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Aḥmad al-Badawī, Abū al-Fityān Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (596–675/1200–1276), was a prominent Sufi in Egypt, and the founder of the Badawiyya Sufi order ( ṭarīqa). Al-Badawī’s other nisbas are ‘al-Maqdisī’ (Ibn Taghrībirdī, 7/252), ‘al-Qudsī’ (al-Suyūṭī, 1/522) and ‘al-Qurashī’ (Ibn Iyās, 1(1)/335). Al-Badawī was probably born and brought up in Fez (al-Shaʿrānī, 1/183; Ibn al-ʿImād, 5/345). His mother, Fāṭima, was a North African Berber (ʿĀshūr, 44; see Ibn Iyās, 1(1)/335). He was referred to as al-Sharīf, denoting that he was a descendant of the…

Aḥmad Kāsānī, son of Jalāl al-Dīn (866–949/1461–1542), was one of the great spiritual masters of the Khwājagān-Naqshbandiyya order in Transoxiana in the 9th–10th/15th–16th century. His laqabs were Khwājagī Aḥmad and Makhdūm Aʿẓam, and he was also known as Dahbīdī because of the place where he was buried (Samarqandī, 179; Chishtī, 1/319, 322; Rashād, 76). Born in 866/1461, he came from Kāsān, a town situated to the north of the Jaxartes (Syr Daryā) in the Farghāna valley (Yāqūt, 4/227; Rashād, 73). Kāsānī is said to have traced his ancestry through …

Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī (d. 568/1172 or 1173), was the son of Badal b. Faraj and a prominent Sufi shaykh of the 6th/12th century. He is also called Gajīlī since his khāniqāh (Sufi lodge) and tomb were located in the Gajīl district of Tabrīz. The little extant information on his life is primarily based upon the account in Rawḍāt al-jinān by Ibn Karbalāʾī, whose father was one of the caretakers of Bābā Faraj’s tomb and was known as Bābā Farajī. It is reported that he was oblivious to the world, on account of his vision of God (Shabistarī, 224). Bābā Faraj’s state of divine raptur…

Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī (d. 568/1172 or 1173), was the son of Badal b. Faraj and a prominent Sufi shaykh of the 6th/12th century. He is also called Gajīlī since his khāniqāh (Sufi lodge) and tomb were located in the Gajīl district of Tabrīz. The little extant information on his life is primarily based upon the account in Rawḍāt al-jinān by Ibn Karbalāʾī, whose father was one of the caretakers of Bābā Faraj’s tomb and was known as Bābā Farajī.It is reported that he was oblivious to the world, on account of his vision of God (Shabistarī, 224). Bābā Faraj’s state of divine raptur…

Abū Zakariyyā al-Warjalānī, Yaḥyā b. Abī Bakr, was a historian belonging to the Ibāḍī school, of the 5th/11th–6th/12th century. He was born in Wārjlān or Warjalān (modern Ouargla, in the Algerian Sahara) (Yāqūt, 4/920; Lewicki, ‘Les Historiens’, 93) where he learned the sciences of ḥadīth from his uncle, Abū Ḥamza Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm, and from whom he later quoted many narratives (Lewicki, ‘Les Historiens’, 93). In 460/1068 Abū Zakariyyā left his hometown for Tripoli (in North Africa), and in early 461/1069 he took up residence in Tamūlast (Tamūlasa) a village i…

Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Ṭayyib (d. 436/1044), was a Muʿtazilī theologian and a scholar of Ḥanafī jurisprudence. Although there is no information about the date of his birth, we know he was originally from Baṣra and went to live in Baghdad in order to pursue his studies. He remained there, teaching Kalām (theology), for the rest of his life (al-Khaṭīb, 3/100; al-Ḥākim al-Jushamī, 387; Ibn al-Jawzī, 8/126; Ibn Khallikān, 4/271). Al-Qāḍī Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣaymarī (d. 436/1045) recited the prayer at his funeral, and he was buried in…

Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Aḥmad b. Ḥamdān b. Aḥmad (d. 322/934), was a great Persian scholar, author and Ismaili dāʿī (missionary). Ibn Ḥajar (1/164) calls him ‘al-Laythī’, although the reason for this nisba is not clear (see Abū Ḥātim, al-Zīna, 1/26). The same applies to the nisba ‘al-Kilābī’, which was attributed to him by al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (p. 165). Ibn al-Nadīm (pp. 188, 189) and Abū al-Qāsim Kāshānī (q.v.) refer to him as Abū Ḥātim b. ʿAbdān al-Rāzī al-Warsanānī. According to Yāqūt (4/921), Warsanān was a small village near Samarqand. Khwājah Niẓām al-Mulk suggests that he came f…

Ahl-i Ḥaqq (people of the truth), a Persian religious sect with mystical leanings. Although some of their rites, ceremonies, scriptures and beliefs are deemed to be in conflict with orthodox and legal conceptions of Islam, the sect has flourished in various Muslim contexts, with a significant following among Kurds, Lurs and Azeris. It has an obvious affinity with both mainstream and unorthodox Shiʿi groups because of its great reverence for ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Some of its defining themes are also …

Ashraf Jahāngīr, son of Ibrāhīm al-Simnānī, a mystic of Persian descent who lived in the Indian subcontinent. He was born sometime between 709/1309 and 712/1312 in Simnān (Waḥīd Ashraf, 28). His father Ibrāhīm was governor of the city and his mother Khadīja Begum was a daughter of Khwājah Aḥmad Yasawī (q.v., al-Yamanī, 1/387, 2/90). By the age of seven he had memorised the Qurʾān, including the ‘seven readings’ ( al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ), and until the age of fourteen was engaged in learning the standard sciences of the period. At the age of fifteen he became governor …