An Earlier Copy of al-Suhrawardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif and Its Scribe, Abū Ṭāhir al-Ḥanafī

Abstract

This paper introduces an accomplished Ḥanafī traditionist [muḥaddith] named Abū Ṭāhir ʿAbd al-Salām Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ al-Shīrāzī (b.bef.590/1194, d.661/1263), and two newly-discovered manuscripts that shed light on his life, works, and networks. The first manuscript is an earlier copy of ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī’s (539-632/1145-1234) influential Sufi treatise, Benefits of Intimate Knowledge [ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif] that Abū Ṭāhir copied in 603/1206. In addition to updating the terminus ad quem of al-Suhrawardī’s masterpiece, the manuscript also preserves a significant audition [samāʿ] record. While Abū Ṭāhir transcribed this early copy, he seems to have neither participated in the later transmission of the work nor formed a Sufi identity. A well-connected traditionist who has not yet received scholarly attention, he wrote many works, none of which have been studied so far. This paper introduces his life and works, traces his immediate teachers and pupils in transmitting prophetic sayings, and analyzes a hitherto unstudied manuscript of his Forty Sayings on the Virtue of Praying for the Messenger of God [Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh]. The paper demonstrates that the study of al-Suhrawardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif by non-Sufi traditionists can be traced back to its earliest extant copy available to us.

1. Introduction: Towards a Chronology of al-Suhrawardī’s Corpus

Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī’s (539-632/1145-1234) Benefits of Intimate Knowledge [ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif] is one of the most influential Sufi manuals ever written.1 A critical edition of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif is still absent, and its date of composition is unclear. It has been published in Arabic and Turkish a few times, and was translated into German in 1978.2 It was first translated into English by Henry Wilberforce Clarke (d.1905) as early as 1891.3 However, this alleged English translation of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif was rather a translation of Lamp of Guidance [Miṣbāḥ al-Hidāya], penned by ʿIzz al-Dīn Kāshānī (d.735/1334). Clarke deemed Miṣbāḥ al-Hidāya the Persian translation of the original Arabic work of al-Suhrawardī. Miṣbāḥ al-Hidāya, however, has major divergences from the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, both in its form and content. In fact, Kāshānī’s work mostly relies on al-Suhrawardī’s theological text, The Signposts of Right Guidance [Aʿlām al-Hudā], both in content and structure, while it still differs from the original work in elusive yet significant ways.4 Hence, such a key text of the Islamic heritage is still inaccessible to English readers.

What makes the production of an authoritative edition of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif a genuine challenge is not the absence of good and early copies endorsed by al-Suhrawardī, but the opposite—their abundance. Al-Suhrawardī actively promoted the transcription of his ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which was recited in audition sessions whereby it was transmitted to disciples and widely disseminated from early on. Hence, there are plenty of copies that were transcribed in the thirteenth century, many carefully studied by Helmut Ritter, Angelika Hartmann, and Erik Ohlander in detail. Hartmann and Ohlander also showed that there are a few copies transcribed when al-Suhrawardī was still alive; the majority of them are dated after 627/1230, and are preserved today in libraries in Istanbul, Turkey.5 Ohlander also pointed to an even earlier copy in Istanbul, MS Lala Ismail 180. This copy was already known to the scholarship, while Ritter and Hartmann had assumed that it was dated Muḥarram 624/January 1227. Ohlander showed that this date is that of a later audition session, while MS Lala Ismail 180 was originally transcribed and owned by al-Suhrawardī’s disciple Sharaf al-Dīn al-Mālīnī (d.645/1248) by the year 605/1208-9, when it was dictated to a group of students in the Sufi lodge [ribāṭ] al-Marzubāniyya in Baghdad by Suhrawardī’s personal secretary and pupil, Najm al-Dīn al-Tiflīsī (d.631/1234).6 Hence, the new terminus ad quem was set as 605/1208-9, and MS Lala Ismail 180 has been considered the earliest copy of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif available.

The dating of the earliest ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif is essential for understanding the development of the career and corpus of al-Suhrawardī, who has been commonly known as the “author of [ṣāḥib] the ʿAwārif” in the later tradition. Ohlander’s change in dating MS Lala Ismail 180, for example, also meant that two works of al-Suhrawardī, Aʿlām al-Hudā and Ḥilyat al-Nāsik fī-l-Manāsik, were also written earlier than what scholars had assumed because they were also transmitted in the same audition session in 605/1208-9 along with ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif.7 Other works of al-Suhrawardī also have close connections with ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. For example, I would argue that his Guide to the Disciples [Irshād al-Murīdīn] was very probably written before the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. We read in the preface of Irshād al-Murīdīn that al-Suhrawardī collected [jamʿ] this compendium on the Sufi path per request of a group of friends and peers.8 As the work was addressed to companions and peers, rather than pupils, it might have been penned before al-Suhrawardī’s becoming a prominent master of Sufi training [tarbiya]. Second, we know that soon after being completed, ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif became the primary and regular reading in the circle of al-Suhrawardī and beyond. The master would prescribe the work to his disciples, and he organized many audition sessions in Mecca, Baghdad, and Mosul, continuously transmitting it to countless students until his death.9 The very request of his friends suggests that the ʿAwārif was not available yet when Irshād al-Murīdīn was penned. The dating of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif would help with dating other works as well. The two short treatises of al-Suhrawardī, Epistle of Voyaging and Flight [Risālat al-Sayr wa-l-Ṭayr] and Epistle on Affluence and Poverty [Risāla fī-l-Ghināʾ wa-l-Faqr] make improvements, however minor, on ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, suggesting that they were written after the completion of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif.10 Another work in organic relation with the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif is his Unseen Flashes on the Spirit [al-Lawāmiʿ al-Ghaybiyya fī-l-Rūḥ], which is roughly the same, with a long section in chapter 56 of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. In addition, al-Suhrawardī’s discourses called Openings [Futūḥāt] have textual parallels with the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. These cases may imply that both al-Lawāmiʿ al-Ghaybiyya and ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif relied on al-Suhrawardī’s discursive “openings” that were orally delivered.11 While these hypotheses need further study, at least it is clear that the composition date of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif stands at the crux of understanding not only a major, popular work of Muslim piety, but also the development of al-Suhrawardī’s corpus, and how he was made into who he became.

Rich library and endowment collections in Turkey have been standing at the center of the search for the oldest manuscript of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. However, a copy of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif that predates MS Lala Ismail 180 is today located in Serbia, in the Belgrade University Library. This is also the oldest manuscript in the collection of Islamic manuscripts in the library.12 The codex is digitalized, available to read online or to download entirely and freely.13 This digital version will be the basis of the analysis below. In addition to pushing the terminus ad quem to 603/1206, the codex MS Belgrade O.1115 also contains significant information on ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, its early transmission context, and the scribe, whose career was firmly situated in the study and transmission of prophetic sayings [ḥadīth], with no visible connections to Sufism. Hence, the analysis will allow us to observe the early success of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif in traditionist circles, which, in turn, can shed light on the broader popularity of the work.

2. MS Belgrade O.1115, al-Suhrawardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif

The copy of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif that predates the other copies known to us was briefly mentioned as a footnote in a survey of Turkish manuscripts in Eastern European library collections published in 1983, but eluded scholarly attention.14 The copy is preserved in a codex composed of two works on Sufism bound together, with a title bifolio of the second work between them. Only ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif has pagination, on the upper corner of the verso of the leaves. The entire codex is damaged by water, while the most serious challenge for legibility comes from oxidation. The writings on the margins in the last folia of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which are of key importance, are often illegible due to faded writing (see Figure A1 and Figure A2).

To begin with the content of the codex:

ff.1b–4b, a treatise with the title Bāb al-Tadbīrāt al-Ilāhiyya fī Iṣlāḥ al-Mamlakat al-Insāniyya, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī (d.638/1240).

ff.1b–2a, title page added before the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif.

ff.1b–264b, ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, al-Suhrawardī.

Both the work of Ibn al-ʿArabī and the title page are later transcriptions bound together with the much older copy of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. The title of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s treatise is given incorrectly in the codex; rather than his Tadbīrāt al-Ilāhiyya [Divine Governance], the work is in fact Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Risālat Al-Anwār [Treatise of Lights], known as the Journey to the Lord of Power. This was a much-copied, authentic work of Ibn al-ʿArabī, on which ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d.ca.815/1412) wrote an influential commentary.

The title bifolio of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif was penned by a different hand after the 11th/17th century. It gives basic information on ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif and al-Suhrawardī, and cites Kashf al-Ẓunūn, a biographical work penned by the Ottoman writer Kātip Çelebī (aka Ḥājjī Khalīfa) (d.1068/1657) as the source. This page also contains an Arabic quotation and an Ottoman Turkish note. According to the note, the quotation is reported from the legendary ascetic and mystic, Maʿrūf al-Karkhī (d.200/815), and a person’s needs will be met if they recite it.15 On the left side of this quotation and the note, we find the name of the person who wrote them: Şeyḥ Meḥmed bin Ḥasan bin Şaʿbān.

ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif is transcribed by another hand in a clear and very beautiful naskh script, with nineteen lines per page. The handwriting changes in the first six folia, most of which are transcribed by yet another hand, and rebound to complete the work. These early folia, especially ff.4b–6a, have up to twenty-six lines per page, and they do not utilize colored pen in the headings. Otherwise, the remaining text is penned consistently by using red chapter headings. The transcription is legible and careful, and the scribe adds diacritics throughout the text in order to eliminate possible misreadings. At least three bifolia of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif are missing (or omitted in the digital version).16 There are occasional marginalia throughout the text that are either corrections or short commentaries on the text. The last folio, 264b, contains the colophon, which states that it was copied on 4 Jumādī al-Awwal 603/14 December 1206 (see Figure A1). The scribe’s name is given as “Abū Ṭāhir ʿAbd al-Salām Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ Maḥmūd Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Maḥmūd Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ al-Ḥanafī.” On the right-hand margin of the folio, we find al-Suhrawardī’s autograph. Although his entire statement is too damaged to be legible, we can still read that he recommends the study of his work, and endorses the copy of Abū Ṭāhir, adding his own name and the year of this endorsement, 607/1210-11. While the details remain illegible due to faded writing, it is very likely that he thereby gave Abū Ṭāhir an authorization [ijāza] to transmit the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif as we find in other early copies.

3. The Audition Record

The copy also contains a badly damaged yet significant audition [samāʿ] record of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which will be utilized in a forthcoming study.17 Insofar as the margins of the last folio are occupied by al-Suhrawardī’s autograph, it is transcribed on the margins of the penultimate folio, 263b (see Figure A2). While the writing has faded away, making it illegible most of the time, the following can be still constructed from the record:

الحمد لله ربّ العالمين

الصلاة على سيّدنا محمّد خاتم النبيين...

سمع هذا الكتاب المسمّى بعوارف المعارف صنّف الشيخ الإمام قودة الموحدّين ... العرضين السهرورديّ ... شهاب الدين الشيخ الاسلام أبي عبد الله عمر بن محمّد بن عبد الله البكريّ القرشيّ قدّس الله روحه ووالي عليه.

يوجز على السيّد الشريف الحسيب النسيب الإمام العالم العامل محبّ الفقراء كنز الضعفاء أبي الخير محمّد بن محمّد بن محمّد بن الحسينيّ الفاسيّ وثمّ المكّي أدام الله مقامه بحقّ روايته عن الشيوخ الأربعة:

• السيّد الشريف الحسيب النسيب أبي عبد الله محمّد بن محمّد بن عبد الرحمن الحسينيّ الفاسيّ وهو والده يغمده الله برحمته.
• وعن الشيخ الإمام ... فخر الدين أبو عمرو عثمان بن محمّد بن عثمان التوزريّ.
• والشيخ الإمام العالم العامل المحدّث رضيّ الدين أبي إسحاق إبراهيم بن محمّد بن إبراهيم الطبريّ إمام مقام إبراهيم عليه السلام.
• والشيخ الإمام العالم الدين عزّ الدين يوسف الزرنديّ.

• فأمّا الشيخ الاوّل: الشريف العالم العامل أبي عبد الله محمّد بن محمّد بن عبد الرحمن الحسينيّ الفاسيّ رضي الله عنه ... قطب الدين أبو بكر محمّد بن الإمام أبي العبّاس احمد بن عليّ بن محمّد بن الحسن القسطلّانيّ.
• فأمّا الشيخ الثاني وهو الشيخ الإمام فخر الدين التوزريّ يحدّثه عن مشائخه ... الإمام عمر القسطلّانيّ إمام...الشريف والإمام ... قطب الدين القسطلّانيّ المذكور والشيخ أبي النعال (؟) ابو الحسن (؟) بن محمّد البغداديّ.
• والشيخ الثالث أبو إسحاق إبراهيم بن محمّد الطبريّ يحدّث جميعه عن أبي عبد الله محمّد بن عمر القسطلّانيّ المذكور وهو الضياء.
• والشيخ الرابع عزّ الدين يوسف الزرنديّ نزيل حرم رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم بقرائته على الشيخ عزّ الدين الفاروقيّ (!) والشيخ رشيد الدين المقريّ.

قالو كلّهم: أخبر المصنّف رضي الله عنه.

فأجاز لي المسمّی المذكور ما يجوز له روايته وذلك في الشوّال سنة الأربع وأربعين وسبعمائة. قال ذلك كتبه العبد الفقير عبد الرحيم بن عبد العزيز (؟) بن عبد الصمد اليزديّ (؟) ثمّ الدهلويّ عفا الله عنه وكان هذا (؟) في المسجد الحرام.

What is significant about this record is that it not only informs us on the scholars who participated in the session, but also on their genealogy of transmitting ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. The record explains that Abū al-Khayr al-Ḥusaynī (d.747/1346) had received his authority to transmit the work from four prominent masters, and gives further information on these four masters and their teachers, from whom they had received the authorization to transmit the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. These authorities are al-Ḥusaynī al-Fāsī (d.719/1319), who is the father of Abū al-Khayr, al-Tawzarī (d.713/1313-14), al-Ṭabarī (d.722/1322), and al-Zarandī (d.712/1313). Among the teachers of these four masters, the two powerful al-Qasṭallānīs, Quṭb al-Dīn (d.686/1287) and Al-Ḍiyāʾ (d.663/1265), played a fundamental role as the authority for three of them. Two other scholars, ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Fārūqī (also known as al-Fārūthī) (d.694/1295) and Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī (d.707/1307), are two masters who transmitted the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif to al-Zarandī. From Rashīd al-Dīn, as we will see below, the influential jurist Sirāj al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Qazwīnī (d.750/1349) narrated not only the prophetic traditions collected by Abū Ṭāhir al-Ḥanafī, but also the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif. What is striking in this group of scholars, who played a key role in the transmission of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, is that most of them were not known to be Sufis, let alone being depicted as followers of al-Suhrawardī or another master, and they had no formal connection to Sufism. For example, al-Zarandī, who was born near Isfahan and settled in Medina, was known as a follower of “the path of the pious ancestors” [ṭarīqat al-salaf], who performed some wonderworks [karāmāt], while any reference to Sufism was absent in his biographies.18

This particular audition session was gathered in the Great Mosque of Mecca in Shawwāl 744/February–March 1344. A certain ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Dihlawī received authorization to transmit the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif from Abū al-Khayr, who endorsed the record at the end of the marginalia by the following performative sentence he added in his own handwriting:

صحيح ذلك. وكتبه محمّد ابو الخير عفا الله عنه والحمد لله وصلّى الله على محمّد.

Abū al-Khayr’s autography, both in style and content, is remarkably similar to that of al-Suhrawardī that we find in the first folio of the MS Lala Ismail copy of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif transcribed in 605/1208-9.19 In fact, Abū al-Khayr’s autography can be seen as a direct imitation of that of al-Suhrawardī (cf. the authorization statements at the bottom margins of both copies in Figure A2 and Figure A3). Abū al-Khayr is operating as a reputable, pious authority who is not only connected to al-Suhrawardī through a powerful chain of transmission, but also his embodied representative as materialized in his own signature. Al-Suhrawardī had already passed away when Abū al-Khayr was born in 678/1279, but his handwriting served as an embodiment of his presence that Abū al-Khayr would imitate as his representative in the audition session. By adding his own signature, Abū al-Khayr was reenacting al-Suhrawardī’s original transmission of sacred knowledge to his immediate disciples, who became Abū al-Khayr’s teachers.

4. Abū Ṭāhir: The Scribe of MS Belgrade O.1115

Appearing in important biographical sources, the scribe of the early copy of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif is commonly known with the honorifics ʿImād al-Dīn. None of the sources mention any connection of Abū Ṭāhir al-Ḥanafī with Sufism, and they depict him and his works as focusing purely on prophetic sayings. In this sense, Abū Ṭāhir’s profile is similar to those of the Hijaz-based scholars found in the above-given audition record, al-Tawzarī, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Zarandī, who earned their fame as traditionists and had no visible connection to Sufi institutions. Originally from Shiraz, Abū Ṭāhir traveled abundantly, in Iraq and Fars in particular, specifically in order to study prophetic sayings with prominent masters. In his list of authorities [mashyakha] titled Ṣinwān al-Riwāya wa Finwān al-Dirāya, Abū Ṭāhir is said to have recorded all of these transmitted reports [masmuʿāt] and the names of around three-hundred masters with whom he studied.20

The most detailed account on Abū Ṭāhir is given in the hagiographical work on Ibn Khafīf (d.371/982) penned by a fellow scholar from Shiraz, Muʿīn al-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim al-Junayd (d.af.740/1339). He states that Abū Ṭāhir died in Shāʿban 661/June–July 1263, and was buried in Shiraz, across the tomb of Ibn Khafīf. Muʿīn al-Dīn also narrates a hagiographical anecdote. Accordingly, when Abū Ṭāhir visited the tomb of Ibn Khafīf, he replaced the tombstone with another one, and kept the original tombstone for himself for the sake of blessing [tabarrukan]. He also had the testament to have this old tombstone of Ibn Khafīf to be placed on his own grave when he died; but soon, Ibn Khafīf appeared in his dream, and chastised Abū Ṭāhir: “Who made you qualified to take this stone among all of the poor-ones so that you reserved it for yourself?” Immediately after Abū Ṭāhir woke up, he realized that he needed to expiate his mistake, and thus, endowed an exquisite mill [ṭāḥūna nafīsa] that was his own property. Muʿīn al-Dīn adds that the mill was still standing when he wrote his work a few decades after Abū Ṭāhir’s death.21 It is worth remembering that Ibn Khafīf made his mark on not only Abū al-Najīb al-Suhrawardī (d.564/1168), but also on Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī, as clearly observed in the scripturalist theological attitude of his Aʿlām al-Hudā.22

Among Abū Ṭāhir’s descendants, his grandson Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad was a writer who also penned poems.23 As for the teachers of Abū Ṭāhir in prophetic sayings, Muʿīn al-Dīn does not mention al-Suhrawardī. He specifically introduces three names: Abū al-Futūḥ al-ʿIjlī (515-600/1121-1203), Abū al-Makārim al-Labbān (507-597/1113-1201), and (Ibn) Muʿammar al-Qurashī (520-603/1126-1206).24 Other sources, like Ibn al-Fuwaṭī’s Majmaʿ al-Ādāb, Sirāj al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī’s Mashyakha, and Ibn al-Jazarī’s (d.833/1430) Manāqib al-Asad al-Ghālib, mention Abū Ṭāhir in various entries as a disciple or teacher of different scholars.

To begin with al-Qazwīnī, his chains of transmissions of various ḥadīth works like al-Amālī and al-Arbaʿūn compiled by different scholars contain Abū Ṭāhir, who transmitted these works from a rich variety of scholars: Ibn Muʿammar al-Qurashī, Abū al-Futūḥ al-ʿIjlī, Abū al-Mājid Muḥammad Ibn Ḥāmid (520-601/1126-1205), Abū al-Faraj Thābit al-Madīnī (d.595/1199), Abū al-Ziyādat ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Kāzarūnī, his brother Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-Karīm, Abū Nujayḥ Faḍl Allāh Ibn Abī Rashīd al-Jūzdānī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad Ibn ʿAlī al-Tabrīzī.25 In each case, the pupil of Abū Ṭāhir that connects him to al-Qazwīnī is Rashīd al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Muqrī. This person is none other than the Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī that appeared in the audition record in the margin of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif discussed above. He was a Ḥanbalī Sufi and a disciple of al-Suhrawardī who played a key role in the transmission of the Suhrawardian initiatic robe [khirqa] in the Hijaz, Iraq, and Egypt.26 In other words, Abū Ṭāhir studied under al-Suhrawardī and taught Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī, who transmitted from Abū Ṭāhir not only prophetic reports, but also, as we will see below, Abū Ṭāhir’s own works. However, Abū Ṭāhir was not known as a Sufi or a transmitter of the Suhrawardian robe or corpus, including the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif.

Our second source, Ibn al-Jazarī, introduces a chain where Abū Ṭāhir transmits from Sābūr al-Qalānisī (b.542/1147) to his own pupil Ẓāhir al-Dīn Ismāʿīl—a chain of purely Shirazian traditionists that also has some connections with al-Suhrawardī.27 Al-Qalānisī was also a ḥadīth teacher of Aḥmad Ibn Isḥāq al-Abarqūhī (615-701/1218-1302), who would move to Cairo and become a leading Suhrawardian Sufi and a pupil of Quṭb al-Dīn Ibn al-Qasṭallānī.28

Finally, when introducing various scholars in his Majmaʿ al-Ādāb, Ibn al-Fuwaṭī not only mentions how they were related to Abū Ṭāhir, but he also uses as a reference a copy of Abū Ṭāhir’s Ṣinwān al-Riwāya that he had acquired. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ibn Muʿammar al-Kātib and Abū al-Khayr Fannākhusraw are described by Ibn al-Fuwaṭī as the two names found among Abū Ṭāhir’s immediate teachers.29 Ibn al-Fuwaṭī also uses Abū Ṭāhir’s Ṣinwān al-Riwāya as a biographical source on Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Kāzarūnī (d.426/1035) and Ibn Māshādhā (d.572/1176-77).30

5. Abū Ṭāhir’s Works

Multiple books are attributed to Abū Ṭāhir al-Ḥanafī, while none of them have been studied yet in any language. In fact, these works might be non-extant, except for a couple of them.

1.

Ṣinwān al-Riwāya wa Finwān al-Dirāya: While this is the better-known work of Abū Ṭāhir mentioned by Ibn al-Fuwaṭī and Muʿīn al-Dīn, it seems to have survived in a single copy preserved in al-Maktaba al-Qādiriyya in Baghdad. The codex MS Qādiriyya 1502 is composed of three works. The first (ff.1–107) and the last (ff.187–303) works are anonymous ḥadīth compilations. Ṣinwān al-Riwāya is transcribed on ff.108–86 by the same scribe, with 30 lines on each folio.31

Muʿīn al-Dīn adds the names of the following “superb books on religion” as the works of Abū Ṭāhir:

2.

Dhakhīrat al-ʿIbād li-Yawm al-Maʿād

3.

Faḍl al-Sājid wa Sharaf al-Masājid

4.

Al-Waṣāʾil li-Nayl al-Faḍāʾil

5.

Al-Maʿlī li-Dhikr man maʿī wa Dhikr man qablī

6.

Al-Aṭrāf fī Ashrāf al-Aṭrāf.

In addition to these titles, Muʿīn al-Dīn quotes a poem that he narrates from the pen of Abū Ṭāhir.32 This poem, on the other hand, appears in the Shuʿarāʾ al-Khamāsa, compiled much earlier by the famous poet Abū Tammām (d.ca.231/846), and was originally penned by Sālim Ibn Wābiṣa al-Asadī—a companion of the Prophet.

Ibn al-Fuwaṭī also mentions a work of Abū Ṭāhir titled Nukhbat al-Maʿlī wa Nuzhat al-Maḥallī,33 which may be identical to one of the above-mentioned works, such as Al-Maʿlī li-Dhikr man maʿī. Finally, al-Qazwīnī mentions two more works in his Mashyakha as books that he was granted an authorization to transmit. Both of these works were penned by Abū Ṭāhir himself:

A Book of Forty Sayings on “In the Name of God the All-Compassionate, the Merciful,” entitled Key to Paradise [Miftāḥ al-Janna], and a Book of Forty Sayings on the Eminence of Praying for the Messenger of God [Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh], peace and blessings upon him: Both of them are collections by ʿImād al-Dīn Abū Ṭāhir ʿAbd al-Salām Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ Maḥmūd Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ al-Ḥanafī al-Shīrāzī. I narrate both of them through my master Rashīd al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Muqrī, through an authorization that he penned. In the same way, he had (the authorization from Abū Ṭāhir himself) in the year 637/1241-42.34

While the titles and the authenticity of other works of Abū Ṭāhir are yet to be determined, I did find what appears to be an untitled, unique copy of Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh that al-Qazwīnī attributed to Abū Ṭāhir. This copy is particularly helpful in developing a clearer map of Abū Ṭāhir’s genealogies until the copies of his other works are discovered.

6. MS Manisa 45 Hk 1080, Abū Ṭāhir’s Kitāb al-Arbaʿūn

Preserved in the Manisa İl Halk Kütüphanesi in western Turkey, the codex MS 45 Hk 1080 is composed of 123 bifolia, with the following content:

ff.1b–63b, Nisāb al-Akhbār li-Tadhkirat al-Akhyār, Sirāj al-Dīn ʿAlī Ibn ʿUthmān al-Ūshī (d.575/1179). Transcribed in clear naskh, with 17 lines per folio. Subtitles are transcribed in red.

ff.65b–108a, untitled work of Abū Ṭāhir. Copied by the same scribe of the previous work, with only 13 lines per folio. Subtitles are transcribed in red.

ff.109b–116a, Arbaʿūn Ḥadīth, penned by Yūsuf Ibn ʿAbd Allāh Saʿīd al-Ḥusaynī al-Urmuyūnī (d.990/1553). Transcribed by a different scribe, with 19 lines on each folio. Subtitles are transcribed in red.

ff.116b–123a, various notes, short quotes, and prayers that are transcribed mostly in Ottoman Turkish. F.116b contains the list of ingredients of a healing mixture, with the title “this is the greatest paste” [mācun-u ekber budur]. F.117b contains the short version of a funeral ritual prayer, and f.118, titled “when the preacher climbs the pulpit” [Ḥaṭip Efendi Minbere Çıktığında], contains prayers recited by the preacher before giving a sermon. One can find on f.119b ʿAbdüleḥad Nūrī’s (d.1061/1651) Turkish mevlid, which begins as follows:

• Sende doğmuştur Muhammed Mustafa
• Merhaba ey mah-ı mevlid merhaba
• Sende olmuştur bu alem pür-safa
• Merhaba ey mah-ı mevlid merhaba.

The work of Yūsuf al-Ḥusaynī and the following folios clearly suggest the Ottoman context of the later period. However, the first two works seem to be transcribed by a different hand, which might indicate that these folios are earlier transcriptions, although they do not provide any information on the scribe or the date.

The preface of this untitled work of Abū Ṭāhir on f. 65b sets the context directly in Shiraz, when he was still alive (see Figure A4):35

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

حدّثنا الصدر الإمام العالم المتبحّر المفنّن عماد الملّة والحقّ والدين عن الإسلام والمسلمين ملك الأئمّة والصدور ناشر أحاديث النبيّ أبو طاهر عبد السلام بن أبي الربيع الحنفيّ أدام الله ايّامه إملاء من لفظه في دار الحديث المولويّة الصاحبيّة الغياثيّة بشيراز حماها الله تعالى يوم الإثنين السابع من شهر جمادي الأولى سنة خمس وأربعين وستّمائة.

Accordingly, Abū Ṭāhir, “may God extend his days,” narrated the work preserved in the following folios at the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Mawlawiyya al-Sāḥibiyya al-Ghiyāthiyya in Shiraz on 7 Jumādī al-Awwal 645/Monday, 16 September 1247. Incidentally, Muʿīn al-Dīn mentioned a single, particularly memorable audition session of Abū Ṭāhir with large participation in Shiraz, and gave the year 654/1256 rather than 645/1247 (7 Jumādī al-Awwal 654 corresponds to 9 June 1256, which is Friday rather than Monday, making a confusion or typological error unlikely). This means that Abū Ṭāhir made multiple visits to Shiraz, had already begun to lead study sessions there in 645/1247, and earned major fame in the city by 654/1256. He compiled the work before 637/1241-42, when he transmitted it to Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī, who was born in 623/1226.

The work of Abū Ṭāhir is composed of two parts. First, we find Abū Ṭāhir’s selection of forty prophetic sayings that focus on praising the Prophet. This main body of the work ends on f.95b, but it is continued with an addendum [dhayl] titled Nubadh mimmā yataḍamman hādhā al-maʿnā. This addendum contains ten more prophetic sayings. The content of the work suggests that it is most probably the latter work, the Book of Forty Sayings on the Eminence of Praying for the Messenger of God [Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh], that al-Qazwīnī studied and narrated from Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī.36

Abū Ṭāhir’s Al-Arbaʿūn shows the rich variety of the chains that he carefully studied and of the masters that he studied with. Introducing all of these chains for each prophetic saying would be reproducing the entire book of Al-Arbaʿūn, insofar as they occupy the majority of the book. Below, I will identify and give the list of only the names of the immediate traditionist masters through whom Abū Ṭāhir narrated these sayings on the virtues of praising the Prophet:

Introduction:  

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Muʿammar Ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Qurashī (520-603/1126-1206)37

Abū al-Maḥāsin Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Ḥusayn Ibn al-Iṣbahbadh al-Samʿānī (514-591/1120-1195)38

• Abū al-Ḥasan Masʿūd Ibn Abī Manṣūr al-Jammāl (506-595/1112-1199)39
• Abū al-Fatḥ Manṣūr Ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Muḥammad al-Farāwī (522-608/1128-1212)40
• Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad Ibn Ismāʿīl Ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭarsūsī (502-595/1108-1199)41
• Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Naṣr al-Jīlānī (509-603/1116-1207)42
• Abū Bakr Lāmiʿ Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Naṣr al-Ṣaydalānī43
• Abū al-Maḥāsin Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Ḥusayn Ibn al-Iṣbahbadh (514-591/1120-1195)
• Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī Ibn Abī Saʿīd Ibn ʿAliyyak
• Abū Ṭālib ʿAbd al-Muḥsin Ibn Abī al-ʿAmīd Ibn Khālid al-Abharī (556-624/1161-1227),44
• Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Fārfānī (514-597/1120-1201)45
• Abū al-Makārim Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad al-Labbān (507-597/1113-1201)46
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn ʿAlī al-Jūrtānī (d.500-590/1106-1194)47
• Abū al-Maḥāsin Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Ḥusayn Ibn al-Iṣbahbadh (514-591/1120-1195)48
• Abū Ghānim al-Muhadhdhib Ibn al-Ḥusayn Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Zīna (d.af.632/1234-5)49
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī Zayd Ḥamd Ibn Naṣr al-Kirmānī (497-597/1104-1201)50
• Abū al-Fatḥ Nāṣir Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Fatḥ al-Wayrij (d.593/1197)51
• Abū al-Makārim Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad al-Labbān (507-597/1113-1201)
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Muʿammar Ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Qurashī (520-603/1126-1206)
• Abū Bakr Lāmiʿ Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Naṣr al-Ṣaydalānī
• Abū Naṣr Ṣāliḥ Ibn Abī Bakr Muḥammad Ibn Abī Naṣr Ibn Aḥmad yuʿraf wāliduhu bi-“qul huwa Allāh-khān”52
• Abū Tāhir ʿAlī Ibn Saʿīd Ibn Fādhshāh (d.594/1198)53
• Abū al-Ḥasan Masʿūd Ibn Abī Manṣūr al-Jammāl (506-595/1112-1199)54
• Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-Zīrqānī
• Abū al-Futūḥ Asʿad Ibn Maḥmūd Ibn Khalaf al-ʿIjlī (515-600/1121-1203)55
• Abū al-Maymūn al-Rashīd Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad al-Shāshī
• Abū Suʿāda Asʿad Ibn al-Mufaḍḍal Ibn Muḥammad al-Yazdī
• Abū al-Mājid Muḥammad Ibn Ḥāmid Ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ibn ʿAzīz al-Muḍarī al-Baghdādī (520-601/1126-1205)
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn ʿAlī al-Jūrtānī (d.500-590/1106-1194)
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Fārfānī (514-597/1120-1201)
• Abū al-Faraj Thābit Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Faraj al-Madīnī (d.595/1199)56
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Muʿammar (520-603/1126-1206)
• Abū Saʿīd Khalīl Ibn Badr Ibn Thābit Ibn al-Rārānī (500-596/1107-1200)57
• Abū al-Mājid Jāmiʿ Ibn Ḥāmid Ibn Rajāʾ al-Maʿdānī58
• Abū Ghānim al-Muhadhdhib Ibn al-Ḥusayn Ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥusayn Ibn Zīna (d.af.632/1234-5)
• Al-ʿAdl Abū al-Makārim Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Labbān (507-597/1113-1201)
• Abū Ṭāhir ʿAlī Ibn Saʿīd Ibn Fādhshāh (d.594/1198)
• Abū Muslim al-Muʾayyad Ibn ʿAbd ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-Ikhwa (d.527-606/1133-1210)59
• Abū Ṭāhir Barakāt Ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn Ṭāhir al-Khushūʿī al-Qurashī (510-598/1116-1201)60
• Abū Naṣr Ṣāliḥ Ibn Abī Bakr Muḥammad Ibn Abī Naṣr Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Abī Naṣr tuʿraf [sic] bi-“qul huwa Allāh-khān”61
• Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Ṣāʿid Ibn Ḥāmid Ibn Rajāʾ al-Maʿdānī (d.592/1196)62
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Ẓafar Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Thābit al-Yazdī63

The forty sayings end on f.95b, but it is continued with an addendum [dhayl] with ten prophetic sayings reported from the following:

• Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar Ibn Muḥammad Muʿammar Ibn Ṭabarzad (516-607/1123-1210-11)64
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim Ibn Zīna (d.btw.601-610/1204-1214)65
• Abū al-Faraj Thābit Ibn Muḥammad al-Madīnī (d.595/1199)
• Abū Saʿīd Khalīl Ibn Badr Ibn Thābit Ibn al-Rārānī (500-596/1107-1200)
• Abū al-Fatḥ Nāṣir Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Fatḥ al-Wayrij (d.593/1197)
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Ẓafar Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿaddal66
• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Maḥmūd Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī Bakr al-Hāshimī al-ʿĀdhbānī
• Abū Aḥmad al-Khalīl Ibn Abī Naṣr Ibn Aḥmad Ibn ʿUbayd Allāh (Ibn) Siyāh al-Yazdī, when he came to Shiraz to visit Abū Ṭāhir in Rabīʿ al-Awwal in 604/October 1207
• Abū al-Futūḥ Dāwūd Ibn Muʿammar Ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Qurashī (534-624/1140-1227)67
• Al-Sayyid Abū al-Fatḥ Sharafshāh Ibn Abī ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAlawī.

The immediate authorities of Abū Ṭāhir that we encounter in Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh comprise a rich list, and it allows us to make a few broad yet important observations. First, Abū Ṭāhir must have been born at least a few years before 590/1194, the year his teacher al-Jūrtānī died. This indirect evidence is the sole information on Abū Ṭāhir’s year of birth. Second, none of the names on this long list seem to be found among the dozens of early transmitters of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif.68 This is not surprising, insofar as most of them seem to have flourished before the completion of the book. Third, the list is comprised of pietists and Sufis, who likely had particularly scripturalist theological and conservative practical orientations. A good case is the name ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Abharī, who transmitted traditions to Abū Ṭāhir in Safar 620/March–April 1223. Al-Abharī is known to us as the first significant Sufi master of the famous scripturalist Sufi, and the leading disciple of ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī, Quṭb al-Dīn Ibn al-Qasṭallānī. Ibn al-Qasṭallānī received multiple Sufi robes from different masters, including Nāṣir al-ʿAṭṭār al-Miṣrī (538-634/1144-1236), and ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī, while the first name he mentions is al-Abharī. Accordingly, ʿAbd al-Muḥsin came to Hijaz in 621/1224, when he taught Quṭb al-Dīn and bestowed on him the Sufi robe.69 In other words, ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī and ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Abharī are the two teachers of Ibn al-Qasṭallānī and Abū Ṭāhir. Unlike ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī, Ibn al-Qasṭallānī was engaging in polemics with Sufis like Ibn Sabʿīn (d.669/1269) and ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī (d.690/1291), whose monism he sharply criticized. Abū Ṭāhir may have a similar profile closer to Ibn al-Qasṭallānī than ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī. On the other hand, Ibn al-Qasṭallānī transmitted both the Suhrawardian corpus and the robe, while Abū Ṭāhir did not participate in any of these Sufi processes.

7. Conclusions

This study introduced the life and works of a prominent yet understudied traditionist, ʿImād al-Dīn Abū Ṭāhir ʿAbd al-Salām Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ al-Ḥanafī al-Shīrāzī (b.bef.590/1194, d.661/1263), through the help of two newly discovered manuscripts. The copy of al-Suhrawardī’s magnum opus, ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which he transcribed in Mecca, is currently the earliest copy available. This copy is in itself valuable, as it pushes the terminus ad quem to 603/1206, providing further help with developing a chronology of al-Suhrawardī’s corpus and personality. It also contains a significant record of an audition session that is informative on the early transmission of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif and on the profiles and networks of these transmitters.

It is worth noting that both Abū Ṭāhir’s life and works seem to revolve entirely around the study and transmission of prophetic sayings, and there is no direct reference to al-Suhrawardī or to Sufism in the sources on Abū Ṭāhir that we analyzed. I argued that this absence is emblematic of many transmitters of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, especially those in the Hijaz, who neither received a Sufi robe nor developed a Sufi identity. Abū Ṭāhir’s students included the Ḥanbalī Sufi Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī, a key figure in the early Suhrawardiyya, who seems to have studied purely prophetic sayings under Abū Ṭāhir. Hence, while being the scribe of the earliest copy of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif discovered to date, he is not featured beyond the transmission of prophetic sayings. He is yet another embodiment of the inseparability of ḥadīth from Sufism, and possibly a case of what is aptly called “Sufism without mysticism,” where Sufism is primarily about legalistic ethics [ādāb al-sharʿiyya] and ḥadīth-based pietism, exemplified by traditionists like Quṭb al-Dīn Ibn al-Qasṭallānī, ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d.711/1311), and Ibn Rajab (d.795/1392), who joined into, or associated with, the Suhrawardian Sufis.70 Abū Ṭāhir is an early case of a traditionist pietist who developed strong connections with the emerging Suhrawardian networks without actually becoming a Sufi. The prominence of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif among traditionists from early on likely played a major role in its popularity.

The teachers in the transmission of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif that Abū Ṭāhir copied, and Abū Ṭāhir’s own teachers in transmitting prophetic sayings, do not seem to have overlaps. Rashīd al-Dīn al-Muqrī and Sirāj al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī are the only two scholars that initially appear to be shared between the two transmissions. A Ḥanbalī pietist, Rashīd al-Dīn, was also known as a Sufi who received an initiatory robe from al-Suhrawardī and transmitted from him. Rashīd al-Dīn transmitted the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif to various scholars while he was also a pupil of Abū Ṭāhir, and reported prophetic sayings from him to many students, including to al-Qazwīnī. Al-Qazwīnī, on the other hand, transmitted from his teacher Rashīd al-Dīn multiple traditionist works along with the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which he received from at least five different teachers.71 A teacher of Rashīd al-Dīn, Abū Ṭāhir is not known to have transmitted the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, though he transcribed an earlier copy of it; nor is al-Suhrawardī featured in any chain in Abū Ṭāhir’s Book of Forty Sayings. On the other hand, Abū Ṭāhir is said to mention three hundred of his masters in his mashyakha. A study of the extant MS Qādiriyya 1502 copy of his Ṣinwān al-Riwāya and the discovery of his other works may give us a better picture of how the circles transmitting al-Suhrawardī’s works related to the transmission of prophetic sayings.

Most of the teachers that al-Qazwīnī attributes to Abū Ṭāhir are confirmed by the list that we find in the MS Manisa copy of Abū Ṭāhir’s Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh. On the other hand, none of the teachers attributed to Abū Ṭāhir by Ibn al-Fuwaṭī or Ibn al-Jazarī appear in this particular book. It seems that Ibn al-Fuwaṭī or Ibn al-Jazarī was familiar only with Abū Ṭāhir’s Ṣinwān al-Riwāya, while his Al-Arbaʿūn expands the list of his masters and corroborates al-Qazwīnī’s Mashyakha. The MS Belgrade O.1115 copy the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, on the other hand, corroborates Ibn al-Fuwaṭī’s statement that Abū Ṭāhir has beautiful handwriting. With the diacritics throughout the transcription, his copy of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif is not only the earliest copy discovered so far, but it is also a reliable copy that can be used in the future editions and translations of as well as studies on this influential work. Abū Ṭāhir’s copy was used by al-Suhrawardī’s leading disciples, and was corrected at points if needed. It was also seen and endorsed by al-Suhrawardī, while other early copies of ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif—for example, the two hitherto unstudied copies in Kastamonu, Turkey, MS 37 Hk 1563 and MS 37 Hk 904—do not have his autograph. We observed that al-Suhrawardī’s signature became an embodiment of his presence, and was imitated by the Sufi master Abū al-Khayr al-Ḥusaynī, who represented him in the audition session that reenacted the original transmission of sacred knowledge.