Ṣūfī Apologist of Nīshāpūr

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) is the most famous Khurasani Sufi of his time, of whose many works a remarkable proportion have survived. Classical Sufism, which crystallized around al-Junayd (d. 298/910?) in Baghdad, reached Nishapur with Abū Bakr al-Wāsiṭī (d. after 320/932), an immigrant from Baghdad, and Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī (d. 328/940), a Nishapuran who travelled to Baghdad and back. Al-Sulamī was conscious of adhering to the Malāmatiyya, a Nishapuran pious movement that went back to the ninth century ce. The Malāmatī stress on inward renunciation made Sufism congenial, and by the time of al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1072) the two movements seem to have completely merged. But al-Sulamī, like his contemporary al-Khargūshī (d. 407/1016?), brings up emphases that distinguish between them. Al-Sulamī has been the object of much scholarly attention in the past century, but Chowdhury’s is the first book-length treatment in English. In successive chapters he reviews al-Sulamī’s

Ancient history · Art · Islam · Literature · Ninth · Physics · Renunciation · Sufism · Theology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · History · Philosophy