ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla Simnānī, Abū al-Makārim Rukn al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Biyābānakī (Dhū al-Ḥijja 659–22 Rajab 736/November 1261–6 March 1336), was a famous and prolific Kubrawī Sufi during the time of the Īlkhānids. He played a major part in the revival of the Kubrawiyya and the teachings of Junayd al-Baghdādī (d. 298/911), affirming robustly that the sharīʿa and the ṭarīqa were inseparable. His contemporaries and later authors lavished grand titles on him, such as the lordly imam (al-Imām al-ra…