Abū al-Bayān, Nabaʾ b. Muḥammad b. Maḥfūẓ al-Qurashī al-Dimashqī, known as Ibn al-Ḥawrānī (d. 551/1156) was a Sufi, a man of letters, poet, jurist and traditionist. He is regarded as the eponymous founder of the Bayāniyya Sufi order in Damascus. There is little information on the nature and course of his spiritual path or his masters and disciples. It is said that he learnt some ḥadīths from teachers such as Ibn al-Mawāzīnī and Ibn Qubays al-Mālikī (Yāqūt, 19/214; al-Dhahabī, al-ʿIbar, 3/15; al-Subkī, 4/318), and that others, namely Ibn Wafāʾ al-Sulamī and al-Qāḍī Asʿad b.…