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ʿAlī b. Muḥammed b. al-ʿAbbās al-Tawḥīdī (so called either after an ancestor who sold a sort of date called tawḥīd, ¶ or in the sense ,upholder of pure monotheismʿ), jurist, philosopher, Ṣūfī, and compiler of miscellanies, lived in the fourth (10th) century. Little was preserved of his biography, but from documents quoted by Yāḳūt it appears that he was alive in Rad̲j̲ab 400 (Feb. 1010), and that he died at the age of more than eighty. His home was placed by different authorities at Nīs̲h̲āpūr, S̲h̲īrāz, or Wā siṭ. Much of his life wa…

Ḥabīb b. Aws, poet and anthologist, born in 180 or 188 (796 or 804), and his birth-place is said to have been Ḏj̲āsim, a village near Damascus in the direction of Tiberias, died in 228 or 231 (842-843 or 845-846). His father was a Christian named T̲h̲ādūs (Theodosius?), for which name the son, when he became a Muslim, substituted the Arabic Aws, to which he attached a pedigree in the tribe of Ṭaiyʾ, whence he is often called simply the Ṭaiyʾite. Some of his early life was, it is said, spent in Dam…

, a branch of the Ḵh̲alwatī Order, named after Sunbul Sinān al-Dīn Yūsuf, whose birth-place is variously given as Bolou and Marsuan. His death-date is given in the Ḳāmūs al-ʿAlām as 936 (1529/1530); according however to al-S̲h̲aḳāʾiḳ al-Nuʿmānīya (transl. Rescher, 1927, p. 224, 225) he died before 929 (1522/1523); and this author, who was a contemporary, mentions him among the S̲h̲aik̲h̲s of the reign of Bāyazīd II (died 918= 1512), wherein he is followed by the author of the Tād̲j̲ al-Tawarīk̲h̲ (Constantinople 1279, ii. 595), who is half a century later. On the other hand…

al-Ḏj̲īlī (Gīlānī) Muḥyi ’l-Dīn Abū Muḥammed b. Abī Ṣāliḥ Zengi Dōst, preacher and Ṣūfī, after whom the Ḳādirī order is named, born in 470 (1077-1078), died in 561 (1166). The numerous biographies of this personage teem with fictions, out of which some history may be gleaned. Thus his pedigree is traced on the father’s side to al-Ḥasan, grandson of the Prophet, in the direct line. But this is contradicted by the foreign name of his father, and the fact that the s̲h̲aik̲h̲ was called ʿAd̲j̲amī (foreigner) …

Abu ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusain b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ḏj̲aʿfar, poet of the Būyid period. He belonged to a family which was engaged in the public service, and was himself trained by Abū Isḥāḳ Ibrāhīm al-Ṣābiʾ in secretarial work. He found however that he could earn more by verse, and became an encomiast of the most important among his contemporaries, especially ʿIzz al-Dawla Bak̲h̲tiyār, who appointed him to the office of muḥtasib or censor in Bag̲h̲dād; a most unsuitable appointment, since this poet specialized in obscenity, and indeed against one of the headings in the Paris abridgment of his Dī…

, a title of the head of the Mawlawl Order [see mawlawīya]. The second word is the Turkish form of the Persian k̲h̲udāwandg i ār, the equivalent of mawlā, which according to Aflākī ( Saints des Derviches Tourneurs, i. 59) was bestowed on Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn by his father. Sāmī in his Turkish Lexicon states that the word, besides being used for “Sulṭān”, “King”, is applied to certain saintly personages, in such combinations as pīr hunk i ār or mullā hunk i ār. The underlying idea of such a title is probably that the saint has had committed to him the government of the world, if he…

, a sect whose name is derived by Samʿānī from the Persian word k̲h̲urram “agreeable”, on the ground that they regarded everything that was agreeable as lawful; but it is more likely to be derived from Ḵh̲urram, a district of Ardabīl, where the sect may have arisen. According to Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲, vi. 186, they came into prominence after the execution of Abū Muslim of Ḵh̲orāsān in 136 a. h., but while some of them denied that he was dead and foretold his return “to spread justice in the world”, others maintained the Imamate of his daughter Fāṭima, whence they got the names Muslimīya and Fāṭimīya. …

, Abū ʿUbāda al-Walīd b. ʿUbaid, Arabic poet and anthologist of the third century (204—284 approximately). His nisba signifies member of the Buḥtur clan of the tribe Ṭaiʾ, whose glories he frequently celebrates. His birthplace was Manbid̲j̲ (or, according to one account a village near Manbid̲j̲ called Zardafna), ¶ and of Manbid̲j̲ he often speaks as his home; here he ultimately acquired property, which seems to have been inherited by his son T̲h̲ābit, who was living there in Iṣṭak̲h̲rī’s trnre. The woman who forms the subject of his erotic pr…

, Ibrāhīm b. Abi ’l-Mad̲j̲d ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (or ʿAbd al-Mad̲j̲īd) (633—676 = 1235-1236—1277-1278), native of Dusūḳ, a village of Lower Egypt in the G̲h̲arbīya District; founder of the Dusūḳī Order. According to the commentator on his Ḥizb (Ḥasan S̲h̲amma, Masarrat al-Ainain bi-S̲h̲arḥ Ḥizb Abi ’l-ʿAinain, Cairo n.d.), his father came from a village Mrḳs (Marcus?) on the opposite bank of the Nile, and was himself ¶ a walī; his mother was daughter of another walī Abu ’l-Fatḥ al-Wāsiṭī. He is said to have studied S̲h̲āfiʿī jurisprudence before he followed the Ṣūfīs, to hav…

, religious sect or order called after Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh, called Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲ (795—869 a. h.). 1. Life of the founder. Of this person there is a detailed biography in the work Mad̲j̲ālis al-Muʾminīn of Nūr Allāh al-S̲h̲ustarī (Bodleian MS., Ous. 366; see also Brit. Mus. Catalogue of Persian MSS.), chiefly based on a work ( tad̲h̲kira) by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Samarḳandī. His father was born in Ḳaṭīf, and his grandfather in al-Ḥass, whence in some g̲h̲azals he styles himself Laḥsawī. His father migrated to Ḳāʾin in Ḳuhistān, where his son was born. The …

, branch of the S̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī Order, has its headquarters at Ḳenād̲j̲iā; lists of the heads are given by Rinn, loc. cit., Dupont and Coppolani, Confréries, p. 498, and Cour, loc. cit.; ¶ in the second work a specimen is given of the diploma of muḳaddam conferred by the head of the order, with seal. Their practice is said to differ from those of the other S̲h̲ād̲h̲ilīs only in details; their ordinary d̲h̲ikr is reproduced by Rinn, loc. cit., p. 411, and consists in the repetition of certain formulae, a hundred, others a thousand times. Their speciality is the guiding and p…

, Abū ʿAlī al-Faḍl b. Ḏj̲aʿfar b. al-Faḍl b. Yūsuf, poet and letter-writer of the first half of the third century; although Ibn ¶ Maiyāda rated him as a poet above Buḥturī, and his prose style was also greatly admired, he is at present known only by occasional citations and scanty references. From these we learn that his early life was spent at Kūfa, that he belonged to the circle of Abu ’l-ʿAinā and Saʿīd b. Ḥumaid, and that he was patronized by ʿUbaid Allāh b. Yaḥyā, when the latter was at the height of his power (2…

, Islāmic community founded by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1115-1201 = 1703-1787). This name was given to the community by its opponents in the founder’s lifetime, and is used by Europeans; it is not used by its members in Arabia, who call themselves Muwaḥḥidūn “unitarians” and their system ( ṭarīḳa) “Muḥammadan”; they regard themselves as Sunnīs, following the school of Ibn Ḥanbal, as interpreted by Ibn Taimīya, who attacked the cult of saints in many of his writings, especially in a Risāla condemning the visitation of tombs (in his Rasāʾil, Cairo 1323). § 1. Life of the Founder. He w…

, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī Abu ’l-ʿAbbās, founder of the Rifāʿī ( ṭarīḳa, died 22nd Ḏj̲umādā I, 578 (Sept. 23, 1183) at Umm ʿAbīda, in the district of Wāsiṭ. The date of his birth is given by some authorities as Muḥarram 500 (Sept. 1106), but others say Rad̲j̲ab 512 (Oct.—Nov. 1118), at Ḳaryat Ḥasan, a village in the district of Baṣra. These places being in the region called al-Baṭāʾiḥ [q. v.], he has the further nisba al-Baṭāʾiḥī; al-Rifāʿī is usually explained as referring to an ancestor Rifāʿa, but by some is supposed to be a tribal name. This ancestor Rifāʿa is said to have …

, sect, called after Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Karrām (or Karām or Kirām; see Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, iii. 127, and for further ancestors Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, Kāmil, vii. 149). Of this person, who ¶ is called al-Sid̲j̲istānī, a fairly full biography is given by al-Samʿānī in the Ansāb, 476b, 477a. According to this, he was of the Banū Nizār, was born in a village of Zarand̲j̲, was brought up in Sid̲j̲istān, and afterwards went to Ḵh̲orāsān, where he attended the courses of Aḥmad b. Ḥarb, the Ascetic (d. 234); at Balk̲h̲ he heard Ibrāhīm b. Yūsuf al-Māk…

, or S̲h̲ād̲h̲alīya, pronounced in Africa S̲h̲ādulīya, Ṣūfī sect called after Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh al-S̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī, whose title is variously given as Tād̲j̲ al-Dīn and Taḳī al-Dīn (593-656 a.h.). For the life of this personage see the art. al-s̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī. His system. Al-S̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī does not appear to have composed any large work, but many sayiūgs, spells and an ode are ascribed to him, and since some of the first are recorded in the work of his ¶ disciple’s disciple, Tād̲j̲ al-Dīn al-Iskandarī, composed in 694, they may be to some extent genuine (see the art. al-s̲h̲ād̲h̲ilī).…

, a title of the head of the Mawlawī order of dervishes [see mawlawiyya ]. The second word is the Turkish form of the Persian k̲h̲udāwandigār , the equivalent of mawlā , which according to Aflākī ( Saints des derviches tourneurs , i, 59) was bestowed on D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn by his father (the ¶ derivation from K̲h̲ūn-kār , Persian “blood-shedder”, must depend on popular etymology). Sāmī in his Ḳāmūs al-aʿlām states that the word, besides used for “Sultan”, “King”, is applied to certain saintly personages, in such combinations as pīr k̲h̲ūnkār or mullā k̲h̲ūnkār . The und…

, Aḥmad b. ʿAli , Abu ’l-ʿAbbas, S̲h̲āfiʿī faḳīh by training and founder of the Rifāʿiyya [ q.v.] dervish order. He was born in Muḥarram 500/September 1106 (or, according to other authorities, in Rad̲j̲ab 512/October-November 1118) at Ḳaryat Ḥasan, a village of the Baṭāʾiḥ or marshlands of lower ʿIrāḳ [see al-baṭīḥa ] between Baṣra and Wāsiṭ, whence the nisba sometimes given to him of al-Baṭāʾiḥī, and he died at Umm ʿUbayda in the same region on 22 D̲j̲umādā I 578/23 October 1182 (see Ibn K̲h̲allikān, ed. ʿAbbās, i, 171-2, tr. de Slane, i, 152-3). The nisba al-Rifāʿī…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿḤusayn b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. D̲j̲aʿfar b. Muḥammad , a S̲h̲īʿī Arab poet in the time of the Būyids [ q.v.]. Born in Bag̲h̲dād in about 330/941-2, of a family of government officials and secretaries, he completed the traditional studies and was partly trained by Abū Isḥāḳ Ibrāhīm al-Ṣābiʾ (313-84/925-94 [see al-ṣābiʾ ]) who made him take up an administrative career, but he very quickly perceived that his poetic talents could prove more profitable and resigned his post. At first he was connected with the vizier al-Muhallabī [ q.v.] for whom he wrote a panegyric and …

, a mystical and gnostic Islamic sect founded amongst the Afg̲h̲āns of the North-West Frontier region, with centres at e.g. Kāṅīgurām and Tīrāh in Wazīristān, by Bāyazīd b. ʿAbd Allāh Anṣārī of Kāṅīgurām ( ca. 931-80/ ca. 1525-73). He claimed to be, if not actually a Mahdī, at least a hādī or guide towards tawḥīd , the Divine Unity, for his followers. He styled himself pīr-i raws̲h̲an “the divinely-illuminated pīr [ q.v.] “, although his orthodox enemies called him pīr-i tārīkī “the pīr of darkness” and his adherents Tārīkiyān “devotees o…