Taṣawwuf and Reform in Pre Modern Islamic Culture in Search of Ibrāhīm Al Kūrāni

8/15/2019 Taṣawwuf and Reform in Pre Modern Islamic Culture in Search of Ibrāhīm Al Kūrāni

1/50

Taṣawwuf and Reform in Pre-Modern Islamic Culture: In Search of Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī

Author(s): Basheer M. NafiSource: Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 42, Issue 3, Arabic Literature and IslamicScholarship in the 17th/18th Century: Topics and Biographies (2002), pp. 307-355Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1571418 .

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2/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM IN PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC

CULTURE: IN SEARCH OF IBRAHIM

AL-KURANI

BY

BASHEER

M.

NAFI

Oxfordshire

Early

mentions of Ibrahim

ibn Hasan al-Kufrani

(1025

AH/1616-

1101

AH/1689)

in modern

scholarship

on

Islamic

intellectual

history

characterized him as a

suifi

teacher.1 Investigating the significance

of

a treatise on

tasawwuf,

al-Tuhfa al-Mursala ild Ruh

al-Nabi,

written

by

the

Indian sufi Muhammad Fadl-Allah al-Burhanbfiri

(d. 1619),

A. H.

Johns

found that the Madina-based

al-Kurani

was

closely

asso-

ciated with Southeast Asian Islamic revival

in

the

seventeenth

cen-

tury, particularly

with

the

Achehnese teacher 'Abd

al-Ra'uf

(d. 1690).

Later,

Johns

located a

manuscript

of

al-Kufrani's

original

commen-

tary

on

al-Tuhfa,

in

which he defended

the

suifi

principal

of

wahdat

al-wujud

(the

unity

of

existence).2

Another twist in our understand-

ing

of al-Kuiranicame to the surface when

John

Voll

published

a

short but

highly important

article,3

identifying

a

group

of

revivalist

culama'

centered

on the

Hijazi holy

city

of Madina

during

the sev-

enteenth and

early eighteenth

centuries,

with

an extensive network

of

associates

and

students

in

other

parts

of the Muslim world. Most

Alfred

Guillaume, ed.,

Al-Lam'at

al-Saniyafi Tahqaqal-Ilqa' -l-Umniya by

Ibra-

him

al-Kurani ,

Bulletin

of

the

School

of

Oriental

and

African

Studies,

20

(1957):

291-

303;

A. H.

Johns,

The

Gift

Addressed o the

Spirit

of

the

Prophet

(Canberra:

Centre

of

Oriental

Studies,

The Australian National

University,

1965),

8,

and footnote

7

on

the

same

page;

EI

2,

s. v. Ibrahim

al-Kurani ,

by

idem.

See also: Alexander

Knysh,

Ibrahim al-Kurani

(d.

1101/1690),

An

Apologist

for wahdat

al-wujud, Journal of

the

Royal

Asiatic

Society,

3rd

Series, 5,1

(1995):

39-47.

2

A. H.

Johns,

Islam

in

Southeast Asia: Problems of

Perspective ,

in C.

D.

Cowan

and 0. W. Walters

(eds.),

Southeast

Asian

History

and

Historiography

(Ithaca:

Cornell

University

Press,

1976),

304-20.

3

John

Voll,

Muhammad

Hayya

al-Sindi

and

Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab:

An Analysis of an Intellectual Group in Eighteenth-Century Madina , BSOAS, 38,

1

(1974):

32-9.

See also

idem.,

Hadith Scholars

and

Tariqas:

An

'Ulama'

Group

in

the

18th

Century Haramayn

and

their

Impact

in the

Islamic

World ,

Journal of

Asian

and

African

Studies, 15,

3-4

(1980):

264-73.

?

Koninklijke

Brill

NV,

Leiden,

2002

Also

available online

-

www.brill.nl

Die Welt des Islams

42,

3


3/50

BASHEER M. NAFI

prominent

among

the

first

generation

of

this

group

of

'ulama'

were

Ahmad

al-Qushashi

and Muhammad

al-Babili;

the

second

included

their students Ibrahim ibn Hasan al-Kurani, 'Abdullah ibn Salim al-

Basri and Hasan

b. 'All

al-'Ujaymi,

who

in

turn were teachers

of a

larger group

that

comprised, among

others

of the third

generation,

Muhammad ibn

Ibrahim

al-Kurani

(Ibrahim's son)

and Muhammad

Hayat

al-Sindi. While

members of this circle of 'ulama'

originated

from various

regions

of the Muslim

world,

their

students

and

disciples

came

from and

spread

to

Persia,

Algeria,

the Arabian Pen-

insula, India, Syria, Algeria

and elsewhere. These

'ulama',

who be-

longed

to various Sunni schools of

fiqh,

were almost all affiliates

of

sufi

tariqas,

including Khalwatiyya,

Naqshbandiyya,

Shadhiliyya,

Suh-

rawardiyya,

Shattariyya

and

Qadiriyya,

and

were

universally

interested

in

hadith

scholarship.

Since several of the

late-eighteenth-century

Islamic

reformists,

most

prominently

Muhammad

b.

'Abd al-Wahhab

(1703-92)

and

Wali-Allah

Dihlawi

(1703-62),

had been associated

with

scholars of

the Madinan circle, the implication of Voll's findings was that the

origins

of

the

eighteenth-century

Islamic revivalism had much

deeper

roots and were

the

culmination of

a

long

process

of intellectual

evolution

and

change.

This should raise some

questions

about

the

position

of Ibrahim

al-Kurani

in this

process

of

intellectual

evolu-

tion. The most

vexing

of all

questions

is

how

it

could have been

possible

that

a

scholar of

profound

sffi affiliation and

belief

in

wahdat

al-wujud

be

genealogically

related to

a

robust

salafi and anti-sufi like

Ibn

'Abd al-Wahhab.

Although

Voll

did not

study

the intellectual

making

of

al-Kfrani

or

any

of his numerous treatises

and

books,4

basing

his conclusions

on

the

study

of

chains of

authority,

he

sug-

gested

that

al-Kfrani,

and

the

whole

phenomenon

of revivalist tasaw-

wuf in the

eighteenth

century,

was influenced

by

and influential

in

a

rising

interest in

hadith

scholarship.

As

an

intellectual

development

in the

intellectual

history

of

Islam,

sufi revivalism/reformism , or neo-sufism , was first proposed by

4

For

a list of al-Kurani's

works,

which

exceeded

perhaps fifty

books

and short

treatises,

see Isma'il

al-Baghdadi, Hadiyat

al-'Ariftn,

Asma'

al-Mu'allifin

wa-Athar

al-

Musannifin

(Istanbul:

n

p.,

1955-57),

vol.

1,

columns, 35-6;

C.

Brockelmann,

Ge-

schichte

der

Arabischen

Litteratur

(Leiden:

Brill,

1943-49),

II,

505,

and

Supp.

II,

520.

308


4/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM

IN

PRE-MODERN

ISLAMIC CULTURE

309

Fazul Rahman.5

Subsequently,

both

neo-sutfism and the

late-eigh-

teenth-century

Islamic revivalism have been the

subject

of

several

studies.6 But whereas some of the earlier assessments of the reform-

ist/revivalist

trends of

eighteenth-century

Islam have

been

sweeping

and

unqualified,

recent doubts about the

reality

of

sufi

revivalism

were not less

sweeping, dismissing

the

phenomenon altogether

or

explaining

it as a mere

expansion

in

tariqa's

activities

and

organiza-

tion.

Relying

on a small

body

of

evidence,

De

Jong,

and

O'Fahey

and

Radtke,

questioned

the whole

assumption

of an intellectual

change

and reform in

eighteenth-century

sulfism.7 The

problem,

of

course,

is that

if

the dismissal

argument

is

accepted,

how

exactly

can

5

Fazul

Rahman,

Islam

(London:

Weidenfeld and

Nicolson,

1966),

206.

An

earlier identification of the

phenomenon

was

made

by

Hamilton

Gibb,

Muham-

medanism

(Oxford:

Oxford

University

Press,

1953),

117.

6

See,

for

example,

E.

Bannerth,

La

Khalwatiyya

en

Egypte ,

Melanges

de l'Institut

Dominicaine des

Etudes

Orientales,

8

(1964-66):

1-7;

C.

Brockelmann,

Mustafa Kamal

al-Din ,

El

2,

1:

965-6;

Rudolph

Peters,

Idjtihad

and

Taqlid

in 18th and

19th

Cen-

tury

Islam ,

Die

Welt

des

Islam,

20

(1980):

132-45;

J.

M.

S.

Baljon, Religion

and

Thought

of

Shah

Wali Allah

Dihlawi

(Leiden:

E.

J.

Brill,

1986);

R.

S.

O'Fahey,

Enigmatic

Saint:

Ahmad Ibn

Idris and the Idrisi Tradition

(London:

Hurst

and

Company,

1990);

Ahmad

Dallal,

The

Origins

and

Objectives

of Islamic Revivalist

Thought, 1750-1850 ,Journal

of

the American Oriental

Society,

113,

3

(1993):

341-59;

Stefan

Reichmuth,

Murtada

az-Zabidi

(d. 1791)

in

Biographical

and

Autobiographical

Accounts:

Glimpses

of

Islamic

Scholarship

in

the

18th

Century ,

Die

Welt des

Islams, 39,1

(1999):

64-102.

7

F. De

Jong,

Mustafa Kamal

al-Din

al-Bakri

(1688-1749),

Revival and Reform

of

the

Khalwatiyya

Tradition?,

in Nehemia Levtzion

and

John

Voll

(eds.),

Eigh-

teenth-Century

slamic

Renewal and

Reform

(Syracuse:

Syracuse

University

Press,

1987),

117-32. For an

emphasis

on the

organizational aspects

of the

phenomenon

known

as

neo-sufism,

see

O'Fahey, Enigmatic

Saint, 1-9;

R. S.

O'Fahey

and

Bernd

Radtke,

Neo-sufism

Reconsidered ,

Der Islam:

Zeitschrift

ur

Geschichteund Kultur des

Orient,

LXX,

1

(1993):

73-81. One of the main

problems

of De

Jong's

evaluation

of al-

Bakri's convictions was his reliance on a small

sample

of al-Bakri's

writings,

which

makes

his

findings highly

inconclusive.

O'Fahey

and

Radtke,

on

the other

hand,

dismissed the

neo-sufism

hypothesis by analyzing

textual evidence

of

a small

number

of African and Middle

Eastern sufis.

Later, however,

Professor

O'Fahey

qualified

his

earlier conclusions.

In

an

unpublished paper, indicating

the

jointly

written

paper

he

published

with Radke

in

which

they

rejected

the

neo-sufism

the-

sis, he wrote In our enthusiasm to demolish the neo-suifi discourse of the colonial

scholar/administrator

uncritically

inherited

by

such scholars as Hamilton

Gibb,

Fazlur

Rahman

and Anne-Marie

Schimmel,

I

believe we

went

a little too far.

(R.

S.

O'Fahey,

Pietism,

Fundamentalism and

Mysticism:

An

Alternative View

of the

18th

and 19th Centuries Islamic

World ,

unpublished

article,

based

on

a

public

lec-

ture

given

at Northwestern

University

on

12

November 1997.

I am

grateful

to Prof.

O'Fahey

for

providing

me with

a

copy

of

this

article.)


5/50

BASHEER M.

NAFI

we

explain

the

making

of Ahmad

Sirhindi

and Wali-Allah

Dihlawi,

whose suifi roots

and

powerful

reformist

tendencies cannot

be de-

nied? When a scholar like Ibrahim al-Kfurani is perceived by a

succession of students

and

'ulama'

in

reformist

terms,

even

two

hundred

years

after

his

death,

can we still dismiss his reformist cre-

dentials?

Besides

attempting

to

provide

some

answers

to these

questions,

this

article

will endeavor

to

project

the

intellectual

profile

of Ibrahim

al-Kurani

and seek to

pinpoint

his sources of

inspiration.

An

ubiq-

uitous 'alim/teacher with a long-lasting impact, al-Kurani's life and

career

provide

a

vital

key

to

the

complex relationship

between

tasaw-

wuf

and reformist

thought.

Although

the

main aim here is

to

ex-

plore

the

making

and some

of the influential

works of

al-Klurani,

this

study

is also about

mapping

out the

intellectual

environment

of the

late-seventeenth and

early-eighteenth

centuries

Haramayn,

which,

as a

major

Islamic

crossroad,

seem

to

have become a

melting

pot

for ideas and intellectual currents

originating

elsewhere.

The

significance of al-Kiuranis not, therefore, only seen in his own words

but

also in the vocations of his

students and

disciples.

In

the

light

of

the

continuing

debate

among

students

of

eigh-

teenth

century

Islam about

sufi revivalism and

neo-suifism ,

how-

ever,

it is

perhaps important

to

mention that this

article is not about

any specific

sufi

tariqa,

but rather about individual 'ulama' (some

may

have been more committed

to tasawwuf than

others),

who

were

loosely linked

in

informal, traditional educational relationships.

Whether

the

phenomenon

of

neo-suifism

did exist

in

the

eigh-

teenth

century

Muslim world

or

not,

the

assumption

underlining

this article

is that dominant intellectual

modes were

being

reformu-

lated within

certain 'ulama' circles.

Reformist

and/or revivalist,

the

terms used here to describe these

trends,

are

interchangeable

and

indicate

in

principal

intellectual

change

and transformation.

This

article

is, thus,

not

particularly

concerned with

whether

this

pheno-

menon resulted in broad social, organizational and political changes,

which

De

Jong

and

O'Fahey

assumed,

in

various

degrees,

to be as-

sociated with revivalist tasawwuf

in

the

eighteenth century, although

some of these

changes

were no doubt

closely

related to cases of

intellectual transformation.

In

addition,

throughout

this article the

310


6/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM

IN

PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC

CULTURE

311

term traditional

is used to denote the dominant

Islamic cultural

mode in the

pre-modern

era.

Generally speaking,

traditional here

indicates an intellectual orientation that is based on adherence to

the

established

fiqhi

madhhabs,

Ash'ari or Maturidi

theology

and

tasawwuf.

Seventeenth-Century

Madina and its 'ulama'

Al-Haramayn,

the two

grand mosques

of

the

two

holy

cities

of

Makka and Madina, have always been centers of Islamic learning,

attracting

established,

as well as

aspiring,

'ulama' from all

parts

of

the

Muslim world.

The

yearly

Hajj

season,

the holiness of

the two

cities and the

slow

and arduous means of

communication,

encour-

aged

seekers of

knowledge

to

stay

at

the

Haramayn

for

various

pe-

riods of

time;

some would even settle there

permanently.

Being

the

seat

of

the

ashraf,

the local rulers of the

Hijaz,

Makka was

a

more

recognized centre of learning during the period following the Ot-

toman

conquest

of the

Arab

East

in

the

sixteenth

century. Signifi-

cant

improvements

in

the

security

of

the

Hajj

routes,

brought

about

by strong

Ottoman

rule,

together

with the increase

in

the

number

of

waqfs

dedicated

for the

maintenance

of

the

Haramayn,8 engen-

dered a

period

of

prosperity

in the

Hijaz.

The

move

of the

eminent

Egyptian

Shafi'i 'alim Ahmad ibn

Hajar al-Haythami

(909/1504-974/

1567)

from Cairo to Makka

in

the thirties

of

the sixteenth

century

coincided with the rising position of the city, and helped to establish

a school of

learning

that influenced a

wide

range

of

'ulama',

not

only

in

the Arab East but also

in

areas as far as

the Indian subcon-

tinent.9

During

the

seventeenth

century,

however,

the

political

in-

stability,

caused

by

the

ongoing

conflict within

ranks

of the

ruling

8

On

the Ottoman effort to

improve

the

security

of the

Hajj

routes and

places,

see Suraiya Faroqhi, Pilgrims and Sultans: TheHajj under the Ottomans (London: I. B.

Tauris,

1994).

9

On

al-Haytami,

see

Muhyi

al-Din

'Abd

al-Qadir

ibn 'Abdullah

al-'Aydarusi,

al-

Nur

al-Safir

'an

Akhbar

al-Qarn

al-'Ashir

(Cairo:

n.p.,

n.d.),

287-92;

Khayr

al-Din al-

Zirikli, al-A'lam,

8th.edn.

(Beirut:

Dar al-'Ilm

lil-Malayin,

1989),

vol.

1, 234;

'Abdullah

ibn

Hijazi al-Sharqawi,

al-Tuhfa

al-Bahiyya

fi

Tabaqat

al-Shafi'iyya ,

ms.

149, Tarikh,

Institute

of the

Arab

Manuscript,

The Arab

League,

Cairo,

plates

204-5.


7/50

BASHEER M. NAFI

ashraf,

contributed

to the

emergence

of

Madina,

with its relative

stability,

as

a rival centre

of

learning.

The first renowned 'alim to be associated with Madina in the

second

half of the seventeenth

century

was

shaykh

Ahmad

b.

Mu-

hammad

al-Qushashi

(also

known as

al-Qushash;

991/1583-1071/

1661).10

Al-Qushashi

hailed from

the

Badris of

Jerusalem,

a

family

with

sharifian

descent,

whose

roots

in the

city

went back to the sev-

enth

Hijri century.11

It was

his

father,

an

'alim

as

well,

who

first moved

from

Jerusalem

to Madina for

unclear

reasons. Ahmad

al-Qushashi

received his early education from his father, accompanying him to

Yemen in

1011/1602-3,

where

he

joined

several

circles of its emi-

nent 'ulama' at the time.

An

unpleasant experience

led him to leave

his father behind and return to Madina where he encountered the

prominent

sufi

shaykh

Ahmad b.

'Ali

al-Shinnawi

(known

also as al-

Khami;

975/1568-1028/1619),12

who initiated al-Qushashi into the

sutfi

way.

Al-Hamawi

reported,

perhaps

with some

exaggeration,

that

al-Qushashi

accompanied

more

than a

hundred stfi

shaykhs,

and

following the ethos of his times was an associate of several tariqas,

including

the

Qadiriyya,

Shattariyya

and

the

Shadhiliyya,

establish-

ing

himself

firmly

in

the

dominant

sufi

milieu of the seventeenth

century

and

becoming

the

successor of

al-Shinnawi

in Madina.13

Al-

Qushashi

seems

to have been

extremely

charismatic, humble,

pious

and an

immensely

effective

teacher,

traits

that

explain

the

large

10Muhammad Amin al-Muhibbi, Khulasat al-Atharfi A'y n al-Qarnal-Hadd Ashar

(Beirut:

Maktabat

Khayiat,

n.

d.),

vol.

1, 343-6;

Yfisuf

Illiyas

Sarkis,

Mu'jam al-Matbu'at

al-'Arabiyya

wal-Mu'araba

(Cairo:

Maktabat

al-Thaqafa al-Diniyya,

n.

d.),

vol.

2,

col-

umn, 1513;

Yusuf

al-Nabahani,

Jami'

Karamat

al-Awliya',

ed. Ibrahim 'Awad

(Beirut:

al-Maktaba

al-Thaqafiyya,

1991),

vol.

1,

559;

'Abdullah

al-'Aiyashi,

al-Rihla

al-'Aiyd-

shiyya

(Rabat:

Dar

al-Maghrib,

1977),

vol.

1, 407-24;

'Abd al-Rahman

al-Ansari,

Tuhfat

al-Muhibbin

wal-AshezbfliMa'rifat

ma

lil-Madanyytn

min

Ansab,

ed.

M. A. al-Mitwi

(Tunis:

al-Maktaba

al-'Atiqa,

1970),

391.

11

The

Badris,

from whom the other

major

Sharifian families ofJerusalem

origi-

nated,

are the descendents

of

Badr

al-Din

b.

Muhammad

b. Yusuf b. Badran who

died in Wadi al-Nusur, near Jerusalem in 650AH. Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali, al-'Uns

al-Jaldl

i-Tarzkh

al-Quds

wal-Khalal

(al-Najaf:

al-Maktaba

al-Haydariyya,

1966),

vol.

2,

146-7.

12

Al-Muhibbi,

Khuldsat

al-Athar,

vol.

1,

243-6.

13

Mustafa

Fathallah al-Hamawi

Fawa'id

al-Irtihal wa

Nata'ij

al-Safar fi Akhbar

al-Qarn

al-Hadi

'Ashar , Cairo,

The Arab

League,

Institute

of

Manuscripts,

ms.

755,

Tarikh

Taymur,

vol.

1,

pp.

640-67.

312


8/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM IN PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC CULTURE

313

number of students and

disciples

who flocked into Madina to

join

his

circle.

The

problem,

however,

is

how to define Ahmad

al-Qusha-

shi's position in the course of Islamic reformist currents of the

pre-

modern

period.

Intellectual

reform

implies

renewal,

breaking

of cultural

impasse,

challenge

to dominant

intellectual modes

and

instilling vitality

into

a

stagnant

cultural situation.

By

the

seventeenth

century,

Islamic

culture had

already

succumbed to

the

pervasive

influence of

sufi

tariqas

and

madhhabi

fiqh,

where middle

Islamic traditions

eclipsed

the founding Islamic texts of the Qur'an and hadith, imitation in

the form of

commentary

and

glosses replaced

the

creative

enterprises

in

fiqh

and

theology,

and

sufi

popular

beliefs and

practices

became

normative even

among

the

highest

class of

the 'ulama'.14

Moreover,

wahdat

al-wujud,

the doctrinal edifice of

sufi

theology,

which had

been

accepted

with reservations

by

some 'ulama'

in

earlier

periods,

was

now

widely

held and

defended.

Although

a

systematic

assessment

of

Islamic intellectual

reformism

is

still

lacking,

students of

early

modern Islamic history largely agree that Islamic reformists expres-

sed themselves in

terms

of

ijtihad,

re-assertion

of

the

position

of the

Qur'an

and

hadith,

upholding

the tenets of

high

religion

and affir-

mation

of

tawhid,

either

by

re-interpreting

the

doctrine of wahdat

al-wujad

or

by totally rejecting

it.15

An

emphasis

on one or more of

these themes

would, thus,

indicate

the

presence

of

reformist tenden-

cies.

Ahmad

al-Qushashi was,

as al-Muhibbi

put it,

the imam of all those

who

believed

in

wahdat

al-wujiud ,

nd his

writings

were

mainly glosses

and

commentaries on

major

sufi tracts.

He

was

certainly

regarded

as one

of the

greatest

safis of

his

times,

but

what he

struggled

to

bequeath

to his

students was an extension of what he

inherited

from

14

Rahman, Islam,

153.

For a

study

of the

incorporation

of

popular

tasawwuf

into

the

major

sufi

tariqa during

the

thirteenth to sixteenth

cenuries,

see Ahmet

T. Karamustafa, God's UnrulyFriends (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press,

1994).

15

For various

aspects

of the discussion

of these

issues,

see

Rudolph

Peters,

Idjtihad

and

Taqlid

in 18th

and 19th

Century

Islam ,

Die Welt des

Islam, XX,

3-4

(1980):

132-45.

See alsoJ. S.

Trimingham,

The

suffi

Orders n

Islam

(Oxford:

Oxford

University

Press,

1971),

106-7;

B.

G.

Martin,

Muslim Brotherhoods

n

19^-Century

Africa

(Cambridge: Cambridge

University

Press,

1976),

71-2.


9/50


10/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM IN PRE-MODERN

ISLAMIC

CULTURE 315

motivation

to

include al-Babili

in

the revivalist

group

of the late-

seventeenth-early-eighteenth

century

was

partly

due

to his

relation

with the Haramayn intellectual milieu and partly to his renowned

erudition in

hadith

scholarship;

both,

in

fact,

are

interconnected

credentials. Had he not been a

scholar

of

hadith,

a

fundamental

criterion in the

assessment of Islamic revivalist

currents,

al-Babili's

association with the

Haramayn

cultural environment would have

been

an

insignificant

event,

at least

in

the context of

pre-modern

Islamic

revivalism.

Later

ijazas

of

Ottoman 'ulama' confirm the

posi-

tion of al-Babili in the chains of hadith transmission. These ijazas,

however,

indicate that hadith

scholarship

was

a vibrant

pursuit

in

Cairo from the time of Ahmad b.

Hajar

al-'Asqalani

(d.

1449)

on-

ward,

with

uninterrupted

chains

of

transmission,18

a

fact

which

made

Cairo

a

major

centre

of

hadith

learning, perhaps

well into the

mid-

nineteenth

century.

It

is, therefore,

necessary

to

distinguish

between

two

types

of hadith

scholarship:

the

transmission of hadith

collec-

tions,

and the textual

study

of

hadith

(the

study

of

matn),

or the

direct return to the hadith (besides the Qur'an) as a source of the

shari'a,

an

approach

that had been validated

by

al-Shafi'i and Ahmad

ibn Hanbal in the third

Hijri century.

It

is clear that the late

eighteenth century

reformists,

including

Wali-Allah

Dihlawi,

Muhammad

b. 'Abd

al-Wahhab,

and the less

known Muhammad

Murtada

al-Zabidi,

were all

interested

in

hadith

scholarship,

not

only

in its

dissemination and transmission

but

prin-

cipally

in its

substantive

study

as a

primary

textual source of

religion

and shari'a. In his

biography

of

al-Zabidi,

al-Jabartiwas

unequivocal

in

depicting

his teacher's textualist

approach

to

hadith

as

revolu-

tionary

and

refreshing,

an

approach

that set al-Zabidi

apart

from

18

See,

in

historical

order,

Ahmad ibn

Hajar al-Haythami,

Masasid

al-Haythami ,

ms.

2014,

Tarikh,

Institute

of Arab

Manuscripts,

The Arab

League,

Cairo;

several

ijazas granted

from Cairene 'ulama' to

shaykh

Sharaf al-Din

ibn

'Usayla

in the late

sixteenth century, ms. 3490, Majmu'at, Dar al-Kutub, Cairo; eight ijazas granted to

Shaykh

Salih ibn Ahmad ibn

Muhammad al-Ghazzi

al-Tamartashi,

ms.

23839

B,

Dar

al-Kutub, Cairo;

Ijaza

from Muhammad ibn Sultan al-Shafi'i al-Walidi to Isma'il al-

Jarahi

al-'Ajluni,

ms.

97,

Hadith

Taymur,

Dar

al-Kutub,

Cairo;

Twenty

one

Ijazas

Granted to Isma'il

al-Jarahi

al-'Ajluni ,

ms.

97,

Hadith

Taymur,

Dar

al-Kutub,

Cairo;

'Ali

ibn

Ahmad

al-Sa'idi

al-'Adawi,

Thabt

al-'Adawi ,

ms.

23328

B,

Dar

al-Kutub,

Cairo.


11/50

BASHEER M. NAFI

the rest of the 'ulama' of Cairo.19

It

was this common denominator

in the orientation of the well-known

late-eighteenth century

reform-

ists that suggested the close association between the rising interest

in

hadith

scholarship

and the

emergence

of reformist tendencies.

Al-Babili was one of a few scholars who committed themselves

to the

study

of hadith as a text since Ahmad b.

Hajar

al-'Asqalani

and al-

Suyuti.

Al-Muhibbi,

opening

his

biography

of

al-Babili, wrote,

He

was the most

knowledgeable

of all his

contemporaries

in

the matns

of hadith. 20

Although

there was

nothing

conspicuously

clear about

his reformist tendencies, al-Babili was, in a subtle manner, critical

of

the

intellectual

mode of

his

time. When asked

why

he was not

interested in

writing,

like the rest of his

prominent

fellow

'ulama',

he

said

one should

only

compile

a book in

something

that

has

never

been tackled

before,

or

in

something

incomplete

that he

seeks

to

conclude,

or

in

something ambiguous

in

order to

clarify

it,

or

in

something

that

is

so

expansive

in order to summaries it without

blemishing

its

meaning,

or in

something

so

sundry

in order to re-

organize

it,

or in

something

mistaken

in

order to correct

it,

or in

something

so

disperse

in order to

bring

it

together. 21

The third

of this

group

of

'ulama',

who

came to

shape

the Ma-

dinan intellectual environment

in

the late seventeenth

century,

was

a

polymath,

hadith scholar and a

sifi.

Muhammad

b.

Sulayman

al-

Maghribi

(1037/1628-1094/1683)22

was

born

in a

village

near

Slus

of the Far

Maghrib

and studied

in

Marrakech and

Algeria

with

some

of the most prominent Malikis, including the renowned shaykh Sa'id

b.

Ibrahim,23

the mufti of

Algeria. Subsequently,

al-Maghribi

trav-

eled to Cairo where

he

joined

the circles of

al-Ajhfiri,

Sultan

al-

Mazahi and

the

hadith

scholar,

Ahmad al-Shubari. He then moved

to the

Hijaz

where,

as

he

began

to

teach,

he

continued to

study

with

'9

'Abd al-Rahman

al-Jabarti,

Tarrkh

Aja'ib

al-Athdrfi

l-Tardjim

wal-Akhbdr

Beirut:

Dar al-Jil, n. d.), vol. 2, 103-14.

20

Al-Muhibbi,

Khuldsat

al-Athdr,

vol.

4,

39.

See also

al-Hamawi Fawa'id

al-Irtihal ,

vol.

1,

pp.

399-400.

21

Al-Muhibbi,

Khuldsat

al-Athar,

vol.

4,

41.

22

Al-Muhibbi,

Khulasat

al-Athdr,

vol.

4,

304-8.

23

On

him,

see

Muhammad

b.

Muhammad

Makhluf,

Shajarat

al-Nur

al-Zakiyya

fi

Tabaqat al-Malikiyya

(Cairo:

Dar

al-Fikr,

n.

d.),

309.

316


12/50

TASAWWUF AND REFORM IN PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC CULTURE

317

other more senior

'ulama',

residing

first

at

Madina before

taking

an

official

position

in

Makka. His

pronounced

suifi

affinities were first

nurtured by Muhammad b. Nasir al-Dir'i,24who revived the fortunes

of

the

Shadhiliyya

ttariqa

in

seventeenth

century

Morocco.

Besides

his

acclaimed

scholarly

knowledge

of hadith and

fiqh,

as well

as

ma-

thematics,

geometry, astrology

and

music,

shaykh

Muhammad b.

Sulayman

al-Maghribi

was

a

goldsmith,

inventor and

bookbinder,

skills that

helped

him earn

his

living

and maintain a detached mode

of

life.

In

1668,

a

year

of

severe

drought

and

hardship

in the

Hijaz,

he, along with the other Maghribi 'ulama' of Madina, 'Isa b. Muham-

mad al-Tha'alibi and 'Abd

al-Rahman

al-Maghribi,

took the

initiative

to

raise funds from the

wealthy

in

order to

support

the

badly

off

and the

impoverished.25

Three

years

later,

Muhammad b.

Sulayman

al-Maghribi

was

invited

to

Istanbul to meet

with

the

grand

vezir,

Ahmad Pasha

Koprullu (grand

vezir from

1661-76),26

the

second of

the

great

K6prfillu

ministers of the Ottoman

Sultanate,

after

be-

friending

a brother

of his

during

the

pilgrimage

season.

Al-Maghribi stayed a whole year as a guest of Ahmad Pasha, strik-

ing

a

profound

relationship

with

the

enlightened grand

vezir who

admired

the

wisdom,

erudition and

reformist outlook

of

the

shaykh.

His visit to Istanbul

and

his

closeness to Ahmad

Pasha,

the second

most

powerful

man in

the

sultanate,

enabled him to

realize three

main

objectives.

First,

against

a

background

of chaotic

political

situ-

ation

in

Makka,

al-Maghribi

intervened

on

behalf

of

sharif Barakat

ibn

Abi

Nummayy (ruled 1672-82),

who

was

apparently

well

known

to

al-Maghribi,

to

replace

his

relative Sa'd

b.

Muhsin,

as the

sharif

of

Makka.

Second,

he

obtained

an

order

from

the Ottoman

sultan

to

ban several

practices

in

Makka and

Madina,

which were associ-

ated with

popular

tasawwuf,

including

the use

of

musical

instruments

and drums in

sufi

zawiyas

and

the

women's

joining

of

processions

24

Ibid.,

313.

25

For a detailed, though fragmented, description of his career in the Hijaz, see

the account of

his

contemporary,

'Abd al-Malik

al-'Isami,

Samt

al-Nujum

al-'Awal

ft

Anba'

al-Awa'il wal-Tawalz

(Cairo:

al-Maktaba

al-Salafiyya,

n.d.),

vol.

4,

502

ff.

26

On

his

period

as

a

grand

vezir,

a

position

he rose to from

the

governorship

of

Damascus,

see Stanford

J.

Shaw,

History of

the Ottoman

Empire

and Modern

Turkey.

Volume

I:

Empire of

the

Ghazis

(Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press,

1976),

211-

3.


13/50

BASHEER M. NAFI

during

the celebration of the

Prophet's birthday. Although

a sufi

and adherent

to

the

Shadhiliyya tariqa, al-Maghribi

was

uncompro-

mising in his opposition to sufi excesses, an attitude that reflected

a continuous tension within sffi

circles between two frames

of

mean-

ing,

the

popular

ways

of

tariqas'

saints and the suffi

ulama's

struggle

to

uphold

the tenets of

religion.27

But

while most

of

the 'ulama' felt

swamped

by

the

popular

sentiments and

the

huge following

of the

saints,

a

few

had

enough

sense of

confidence and

authority

to

speak

out.

Third,

was

his

appointment

to the

guardianship

of

the Hara-

mayn

waqfs,

immediately

after his

return

from

Istanbul

in

1672.

This

powerful position

and

the

large

resources that come with

it,

together

with

the

deep

understanding

between him and sharif

Barakat,

made

shaykh

al-Maghribi

one

of

the most influential officials in the

Hijaz

and enabled

him

to embark

upon

a

period

of

public

construction

in the

Haramayn

and to become an effective

agent

in

directing

the

government

affairs of the

Hijaz.

An

'alim, however,

was not

supposed

to cross the long-established line separating the men of knowledge

from the men

of

the sword and to come so close to the circles of

power.

Moreover,

al-Maghribi

was

a

kind

of

puritan

and an idealist

calim who

was

described

by

a

sympathetic

observer

of the

period

as

unacquainted

with his

times ,28

an

allusion

to his

unpreparedness

to

compromise

with

opponents

and detractors. For his

reform-ori-

ented

management

of

the

waqfs,

al-Maghribi

seems to

have

antago-

nized

many quarters

in the

Haramayn. Hence, immediately

after the

death

of his

patron,

Ahmad

Pasha

Koprulu,

Kara

Mustafa

Pasha,

the new

grand

vezir,

removed

him

from the

guardianship

of the

Haramayn

waqfs

in

1087/1676

and

ordered

him

not to interfere

in matters of the state .

Al-Maghribi,

however,

continued

from

be-

hind

the

scene

to

influence the

running

of the

Hijazi

affairs

through

his

friend,

sharif Barakat. Late in

1682,

following the death of sharif

27

A

similar

response

to sufi excesses was

raging

in

Istanbul

at

the

time,

expressed

by

the

Kadizadeli movement.

On

the

Kadizadelis,

see

Madeline C.

Zilfi,

The

Politics

of

Piety:

The

Ottoman Ulema n the

Postclassical

Age,

1600-1800

(Minneapolis:

Bibliotheca

Islamica,

1988),

3840.

28

Al-Hamawi Fawa'id

al-Irtihal ,

vol.

1,

p.

473.

Al-Hamawi's detailed

biogra-

phy

of

al-Maghribi

is in

pp.

471-80.

318


14/50

TASAWWUF AND

REFORM

IN

PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC CULTURE

319

Barakat,

and

upon

the

instigation

of his

successor,

sharif

Sa'id,

al-

Maghribi

was forced

into

exile

in

Damascus,

where

he

died a

year

later.29

Al-Maghribi's

demise resonated within the circles of his

colleagues

and students

throughout

the

Hijaz

and

Syria,

and

must have been

a

grim

warning

for

any

'alim

who

thought

to

follow

in

his

footsteps.

Yet,

the

temptations

of

power

would

always

be

strong

for

those 'ula-

ma'

with a reformist

drive,

and

would

recurrently

be manifested

in

their

attempts

to

reshape

the world in their own

image. Al-Maghribi's

influence, however,

transcended that brief

period

of his

involvement

in

public

affairs,

for he was

essentially

a teacher

with

a

large

num-

ber of

students who

sought

him

not

only

for

learning

hadith and

fiqh

but also mathematics and

astrology.

His written works were

equally

influential,

the most

important

of which was Kitab

al-Jam'

Bayn

al-Kutubal-Khamsa

wal-Muwatta',

where he

attempted

to

present

the

six

major

Sunni sources

of

hadith

in

one

book,

an

endeavor that

reflected his

mastery

of hadith

scholarship

and his view of

his own

mission.

The

uncompromising,

puritanical

style

of

al-Maghribi

was

in

sharp

contrast with his fellow Moroccan and hadith

scholar,

'Isa b. Muham-

mad

al-Tha'alibi

(1020/1611-1080/1669),3?

the affable fourth of the

most

influential

Haramayn

'ulama' at the

time,

and resident of Ma-

dina.

His

educational

background, largely

similar

to

al-Maghribi's,

was

particularly

shaped by

two

great

scholars of hadith

matns,

'Ali

al-Siglmasi,31

whom he

accompanied

for ten

years,

and

Muhammad

al-Babili,

whom he met

in

Makka.

Although

his earlier

training

in

hadith

scholarship

was

impeccable,

it

was

in

Madina

that al-Tha'ali-

bi's interest

in

hadith was to

grow

to a new

height,32

emerging

as

29

For the event of his removal and

exile,

see

al-'Isami,

Samt

al-Nujum

al-'Awdal,

vol.

4,

538-9

and

543-4; Dahlan,

Khulasat

al-Kaldm,

102-3.

Dahlan's

account,

how-

ever,

is

the

less

accurate,

and

being

a

strong

advocate of

tasawwuf,

was

obviously

biased

against al-Maghribi.

30

Muhammad 'Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani,Fihrisal-Fahdris,ed. Ihsan 'Abbas (Beirut:

Dar al-Gharb

al-Islami,

1982),

vol.

1,

500-3 and vol.

2, 806-9;

Abuf

al-Qasim

Muham-

mad

al-Hifnawi,

Ta'rif al-Khalaf

bi-Rijal

al-Salaf

(Tunis:

al-Maktaba

al-'Atiqa,

1982),

82-9; al-Muhibbi,

Khulasat

al-Athdr,

vol.

3, 234-5; al-Zirikli,

al-A'lam,

vol.

5,

108.

31

Makhlutf,

Shajarat

al-Nfr,

308.

32

According

to

al-Hifnawi

(Ta'rif

al-Khalaf

bi-Rijal

al-Salaf,

84),

who left the

most

detailed

biography

of al-Tha'alibi.


15/50

BASHEER

M. NAFI

one of the most

sought

scholars

of

hadith

in the

Haramayn.

Al-

Tha'alibi,

although

he

belonged

to

an environment that was

dominated by Shadhiliyya sufi traditions, joined the Naqshbandiyya-

Mujaddidiyya through

Muhammad

al-Ma'sfm,

son of Ahmad Sir-

hindi,33

with whom the

Mujaddidiyya

branch of

Naqshbandiyya

is

associated,

during

al-Ma'sufm's

stay

in

the

Hijaz

for the

Hajj.

Al-Tha'alibi was

perhaps

one of the first

of the Madinan

group

of

'ulama'

to

espouse

the reformist vision

of

the

Naqshbandiyya-Mu-

jaddidiyya.

In

Madina,

al-Tha'alibi

closely

identified

with

al-Qushashi

and shared with him a number of students.

Each of

these

four 'ulama'

brought

to

the

Haramayn

intellectual

milieu

a

peculiar

strand

of

thought

and

experience.

But all shared

a

suifi

background, although expressed

in

different

styles,

a

common

interest

in

hadith

scholarship,

and all were aware

of each

other's

experience

and

ideas,

communicating

between

themselves and with-

in a

pool

of

disciples

and students.

All, too,

were motivated

by

embryonic

reformist

elements,

either

of

theological,

social or sufi

outlook. The importance of al-Qushashi, however, lay in his highly

charismatic

influence,

which

enabled

him,

out of his

peers,

to

rise

above

the

traditional

affiliations to

fiqhi

madhhabs and sufi

tariqas,

and

to

emerge

as

a

teacher of shari'a and

theology

as well as

a

lead-

ing

sutfi

shaykh

in his

own

right.

Devotion and charismatic

influence,

combined with the

power

of

traditional

knowledge, helped

al-Qusha-

shi

to

leave behind a school with a

strong

sense

of

belonging,

com-

panions

of

al-Qushashi

as

an

observer called

them,34

in

which

loyalty

was

no

longer

to

a

specific

tariqa

or madhhab but rather to the

memory

and

authority

of the

founder.

Yet,

despite

his

charismatic

command,

profound

sufi

credentials

and

large following,

attributes

that

would

usually

give

rise

to

a

new sufi brotherhood or at least

a

branch

of

an established

tariqa,

al-Qushashi's

circle did not evolve

as such.

This

was either because of

his

emphatic projection

of his

role

as a mere

guide

rather than sufi

leader,

or because the shift

in

33

Al-'Aiyashi,

al-Rihla,

vol.

1,

207-8.

34

A

visitor

to Madina

in

the twelfth Islamic

century

noted how

al-Qushashi's

companions,

led

by

Ibrahim

al-Kurani,

behaved

as

an exclusive

group during

a

re-

ligious

festival

in the

city.

See

al-Husayn

ibn Muhammad

al-Warthilani,

Nuzhat

al-

Anzarfl

Fadl 'Ilm

al-Tdarkhwal-Akhbar

(Beirut:

Dar al-Kitab

al-'Arabi,

1974),

478.

320


16/50

TASAWWUF AND REFORM

IN

PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC

CULTURE

321

the orientation of his immediate heirs was so

great

that the found-

ing

of

a

tariqa

became

irrelevant

to their vocations.

The

Formation

and

Emergence

of al-Kurani

Disciples

of

al-Qushashi

were

numerous,

but it was Ibrahim ibn

Hasan al-Kturaniwho was the most

outstanding

amongst

them all.35

A

Shafi'i

'calim,

al-Kiuraniwas born

in the

Kurdish town of Shahrazur

where he also

received

his

early

education.

Apparently

at

a

young

age, he left his hometown for Baghdad, the point of attraction for

aspiring

Kurdish 'ulama'

during

the

Ottoman

period.

Al-Kfurani

stayed

in

Baghdad

for two

years,

then moved to Damascus where he

spent

a

further four

years,

and to Cairo

in

1061/1650

for a

shorter

period

of

time,

attending

various circles

of

learning

in

the three

cities.

Among

the most

prominent

of his teachers

in

the

formative

period

were Muhammad

Sharif

al-Kfurani

n

Baghdad,

'Abd

al-Baqi

al-Hanbali

and

Najm

al-Din al-Ghazzi

in

Damascus,

and Sultan

al-Mazahi

in

Cairo.

Al-Kfurani

became fluent

in

Ottoman Turkish

through

his

association with

Turkish

'ulama'

in

Baghdad,

butJohns'

suggestion

that he

also attended

learning

centers

in

Istanbul is doubt-

ful.

Al-Kfurani

reached Madina at the end

of a

pilgrimage journey,

where he

eventually

met Ahmad

al-Qushashi,

the

most influential

of all his

teachers,

and where he

finally

settled. Al-Kfurani'saccount

of

al-Qushashi,

as

well as al-Muhibbi's

biography

of

him,

speaks

of

special affinity between the two men that went beyond the typical

teacher-student

relationship,

leading

to

al-Kurani's

marriage

to the

daughter

of

his

teacher and to his

designation

as

al-Qushashi's

heir.

It was

certainly

a

relationship

that combined both sufi and traditional

learning

elements. Yet

al-Kirani's

close association with

al-Qushashi

did

not

preclude

him from

seeking knowledge

with other 'ulama'

in

Madina,

especially

Muhammad al-Babili and 'Isa

al-Thacalibi.

35

Muhammad

Khalil

al-Muradi,

Silk

al-Durar

ft

A'yan

al-Qarn

al-Thanz 'Ashar

(Baghdad:

Maktabat

al-Muthanna,

n.d.),

vol.

1,

5-6;

Muhammad

ibn

'All

al-Shawkani,

al-Badr al-Tali' bi-Mahasin man Ba'd

al-Qarn

al-Sabi'

(Cairo:

Matba'at

al-Sa'ada,

1348

AH),

vol.

1, 11-13;

al-'Aiyashi,

al-Rihla,

vol.

1,320-8;

al-Hamawi Fawa'id

al-Irtihal ,

vol.

1,

pp.

44-66; al-Kattani,

Fihris

al-Faharis,

vol.

1, 116-8, 208, 493-4; al-Zirikli,

al-

A'ldm,

vol.

1, 35;

EI

2,

s.

v. Ibrahim

al-KuranLi ,

y

A. H.

Johns.


17/50

BASHEER M.

NAFI

Al-Kfurani's

habt,

or

index,

of

his teachers and chains of

learning,

although

not

comprehensive

and

written eleven

years

before his

death, illustrates the unusual breadth of his erudition.36 His studies

of hadith

comprised

all

major,

in

addition to

a

large

number of the

minor,

collections of

hadith,

the Arabic

language, fiqh, theology,

sufism,

and even

history.

There are some

peculiar

aspects

to

his

educational

background

that

would not

appear

in

many

other ijazas

and

indexes of his times.

First,

for a Shafi'i

'alim,

his

study

of

fiqh

was not limited

to

Shafi'i

texts,

not even to Shafi'i and

Hanafi,

the

two dominant madhhabs in the region, but also to Maliki and Han-

bali schools

of

fiqh.

Furthermore,

his

study

of Hanbali texts

in

Damas-

cus included also the works

of

Ibn

Taymiyya

and his student Ibn

al-Qayyim.37

Second,

in

addition to

studying

the

common

Ash'ari

and

Maturidi

texts,

his

training

in

theology

covered Kitab

ftiqdd

al-

Shd'fi' of 'Abd al-Ghani

al-Maqdisi,

and

Khalq Af'al

al-'Ibad of al-

Bukhari,

both

regarded

as salafi books of

theology, expressing

ideas

that

are

not

necessarily

in

accord with the dominant

Ash'ari-Maturidi

modes of theology among the Sunni culama' at the time.38Although

'ulamatic indexes are not

usually

the sort of books

in

which

specific

arguments

are

advanced, al-Kurani,

when

listing

sources of his

study

of

theology,

made

a

clear mention of his belief

in

following

the

righteous

salaf

of the

umma,

and

avoiding

(in

relation

to

God's

attri-

butes)

metaphorical interpretation

(ta'wl)

and

anthropomorphism

(tashbih) ,

a

statement that fits a

salafi/Hanbali

rather

than

a

stfi/

Ash'ari discourse. Third, in a diversion dealing with the meaning of

a hadith

in

which

the

Prophet

is

relayed

to

have

said,

Seeking

the

truth is alienation

(talab

al-haqqghurba)

,

al-Kfirani referred

approv-

ingly

to

Ibn

Hajar

al-'Asqalani

and

his

attack

on

the extreme

sufi

interpretation

of the

Prophet's

statement.

By

and

large,

suifis

pro-

jected

the

Prophetic

hadith as

indicating

that self-annihilation is a

pre-condition

for

reaching

the

stage

of

divine

revelation,

which

is

the

gate

to

proper

knowledge.39 By

rejecting

the esoteric

approach

36

Ibrahim

ibn Hasan

al-Kuirani,

al-Imam

li-Iqaz

al-Himam ,

ms.

504,

Majmu'at

Tal'at,

Dar

al-Kutub,

Cairo.

7

Ibid.,

plate,

43.

38

Ibid.,

plates,

10-12

and 16.

39

Ibid.,

plate

51.

322


18/50

TASAWWUF AND

REFORM IN PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC CULTURE

323

to

the

text,

an essential

part

of the suifi

methodology,

al-Kuirani

de-

fined

the side on which he stood in the cultural divide

between

orthodoxy and esoteric sulfism

Later assessments of

al-Kuirani's ntellectual affinities reveal

a

high-

ly

complex

career

and

varying

achievements. Nu'man

al-Alusi,

the

Iraqi

salafi

'alim, writing

in the

late

nineteenth

century, spoke

of al-

Kurani as an eminent

salafi,

a defender of Ibn

Taymiyya

and of

salafi

beliefs.40

In

contrast,

'Abd al-Mut'al

al-Sa'idi,

in

his

classic

study

of

the

renewers of

Islam,

while not

denying

the notable achievements

of al-Kulrani,expressed strong misgivings over his salafi affinities and

characterized him as an

apologist

for

tasawwuf and the doctrine of

wahdat

al-wujutd.41

he

conflicting appraisals

of

al-Kuirani,

also

im-

plied

in

Johns'

and Voll's

studies,

emanate

from

the

complexity

of

his

legacy

and the

position

he

occupied

in the

development

of the

pre-modern

Islamic revivalist

thought.

Throughout

the

fourteenth,

fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries,

Ibn

Taymiyya

was the

subject

of ferocious attacks from

sufi and tradi-

tional 'ulamatic circles, the last of which came from Ibn Hajar al-

Haythami

in

Makka,42

which seemed

to

have sealed

the fate

of Ibn

Taymiyya's legacy

for the

next hundred

years

at least.

For

his own

opposition

to Ash'ari

theology

and

many aspects

of

suifism,

Ibn

Tay-

miyya's

ideas were

particularly

anathema to sifis and Ash'ari

'ulama'.

Al-Kurani's main Damascene teacher

was

shaykh

'Abd

al-Baqi Taqi

al-Din al-Hanbali

(d.

1070/1660),

the Hanbali

mufti

of the

city

and

the

most eminent Hanbali 'alim of Damascus

in

the

middle of

the seventeenth

century.

'Abd

al-Baqi

al-Hanbali's

index of

teach-

ers and authoritative lines of

transmission,43

which

he

compiled

in

1064/1654

upon

al-Kurani's

insistence,

profiles

an 'alim with formi-

40

Nu'man

Khayr

al-Din

al-Alusi,Jald'

al-'Aynaynft

Muhdkamat

al-Ahmadayn

(Cairo:

Matba'at

al-Madani,

1981),

29.

41

'Abd

al-Mut'al

al-Sa'idi,

al-Mujaddidun

ft

al-Islam

(Cairo:

Maktabat

al-Adab,

1962), 407-8.

42

Ahmad ibn

Hajar

al-Haythami,

al-Fatawa

al-Hadithiyya

(Cairo:

Mustafa Babi

al-Halabi,

1989),

114-7 and

also 331-6.

43

'Abd

al-Baqi

al-Hanbali, Thabt ,

among

a

collection in ms.

97,

Hadith

Taymur,

Dar

al-Kutub,

Cairo.

On

al-Hanbali,

see also al-Hamawi

Fawa'id

al-Irtihal ,

vol.

3,

92-5;

MuhammadJamil

al-Shatti,

Mukhtasar

Tabaqdt

al-Handbila

(Beirut:

Dar al-Kitab

al-'Arabi,

1986),

120-1.


19/50

BASHEER

M. NAFI

dable

knowledge

who combined

Damascene

learning

with

a

power-

ful Azhari

training.

In

addition

to the

notable

list of 'ulama' with

whom he studied in Cairo, 'Abd al-Baqi joined the circle of shaykh

Mar'i b. Yulsufal-Karmi

(d.

1033/1624)44

to

study

Hanbali

fiqh.

One

of the rare Hanbali

'ulama' to build a

recognizable reputation

in

early

Ottoman

Cairo,

Mar'i

al-Karmi was also a

biographer

and ad-

mirer

of

Ibn

Taymiyya

with detailed

and

thorough knowledge

of

his

life

and works.

That 'Abd

al-Baqi

al-Hanbali

was introduced to

Ibn

Taymiyya's

works

through

Mar'i al-Karmi

is

almost

certain,

for the

latter was an active

exponent

of the

grand

salafi scholar.

Although

al-Kurani

never listed

the

specific

books

of Ibn

Taymiyya

he studied

under

'Abd

al-Baqi

al-Hanbali,

the Damascene

scholar,

as we

shall

see,

would continue

to

influence

al-Kfurani'sview

of

Ibn

Taymiyyya,

even

after

al-Kturani

had settled

permanently

in Madina.

Al-Hamawi,

himself

a

student

of

al-Kuirani,

who came

to Madina

in

1083/1672,45

about ten

years

after the

passing

of al-Qushashi

and

his succession

by

al-Kulrani,

relays

an

incident that

apparently

had

taken place prior to his arrival and that left a deep impact on the

cultural

milieu of the

Haramayn. According

to

al-Hamawi,

a

fierce

debate

over the

teachings

of the Indian

Naqshbandi

reformer,

Ah-

mad Sirhindi

(1564-1624),

erupted

in the

Haramayn

in

the

late

eleventh

Hijri century

and led to

dividing

the 'ulama' of

Makka and

Madina into

two

opposing camps.

The

distribution

of

copies

of Sir-

hindi's maktubdt

(Letters;

he

form

in

which

he

laid

out his

views)

in

the

Hijaz,

and the dissemination of

his ideas

by

followers

of

his

school

of thought,

engendered

an

unprecedented

polemics in the Hara-

mayn,

especially

among

the

Persian-speaking

'ulama' who had the

opportunity

to

read

Sirhindi's

writings

in

its

original

form. Muham-

mad

al-Barzanji

(1040/1630-1103/1691),46

another Kurdish

'alim

and a

main

figure among

al-Qushashi's

students,

vehemently

at-

tacked

Sirhindi,

compiling

several

treatises

in

refuting

his

beliefs,

of which

the most known is

Qadh

al-ZindfiJahalat

Ahl Sirhind.47

The

44

Al-Muhibbi,

Khuldsat

al-Athar,

vol.

4, 358;

al-Shatti, Mukhtasar,

108-11; al-Zirikli,

al-A'lam,

vol.

7,

203.

45

Al-Hamawi,

Fawa'id

al-Irtihal ,

vol.

1,

p.

459.

46

Al-Muradi,

Silk

al-Durar,

vol.

4,

65;

al-Zirikli, al-A'lam,

vol.

6,

203-4.

47

For

a

fairly comprehensive

list

of

al-Barazanji's

works,

see

al-Baghdadi,

Hadiyat

al-'Arifin,

vol.

2,

columns

302-3.

324


20/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM IN

PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC CULTURE

325

argument

for

Sirhindi's

position

was

forcefully

made

by

the

Egyptian

'alim,

sojourning

in

Makka at the

time,

shaykh

Ahmad

al-Bashbishi

(1041/1632-1096/1685), and the Naqshbandi 'alim, Muhammad

Bek b. Yar al-Bukhari

(b. 1041/1632),

a

new comer to the

Hara-

mayn.48

Al-Hamawi

speaks

of al-Kurani's

position

in this

episode

in

highly ambiguous

terms;

other

clues, however,

indicate that

al-Kuirani

was far from

being

an

ambivalent observer

of

the debate.

Although

the

Kurdish Islamic

environment

was,

during

most of the Ottoman

period,

dominated

by

the

Qadiriyya tariqa,

and it

was not

until

the

appearance

of

Mawlana Khalid al-Shahrazuri

(1776-1826)

49

hat

Naqshbandiyya

would establish a foothold

in

the Kurdish

region,

al-Kurani

oined

the

Naqshbandiyya tariqa-among

others-through

al-Qushashi.

Yet,

the

Naqshbandiyya

chain he was affiliated

with was

not a

Mujaddidiyya

chain,

and thus was unrelated to Sirhindi.50 The

fact that

al-Kufrani,

at a

later

stage

of his

career,

was

initiating

his

students into the

Naqshbandiyya tariqa through

the Sirhindi's

chain

of

authority,

the

Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya,51

s

an indication of

change of outlook, at least at the level of al-Kufrani'sview of this

specific

tariqa.

The

crux of

Sirhindi's

teachings

was his attack

on

the

syncretism

of

the

Mogul

emperor

Akbar,

and his

challenge

to the 'ulama's

complacency

towards Akbar's

attempts

to create a universal

religion.

By undertaking

such a

position against

the

powerful emperor,

Sir-

hindi's endeavor unfolded in a

logical sequence,

from his denun-

ciation of bid'a

(illicit innovation)

to his intolerance of the customs

of

dance

(raks)

and sama'

(session

of

singing

and

music-playing)

associated

with

popular

tasawwuf. Still committed to the essence of

48

For details of this

controversy,

see

al-Hamawi,

Fawa'id

al-Irtihal ,

vol.

1,

pp.

338,

667-8. On

al-Barazanji

and

al-Bukhari,

see

pp.

336-40 and

468-94

respectively;

on

al-Bashbishi,

see

al-Muhibbi,

Khuldsat

al-Athar,

vol.

1,

238-9.

49

On

him,

see Albert Hourani's sufism and Modern Islam: Mawlana Khalid

and the

Naqshbandi

Order ,

first

published

in

1972

and

reprinted

in

Hourani's,

The Emergenceof the Modern Middle East (London: Macmillan, 1981), 75-89.

50

Al-Kurani,

al-Imam

li-Iqaz

al-Himam ,

plates

47-8.

51

See,

for

example,

the account

of

one of

his

eminent students

in

Muhammad

al-Budayri al-Dumiyat.i,

al-Jawahir

al-Ghawali

fi

al-Asanid

al-'Awali ,

ms.

23038

B,

Dar

al-Kutub, Cairo,

plate

61. See also

al-Muradi,

Silk

al-Durar,

vol.

1,

5,

where

he

describes him as

al-sufi

al-Naqshbandi,

without even

mentioning

his adherence to

other

tariqas.


21/50


22/50


23/50

BASHEER

M. NAFI

from Muhammad

al-Barazanji, provoking

a

counter-response

from

al-Maqbali.57

But while

al-Barzanji,

faithful to the dominant tradi-

tions, opposed al-Maqbali, al-Kurani took him under his wings, as a

teacher

and

student

at the same time.

An

intellectual

bifurcation

was, thus,

developing among disciples

of

al-Qushashi.

Al-Maqbali's

ideas, nonetheless,

could have

only

reinforced al-

Kurani's

convictions,

for

these ideas were too confrontational

and

too

rapturous

to be embraced

in

full

by

al-Kurani.

In the last de-

cades of the seventeenth

century,

traditional

Islamic

culture

was so

powerful

that it could

only

be

challenged

from within and

gradu-

ally.

Al-Maqbali,

of

course,

was

not the

only

route to

the reformist

legacy

of Ibn

Taymiyya,

for

al-Kurani

had

already

been initiated

into

that route.

His

prompt,

and

perhaps risky, support

of

al-Maqbali,

indicates that al-Kfrani's

view

of Ibn

Taymiyya

had been formulated

before

meeting

the controversial Yemeni

'alim. The

question,

how-

ever,

is

what

system

of idea could

have

been

constructed

by

a

late-

seventeenth-century

'alim with

profound

sufi and

Ash'ari

training

and an admiration for Ibn Taymiyya?

On

Sufism

and

Theology

Ibrahim ibn Hasan

al-Kfrani

was

an 'alim

who

lived between two

worlds,

a

world

enveloped

in

unionist

sufism

and the late

Ash'ari

theology,

which

reached the zenith

of its cultural dominance in the

seventeenth century and could no longer go any further, and an-

other

world,

undefined

yet,

which was

struggling

to

emerge

from

underneath

the

ceiling

of

the

established

intellectual

modes.

In a

role not unlike

that of

Sirhindi,

al-Kurani

came

to

contribute

to

defining

the features

of

the new

world.

'ulama' and

suifis,

such

as

Sirhindi,

al-Harawi and

al-Maqbali,

with different concerns and cul-

tural

stratagems, posed

serious

challenges

to

the

ideology

of wahdat

al-wujud

and

to Ash'ari

theology.

Conscious

of

his

position

as an

influential

teacher,

the

profound

sufi

traditions he inherited and

the

significance

of the

Madinan

centre

that

he

was associated

with,

57

al-Shawkani,

al-Badr al-Tali' vol.

1,

288-92.

328


24/50

TASAWWUF

AND REFORM IN PRE-MODERN

ISLAMIC CULTURE

329

al-Kiurani,

on the other

hand,

had to chart his

way

in

the middle

of

currents

that

began

to collide

intensely

and

vociferously.

For al-

Kutrani,a reformist project that aimed at a total rupture with suifism

and Ash'arism

was

undoubtedly

futile and dead ended.

Moreover,

his

intellectual,

social and educational ties

with

the traditional

circles

were

too

powerful

to be

severed

without

painful

human costs that

he

seemed

unprepared

to bear.

Instead,

he

appears

to have

opted

for

a third

way,

the

way

of

reconstructing

suffismand Ash'arism to

render them more consistent

with

what he

saw

as the

original

Islamic

view.

His

means were the invocation and restoration

of

the

Hanbali/

Taymiyyan legacy

and the re-introduction of it as the standard Is-

lamic

theological

vision.

What

is

important

to

underline,

however,

is that al-Kuirani's hoice

was

not

solely

the

result of

personal

contem-

plations,

but rather of an

objective

situation

in

which the recourse

to the

Hanbali/Taymiyyan

vision became a

way

out of a

stagnant

cultural milieu that seemed to threaten the bonds between the com-

munity

and

the

high

values of

religion.

The writings of Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani were perhaps the last to

project

a

favorable view

of Ibn

Taymiyya

outside of the strict and

evidently

small

Hanbali

circles.58

By

the mid-fourteenth

century,

it

did seem that the salafi view of

Islam,

as

was

expressed

by

Ibn

Tay-

miyya,

was

largely eclipsed by

the

suifi/Ash'ari

'ulama' establishment.

Even in

Hanbali

circles,

the

writings

of Ibn

Taymiyya

were

exercis-

ing

no

significant

influence,

while Hanbali 'ulama' subscribed

in

large

numbers to

sufi

tariqas,

whether

popular

or less

popular,

which

became

a

necessary

route for

gaining position

and

privilege

in

the

'ulama' institution.59

Hence,

the

early-sixteenth

century's

treatise

on

the virtues

of Ibn

Taymiyya,

written

by

Mar'i al-Karmi

in

Cairo,60

was

58

See,

for

example,

Ahmad ibn

Hajar al-'Asqalani,

al-Durar al-Kamina

fi

A'iyan

al-Ma'a

al-Thamina,

ed.

M.

Jad

al-Hak

(Cairo:

Umm

al-Qura

lil-Tiba'a,

n.

d.),

vol.

1,

154-70.

59

For a

view

of

the

pre-Wahhabi Najd,

one

of

the

strongholds

of

Hanbalism,

see Husayn ibn Ghannam, TdrikhNajd, ed. N. al-Asad (Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1985),

13-6;

'Uthman ibn

Bishr,

'Unwan

al-Majdft

Tdarkh

Najd,

ed.

A.

Al

al-Shaykh (Riyadh:

Wizarat

al-Ma'arif,

1391

AH),

19-20.

On the Hanbalis

of

Damascus,

during

the

eighteenth

century,

see

John

0.

Voll,

The

Non-Wahhabi Hanbalis of

Eighteenth-

Century Syria ,

Der

Islam,

49

(1972):

277-91.

60

Mar'i ibn Yusuf

al-Karmi,

al-Kawdkib

al-Durriyya t

Mandqib

al-Mujtahid

Ibn

Tay-

miyya,

ed. N. Khalaf

(Beirut:

Dar al-Gharb

al-Islami,

1986).


25/50

BASHEER

M. NAFI

a rare and

exceptional

work.

Against

this

background,

the choice

made

by

al-Kurani should be seen as

a

critical

choice,

both

in terms

of its nature and implication, reflected, thus, in a discursive inner

tension

pervading

his text.

Despite

receiving

a substantial

training

in

hadith,

both

as a

text

and chains

of

authority,

and his

presence

in

a

highly

active

milieu

of hadith

learning,

al-Kfirani was not

a

scholar

of hadith in the lit-

eral

sense;

rather he

employed

his vast

knowledge

of hadith as

a

means for

re-reading

the

major

issues

of

suifism

and

theology, influ-

enced

perhaps by al-Qushashi

who

too was

highly

interested

in

theo-

retical sufism and

theology.

In one of the first works he finalized

in

1071/1660-61,

immediately

after the

passing

of his

teacher,

al-Kurani

discussed

one of the most

problematic

issues

of

Islamic

theology,

the

Qur'an

and the divine

speech.61 Although

it is

not

particularly

clear

why

he found it

necessary

to

treat this

issue,

it

seems that the

ever-persisting question

of

the

nature

of

the

Qur'an

was raised

again

during

the

controversy

that

accompanied

the arrival

of

Salih al-

Maqbali in the Haramayn. Both al-Hamawi and al-'Aiyashi relay that

al-Kurani's

writings

in

theology

followed

an extensive

research,

in-

cluding correspondences

with

his former

teacher

in

Damascus,

'Abd

al-Baqi

al-Hanbali. Al-Kurani

requested

that al-Hanbali

provide

him

of his

firm

and

thorough opinion

of the

Hanbali/Taymiyyan

posi-

tion on the

principal

issues of

kaldm,

and to

supply

him with the

relevant works

of Ibn

Taymiyya.62

Other

tracts that al-Kurani

com-

pleted

afterwards indicate that

he

developed

close

knowledge

of

and

familiarity

with

the

opinions

of Ibn

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Taṣawwuf and Reform in Pre Modern Islamic Culture in Search of Ibrāhīm Al Kūrāni

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