Perspectives on Early Islamic Mysticism

Sara Sviri

Hardback

9780415302838

The World of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and his Contemporaries

This monograph explores the original literary produce of Muslim mystics during the eighth–tenth centuries, with special attention to ninth-century mystics, such as al-Tustarī, al-Muḥāsibī, al-Kharrāz, al-Junayd and, in particular, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī. Unlike other studies dealing with the so-called ‘Formative Period’, this book focuses on the extant writings of early mystics rather than on the later Ṣūfī compilations.

These early mystics articulated what would become a hallmark of Islamic mysticism: a system built around the psychological tension between the self (nafs) and the heart (qalb) and how to overcome it. Through their writings, already at this early phase, the versatility, fluidity and maturity of Islamic mysticism become apparent. This exploration thus reveals that mysticism in Islam emerged earlier than customarily acknowledged, long before Islamic mysticism became generically known as Ṣūfism.

The central figure of this book is al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, whose teaching and inner world focus on themes such as polarity, the training of the self, the opening of the heart, the Friends of God (al-awliyāʾ), dreams and visions, divine language, mystical exegesis and more.

This book thus offers a fuller picture than hitherto presented of the versatility of themes, processes, images, practices, terminology and thought models during this early period. The volume will be a key resource for scholars and students interested in the study of religion, Ṣūfī studies, Late Antiquity and Medieval Islam.

Contents

Introduction: Sweetness and Inner Struggle

Part I Asceticism and Mysticism (zuhd and taṣawwuf)  

1. ‘Sufism’: Reconsidering terms, definitions and processes.  

2. Zuhd in Islamic Mysticism: Conduct and Attitude.  

3. "Wa-rahbāniyyatan ibtadaʿūhā": Monasticism and Asceticism False and Sincere. 

Part II Schools and Teachers  

4. Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and the Malāmatīs of Nīshāpūr.  

5. Teachers and Disciples in Baghdad and Nīshāpūr.  

6. Facing Hostility in Transoxiana: Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl.

Appendix: The Letters Letters of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Tirmidhī to Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl

Part III Polarity  

7. "Between Fear and Hope": Coincidence of Opposites in Islamic Mysticism  Appendix  

8. The Self (nafs) and Her Transformation.  

9. Faces of al-Ḥaqq: The Name and the Named.

Part IV The Spiritual Hierarchy  

10. Wilāya: Contemplating Friendship with God.  

11. Myrtle and Holy Men: Echoes of Ancient Traditions in a Woman’s Dream.

Part V Language and Hermeneutics  

12. The Power of Words: Mystical Linguistics in al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī.  

13. "The Countless Faces of Understanding": Istinbāṭ, Listening and Exegesis.