Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval Egypt

cover

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pp. C-

fm

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pp. i-vi

Contents

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pp. vii-viii

Illustrations

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pp. ix-

Acknowledgments

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pp. xi-

The research for this book has received financial support from the following institutions: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the J. W. McConnell Foundation (Canada); and the Ministère de l’éducation nationale, de la recherche et de la technologie...

Note on Transliteration

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pp. xiii-

I have not italicized or transliterated Arabic words found in the Oxford English Dictionary. Arabic words considered technical terms, and perhaps familiar to the non-Arabic reader, have been transliterated...

Introduction

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pp. 1-8

Today, any visitor to Cairo will certainly notice the huge mosque of Mu˙ammad 'Ali, perched above the ramparts of the Citadel on the eastern edge of the city. Not of great historical interest, the visitor might not spend much time at this nineteenth-century mosque before moving farther into...

Chapter 1: Tirmidh, Ibn Arab, and Others on Sanctity

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pp. 9-26

The earliest thinker to systematically address the subject of sanctity was al- Hakm al-Tirmidh(d. cir. 300/910).¹ Of course he was not the only thinker to discuss saints and sainthood; two Iraqi contemporaries,...

Chapter 2: The Early Shådhiliyya and Sanctity

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pp. 27-47

As mentioned in the introduction, the Wafå’iyya order is a derivative of the Shådhiliyya order. In chapters 4 and 5 it will be seen in detail the ways by which Al• and Mu˙ammad Wafå’ carried on, or diverged from, Ab¥ al-Óasan al-Shådhil’s teachings on sainthood. The task of the...

Chapter 3: The Wafå’iyya in Time and Space

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pp. 49-62

Before moving to discuss the writings of Mu˙ammad and Al• Wafå’ we should first take up the essential outline of their lives and the wider context in which they lived. The Wafå’iyya is certainly an Egyptian order, but its origins are to be found within the currents of a much...

images

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pp. 63-70

Chapter 4: The Writings of the Wafå’s

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pp. 71-87

Before discussing the thought of Mu˙ammad and Al• Wafå’, we should take a closer look at their literary production. Since almost all of this material remains in manuscript form, something of a preliminary description seems in order. Beyond our immediate project, which is a better...

Chapter 5: Sanctity and Mu˙ammad Wafå’

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pp. 89-117

So far we have described the understanding of sainthood among the spiritual predecessors of the Wafå’iyya. These may be divided generally into two camps, that of Tirmidh• Ibn Arab•, and that of the early Shådhiliyya. In a summary way, we can point to Ibn Arab•’s concept...

Chapter 6: Sanctity according to Al• Wafå’

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pp. 119-155

The medieval Egyptian intellectual milieu in which the Wafå’s functioned has yet to be reconstructed in detail. As for Al• Wafå’ personally, it will be seen in the following discussion that he was well versed in mystical thought—from the early Shådhiliyya, the Akbarian school, and the classical...

Conclusion

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pp. 157-162

The goal of this study has been to explore the idea of sainthood as it developed within the mystical philosophy of Mu˙ammad and Al• Wafå’. For these two eighth/fourteenth-century Cairene sufis the idea...

Notes

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pp. 163-217

Bibliography

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pp. 219-237

Index to the Qur’an

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pp. 239-240

Index

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pp. 241-246