Perspectives on Early Islamic Mysticism: The World of al-?akim al-Tirmidhi and his Contemporaries

by Sara Sviri

Overview

This monograph explores the original literary produce of Muslim mystics during the eighth–tenth centuries, with special attention to ninth-century mystics, such as al-Tustarī, al-Muḥāsibī, al-Kharrāz, al-Junayd and, in particular, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī. Unlike other studies dealing with the so-called ‘Formative Period’, this book focuses on the extant writings of early mystics rather than on the later Ṣūfī compilations.

These early mystics articulated what would become a hallmark of Islamic mysticism: a system built around the psychological tension between the self (nafs) and the heart (qalb) and how to overcome it. Through their writings, already at this early phase, the versatility, fluidity and maturity of Islamic mysticism become apparent. This exploration thus reveals that mysticism in Islam emerged earlier than customarily acknowledged, long before Islamic mysticism became generically known as Ṣūfism.

The central figure of this book is al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, whose teaching and inner world focus on themes such as polarity, the training of the self, the opening of the heart, the Friends of God (al-awliyāʾ), dreams and visions, divine language, mystical exegesis and more.

This book thus offers a fuller picture than hitherto presented of the versatility of themes, processes, images, practices, terminology and thought models during this early period. The volume will be a key resource for scholars and students interested in the study of religion, Ṣūfī studies, Late Antiquity and Medieval Islam.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134413171
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/21/2019
Series:	Routledge Sufi Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	376
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Sara Sviri is Professor Emerita at the Department of Arabic and the Department of Comparative Religions of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She had also taught at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London and at The Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Oxford. Her fields of study include Islamic mysticism, mystical philosophy, comparative aspects of Early Islam, the formative period of Islamic mysticism, Medieval Jewish mysticism and the mystical wisdom of Ibn al-ʿArabī. Her book The Taste of Hidden Things: Images on the Sufi Path was published in 1997. Her comprehensive Sufi Anthology was published in Hebrew in 2008. The Arabic version of the Anthology came out in Beirut by Manshūrāt al-jamal (2016).

Table of Contents

Introduction: perspectives on Early Islamic Mysticism – the world of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and his contemporaries

Part I Asceticism and mysticism (zuhd and taṣawwuf)

1. ‘Sufism’: reconsidering terms, definitions and processes

2. Zuhd in Islamic mysticism: conduct and attitude

3. "Wa-rahbāniyyatan ibtadaʿūhā": monasticism and asceticism – false and sincere

Part II Schools and teachers

4. Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and the Malāmatīs of Nīshāpūr

5. Teachers and disciples in Baghdād and Nīshāpūr

6. Facing hostility in Transoxiana: Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl

Part III Polarity

7. Between fear and hope: coincidence of opposites in Islamic mysticism

8. The self (nafs) and her transformation

9. Faces of al-Ḥaqq: the name and the named

Part IV The Spiritual Hierarchy

10. Wilāya: contemplating friendship with God

11. Myrtle and holy men: echoes of ancient traditions in a woman’s dream

Part V Language and Hermeneutics

12. The power of words: mystical linguistics in al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī

13. The Countless Faces of Understanding: Istinbāṭ, listening and exegesis

Bibliography