at a later time, Cézanne. Most of his notable work was accomplished at a young age, in the years 1886 through 1897. He is also associated with Cloisonnism and...
- took his intellectual search into the realm of Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
proper. This culminated into his initiation, in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, by Sheikh Rahman Elish Kabir into the Shadhili
Shadhili
The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....
tariqa.
When he returned to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
from his travels in the East in 1909, he found a mind receptive to his own spiritual affiliation in the person
Person
A person is a human being, or an entity that has certain capacities or attributes strongly associated with being human , for example in a particular moral or legal context...
of René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
whom in turn he initiated into the Shadhili
Shadhili
The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....
Order (1912).René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
-who finally settled in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
where he died (1951) a convert to Islam under his adopted name of Abdel Wahid Yahia- had an enormous influence on a circle of friends centered around the periodical "La Gnose", that he had started in 1909. This circle pooled the resources of a.o. Frithjof Schuon
Frithjof Schuon
Frithjof Schuon, was a native of Switzerland born to German parents in Basel, Switzerland. He is known as a philosopher, metaphysician and author of numerous books on religion and spirituality....
, Titus Burckhardt
Titus Burckhardt
Titus Burckhardt , a German Swiss, was born in Florence, Italy in 1908 and died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1984. He devoted all his life to the study and exposition of the different aspects of Wisdom and Tradition.He was an eminent member of the "traditionalist school" of twentieth-century authors...
, Marco Pallis
Marco Pallis
Marco Alexander Pallis was a Greek -British-born author and mountaineer with close affiliations to the Traditionalist School. He wrote works on the religion and culture of Tibet....
, Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
, Martin Lings
Martin Lings
Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar...
e.a., each with his own focus on Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
... (see also: Gershom Scholem
Gershom Scholem
Gerhard Scholem who, after his immigration from Germany to Palestine, changed his name to Gershom Scholem , was a German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and historian, born and raised in Germany...
on Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
)
René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
focused on a measure of criticism towards what he called "solidified" (petrified) forms of initiation in the West; Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
in particular which he sought to revive in reference to Emir Abd Al-Qadir whose name was widely respected among Masons.
If one looks at the aspect of Sufi initiation proper the following background to René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
's brand of "Perennial Tradition" emerges. Through his affiliation with the Shadhili
Shadhili
The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....
Order he was branched to the Akbari chain, going back to the "Greatest Sheikh" -Shaykh Al-Akbar- Ibn Arabi
Ibn Arabi
Ibn ʿArabī was an Andalusian Moorish Sufi mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn `Arabī .-Biography:...
.
Seminal research on the inspiration of Ibn Arabi and the Shadili and its projection in the works of Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
and St John of the Cross came from the great Christian scholar Miguel Asin Palacios
Abd Al-Qadir and al-Tijani
The Akbari already had a history of initiation in Western Europe in the person of Emir Abd Al-Qadir, the noble opponent of the French in their colonial struggle over Algeria, who they had held sequestered at the Château d'AmboiseChâteau d'Amboise
The royal Château at Amboise is a château located in Amboise, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France.-Origins and royal residence:...
(1848–1853). In 1858 the Imprimerie Nationale (Paris) had printed his "Rappel à l'Intelligent; avis
à l'Ignorant", an essay he had sent to the Société Asiatique in 1855.
The Emir Abd Al-Qadir had been initiated into the Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
by Sheikh Diya al-Din Khalid Al-Sharazuri and into the Qadiri by his own father Sidi Muhiuddin who led a North African branch of the Qadiri Order. In 1863, during his Hajj, he met with Muhammed al-Fasi al-Shadili, who became his last living teacher, in Mekka. Muhammad al-Fasi al-Shadili's proper teacher had been initiated into the Shadhili
Shadhili
The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....
by al-Arabi ad-Darqawi, some of whose letters were translated by Martin Lings
Martin Lings
Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar...
(1961); they form the background to Martin Lings
Martin Lings
Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar...
' outline of the autobiographical writings of Ahmad al-Alawi
Ahmad al-Alawi
Ahmad al-Alawi , , was the founder of a popular modern Sufi order, the Darqawiyya Alawiyya, a branch of the Shadhiliyya.-Biography:...
, who was linked to the Shadhili
Shadhili
The Shadhili Tariqa is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Followers of the Shadhiliya are known as Shadhilis....
through ad-Darqawi. Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi died in 1932.
An approach from a different angle may be traced to Sheikh Ahmad al-Tijani
Tijaniyyah
The Tijāniyyah is a sufi tariqa originating in North Africa but now more widespread in West Africa, particularly in Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, and Northern Nigeria and Sudan...
who died in Fez
Fes, Morocco
Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....
in 1815 and was said to be the inheritor of the "paths" of his time, a.o. Qadiri and Shadili.
Sheikh Hammalah ben Mohammed ben Sidna Omar, who died in forced exile to France, lies buried in Montluçon, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He was the former Qutub al Zaman of the Tijaniyyah
Tijaniyyah
The Tijāniyyah is a sufi tariqa originating in North Africa but now more widespread in West Africa, particularly in Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, and Northern Nigeria and Sudan...
. A moving account of the circumstances of his death is given by the great African traditionalist and cultural ambassador Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Amadou Hampâté Bâ was a Malian writer and ethnologist.-Biography:...
, himself a Tijani, in the biography of his own sheikh, Tierno Bokar
Tierno Bokar
Tierno Bokar , full name Tierno Bokar Saalif Tall, was an African mystic, Sufi sage, and a Muslim spiritual teacher of the early twentieth century famous for his message of religious tolerance and universal love.-Life:...
.
Massignon to Nasr
Thus the current into which the friends of the Traditionalist SchoolTraditionalist School
The term Traditionalist School is used by Mark Sedgwick and other authors to denote a school of thought, also known as Integral Traditionalism or Perennialism to denote an esoteric movement developed by authors such as French metaphysician René Guénon, German-Swiss...
had tapped proved to be a lively one. René Guénon
René Guénon
René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...
's wish to edit a series of Sufi translations was frustrated, but in the meantime Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon was a French scholar of Islam and its history. Although a Catholic himself, he tried to understand Islam from within and thus had a great influence on the way Islam was seen in the West; among other things, he paved the way for a greater openness inside the Catholic Church towards...
had prepared himself for the task. By 1922, his introduction to the technical lexicon of Sufism and the Passion of Al-Hallaj initiated the first line of textual study, translation and publication of sources that developed into the watershed of which the chief engineers were Henry Corbin
Henry Corbin
Henry Corbin was a philosopher, theologian and professor of Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.Corbin was born in Paris in April 1903. As a boy he revealed the profound sensitivity to music so evident in his work...
and Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher...
.
Since the observation is pertinent that thus far the watershed is fed from a distinct French sphere of influence, a mental exercise is needed to broaden the view. It is clear that Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher...
's participation in the collaboration with Henry Corbin
Henry Corbin
Henry Corbin was a philosopher, theologian and professor of Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.Corbin was born in Paris in April 1903. As a boy he revealed the profound sensitivity to music so evident in his work...
infused this field with a genuine consideration for some of the finer aspects (Irfan
Irfan
‘Irfān literally means knowing/awareness. The term is often translated as gnosis, however it also refers to Islamic mysticism. Those with the name are sometimes referred to as having an insight into the unseen...
) of Islamic culture as seen from a proper native source – Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
– and adding a distinct contemporary sting to ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
.
It may be interesting to compare two contributions to Sufi studies from this same angle -1°)Seyyed Hossein Nasr "Revelation, Intellect and Reason in the Qu'ran" in "Sufi Essays" -London and Albany, New York 1972. -2°)Reza Arasteh:"Psychology of the Sufi Way to Individuation." in "Sufi Studies East and West" Rushbrook Williams ed. New York 1973. Both describe the control over the "nafs", the spiritual "breaths" that color man's essential character; a study comparing intelligence in its western and eastern traditional form. Pr. Arasteh had already introduced this "Sufi Way" in his academical work on psychiatric theory ("Final Integration in Adult Personality" Brill Leiden 1965).
Idries Shah
Professor Reza Arasteh M.D.(remembered for his correspondence http://www.merton.org/Research/index.asp with Thomas MertonThomas Merton
Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
) wrote in honour of Sayyid Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
, whose stature as a scholar was as fiercely disputed as his communication to a general public was successful. Nevertheless Sayyid Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
caused the English feed of the watershed to be explored – through his own accessible style of writing, by providing affordable publications of great classical texts, and rebelliously askew on the niceties of an Oxford/Cambridge kind of rivalry over Pr. Nicholson
Reynold A. Nicholson
Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, or R. A. Nicholson, was an eminent English orientalist, scholar of both Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism, and widely regarded as one of the greatest Rumi scholars and translators in the English language.-Life:Son of paleontologist Henry Alleyne Nicholson,...
and Pr. Arberry
Arthur John Arberry
Arthur John Arberry was a respected British orientalist. A most prolific scholar of Arabic, Persian, and Islamic studies, he was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge...
– and to exactly what extent can now easily be verified by the student willing to compare for himself the eleven Naqshbandi rules
Eleven Naqshbandi principles
The Eleven Naqshbandi principles or the "rules or secrets of the Naqshbandi", known in their original Persian as the kalimat-i qudsiya , are a system of principles and guidelines used as spiritual exercises, or to encourage certain preferred states of being, in Naqshbandi Sufi schools of...
or exercise-aims listed by Sayyid Idries Shah
Idries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
in chapter VII of Oriental Magic in 1957 with those presently divulged through the proper channel http://www.uga.edu/islam/11Naqsprin.html. They are indeed the same.
"Oriental Magic" was read as a comparative study at the London Ethnological Institute. Sufi studies in general are directed as comparative studies of human understanding, and can be read as essays in psychosociology (see: Albert Hourani
Albert Hourani
-Life and career:Hourani was born in Manchester, England, the son of Soumaya Rassi and Fadlo Issa Hourani, immigrants from Marjeyoun in what is now South Lebanon. His brothers were George Hourani and Cecil Hourani. His family had converted from Greek Orthodoxy...
on "Marshall Hodgson
Marshall Hodgson
Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson , was an Islamic Studies academic and a world historian at the University of Chicago. He was chairman of the interdisciplinary Committee on Social Thought in Chicago...
and the Venture of Islam" in Islam in European Thought – Cambridge University Press 1991).
Margaret Smith
Special note could be taken of the little cited but brilliant academic Margaret SmithMargaret Smith (author)
Margaret Smith was a scholar writing on early Christian and Muslim mysticism, presenting a view from an open-minded Christian perspective...
who wrote (1925–1935) on the history of mysticism in the Near and Middle East from a woman's perspective leading to classic pages on early Christian mysticism, women in the early Christian Church, Christianity and Islam at the beginning of the Islamic era (see:Hanif
Hanif
Hanif is a term that refers to those who maintain the pure monothestic Muslim beliefs of the patriarch Ibrahim. More specifically, in Islamic thought it refers to the people during the period known as the Age of Ignorance, who were seen to have rejected idolatry and retained some or all of the...
), the rise of Sufism and the early ascetic ideal. Two exemplaries of her subject matter she studied in closer detail: Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya and Harith al-Muhasibi
Harith al-Muhasibi
al-Muhasibi was the founder of the Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy, and a teacher of the Sufi masters Junayd al-Baghdadi and Sari al-Saqti....
.
The summary of her work reposes in her:
- " Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East. Being an account of the rise and development of Christian mysticism up to the seventh century, of the subsequent development of mysticism in Islam, known as Sufism, and of the relationship between Christian and Islamic Mysticism with references, a bibliography and two indexes "
- Dedicated to the memory of Thomas Walker ArnoldThomas Walker ArnoldSir Thomas Walker Arnold was an eminent British orientalist and historian of Islamic art who taught at MAO College, Aligarh Muslim University, then Aligarh College, and Government College University, Lahore. He was a friend of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and wrote his famous book "The preaching of Islam"...
- Dedicated to the memory of Thomas Walker Arnold
- London, 1931 -The Sheldon Press; reprinted 1973 by Philo Press cv, Amsterdam.
Later academics
By the end of the 20th century, the academic study of Sufism was well established in university departments of religious studiesReligious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
.
The perspectives of these later scholars varied. Some were purely scientific, while some followed in the line of Massignon
Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon was a French scholar of Islam and its history. Although a Catholic himself, he tried to understand Islam from within and thus had a great influence on the way Islam was seen in the West; among other things, he paved the way for a greater openness inside the Catholic Church towards...
, or (sometimes privately) in the line of Guénon
Guenon
The guenons are the genus Cercopithecus of Old World monkeys. Not all the members of this genus have the word "guenon" in their common names, and because of changes in scientific classification, some monkeys in other genera may have common names that do include the word "guenon"...
and the Traditionalists
Traditionalist School
The term Traditionalist School is used by Mark Sedgwick and other authors to denote a school of thought, also known as Integral Traditionalism or Perennialism to denote an esoteric movement developed by authors such as French metaphysician René Guénon, German-Swiss...
, modified somewhat for an academic environment.
For a contemporary academical "state of the art" see: " Sufism in the West", bibliography pp 190–202 ( Jamal Malik and John Hinnells ed. Routledge: London and New York, 2006 )
External links
- Sufism in Oxford Islamic Studies Online
- Sergio Fritz Roa: *Estudios sobre Sufismo Sitio web dedicado al Tasawwuf (Sufismo), con material acerca de las diversas turuq (cofradías sufíes).