A Prayer for Spiritual Elevation and Protection

A Prayer for Spiritual
Elevation and Protection

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

A Prayer for Spiritual
Elevation and Protection

al-Dawr al-a' la (Hizb al-wiqaya)

Study, translation, transliteration and Arabic text

SUHA TAJI-FAROUKI

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE

MUHYIDDIN IBN 'ARABI SOCIETY

In association with the
Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society
www.ibnarabisociety.org

  Suha Taji-Farouki, 2006

Suha Taji-Farouki has asserted her moral right
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author
of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Cover design: Michael Tiernan

The front cover design incorporates the prayer title
from Yazma Bagi§lar 2180.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Limited,
www.biddles.co.uk

To God alone belong the Most Beautiful Names,
so call upon Him through them

Qur’an 7: 180

I take refuge in the Perfect Words of God from
the evil of that which He has created

A saying of the Prophet Muhammad

Whoever recites [this prayer] will be like the
sun and the moon among the stars
Muhammad al-Damuni,
al-Durr al-thamin li-sharh Dawr al-a’ la li-sidi Muhyi al-Din

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements        viii

Foreword by Michel Chodkiewicz        ix

Introduction        1

1. The Dawr Today

Contemporary contexts        5

Damascus        5

Istanbul        8

The United Kingdom        9

2. A Prayer across Time

Historical dimensions        17

Transmitters of the prayer        22

Chains and authorisations        44

Windows onto Islamic culture and thought        48

3. The Prayer for Spiritual Elevation and Protection

Properties        69

The text and its contents        74

Translation and Arabic text        79

Transliteration        98

Appendix: Manuscript copies and chains of transmission        119

Bibliography        127

Index        135

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) for generously supporting this work, the staff of the Suleymaniye Library (Istanbul) for their help and hospitality, and those who gave their time for interviews or discussions. Thanks are also due to Stephen Hirtenstein and Michael Tiernan.

FOREWORD

MICHEL CHODKIEWICZ

Born in Spain and having died in Syria, like the ‘blessed tree’ mentioned in the ‘Light’ verse of the Qur’an Ibn 'Arabi (1164-1240) is ‘neither of the east nor of the west’, for he belongs equally to both. Recognized as the Spiritual Master par excellence (al-Shaykh al- Akbar), he has been a source of inspiration and a definitive referencepoint for the Muslim mystical tradition from Andalusia to China for more than eight centuries. Christian Europe, which since the Middle Ages had passionately studied so many Arabic authors, was for a long time unaware of him. It had to wait until the end of the nineteenth century before it began to discover some of the hundreds of works he has left us, and even then this interest was at first limited to narrow circles of Orientalists.

In contrast, the last few decades of the twentieth century have seen a sudden increase in the number of translations, critical editions, studies and commentaries on his works. Even more surprisingly, their audience has gradually extended to encompass readers who, a priori, have felt no particular attraction to Islamic culture, and indeed appeared to have no reason to be interested in writings of such intimidating depth. Undoubtedly, such readers felt that an academic approach which focused on the doctrinal authority Ibn 'Arabi has exercised over sufism took into account only one aspect of the man. As an eminent figure of sainthood the Shaykh al-Akbar is thus not only a Lesemeister: he is also - and even more so, a Lebemeister, since he teaches us not only how to think, but how to live.

Witness, for example, the care he has shown in the five hundred and sixtieth (and final) chapter of his Meccan Revelations (al-Futuhat al-makkiya). Here, at the end of thousands of pages, where a vertiginous metaphysics is developed in a language of extreme technical

ix

Foreword

precision, he gathers together, using very simple words, the rules of conduct from which, he tells us, both the wayfarer (al-salik) and the one who has arrived at his destination (al-wasil) may benefit. For him - and for every spiritual master worthy of the name - the knowledge of the saints must take hold of the whole person. It is not addressed to the intellect alone.

It is for this very reason too that, within the immense Akbarian corpus, one finds alongside numerous scholarly treatises some quite short texts, which at first sight seem to fall within the domain of simple devotional literature. Yet the reality is utterly different. These prayers (salawat, ahzab, awrad), transmitted from master to disciple, are much more than pious litanies. They are inspired invocations, each structured around a series of Divine Names. Every Name conceals secrets and powers that are its own: it must arise at a precise moment in the recitation in order for it to be effective. Such effectiveness is not magic, however. It presupposes that certain conditions are satisfied, the most important of which is purity of intention. In addition, the diversity of these forms of prayer and the modes of their use - whether regularly or occasionally, at a particular time or not, recited alone or in groups etc. - reflect the variety of individual or collective situations, and of interior dispositions.

It is one of these prayers, al-Dawr al-a' la (known also as the Hizb al-wiqaya), which can be found at the centre of the little book before you. At the centre, for it is surrounded by much precious information. Suha Taji-Farouki does not limit herself simply to establishing the text with rigorous exactitude, and providing a translation and transliteration of it. Combining a meticulous examination of written sources with patient fieldwork, she tells for the first time the long history of this prayer, identifying each of the personalities in the chains of transmission. Based upon many testimonies and from her own observations, she shows above all that the practice of the Dawr lives on today in very diverse milieux. With as much knowledge as empathy, she thus demonstrates the continuing currency of Ibn 'Arabi’s teaching.

Paris, 2006

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing body of critical editions, translations and analyses of the works of Ibn 'Arabi, yet relatively little attention has been paid to dimensions of his corpus of a more specifically liturgical or devotional character.1 The most extensive collection of prayers attributed to him arises in the major compilation of Sunni devotional texts by the Naqshbandi-Khalidi Ahmed Ziya’uddin Gumu§hanevi (d.1894), known by the title Majmu’at al-ahzab.2 While a few of these prayers have since been published and some such publications claim, if implicitly, to present critical editions, editors often provide scant (or no) information concerning the manuscripts on which they have drawn,1 and it is consequently difficult in some cases to be certain of their origin or precision. A critical compilation/edition of all these prayers, that rationalises titles and texts, addresses questions of attribution and explores the accompanying commentary tradition, is still to be produced.

As a modest contribution to this end (and taking into account the relatively few studies of Muslim and sufi prayer and prayer texts more generally), this study focuses on a single small prayer which has as its full title al-Dawr al-a' la al-muqarrib ila kulli maqam al-a’ la (The Most Elevated Cycle that brings one close to Every Station of The Most High), often contracted to al-Dawr al-a’la (The Most Elevated Cycle) or Dawr al-a’la (The Cycle of The Most High): it is also known as Hizb al-wiqaya (The Prayer of Protection).4 As in the case of other prayers attributed to him, this does not appear in Ibn 'Arabi’s bibliographic records (the fihris and ijaza) and is not mentioned in any of his works. Yet as one contemporary sufi shaykh and specialist in his thought has put it, ‘there is a consensus among the people of the Way of God [ahl tariq Allah] concerning its attribution to the Shaykh al-Akbar.’5 A clear majority of the substantial number of manuscript copies surveyed for this study explicitly attribute the

prayer to Ibn 'Arabi either in the title or through a chain of transmis

sion. Of those that do not make such an attribution, none attribute it to any other author. Given this and evidence of its widespread circulation and use both past and present, it represents an important element in any project to delimit and clarify the specifically liturgical dimension of Ibn 'Arabi’s corpus.

This study examines three major aspects of the prayer. Chapter 1 explores its contemporary life, providing an indication of its circulation and use through examples from different arenas. Chapter 2 focuses on historical dimensions based on manuscript copies spanning the last four centuries, exploring facets of the presentation and transmission of the prayer. Chapter 3 examines perceptions of the prayer’s properties and recommendations concerning its use. The discussion touches on aspects of its composition and the interplay within it between invocations of Divine Names, specific supplications and Qur’anic quotations. This chapter also provides a translation of the prayer, an Arabic text resulting from a considered evaluation of copies reviewed, and a transliteration. Finally, an Appendix sets out details of manuscript copies and chains of transmission discussed.

Notes

1. Two exceptions can be mentioned, (a) Ryad Atlagh, ‘L’Oraison de personne, donation et noms divins chez Ibn 'Arabi (A propos de Da'wat asma’ Allah al-husna attribute a Ibn 'Arabi)’, Bulletin d’Etudes Orientales LI (1999), pp, 41-107 provides a critical edition and discussion of the prayer mentioned in the title, with a lengthy treatment of Ibn 'Arabi’s position concerning prayer in general, and the place of the Divine Names in this, (b) Ibn 'Arabi, The Seven Days of the Heart: Prayers for the Days and Nights of the Week (Awrad al-usbu'), tr, Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein (Oxford, 2000) provides a detailed discussion of the daily/nightly prayers for the week and a translation based on a critical edition still to be published, Throughout the present study, these daily/nightly prayers for the week attributed to Ibn 'Arabi are referred to as Awrad,
2. See Ahmed Ziya’uddin Gumujhanevi, Majmu'at al-ahzab (Istanbul, n,d,), 3 volumes: 1, pp,2-83,
3. For example, Majmu' salawat wa awrad sidi Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi radiya Allahu Oinhu, compiled by Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad Salim (n,p,, 2000) encompasses a group of salawat (prayers upon the Prophet) and the Awrad, Salim is author of Ta’yid al-sufiya fi’l-majmu'a al-Hatimiya, where he also presents some of these prayers,
4. On the term hizb (pl, ahzab), which has come to be applied to any single group of supererogatory liturgical formulae, and its relation to wird (with which it is often interchangeable: for example I {see Appendix}, fol, 62b refers to al-wirdal-musamma bi’l-dawr al-a'la [The wird called...’]; in Genel 43, fol, 29b, the text of the prayer is headed thus: hadhihi al-awrad al-musamma bi’l-dawr al-a'la [‘These are the awrad that are called.’]), see Constance E, Padwick, Muslim Devotions: A Study of Prayer-Manuals in Common Use (Oxford, 1996/1961), pp,20-25; ‘Hizb’, EI2, 3, pp,513-514; ‘Wird’, EI2, 11, pp, 209-210, On these and other terms commonly applied to liturgical texts (such as dua’ and hirz), see also Richard J, A, McGregor, ‘A Sufi Legacy in Tunis: Prayer and the Shadhiliyya’, IfMES 29 (1997), pp,263-267; ‘Du'a”, EI2, 2, pp,617- 618; below,

The term dawr (pl, adwar), signifying a turn or revolution, does not appear to be as widely used as hizb/wird: indeed, no other case of its use is known to the present author, In our sources the term dawr is applied both to our prayer as a whole, and to its individual verses, Thus some copies (e,g, K) describe each of the prayer’s individual verses as a dawr, marking them in order as al-dawr al-awwal, al-dawr al-thani, etc, D, pp, 6-7 elaborates on the significance of the term in the prayer’s name thus: ‘This prayer has been called al-Dawr al-a'la because.it turns upon (yaduru 'ala) the Name of God the Ever-Exalted, from Whom all things begin and to Whom is their end. and because its secrets circulate with (taduru ma'a) the one who reads it day and night, in secret and in public, awake and asleep, in good health and sickness, in hard times

and good, in this life, the hereafter and the barzakh...[It is] “the most elevated” dawr because of the abundant help and secrets it contains.’ The attempt by McGregor, ‘A Sufi Legacy in Tunis’, p. 266 to apply to the prayer an understanding of the term dawr derived from usage in the context of religious celebrations in contemporary Egypt, where it denotes a vocal piece drawn from colloquial poetry and involving a choral refrain, is unsustainable. Finally, it is notable that Yazma Bagijlar 2934, fol. 39b, describes the prayer as Hizb al-dawr al-a' la.

On the relative scholarly neglect of sufi prayer texts and recitation, see for example McGregor, ‘A Sufi Legacy in Tunis’, p. 255. It is remarkable that no follow-up study to Padwick’s classic work has yet been attempted.

5. Mahmud Mahmud al-Ghurab, al-Tariq ila Allah: al-shaykh wa’l-murid min kalam al-Shaykh al-Akbar (Damascus, 1991), p. 194 n. 1.

1

The Dawr Today

Contemporary contexts

Like all liturgical texts originating with sufi figures, the Dawr al- a’la effectively has a double life in the modern world. One of these, a continuation of its traditional past, is hidden, mediated through spiritual authority to permit its use exercised by the sufi shaykh to his disciple (murid) typically in the context of a sufi order or tariqa affiliation, and symbolised by the granting of a special authorisation (ijaza). The other is visible, open and public, a destiny arising out of the shattering of traditional systems and modes in the acquisition and transmission of religious knowledge in Muslim societies, and driven by the impacts of print and other modern information technologies alongside mass literacy.1 The following examples illustrate this double life, and at the same time convey something of the diversity of contemporary users of the prayer. In general terms, while it appears in some of the many collections of prayers readily available across the Muslim world today, the Dawr is not as well known as other, comparable, prayers.2

Damascus

The prayer is recited collectively during certain of the open weekly gatherings devoted to calling down prayers and blessings upon the Prophet (majalis al-salat ’ala al-nabi؛) held at the mosque adjacent to Ibn 'Arabi’s mausoleum in the Shaykh Muhyi’l-Din neighbourhood, the Salihiyya district, Damascus. During 2003, for example, it was read collectively at two of the eight majalis scheduled each week. One

was established quite recently and is held between noon (zuhr) and afternoon ('asr) prayers on Friday:4 the other, which takes place before dawn (fajr) prayers on Saturday, is long-standing.5 The text of the prayer is available in the form of a photocopied sheet stored in the imams’ room in the mosque, from where it is occasionally distributed. It also appears for distribution from time to time in the form of a small pamphlet, often printed together with a hadith or Qur’anic verses.6 In addition, some of the larger pamphlets printed specifically for use in various majdlis (and effectively the property of those majdlis) encompass the prayer.7 Reaching a wider circulation, it appears in a popular collection of prayers compiled by former Mufti of Syria Muhammad Abu’l-Yusr 'Abidin (d.1981) and published by his heirs,8 and in a more recent collection distributed free, published as a joint venture between Turkish and Syrian publishers.9 It can also be found on the margin of editions of al-Jazuli’s popular Sunni prayer manual Dald’il al-khayrdt that circulate in Damascus.10 Finally, it is presented in one of the many privately published works of an Egyptian sufi shaykh and interpreter-disseminator of Ibn 'Arabi’s thought long settled in Damascus, Mahmud al-Ghurab.11

The prayer is thus easily accessible to people of all backgrounds in Damascus. At the same time, in some circles there traditional sufi modes of transmission continue. The ijdza in this context is understood to unlock the prayer’s secrets for the murid in a way that protects him from potential harm: it also ensures that these secrets remain the preserve of those suitably prepared to receive them. The ijdza often encompasses an instruction concerning the time and frequency of recitation. It may require the murid to situate the prayer, whenever they recite it, within a cluster of other prayers and formulae, or involve making precise additions at certain points in the text. Specific to each murid, such prescriptions are not arbitrary, and may indeed have been received by the shaykh in a dream or vision. Tailored to the murid’s level, they may be changed as he advances on the spiritual journey.

The vitality of this mode of transmission can be illustrated through the practice of Ahmad al-Harun (d.1962), widely recognised

Damascus

in Damascene sufi circles as an important saint, and his prominent disciples.12 For example, al-Harun granted an ijdza to his disciple Mahmud al-Ghurab to read the prayer once every thirty-six hours (this ijdza also encompassed the Awrad, Ibn 'Arabi’s daily prayers).13

He gave an ijaza to his disciple Mamduh al-Nass to read it once every twenty-four hours (again, in addition to the Awrdd). Al-Nass

in turn gave his son Muhammad Samir an ijdza to read the prayer daily, this time preceded by al-Nawawi’s Hizb and followed by recitation of surat al-Fatiha for the souls of the Prophet, Ibn 'Arabi and al-Harun.14

Such instructions for reading the prayer sometimes migrate out

of the sphere of esoteric transmission to accompany printed copies, thereby becoming available for general application. For example, 'Abidin prefaces the prayer with a note explaining that his grandfather had received a direct instruction from Ibn 'Arabi (through a kardma or act of spiritual grace granted the two of them) to read it twice daily, once following the morning (subh) prayer and again after the sunset one (maghrib). In the case of a specific matter of importance, Ibn 'Arabi had instructed him to read it three times following the afternoon prayer.15 'Abidin also provides detailed instructions concerning what must be recited before and after the prayer.16

From the ulama to the illiterate, conviction of the prayer’s potency is widespread in Damascene sufi circles and among Ibn 'Arabi’s local devotees, who attach themselves to his mosque.17 One such devotee attributes this potency to the fact that the prayer encompasses many Divine Names, another to its special quality as the summation of all of Ibn 'Arabi’s teachings, indeed ‘the essence of his entire knowledge.’ Devotees believe that if the prayer is recited with right intention, absolute certainty of its power and the aim of pleasing God while repudiating the pull of this world, it can draw the reciter into the Prophet’s presence (al-hadra al-Muhammadiya): the Prophet then appears to them ‘through Ibn 'Arabi’, especially in dreams. Drawing on their personal experiences, some point out that whoever reads the prayer with sincerity of heart and utter conviction while making a specific plea will have their wish granted. They relate how they read

it with the intention of seeking help in relation to concrete problems, and are always confident of a positive response. For example, one devotee tells how when he recites the prayer with this specific request in mind, Ibn 'Arabi appears to him in dreams and shows him how to solve practical problems at work that require technical knowledge in which he has no training. Whenever he is guided to solve a work problem in this way, he refuses payment for the job, for he attributes his success in it to Ibn 'Arabi’s baraka or blessing, through the prayer, rather than his own effort. He relates with gratitude how he has developed a new career and improved his family’s material circumstances through the help granted him in response to requests mediated through the prayer.

Istanbul

The earliest printed versions of the prayer appeared in Istanbul during the late 19th century, in Gumu§hanevi’s Majmu'at al-ahzab18 and the Dala’il al-khayrat,19 for example. The first modern Turkish transliteration of the prayer was published in 1998 by a publishing company owned by a devotee of Ibn 'Arabi. This small booklet also provides the Arabic text and a clarification of the prayer’s meanings in Turkish.20 By 2004, more than thirty thousand copies had been printed, distributed free throughout Turkey in response to internet requests, via bookshops, in mail-shots, etc. It is reprinted every few months to meet demand, and people of all kinds order and read it, including many who are outwardly ،؟ok-modern’.

While the prayer thus circulates openly in print, it is also still transmitted through ijaza granting in ،hidden’ sufi circles in Istanbul. For example the Naqshbandi Shaykh Ahmed Yivlik (d.2001) granted ijazas to read the prayer to certain of his own disciples and to other sufis in Istanbul.21 For some his instruction was to read it twice a day, in certain cases following the Awrad; for others, on its own. His own ijaza to read the prayer is connected to a line of Naqshbandi shaykhs.22

^c United Kingdom

During the late 1960s, a copy of the prayer was brought to London by Bulent Rauf (d.1987), a western-educated descendant of the Ottoman elite. Rauf was the great-grandson of Ismail Pasha (d.1895), khedive of Egypt from 1863 to 1879.23 Ismail’s daughter, Rauf’s maternal grandmother, was Princess Fatma Hanim (b.1850), who died some time after the end of World War I.24 Fatma Hanim had commissioned a copy of the prayer to be made for her by the ‘Head Calligrapher’, apparently in AH 1341/1922-23 CE: it was bound in red leather and embellished with gold. After she died, it came into her grandson’s possession.

Rauf became the pivotal figure in a new religious movement that emerged under the name ‘Beshara’ in the south of England during the early 1970s. In response to the requests of young counterculture seekers interested in the spirituality of ‘the east’, he conveyed the teaching of Ibn 'Arabi as the basis of a monistic, experiential and supra-religious spirituality. He designed courses in ‘esoteric education’ aiming at self-knowledge, which were eventually offered in dedicated schools established by the movement.25 Some of the early students noticed Fatma Hanim’s beautiful copy of the Dawr in Rauf’s possession, and his printed copy of the Awrad. They enquired whether these prayers could be made available in transliteration. Rauf agreed and assigned two students to the task, one of whom could read Arabic. This student rendered the text into Hebrew transliteration (his native tongue), and from that into English transliteration (they had no knowledge of a transliteration system for Arabic). Rauf corrected and completed the text with diacritical marks, and it was distributed to all involved in Beshara. He did not give guidelines for its recitation, but emphasised its protective effect. This text was published in 1981 alongside the original by the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society (MIAS), which had been established during the mid-1970s by some of those involved in Beshara.26 The inclusion of the phonetic English transliteration is specifically aimed

at the non-Arabic-speaking Beshara constituency (which today has international extent) and others unable to read the Arabic original, making it possible for them to recite the text.27 The MIAS website suggests how the prayer can be used for the purposes of protection: ‘this prayer^protects its recipient. In microfiche form, it is frequently carried as an amulet or displayed in a significant place.’28 Many involved in Beshara wear the microfiche form in a silver encasement on a neck-chain: they also position it above the inside of a main door at home. Sometimes a framed photocopy of the first page of the prayer is displayed. Some read the prayer regularly, while others resort to it in times of difficulty or to ward off perceived evil.

Notes

1. The modern period has witnessed the widening accessibility of sufi resources beyond the initiated and prepared, a trend that has accelerated since the late 20th century. See for example Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Sufi Thought and its Reconstruction, in Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer M. Nafi, eds., Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century (London, 2004), pp.123-124; Garbi Schmidt, Sufi Charisma on the Internet, in David Westerlund, ed., Sufism in Europe and North America (London, 2004), pp. 109126.

On the general impacts of print (and later mass education, literacy and new media) on traditional notions of religious authority and on systems for learning and transmitting religious knowledge, see for example Francis Robinson, ‘Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print’, Modern Asian Studies 27: 1 (1993), pp.229-251; Dale F. Eickelman, The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and its Social Reproduction, in Juan I. Cole, ed., Comparing Muslim Societies: Knowledge and the State in a World Civilization (Ann Arbor, MI, 1992), pp. 97-132; idem, Islamic Religious Commentary and Lesson Circles: Is there a Copernican Revolution?, in G. W. Most, ed., Commentaries {Kommentar} (Gottingen, 1999), pp. 121-146.

While our interest here is in the contemporary situation, it should be noted that very few of the liturgical texts associated with the tariqas remained confined to their membership even in pre-modern times.

2. Padwick’s survey of ‘popular’ prayer manuals gathered from cities across the Muslim world during the 1950s encompasses the Dawr, but she does not consider it among their best-known contents. In addition to the examples below, it appears in the popular prayer collection Manba' al-sa'adat, p. 255, published in Beirut: see McGregor, ‘A Sufi Legacy in Tunis’, p. 275 n.63. Our examples do not encompass the world of Shi' i Islam, but we would point out that the prayer appears to be less widely known and used there than in Sunni contexts.
3. On the salawat or tasliya, the practice of calling down prayers and blessings upon the Prophet, see Annemarie Schimmel, And Muhammad is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (Chapel Hill, NC, 1985), pp.92 ff; Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp. 152 ff.
4. Held at a time when families gather at home for lunch after the Friday prayer, attendance at this majlis (established in 2001) is not substantial. During February 2003, the majlis was led by Muhammad Amin 'Ashur, a disciple of the revered Shadhili Ahmad al-Habbal al-Rifa'i. Beginning immediately after the end of the khatib’s lesson, it opened with the calling down of peace and blessings upon the Prophet. A pamphlet was distributed: Sala’wat ’ala al-nabi al-karim sayyidina rasul Allah li’l-shaykh Ahmad al-Dardayri al-Khalwati. 'Ashur called for recitation of surat al-Fatiha for the soul of Ibn 'Arabi, and the assembly proceeded to recite the Dawr, printed in the pamphlet’s last few pages, at considerable speed. On completing this, the majlis re-

cited surat al-Fatiha, a salawat by Ahmad al-Dardayrl al-Khalwati, al-Fatiha again, and Manzumat asma’ Allah al-husna al-Dardayrtya. A substantial amount of text was completed in forty minutes. 'Ashur recited al-Fatiha and asked those present to recite it for the benefit of certain individuals in need. He then led the majlis in reading surat Ya Sin. Thereafter, the tahltl (la ilaha illa Allah) was repeated. Two majlis ‘servants’ arrived with large bags of bread, which they began to distribute, marking the end of the majlis. 'Ashur continued to call down peace and blessings upon the Prophet followed by spontaneous supplication, in which he asked God to grant victory to the Muslims over those who aggress against them, to heal the sick, to forgive those who have transgressed, and to have mercy upon the dead. The congregation affirmed his emotional prayers with ‘amtn’ at each pause. Reflecting the concerns of the hour, he asked God to destroy enemy planes, to grant victory to the Palestinians, and to protect Syria, using al-Fatiha as an adjuration throughout. He asked God to accept the majlis through the standing of the prophets, their wives and mothers, and the companions and saints, ‘especially those at whose doorsteps we sit - Shaykh Muhyi al-Din, and Shaykh al-Nabulusi - through their baraka and karamat, achieved through Allah Himself.’ He asked God to compensate anyone who had spent towards the majlis and requested donations for an unnamed person in difficult circumstances.

5. According to one of the mosque imams, this majlis - set apart from all others by recitation of Mustafa al-Bakri’s Wird al-sahar (known also as al-Fath al-qudst wa’l-kashf al-unst), was established over seventy years ago by the Rifa' i Hashim Abu Tawq (1847-1962). According to Muhammad Muti' al-Hafiz and Nizar Abaza, Ta’rtkh 'ulama’ Dimashqft’l-qarn al-rabi' 'ashar al-hijri (Damascus, 1986), 2, p. 769, Abu Tawq personally led recitation of Wird al-sahar at the mosque every Saturday before fajr for forty-five years. Some local sources hold that this majlis was instituted by Mustafa al-Bakri himself together with 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, and suggest that it has been held there continuously since. In I960, Abu Tawq handed responsibility for the majlis to Salim al-'Amm, who had committed himself to the mosque in 1942.

Al-'Amm opened a majlis during February 2003 with recitation of al-Fatiha, Qur’anic verses, supplication and the istighfar (forgiveness) formula. A booklet was distributed: Majmu' al-awrad al-kabtr: yashtamil 'ala al-ma’thur 'an al-a’imma wa’l- aqtab min al-salawat 'ala al-nabt wa’l-awrad wa’l-ad'iya wa’l-adhkar wa’l-ahzab wa’l- istighfarat. Al-'Amm led the majlis in reciting with great beauty Wirdal-sahar, with its repetitions of Divine Names and lyrical flourishes. At a transitional point, the majlis ‘servant’ distributed halva sandwiches. Al-'Amm launched into spontaneous, at times tearful, supplication. He called for peace upon the Prophet and his companions, ulama, muhaddithun, and all people of faith. Salams were addressed to the Prophet, referring to the fact that the majlis was taking place in his presence, and to Mustafa al-Bakri. After further supplication, recitation of al-Fatiha and the calling down of blessings upon the prophet, he returned to the wird. Having completed it, he repeated the tahltl alone, then followed each time by an emphatic ‘Lord have mercy on me! ’ or ‘Lord forgive me!’ After further supplication, he led those gathered in reciting the

Dawr al-a' la at some speed. At its end, he emphasised to the majlis the importance of reading the Dawr frequently, at least once a day. With this the majlis ended, as the time for the dawn adhan approached.

6. For example, in 2003 it appeared in a small booklet: al-Dawr al-a'la li-sidi sultan al-'arifin wa 'umdat al-mukashifin wa zubdat al-wasilin wa khatimat al-awliya’ al-muhaqqiqin, al-shaykh al-akbar mawlana Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi, radiya Allah ta'ala 'anhu wa ardahu. It is prefaced by a hadith that stresses the potency of certain Qur’anic formulae when repeated, and followed by a poem in praise of Ibn 'Arabi by local poet Ahmad al-Zarruq (d.1955: on him see Hafiz and Abaza, Ta’rikh 'ulama’ Dimashq, 3, pp. 257-259), another hadith (underlining the importance of avoiding the prohibited), the end of the Thursday morning prayer from the Awrad attributed to Ibn 'Arabi but without explicit identification of its origin, and finally a salawat by Ahmad al-Badawi.
7. For example, in the two pamphlets mentioned in notes 5-6 above, on pp. 185193 of Majmu' al-awrad al-kabir. The pamphlet Salawat 'ala al-nabi al-karim sayyidina rasul Allah li’l-shaykh Ahmadal-Dardayri al-Khalwati begins with an open permission to read the salawat of al-Dardayri (tracing back his Khalwati initiation to Mustafa al-Bakri and then Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi). The salawat is followed by surat Ya Sin, the Dawr and additional salawat. Pamphlets such as these two carry a statement that they are a waqf of the majlis.
8. Al-Awrad al-da’ima ma'a al-salawat al-qa’ima, collected and arranged by Muhammad Abu’l-Yusr 'Abidin, ed. shaykh Bashir al-Bari, former Mufti of Damascus, 4th edn. (Damascus, 1991), pp. 38-45. On 'Abidin, see Hafiz and Abaza, Ta’rikh 'ulama’ Dimashq, 2, pp.968-973. According to sources in Damascus who knew him, he advised people to read some of Ibn 'Arabi’ writings daily, suggesting specifically al-Futuhat al-Makkiya.
9. Awrad usbuiya li’l-shaykh al-'arif Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi (Istanbul and Damascus, n.d.), pp. 60-66, published by Kitsan (Istanbul) and Dar al-Bayruti (Damascus). On Kitsan and for further details concerning the genesis of this publication, see below.
10. For example, Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli, Dala’il al- khayrat wa yalihi qasidat al-burda wa qasidat al-munfarija [wa bi-hamishihi majmu'at al-awrad wa’l-ahzab wa’l-ad'iya wa’l-istighathat], intro., Salah al-Din Abu’l-Jihad Nakahmayy (Aleppo, 1420), on the margin of pp. 241-251: it is among a collection of prayers independent of the Dala’il, added to the text when it was first printed.
11. Al-Ghurab, al-Tariq ila Allah, pp. 194-197. Although al-Ghurab suggests that this is a critical edition he does not indicate which or how many manuscripts he used and gives very few variants. (He also presents a critical edition of the Awrad, for which he again provides little detail on the manuscript base used. See pp. 173-193.) Born in Tanta in 1922, al-Ghurab settled in Damascus during the 1950s: on him see further below. For a partial list of his publications, see Ahmad b. Muhammad Ghunaym, al-Arif bi’llah al-shaykh Ahmad al-Harun: siratuhu wa karamatuhu (Damascus, 1992), p. 67 n.1.
12. Born in al-Salihiyya, Damascus in 1900, al-Harun worked for many years as a stonemason. He acquired literacy skills late in life, and dedicated himself to studying and writing on the natural sciences and issues of faith. Widely circulating stories of his kardmdt centre on his ability to cure the sick. He reportedly had a very close relationship to Ibn 'Arabi (his writings include a commentary on K. Md ld yu'awwal 'alayhi). Al-Harun’s relationships with his own disciples had no particular tariqa framework. On him see Ghunaym, al-'Arif bi’lldh al-shaykh Ahmad al-Hdrun; Hafiz and Abaza, Ta’rikh 'ulamd’ Dimashq, 2, pp.753-762; 'Izzat Hasriya, al-shaykh Arsldn al-Dimashqi wafihi lamha 'an al-shaykh Ahmadal-Hdrun (n.p., 1965), pp. 163-180.
13. See al-Ghurab, al-Tariq ild Allah, p. 194. Al-Ghurab first encountered al- Harun in 1955 and remained with him until his death (interview with al-Ghurab, Damascus, 2003). For the details of their relationship and perceptions of al-Ghurab as al-Harun’s khalifa, see Suha Taji-Farouki, At the Resting-place of the Seal of Saints: Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi and his Mausoleum-Mosque Complex in Contemporary Damascus (forthcoming).
14. Interview with Muhammad Samir al-Nass (Damascus, 2004): al-Nass is a US-trained medical doctor, presently imam in Nafidh Mosque and fiqh teacher at Ma' had al-Fath. A recognised expert in the readings and recitation of the Qur’an (he teaches recitation at the Shaykh Muhyi’l-Din Mosque), he is author of al-Wasila ild fahm haqiqat al-tawassul (Damascus, 2003) and Mafhum al-bid'a bayna al-diq wa’l-sa'a (Damascus, 2002). On him see http://www.as-shifa.org.uk/ulum/shaykhsamir.htm and http://www.ihyafoundation.com/index.php?page=scholars#samir. Note that al- Nawawi composed a daily wird and K. al-Adhkdr al-yawmiya wa’l-layliya.

A separate example arises in the Shadhili Muhammad al-Hashimi al-Jaza’iri {al-Tilimsanij (d.1961) granting an ijdza to read the prayer to the Rifa'i Muhammad al-Durra, who granted it to his son, Mahmud Muhammad al-Durra, presently imam at the al-Talha wa’l-Zubayr Mosque in 'Ayn Tarma on the outskirts of Damascus. Al-Durra has been active in publishing Rifa'i texts: for example, Mi'rdj al-wusul ild hadardt al-ridd wa’l-qabul bi-tawajjuhdt sdddtind al-sdda anjdl al-marhum al-sayyid Tdj al-Din al-Sayyddi (Damascus, 1418) (interview with al-Durra, Damascus, 2004). On al-Hashimi, see Hafiz and Abaza, Ta’rikh 'ulamd’ Dimashq, 2, pp. 747-751.

15. Al-Awrdd al-dd’ima ma'a al-salawdt al-qd’ima, p. 38.
16. Ibid., pp. 38-39; 45. The supplicantmust first recite al-Fatiha with the basmala four times, each with the same breath, then the first three verses of surat al-An'am, then a specific salawdt formula seven times, followed by a specific prologue to the Dawr. After completing the Dawr, he must recite surat al-Inshirah three times followed by another salawdt, completing by reciting al-Fatiha for the Prophet and Ibn 'Arabi. Historical examples of such recommendations are detailed below.
17. This paragraph draws on interviews in Damascus in 2003-04.
18. Gumujhanevi became attached to Abdulhamid II’s court and served his regime and pan-Islamic policies. On him see Alexander Knysh, Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Leiden, 2000), p.228; Butrus Abu-Manneh, Shaykh Ahmed Ziya’uddin Gumujhanevi and the Ziya’ i-Khalidi Sub-order, in Frederick de Jong, ed., Shia Islam,

Sects and Sufism: Historical Dimensions, Religious Practice and Methodological Considerations (Utrecht, 1992), pp. 105-117.

19. For example: Re§id Efendi 1135 (AH 1288), Dugumlu Baba 500 (AH 1285), Nafiz Pa§a 762 (AH 1285), Hayri Abdullah Efendi 230 (AH 1302). In the first three printings it is pp. 197-203, in the last one, pp. 193-199. In all cases, the text of the Hizb of al-NawawI is on the margin of the Dawr, and it is followed by al-qasida al-munfiarija. In currency in Istanbul today is a facsimile reprint of Hayri Abdullah Efendi 230 as Deldil-i-Hayrat: Saldvdt-i-§erifier (Istanbul, n.d.). Not all more recent editions of the Dald’ilprinted in Istanbul incorporate the prayer. For example, it appears in Deldilu’l- Hayrat ve §evdriku’l Envdr fi zikri’s-saldti ale’n-nebiyyi’l-muhtdr: Deldilu’l-Hayrat ve Tercumesi (Istanbul, n.d.), pp.288-301, but not in Deldil’ul Hayrdt ve §evdrik’ul Envdr (Istanbul, n.d.). Both are pocket versions. The version incorporating the prayer is published (by Yasin Yayinevi) and sold within the orthodox Naqshbandi neighbourhood of ؟ar§amba in the Fatih district.
20. §eyh’ul Ekber Muhyiddin Ibn’ul Arabi (K. S.) Ozel Dua’si “Hizb-ud’Devr’ul A’ld”: Orjinali, Turkqe okunuyu ve Mdndsi (Istanbul, n.d.). The translator is Kemal Osmanbey, a Syrian of Turkish origin, his grandfather having been an official at the court of Sultan Abdulaziz who was granted lands in Syria. Resident in Istanbul since 1988, Osmanbey brought a copy of the prayer from the Shaykh Muhyi’l-Din Mosque for Remzi Goknar, owner of Kitsan publishers. They agreed that Osmanbey would translate it (possibly with the help of Goknar’s wife §ukran Goknar: see below) and Kitsan would publish it. Osmanbey is a medical doctor who currently practises acupuncture. He is particularly interested in the spirit world: his publications include Ruh Aleminde bir Seyahat (Istanbul, 1995) and Haqd’iq 'an tandsukh al-arwdh wa’l- hassa al-sddisa (Beirut, 2002). Kitsan, established by Goknar in 1980, specialises in sufi books: its publications include a few Turkish translations of works attributed to Ibn 'Arabi such as Tuhfie’tus Sefiere and Mevaki’un Nucum. On Kitsan, see http://www. kitsan.com.
21. Yivlik, who worked as a civil servant, has been described by close disciples as ‘a spiritual son and lover of Ibn 'Arabi’. According to one disciple, he read continuously from the Fusus al-hikam and al-Futuhdt al-Makkiya and made frequent visits to Ibn 'Arabi’s tomb in Damascus. While himself not a scholar, he has rendered at least one sufi work into modern Turkish: Selim Divane, Mifitah-u muykildt’il-drifiin dddb-u tariki’l-vdsilin, tr. from Ottoman by Ahmed Sadik Yivlik (Istanbul, 1998). Yivlik led a circle of about twenty disciples in Istanbul reading translations of Ibn 'Arabi’s works, including some non-Turks and illiterates. Goknar’s son and wife §ukran were among his close disciples, his wife having personally funded the joint Kitsan-Dar al-Bayruti publication Awrdd usbu'iya li’l-shaykh al-drifiMuhyial-Din Ibn 'Arabi detailed above. One thousand copies were published, the majority distributed free in Damascus in 2004, the remainder in Istanbul. Dar al-Bayruti has planned a reprint, which Kitsan has stipulated must also be distributed free. The dedication in the booklet points to the relationship between §ukran Goknar, Yivlik and Ibn 'Arabi. She writes: ‘To Ahmed Sadiq Yivlik, who made known to me the Shaykh al-Akbar’s

stature. May God sanctify his secret and cause him to live in His Spacious Gardens with the Shaykh al-Akbar.’ §ukran Gbknar has herself published a few titles with Kitsan, including Raya Tabirleri. She intends to facilitate production of a Turkish version of the Awrad.

22. His shaykh 'Ali Bahjat Efendi received it from the latter’s shaykh Hayrullah Efendi, who received it from his shaykh Ali Bahjat Efendi Ekber. Thanks are due to Mahmud Kili؟ for this information.
23. A controversial figure in Egyptian history seen either as an extravagant incompetent or a far-sighted if unlucky modernizer, Ismail eventually became unpopular both at home and with the European powers, and was finally deposed by Sultan Abdulhamid under European pressure. See M. E. Yapp, The Making of the Modern Near East, 1792-1923 (London and New York, 1987), pp. 155-157; 214-215; Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939 (Cambridge, 1989), passim. See also Family Tree of Mehmet Ali Bulent Rauf, in Bulent Rauf, The Last Sultans, ed. Meral Arim and Judy Kearns (Cheltenham, 1995).
24. See The Child across Time, in Bulent Rauf, Addresses II (Roxburgh, Scotland, 2001), p. 90. She was the sister of Mehmet Tevfik Pasha, who succeeded his father Ismail as khedive, and of Ahmet Fuad I Pasha, who would become the first king of Egypt.

Fatma Hanim appears to have had a special connection with the Celvetiyye, assuming responsibility with her daughter for restoring the mausoleum-mosque complex of the Celveti saint and effectively the first shaykh of the tariqa Aziz Mahmud Hudayi (d.1628) in Uskudar, Istanbul, after it was damaged in a thunderstorm in 1910. On this complex see Raymond Lifchez, The Lodges of Istanbul, in Lifchez, ed., The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey (Berkeley, LA and London, 1992), pp. 113-117. On her pivotal role in the renovation (which took place some years after the damage was inflicted) and the gifts and donations she made, see H. Kamil Yilmaz, Aziz Mahmud Hudayi: Hayati, Eserleri, Tarikati (Istanbul, 1999), p.262 and n.20; Kemaleddin §enocak, Kutbu’l-arifin Seyyid Aziz Mahmud Hudayi (K. S.) (Istanbul, 1970) p. 30 n.2.

25. For a comprehensive study of the movement and associated figures see Suha Taji-Farouki, Beshara and Ibn 'Arabi: A Movement of Sufi Spirituality in the Modern World (forthcoming).
26. The Hizbu-l Wiqayah ofMuhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (MIAS, Oxford); reprinted 2003. The Awrad were published first in 1979 as Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, Wird (MIAS, Oxford); reprinted 1988.
27. See http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/Publications.html.
28. Ibid.

2

A Prayeracross Time

Historical dimensions

Based on the manuscript collection in the Suleymaniye Library (Istanbul), which holds over forty distinct copies, it is possible to construct a picture of the transmission, presentation and use of the Dawr during the last four hundred years.1 Around a half of these copies are explicitly dated, or can be dated approximately based on contextual information: the earliest dates from the late 11th/17th century, the greatest number from the 13th/19th century.2 The prayer appears in a variety of settings. For example there are seven commentaries, four in Arabic and three in Ottoman Turkish, the earliest probably from the late 12th/18th century.3 Beautiful individual copies bound alone or with another short prayer and embellished with gold were most likely produced at the request of important figures (like that brought to London by Rauf).4 The Dawr sometimes appears as the only prayer alongside several non-devotional works, of which some may also be attributed to Ibn 'Arabi.5 It is found in compilations devoted exclusively to prayers and prayer-commentaries, including at times other prayers attributed to Ibn 'Arabi,6 and other kinds of devotional text.7 It appears also in collections of prayers and non-devotional tracts, the latter sometimes attributed to figures associated with the school of Ibn 'Arabi.8 There are copies of the prayer in personal notebooks that hold an intimate record of an individual’s favourite poetic verses, prayers, Qur’anic verses and fragments from the works of various Islamic authorities, in addition to spiritual reflections, supplications, talismans, numerological codes and short devotional texts.9

The repeated copying of the prayer in diverse settings bears

witness to its circulation and use over the last four hundred years.10 Pointing to its constituency of readers during the closing years of Ottoman rule, the Suleymaniye copies have been drawn from collections gathered from tekkes and dergas associated with diverse tariqas (such as §azeli and Dugumlu Baba), madrasas attached to mosques, pashas’ collections and collections endowed by sultans. The earlier copies provide some indication of the prayer’s users four hundred years ago, but chains of transmission or authorities (sanad, pl. asnad)11 attached to seven copies make it possible to trace the history of its use and transmission beyond the date of our earliest copy to the time of its author. These chains illuminate two aspects in the prayer’s transmission. Vertically, they identify key figures in its passage from generation to generation, while suggesting that it has indeed been in continuous use in every generation since its author’s day. Horizontally, the chains elucidate the circles within which the prayer was disseminated, pointing to their geographical loci, tariqa affiliations and intellectual orientations and identifying figures who served as a nexus between different circles within the larger network. We give below biographical information concerning figures in six chains,12 arranged by century from the earliest to the most recent. The treatment does not aspire to be exhaustive, but focuses on significant historical figures.13 The chains themselves are presented as they appear in our sources in an Appendix. A diagram of these chains is also provided below, using readily identifiable names as elaborated in the biographical notes. After each name in these notes, the chain(s) in which the figures concerned appear are identified by a capital letter, for ease of location in terms of sources (as set out in the Appendix), and in the diagram (overleaf).

Any discussion of such chains must pay due attention to the cultural and social setting from which they emanate, with its associated practices and priorities. With this in mind, they can be investigated in terms of the plausibility of their individual links, encompassing chronology and the circumstances of the ijaza implicit within and underpinning each link.14 We attempt such an investigation below. Finally, we consider how the picture that emerges from these chains

Historical dimensions

can illuminate important trends and tendencies in Islamic culture and thought during specific historical periods.

Transmitters of the prayer

7th century AH

Sa'd al-Din Muhammad b. Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arab!

{E} [d.656/1258]

The second son of Ibn 'Arabi; born in Malatya in AH 618. He left an important diwan. A student of hadith, he visited Cairo and lived in Aleppo.15

Radi al-Din Ibrahim b. M b. Ibrahim b. Abu Bakr b. M al-Tabari al-Makki {D} [d.722/1322]

Also known as al-Radi al-Tabari and Radi al-Din Abu Ishaq, a Shafi'i born in AH 636 who held the position of imam at the Maqam Ibrahim (‘Station of Abraham’) in Mecca.16 Son of a shari- fian (Husayni) family respected far and wide for its learning and one of the oldest of the established families in Mecca (Radi al-Din’s ancestor settled there c.570), well-connected and with top-ranking positions of qadT (judge), imam, mufti, khatTb (preacher) and teacher passing from generation to generation. Writing in the 17th century, the biographer al-Muhibbi reported that from 673/1274 the family had held the imamate of the Maqam Ibrahim exclusively and continuously.17 Radi al-Din studied under prominent figures and became learned in the Shafi'i madhhab (school of law). He was outstanding in piety, humbleness and charitableness, and never left the Hijaz.18 The many examples listed by the biographer Ibn al-'Iraqi suggest that he was a significant figure in transmitting works to his contemporaries, including many visitors to Mecca.19

Abu Muhammad al-Qasim b. Muzaffar b. Mahmud b. Taj al- Umana’ Ahmad Ibn 'Asakir {A}

A member of the Banu 'Asakir clan, which held an important position in Damascus during AH 470-660 and produced a dynasty of Shafi'i

scholars.20 He appears under the full name given here as having received an ijdza from Ibn 'Arabi for the latter’s K. al-Mu’ashshardt al-maymuna.21 According to Yahya, he also appears in a chain attached to al-Futuhdt al-Makkiya (where his name is given as Abu Muhammad al-Qasim b. al-Muzaffar b. Muhammad al-Tabib), for which he also received an ijdza directly from the author.22 In a collection in his hand of works by Ibn 'Arabi and Sadr al-Din Qunawi, al-Qasim refers to the latter in terms suggesting he may have been among Qunawi’s disciples.23 Among those to whom he gave ijdzas is Burhan al-Din al-Tanukhi.24

8th century AH

Sharaf al-Din 'Abd al-Mu’min b. Khalaf al-Dimyati

{E} [d.705/1306]

Born in AH 613, an Egyptian hadith scholar and one of the most important figures in hadith transmission of the last third of the 7th century AH. He is best known for his mu’ jam shuyukh or dictionary of authorities. This gives the names of his shaykhs and those he met and from whom he received works in many fields, providing a record of hadith and other texts collected during numerous travels in Egypt, the Hijaz, Iraq and Syria.25 His first visit to Syria was in 645. He returned to the north of the country on either side of a visit to Baghdad in 650, and between late 654 and late 656 he stayed several times (or possibly settled continuously) in Damascus.26 The mu’ jam includes Muhammad b. Muhammad b. 'Ali Ibn al-'Arabi Sa'd al-Din al-Ta’i al-Dimashqi.27

al-Nur/Nur al-Din Abu’l-Hasan 'Ali b. 'Umar b. Abu Bakr al-Wani [al-Khilati al-Sufi] {F} [d.727/1327]

Born in c.635 or 637 and known as Ibn al-Salah, he settled in Egypt. Two chains attached to al-Futuhdt al-Makkiya give him transmitting from Ibn 'Arabi and to Isma'il al-Jabarti.28 The silsila (chain of transmission) of the khirqa akbariya (akbarian mantle) as given

by Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi also passes from Ibn 'Arabi to him and from him to Isma'il al-Jabarti.29 He appears in the ma'djim shuyukh of certain of his contemporaries.30 He took works from various well-known authorities and was celebrated for his teaching and transmission of hadith, in which he connected young to old during his long life (he died aged 92).31

Nasir al-Din Muhammad b. 'Ali b. Yusuf b. Idris al Kurd!

al-Harawi32 {E} [d.781/1379]

Born in Dimyat, his date of birth is given as AH 696/7 (or 687 or 701).33 Through the agency of his maternal uncle 'Imad al-Din al- Dimyati, he audited works from Sharaf al-Din 'Abd al-Mu’min b. Khalaf al-Dimyati (who died when Nasir al-Din was eight years old).34 He also received ijdzas from other shaykhs in Cairo. He transmitted to hadith scholars, linked young to old through his long life, and became unrivalled in this field. People sought him out to audit works and acquire samdrs (certificates of audition) from him (the biographer Ibn al-'Iraqi reports that he studied under him many works received from al-Dimyati through ijdzas). He was a soldier who served as one of the sultan’s axe-bearers (and was thus known as al-Tabardar). He was well known for his piety, probity and love of the good. He transmitted to Muhammad b. Muqbil al-Halabi.35

9th century AH

Burhan al-Din Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Ahmad b. 'Abd al-Wahid b. Sa'id al-Tanukhi al-Ba'li36 {A} [d.800/1398]

Known as al-Burhan al-Shami, he was born in Damascus in AH 709 and grew up there, but later settled in Cairo (his family originated from Ba'l [Ba'albek]). He received ijdzas from over three hundred (by some accounts nearly four hundred) authorities, including al-Qasim Ibn 'Asakir. He studied hadith, fiqh or jurisprudence (in Hama, Aleppo and Cairo as well as other locations) and Qur’an readings/recitation, and was authorised to teach and issue

legal opinions. A highly respected scholar, he became ‘shaykh of Egypt’ both in hadith transmission and Qur’an readings. Among the many who studied under and transmitted works from him was Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, who reports that he spent a long time in close companionship with him (and experienced ‘the baraka of his supplication’). Ibn Hajar detailed hadiths narrated by those listed in al-Tanukhi’s mu' jam, and developed certain of al-Tanukhi’s works on hadith.37 The historian and biographer Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (d.748/1352) also studied under al-Tanukhi and transmitted hadith from him. When al-Tanukhi lost his sight, he became known as al- Burhan al-Shami ‘the Blind’.38

Isma'il al-Jabarti al-Zabidi {F} [d.806/1404]

Charismatic sufi shaykh and ardent follower of Ibn 'Arabi. Together with his disciple 'Abd al-Karim al-Jili (d.832/1429), he disseminated the works of Ibn 'Arabi in Zabid, giving rise to a sufi movement in Rasulid Yemen committed to his teachings and those of his school.39

al-Jamal/Jamal al-Din [Abu’l-Mahasin] Muhammad b. Ibrahim [b. Ahmad b. Abu Bakr] al-Murshidi [al-Makki] {D}

Meccan hadith scholar who transmitted works in hadith to 'Umar Ibn Fahd al-Makki.40

Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani {A} [d.852/1448]

Prominent Egyptian hadith scholar (author of Fath al-bdri, the great commentary on the Sahih), biographer and Shafi'i mufti; often regarded as the greatest 'dlim (scholar) of his generation, he held the position of Chief Judge of Egypt and Syria for a total of twenty-one years.41 As noted above, he transmitted from al-Tanukhi. In evaluating his attitude towards Ibn 'Arabi Knysh describes him as an adversary and critic,42 but suggests at the same time that, in spite of some biographers’ attempts to depict him as an implacable enemy, Ibn Hajar presented the widest possible spectrum of opinions on Ibn 'Arabi and avoided any clear-cut judgement of heresy or unbelief.

On this basis, he concludes that his position can be described as ‘agnostic’.43 Ibn Hajar’s writings were for some time to come perhaps the last to present a favourable view of Ibn Taymiya outside of strict Hanbali circles (by the mid-14th century the salafi view of Islam as articulated by Ibn Taymiya was largely eclipsed by the Ash'ari-sufi ulama establishment, which dominated the Sunni cultural milieu).44

Muhammad Abu’l-Fath b. Abu Bakr [Zayn al-Din/al-Zayn] al-Maraghi [Sharaf al-Din al-Qurashi al-Makki] {F} [d.859/1455] Known as al-Maraghi al-saghir (‘the younger’), born in Medina in AH 775, he was a faqTh (jurist) and hadith scholar who left a number of works and appears in many chains of transmission. According to one of them, he transmitted Ibn Arabi’s works and all that he transmitted to Zakariya al-Ansari. He transmitted his fihris (bibliography) to 'Umar b. Taqi al-Din Ibn Fahd.45 He died in Mecca and has been described as a saint.46

Muhammad b. Muqbil al-Halabi al-Sirafi {E} [d.870/1466]

A highly important hadith transmitter (described as musnid al- dunyaf ’asrihi, ‘the most important hadith transmitter on earth in his time’), as the last remaining person to have transmitted from al-Fakhr Ibn al-Bukhari’s last living companion (al-Salah M b. Ibrahim b. Abu 'Umar al-Maqdisi al-Salihi al-Hanbali), and thus from al-Fakhr himself through a single intermediary.47 Those who transmitted hadith from Muhammad b. Muqbil during his long life participated in the honour associated with his ‘high’ chain of authorities, flowing from his status as last link with a revered, bygone generation. They included Muhammad b.'Abd al-Rahman al-Sa- khawi48 and Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, to whom Muhammad b. Muqbil sent a written ijaza (from Aleppo to Egypt) in AH 869.49

Siraj al-Din/al-Siraj 'Umar [Najm al-Din] b. Muhammad [Taqi al-Din] Ibn Fahd al-Makki {D} [d.885/1480]

Known also as Abu’l-Qasim and Abu Hafs, a sharifian (al-Hashimi al-'Alawi) and a Shafi'i, he was born c.812. His grandfather had

taken his father Taqi al-Din (b.787 in Egypt) to settle in Mecca, where he audited works and received ijdzas from many shaykhs, and became a well-respected authority and prolific author.50 The family produced a number of important transmitters, including 'Umar.51 'Umar detailed hadiths narrated by those listed in the mu’ jam of Abu’l-Fath Muhammad al-MaraghT, among others.52 He transmitted to ZakarTya al-AnsarT and al-SuyutT, among others.53 He left a number of bibliographies and lists of teachers (mashyakha) pertaining both to himself and to others, and various works, including important historical works focusing on Mecca: Ithdf al-ward bi-akhbdr Umm al-Qurd; al-Taysir bi-tardjim al-Tabariyin; al-Durr al-kamin bi- dhayl al-’Iqd al-thamin (fi ta’rikh al-balad al-amin).54

10th century AH

Jalal al-DTn al-SuyutT {E} [d.911/1505]

Great Egyptian polymath, prolific author and ‘orthodox’ (Shadhili) sufi who spearheaded an apology for sufism and its leading figures. This encompassed a defence of the orthodoxy of Ibn 'Arabi in, for example, Tanbih al-ghabi bi-tabri’at Ibn ’Arabi, written as a refutation of al-Biqa'i’s Tanbih al-ghabi bi-takfir Ibn al-Fdrid wa Ibn ’Arabi.55 Those from whom he transmitted included Muhammad b. Muqbil al-HalabT.56

['Izz al-DTn] 'Abd al-'AzTz b. 'Umar Ibn Fahd al-MakkT

{D} [d.921-22/1515-16]

A Shafi'i known also as Abu’l-Khayr and Abu Faris, he was born in Mecca in AH 850. He audited works from his father 'Umar Ibn Fahd al-MakkT and grandfather Taqi al-Din. His father acquired ijdzas for him from various scholars including Ibn Hajar al-'AsqalanT,57 and took him to audit works from al-MaraghT among others. He then travelled widely through the Hijaz, Egypt, Syria and Palestine, gathering uncountable samd’s and ijdzas. He read works with ZakarTya al-AnsarT and spent time with al-Sakhawi, among others.

He distinguished himself particularly in hadith scholarship in the Hijaz (he signed himself khadim al-hadith jTl-haram al-Makki, ‘the servant of hadith in the Sacred Precinct of Mecca’).58 His mu' jam shuyukh encompasses a thousand shaykhs.59 In addition to works on hadith, he produced Nuzhat dhawi al-ahlam bi-akhbar al-khutaba’ wa’l-a’imma wa qudat balad Allah al-haram (‘The dreamer’s stroll through the stories of preachers, imams and judges of God’s sacred land’). The historian Muhammad Ibn Tulun was among those who transmitted from him,60 while those to whom he transmitted included Yahya b. Makram b. Muhibb al-Din {Abu’l-Ma'ali} b. Ahmad al-Tabari.61

Zakariya b. Muhammad al-Ansari {F/A} [d.926/1520]

Born in AH 823-24, a revered Egyptian sufi and Shafi'i authority. He studied, among others, under Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani,62 and became associated with numerous turuq (pl. of tariqa). His renown in the exoteric sciences (especially fiqh: he acted as Shafi'i grand qadi for twenty years and his commentaries on Shafi'i law became part of the madrasa curriculum) enabled him to protect his spiritual life from external scrutiny. He shared this dimension only with his closest pupils, such as 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani, who regarded him first and foremost as a saint and recorded his karamat.63 His many works include some relating to tasawwuf (sufism), such as commentaries on the writings of al-Qushayri and Shaykh Arslan.64 During the controversy caused in Cairo by the anti-monistic campaign of al-Biqa'i aimed at Ibn al-Farid and Ibn 'Arabi (874/1469), the sultan sought his expert opinion to put an end to the agitation caused by the affair: he defended them.65 His many students included Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi,66 who received ijazas in all of Zakariya al-Ansari’s works when he studied under him during a visit to Cairo.67 According to one chain, Zakariya al-Ansari transmitted the works of Ibn 'Arabi (and all that the latter transmitted) from Abu’l-Fath al-Maraghi.68

'Abd al-Wahhab b. Ahmad al-Sha'rani69 {F} [d.973/1565]

Egyptian scholar, Shafi'i mufti, historian of sufism (through his tabaqdt or biographical compilations, among them the immensely popular al-Tabaqdt al-kubrd), sufi and apologist for sufis. He was a devoted student and defender of the orthodoxy of Ibn 'Arabi (through, among others, the ‘deliberate interpolation’ hypothesis),70 and popularised his teachings through the accessible and widely circulated al- Yawdqit wa’l-jawdhir, for example. The best known and most exalted of his teachers was Zakariya al-Ansari, who initiated him into the way in AH 914.71 His sufism has been described as ‘orthodox, middle-of-the-road’ (he identified with the orthodox way of al-Junayd and attacked the excesses of some tariqas).72 His stance as a sufi, faqih73 and scholar of hadith was underpinned by reformist, even salafi, tendencies.74

'Ali b. 'Abd al-Quddus al-Shinnawi {F}

Grandson of Muhammad al-Shinnawi (d.932), who was a popular leader and Ahmadi shaykh (after the popular saint Ahmad {al-Sayyid} al-Badawi [d.675/1276]) who spread his dhikr (practice of remembrance of God) through the surrounding area from his zdwiya (sufi centre) in Mahallat Ruh west of Cairo, authorising the masses (and even women and children) to arrange dhikr sessions.75 Muhammad al-Shinnawi had initiated 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani into his way and designated him to teach dhikr and to educate murids in AH 932.76 After Muhammad’s death his sons, including 'Abd al-Quddus, who became his successor, were hostile to the powerful disciple al- Sha'rani, but he served them and asked 'Abd al-Quddus to guide him as his shaykh. In the event, 'Abd al-Quddus became a disciple of al-Sha'rani, who initiated and guided him in the Ahmadi way.77 This relationship presumably also encompassed the son of 'Abd al-

Quddus, 'Ali, father of Abu’l-Mawahib Ahmad al-Shinnawi.

Muhammad Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi {A/E} [d.984/1576]

His family migrated from Gaza to Damascus ten generations before he was born in AH 904, and quickly became well established and

respected there for its learning. His father Radi al-Din reportedly took Badr al-Din while a toddler to a shaykh who conferred upon him the khirqa, taught him dhikr and gave him ijdzas.78 Early instruction received from his father was supplemented by instruction from the ulama of Damascus (he studied hadith and tasawwuf in particular under Badr al-Din Hasan Ibn al-Shuwaykh al-Maqdisi). He accompanied his father to Cairo at the age of twelve, and stayed there for five years, during which time he studied under various authorities, particularly ZakarTya al-AnsarT. His father also acquired ijdzas for him from Jalal al-DTn al-SuyutT and introduced him to the saints of Egypt. They returned to Damascus in 921.

Badr al-Din launched a long career in Damascus as a teacher (including in the Umayyad Mosque) and Shafi'i mufti. He produced many works, assumed several positions and drew students from far and wide, among them the great-grandfather of 'Abd al-Ghani al- Nabulusi, Isma'il (d.993).79 He loved the sufis and was at pains to advise them if he heard they had acted in a way contrary to the shari'a. A respected and prominent figure, he was the father of Najm al-DTn al-GhazzT.

11th century AH

Abu’l-Mawahib Ahmad b. 'AlT b. 'Abd al-Quddus al-ShinnawT {F} [d.1028/1619]

Also known as al-Khami and hailing from the important Egyptian sufi al-Shinnawi family, he was born in 975/1568 in Mahallat Ruh west of Cairo and studied in Cairo and Medina, where he settled.80 A prominent sufi, he became the leading shaykh of the Naqshbandiyya in Medina in his time. The order was introduced to Medina (with the Shattariyya) by the Indian Shaykh Sibghatallah b. Ruhallah al- Sindi (al-Barwaji), who settled there in 1596 or 1605: he initiated al- Shinnawi, became his teacher, and authorised him to educate murids, teach the dhikr and confer the khirqa.81 While he studied hadith with its major scholars, al-Shinnawi does not appear to have been regarded

as a hadith scholar himself.82 Nonetheless, he emerged as a dominant figure in the intellectual milieu of the Haramayn, where he was an outspoken adherent of the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Being). His many students included Safi al-Din al-Qushashi (who venerated his teacher as the saintly ‘Seal of his time’). Brockelmann lists five of al-Shinnawi’s works, including al-Iqlid al-faridfi tajrid al- tawhid, on which al-Nabulusi later wrote a commentary.83

'Abd al-Qadir b. Muhammad b. Yahya al-Husayni al-Tabari al-Makki al-Shafi'i {D} [d.1033/1624]

Grandson of Yahya b. Makram b. Muhibb al-Din al-Tabari {D}, member of important sharifian family long established in Mecca and holders of the imamate of the Maqam Ibrahim since AH 673. Born in 976, by the age of twelve 'Abd al-Qadir had memorised the Qur’an and led Ramadan night prayers at the Maqam. From 991, he studied with prominent shaykhs (including, for example, al-Shams Muhammad al-Ramli al-Misri al-Shafi'i and 'Abd al-Rahman al- Sharbini), having received an ijaza from some of them to pass on the works he had already memorised. After encompassing a broad range of disciplines and works, he composed numerous texts, including, for example, Durrat al-asdaf al-saniya fi dharwat al-awsaf al-Husayniya, 'Uyun al-masa’il min a'yan al-rasa’il, Ifham al-majari fi ifham al- Bukhari and 'Ara’is al-ahkar wa ghara’is al-afkar. The biographer al- Muhibbi describes him as ‘the imam of Hijazi imams’.84

Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi {A/E} [d.1061/1651]

Born in 977/1570, he attended the public lessons of his father Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi and received ijazas from him while still a child (Badr al-Din died when Najm al-Din was seven years old). He studied under and received ijazas from various scholars,85 then held office and taught from a young age in several locations, continuing thus throughout his long life. He was Shafi'i mufti in Damascus for thirty-five years up to his death (from 1025). He also taught hadith and read al-Bukhari in the Umayyad Mosque for twenty-seven years (from 1034).86 Among his numerous and well-known students

was Isma'il, the father of 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (d.1062).87 He was also an early teacher and shaykh of 'Abd al-Ghani al- Nabulusi88 himself and of Ibrahim al-Kurani.89 His numerous writings encompass works on hadith, tafsTr (exegesis), fiqh, tasawwuf and travelogues. As a historian, he is author of the biographical work al- Kawakib al-saira bi-a'ydn al-mi’a al-'ashira, and its continuation Lutf al-samar wa qatf al-thamar: min tarajim a'yan al-tabaqa al-ula min al- qarn al-hadT 'ashar. His reputation and particularly his expertise in hadith90 became known beyond Syria, especially in the Hijaz. He made twelve trips to the Haramayn: during the last one (1059), he was inundated with requests for ijazas, including from scholars such as al- Shams Muhammad al-Babili, who expressed their admiration for his exceptional knowledge.91 As far as his tarTqa affiliations are concerned, the primary one was to the Qadiriyya. Some of his contemporaries described him as one of the three abdal (category of saints) in Syria.92

Safi al-Din Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Yunus al-Qushashi {B/C/D/F} [d.1071/1661]

Hailing from a Jerusalem family with sharifian descent, his father (whose shaykh was the Maliki Muhammad b. 'Isa al-Tilimsani) migrated to Medina. Safi al-Din’s early education was under his father’s wing, and included a trip to Yemen in AH 1011, where he joined circles of prominent ulama. Returning to Medina after a stay in Mecca, he met Abu’l-Mawahib al-Shinnawi, who initiated him into the sufi way. He studied under al-Shinnawi, Sibghatallah and numerous other shaykhs (perhaps as many as one hundred), becoming affiliated to many tarTqas including the Qadiriyya, Shattariyya, Shadhiliyya and Naqshbandiyya. He developed a close attachment to al-Shinnawi, married his daughter, and became his khalifa (deputy) in life and later his successor as shaykh in the Shattariyya. A charismatic figure, he attracted a large influx of students and disciples in Medina and became established as one of the greatest sufis of his time, as well as a teacher of theology and shari'a in his own right.93 Ibrahim al-Kurani was the most prominent of his students (and al-Qushashi was al-Kurani’s major and most influential teacher): another was

'Abdallah b. Salim al-Basri (d.1134).94 He has been counted as one of four influential ulama who would shape the Medinan intellectual milieu of the late 17th century. Thanks to his charisma and learning, al-Qushashi left behind a cohesive group of followers loyal to his approach and cutting across fiqh madhhabs and sufi tarTqas.95

Al-Qushashi was described by the biographer al-Muhibbi as ‘the imam of all those who believed in wahdat al-vujud’.96 His importance in transmitting the doctrines of the school of Ibn 'Arabi to various parts of the Muslim world through his students has been emphasised: for example, the Sumatran 'Abd al-Ra’uf Singkel was a student of his for twenty years.97 Al-Qushashi has been identified as a link in one of the still ‘living’ chains of transmission of the khirqa akbarTya. He reportedly claimed the office of Seal of Muhammadan Sainthood for himself, attaining this after having studied under five teachers.98

Al-Qushashi’s interest in theology has been recognised: while the majority of his writings were glosses or commentaries on major sufi tracts (such as al-Jili’s al-Insdn al-kdmil) as well as works on usul (the principles of the faith), he thus also compiled three treatises on the issue of kasb (acquisition), a principal concept of Asha'ri doctrine, at least one of which invited some controversy. He was also involved in hadith scholarship, encompassing sufi interpretations of hadith99 and an approach that adumbrated emerging trends that became more distinct in the next generation.100 On this and other grounds, a possible (embryonic) reformist tendency can be identified alongside his mystical vocation and commitment to maintaining sufi traditions.101

Zayn al-'Abidin b. 'Abd al-Qadir al-Tabari al-Husayni al-Makki al-Shafi'i {D} [d.1078/1667]

Born in AH 1002, he studied under his father 'Abd al-Qadir b. Muhammad b. Yahya al-Husayni al-Tabari and the prominent shaykhs of Mecca and Medina such as 'Abd al-Wahid al-Hisari al- Mu'ammar, receiving ijdzas from them. Among others, Muhammad al-Shilli Ba'alawi and al-Hasan b. 'Ali al-'Ujaymi al-Makki received ijdzas from him. He was not as celebrated as his father.102

12th century AH

Ibrahim al-Kurani {B/C/D/F} [d.1101/1689]

The most outstanding of Ahmad al-Qushashi’s disciples, he shared a special relationship with his teacher, and became his son-in-law and designated heir.103 Born in 1023/1615, al-Kurani studied a wide range of subjects under many teachers in his native Shahrazur and then in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Medina, where he finally settled.104 He was initiated into and authorised to teach several tariqas including the Shattariyya, Qadiriyya, Chishtiyya and his primary tariqa, the Naqshbandiyya. On al-Qushashi’s death in 1661 he succeeded him as supreme shaykh of the Shattariyya as well as in his major teaching post,105 and as ‘the chief exponent of Ibn 'Arabi’s legacy in Medina’.106

A Shafi'i ’dlim, al-Kurani’s importance to the intellectual life of Medina in his time is such that he has been described as ‘the doyen of the city’s ulama’.107 His influence reached far beyond Medina, however, as the ‘undisputed leader’ of the school of Ibn 'Arabi in his epoch.108 For example, his influence on Indonesian Islam has been documented, mediated through his important Indonesian disciples like 'Abd al-Ra’uf Singkel.109 One of al-Kurani’s works on the principle of wahdat al-wujud, Ithdf al-dhaki, was written at the request of Indonesian disciples, and another (refuting an earlier denunciation of the principle as heretical pantheism by Nuruddin Raniri [d.1666] of Acheh) was produced for an Indonesian audience.110 Leading Indian ulama requested a fatwa from him (among the prestigious ulama of the Hijaz) in 1682 on the ideas of Ahmad Sirhindi (d.1624), founder of the Mujaddidiyya branch of the Naqshbandiyya, whom they opposed.111

A versatile and prolific author, al-Kurani’s interests encompassed hadith, fiqh and kaldm (theology) alongside tasawwuf. His emphasis on hadith as a source for understanding and defining aspects of religion and for shari'a (and thus his role in the rising 17th-18th century interest in hadith scholarship as a means for reforming fiqh and

theology) was such that, after his death, there was a remarkable increase among his Medinan students and junior colleagues in writing commentaries on hadith collections.112 Described as having been ،by nature a conciliator’,113 his complex intellectual position reconciled his loyalty to Ibn 'Arabi’s teaching with commitment to a salafi outlook. He thus reinterpreted the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud in accordance with the orthodox Islamic view by emphasising the Qur’an and Sunna as the ultimate frame of reference and insisting on the interdependency of the sufi vision and the obligations of shari'a ،in accordance with al-salafal-sdlih (the venerable forefathers)’. It seems he undertook to revisit the major issues of sufism and theology with a view to reconstructing their dominant modes (expressed through wahdat al-wujud and late Ash'ari dogma), in order to bring them into line with what he saw as the original Islamic view, drawing on the legacy of Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiya (and the latter’s student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya) in projecting his vision of this original view.114 On this basis, he stands as a significant precursor to the reformist currents that were to gain powerful expression across the Muslim world during the 18th century. Effectively replacing al-Qushashi’s authority, he served as an important point of reference for a large number of ulama throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, contributing to the rehabilitation of Ibn Taymiya and to opening the door for the re-emergence of the salafi school of thought in different parts of the Muslim world.115

Muhammad al-Budayri al-Dimyati {B} [d.1140/1728]

Known as Ibn al-Mayyit, he hailed from a sharifian family whose ancestor came to Dimyat from Jerusalem. After his early education in Dimyat, he moved to al-Azhar. During 1091-92 (1680-81) he joined Ibrahim al-Kurani for a year, became closely identified with him and studied under him works on tasawwuf, hadith and fiqh. While he regarded himself principally as a Naqshbandi (he later shifted this affiliation to a Sirhindi silsila specifically), he had affiliations to several tariqas. He travelled between Dimyat, Cairo, Medina and Jerusalem, and became acquainted in each place with the most

illustrious circles of ulama of the time. In Cairo he was closely associated with the Bakris, and in Damascus with the circles of 'Abd al- Ghani al-Nabulusi and his disciples.116 He was highly regarded as a hadith scholar and sufi teacher. Mustafa al-Bakri studied hadith with him in Jerusalem and was initiated into the Naqshbandiyya by him. Al-Budayri was also the main teacher of Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi.117

'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi {A/E} [d.1143/1731]

Damascene sufi, hadith scholar,118 traveller and poet. His prolific writings are underpinned by veneration of Ibn 'Arabi and defence of his metaphysical system, and dominated by the concept of wahdat al-wujud: he considered himself Ibn 'Arabi’s spiritual son and disciple, and was his devotee and interpreter. He taught at the Umayyad Mosque and the Salimiyya madrasa at Ibn 'Arabi’s mosque-tomb complex (from AH 1115), but his self-appointed role was as defender of sufism and its controversial practices and doctrines. His stance provoked serious criticism and attack, especially because he taught the works of Ibn 'Arabi to common folk as well as to the elite.119 Affiliated to the Qadiri and Naqshbandi tariqas, he seems to have had limited participation and interest in tariqa sufism, and to have set more store by his own uwaysi or ‘Theo-didactic’ sufism, including especially his link to Ibn 'Arabi as uwaysi master (although he himself had close disciples, this was not in a tariqa framework).120

By the age of twelve, 'Abd al-Ghani had already received ijazas (including in Ibn 'Arabi’s works) in the company of his father Isma'il from Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi among other high-ranking ulama such as 'Abd al-Baqi Taqi al-Din b. Mawahib al-Hanbali (the Hanbali mufti of Damascus). His father, who was his first teacher and who died when he was twelve, appears as the prior link in several of 'Abd al-Ghani’s ijazas in hadith collections and the writings of Ibn 'Arabi: he had in fact been given the ijazas of his father en masse as a child.121 It is noteworthy that one of his last compositions was a commentary on the salawat of Ibn 'Arabi.122

Tahir b. Ibrahim b. Hasan al-Kurani [Muhammad Abu’l-Tahir] {D} [d.1145/1733]

Born in Medina in 1081, he studied with his father Ibrahim al- KUrani and other great shaykhs, including his father’s colleagues and associates like al-Hasan b. 'All al-'Ujaymi al-Makki and 'Abdallah b. Salim al-Basri.123 He took his father’s position as a teacher in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and rose to assume the position of Shafi'i mufti in the city for a time. On his father’s death he succeeded him as supreme shaykh of the Shattariyya (but the leading position of the ulama of Medina fell to one of Ibrahim’s students). His works include Ikhtisdr sharh shawdhid al-Ridd al-Baghdddif2 The students who attended his many lessons (through which his father’s teachings continued to be disseminated) included the Indian hadith scholar Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi (d.1163/1749),125 who taught hadith in Medina for twenty-five years to numerous students, among them Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab. They included also the great Indian Naqshbandi reformist Shah Wali Allah (d.1177/1763). The latter’s stay in Medina during 1731-32 in Tahir’s circle had a lasting impact on his intellectual orientations: according to Shah Wali Allah’s son, it amounted to a turning point in his career.126 Al-Kattani observes that his own transmission from Tahir proceeds via Muhammad Sa'id Sunbul, among others.127

Mustafa Kamal al-Din al-Bakri {A/B/C} [d.1162/1749]

Born in Damascus and reputed to have revived the Khalwati tariqa in the Arab mashriq (east) of the 18th century. He was the most celebrated and important disciple of 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi: he read several of Ibn 'Arabi’s works under him during his sojourns in Damascus and his own writings were to be profoundly influenced by Ibn 'Arabi’s thought. He studied hadith under Muhammad al- Budayri al-Dimyati in Jerusalem and under 'Abdallah b. Salim al- Basri: he was also a student of al-Kurani’s son Ilyas (d.1138), who had moved to Damascus.128 He was initiated into the Naqshbandiyya, Qadiriyya and Khalwatiyya, in the latter case by a shaykh who followed the way of the Qarabashiyya branch. Al-Bakri became his sole

successor on the shaykh’s death in 1121/1709, having earlier been granted a general permission to initiate and appoint khalifas. He went on to gain many disciples especially in Cairo and Jerusalem: his most important khalifa was Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi. Al-Bakri was a prolific writer (mainly on suluk and adab, the sufi path, its culture and manners, but he also composed awrad {pl. of wird}, of which the best known is Wird al-sahar). Like his teacher al-Nabulusi (on whom he wrote a reverential biography, and from whom he records that he received a general ijaza for all his lines of transmission and a specific one for his writings), he laid claim to a direct relation to Ibn 'Arabi, and direct authorisation by him. Like him, he too made several extensive journeys, moving especially between Jerusalem and Cairo, where he died.129

Muhammad Sa'id (b. Muhammad) Sunbul [al-Makki]

{D} [d.1175/1762]

Prominent Meccan scholar and Shafi'i mufti: he transmitted from Tahir b. Ibrahim al-Kurani among others, and to his son Muhammad Tahir Sunbul, among others.130

Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi/al-Hifni131{B/C} [d.1181/1767] An important disciple and associate of Mustafa al-Bakri involved in renewing activity of the Khalwatiyya in Egypt. He was born in AH 1100 in Hifna, a village in the Bilbis district of Egypt, and studied from a young age in Cairo. On receiving ijazas from his teachers there (the best known including Muhammad al-Budayri al-Dimyati, through whom he received his Naqshbandi affiliation), in 1122 he established lessons in logic, fiqh, usul, hadith and kalam attended by many students. He produced many works and became known for his karamat. He had been introduced to the sufi way by a certain Ahmad al-Shadhili al-Maghribi (known as al-Maqqari): he then met Mustafa al-Bakri in 1133, who initiated him into the Qarabashiyya- Khalwatiyya and trained him in its path. Al-Bakri eventually placed him above all his khalifas, and he became the only one he had invested with absolute authority who also survived him. Al-Hifnawi

is reputed to have succeeded in reviving the tarTqa across Egypt, attracting large numbers of people and introducing it to the community of ulama at al-Azhar. Among his important khalTfas/disciples were Mahmud al-Kurdi, 'Abdallah al-Sharqawi (Shaykh al-Azhar) and Ahmad al-Dardayr, who is perhaps the best known.132

Muhammad al-Tafilati al-Khalwati {B} [d.1191/1777]

Brockelmann gives his full name as Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-Tayyib al-Tafilati al-Maghribi,133 al-Muradi as Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Tayyib al-Maliki al-Hanafi al-Tafilati al-Maghribi.134 The narrative here is based on al-Muradi’s biographical entry.135 Born in Morocco, al-Tafilati first studied under his father, a man of moderate learning. Before reaching puberty he taught students al-SanusTya, which he had studied under Shaykh Muhammad al- Sa'di al-Jaza’iri. He travelled to Tripoli and from there to al-Azhar in Cairo. He remained in Egypt for two years and eight months and studied under Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi, among many others. While travelling by sea to visit his mother he was captured and taken to Malta, where he was held for over two years. He engaged there in a lengthy debate on matters of Muslim belief with Christian monks, among them one with some knowledge of Arabic. This monk eventually gave up the debate defeated, astonished that such knowledge could be held by someone young enough to be his grandson. Muhammad’s renown spread in Malta among monks and notables, and he was treated respectfully wherever he went. A vision he had eventually sealed his release and he made for Egypt, travelling from there to the Hijaz several times. He went to Yemen, Oman, Basra, Aleppo, Damascus and Anatolia (al-Rum) and settled in Jerusalem, where he was appointed Hanafi mufti. His works number some eighty: in addition to his commentary on the prayer (al-Durr al-aghld hi-sharh al-Dawr al-a’la),136 Brockelmann mentions his Husn al-istiqsa’ hi-md sahha wa thahata fTTmasjid al- aqsd.137 Al-Tafilati appears in the chains of authorities of various later Damascene scholars.138

Mahmud al-Kurdi {C} [d.1195/1780-81]

A khalifa of Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi and known also as al-Khalwati, he was born in Kurdistan. He adopted a life of pious devotion, asceticism and isolation early on, and is reputed to have met frequently with Khidr and to have received the contents of al- Ghazali’s Ihya’ 'ulum al-din without reading. When aged eighteen he saw al-Hifnawi in a dream, and was told that this was his shaykh. He travelled to Egypt to find him, was initiated by him into the Khalwati way and eventually granted an ijaza to bring people into it: al-Hifnawi would send those who wished to enter the way to him. He also developed a close relationship with Mustafa al-Bakri, whom he had met when the latter came to Cairo. He was celebrated for his baraka and the fact that he frequently saw the Prophet in dreams. After al-Hifnawi’s death al-Kurdi reportedly brought many people into the way and appointed khalifas himself. He produced a treatise as the result of a dream in which he saw Ibn 'Arabi give him a key and tell him to ‘open the vault’ (there is a commentary by his khalifa and Shaykh al-Azhar 'Abdallah al-Sharqawi on this). He is also author of al-Suluk li-abna’ al-muluk.139

Muhammad Kamal al-Din al-Bakri, AbU’l-FutUh

{A} [d.1196/1781-82]

Born in Jerusalem in 1143/1731, he was shaykh to the historian al- Muradi (author of the biographical work Silk al-durar)}40 Among others, he studied under Muhammad b. Salim al-Hifnawi and Muhammad, a third son of Ibrahim al-Kurani. He took the Khalwati tariqa from his father Mustafa al-Bakri. His works include a biography of his father, Kashf al-zunun fi asma’ al-shuruh waT mutun, a commentary on al-Salat al-Mashishiya and a diwan.141

Muhammad b. MahmUd b. 'Ali al-DamUni {C} [d. after 1199/1785] In full Muhammad b. Mahmud b. 'Ali al-Damuni al-Shafi'i al- Khalwati al-Naqshbandi al-Jalwati, from al-Damun, Palestine: author in 1199/1785 of Hikam.142 He entitled his commentary on the prayer al-Durr al-thamin li-sharh Dawr al-a'la li-sidi Muhyi al-Din.

He describes how he was asked by his close and saintly companion Husayn al-Hisni143 to elaborate for him the contents of the prayer. Having consulted and sought a guiding sign, he spent a few days in the hope of receiving divine permission to proceed, seeking this through the mediation of Ibn 'Arabi, who might reveal the prayer’s secrets to him as its author. Once permission was received, he began. Al-Damuni mentions Ibn 'Arabi first among his teachers ‘whose insight is elixir’. Having detailed his chain of authorities, he adds that he has ‘another, more elevated, chain - for it is from me to [Ibn 'Arabi]: it was he who gave me to drink of his pure wine, quenching my thirst in the world of similitudes, then guided me to him. It was he who brought me to live in Damascus, and gave me permission to guide elite and common folk alike. Thanks be to God for these momentous blessings, and for the greatest blessing of all: my attachment (intisabi) to this imam.’144 His father Mahmud b. 'Ali al-Damuni authored a defence of al-Nabulusi, al-Shihab al-qabasi fi radd man radda ’ala ’Abd al-Ghani.145

13th century AH

Ibrahim b. Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi

{E} [d.1222/1807]

Ibrahim’s father Isma'il (b.1085) was the only one of'Abd al-Ghani’s sons to survive him. Born in AH 1138, Ibrahim became an outstanding ’alim of his time.146 A prominent member of Damascene society, he inherited his father’s teaching post at the Salimiyya mosque,147 and became shaykh qurra’ (leading Qur’an reciter).148 The confluence of several chains of transmission relating to al-Futuhat al- Makkiya through him is noteworthy.149

Muhammad al-Jundi al-'Abbasi al-Ma'arri {A} [d.1264/1848]

He served as Hanafi mufti in his place of origin, Ma'arrat Nu'man, Syria. Initially a follower of Shaykh Khalid al-Naqshbandi, who was responsible for spreading the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya widely

among Arabs, Kurds and Turks during the early 19th century, it is most likely that al-Jundi did not maintain contact with his successors after Shaykh Khalid’s death in 1242/1827.150

Muhammad Amin al-Jundi al-'Abbasi al-Ma'arri

{A} [d.1285/1868]

Born in Ma'arrat Nu'man, Syria in AH 1229, he was educated by his father Muhammad al-Jundi,151 from whom he took the Khalwati way. In Aleppo he studied hadith under Mahmud Efendi al-Mar'ashi and was a student of the mufti 'Abd al-Rahman al-Mudarris. Returning to Ma'arrat Nu'man, he served there as qadT and then as mufti following his father’s death in 1264, until 1266 when he was summoned to Damascus to serve as Arab scribe of the Turkish army in Syria. In 1277 he was appointed Hanafi mufti of Damascus, and remained in this post until his removal in 1284. Thereafter he was appointed to the Ottoman state shura (council) in the capital, and served on several important official missions. His writings (some in Arabic, others Ottoman Turkish) include a work on the excellence of Syria, and a diwan. His Ottoman Turkish commentary on the Dawr was written in 1280, while he was still Hanafi mufti of Damascus. A reformist 'alim, he was proficient in the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi as well as the new sciences of the era. When the Amir 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri settled in Damascus, al-Jundi became one of his close associates: he also participated with him in rescuing Christians, and wrote poetry in praise of him.152

Muhammad Tahir Sunbul [al-Makki] {D}

Son of Muhammad Sa'id Sunbul, prominent Hijazi scholar who transmitted from his father and transmitted to, among others, Yasin b. 'Abdallah al-Mirghani.153

Muhammad Yasin b. 'Abdallah b. Ibrahim al-Mirghani {D}

'Abdallah b. Ibrahim al-Mirghani al-Makki al-Ta’ifi the father (d.1207/1793), known as al-Mahjub, was a prominent sufi and influential ralim. Born in Mecca into a sharifian family, he attached

himself to Yusuf al-Mahdali (who was known as al-quth or the axis of his time) and became an uwaysi sufi after the latter’s death, receiving learning directly from the Prophet. While stories of his karamat are plentiful, he also left a substantial number of works.154 He has been counted as part of the late 18th century reformist network, of which the Haramayn was the crossroads (his students included Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi, for example). The Mirghani family appears to have been politically active: in 1166/1752-53, a time of political upheaval in Mecca, 'Abdallah had moved to Ta’if apparently as a result of his opposition to the Zaydi sharifs.155

One of 'Abdallah’s sons became the father ofMuhammad 'Uthman al-Mirghani (d.1852). Born a year after his grandfather 'Abdallah’s death, 'Uthman became one of the most important students of the major reformist Moroccan sufi teacher Ahmad b. Idris (d.1837), and founder of the Khatmiyya (or Mirghaniyya) order.156 'Uthman’s paternal uncle Muhammad Yasin became his guardian upon the death of his father when 'Uthman was ten years old. Himself childless, Muhammad Yasin took on his nephew’s education. Muhammad Yasin later taught hadith to another student of Ahmad b. Idris, the Yemeni al-Hasan 'Akish, when he came to Mecca. He was also a teacher of Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi (d.1276/1859), Ahmad b. Idris’ closest student and founder of the Sanusiyya tariqa, when he arrived in Mecca in 1241/1826. Muhammad Yasin wrote at least one work, ’Unwan ahl al-inaya ’ala kashfghawamid al-nuqaya, a gloss on al-Suyuti’s Itmam al-diraya.157

Abu’l-Mahasin Muhammad b. Khalil (al-Mashishi) al-Qawuqji al-Tarabulusi al-Shami al-Hanafi {D} [d.1305/1888]

Possibly also known as Shams al-Din, he was born in 1225/1810, and was a hadith scholar, sufi and faqth. He has been described as ،musnid hilad al-Sham’ (،the most important hadith transmitter of Greater Syria’) of his time, and his chains occupied a pivotal role well into the 20th century in most of Egypt, Syria and the Hijaz. He transmitted from many scholars, including Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi, al-Burhan al-Bajuri and Yasin b. 'Abdallah al-Mirghani (he wrote

a commentary on al-Mu’jam al-wajTz by 'Abdallah al-Mirghani).158 A prolific writer, he produced some one hundred works, including many on hadith.159 His al-Tawr al-aghla ’ala al-wird al-musamma biT Dawr al-a’la was printed in Damascus, AH 1301.160 Brocklemann also lists a commentary on Hizb al-bahr entitled Khulasat al-zahr ’ala Hizb al-bahr.161 Noteworthy, too, is his Shawariq al-anwar al-jalTya fi asanTd al-sada al-ShadhilTya, for al-Qawuqji was a Shadhili shaykh and founder of a sub-order of the tarTqa which seems to have taken his name.162 He died in Mecca.163

Chains and authorisations

The chains elucidated here are embedded in a vast web of interconnections among members of the ahl al-’ilm (community of scholars) spanning the centuries of Islamic history, a network of personal contacts forming a highway along which authority, learning and baraka have travelled from the past into the future while crisscrossing the lands of Islam. Individuals sought out ijazas through personal contact with shaykhs who had themselves acquired ijazas through personal contact: the ijaza was thus in part ،an emblem of a bond to a shaykh’.164 While it served the forging of connections to powerful men of the learned elite (those older and more knowledgeable), it also made possible the appropriation of some of their authority, and that of others in the associated chains of transmission. Finally, it acted as a vehicle for the acquisition and transmission of baraka, of which ’ilm or learning was one important form. The conferring of an ijaza thus admitted an individual to a particular scholarly and spiritual genealogy, and this was just as important as the precise identity and content of the work(s) transmitted (if indeed not more important in some circumstances). In general terms, the mujTz (granter of an authorisation) was the key to insertion into chains of transmission of ’ilm so highly valued that the resulting pedigrees rivalled blood-lines in importance.165 This importance is reflected in the careful attention given to recording

and incorporating chains of transmission of texts, as in the case of the Dawr.

Turning to the plausibility of individual links within our chains and the ijazas that underpin them, those links identified appear generally compatible with the chronology, known associations (especially relations with shaykhs and teachers) and geographical movements of the figures in question. Of particular interest are nine links underpinned by ijazas conferred on young children who typically had not yet reached the age of reason.166 In some cases, as set out above, we have reports of these children receiving ijazas from the authorities in question in the company of their fathers (and in one case, of the father soliciting ijazas specifically for them, another common practice).167 Perhaps a ‘child ijaza’ stands up more successfully to scrutiny when the text concerned is a small prayer which children, accustomed to memorising Qur’an from an early age, could readily have committed to heart at the instigation of fathers eager to place them under its protection, and to acquire for them the potential benefits associated with the accompanying ijaza and chain.168

Insertion of an individual into one of our chains through an ijaza conferred on them the haraka of the line of transmission, intensifying the haraka of the prayer itself. It also brought them into ultimate contact with the prayer’s author. It was not just a case of acquiring, committing to memory and inscribing on the heart the prayer text (itself undoubtedly haraka bearing and encompassing the ‘perfect and complete’ Word, as we shall see below), something which could be done from a written copy. Initiation into the prayer was thus as much a case of participating in the spiritual lineage anchored in its saintly author and transmitted through a living shaykh.169 Moreover, it is likely that even into the modern period prayers like the Dawr were mainly experienced as oral performances rather than written texts, further underlining the importance of personal contact.

Regarding certain specifics of our chains, we might ask whether any of our figures appear in chains of transmission associated with other works by Ibn 'Arabi. Yahya lists a number of such chains which can be compared with the six examined here.170 {E} from Ibn 'Arabi

through to al-Suyuti is repeated in four chains, viz. 2a (attached to RG 13a, Akhbar mashayikh al-Maghrib; RG 30, ’Anqa’ mughrib; RG 38, al-Arba’un hadith; RG 134, al-Fath al-FasT; RG 135, al-Futuhat al-MakkTya; RG 150, Fusus al-hikam; RG 336, al-Kashf al-kullT and RG 725, al-TafsTr) and 6a, 6e and 6f (all three attached to RG 135, al- Futuhat al-MakkTya ).171 In like fashion, {F} from Ibn 'Arabi through to al-Qushashi is repeated in chain 6d attached to al-Futuhat al-MakkTya (with the link between Zakariya al-Ansari and al-Jabarti al-Zabidi missing, viz., Abu’l-Fath Muhammad b. al-Qaymani al-Mara'i) and from Ibn 'Arabi through to al-Sha'rani in chain 6c attached to al- Futuhat al-MakkTya with the same omission. The missing chain of authorities linking al-Qushashi back to Ibn 'Arabi in {B} and {C} as elaborated in {F} is thus mostly corroborated by Yahya’s 6d i.172 Chains 6a, b, c, d, e and f (all attached to al-Futuhat al-MakkTya) all culminate in the grandson of 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, Ibrahim b. Isma'il (see {E}). Finally, several well-known links appearing in our chains reappear in those listed in Yahya: these include Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi ~ Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi ({A}; Yahya’s 6b and 6d ii) and Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani ~ Zakariya al-Ansari ({A}; Yahya’s 6d).

Referred to briefly above, al-Qushashi’s chain of transmission from Ibn 'Arabi stands out for the important place it occupies on our chain map, for his status, and for his association with the prayer in a further copy, where its attribution to Ibn 'Arabi and a description of its properties are given on his authority.173 Al-Tafilati {B} and al- Damuni {C} both refer to this chain without elaboration using the phrase bi-sanadihi al-muttasil ila [Ibn Arabi] (‘through his chain of transmission going back to [Ibn 'Arabi]’), implying perhaps that it was very well known at the time.174 (It is noteworthy that the silsila of the khirqa akbarTya as given by al-Murtada al-Zabidi also connects al-Qushashi to Ibn 'Arabi without elaboration.)175 {F} provides an indication of one chain from Ibn 'Arabi to al-Qushashi, while {D} provides an alternative through Zayn al-'Abidin al-Tabari al-Makki.176

More than five generations after Ibn 'Arabi’s death, key geographical foci in the routes of the prayer mapped through the chains are the Hijaz (Mecca and Medina); Syria (Damascus); Egypt (Cairo);

and Palestine (Jerusalem). Two 17th-18th century figures who served

as a nexus between different geographical centres through their travels are Muhammad al-Budayri al-Dimyati {B} and Mustafa al-Bakri {A/B/C}.177 Al-Budayri connected the influential Hijazi centre178

with Cairo (where al-Hifnawi studied under him), and with Jerusalem (where Mustafa al-Bakri studied under him). Al-Bakri, too, connected Damascus and Cairo (as well as Jerusalem), but without the direct Hijazi link:179 born in 1688 CE, al-Bakri’s link to Ibrahim al-Kurani (d.1689 CE) in {C} should most likely be ruled out in favour of an omission, probably of the latter’s son Ilyas, with whom al-Bakri studied in Damascus. It is noteworthy that al-Tafilati apparently first acquired the prayer from al-Hifnawi during his early sojourn in Cairo, making it possible for him to transmit it during his extensive travels thereafter. Such figures often formed part of very extensive scholar networks, through which the prayer may well have been transmitted into more distant regions of the Islamic world.180

A strong Naqshbandi or Khalwati association is evident among the figures in our chains from the 17th century,181 but for many of

them multiple tariqa affiliations were the norm, especially prior to the 18th or 19th centuries. The prayer was thus used alongside litur

gical and devotional prescriptions associated with particular tariqa affiliations, whether multiple or single. Prayers attributed to the eponymous founders of tariqas have found a natural constituency among those affiliated to these tariqas, where they have also been routinely recited in collective rituals. Indeed the emergence of an independent tariqa from an existing one has often been accompanied by the composition of new ahzdh (pl. of hizh).182 Although not associated exclusively with any particular tariqa, the saintly stature of the Dawr’s author appears to have secured its circulation and use within many different tariqas.

Windows onto Islamic culture and thought

How can the chains discussed here, which encompass several major figures of Islamic scholarship and tasawwuf, illuminate trends in historical Islamic culture and thought? Alongside those who may be described as non-reformist (and who appear to have been uncompromising in their defence of sufi culture, including its more controversial elements), it is noteworthy that these figures also feature ulama of reformist orientation, those critical of aspects of the prevailing religious-cultural milieu and the existing order. Some sought to contain sufi ‘excesses’ by reasserting the interdependence of spheres of tasawwuf and shari'a, and addressed other aspects of the dominant culture by emphasising the primacy of the Qur’an and Sunna as the ultimate framework for religious understanding and the source of shari'a. Such ulama often expressed appreciation for the reformist legacy of Ibn Taymiya (d.1328), and their positions evince salafi tendencies, whether in matters of kaldm or fiqh, attitudes towards madhhab affiliation, or the emphasis of hadith scholarship as a means to reassert scriptural primacy, for example. Focusing on such figures in the chains serves to highlight the complex, overlapping identities of historical Islamic culture, which could contemplate a profound commitment to sufism (including the embrace of wahdat al-wujud) alongside a salafi-inspired reformist outlook (the latter dimension being at times underreported in the context of Ibn 'Arabi studies). While its content presents no specific doctrinal problem, the use and transmission of the prayer by such figures nonetheless furnishes evidence of their conviction of its author’s importance (and saintly status), underlining an inclusive commitment to his legacy upheld in tandem with salafi tendencies.

In the 9th/15th century, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani’s association with the prayer is noteworthy in the light of his ambivalence towards Ibn 'Arabi, and his favourable view of Ibn Taymiya.183 His reservations concerning the prayer’s author, such as they were, did not invalidate for him the baraka that flowed from use of it, received through a chain

Windows onto Islamic culture and thought

directly from its author. In the 10th/16th century 'Abd al-Wahhab al- Sha'rani’s association with the prayer is noteworthy when viewed not in terms of his capacity as an apologist for Ibn 'Arabi, but as the first in a long line of late reformist or salafi-oriented sufi ulama, followed in the 11th-12th/17th-18th centuries by the highly influential al-Qushashi (heir to al-Sha'rani’s legacy) and especially his student Ibrahim al-Kurani, and the latter’s students of the next generation. As in al-Kurani’s case, a number of these later sufi-salafi ulama reinterpreted wahdat al-wujud, in its capacity as the most controversial aspect of sufi doctrine, to make it conform to Islamic orthodoxy. At the same time, they evinced a rising interest in Ibn Taymiya’s intellectual legacy (following its virtual eclipse by the mid-14th century with the rise to dominance of tasawwuf allied with Ash'ari theology),184 and thus perhaps contributed to a re-emergence or revival of the salafi school from the late 17th century.185 In the 13th/19th century, the two al-Jundis, father and son, can finally be mentioned. The former was a follower of the shari'a-minded reformist Naqshbandi Shaykh Khalid, who had called for returning to the Qur’an and Sunna, yet read the works of Ibn 'Arabi and felt a spiritual affinity with him.186 Muhammad Amin al-Jundi the son was a reformist 'alim in his own right and also a close associate of the Amir 'Abd al-Qadir (whose own reformist tendencies and shari'a-minded, scripturalist sufism combined with a devotion to Ibn 'Arabi have been widely noted, and whose ulama followers launched the Salafi reform movement in Syria).187

The blending of sufi and salafi thought is thus illustrated by several of the figures associated with the prayer, both in pre-modern and modern periods. Within this blend, which itself became increasingly significant for later reformists or ‘revivalists’, it was salafism that came to prominence under the conditions and pressures of modernity.188 Were it possible to map the continuation of the chains discussed here across the 20th century, it would be of interest to ascertain the orientations of new links in terms of this framework, and in particular to discover whether any who avail themselves of the prayer’s haraka can be counted as contemporary salafis, seeking

inspiration in Ibn Taymiya’s legacy.189 A defining aspect in the selfappropriation of the ‘salafi’ banner in the modern world has of course been a powerful anti-sufism, in which Ibn 'Arabi’s legacy looms large. This is not the whole story, however. Through the inclusive tendencies of some of the most eminent historical figures of ’ilm and tasawwuf associated with it, this small prayer of Ibn 'Arabi points up with striking clarity the anomalous character of the uncompro

mising salafi-sufi dichotomy perpetuated in some contemporary Muslim circles.

Notes

1. The Turkish collections offer what is arguably the most important manuscript base for the works of Ibn 'Arabi in general. We have supplemented the specific Suley- maniye collection, the largest by far, with copies from the following Turkish libraries: University of Istanbul Library Collection, Ulu Cami (Bursa), Genel (Inebey, Bursa), Beyazid (Istanbul), Mevlana Museum (Konya), Ankara Milli. Relating to the Suleymaniye collection, the following errors in Osman Yahya, Histoire et classification de l’oeuvre d’Ibn 'Arabi (Damascus, 1964), 1, p. 294 (RG 244) can be pointed out. Dugumlu Baba 4146 and 4137 and Esad Efendi 4036 are unrecognisable numbers; Dugumlu Baba 194, Haci Mahmud Efendi 461 and Esad Efendi 1330 are irrelevant. §ehid Ali Paga 2796 is a fragment of the Awrad that sometimes appears described as Istighatha but here is described as Hizb al-Shaykh al-Akbar. Note also that Ulu Cami 954 (Bursa) is irrelevant.
2. All of the copies surveyed here are thus relatively late. It may well be that earlier copies can be uncovered: Yahya, Histoire, 1, p.294 lists those in Damascus, Cairo, Rabat, Paris and Berlin not examined in this study and apparently undated.
3. For details of four of these which have chains of transmission attached and a fifth without, see Appendix. The remaining two, both in Ottoman Turkish, are as follows: (i) 'Ali al-Wasfi b. Husayn al-Husayni (Haci Mahmud Efendi 4217, detailed commentary on individual words and phrases fols. 1a-94a; the text of the prayer is repeated with further comments verse by verse fols. 99b-110a), dated AH 1261. (ii) Anonymous (Haci Regid Bey 104), undated, 20 fols. For additional copies of some of the commentaries referred to here and further commentaries on the prayer held in collections outside of Turkey, see Yahya, Histoire, 1, pp. 294-295.

It has been suggested that the first sustained systematic commentary on a sufi prayer is that composed by Da’ud Ibn Bakhila (d.733/1332) on al-Shadhili’s Hizb al- bahr. See Richard J. A. McGregor, Sanctity and Sainthood in Medieval Egypt: The Wafa’ Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn 'Arabi (Albany, NY, 2004), pp. 34-35.

4. Other examples include Haci Mahmud Efendi 4141 (dated AH 1275), Yazma Bagiglar 2180 (undated and followed by a wird attributed to Abu Bakr b. 'Abdallah al-'Aydarus and an untitled anonymous supplication), A 5705 [University of Istanbul Library] (dated 1793 CE and followed by a prayer by Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili and a salawat attributed to Ibn 'Arabi: see below), A 4344 [University of Istanbul Library] (dated AH 1318, each line surrounded by a gold-leaf border, with only eight lines per page) and Nafiz Paga 702, on which see note 6 below.
5. For example, I. Note that Ankara Milli 489 binds together the Dawr (as part of an undated hand) with works by Ibn 'Arabi (e.g. R. al-Alif, Mashahid al-asrar, K. alBa’) in several hands.
6. Examples include G, K (Salawat kubra), M, §azeli 106 (Istighatha, Awrad, Salawat kubra), Esad Efendi 1330 (Salat sharifa), A 5705 [University of Istanbul

Library] (Salawat sharifa), Nafiz Pa§a 702 (an undated compilation of the Awrad and the Dawr), Genel 43 (Awrad dated AH 1179, copy made in Damascus) and Arif-Murad 58 (printed, undated, encompassing the Awrad). §azeli 106 encompasses the date AH 1139. Esad Efendi 1330 is dated from AH 1194 to 1219.

7. For example, M. Note that Esad Efendi 1330 includes prayers by al-NawawI, al-Shadhili and Ibn Mashlsh. Esad Efendi 267 (undated) encompasses a treatise on the names of the Prophet and one on the names of his Companions who were at Badr, plus a commentary on a prayer by al-Shadhili. §azeli 106 encompasses prayers by al- Shadhili, al-NawawI, Najm al-Din Kubra, al-Shafi'i, 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Ma'ruf Karkhi, Imam 'Ali and supplications of the prophets. L encompasses among others the protective prayer of Abu Madyan Shu'ayb. Genel 43 has Hizb al-nasr by al- Shadhili and others; Arif-Murad adds Hizb al-bahr of al-Shadhili, al-Salawat al- munjiya and other short prayers.
8. §azeli 157 (undated), for example, includes prayers and prayer-commentaries, poems and works by Isma' il Hakki Bursevi (including a commentary on the prayer of Ibn Mashish), Sari 'Abdullah Efendi (including Maslak al-'ushshaq) and Nawa'i Efendi (parts of a commentary on the Fusas al-hikam).
9. Examples are J, F, and Haci Mahmud Efendi 6287 (possibly dated AH 1252), the latter by Muhammad 'Abd al-Jalil al-Mawsili al-Jili. See also Beyazid 7880 (undated), Esad Efendi 3674 (possibly dated AH 1203 or before).
10. The copying of texts was often done out of a desire for benefit or baraka, out of love for the author, or as a means whereby the copyist endeavoured to bring themselves into the living or dead author’s presence. For examples relating to devotees of Ibn 'Arabi who copied his works after his death, see Michael Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, 1190-1350 (Cambridge, 1994), p. 144. Some believed that copying had a talismanic power bringing spiritual benefit: Chamberlain cites the example of Ibn al-Jawzi, who requested that after his death all the pens with which he had copied hadith should be gathered and heated in water, which was to be used to wash his corpse. Comparing 'ilm with prayer, some writers urged copyists to carry out their work only when in a state of ritual ablution. See ibid. p. 136.
11. On the general notion of sanad, literally a support or stay, applied to the chain of authorities that validates transmitted knowledge, see ‘Sanad’, EI2, Supplement 910, p. 702 (for the related term isnad [pl. asanid] applied in the context of hadith transmission, see ‘Isnad’, EI2, 4, p. 207). In setting out their chains of transmission, some of our sources explicitly use the term sanad. Within the chains, some use the verbs akhadha 'an and rawa 'an (to take/transmit from) and others ajaza (to grant permission, reflecting the fact that an ijaza underpins each link in a chain).
12. A seventh chain attached to the prayer (and the Awrad) is recorded in Yahya, Histoire, 2, p. 540 (no. 1, attached to RG 16a) and discussed in Ibn 'Arabi, The Seven Days of the Heart, pp. 174-175. While we do not discuss this chain here we would point to the fact that the transmitter from Ibn 'Arabi died in AH 727: this suggests a possible ‘child ijaza’ (on which see below). G, apparently its original source, has been the

basis of a number of printings (Haci Mahmud Efendi 4179, Dugumlu Baba 490 and 489, for example).

13. Biographical notes provided here vary in length depending on how well known a figure is, the availability of information and the accessibility of sources: detail is provided when this is of interest or relevance to our focus and/or is not readily accessible to the non-Arabist.
14. For a fascinating glimpse of the cultural and social context within which the significance and operation of the ijaza can be properly understood (as played out in late 12th to mid-14th century CE Damascus), see Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice, ch. 4. The author points to the prestige attached to scholarly pedigrees in the form of chains of transmission, and the concern of the learned elite to emphasise them as an integral part of their strategies of social survival, advanced through cultural practices associated with knowledge. The same emphasis is reflected in the production of the mashyakha or mu'jam literature, a genre listing the shaykhs an individual had studied with or heard hadith from.

Of our chains, {A} and {E} are associated with an ijaza in which the transmitter grants permission to a specific individual to read the prayer, thus perpetuating the chain. Ijazas addressed to a specific individual arise also in Haci Mahmud Efendi 4141 (fol. 9a, dated AH 1275) and in Esad Efendi 1442 (fol. 52a, undated). In the latter case it encompasses the Awrad as well as the Dawr and is granted to Muhammad Rafi' Efendi by Muhammad 'Umar b. 'Abd al-Jalil al-Baghdadi, who describes himself as khadim ni ’al al-sada al- Qadiriya, and has added the Dawr and ijaza at the end of this copy of K. al-Rashahat al-anwariyafi sharh al-awrad al-akbariya: on the margin of the Awrad, the latter is by Hasan al-Kurdi. According to Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen litteratur (Leiden, 1943-49) [hereafter ‘GAL’], II, pp. 453, 473, Hasan b. Musa al-Kurdi al-Qadiri al-Bani al-'Alawani al-Jilani al-Kurani al-Naqshbandi (d.1148/1735) also wrote Risalafi qawl al-Shaykh al-Akbarwa qawlal-Jili and Risalafi anna ’ilm Allah muhit bi-nafsihi am la. Yahya, Histoire, 1, p. 289 records him as author of a commentary on Ibn 'Arabi’s K. al-Hikam (RG 233).

15. See Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Maqqari, Nafh al-tib min ghusn al-Andalus al- ratib, ed. Ihsan Abbas (Beirut, 1968), II, p. 170. For further biographical references, his inclusion in sama’s and a discussion of the possible identity of his mother (Khatun Maryam bint Muhammad, known as Umm al-Jawban: Sa'd al-Din was apparently also known as al-Jawban and 'Ala’ al-Din), see Claude Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Cambridge, 1993), pp.265 n. 118, 86-87, 228; Stephen Hirtenstein, The UnlimitedMercifier (Oxford, 1999), pp. 261-62 n.30; also p. 182.
16. See Ahmad b. 'Abd al-Rahim b. al-Husayn Ibn al-'Iraqi, al-Dhayl ’alaal-’ibar fi khabar man ’abar, ed. Salih al-Mahdi 'Abbas (Beirut, 1989), 2, p. 527. On him see also 'Abd al-Hayy b. 'Abd al-Kabir al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis wa’l-athbat wa mu’ jam al-ma’ajim wa’l-mashyakhat wa’l-musalsalat, ed. Ihsan 'Abbas (Beirut, 1982-86), p.431; Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi, Dhayl ta’rikh al-Islam, ed. Mazin b. Salim al-Bawazir (Riyadh, 1998), p.202.

The Maqam Ibrahim is the (site of) the miraculous stone on which Ibrahim is

believed to have stood while building the Ka'ba, and which bears his footprints. Through the revelation of Q 2: 125, the Prophet established the site as a place of prayer (Ibrahim and Isma'il had reportedly prayed there when they had completed their work of building). In early Islam, the stone was encased in a wooden box and raised on a platform, usually locked inside the Ka'ba. Today it stands in a glass encasement about twenty cubits from the Ka'ba, and pilgrims perform two prayer cycles as close as possible behind it. See ‘Maqam Ibrahim’, EI2, 6, pp. 104-107.

17. On the family see Muhammad b. Fadlallah (Amin) al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al- atharfi a'ydn al-qarn al-hddi 'ashar (Cairo, 1284), 2, pp. 461-462.
18. See Ahmad Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kdmina fi a'ydn al-mi’a al- thdmina, ed. Muhammad Sayyid Jadd al-Haqq (Cairo, 1966), 1, p. 56.
19. At times alongside his brother, al-Safi al-Tabari: for these examples, see Ibn al-'Iraqi, al-Dhayl 'ald al-'ibar, index. See also al-'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kdmina, 1, p. 56.

It may appear that Radi al-Din was born too late to have transmitted directly from Ibn 'Arabi (who died when he was four years old), but the possibility of such a link in the form of a ‘child ijdza’ (perhaps through the agency of his father or another male relative) cannot be ruled out: on such ijdzas see below.

We must mention the possibility that instead of the figure identified here, Radi al-Din al-Tabari might be the Shafi'i mufti and member of the same family Ahmad b. 'Abdallah al-Tabari al-Makki (d.694) listed by Yahya, Histoire, 1, p. 133 as a defender of Ibn 'Arabi. There is no evidence that the latter was known as Radi al-Din/ al-Radi, however. Other members of the important al-Tabari al-Makki family appear later in chain {D}.

It is noteworthy that Ibn 'Arabi had encountered the previous imam of the Maqam Ibrahim during a visit to Mecca in AH 598, in the person of the father of Nizam, Shaykh Abu Shuja' Zahir b. Rustam al-Isfahani (d.609/1212), from whom he received an ijdza for Tirmidhi’s collection of hadith. See Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur, pp. 209-210; Ibn al-'Arabi, The Tarjumdn al-Ashwdq, ed. Reynold A. Nicholson (London, 1978), p. 3.

20. See ‘Ibn 'Asakir’, EI2, 3, pp. 713-715. Ibn 'Arabi himself listed another figure called al-Qasim Ibn 'Asakir among his own hadith instructors, who died in 600/1203. See Alexander Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam (Albany, NY, 1999), p. 334 n.118.
21. Yahya, Histoire, RG 484. See A3320 [University of Istanbul Library], fol. 17a. Note that this ijdza including Ibn 'Asakir is not recorded in Histoire, 2, p. 393. The same work arises in Halet Efendi 245, where it appears under a different title, R. al- Hurufbi’l-manzumdt: fol. 260b records him transmitting the work through an ijdza from Ibn 'Arabi, and fol. 271a records him receiving an ijdza for it from Ibn 'Arabi and from his son 'Imad al-Din.
22. See Yahya, Histoire, 2, p. 540, chain 6b.
23. See Esad Efendi 1413, frontispiece. The author thanks Stephen Hirtenstein for this and manuscript information above relating to Ibn 'Asakir.
24. See al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, p. 221: see also p. 581.
25. On him see EI2, 2, p.292; Georges Vajda, ed., Le Dictionnaire des autorites de 'Abd al-Mu’min al-Dimyati (Paris, 1962). For a list of his writings, see Brockelmann, GAL,II, p.88;Sup. II, p. 79.
26. See Vajda, ed., Le Dictionnaire des autorites, p. 12.
27. Ibid., p. 123. He does not appear in the index of sama's, however.
28. See Yahya, Histoire, 2, p.540, chains 6c and d.
29. See Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur, p. 320.
30. Such as Ibn 'Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi: see al-Kattani, Fihrisal-faharis, p.645; also pp.638, 997.
31. For examples of his students, teaching and transmissions, see al-Dhahabi, Dhayl ta’rikh al-lslam, pp.152, 409, 455, 369; al-'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kamina, 3, p. 163.
32. The full name given here follows that in Ibn al-'Iraqi, al-Dhayl 'ala al-'ibar, 2, p.492: the author also spells the name al-Harrawi, while all other sources do not double the r (we follow this majority position here). 'Abd al-Hayy Ibn al-'Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab fi akhbar man dhahab (Cairo, 1351), 6, p. 272 gives as his full name Nasir al-Din Muhammad b. Yusuf b. 'Ali b. Idris al-Harawi {al-Tabardar}. Al- 'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kamina, 4, p. 216 gives it as Muhammad b. 'Ali b. Yusuf b. Idris al-Dimyati al-Harawi {Nasir al-Din al-Tabardar}. None of these refer to him as ‘Abu Talha’ or as ‘al-Zahid’. Al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, p. 319 mentions ‘Abu Talha al- Harawi al-Zahid’ and p. 549 Muhammad b. 'Ali b. Yusuf al-Harawi (Nasir al-Din), evidently the same person. Note that the name is spelled differently in all three appearances in chains in Yahya, Histoire, 2, pp.540-541 (as Talha al-Harrawi, Abu Talha al-Kharrawi, and Abu Talha al-Harrawi).
33. For the former see Ibn al-'Iraqi, al-Dhayl 'ala al-'ibar, 2, p.492 and Ibn al- 'Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 6, p. 272. For the latter see al-'Asqalani, al-Durar al- kamina , 4, p. 216.
34. See Ibnal-'Iraqi, al-Dhayl'alaal-'ibar, 2, pp. 492-493; Ibnal-'Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 6, p.272.
35. See al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, pp. 319 and 549. This gives, respectively, Abu Talha al-Harawi al-Zahid and Muhammad b. 'Ali b. Yusuf al-Harawi transmitting (p. 319 Ibn 'Arabi’s works specifically) from Sharaf al-Din al-Dimyati, and to Muhammad b. Muqbil al-Halabi.
36. Al-'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kamina, 1, p.11 gives his full name as Ibrahim b. Ahmad b. 'Abd al-Wahid b. 'Abd al-Mu’min b. Sa'id b. Kamil b. 'Alwan al-Tanukhi.
37. In each case al-'Asqalani describes his contribution through the expression takhrij. In relation to works of hadith this typically means ‘to quote, publish or give the isnad’ of a hadith. (It may also indicate ‘bringing out’ the implications of hadith for the rules offiqh, encompassing an explanation of use and shortness of associated chains of transmission, and making for easy identification of hadith relevant to specific subjects.) See Roy Mottahedeh, Review of Richard W. Bulliet, The Patricians ofNishapur (Cambridge, MA, 1972), Journal of the American Oriental Society 95: 3 (1975), p. 492.
38. See further al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, pp. 220-222,1014, index; al-'Asqalani, al-Darar al-kdmina, 1, pp.11-12.
39. On him see Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi, pp. 226, 237; idem, ‘Ibn 'Arabi in the Yemen: His Admirers and Detractors’, JMIAS XI (1992), pp. 44 ff; for detailed sources discussing his biography and work, p. 59 n. 35.
40. See al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, pp. 553, 110-111. The name al-Murshidi may refer to one of his ancestors or Munyat Rashid, an Egyptian village. Note the appearance of al-Murshidi in a chain relating to the Hizb of al-Nawawi: p. 1144.
41. On him see EI2, 3, pp. 776-778.
42. Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi, pp. 26, 135.
43. Ibid., pp.128-129; see also chs. 5, 8; idem, Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition, in S. Hirtenstein and M. Tiernan, eds., Mahyiddin Ibn 'Arabi: A Commemorative Volame (Shaftesbury, 1993), pp. 308, 313. Similarly, Yahya, Histoire, 1, pp. 130, 134 includes Ibn Hajar both among the mufti defenders and opponents of Ibn 'Arabi.
44. See Basheer M. Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform in Pre-Modern Islamic Culture: In Search of Ibrahim al-Kurani’, Die Welt des Islams 42: 3 (2002), p. 329. Cf. idem, ‘Abu al-Thana’ al-Alusi: An 'Alim, Ottoman Mufti, and Exegetist of the Qur’an’, IfMES 34 (2002), p.466.

By the term salafi we refer here to a view of Islam shaped by the defining principles of the legacy of Ahmad Ibn Taymiya (d.1328), whose vision of Islam represented an attempt to restore the pristine faith as understood and practised by the salaf al-sdlih or righteous forefathers of the Islamic community. These principles served to reinstate the ultimate authority of the original Islamic texts against the accumulated Islamic tradition, to protect tawhid, uphold the absence of contradiction between revelation and reason, and establish the unity of the community. Ibn Taymiya’s call to return to a direct understanding of the Qur’an and hadith was in opposition to the invocation of Greek philosophical concepts/tools by Ash'ari and Mu'tazili theological schools (which threatened to undermine the proper relationship of reason to revelation). It was also set against unreserved following of the opinions of the madhdhib (legal school) founders through taqlid. He rejected sectarian and madhhab-based divisions and denounced the excesses of popular tasawwaf and the doctrine of wahdat al- wajud for its threatened undermining of tawhid and divine transcendence. Given its reformist thrust, this legacy was eventually to become a major source of inspiration for those Sunni ulama who sought to challenge the dominant culture of Ash'arism and to reform aspects of sufi belief and practice. For a concise introduction to Ibn Taymiya’s thought and legacy, see Itzchak Weismann, Taste of Modernity: Safism, Salafiyya and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascas (Leiden, 2001), pp. 263-268. See further Henri Laoust, Essai sar les doctrines sociales et politiqaes de Taki al-Din Ahmad b. Taimiya (Cairo, 1939).

45. Al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, pp. 319, 554.
46. Ibid., pp. 617, 554.
47. On Hanbali faqih al-Fakhr Ibn al-Bukhari (Abu’l-Hasan 'Ali b. Ahmad b.

'Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi, AH 596-690), see ibid., pp.633-634. On his importance as a hadith transmitter by virtue of his ‘high’ chain, see pp. 588, 947, 1013.

48. See for example ibid., p. 991.
49. Ibid., p. 549. For further accounts of Muhammad b. Muqbil transmitting to al-Suyuti, see pp. 627, 634.
50. On the father see ibid., p. 270.
51. Ibid., p. 910 ff.
52. Ibid., pp.617, 911.
53. Ibid., pp.110-111, 669.
54. Ibid., p. 669; al-Taysir bi-tardjim al-Tabari-yin is also known as al-Tabyin fi tardjim al-Tabariyin: see al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 2, p. 457.
55. On him see EI2, 9, pp.913-916; for details concerning his contribution to the late 9th-century AH debate concerning Ibn 'Arabi’s teachings see Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi, pp.79-81, 119-120, 213, 223. Yahya, Histoire, 1, p. 134 lists him among the defenders of Ibn 'Arabi. See also Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition, pp. 312, 316-317.
56. Al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, p. 1014.
57. See also ibid. p. 853.
58. Ibid.,pp.755-756.
59. See ibid., pp. 619, 755.
60. Ibid.,pp.755-756, 677, 684.
61. See ibid. pp. 756, 1125, 853, also 958-959.
62. See Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi, al-Kawdkib al-sd’ira bi-a'ydn al-mi’a al-'dshira, ed. Jibrail S. Jabbur (Harissa, Lebanon, 1959), 1, pp.197-198.
63. See Michael Winter, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt: Studies in the Writings of'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani (New Brunswick, NJ, 1982), pp.54-55; EI2, 11, p. 406. For autobiographical accounts transmitted from Zakariya al-Ansari to al- Sha'rani and other accounts related by al-Sha'rani concerning him, see for example al-Ghazzi, al-Kawdkib al-sd’ira, 1, pp.196-198, 200-201. His early reputation for a love of the sufis, for attending their dhikr sessions and studying their works, had led his peers to suggest that he would be ‘no use’ as a faqih: when he went on to excel in the exoteric sciences, some of them became jealous. See ibid., pp. 198, 200.
64. See al-Ghazzi, al-Kawdkib al-sd’ira, 1, p. 202.
65. See ibid., pp. 203-204 (as al-Ghazzi puts it, ‘He understood through dhawq {spiritual ‘taste’} the words of the folk, and would explain what the people of the way said in the most perfect way, providing excellent answers concerning this if part of it appeared ambiguous to people.’); Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi, p. 212; Th. Emil Homerin, From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn al-Farid, His Verse and His Shrine (Columbia, SC, 1994), pp.69-73; Winter, Society and Religion, pp. 163-164. Yahya, Histoire, 1, p.134 lists him among the defenders of Ibn 'Arabi.
66. See al-Ghazzi, al-Kawdkib al-sd’ira, 1, p. 199.
67. Ibid., p.202.
68. Al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, p. 319.
69. Also spelled Sha'rawi: see Brockelmann, GAL, II, p.441.
70. See for example Knysh, Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition, p.311; Winter, Society and Religion, pp. 165-172. The ‘deliberate interpolation’ hypothesis was a historical stratagem used in Islamic culture to deal with difficulties presented by certain texts from the perspective of ‘orthodoxy’. It was used to exonerate Ibn 'Arabi, for example, by casting doubt on the attribution of the Fusus al-hikam to him in its extant form, on the grounds that specific problematic statements had been inserted into the text.
71. Winter, Society and Religion, p. 55.
72. See EI2, 9, p. 316. On him see further Winter, Society and Religion.
73. See for example David Commins, Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York and Oxford, 1990), p. 50; for his attitude towards the madhahib and madhhab affiliation see Winter, Society and Religion, pp. 224, 236-241.
74. See Nafi, ‘Abu al-Thana’ al-Alusi’, p. 489 n. 7.
75. See Winter, Society and Religion, p.57; al-Ghazzi, al-Kawakib al-sa’ira, 1, pp.97-98.
76. Winter, Society and Religion, pp.99, 139-140. This was the only one of his many shaykhs to give him such authorisation. Al-Sha'rani expressly referred to al- Shinnawi as al-Ahmadi. Several of his other shaykhs were also Ahmadis, associated with the Ahmadiyya, ‘the order of Ahmad al-Badawi’: ibid., p. 98. More commonly known as the Badawiyya, this is characterised by a popular cult centred on al-Badawi, his mawlid and his tomb in Tanta, Egypt. For al-Sha'rani’s accounts of al-Shinnawi conversing with al-Badawi at the latter’s tomb see al-Ghazzi, al-Kawakib al-sa’ira, 1, p.98.
77. Winter, Society and Religion, pp. 99, 138.
78. This was Abu’l-Fath Muhammad al-Iskandari al-Mazzi. The account here draws on al-Ghazzi, al-Kawakib al-sa’ira, 3, pp. 3-10.
79. See Barbara Rosenow von Schlegell, Sufism in the Ottoman Arab World: Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (d.1143/1731), PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1997, p. 29.
80. See Brockelmann, GAL, II, p. 514.
81. See al-Muhibbi, Khulasat al-athar, 1, p. 244; Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Origins and Development of the Sufi Orders (tarekat) in Southeast Asia’, Studia Islamika (Jakarta) 1: 1 (1994); idem, ‘Shari'a Court, Tarekat and Pesantren: Religious Institutions in the Sultanate of Banten’, Archipel 50 (1995), p. 179. On Sibghatallah (d.1015/1606-07), see Atallah S. Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya and its Offshoot, the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya in the Haramayn in the 11th/17th Century’, Die Welt des Islams 43: 3 (2003), p. 323. He had received Ibn 'Arabi’s doctrine (which he propagated in the Haramayn) from his shaykh Wajih al-Din al-'Alawi (d.1609), an ‘outstanding advocate’ of Ibn 'Arabi and his doctrine in India. See further Khaled El-Rouayheb, ‘Opening the Gate of Verification: The Forgotten Arab-Islamic Florescence of the 17th Century’, IJMES 38 (2006), pp.271; 247 n.51.
82. See John O. Voll, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri and 18th Century Hadith Scholarship’, Die Welt des Islams 42: 3 (2002), p. 367.
83. See Brockelmann, GAL, II, p. 514. He also wrote Risdla fi wahdat al-wujud: see al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 1, p. 244.
84. This paragraph is based on al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 2, pp.457-464.
85. On his teachers see Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi, Lutf al-samar wa qatf al-thamar min tardjim a'ydn al-tabaqa al-uld min al-qarn al-hddi 'ashar, ed. Mahmud al-Shaykh (Damascus, 1981), 1, pp. 31-36. Particular mention should be made of his shaykh Shihab al-Din Ahmad b. Yunus al-'Ithawi, Shafi'i mufti.
86. See 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Bitar, Hilyat al-basharfi ta’rikh al-qarn al-thdlith 'ashar (Beirut, 1993/1961), 1, p. 153; al-Ghazzi, al-Kawdkib al-sd’ira, 1, pp.xi-xxi. For further details of his posts see al-Ghazzi, Lutf al-samar, 1, pp. 45-55.
87. See al-Ghazzi, Lutf al-samar, 1, p. 97.
88. See von Schlegell, Sufism, pp. 32, 43, 78; Zuhayr Khalil al-Burqawi, 'Abd al- Ghani al-Ndbulusi wa tasawwufuhu (Amman, 2003), p. 95.
89. Al-Ghazzi, Lutf al-samar, 1, p.96; Muhammad Khalil b. 'Ali al-Muradi, Silk al-durar fi a'ydn al-qarn al-thdni ’ashar (Cairo, 1301), 1, p. 5; Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, p. 321.
90. For his works in this field see al-Ghazzi, Lutf al-samar, 1, pp. 108-111.
91. See al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 4, p. 199.
92. Ibid., p.200; see also al-Ghazzi, Lutf al-samar, 1, p. 84.
93. John O. Voll, ‘Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi and Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al- Wahhab: An Analysis of an Intellectual Group in Eighteenth-century Madina’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 38: 1 (1975), pp. 32-33 indicates something of al-Qushashi’s importance to 18th-century Medinan ulama circles based on intellectual lineages among them leading back to him.
94. See ibid., p. 34. Editor of the six major Sunni collections of hadith and described by al-Jabarti as ‘the seal of hadith scholars’, al-Basri was a teacher of Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi. On him see Voll, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri’, pp. 356372.
95. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 312-320.
96. Al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 1, p. 345.
97. See EI2, 5, pp. 525-526. On Singkel see below. Note that al-Qushashi was centrally involved in the polemic engaged with Sirhindi’s khalifa Adam al-Banuri during meetings in Medina on specific points of doctrine as interpreted by Adam. See Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya’, pp. 332-337.
98. Michel Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn 'Arabi (Cambridge, 1993), pp.135-136; al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 1,p.345.
99. 'mazj al-haqd’iq bi’l-ahddith al-nabawiya’ as described in al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, p. 971.
100. See Voll, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri’, p. 368.
101. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, p. 314 (and for further detailed sources on al-Qushashi, see p. 312 n. 10-13); cf. al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, p. 971.
102. Al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 2, pp. 195-196. Voll, ‘Muhammad Hayya al- Sindi’, p. 33 n. 8 mentions him in passing among a group of teachers in 18th-century Medina. His brother 'Ali (d.1070/1659-60) was imam and Hanafi mufti at the Haram (Sanctuary) in Mecca. See Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya’, pp. 330-331.
103. See al-Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-athar, 1, p. 345.
104. For a detailed overview of his education, see Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 321 ff.
105. Voll, ‘Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi’, p. 34.
106. See Alexander Knysh, ‘Ibrahim al-Kurani (d.1101/1690), An Apologist for wahdat al-wujud’, JRAS Series 3, 5: 1 (1999), p.46.
107. Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish 'Ulama and their Indonesian Disciples’, at http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/Kurdish_ ulama_Indonesia.htm, 20pp: pp. 4-5. On his stature see further El-Rouayheb, ‘Opening the Gate’, p.274.
108. Knysh, ‘Ibrahim al-Kurani’, p.45. Van Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish 'Ulama’, p.5 describes the mature al-Kurani as ‘the leading representative of Ibn 'Arabi’s doctrines in Medina and perhaps throughout the entire Muslim world.’
109. Singkel became particularly close to al-Kurani, who gave him an ijdza to teach the Shattariyya tariqa. He was the first to introduce the tariqa to Indonesia, establishing it there as a moderate force as part of a broader reconciliation of mystics and legalists, and was thus a major influence on the revival of orthodox sufism, combined with shari'a, in Sumatra. See van Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish 'Ulama’, p. 4; Voll, ‘Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi’, p.39; idem, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri’, p.370; Anthony Johns, Islam in Southeast Asia: Problems and Perspectives, in C. D. Cowan and O. W. Walters, eds., Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D. G. E. Hall (Ithaca, NY, 1976), pp. 314-319.
110. Van Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish 'Ulama’, p. 5; Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 334 ff. On al-Kurani’s role in transmitting hadith via the Yemeni Mizjaji family, see John O. Voll, Linking Groups in the Networks of Eighteenth Century Revivalist Scholars: The Mizjaji Family in Yemen, in Nehemia Levtzion and John O. Voll, eds., Eighteenth-Century Islamic Renewal and Reform (Syracuse, NY, 1987), p. 76.
111. Al-Kurani responded himself and also asked his student Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rasul al-Barzanji to respond. The latter wrote two treatises (dated 1682 and 1683) severely criticising Sirhindi: these were endorsed by leading ulama of the Hijaz, who agreed unanimously that Sirhindi’s ideas amounted to serious deviation. (It is unlikely, however, that al-Kurani would have agreed that Sirhindi be labelled an unbeliever [kdfir]: see Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya’, pp. 338-345, which also illuminates the political context of the Indian request for a fatwa, and the interests of the Sharif of Mecca in his relations with the Mughal ruler.) Many more works of the same kind appear to have been written in the context of this controversy over Sirhindi’s views: see further Yohanan Freidmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi: An Outline of his Thought

and a Study of his Image in the Eyes of Posterity (Montreal and London, 1971), pp.7-8, 96-97; Athar Abbas Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, II (New Delhi, 1983); van Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish 'Ulama’, p.5.

On Sirhindi, who projected himself as the renovator of the second millennium and sought to replace the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud with that of wahdat al-shuhud, mounting a comprehensive reformist challenge to the tariqas aimed at reconciling tasawwuf with the shari'a and reinstating the centrality of the Sunna, see further Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, Sufism and Shari 'ah: A Study of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhin- di’s Efforts to Reform Sufism (Leicester, 1986).

Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 324-235, 247 points out that when al-Kurani joined the Naqshbandiyya through al-Qushashi this was not through the Sirhindi line: later in his career, however, his students were initiated through this line.

112. See Basheer M. Nafi, ‘He was a Teacher of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab: Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi and the Revival of the Traditionist Methodology’, unpublished paper. Voll, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri’, p. 366 suggests that his approach to hadith studies formed part of an emergent, more textualist, mode. Note also that al-Kurani was a teacher of 'Abdallah b. Salim al-Basri in hadith instruction: see ibid. pp. 364365. On the interest in hadith scholarship among ulama with strong sufi affiliations in the 17th and 18th centuries, see John O. Voll, ‘Hadith Scholars and Tariqahs: An Ulama Group in the 18th Century Haramayn and their Impact in the Islamic World’, Journal of Asian and African Studies XV: 3-4(1980), pp.264-272.
113. See for example EI2, 5, p.433; Knysh, ‘Ibrahim al-Kurani’, p.42.
114. As Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’ pp. 323-324 points out, al-Kurani’s view of Ibn Taymiya was positively influenced by his main Damascene teacher, Hanbali mufti and the most eminent Hanbali 'alim in Damascus at the time, 'Abd al-Baqi Taqi al-Din b. Mawahib al-Hanbali (d.1070/1660). See also idem, ‘He was a Teacher’.

In relation to issues of kalam and late Ash'arism, Nafi surveys al-Kurani’s treatment of such questions as the Qur’an and the divine speech, the attributes of God, and the concept of kasb (acquisition of actions), pointing out where he parted company with late Ash'ari dogma and declared his adherence to the salafi position, at the same time serving the end of rehabilitating the latter in dominant sufi-Ash'ari circles. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 330-334, 339-342. He suggests that, in rejecting corporeity, anthropomorphism and allegorical interpretation, al-Kurani effectively constructed ‘a salafi foundation for Sufism’. See ibid. p. 337. For details of al-Kurani’s views on wahdat al-wujud, which amount to ‘an attempt to legitimate [it] not only in the eyes of the strict Muslim but even in the eyes of the.. .salafi’, see ibid. pp.337-338.

It is noteworthy that 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi disagreed profoundly with al- Kurani’s (strongly salafi) view regarding the issue of kasb: see von Schlegell, Sufism, p. 19 n. 51. For other reactions to his views on free will, see El-Rouayheb, ‘Opening the Gate’, p. 281 n.86.

Note finally an ijaza and advice from al-Kurani addressed to specific individuals (dated AH 1095 and 1096, respectively) concerning their perusal of Ibn 'Arabi’s works

and the issue of reading these with/to others. He clarifies the attitude and approach appropriate to a beneficial and blessed reading and discussion of Ibn 'Arabi’s words (viz., bi-shart al-iman bi’l-mutashabihat ma'a laysa kamithlihishay’), warning that holding rigidly to the belief of the theologians (mutakallimun) in such reading will be fruitless. Thus, if they find someone with the right attitude (idha ra’aytum ahadan yu’min bi’l-mutashdbihdt al-qur’aniya wa’l-tanzlh), then it is fine to read with him. See A 3239 [University of Istanbul Library], fol. 151a.

115. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 342, 350.
116. On his relationship with al-Nabulusi, see 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, al- Haqiqa wa’l-majazfl rihlat bilad al-Sham wa Misr wa’l-Hijaz, ed. Riyad 'Abd al-Hamid Murad (Damascus, 1989), p. 324 ff.
117. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, pp. 346-347; al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, pp.216-218.
118. His Dhakha’ir al-mawarith fl’l-dalala 'ala mawadi' al-ahadith set out all the books of sound hadith collections by the first transmitters’ names: see von Schlegell, Sufism, p. 3.
119. Ibid., p. 49.
120. See ibid., chs. 2-4. For further detail on al-Nabulusi, see Elizabeth Sirreyeh, Sufi Visionary of Damascus: 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 1641-1731 (London and New York, 2005); Bakri Aladdin, Abdalghani al-Nabulusi (d.1143/1731): oeuvre, vie et doctrine , 2 vols., PhD thesis, University of Paris I, 1985; al-Burqawi, Abd al-Ghani al- Nabulusi wa tasawwufuhu; EI2, 1, p.60.
121. See von Schlegell, Sufism, pp. 33, 43, 250-251. Al-Nabulusi explicitly mentioned in relation to al-Futuhat al-Makkiya that he had inner (batini) paths of transmission which he could not make public.
122. See ibid., p. 8.
123. See Voll, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri’, pp. 363, 369.
124. For further detail see al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, pp.495-496; al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 2, p. 715; al-Muradi, Silk al-durar, 4, p.27; Voll, ‘Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi’, pp. 33, 39; Knysh, ‘Ibrahim al-Kurani’, p.46.
125. On him see Nafi, ‘He was a Teacher’; Voll, ‘Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi’.
126. See Aziz Ahmad, ‘Political and Religious Ideas of Shah Wali-ullah of Delhi’, The Muslim World LII: 1 (1962), p.22; J. M. S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shah Wali Allah, 1702-1762 (Leiden, 1986), pp. 5-6; Hafiz A. Ghaffar Khan, ‘Shah Wali Allah: On the Nature, Origin, Definition and Classification of Knowledge’, Journal of Islamic Studies 3: 2 (1992), pp.203-213; Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, p. 344.

A third student was the leading Naqshbandi shaykh in Medina, Isma'il b. 'Abdallah al-Uskudari (d.1182/1768-69). See Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya’, p. 345.

127. See al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, p. 497.
128. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, p. 347.
129. See EI2, 1, pp.965-966; Voll, ‘'Abdallah Ibn Salim al-Basri’, p.369; von Schlegell, Sufism, pp. 55-58, 128, 277. Frederick De Jong, Mustafa Kamal al-Din al- Bakri (1688-1749): Revival and Reform of the Khalwatiyya Tradition? in Levtzion

and Voll, eds., Eighteenth-Century Islamic Renewal and Reform, pp.117-132 revisits earlier projections of al-Bakri inspiring a Khalwati revival in the 18th century and reforming the Khalwati way. For another view, see B. G. Martin, A Short History of the Khalwatiyya Order of Dervishes, in N. Keddie, ed., Scholars, Saints and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions since 1500 (Berkeley, CA, 1972), pp. 275-305.

130. Al-Kattani, Fihrisal-fahdris, pp. 100-102. See further index.
131. Note that in chain {B} ‘al-Hanafi’ is a misreading of al-Hifni by the copyist. The same copyist misreads al-Bakri as al-Kubra.
132. On al-Hifnawi see 'Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, 'Ajd’ib al-dthdr fi’l-tardjim wa’l-akhbdr (Beirut, n.d.), 1, pp. 339-354; de Jong, Mustafa Kamal al-Din al-Bakri, pp. 118, 120, 126-7. For his writings see al-Muradi, Silk al-durar, 4, p. 49. For further sources on him, see Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, p. 347 n. 121. Note that al-Hifnawi had himself assumed the position of Shaykh al-Azhar from 1757/58 until his death in 1767.

Al-Dardayr introduced certain changes to the litany of the Khalwati tariqa, incorporating into this his Salawdt and Manzuma (see ch. 1 n.4). These changes were retained by most of the tariqa branches that emerged later. See de Jong, Mustafa Kamal al-Din al-Bakri, pp. 127, 132 n. 82.

133. Brockelmann, GAL, II, p. 436.
134. Al-Muradi, Silk al-durar, 4, p. 102. The Wadi Tafilat in the southeast region of Morocco was the centre of the Kharijite emirate centred on Sijilmassa (8th-9th centuries CE). The Idrisid dynasty originated from this region.
135. See ibid., pp. 102-108. For further sources, see al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, pp.268-269.
136. B; A 4305 [University of Istanbul Library] is another copy (40 fols.) apparently dated AH 1273.
137. Brockelmann, GAL, II, p. 436; see also I, p. 580. For further details of his works, see al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, pp. 268-269.
138. For example, al-Kuzbari al-Wasit [Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman], son of the foremost hadith scholar in the Syrian Ottoman provinces (d. AH 1221). He also appears in the thabat (list of authorities) of Mahmud Hamza al-Husayni (d.1305). See al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, pp. 485, 880.
139. On him see al-Jabarti, 'Ajd’ib al-dthdr, 1, pp. 553-558; 348, drawn on here.
140. De Jong, Mustafa Kamal al-Din al-Bakri, p. 117; von Schlegell, Sufism, pp. 57 n.157;277.
141. See al-Muradi, Silk al-durar, 4, pp. 14-15.
142. Brockelmann, GAL, Sup. II, p. 479.
143. Son of an important notable family of Damascus.
144. C, fols. 2b-3a.
145. Brockelmann, GAL, Sup. II, p.474.
146. Al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 1, p. 3.
147. See von Schlegell, Sufism, pp. 36 ff.
148. See Ahmad al-Budayrl al-Hallaq, Hawadith Dimashq al-yawmiya, 11541175/1741-1762, ed. Ahmad 'Izzat 'Abd al-Karim (Damascus, 1959), p. 52.
149. See Yahya, Histoire, 2, pp. 540-541.
150. On Muhammad al-Jundi see al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 1, pp.349-350; Weismann, Taste of Modernity, p.61.

Khalid al-Naqshbandi (1776-1826) was born in Shahrazur in northern Iraq. He studied there, in Damascus and the Hijaz and travelled to Delhi, where he studied with the leading Naqshbandi master, who gave him an ijaza and an instruction to spread the tariqa in the Ottoman lands. His successes in this during the first part of the 19th century (he appointed at least 67 khalifas among Kurds, Turks and Arabs) were such that the line he initiated became known as the Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya (or Mujaddidiyya-Khalidiyya). He lived consecutively in Sulaymaniyya, Baghdad and Damascus. On him see Albert H. Hourani, Sufism and Modern Islam: Mawlana Khalid and the Naqshbandi Order, in Hourani, ed., The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (London, 1981), pp. 75-89; Weismann, Taste of Modernity, chs. 1-2; van Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish 'Ulama’, pp.9-10; Butrus Abu-Manneh, ‘Salafiyya and the Rise of the Khalidiyya in Baghdad in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Die Welt des Islams 43:3 (2003), pp. 364-367.

151. In chain {A} Amin al-Jundi refers to his father simply as Muhammad Efendi al-Jundi, while his note at the end of the commentary identifies his father as ‘Muhammad Sa'id Efendi min sulalat Al Ramadan b. al-hajj Ishaq Efendi al-mufti fi madinat Atana [al-Astana?] fi-ma mada min al-zaman.’ (A, fol. 52a) He also signs himself in the same place as ‘Jundi Zade Muhammad Amin al-'Abbas al-mufti bi- Dimashq’. Al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 1, p. 343 confirms Amin’s descent from al-'Abbas, the Prophet’s uncle, and includes in his full name a mention of Ishaq thus: Amin Efendi b. Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab b. Ishaq b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Hasan b. Muhammad al-Jundi al-Ma'arri. (Note the existence of a near contemporary also named Amin b. Muhammad Sa'id in al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 1, p. 342.)
152. See al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 1, pp. 343-364; Muhammad Jamil al-Shatti, A'yan Dimashqfi’l-qarn al-thalith 'ashar wa nisfal-qarn al-rabi' 'ashar, 1201-1550 (n.p., 1972), 2nd edn., pp.67-69. For further references, see Weismann, Taste of Modernity, p.216 n. 72-73.

On the thought of the Amir 'Abd al-Qadir and the Akbari awakening among the ulama of Damascus associated with him, see Michel Chodkiewicz, The Spiritual Writings of Amir ’Abd al-Kader (Albany, NY, 1995); Weismann, Taste of Modernity, chs. 5-6; Commins, Islamic Reform, pp.26-30: on his rescue of Christians, p. 28.

153. See al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, p.1137; R. S. O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint: Ahmad b. Idris and the Idrisi Tradition (London, 1990), p. 66 n. 44. There is some confusion in the literature surrounding this man. Al-Kattani records a Muhammad Tahir b. Sa'id Sunbul al-Makki [index and e.g. pp. 364, 805, 1147], but also gives a Muhammad Tahir b. Sa'id Sunbul al-Madani [e.g. pp. 199, 694], as given also by O’Fahey. {In places, al-Kattani refers simply to a Muhammad Tahir Sunbul. To add to the confusion, al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 2, p.747 gives a Tahir b. Sa'id Sunbul

known as ‘Sunbul al-Dimashql’ (1150-1218): see also 3, p.1325, where he gives Muhammad b. Sa'id Sunbul (d.1218).} The verification in the literature of the existence of a Muhammad Tahir b. Sa'id Sunbul of the Hijaz, who transmitted from his father and to Yasin al-Mirghani, is ultimately what concerns us: al-Kattani’s crucial reference gives Yasin transmitting from Tahir without specifying whether he is al- Makki or al-Madani: see p.1137. On his association with the Mirghani family, see O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint, pp. 65-66.

154. Al-Bitar, Hilyat al-bashar, 2, pp. 1101-1102, drawing on al-Jabarti, 'Aja’ib al- athar. See also O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint, pp. 61, 143. R. S. O’Fahey and Bernd Radtke, ‘Neo-Sufism Reconsidered’, Der Islam 70: 1 (1993), p. 58 suggest that he may have fought back against the Wahhabi doctrine on the issue of saintly mediation.
155. O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint, p. 143.
156. On this order see ‘Mirghaniyya’, EI2, 7, p.124. On 'Uthman, see O’Fahey and Radtke, ‘Neo-Sufism Reconsidered’, p. 58.
157. See O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint, pp.93, 132-133, 143 n. 34. See further al- Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, pp. 103, 122, 197, 253, 557, 904, 906 and 1143.
158. On this transmission, see for example al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, p. 1137.
159. See ibid., pp. 104-106. Another printed work is al-Lu’lu’ al-marsa' fi-ma la asl lahu aw asluhu mawdu (Cairo, 1305): ibid., p.106; Brockelmann, GAL, Sup. II, p.776.
160. A second printing is entitled K. al-Tawr al-aghla fi sharh al-Dawr al-a'la (Cairo, n.d.).
161. See Brockelmann, GAL, Sup. II, p. 776; cf. McGregor, Sanctity and Sainthood, pp.176-177 n.50.
162. See D, front page and p. 159, for example. His own shaykh was reportedly a Shadhili namesake of 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani, whom al-Qawuqji admired greatly and whom he projected as an important link in chains of Shadhili teachers: see Winter, Society and Religion, pp. 70, 88. He also wrote Bawariq al-anwar al-jaliyafi asanid al-sadat al-safiya: al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, p. 254.
163. On him see further al-Kattani, Fihris al-faharis, index (under Muhammad b. Khalil al-Qawuqji).
164. See Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice, p. 89.
165. See for example ibid., pp. 109-110.
166. The principle of the pre-eminent value attached to oral testimony in Islamic culture was maintained from early times through an increasingly elastic application of the ijaza to transmissions that could not be guaranteed by direct study of the text transmitted and the effective meeting between a transmitter and a receiver capable of understanding the text (which could often require a considerable period of companionship between the two). While early authorities such as al-Shafi'i expressed serious reservations concerning this, ijazas that did not denote a genuine authentication of learning actually accomplished became widely accepted in practice. The ‘child ijaza’ is one of several such categories: others are ijazas granted to children still unborn or for works yet to be written; those obtained through a casual encounter or short,

unplanned interview; those requested and granted through correspondence without any actual meeting between the authority and the receiver (signalling an ‘approval’ of existing knowledge rather than actual transmission), and the ‘general ijdza’ encompassing an entire oeuvre and typically granted without the actual hearing of texts. See ‘Idjaza’, EI2, 3, pp.1020-1022; further von Schlegell, Sufism, pp.53, 125-128; Richard W. Bulliet, The Patricians of Nishapur (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 50. Note that by focusing on the ijdza as an authentication of knowledge acquired through transmission based on the direct study of a text and the effective meeting between a transmitter and a receiver capable of understanding it (and designating all other kinds of ijdza in contrast as ‘formulaic’ or ‘fictitious’), there is a danger of neglecting other dimensions of its significance and role. Highlighted here, these other dimensions come to the fore in the case of a small prayer such as the Dawr, which required neither great feats of understanding nor a lengthy spell of companionship and direct study.

Links apparently underpinned by ‘child ijdzas’ in our chains are: {Dj Ibn 'Arabi ~ Radi al-Din al-Tabari; {Fj Ibn 'Arabi ~ al-Wani; {Aj Zakariya al-Ansari ~ Badr al- Din al-Ghazzi; {Ej al-Suyuti ~ Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi; {Ej al-Dimyati ~ al-Harawi; {Ej al-Harawi ~al-Halabi; {Aand Ej Badr al-Dinal-Ghazzi ~Najmal-Dinal-Ghazzi; {A and Ej Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi ~ 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi; {Ej 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi ~ Ibrahim b. Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi.

167. To give another example, when the historian 'Abd al-Rahman Abu Shama’s son died aged eight, his father wrote that he had taken him to hear hadith and other texts from over one hundred and seventy shaykhs. See Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice, p. 140. Fathers would take their sons to shaykhs for baraka. In hadith transmission, they might take them very young to the oldest shaykhs in order to shorten the chain between them and the Prophet, raising concerns that ‘one’s shaykhs and their shaykhs were too young to understand the content of what they transmitted’. See ibid., p. 139; cf. Bulliet, The Patricians of Nishapur, pp. 50-51, emphasising that ‘the most important educational link was between the child and the old man’. In general, the insertion of young people into chains of transmission formed a central part of their initiation into the culture of the learned elite. See Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice , pp. 88, 118-119, 124-125, 139-140.
168. Compare, for example, with Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi’s general ijdza, received from his father Badr al-Din who died when he was seven, in all 41 of Zakariya al- Ansari’s works. See al-Ghazzi, al-Ka'wdkib al-sd’ira, 1, p. 202.
169. As a general point, young people in medieval Damascus were cautioned against ‘taking texts as shaykhs’ and were urged to read only under the personal supervision of a shaykh: among other things, this would link them with all those who had transmitted the text before them, conferring on them the baraka of the line of transmission. See Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice, pp. 138-139, 141-142, 148.
170. See Yahya, Histoire, 2, Addenda B and D.
171. The same chain from Ibn 'Arabi to al-Suyuti appears in al-Kattani’s description of one route via which he transmits all of Ibn 'Arabi’s works (and all that the latter himself transmitted): see Fihris al-fahdris, p. 319.
172. The chain from al-Qushashi back to Zakariya al-Ansari appears also in an ijdza in al-Qushashi’s hand for the Sahih: see al-Kattani, Fihris al-fahdris, p. 971.
173. I, fol. 62a. Alongside al-Qushashi, Ibrahim al-Kurani, al-Dimyati, al- Hifnawiand al-Bakri, Zakariya al-Ansari, the Ghazzis and 'Abd al-Ghanial-Nabulusi deserve mention for their critical positions within the chain map.
174. In this context the possibility of this being shorthand for a direct, uwaysi connection to Ibn 'Arabi is greatly weakened by the specific phraseology used.
175. See Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur, p. 320.
176. Note that al-Qushashi gives his silsila in ‘tariq al-shaykh Muhyi al-Din’ thus: al-Qushashi ~ Abu’l-Mawahib al-Shinnawi ~ his father 'Ali b. 'Abd al-Quddus ~ 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani ~ Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti ~ Kamal al-Din M b. M b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Shafi'i (also known as Imam al-Kamaliya) ~ Shams al-Din M b. M al-Jazari ~ Zayn al-Din Abu Hafs 'Umar b. al-Hasan b. Yazid b. Amila al-Marashi ~ 'Izz al-Din Ahmad b. Ibrahim al-Faruthi al-Wasiti ~ Ibn 'Arabi. See Ahmad al- Qushashi, al-Simt al-majidfi talqin al-dhikr wa’l-bay'a wa ilbds al-khirqa wa saldsil ahl al-tawhid (Haydarabad, AH 1327/28), pp.105-106. Cf. p.122: al-Qushashi ~ his father and al-Shinnawi ~ Isma'il al-Jabarti ~ Jamal al-Din al-Daja'i al-Zabidi ~ Burhan al-Din Ibrahim b. 'Umar b. 'Ali al-'Alawi al-Zabidi ~ Jamal al-Din 'Abd al- Hamid b. Kuhi al-Ashkahi ~ Najm al-Din 'Abdallah b. M al-Isfahani ~ 'Izz al-Din Ahmad al-Faruthi al-Wasiti ~ Ibn 'Arabi. The author thanks Michel Chodkiewicz for providing this.
177. It has been argued that the travels of ulama combined with the wide influence of sufi tariqas to make the 18th century in particular a time of increasing cosmopolitan interaction in parts of the Muslim world. See Levtzion and Voll, Introduction, in Levtzion and Voll, eds., Eighteenth-Century Islamic Renewal and Reform, p. 5.
178. The Haramayn were an important meeting place given their central location and the requirement for the pilgrimage, but scholars and students also came there from all parts of the Muslim world specifically to teach and study: rich exchange took place there among scholars, particularly in Medina. See ibid., p. 7; Voll, ‘Hadith Scholars and Tariqahs’, pp. 264 ff. As Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya’, pp. 321-322 details, the reputation of the Haramayn as centres of learning was enhanced as a result of Mamluk and Ottoman support for institutions and positions associated with both 'ilm and tasawwuf.
179. As well as serving as gateways to the Haramayn, Cairo and Damascus were important centres of learning in their own right.
180. On general patterns of communication and interaction among scholars at this time, see Levtzion and Voll, Introduction, p. 8.
181. The influence of both tariqas became particularly widespread from the following century: see, for example, Butrus Abu-Manneh, ‘Transformations of the Naqshbandiyya, 17th-20th Century: Introduction’, Die Welt des Islams 43:3 (2003), p. 303. Significantly, El-Rouayheb, ‘Opening the Gate’, pp.264, 271-273 links the growing and increasingly open support for the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud and for Ibn 'Arabi in the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire from the 17th century to the

spread there of originally non-Arab turuq, such as the Naqshbandiyya and the Khalwatiyya.

182. McGregor, Sanctity and Sainthood, p. 74 points to the Wafa’iyya’s emergence from the Shadhiliyya as a case in point.
183. Note that he also appears in chains attached to al-Futuhat al-Makkiya: see Yahya, Histoire, 2, p. 540, 6b and 6d ii.
184. See Nafi, ‘Tasawwuf and Reform’, p. 329.
185. For different views in the debate concerning the possible characterisation of the constitutive elements of this position in terms of a rising revivalist/reformist ‘neo-Sufism’ (in combination with certain other elements) see, for example, O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint, pp.2 ff.; O’Fahey and Radtke, ‘Neo-Sufism Reconsidered’, and Ahmad Dallal, ‘The Origins and Objectives of Islamic Revivalist Thought, 17501850’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 113: 3 (1993), pp. 341-359.

The affiliation of several of these ulama to the Naqshbandiyya is noteworthy: Medina was a major centre for the tariqa during the 17th century. See van Bruinessen, ‘Shari'a Court’, p. 179; Voll, ‘Hadith Scholars and Tariqahs’, p.268; Copty, ‘The Naqshbandiyya’, p. 322. While one cannot generalise about this tariqa as a whole, it was to develop a strong tradition of reform at least through the Mujaddidi line. On attitudes towards Ibn 'Arabi in the tariqa prior to Sirhindi, see Hamid Algar, ‘Reflections of Ibn 'Arabi in Early Naqshbandi Tradition’, JMIAS X (1991), pp. 45-66.

186. See Algar, ‘Reflections of Ibn 'Arabi’, p. 60. On his legacy, see Weismann, Taste of Modernity, ch. 2. As Abu-Manneh, ‘Salafiyyah’ demonstrates, Shaykh Khalid’s call came substantially as a reaction (and challenge) to the expansion in Baghdad of an at least partly Wahhabi-inspired Salafi worldview. He provided an alternative religious path for the community, projected as better reflecting the substance of Islam than Salafi beliefs alone (as embodied in the city’s rising Salafi trend). Shaykh Khalid was heir to the legacy of Shah Wali Allah, ‘whose belief in wahdat al-wujud did not stop him from writing a treatise on the virtues of Ibn Taymiya and embracing a range of his ideas’. See Nafi, ‘Abu al-Thana’ al-Alusi’, p. 488.
187. See David Commins, ‘'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri and Islamic Reform’, The Muslim World 78 (1988), pp. 121-131; idem, Islamic Reform, pp. 26-30. On the Salafiyya of late Ottoman Damascus see Weismann, Taste of Modernity, ch. 8.
188. Cf. Stefan Reichmuth, ‘Arabic Literature and Islamic Scholarship in the 17th/18th Century: Topics and Biographies’, Die Welt des Islams 42: 3 (2002), p. 287.
189. Such a line of enquiry might also be pursued by expanding the characterisation of contemporary users summarised earlier.

3

The Prayer for Spiritual
Elevation and Protection

Properties1

Many who have presented or transmitted the prayer during the last four hundred years have emphasised the importance of reciting it diligently and of taking it, as one puts it, ،as a regular practice (wird)’.2 Several recommend that it be recited every morning and evening,3 and some in the morning only. Others add that it should also be recited in times of difficulty or distress.4 One way to encourage regular reading has been to tie the prayer to the Awrad, as in some ijazas associated with it among certain contemporary sufi circles discussed earlier. In one copy the prayer is integrated into a daily/nightly reading cycle, repeated fourteen times: an opening prayer (hizb iftitah), a numbered interface text (hisar), Ibn 'Arabi’s wird for the day/night, the Dawr and a concluding prayer (hizb al-ikhtitam).5 Other copies incorporate it after the full complement of the Awrad:6 where this is not the case, the owner of an Awrad copy sometimes adds it by hand at the end.7 Yet there are many more cases where the prayer is not associated with the Awrad,8 and several copies offer specific advice concerning what should be recited before9 and after10 it without reference to the Awrad. Such recommendations typically encompass the salawat, invocations of Divine Names and formulae emphasising God’s unique power, but there are many variations.11

In more substantial treatments recommendations concerning recitation of the prayer are intertwined with a detailing of its special properties (khawass), for the latter are activated only through its proper use. Commentators and copyists outdo each other in

describing these. By way of illustration, a particularly comprehensive statement of the prayer’s properties by the AH 12th-13th century commentator al-Damuni (written in rhymed prose in Arabic) is given below.12

I ask Allah.that [the prayer] may benefit whoever recites it with sincerity and firm inner belief, and that it may achieve their desired end for whoever perseveres in the benefits it contains, for He is the One who Bestows with Noble Generosity, the One who Knows the condition of those who recite. Whoever uses what is in the prayer or recites it with complete inner belief may achieve their desired goal, but whoever recites it or uses its benefits while raising objections will gain nothing but distress and corruption. I include...some of the benefits of this great prayer, in respect to which the response will never fail provided that one has a pure heart. Among its benefits are the following:

Whoever reads it regularly and diligently morning and evening need not fear poverty, blindness or broken bones. He will be in God’s secure custody en route and at rest on land and at sea. He need not fear beasts of prey, loss of his possessions, accidents, aches and pains, illnesses, shadow companions (male and female), disobedient and insolent jinn, or malicious storm demons.13 He need not fear the arrows of war, for he will always be victorious, never defeated. He need not fear any kind of enemy, human or jinn.14 He need not fear highway robbers, for Allah will rip to utter shreds anyone who stands against him. If the one who recites the prayer boards a ship, he need not fear harm or malady, being taken captive, drowning, or any epidemic, be it airborne or earth-bound, on land or at sea, nor the ship being holed and torn apart.15

Whoever recites the prayer will be safe from enemies and evil oppressors and from all the unjust and envious in all the worlds.16 He will be respected and well-liked by all who see him, and they will be unable to endure being away from him. He will be like the sun and the moon among the stars: the heavenly and

earthly worlds will love him all his life. He will be protected from migraine, headache, throbbing and shooting pain, tooth, ear, eye and stomach ache, facial palsy, hemiplegia, convulsions, and every malady that afflicts humankind.17 He will be protected from devilish insinuations and thoughts, will have pleasant dreams, and will see only what gladdens him in all his days.

Whoever recites [the prayer] will be released from imprisonment, constraint and captivity, especially if his reciting is deep- rooted and strong. [Reciting the prayer] makes childbirth easy for the divorcee, and through it every pressing need is met. It removes fevers and chills, and brings home strays and runaways. It reminds one of the Testimony of Faith (shahada) at the time of death, and helps one in the questioning of the two angels, and in the fear caused by sudden death.18 It awakens the heart from the slumber of heedlessness, and helps in sincere repentance and in erasing one’s lapses and errors. It elevates one to the highest stations, in this world and after death. It preserves one from association with the Evil One19 and from the serious afflictions that affect babies.20 It safeguards the one who recites it from all kinds of jinn, from colic and neuralgia, and from all winds, especially the ill wind21 of the evening and morning. It protects against the sting of scorpions and the bite of vipers and snakes, against infectious diseases and plague, and whatever harms humankind. It thwarts black magic and all machinations, and the knots of ill-intent.22 It repels from whoever recites it the army and soldiers of the enemy, bequeaths the memorising of knowledge and the meanings of the glorious Qur’an, and preserves the heart and mind from thoughts [insinuated by] the accursed [Satan]. If recited after 'asr it removes misery and poverty, especially if surat al-Waqi'a is recited too, because this sura is an irresistible force.23

We have mentioned just some of the benefits: strive for them, you who have freed yourself from bondage to habits. Benefit is in accordance with sincerity, faithfulness and firm inner belief; lack of benefit results from distrust and ignominious objecting.

The one who firmly believes will be in enduring felicity in this world, in the isthmus (barzakh) and on the Appointed Day, while the one who raises objections will be in a painful torment: hell suffices for him, an evil resting place.

These results arise only through the [spiritual] breaths (al- anfds), that is, by receiving [instruction regarding] them from Masters of Wisdom (al-sada al-akyds).24 If someone is without these [spiritual] breaths, it is as if he builds a wall without a foundation. However, if he can’t find a perfect one (al-kdmil), then he should make pure his intention in this matter, and perhaps he will acquire some of these benefits, if his innermost intention is good. What we have mentioned is sufficient for those who seek, and the [prayer’s] benefits are not hidden from the perfect ones.

Many of the properties detailed above and in comparable lists reflect the preoccupations of a pre-modern world in which forces of nature, often attributed to active but imperceptible spirits such as the jinn, were a potent reminder of the precariousness of human life.25 Special liturgical texts attributed to various saints of early and medieval Islam served at the front line in the effort to ward off these threats to life and limb, by subduing such forces.26 They could also be used to neutralise the potential hostility or harmful intentions of jinn in any other circumstances, as indeed those of fellow men. The protective power attributed to such texts conferred a talismanic character upon them, reflected in the sense which has become attached to terms such as hizb and hirz commonly used to designate them27 (and in the instructions for use that often accompany them). The power or baraka of such texts is perceived to derive from that which inheres in the Qur’anic verses, salawat (and sometimes muqatta'dt or letter clusters prefacing certain suras) they encompass.28 The saintly stature of their authors confers a particular efficacy upon them, for it is believed that the prayers of a saint are more likely to be heard. As inspired compositions bestowed only upon saintly figures, such texts indeed serve as vehicles for their authors’ spiritual authority29 and, of more immediate interest to the supplicant, for the unique inter-

cessory potential that flows from their closeness to God as His friends.

Taking its place in this liturgical arsenal, the Dawr appears alongside a wide range of other protective prayers in our sources, notably the ahzab of Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili30 and the hirz of Abu Madyan,31 but also less well-known prayers with properties of healing or defending against the plague, for example.32 Commentators draw out the protective potential of the Dawr by sketching talismans and ‘magic squares’ with words, letters and numbers: these represent individual verses, and are often accompanied by details of their specific uses.33 Copyists enhance this protective quality by inserting additional supplications with protective force.34 While most of our sources stress the importance of reciting the prayer if its protective and other benefits are to be enjoyed,35 the talismanic character of the text is highlighted by the latest of our commentators, al-Qawuqji, who suggests that such benefits accrue from simply carrying the text. The dead, too, can benefit, he adds, for if it is buried with them they will be protected from the torment of the grave.36

As al-Damuni’s list makes clear, the prayer’s powers also encompass the materialisation of ‘positive’ effects with regard to relations in the world, in particular the awakening of esteem and affection in people’s hearts. Some mention that it can bring forth obedience ‘in both earthly and heavenly realms’ to whoever recites it. Other lists add to this the power to facilitate exigencies of buying, selling and other kinds of transaction.37 Of particular interest to those who travel the spiritual journey of tasawwuf, further benefits are reflected in the prayer’s title. One copyist thus offers the following version of this: Hizb al-wiqaya li-man arada al-wilaya, ‘prayer of protection for one who strives for close friendship [with God]’.38 Commentators and copyists repeat that people of verification who are sincere in service have ‘tried and tested’ the prayer’s special properties. Through their pure, elevated spiritual resolution (himma), they have experienced its benefits and witnessed uncountable secrets.39

According to commentators and copyists, the prayer is thus ‘an eternal secret’: it is ‘a sharp sword’ that emanates from ‘the most

secret of affairs’.40 As in the case of other prayers, they attribute the powers of the Dawr to the Qur’anic verses and Divine Names it encompasses.41 The benefits associated with both elements are explained, but commentators pay particular attention to the Divine Names,42 citing well-known Qur’an and hadith texts that urge use of these in supplication and detail the benefits that are associated with them.43 As al-Damuni puts it, the Names are thus ‘the door - indeed the keys to the locked doors, and they encompass a speedy response for anyone who orients his heart to his Lord.’44 Al-Tafilati repeats a caution advanced by scholar-mystics that the Divine Names should be used not for the exclusive end of earthly fortune, but out of pure obedience to His command to use them in supplication. Thus entrusting matters to God, he explains, it becomes possible for one to succeed in worshipping Him as the goal, and in having one’s earthly requests met consequentially.45

Like al-Damuni, most commentators and copyists single out as a sine qua non for actualising the prayer’s benefits the sincerity of the reader’s intention, and their purity of heart.46 Some explicitly add to this the need, to which al-Damuni alludes, for ‘permission from a guide (murshid) perfect in knowledge and conduct’.47 In the absence of such guidance, however, recitation of the prayer is still encouraged (with pure intention), as is the hope for actualising at least some of its potential benefits.48 This suggests that such recitation without a specific ijdza was countenanced, in evidence and perhaps even relatively widespread by the late 18th century, adumbrating popularisation of the prayer in the following centuries.

^e text and its contents

It seems more appropriate in discussing a prayer like the Dawr to think in terms of a stable text and its variants, rather than a critical edition. As a living text in constant use, versions displaying small differences have become established as equally acceptable across time, reflecting a cumulative process of variation taking place at the

interface between oral transmission and committing to writing, and possibly compounded by the operation of personal preference and tricks of memory. The variants of which they are aware (which they may have discovered in written copies they have surveyed) have indeed been carefully marked by some who have presented the prayer in the last few centuries, pointing to a conviction of the equal validity and prayerful importance of each of these.49 At the same time, copyists and commentators implicitly showcase their own ‘personal’ text, which they may have received through an authorisation from a shaykh.

Towards establishing a stable text of the prayer and identifying accepted variations in this we surveyed a wide range of written copies, in the hope of building a picture of how it has been recorded (and thus recited) and transmitted through the last four centuries. There are numerous differences in these copies: perhaps somewhat surprisingly, these also touch the Qur’anic content. In some cases this reflects a legitimate Qur’anic alternative, but in others it must be attributed to inaccuracy of presentation.50 Many apparent textual differences in prayer copies can of course be put down to errors of hearing, memorisation, reading or copying, but there are also interpolations, some pious, others explanatory in character. We do not mention each and every difference in the notes accompanying the text, as is often done in critical editions. As our target is a text we hope may serve as a ‘standard’ version that is readily usable, only significant and interesting differences felt to constitute genuine variations are recorded. In preparing the text the aim was to bring out in the best possible form the meanings of the prayer and the sentiments that infuse it, while paying due attention to internal structure and consistency (both of the overall text and its individual verses), literary dimensions, and aspects of auditory texture like rhythm and fluency.

One might legitimately ask why it is worthwhile to produce such a text. First, from a devotional perspective it can be important for those who use the prayer to be confident of reciting an authentic and accurate text. Differences between printed versions specifically (i.e.

those actually in use today for devotional purposes) reviewed by the present author may not appear great, but they are significant enough to be noteworthy. Moreover, there are grammatical errors and spelling inaccuracies in several of these. Second, the identification of a stable text makes possible a well-founded mapping in the prayer of characteristic motifs and subtleties of its author’s perspective.

The text we present is based on thirteen copies set out in the Appendix, all but one of them in the form of unpublished manuscripts. These are the most important of the copies reviewed, selected for their association with a chain of transmission, a specific date (paying particular attention to the earliest specifically), or a known figure.51 Two further copies with full vowels were closely consulted for clarity. Five of the copies used arise in commentaries on the prayer. Particular care must be exercised in working with these as the greater volume of text involved can make it more likely for the copyist (or scribe) to introduce errors.52

The Dawr has thirty-three verses, suggesting the image of the traditional string of prayer-beads (tasbih; subha). Its recitation also evokes the image of a necklace: Divine Name pairs and Qur’anic texts form focal points of precious stones, strung together and set off by supplications and rhythmic word chains. Each verse begins with the invocation of two Divine Names and ends in Allah, the Complete or Unifying Name (al-ism al-jami'), with which the prayer as a whole also begins (Allahumma).53 Within each prayer verse the Names invoked, the specific object of the supplication and the Qur’anic text are integrated, the latter (more precisely its Qur’anic context) effectively furnishing an illustrative and explanatory scenario for the former.

As Qur’anic texts and invocations of Divine Names form the prayer’s outstanding features, the notes that accompany the translation elaborate on these areas specifically.54 Where this is not given in the prayer we provide the full Qur’anic verse, indicating how the author of the prayer has quoted this.55 We detail the immediate context of each Qur’anic text quoted, making it possible to elaborate the relationship between this and the specific object of supplication.

The notes also identify Names invoked that do not derive from the traditional list of ninety-nine,56 pointing up those among them that can be found in the Qur’an.57

In rendering the Names into English we have drawn on Ibn 'Arabi’s explication of these in his K. Kashf al-ma’na ’an asma’ Allah al-husna.58 Here he provides a threefold elaboration of the qualities of each Name as the servant might relate to them: first, from the perspective of the servant who has ‘absolute need’ for these qualities, since they denote the Essence (al-ta’alluq); second, a spiritual knowledge and realisation of the meanings of these qualities as they relate to the Divine Himself and as they relate to the servant (al-tahaqquq); and third, in the manifestation of these qualities in the servant in a manner appropriate to the servant, just as they appear in Him (al-takhalluq).59 To bring out this understanding of the qualities of the Names it was necessary in several cases to provide extended meanings in the translation, given in square brackets. Beyond this, a few such brackets are also used as an aid to accuracy and clarity in rendering the sense of the original (including some Qur’anic texts) into English.

With respect to the prayer’s Qur’anic content, over a third of the Qur’anic texts incorporated take the form of a direct divine address to a prophet, or appear on the tongue of a prophet. Moses (Musa) features most frequently among them, but there are also utterances by Abraham (Ibrahim) and Joseph (Yusuf), for example.60 Prayer verse 13, which incorporates part of a Qur’anic verse concerning Joseph, serves to illustrate the rich and subtle composition which shapes the prayer text, while pointing also to the operation of different levels of meaning within it. Taken from the story of Joseph in surat Yusuf, the Qur’anic verse in question tells of the impact of Joseph’s stunning beauty on the women invited by the wife of the Egyptian in whose employ he was. They had been whispering maliciously that she had been soliciting him, but when they saw him they were so astounded that they cut their hands with the knives provided for the banquet to which she had invited them. The verse ends with their exclamation ‘This is no mortal; he is no other than a

noble angel! ’ In verse 13 of the prayer, the supplicant solicits a vision of the Divine Beauty, as in the vision experienced by the women of the beauty embodied by Joseph. The request is addressed through the Names of Majesty (invoking explicitly the Names al-Jalil and al-Kabir), so that through them the Divine Beauty will descend in His Solicitous Majesty. Verse 13 thus alludes to an experience of utter awe in the face of Beauty which discloses the Divine Majesty, Perfection and Solicitude (ijlal, ikmal, iqbal).61 The framing of the request in terms of the metaphor of ‘clothing with a robe’ resonates immediately with Joseph’s own ‘cloak of many colours’, but also with the khirqa or sufi mantle, a symbol of those Perfect Servants in whom the divine qualities appear through the mysteries of takhalluq referred to above.

Regarding the literary style of the prayer, while it is impossible to emulate the original an effort has been made to retain characteristic features of this in translation, particularly those relating to auditory texture. These include the ending of each of the prayer’s verses in ‘Allah’,62 and the frequent multiple word chains. In the latter case repeated word patterns that help build rhythm (using particular forms of the verbal noun, for example) cannot be repeated in translation.63

It remains finally to underline the embedded-ness of the prayer text (like other works of Ibn 'Arabi) in the universe of traditional Muslim piety, a universe ultimately rooted in the revealed text with its leitmotifs of man’s utter dependence and vulnerability, and the potential nobility of his aspirations and destiny.

Translation and
Arabic text

The Most Elevated Cycle
that brings one close to
Every Station of The Most High

by

Shaykh Muhyi al-Din
Muhammad b. 'Ali b. al-'Arabi

الدور الأعلى

المقرب الى كل مقام الآعلى

للشيخ محي الدين محمد بن علي بن العربي

تحقيق سهى التاجي الفاروقي

ل8

In the Name of Allah, the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful

1. O Allah! O You who are the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting! In You I establish my protection: shelter me with the shielding, protective sufficiency and safeguarding, the reality and proof, the stronghold and security of In the Name of Allah .64
2. Admit me, O You who are the First and Last, to the hidden domain of the unknowable, secret and encompassing treasure of As Allah wills! There is no power save in Allah.65
3. Unfurl over me, O You who choose Clemency [over censure], who Veil in Protection,66 the sheltering wing, the covering veil, the preservation and deliverance of Holdfast to the bond of Allah .67
4. Build around me, O You who are the All-Encompassing,68 the All-Powerful, the secure, encircling wall, the glorious canopy, the might and majesty of That is better, that is of the signs of Allah .69
5. Place me under Your protection, O You who are Observant [of all needs] and Responsive [to all requests]: preserve my soul and faith, my family and children, my home and estate, through the watchfulness, protectiveness and timely relief and assistance of But [Satan] will not hurt them anything, save by the leave of Allah .70

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم

١ اللهم يا حي يا قيوم بك تحصنت فاحمني بحماية كفاية وقاية حقيقة

برهان حرز امان بسم الله

٢ وادخلني يا أول يا آخر مكنون غيب سر دائرة كنز ماشاء الله لاقوة الا الله

٣ واسبل علي يا حليم يا ستار كنف سترحجاب صيانة نجاة واعتصموا بحبل الله

٤ وابن يا محيط يا قادر علي سور أمان احاطة مجد سرادق عز:

عظمة ذلك خيرة ذلك من آيات الله

٥ وآعذني يا رقيب يا مجيب واحرسني في نفسي وديني واهلي وولدي وداري ومالية بكلاءة اعاذة اغاثة، وليس بضارهم شيئا: الا باذن الله

٨: word missing. B: missing but gives as alternative

D omits ذالك خير but gives as alternative

Order of the last four words varies, some omit داري or مالي D, E and M add اعانة

(0.2:102) وما هم بضارين به من احد :D

6. Shield me, O You who Protect [from corruption] and Repel [all evil],71 by Your Names, Verses and Words, from the evil of Satan and of the powerful, such that if an oppressor or tyrant treats me unjustly, he will be taken by An enveloping chastisement of Allah .72
7. Deliver me, O You who Abase [those who would set themselves above You] and who Avenge [without pardon], from Your iniquitous slaves who wrong me and from their minions, such that if one of them intends me ill, Allah will forsake him, Setting a seal upon his hearing and his heart, and laying a cover on his seeing Who then will guide him, after Allah?73
8. Protect me, O You who Seize and Vanquish, from their treacherous deception: repel them from me censured, driven away in blame and routed, through the damaging, corrupting and destruction in And there was no host to help him, apart from Allah .74
9. Let me taste, O You who are Ever Glorified and Praised,75 Ever Sanctified and Holy, the sweet delight and intimate converse of Come forward and fear not; for surely you are among those who are secure76 in the shelter of Allah.

٦ وقني يا مانع يا دافعة باسمائك" وآياتك وكلماتك شر الشيطان والسلطان فان ظالم آو جبار بغى علي آخذته غاشية من عذاب الله ٧ ونجني يا مذل يا منتقم من عبيدك الظلمة» الباغين علي وآعوانهم فان هم لي منهم آحده بسوء خذله الله»! وختم على سمعه وقلبه وجعل على بصره غشاوة فمن يهديه من بعد الله

10. واكفني يا قابض يا قهار خديعة مكرهم وارددهم عني مذمومين مذؤومين مدحورين بتخسير تغيير تدميرة: فما كان له من فئة ينصرونه من دون الله
11. وآذقني يا سبوح يا قدوس لذة مناجاة آقبل ولا تخف انك من الآمنين في كنفة: الله
12. E, G, H,I,JandM: نافع. C رافع. H adds يا باريء
13. B and C: بحق اسماءك
14. D, E, F, G, H,KandM: الظالمين
15. A, D, E, G, LandM: احد منهم
16. G and H: أخذ له الله (H gives خذله الله as alternative)
17. Word chain varies: some give تحسير / تجسير instead of or in addition to

تخسير, and give تكدير instead of or in addition to تدمير

18. E and بفضل :ا and in margin في كنف or في كنف الله بفضل الله ; F, G, J and K: بفضل

الله. H omits the phrase and proceeds directly from من الامنين to verse 10, thus collating verses 9 and 10 into a single verse• Note that the Quranic verse ends with الامنين

10. And let them taste, O You who inflict Harm and take away Life, the exemplary punishment, the evil consequences and annihilation in So the last remnant of the people who did evil was cut off Praise belongs to Allah.77
11. Make me safe, O You who are Peace of Perfection, the Giver of Security, from the sudden sorties of the enemy forces, through the aim of the beginning of the verse For them are good tidings in the life of this world and in the hereafter. There is no changing the words of Allah .78
12. Crown me, O You who are the Sublimely Magnificent, the One who Raises in Honour, with the crown of the awesome grandeur, the majestic dominion, the sovereignty, might and magnificence of And do not let their saying grieve you. Indeed the honour and glory belong to Allah.79
13. Clothe me, O You who are Solicitous in Benevolent Majesty, the Incomparably Great, in the robe that renders the august majesty, complete perfection and attentive solicitude in And when they saw him, they so admired him that they cut their hands, saying ‘May we be saved by Allah!’80
14. Bring down upon me, O You who are the Eminent in Affection, the Constant in Love, love [extended] from You, so that through it the hearts of Your servants will be guided to me, yielding to me with love, affectionate and unwavering, from the filling with love, the softening of hearts and the coming into loving union in They love them as if it were love for Allah, but those who believe are more ardent in love for Allah.81

١٠ واذقهم يا ضاريا مميت نكال وبال زوال فقطع دابر القوم الذين ظلموا والحمد لله

١١ وآمني يا سلام يا مؤمن«! صولة جولة دولة الآعداءبغاية بداية آية لهم البشرى في الحياة الدنيا وفي الآخرة لاتبديل لكلمات الله

١٢ وتوجني يا عظيم يا معز بتاج مهابة كبرياء جلال»! سلطان ملكوت عز عظمة«: ولا يحزنك قولهم ان العزة لله

١٣ وآلبسني يا جليل يا كبير خلعة اجلال اكمالة: اقبال فلما رأينه آكبرنه وقطعن آيديهن وقلن حاش لل

١٤ وآلق يا عزيز يا ودود علي محبة منك فتنقاد وتخضع"! لي بها قلوب"! عبادك بالمحبة والمعزة والمودة من تعطيف تلطيف«! تأليف يحبونهم كحب الله والذين آمنوا اشد حبأ لل

13• E adds يا مهيمن in margin as alternative

14•        : جمال. G, Hand M omit word

15• K adds جبروت some change the order to ملكوت سلطان

16• Some give instead جلال and كمال some add جمال and vary the order

حتى تنقاد وتخضع :17•        A

18•        G, H, I, J, Land M omit word

19•        F, G, H, I, J and K omit word

15. Show upon me, O You who are the Manifest and Hidden, traces of the luminous mysteries of He loves them and they love Him: [they are] soft towards the believers, hard on the unbelievers, striving in the path of Allah .82
16. Turn my face, O Allah, O You who are the Eternal Refuge, the Essential Light, with the sheer purity, beauty, intimacy and illumination of So if they dispute with you, say, A have surrendered myself to Allah ’.83
17. Beautify me, O You who are the Originator [in Beauty] of the heavens and the earth,84 who possess Sublime Majesty and Ennobling Generosity, with the flawless fluency, supreme eloquence and surpassing skill in ‘Unloose the knot upon my tongue, so that they understand my words’85 through the kindly, merciful gentleness of Then their skins and their hearts soften to the remembrance of Allah .86
18. Gird me, O You who are the Most Severe in Assault,87 the All-Compeller, with the sword of awesome forcefulness and invincible power, from the glorious strength, omnipotence and might in There is no help to victory except from Allah .88
19. Give me ever, O You who Expand and Open up to Victory, the joyful delight in ‘My Lord, lay open for me my chest, and ease for me my task’89 through the subtle sentiments, the inner affections in Did we not lay open for you your chest? ,90 and through the happy exuberance and glad tidings in That day the believers shall rejoice, in the victorious help of Allah .91

١٥ واظهر علي يا ظاهر يا باطن آثار أسرار انوار يحبهم ويحبونه أذلة على المؤمنين آعزة على الكافرين يجاهدون في سبيل الله

١٦ ووجه اللهم يا صمد يا نور وجهي بصفاء جمال أنس اشراقاة فان حاجوك فقل آسلمت وجهي لله

١٧ وجملني يا بديع السماوات والارض يا ذا الجلال والاكرام بالفصاحة والبلاغة والبراعة:ة واحلل عقدة من لساني يفقهوا قولي

-و. - ٠٠٥ تتم. ٦ك - ٦ 98 ٥٤٦ -9٤ ووه Cر٥ س

برأفة رحمة^[1] رقة ثم تلين جلودهم وقلوبهم الى ذكر اللم

١٨ وقلدني يا شديد البطش يا جبار بسيف الهيبة«ة والشدة والقوة والمنعة من بأس جبروت عزة وما النصر الا من عند الله

١٩ وآدم علي يا باسط يا فتاح بهجة مسرة رب اشرح لي صدري ويسر لي امري بلطائف عواطفة الم نشرح لك صدرك وبأشائر بشائرة ويومئذ يفرح المؤمنون بنصر الله

٠ س م ت        -        -

20•        Some add to this chain ضياء or وفاء or بهجة or جلال

20. Send down upon my heart, O Allah, O You who are the Most Subtly Benevolent, the Supremely Kind [who establishes True Welfare] ,92 faith, tranquillity and peaceful calm,93 that I may be of Those who have faith and whose hearts are at peace in the remembrance of Allah .94
21. Pour over me, O You who are the Superlatively Forbearing and Steadfast, to Whom all Gratitude is due for Your blessings, the steadfastness of those who have armed themselves with the unshakable resolve, certitude and empowerment of Flow often has a small unit overcome a sizeable one, by the permission of Allah.’95
22. Preserve me, O You who are the All-Preserving Guardian, to Whom all things are Entrusted, before me and behind me, on my right and on my left, above me and below me, through the ever-present, witnessing, assembling hosts of He has attendant angels, before him and behind him, watching over him by the command of Allah ?6
23. Plant firm my feet, O Allah, O You who are the One who Stands [over every soul] ,97 the Forever Enduring,98 as You made firm the one who said ‘How should I fear what you have associated [with Him], when you do not fear [the fact] that you have established associates beside Allah? ’99
24. Help me, O You who are the Best Protector, the Most Excellent Helper,100 against the enemy, in the way that You helped the one to whom [his people] said Are you making fun of us? ’ He replied, I take refuge in Allah’.101
25. Support me, O You who Demand102 and Prevail in Victory,103 with the strengthening support of Your Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be the blessings and peace of Allah, who was given the mighty and honoured rank of We have sent you as witness, bearer of good tidings and warner, so that you [all] may have faith in Allah .104

٢٠ وانزل اللهم يا لطيف يا رؤوف بقلبي الايمان والاطمينان والسكينة»: لاكون من الذين آمنوا وتطمئن قلوبهم بذكر الله ٢١ وآفرغ علي يا صبور يا شكور صبر الذين تدرعوا7ة بثبات يقين تمكين كم من فئة قليلة غلبت فئة كثيرة باذن الله

٢٢ واحفظني يا حفيظ يا وكيل من بين يدي ومن خلفي وعن يميني وعن شمالي ومن فوقي ومن تحتي بوجود شهود جنود له معقبات من بين يديه ومن خلفه يحفظونه من آمر الله

٢٣ وثبت اللهم يا قائم يا دائم قدمي كما ثبت القائل وكيف اخاف ما أشركتم ولا تخافون آنكم أشركتم بالله

٢٤ وانصرني يا نعم المولى ويا نعم النصير على الاعداء«ة نصر الذي قيل له أتتخذنا هزوا قال اعون بالله

٢٥ وايدني يا طالب يا غالب بتأييد نبيك محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم المؤيدهة بتعزيزتوقير انا أرسلناك شاهدا ومبشرا ونذيرا لتؤمنوا بالله

2. F, K and M add والوقار
3. H and شذعوا :٣

6. G, H, I, ل and M: اعدائي. D omits the phrase, but gives as alternative

B, C, D, F, G, H: المؤيد

26. Suffice me, O You who Suffice in every need,105 who Restore [to Wholesomeness],106 against [all] afflictions and ills, through the great benefit and lesson in If We had sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled, reduced to rubble out of the fear of Allah .107
27. Confer upon me, O You who Bestow Blessings Freely, who Provide Nourishment and Sustenance, the arising, arriving and accepting of the arranging, making easy and rendering suitable for use [contained] in Eat and drink of the provision of Allah .108
28. Enjoin on me, O You who are Wholly and Only One,109 the Utterly Unique,110 the [constant duty of the] word of Oneness, which You imposed upon Your beloved Muhammad, upon whom be the blessings and peace of Allah, when You said Know then that there is no god but Allah.111
29. Invest me, O You who are the Close Friend and Patron, the Supremely High, with Your close friendship, protective care and keeping, and flawless wholesomeness, through the utmost provision, favour and support of That is of the grace of Allah .112
30. Give me, O You who are Rich beyond need, the Noble who respond in Generosity [to all requests], the honour of felicity, esteem, munificence and unconditional forgiveness, as You honoured Those who lower their voices in the presence of the Messenger of Allah .113

٢٦ واكفني يا كافي يا شافي الادواء والاسواءة بعوائد فوائد لو أنزلنا هذا القرآن على جبل لرأيته خاشعا متصدعا من خشية الله

٢٧ وامنن علي يا وهاب يا رزاق بحصول وصول قبول تدبير:« تيسير تسخير كلوا واشربوا من رزق الله

٢٨ وآلزمني يا واحد يا أحد كلمة التوحيدءة كما الزمت حبيبك محمدا

صلى الله عليه وسلم حيث قلت فاعلم آنه لا إله الا الله ^[2]

٢٩ وتولني يا ولي يا علي بالولاية والعناية والرعاية»« والسلامة بمزيد

ايراد اسعاد اصداد3 ذلك من فضل الله ^[3]

٣٠ وآكرمني يا غني يا كريم بالسعادة والسيادة والكرامة والمغفرة كما آكرمت الذين يغضون آصواتهم عند رسول الله

30•        Some give شر الاعداء instead of الادواء. Some split the pair of Names, giving in

varying order: يا كافي الاسواء يا شافي الادواء

31 C, E, G, H,J and M omit word• B, D and L give it after تيسير

32•        A, B, C, E, F, Hand K give: التقوى

31. Turn to me, O You who Turn constantly in Forgiveness, the Clement, with pardon and counsel, so that I may be of Those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and ask for forgiveness of their wrong-doings — and who forgives wrong-doings save Allah ?114
32. Seal my days, O You who are the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful, with the finest conclusion [of] those who are delivered and [those] who are full of hope: O My servants who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah .115
33. Bring me to dwell, O You who are the All-Hearing, the Ever- Near,116 in a Garden prepared for the god-fearing: Their call therein is ‘Glory to You, O Allah’, their greeting therein is ‘Peaee,, and their call culminates in ‘Praise belongs to Allah’.117

O Allah, O Allah, O Allah, O Allah!

O You who are Pure Beneficence,

O You who are Pure Beneficence,

O You who are Pure Beneficence, O You who are Pure Beneficence!

O All-Compassionate One, O All-Compassionate One, O All-Compassionate One, O All-Compassionate One!

O You who are Sheer Mercy, O You who are Sheer Mercy, O You who are Sheer Mercy, O You who are Sheer Mercy!

٣١ وتب علي يا تواب يا حليم" ة توبة نصوحا لاكون ض الذين اذا فعلوا فاحشة آو ظلموا آنفسهم ذكروا الله فاستغفروا لذنوبهم ومن يغفر الذنوب الأ الله ^[4]

٣٢ واختم لي يا رحمان يا رحيم بحسن خاتمة الناجين والرأجين«: يا عبادي الذين آسرفوا على أنفسهم لا تقنطوا من رحمة الله

٣٣ وآسكني يا سميع يا قريب جنة»ه أعدت للمتقين:، دعواهم فيها

سئحانك اللهم ، تحدتهم فبها سلام 1 : " دعهاهم آ' الحمد لله سبحانك اللهم وتحيتهم فيها سلام وآخر دعواهم ان الحمد لله

دا الله دا الله دا الله ل1 الله

يا نافع يا نافع يا نافع يا نافع

يا رحمان يا رحمان يا رحمان يا رحمان

يا رحيم يا رحيم يا رحيم يا رحيم ^[5]

I ask of You through the sacred sanctity of these Names, Verses and Words,118 an authoritative strength that brings success,119 a bountiful livelihood, a joyful heart, abundant knowledge, beneficent works, a luminous grave, an easy account [on the Day of Reckoning] and a goodly portion in Paradise. May Allah bless our master Muhammad and his family and companions; may the peace of Allah be upon them, a plentiful peace, until the Day of Resurrection. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

واسئلكه بحرمة هذه الاسماء والايات والكلمات ^[6] سلطانا نصيرا ورزقاً كثيرا«» وقلبا قريرا وعلما غريرا^[7] وعملا بريرا67 وقبرا منيرا وحسابا يسيرا وملكا في الفردوس كبيرا وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى اله وصحبه وسلم تسليما كثيرا الى يوم الدين،

والحمد لله رب العالمين ^[8]

used also vary, with the occasional 20 01 1 00/5 5: 1:0 لما of eg رافع ,دافع and نور. Alongside the one represented here, another common version is as follows: يا الله x 3 or 4; يا نافع يا رحمان يا رحيم x 1 At this point further text is added in K (al-HisarT comments on 10.1202 that he received this version through a chain connecting his shaykh to Ibn ’ArabT); it appears as an alternative in A and . The version given here follows K with some amendments:

وبقدرة بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم ارفع قدري واشرح صدري ويسر آمري وارزقني من حيث لا احتسب بفضلك وإحسانك وكرمك. يا هو يا هو يا هو. كهيعص حم عسق. وآستلك بجمال العزة وجلال الهيبة وعز القدرة وجبروت العظمة آن تجعلني من عبادك الصالحين الذين لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون

اللهم 206 200 ,ل ,٤ .43

al-Dawr al-a'la

al-muqarrib ila kulli maqam al-a'la

Bismi-llahi-r-rahmani-r-rahim

1. Allahumma ya Hayy ya Qayyum, bika tahassantu fa-hmini bi-himayati kifayati wiqayati haqiqati burhani hirzi amani bismi-llah
2. wa-adkhilni ya Awwal ya Akhir, maknuna ghaybi sirri da’irati kanzi ma sha’a-llah la quwata illa bi-llah
3. wa-asbil 'alayya ya Halim ya Sattar, kanafa sitri hijabi siyanati najati wa-’tasimu bi-habli-llah
4. wa-bni ya Muhit ya Qadir 'alayya sura amani ihatati majdi suradiqi 'izzi 'azamati dhalika khayrun; dhalika min ayati-llah
5. wa-a' idhni ya Raqib ya Mujib, wa-hrusni fi nafsi wa-dini wa- ahli wa-waladi wa-dari wa-mali, bi-kala’ati i'adhati ighathati wa-laysa bi-darrihim shay’an illa bi-idhni-llah
6. wa-qini ya Mani' ya Dafi' bi-asma’ik wa-ayatik wa-kalimatik sharra-sh-shaytani wa-s-sultan, fa-in zalimun aw jabbar bagha 'alayya akhadhathu ghashiyatun min 'adhabi-llah

7. wa-najjini ya Mudhill ya Muntaqim min 'abidika-z-zalama al- baghin 'alayya wa a'wanihim, fa-in hamma li minhum ahadun bi-su’ khadhalahu-llah wa-khatama 'alasam'ihi wa-qalbihi wa- ja’ala ’ala basarihi ghishawatan fa-man yahdihi min ba’di-llah
8. wa-kfini ya Qabid ya Qahhar khadi'ata makrihim, wa- rdudhum 'anni madhmumin madh’umin madhurin bi-takhsiri taghyiri tadmiri fa-md kana lahu min fi’atin yansurunahu min duni-lldh
9. wa-adhiqni ya Subbuh ya Quddus ladhdhata munajati aqbil wa- Id takhaf; innaka mina-l-dminina fi kanafi-llah
10. wa-adhiqhum ya Darr ya Mumit nakala wabali zawali fa-quti'a ddbiru-l-qawmi-lladhina zalamu; wa-l-hamdu li-lldh
11. wa-aminni ya Salam ya Mu’min sawlata jawlati dawlati-l-a'da’i bi-ghayati bidayati ayati lahumu-l-bushrdfi-l-haydti-d-dunyd wa- fi-l-dkhira; ld tabdila li-kalimdti-lldh
12. wa-tawwijni ya 'Azim ya Mu'izz, bi-taji kibriya’i jalali sultani malakuti 'izzi 'azamati wa-ldyahzunka qawluhum; inna-l- 'izzata li-lldh
13. wa-albisni ya Jalil ya Kabir, khil'ata ijlali ikmali iqbali fa-lammd ra’aynahu akbarnahu wa-qatta'na aydiyahunna wa-qulna hdsha li-lldh
14. wa-alqi ya 'Aziz ya Wadud 'alayya mahabbatan minka fa- tanqada wa-takhda'a li biha qulubu 'ibadika bi-l-mahabba wa- l-ma'azza wa-l-mawadda, min ta'tifi taltifi ta’lifiyuhibbunahum ka-hubbi-lldh; wa-lladhina dmanu ashaddu hubban li-lldh
15. wa-azhir 'alayya ya Zahir ya Batin athara asrari anwari yuhibbuhum wa-yuhibbunahu adhillatin 'ala-l-mu’minin a'izzatin 'ala-l-kdfirin yujdhiduna fi sabili-lldh
16. wa-wajjihi-llahumma ya Samad ya Nur wajhi bi-safa’i jamali unsi ishraqi fa-in hdjjuka fa-qul aslamtu wajhi li-lldh
17. wa-jammilni ya Badi'a-s-samawati wa-l-ard, ya Dha-l-Jalali wa- l-Ikram, bi-l-fasaha wa-l-balagha wa-l-bara'a wa-hlul 'uqdatan min lisanT, yafqahu qawlT bi-ra’ fati rahmati riqqati thumma talTnu juluduhum wa-qulubuhum ila dhikri-llah
18. wa-qallidni ya Shadida-l-batsh ya Jabbar bi-sayfi-l-hayba wa- sh-shidda wa-l-quwa wa-l-mana'a, min ba’si jabaruti 'izzati wa- ma-n-nasru illa min ’indi-llah
19. wa-adim 'alayya ya Basit ya Fattah, bahjata masarrat rabbi- shrah li sadri, wa-yassir li amri bi-lata’ifi ’awatifi a-lam nashrah laka sadrak wa-bi-asha’iri basha’iri wa-yawma’idhin yafrahu-l- mu’minuna bi-nasri-llah
20. wa-anzil allahumma ya Latif ya Ra’uf bi-qalbi-l-iman wa- l-itminan wa-s-sakina, li-akuna mina-lladhTna amanu wa- tatma’innu qulubuhum bi-dhikri-llah
21. wa-afrigh 'alayya ya Sabur ya Shakur sabra-lladhina tadarra'u bi-thabati yaqini tamkini kam minfi’atin qalTlatin ghalabat fi’atan kathTratan bi-idhni-llah
22. wa-hfazni ya Hafiz ya Wakil min bayni yadayya wa-min khalfi, wa-'an yamini wa-'an shimali, wa-min fawqi wa-min tahti, bi- wujudi shuhudi junudilahu muaqqibatun min bayni yadayhi wa min khalfihi, yahfazunahu min amri-llah
23. wa-thabbiti-llahumma ya Qa’imya Da’im qadamayya, kama thabbatta-l-qa’il wa-kayfa akhafu ma ashraktum wa-la takhafuna annakum ashraktum bi-llah
24. wa-nsurni ya Ni'ma-l-Mawla wa-ya Ni'ma-n-Nasir 'ala-l- a'da’i nasra-lladhi qila lahu atattakhidhuna huzuwa; qala a’udhu bi-llah
25. wa-ayyidni ya Talib ya Ghalib, bi-ta’yidi nabiyika Muhammad salla-llahu 'alayhi wa-sallam, al-mu’ayyad bi-ta'zizi tawqiri inna arsalnaka shahidan wa mubashshiran wa-nadhTra, li-tu’minu bi-llah
26. wa-kfini ya Kafi ya Shafi, al-adwa’a wa-l-aswa’a, bi-'awa’idi fawa’idi law anzalna hadha-l-qur’ana 'aldjabalin la-ra’aytahu khdshi ’an mutasaddi ’an min khashyati-llah
27. wa-mnun 'alayya ya Wahhab ya Razzaq bi-husuli wusuli qabuli tadbiri taysiri taskhiri kulu wa-shrabu min rizqi-llah
28. wa-alzimni ya Wahid ya Ahad kalimata-t-tawhid kama alzamta habibaka Muhammad salla-llahu 'alayhi wa-sallam, haythu qulta fa-’lam annahu la ilaha illa-llah
29. wa-tawallani ya Waliy ya 'Aliy bi-l-wilaya wa-l-'inaya wa-r- ri'aya wa-s-salama bi-mazidi iradi is'adi imdadi dhalika min fadli-llah
30. wa-akrimni ya Ghaniy ya Karim bi-s-sa'ada wa-s-siyada wa- l-karama wa-l-maghfira kama akramta-lladhTna yaghudduna aswatahum ’inda rasuli-llah
31. wa-tub 'alayya ya Tawwab ya Halim tawbatan nasuha, li-akuna mina-lladhTna idha fa’alu fahishatan aw zalamu anfusahum dhakaru-llah fa-staghfaru li-dhunubihim wa-man yaghfiru-dh- dhunuba illa-llah
32. wa-khtim li ya Rahman ya Rahim bi-husni khatimati-n-najin wa-r-rajin ya ’ibadiya-lladhTna asrafu ’ala anfusihim la taqnatu min rahmati-llah
33. wa-askinni ya Sami' ya Qarib jannatan u'iddat li-l-muttaqin, da’wdhumfThd subhanaka-llahumma wa-tahiyyatuhum fTha salam, wa-akhiru da’wahum ani-l-hamdu li-llah

ya Allah, ya Allah, ya Allah, ya Allah

ya Nafi', ya Nafi', ya Nafi', ya Nafi'

ya Rahman, ya Rahman, ya Rahman, ya Rahman

ya Rahim, ya Rahim, ya Rahim, ya Rahim

wa-as’aluka bi-hurmati hadhihi-l-asma’ wa-l-ayat wa-l-kalimat sultanan nasira, wa-rizqan kathira, wa-qalban qarira, wa-'ilman ghazira, wa-'amalan barira, wa-qabran munira, wa-hisaban yasira, wa-mulkan fi-l-firdawsi kabira, wa-salla-llahu 'ala sayyidina Muhammad wa-'ala alihi wa-sahbihi wa-sallama tasliman kathira, ila yawmi-d-din, wa-l-hamdu li-llahi rabbi-l-'alamin

Notes

1. The following discussion draws only on Arabic sources: further examples in Ottoman Turkish arise in Yazma Bagijlar 2934 and Haci Mahmud Efendi 3950, for example.
2. See F, fol. 144b. The signification of wird here is that of a specified time devoted regularly to such practice. The wird is thus often understood to comprise a set, supererogatory personal devotion observed at specific times, usually at least once during the day and once more at night. See ‘Wird’, p. 209.
3. See Haci Mahmud Efendi 4061, Esad Efendi 1442, Dugumlu Baba 506,1.
4. Beyazid 7880 recommends reading it three times in the morning. M recommends that it be read a little before the dawn prayer, D and F after it.
5. Nafiz Pa§a 702: for a complete cycle, see for example fols. 4a-14b.
6. G, M, Arif-Murad 58, §azeli 106, Genel 43, the latter added in a different hand.
7. For example, Esad Efendi 1442: the Dawr is added at the end of K. al-Rashahat al-anwariya fi sharh al-awrad al-akbariya, itself on the margin of the Awrad.
8. The great majority of copies of the Awrad likewise appear without the prayer. To mention an early example, Veliyuddin 1833 encompasses (alongside the Awrad) K. Mawaqi' al-nujum, K. al-Isra’ (copy dated AH 977, made in Damascus at the shrine of Ibn 'Arabi by Jibril b. Zayn al-'Abidin al-Ghazzi), extracts from al - Futuhat al- Makkiya and parts of the Tarjuman al-ashwaq, plus a supplication for the Day of 'Arafa, from al - Futuhat al-Makkiya.
9. Beyazid 7880 recommends that Hamid Wahhab be recited 76 times before each reading of the prayer. M recommends beginning with the salawat and then repetition of ya Hayy, ya Qayyum 174 times. Genel 43, fol. 29b details the following ‘keys’ to the prayer:

O Allah! O You in whose hand are the keys of the secrets of the unknowns, and the lamps of the lights of the hearts! I ask You through our master Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), to open for me the locked doors of these treasures, and to unveil for me the realities of these symbolic allusions. Ya Hu ya man Hu {7 times}. I ask You to bless the Sun of the gnostic sciences of Your Names, the Source of the secrets of Your light, who is the noble original Light-Tree and the radiant outpouring of the Origin, and the one who possesses the knowledges of the chosen (al-'ulum al-istifa’iya), under whose banner the prophets march. [I ask you to bless him] by the number of those You have created and sustained, from whom You have taken life and to whom You have given life, until You resurrect those You have annihilated. Ya Latif {129 times}, al-salat wa’l-salam 'alaykaya rasul Allah {29 times}, Allahu latif bi-'ibadihiyarzuqu manyasha’ wa huwa’l-Qawial-'Aziz {10 times}.

10. Haci Mahmud Efendi 4137 and Genel 43 recommend reciting surat al- Inshirah and the salawdt three times on completion. Haci Mahmud Efendi 4146 recommends reciting Yd la ildha illd Allah al-Rafi' jaldlatan 15 times. One copy on which our copy ‘I’ draws gives a special supplication at the end, the only one in our sources that encompasses specific mention of the prayer’s author as saintly intercessor. The supplication proceeds thus (fol. 64a):

O Allah, by Your permission and grace grant that the spiritual reality (ruhdniya) of the Muhammadan Heir, the shaykh and my master Muhyi al-Dln Muhammad b. 'All al-'Arabi (may Allah sanctify his secret) be of support to us, that it intercede and mediate for us with the Envoy of Allah (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and that it bring us glad tidings of the Compassionate Beatitude. Expand my chest, elevate my standing, and provide for me my sustenance without debit or credit, and be for us not against us, O You from Whom all help is sought. Amen. By Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful.

11. An example of such introductory and concluding recommendations currently circulating in print in Damascus is that provided by Abu’l-Yusr 'Abidin, referred to earlier.
12. See C, fols. 3b-5a.
13. The Arabic plurals qurand’, tawdbi', marada and zawdbi' require clarification. Used in the Qur’an eight times, qarin (pl. qurand’) denotes an inseparable or intimate companion, commonly referring to man’s spirit companion. According to Q 4: 38, Satan can be a qarin (he indeed follows men everywhere), and Q 43: 36 describes God assigning ‘a satan’ to man as a qarin when he turns away from the remembrance of Him. See also Q 50: 27. The oldest exegetical tradition posits a qarin at the side of every human in the form of a satan or jinn who tempts him to evil (even prophets have such a satan-companion, but the Prophet Muhammad converted his own to Islam). At the same time, there is at his side an angel, who induces him to good. These figures should not be confused with the recording angels. See ‘Qarin’, EI2, 4, pp.643-644. There are several hadith references to the qurand’: see for example Muslim, 4, 260 and 50: 69 [after A.J. Wensinck, A Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradition (Leiden, 1927)].

Tdbi'a (pl. tawdbi’) refers to a jinn female, who loves a man and follows him everywhere: it does not appear in the Qur’an. Mdrid (pl. marada) denotes someone who is insolent in rebellion: it is used in the Qur’an thus, and applied by extension to Satan (it is also a bad jinn’s name). Zawba'a (pl. zawdbi') denotes a suddenly rising wind that whips up whirling sand or dust clouds, but also a terrible and malicious jinn believed to preside over such windstorms and hurricanes.

14. On the jinn in the Qur’anic worldview and in Muslim folklore, see The Message of the Qur’an, tr. and explained by Muhammad Asad (Bristol, UK, 2003), Appendix III; ‘Djinn’, EI2, 2, pp.546-549.
15. Suggested here are the kinds of property associated with al-Shadhili’s popular Hizb al-bahr, which asks that the sea be ‘subjugated’ to those who are crossing it.
16. Associated with the evil eye, envy is recognised as a source of harm in Q 113: 5. The phrase ma sha’a Allah (As God wills!) is used as protection against it: see Padwick, Muslim Devotions, p. 88.
17. A popular belief that the jinn could inflict various illnesses, especially those involving paralysis (such as hemiplegia) is noteworthy here. See ‘Djinn’, p. 548.
18. On the shahada as the desired final utterance at the moment of death and the visitation and questioning of the two angels Munkar and Naklr on the first night in the tomb (according to the hadith), see Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp. 132-133, 278279, respectively.
19. qarin al-su : literally ‘the one who associates with evil’ or ‘the one for whom evil is an associate’, Satan. According to Q 4: 38, ‘the one for whom Satan is a companion; what an evil companion he has! ’
20. This is a loose rendering of umm al-sibyan. Classical dictionaries suggest this may denote baby colic, or epilepsy. According to a hadith the Prophet said ‘When a man has a newborn child and utters the adhan (the call to prayer) in his right ear and the iqama (the second call) in his left ear, umm al-sibyan will not affect the child.’ Cited by al-Ghazali under ‘Etiquette Concerning Having Children’, in Marriage and Sexuality in Islam: A Translation of al-Ghazali’s Book on the Etiquette of Marriage from the Ihya’, tr. Madelain Farah (Salt Lake City, UT, 1984), p. 114, including details of the hadith. Note finally the association of the root meaning of the word with the (sterile) east wind.
21. Literally the red wind: al-rih al-ahmar. The general association in this list of jinn (themselves fashioned out of ‘the fire of scorching winds’ according to Q 15:27) with winds that cause ill health is noteworthy. For examples of the Prophet’s prayers for protection from the evil of the wind, see A. H. Farid, Prayers of Muhammad (Lahore, 1999), p.233.
22. al-'uqud, literally knots; also compacts or bargains struck. Note also 'aqada nasiyatahu: he tied his forelock in preparation to attack or do harm to someone, and Q 113: 4, where the ‘blowing upon knots (’uqad)’ denotes occult activities.

On the widespread persistence in Muslim societies of the belief in and practice of magic (and the role in it of the jinn, under the command of a practitioner), advice concerning how to protect oneself from its effects and attitudes towards it among various contemporary Muslim authorities, see for example Remke Kruk, ‘Harry Potter in the Gulf: Contemporary Islam and the Occult’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 32: 1 (2005), pp.47-73; http://www.muttaqun.com/jinn.html and http://www.islamawareness.net/Jinn/. Texts of Qur’an and hadith of course affirm the reality of magic, but tend to refer to it in condemnatory terms (with some exceptions).

23. Literally: ‘an army difficult to repel’.
24. On the notion of [spiritual] breaths in Ibn 'Arabi’s thought, see William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-'Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany, NY, 1989), p.402 n. 18. In the present context, the reference is possibly to ‘the fragrances of nearness to God’. Chittick cites Ibn 'Arabi thus: ‘When the Gnostics smell

the perfume of these breaths...they come to know a divine person who has the mystery which they are seeking and the knowledge which they want to acquire.’

25. To take an example from Damascus, al-Budayrl’s chronicle of daily life in the city during a period of al-Damunl’s lifetime records floods, severe cold, earthquakes and windstorms (as well as swarming locusts, the spread of leprosy and devastating outbreaks of plague). See al-Budayrl, Hawadith Dimashq al-yawmiya, pp.52, 56-57, 223, 228, for example.
26. As Michael Gilsenan, Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt: An Essay in the Sociology of Religion (Oxford, 1973), pp.33-34 points out in relation to the notion of baraka, according to the traditional Muslim view there is ‘a whole complex of forces, thought in an ultimate sense to constitute as well as to govern the world. There are maleficent powers to be warded off by the saints, by amulets, talismans, verses of the Qur’an, the virtuous life, and trust in God. And where the balance turns against you there is the final radical explanation of the mystery of God’s will.’
27. As Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp. 23, 25 points out, use of the term hizb evinces an ‘unacknowledged tendency.towards semi-magical protection’, while the term hirz (often used as synonymous with hizb) in the title of a prayer can indicate its use as a talisman or amulet. A hizb or hirz often comprises a selection of Qur’anic verses and small supplications printed in a tiny booklet which can be easily carried on the person: this may be referred to by a further synonym, hijab. A very well-known example printed as a tiny booklet and frequently carried is al-Hisn al-hasin min kalam rabb al-'alamin (‘The Impregnable Fortress from the Words of the Lord of the Worlds’), compiled by Shams al-DlnM b. M al-Jazarl (d.833/1429): see below. Use of the term ta'widh (and other derivatives from the same root) to denote protective or ‘refuge-taking’ prayers, often worn as amulets, must finally be noted (these include the final two suras of the Qur’an, al-mu'awwidhatan). See further Padwick, Muslim Devotions, ch. 6; ‘Tilsam’, EI2, 10, pp. 500-502; ‘Tamima’, EI2, 10, pp. 177-178. For examples of the Prophet’s prayers in the formula of seeking refuge in God, see Farid, Prayers of Muhammad, pp. 245-249.
28. Indeed, as Padwick, Muslim Devotions, p.xxii notes, some are simply strings of Qur’anic verses ‘with more or less connection of subject’, put together for devotional use.

For an introduction to perceptions concerning the power of the Word of God and prayer, and the general spheres of use to which sufi prayers have been put, see Carl Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston and London, 1997), pp. 89-91.

29. Compare with McGregor, Sanctity and Sainthood, pp. 35, 74.
30. Eight different prayers by al-Shadhill appear in our sources, the most frequent being Hizb al-bahr (which has been described as the most famous of all ahzab: see ‘Hizb’, p. 513) and Hizb al-nasr. On Hizb al-bahr see McGregor, Sanctity and Sainthood , pp. 34-35; on the use of ahzab attributed to al-Shadhill in the contemporary Tunisian Shadhiliyya, see idem, ‘A Sufi Legacy in Tunis’, pp. 269-271.
31. AbuMadyan Shu'ayb b. al-Husayn al-Ansarl (d.549/1198), a seminal figure of sufism in Muslim Spain and North Africa and profoundly influential on Shadhili and

Qadiri traditions: on him see The Way of Abu Madyan: The Works of Abu Madyan Shu'ayb, tr. and compiled by Vincent J. Cornell (Cambridge, 1996); EI2, 1, pp.137— 138. Known fully as Hirz al-aqsam, this is not included in Cornell’s collection of Abu Madyan’s works.

The juxtaposition of prayers associated with the Shadhili tradition (that of Ibn Mashlsh can also be mentioned in this context) with those of Ibn 'Arabi reflects the strong appreciation within this tradition for the legacy of Ibn 'Arabi. Perhaps also relevant in this regard is the appearance of muqatta'dt in some versions of the prayer ending, as form a prominent feature of al-Mahdawi’s salawat (see Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein, ‘The Prayer of Blessing [upon the Light of Muhammad] by 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Mahdawi’, JMIAS XXXIV (2003), p.28 n.43 and p. 30 n. 47), and of Hizb al-bahr (the latter encompassing the same letter clusters that appear in some of the Dawr endings).

32. For an example of the former, see L, fols. 133 onwards; for the latter, see Hasan Husnu Pa§a 583 fol. 212b, where the prayer is followed by a supplication concerning plague reported from Abu Hanifa. §azeli 106 presents a particularly interesting range of ahzab and ahraz with many different uses, including soothing crying babies and meeting enemies, for example.

While individual prayers have been associated with specific spheres of protection there does not appear to have been a strict division among them, and copyists may have drawn on a common pool of properties. Thus the description of the Dawr’s properties in Dugumlu Baba 490, fols. 31b—32a, appears also in G, fols. 66a—67a, where it applies to Abu Madyan’s Hirz al-aqsam, which prayer is omitted from the former compilation (on the relationship between these two compilations see Appendix): the copyist simply replaces hirz with Hizb al-wiqaya throughout the description of properties. Note also in this regard the comprehensive scope of the properties attributed to al-Hisn al-hasin, set out in the preamble to it.

33. Particularly in D, but al-Damuni also states his intention in his commentary to ‘bring out some of the talismans and secrets’ of the prayer (see C, fol. 3b), and provides some squares towards the end of his work. On talismanic ‘magic squares’, typically consisting of 9 or 16 compartments incorporating numbers or letters representing words (for example the letters of the Name Allah written in a different order four times), see ‘Tilsam’, p.501; ‘Wafq’, EI2, 11, pp.28—31.
34. For example Nafiz Pa§a 702 adds on the margin of eight out of fourteen copies of the prayer presented a supplication that begins thus (towards the end of the prayer, for example fol. 25b) and ends with surat al-Ikhlas (note that the same supplication is woven into the prayer before the end salawat in I):

I establish my protection from all of His creatures in a fortress whose foundation is la ilaha illa Allah, whose wall is Muhammad rasul Allah, whose key is la hawla wa la quwata illa bi’llah al-'Aliy al-'Azim...

M follows his recommendation concerning the prayer’s recitation (see n. 9 above) with this supplication (fol. 109b):

This is a magnificent, blessed protective prayer. In the Name of God the Creator, the Greatest: a protection against what I fear and am wary of. There is no power for any creature before the Creator. KafHa ’ Ya ’ 'Ayn Sad. Ha ’ Mim Sin Qaf. All faces submit to the Living, the Self-Subsisting [Q 2: 111]. May whoever perpetrates oppression fail. God is sufficient as Protector and He is the Most Excellent Trustee.

35. As McGregor, ‘A Sufi Legacy in Tunis’, p. 267 suggests, prayers perhaps acquire ‘an added spiritual dimension’ when recited: see also pp.269-270.
36. D, p.6. See also The Hizbu-l Wiqayah of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. Compare with Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp.278-279.
37. See for example F, fol. 144b; D, p.6; Dugumlu Baba 506, fol. 2a and I, fol. 62a.
38. Yazma Bagiglar 2934, fol. 39b. D, p. 6 points to its benefits for ‘reaching the ranks of spiritual mastery’ (bulugh maratib al-siyada).
39. See B fol. 2a; F, fol. 144b.
40. See K, fol. 51b; F, fol. 144b; D, p. 3.
41. Al-Higarl indeed refers to the prayer as al-Hizb al-qur’ani. See K, fol. 51b. It is noteworthy that some copyists mark Qur’anic verses in red (e.g. G), while others mark the Divine Names thus (e.g. I). A few add the numerical value of each Name close to it (e.g. Hasan Husnu Paga 583, fols. 211b-212b).

The preamble to al-Hisn al-hasin furnishes an example of this intense focus on the power of Qur’anic verses and Divine Names, the former as a remedy (shifa’) and vehicle for mercy, the latter as a medium for supplication, in the context of a popular hirz.

42. Certain commentaries elaborate at length on the choice, location and significance of Divine Names in the prayer: their treatment must form the subject of a separate study.
43. See C, fols. 5a-b; B, fols. 3a, 4a; I, fol. 62a (the explanation in the latter is given on al-Qushashl’s authority). Qur’an 7: 180 and Muslim, Dhikr, no. 6, respectively, are cited.
44. C, fol. 5a. It is a fundamental principle of all prayerful supplication (du’a’) for requests to be addressed to God through the evocation of His Names and Attributes, for His Essence is unknowable and unapproachable, and He cannot be understood in an affirmative way in respect of it: the particular Names and Attributes used thus define and shape the supplication. This pattern assumes a sophisticated expression in the Dawr, as illustrated below. See ‘Du'a’’, EI2, 2, p.618; Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp. 104-107.
45. B, fol. 3b. He cites the similitude of someone who seeks the good offices of one of the ministers serving the most powerful king on earth in seeking the corpse of a dog or a donkey: the king will surely respond by throwing him out.
46. Note that al-Damunl repeats in his preamble and concluding remarks the need for ‘complete inner belief’, reflecting a central principle elaborated in discussions of the conditions and rules (adab) of prayer (du'a’), that contribute towards a

guarantee of efficacy: for it to be received by God, one must pray with a feeling of conviction that the prayer will be answered. See ‘Du'a” p.618. On the common emphasis of sincere intention in the preamble to prayers see also Padwick, Muslim Devotions , pp. 52-54. This emphasis is well illustrated in the preamble to al-Hisn al-hasin.

47. B, fol. 2b; I, fol. 62a, for example.
48. See ibid. By way of further encouragement for its use without a guide, I and B cite the saying ‘If you are not one of them, then emulate them, for there is success and salvation (falah) in emulating the noble.’
49. Variants are denoted by the term nuskha (copy) in the margin.
50. Among others, examples of such inaccuracies arise in the following copies and verses of the Dawr: A verse 15, C verse 23, and H verse 7.
51. Given that four chains of transmission pass through Ibrahim al-Kurani, the apparent source of H, the question arose as to whether there might be consistency between H, B, C, D and F (and possibly also I, which apparently emanated from al- Qushashi, from whom al-Kurani received the prayer). In the event the attempt to identify an al-Kurani (or any other) ‘family’ or ‘version’ of the prayer was not felt to be a fruitful approach (by way of illustration, we would cite the existence of differences even between H and H2: see Appendix).
52. Copyists can forget to distinguish the text of the prayer from that of the commentary (often done using red ink or a red over-line), or mark parts of the commentary thus as prayer text. Confusion can also arise when an unmarked word from the prayer text appears in a gloss on another word in it, or when the commentator’s explanations require him to alter the constructions in which specific words or phrases appear, and the associated vowels. Examples arise in B, fols. 9a, 23b, 24b, 27b, 34a; C, fol. 76a; and D, p. 37.
53. This All-Comprehensive Name denotes ‘not only the Essence of God but also the sum total of every attribute that the Essence assumes, in relationship to the creatures.’ See Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, p.20. For an introduction to the Divine Names and Attributes in Ibn 'Arabi’s thought see ibid., pp. 8-11; 33 ff.
54. We also comment in passing on similarities with the Awrad, but no systematic or thorough comparison is attempted. In addition, we point out examples of resonances with certain traditional prayers of the Prophet.

It should be noted that we do not attempt a detailed analysis of the content, structure, imagery and literary composition of the prayer, and the commentaries identified earlier are not applied to such an end. It is felt that the associations within each verse (between verbs used to express supplications, Names invoked, Qur’anic texts and word chains), and progressions within and between particular clusters of the prayer’s verses, are best left to the reader’s close contemplation.

55. Renderings of Qur’anic text, indicated in the translation in italics, are loosely based on A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Oxford, 1991), which has been extensively adapted as appropriate. The numbering of verses used in Qur’anic references follows that in The Holy Qur’an: Translation and Commentary by A. Yusuf Ali (n.p., n.d.).
56. The traditional list according to a well-known version of a hadith transmitted by Abu Hurayra can be found in Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God: al-Maqsad al-asnafi sharh asma’ Allah al-husna, tr. with notes by David B. Burrell and Nazih Daher (Cambridge, 1999), pp.49-51. Another version of this list, also given on the authority of Abu Hurayra, substitutes other Names for some of the ninety-nine in the first one: see pp. 167-169.
57. Some Names appear in neither version of the list but are noted as such in the Qur’an or derived from expressions associated with the Divine therein. See ibid., pp. 167-169.
58. Ibn 'Arabi, K. Kashf al-ma'na 'an asma’ Allah al-husna, ed. and tr. Pablo Beneito (Murcia, Spain, 1997): 2nd revised edn.
59. See ibid., p.11. For elaboration, see Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, pp. 21-25 (on takhalluq) and pp. 48, 60 (on ta'alluq). The same terms were used by al- Mahdawi and apparently first expounded by AbuMadyan: see Beneito and Hirtenstein, ‘The Prayer of Blessing [upon the Light ofMuhammad] by 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Mahdawi’, p.30n.49.
60. There does not appear to be any direct correlation between the structure of the prayer as a whole and the inclusion (and order of inclusion) of particular prophets, however. It is also noteworthy that supplications by prophets in the Qur’anic text are used in the prayer in an indirect manner, as illustrated by verses 17 and 19, in contrast with such usage as arises in Hizb al-bahr, for example: see McGregor, Sanctity and Sainthood, pp. 44-46.
61. On Ibn 'Arabi’s projection of the true relationship between Divine Beauty and Majesty, and the human response to these, see his K. al-Jalal wa’l-jamal, tr. by R. T. Harris, JMIAS VIII (1989), pp. 5-8.
62. For this reason we do not use the translation ‘God’.
63. Another example of the use of such word chains in the genitive case in a text attributed to Ibn 'Arabi arises in Khutba ukhra [Another Preface] (§ehit Ali 1341, fols. 405b-406a, part of a collection of Ibn 'Arabi’s works dated AH 724). Here we see, for example, bi-wisali ittisali jamali kamali and iftitahi arwahi irtiyahi misbahi rawahi riyahi and idraji ibraji zujaji siraji wahhaji. The author thanks Stephen Hirtenstein for this information.
64. Every sura of the Qur’an but one is prefaced by ‘In the Name of Allah, the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful’, and the Dawr, like all other all prayers, opens with it. Both this and a contraction of it (‘In the Name of Allah’, referred to in shorthand as the basmala) permeate Muslim oral and written expression. On its application before action as a consecration, its quality as a word of power, and its popular use as an amulet (its description in this verse as a hirz is noteworthy), see Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp. 94 ff.
65. Q 18: 39, in full: ‘Why did you not say, on entering your garden, “As God wills! There is no power save in God!”, If you see me less than you in wealth and children.’ Part of the parable of the two men, one of them boasting to the other that he has been given greater wealth and strength, declaring that he did not believe his

garden would ever perish, nor that the Resurrection would come to pass. On observing his attitude, his companion asked why he did not acknowledge God’s generosity and power, for He may invert their fortunes, and ruin his garden, as indeed happened.

Like the basmala, the phrases ma shd’a Allah and la quwata ilia bi’llah (and the expanded version of the latter la hawla wa la quwata illa bi’llah, referred to in shorthand as the hawqala) also permeate Muslim expression. Note that the hawqala is described as a treasure (kanz) also in the Sunday morning prayer in the Awrad, where it is also tied to the unknowable (min khaza’in al-ghayb): see Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, p. 7.

66. Al-Sattar is not one of the ninety-nine Names, but appears in supplications and devotional literature. For example, the Wednesday morning prayer in the Awrad encompasses anta Sattar al-'uyub (You are the One who Veils shortcomings), and invokes God through this attribute (ya Sattar): see Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, p. 32.
67. Q 3: 103, in full: ‘Hold fast to the bond of God, together, and do not scatter; remember God’s blessing upon you when you were enemies, and He brought your hearts together, so that by His blessing you became brothers. You were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He delivered you from it; thus God makes clear to you His signs, so haply you will be guided.’ The verse is addressed to those who have attained to faith.
68. The Name al-Muhit appears in the alternative version of the list of ninety- nine given on the authority of Abu Hurayra, and the expression muhit appears several times in the Qur’an in reference to the Divine, as in Q 2: 19, 3: 120, 8: 47, 41: 45, 85: 20, 4: 108, 4: 126 (e.g. ‘God encompasses everything’; ‘God encompasses the things they do’).
69. Q 7: 26, in full: ‘Children of Adam! We have sent down on you a garment to cover your nakedness, and as a thing of beauty; and the garment of godfearing (libas al-taqwa) - that is better; that is of the signs of God; haply they will remember.’
70. Q 58: 10, in full: ‘Conspiring secretly together is of Satan, that the believers may sorrow; but he will not hurt them anything, except by the leave of God. And in God let the believers put all their trust.’ Q 58: 9 urges the believers not to conspire secretly together in sin, enmity and disobedience to the Prophet, but in piety and godfearing.

The root 'awadha, which signifies seeking God’s protection or refuge, is of course always applied in relation to the seeking of protection against Satan, as in the formula a'udhu bi’llah min al-shaytan al-rajim. On refuge-taking or protection seeking (ta'awwudh) in Muslim prayer, see Padwick, Muslim Devotions, ch. 6.

71. Al-Dafi' is not one of the ninety-nine Names, but is used in supplications and devotional literature (for example, ya Dafi' al-bala’: O You who Repel misfortune). The Tuesday morning prayer in the Awrad encompasses idfa' 'anni kayd al-hasidin (‘Repel from me the deceitful plots of the envious!’), and the Wednesday morning prayer invokes God through this attribute (ya Dafi'): see Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, pp.25, 32, respectively.
72. Q 12: 107, in full: ‘Do they feel secure that there shall come upon them no

enveloping of the chastisement of God, or that the Hour shall not come upon them suddenly when they are unaware?’ Q 12: 106 provides the reference: ‘And the most part of them believe not in God, but they associate other gods with Him.’ Ghdshiya refers specifically to the Resurrection (which covers and encompasses all of mankind), or to Hellfire, which will overspread the faces of the unbelievers.

This verse of the prayer is the first of several in which an imprecatory aspect is expressed, through which the supplicant seeks harm for those who justly deserve it.

73. Q 45: 23, in full: ‘Has thou seen him who has taken his caprice to be his god, and God has led him astray out of a knowledge, setting a seal upon his hearing and his heart, and laying a cover on his seeing? Who then will guide him, after God? What, will you not remember? ’ Note that the part of this Qur’anic verse cited in the prayer forms the second part of a conditional clause (thus pointing to a hypothetical future): in the Qur’anic verse it describes something past.
74. Q 28: 81, in full: ‘So, We made the earth to swallow him and his dwelling and there was no host to help him, apart from God, and he was helpless.’ This refers to Qarun, one of the people of Moses to whom God had given great treasures, but who became insolent towards his people and boastful. The prayer captures the significance of Qarun’s destruction both for the supplicant and for those who have mistreated him. (Qarun is often identified with the Biblical Korah, but this has been called into question. See The Message of the Qur ’an, p. 672 n. 84.)

Note the occurrence of the phrase ‘driven away in blame and routed’ (madh ’uman madhuran) in Q 7: 18, addressed to Iblis on his expulsion from Paradise.

75. Al-Subbuh is not one of the ninety-nine Names. It appears twinned with al- Quddus in the Wednesday evening prayer of the Awrad: see Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, p. 29; further Ibn 'Arabi, The Seven Days of the Heart, p. 87.
76. Q 28: 31, in full (beginning with a continuation of the divine address to Moses from within the burning bush): ‘“Cast down your staff!” And when he saw it quivering like a serpent, he turned round retreating, and did not turn back. “Moses, come forward and fear not; for surely you are among those who are secure.”’
77. Q 6: 45. Truncated here, the Qur’anic verse continues: ‘the Lord of the worlds’. It appears at the end of a series addressed to the Prophet, explaining how messengers were sent to communities before him, how they forgot what they had been reminded of, and how they were suddenly seized and confounded.

The pairing of verses 9 and 10 of the Dawr is noteworthy. In verse 9, the supplicant requests what is desirable and beneficial for himself; in verse 10, he seeks what is harmful for his enemies. Benefit bestowed by the Divine (through the Name al-Nafi') pivots on the provision of that which is enjoyable (ladhdha, mentioned in verse 9) according to Ibn 'Arabi, while the Names al-Nafi' and al-Darr are twinned opposites. See Ibn 'Arabi, K. Kashfal-ma'na, p. 178.

78. Q 10: 64, in full: ‘For them are good tidings in the life of this world and in the hereafter. There is no changing the words of God; this is the mighty triumph.’ Q 10: 62-63 provides the reference: ‘Surely God’s friends - no fear shall be on them neither shall they sorrow. Those who believe, and are godfearing - .’
79. Q 10: 65, in full: ‘And do not let their saying grieve you. Indeed the honour and glory belong to Allah altogether; He is The All-Hearing, The All-Knowing.’ The Qur’anic verse is addressed to the Prophet Muhammad regarding his dealings with the polytheists.
80. Q 12: 31, in full: ‘When she heard of their malicious talk, she sent to them and prepared for them a banquet and gave to each of them a knife. “Come forth and attend to them”, she said. And when they saw him, they so admired him that they cut their hands, saying “May we be saved by God! This is no mortal; he is no other than a noble angel.”’ See earlier discussion for the Qur’anic context.
81. Q 2: 165, in full: ‘Yet there be men who take to themselves compeers apart from God; they love them as if it were love for God; but those who believe are more ardent in love for God. O if the evildoers might see - when they see the chastisement - that power altogether belongs to God, and that God is terrible in chastisement.’
82. Q 5: 57, in full: ‘O believers, whosoever of you turns from his religion, God will assuredly bring forth a people He loves, and who love Him; [they are] soft towards the believers, hard on the unbelievers, striving in the path of God, not fearing the reproach of any reproacher. That is God’s bounty; He gives it unto whom He will; and God is All-embracing, All-knowing.’
83. Q 3: 20, in full: ‘So if they dispute with you, say, “I have surrendered myself [my face] (wajhi) to God, and whosoever follows me! ” And say to those who have been given the Book and to those who have not, “Have you surrendered [to Him]?” If they have surrendered, they are rightly guided; but if they turn their backs, your duty is but to deliver the Message. And God sees His servants.’ (Note that wajh, literally ‘face’, denotes by extension one’s will or self.) Q 3: 19 refers to disputes between the Prophet and the People of the Book: ‘The true religion with God is Islam. Those who were given the Book were not at variance except after the knowledge came to them, being insolent one to another. And whosoever disbelieves in God’s signs, God is swift at the reckoning.’
84. Al-Badi' (one of the ninety-nine Names) appears twice in the Qur’an as here (Q6: 101 and 2: 117).
85. Q 20: 27-28. This is part of a supplication made by Moses in response to the divine instruction to go to the transgressing Pharaoh.

Note the resonance in this part of the prayer verse with a request that appears in a prayer taught by the Prophet to 'All to help in memorising the Qur’an, thus: Al- lahumma badi' al-samawati wa’l-ard dha’l-jalali wa’l-ikram.. .as’aluka bi-jaldlika...an tutliqa bi-hi lisani. For the full text and details of the hadith, see Farid, Prayers of Muhammad, p. 227.

86. Q 39: 23, in full: ‘God has sent down the most excellent discourse as a Book, consistent within in its oft-repeated [truths], at which shiver the skins of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and hearts soften to the remembrance of God. That is God’s guidance, whereby He guides whomsoever He will; and whoever God leads astray has no guide.’
87. This is not one of the ninety-nine Names. Q 85: 12 gives ‘Surely your Lord’s assault is terrible (inna batsha rabbika la-shadid)’. See also Q 44: 16.
88. Q 3: 126, in full:‘God ordained this but as a glad tiding to you, and that your hearts might thereby be at rest. There is no help to victory except from God, the All- Mighty; the All-Wise.’ The Qur’anic context is the battle of Uhud; the immediate reference is to the reminder that God’s help would be forthcoming, as it was at Badr (two clans among the Prophet’s forces at Uhud had been on the point of losing heart and joining the deserters). See also Q 8: 10, referring to the battle of Badr.
89. Q 20: 25-26, part of a supplication uttered by Moses, on receiving the divine instruction to go to the transgressing Pharaoh, continued by the Qur’anic verses included in prayer verse 17: see n. 85 above.
90. Q 94: 1. The opening verse of sarat al-Inshirah, used in times of difficulty. Revealed very soon after Q 93 during the early years of his mission and a time of considerable trial for the Prophet, it reassures him of God’s continuing help. The juxtaposition in the prayer verse of this Qur’anic verse with Q 20: 25, conveying Moses’ request for the ‘expansion of his breast’, is noteworthy.
91. Q 30: 4-5, in full (including 3): ‘The Byzantines have been vanquished in the nearer part of the lands; after their being vanquished, they will be victorious in a few years. To God belongs the Command before and after. That day the believers shall rejoice in the victorious help of God; He helps whomsoever He will, and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Compassionate.’ ‘That day’ is understood to be a prediction of the battle of Badr which took place 8-9 years later, during which the Muslims would rejoice at their decisive victory over the unbelievers of Quraysh. (It refers also to the victories of Heraclius over the Persians: Badr coincided with a stage in these.)
92. This pair of Names appears (in reverse order) in the Wednesday morning prayer of the Awrad. See Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, p. 32.
93. On itminan and sakina, the latter denoting both God-inspired peace of mind and the presence of God, see Padwick, Muslim Devotions, pp. 122-125.
94. Q 13: 28. Truncated here, it ends: ‘Surely in God’s remembrance the hearts are at rest.’
95. Q 2: 249, uttered on the tongue of the small band of believers who went out with Saul (Talut) to meet Goliath (Jalut) and his hosts, then routed them by the leave of God. In full: ‘And when Saul set out with his forces he said “God will try you with a river; whoever drinks of it is not of me, and whoever does not taste it is of me (as are those who scoop just a mouthful).” But they drank of it, except a few of them. When he crossed it, together with those who believed along with him, they said “We have no power today against Goliath and his forces! ” Yet those who were certain that they would meet God said “How often has a small unit overcome a sizeable one, by the permission of God! God is with those who are patient in adversity.”’ Note that Q 2: 250 continues with their supplication on meeting Goliath and his forces, thus: ‘Our Lord! Pour out over us steadfastness, make firm our feet and give us aid against the people of the unbelievers.’ The prayer verse 21 uses the same language and imagery as arises in their supplication (afrigh 'alayna sabran wa thabbit aqdamana...).
96. Q 13: 11, in full: ‘He has attendant angels, before him and behind him, watching over him by the command of God. God changes not what is in a people, until they change what is in themselves. If God wills evil for a people, there is no turning it back. Apart from Him, they have no protector.’ Q 13: 9-10 explains the encompassing of the unseen and the visible by the Divine Knowledge, with the following effect (achieved through the surrounding recording angels): ‘Alike of you is he who conceals what he says and he who proclaims it, he who hides himself in the night, and he who sallies by day.’

Note the resonance in this prayer verse with a request that appears in a prayer attributed to the Prophet, which he reportedly recited every morning and night: Allahumma ahfazni min bayna yadayya wa min khalfi wa 'anyamini wa 'an shimali wa min fawqi... For details of the hadith see Farid, Prayers of Muhammad, pp. 150-151.

97. Al-Qa’im is not one of the ninety-nine Names but appears, for example, in Q 13: 33: ‘What, He who stands over every soul for what it has earned? And yet they ascribe to Allah associates (a-fa-man huwa qa’ im 'ala kulli nafsin bi-ma kasabat wa ja'alu li’llahishuraka’)’.
98. Al-Da’im appears in the alternative list of ninety-nine Names given on the authority of Abu Hurayra: see al-Ghazali, The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God, p. 167.
99. Q 6: 81, in full: ‘How should I fear what you have associated [with Him], when you do not fear [the fact] that you have established associates beside God, concerning which He has not sent down on you any authority? Which of the two parties has better title to security, if you have any knowledge?’ This is on the tongue of Abraham, while he was disputing with his people concerning his repudiation of their polytheism.
100. These two Names appear thus together in Q 8: 40 (see also 22: 78); for further examples of references to God as the Protector of those who believe, see Q 47: 11 and 3: 150. They are not among the ninety-nine Names.
101. Q 2: 67, in full: ‘And when Moses said to his people “God commands you to sacrifice a cow.” They said, “Are you making fun of us ? ” He replied, “I take refuge in Allah lest I should be one of the ignorant.” ’ The context is the well-known exchange between Moses and his people, which culminated in their sacrificing the cow.
102. Al-Talib is not one of the ninety-nine Names. It arises in the Wednesday morning prayer of the Awrad (anta.. .al-Talib wa’l-matlub) for example: see Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, p. 31. Cf. Q58:21.
103. Al-Ghalib is not one of the ninety-nine Names but is used in the Qur’an of the Divine in 12:21, thus: ‘Allah prevails in His purpose, but most men know not’ (wa Allah ghalib 'ala amrihi wa lakin akthar al-nas la ya' lamun). Cf. Q 58: 21.
104. Q 48: 8-9, in full: We have sent you as witness, bearer of good tidings and warner, so that you [all] may have faith in God and His Messenger, and succour Him and reverence Him, and that you may give Him glory dawn time and evening.’
105. Al-Kafi appears in the alternative list of ninety-nine Names given on the authority of Abu Hurayra: see al-Ghazali, The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God,

pp. 167. In the sense of sufficiency, the root verb appears of the Divine several times in the Qur’an in relation to His sufficiency as a Guardian (wakil), a Reckoner (hasib), a Helper (nasir), a Protector (wali), as One who knows ('alim), and as a Witness (shahid), for example. See for example Q 4: 81, 33: 39, 25; 31, 4; 45, 4; 70, 4; 166; also 33; 25.

106. Al-Shafi is not one of the ninety-nine Names; the root is used in the Qur’an to characterise its own contents (e.g. Q 17; 82 and 41; 44); see also Q 10; 57; 9; 14.
107. Q 59; 21. Truncated here, the verse ends; ‘And those similitudes - We strike them for men; haply they will reflect.’
108. Q 2; 60, in full; ‘And when Moses sought water for his people We said, “Strike with your staff the rock”, and there gushed forth from it twelve fountains; all the people knew now their drinking place. “Eat and drink of the provision of God, and do not make mischief in the earth, spreading corruption.” ’ The part of this verse quoted in prayer verse 27 is on the tongue of Moses.
109. This Name, which appears in the traditional list of ninety-nine, is always twinned in the Qur’an with al-Qahhar. See Q 40; 16, 39; 4, 38; 65, for example.
110. Al-Ahad appears in the alternative list of ninety-nine Names given on the authority of Abu Hurayra; see al-Ghazali, The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God, p. 167. (See also Q 112; 1; ‘Say; “He is Allah, One.”’)
111. Q 47; 19, in full; ‘Know then that there is no god but God, and ask forgiveness for your sin, and for the believers, men and women. And God knows your comings and goings and your lodging.’ The word of Oneness (kalimat al-tawhid) is shorthand for the first part of the shahada.
112. Q 12; 38, in full thus; ‘And I have followed the creed of my forefathers Abraham, Isaac (Ishaq) and Jacob (Ya'qub). Not ours is it to associate others with God. That is of the grace of God to us, and to all mankind; but most men are not thankful.’ This is on the tongue of Joseph, in the context of a discussion of their dreams with his fellow prisoners; he had been imprisoned following his refusal to bow to the demands of his employer’s wife.

Note that the three terms in the phrase bi’l-wilaya wa’l-'inaya wa’l-ri'aya appear together also in the Sunday morning prayer of the Awrad, thus; bi-'ayn al-rahma wa’l- 'inaya wa’l-hifz wa’l-ri'aya wa’l-ikhtisas wa’l-wilaya . See Ibn 'Arabi, Wird, p. 9.

113. Q 49; 3, in full; ‘Surely those who lower their voices in the presence of the Messenger of God, those are they whose hearts God has tested for godfearing; they shall have forgiveness and a mighty wage.’ The verse appears in a sequence advising the believers how they should behave in the presence of the Prophet and towards each other.
114. Q 3; 135. Truncated here, after a pause the Qur’anic verse ends; ‘and who do not knowingly persist in the things they did.’ This verse appears in a sequence describing the righteous, whose reward will be Paradise. Note that the Qur’anic verse begins with ‘And’, which is omitted in prayer verse 31.
115. Q 39; 53, in full; ‘Say! “O My servants who have transgressed against yourselves; do not despair of the mercy of God. Surely God forgives sins altogether; Surely He is the All-Forgiving, the All-Compassionate.”’
116. Al-Qarib appears in the alternative list of ninety-nine Names given on the authority of Abu Hurayra (see al-Ghazali, The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God, p. 167), and is used of the Divine in Q 2: 186, 11: 61 and 34; 50 (in the final case, in the pair here: Sami' Qarib).
117. Q 10: 10. Truncated here, it ends: ‘Lord of the worlds.’ Q 10: 9 provides the reference: ‘Surely those who believe, and do righteous deeds, their Lord will guide them for their belief; beneath them rivers flowing in gardens of bliss.’

‘A Garden prepared for the god-fearing’ is a contraction of a description appearing in Q 3: 133: ‘And vie with one another, hastening to forgiveness from your Lord, and to a Garden whose breadth is as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the god-fearing.’

118. Perfect and complete, the power of the Word of God is repeatedly acknowledged in prayer and invocation (see for example ‘Tamima’, p. 177; Padwick, Muslim Devotions, p.86). The Prophet is reported to have said that whoever recites the formula a'udhu bi-kalimdt Allah al-tammat min sharri ma khalaq in the morning and the evening will never come to harm: for details of the hadith see Farid, Prayers of Muhammad, p. 150. Ibn 'Arabi advised use of this formula (incorporating the word kulliha after kalimat Allah al-tammat) by the traveller alighting for rest during the night, to protect his night-camp from harm: see Ibn 'Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiya (Beirut, n.d.), IV, p. 505.
119. Sultan nasir arises as the object of a request in Q 17: 80 (which furnishes a much-used supplication), thus: ‘And say: “My Lord, lead me in with a sincere ingoing, and lead me out with a sincere outgoing; grant me from You an authoritative strength that brings success.”’

Appendix

Manuscript copies and chains of transmission

Copies A-I used in presenting the Arabic text are detailed below. With respect to chains of transmission, the lengthy epithets attached to figures are omitted unless they are of specific help for the purposes of identification: titles and positions are retained. Of these chains, to our best knowledge only D and G have been printed.

1. Haci Mahmud Efendi 3950

Al-Jundi commentary (in Ottoman Turkish) dated AH 1280: 52 fols., some vowels. Al-Jundi claims that this chain (fols. 50b-51a) encompasses the Dawr and ‘all of Ibn 'Arabi’s other awrad and writings’. He provides an ijaza in the Dawr and the salawat of Ibn 'Arabi to 'Abd al-Nafi' Efendi.

Jundi Zade Muhammad Amin al-'Abbas, Mufti of Damascus ~ his father Muhammad Efendi al-Jundi ~ 'Umar al-Baqi ~ Muhammad Kamal al-Din al-Siddiqi ~ his father Mustafa al-Bakri al-Siddiqi ~ 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi ~ Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi ~ Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi ~ al-qadi Zakariya al-Ansari ~ hafiz Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani ~ Ibrahim 'Abd al-Wahid al-Tanukhi ~ Qasim b. 'Askar (sic) ~ Ibn 'Arabi

2. Dugumlu Baba 506

Al-Tafilati commentary (in Arabic) copy dated AH 1251 (Medina): 30 fols., with some vowels. Al-Tafilati claims that this chain (fol. 3a) encompasses the Dawr and ‘all of Ibn 'Arabi’s writings’. He adds that he has chains of authorities other than this one, but does not specify them.

Muhammad al-Tafilati al-Khalwati, Mufti of Jerusalem ~ his teacher Mustafa al-Kubra (sic) al-Khalwati and his shaykh Muhammad

b. Salim al-Hanafi (sic) al-Misri; the latter two ~ their shaykh Muhammad al-Budayri al-Dimyati ~ his shaykh Mulla Ibrahim al- Kurani al-Madani ~ his shaykh Ahmad al-Qushashi al-Dajani al- Madani, via his chain to Ibn 'Arabi

3. Haci Mahmud Efendi 4212

Al-Damuni commentary (in Arabic) undated: 83 fols., no vowels. Chain appears fol. 3a.

Muhammad Mahmud b. 'Ali al-Damuni ~ his teacher Mahmud al-Kurdi al-Kurani ~ Muhammad b. al-shaykh al-Salim al-Hafnawi (sic) ~ Mustafa al-Bakri ~ Mulla Ibrahim al-Kurdi al-Kurani al- Madani ~ Ahmad al-Qushashi al-Dajani, via his chain to Ibn 'Arabi

4. Al-Qawuqji commentary

Printed version in Arabic (Damascus, AH 1301), copy of Haci Mahmud Efendi 4213: 160 pp., with few vowels, ending in a commentary on the salawdt of Ibn 'Arabi (pp. 106 ff.). Al-Qawuqji explains that he transmits the Dawr ‘like Ibn 'Arabi’s other resplendent works’ through this chain (pp. 3-4).

Muhammad b. Khalil al-Qawuqji al-Tarabulusi ~ Yasin b. al-qutb 'Abdallah al-Mirghani al-Makki ~ Muhammad Tahir Sunbul ~ his father Muhammad Sa'id Sunbul ~ Muhammad Tahir al-Kurdi ~ his father Ibrahim al-Kurani al-Kurdi ~ Safi al-Din al-Qushashi ~ Zayn al-'Abidin al-Tabari ~ his father 'Abd al-Qadir b. Muhammad b. Yahya ~ his grandfather Yahya al-Tabari al-Makki ~ al-hafiz 'Abd al-'Aziz b. al-hafiz 'Umar b. Fahd ~ his father ~ al-Jamal Muhammad b. Ibrahim al-Murshidi ~ Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah b. Sulayman al-Shinawizi ~ Radi al-Din al-Tabari al-Makki ~ Ibn 'Arabi

5. Haci Mahmud Efendi 4053

Copy of prayer alone, undated: 5 fols. with full vowels. Chain (fol. 5a) added in a different hand, viz. that of 'Ali Efendi, granting an ijdza to read the Dawr to Ahmad Muzaffar b. Mustafa Mas'ud.

'Ali Efendi b. Sulayman b. al-shaykh Mustafa b. al-shaykh 'Abd al-Karim (may be crossed out) 'Umar, teacher in Dar al-'Aliya ~

'Abdallah Sidqi al-Diyarbakri, also called al-Qirmani {or, 'Abdallah Sidqi ~ al-Diyarbakri, also called al-Qirmani} ~ his brother Muhammad Zanqi{?} ~ Isma'il Idanjaki in Medina (al-mujawirft) ~ Ibrahim the grandson {of} 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi ~ his grandfather 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi ~ his shaykh Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi ~ his father Badr al-Ghazzi ~ al-hifz al-Suyuti ~ al-Shams Muhammad b. Muqbil al-Halabi ~ Abu Talha al-Harawi al-Zahidi (sic) ~ al-Sharaf al-Dimyati ~ Sa'd al-Din Muhammad b. al-Shaykh al-Akbar ~ his father Ibn 'Arabi

6. Re§id Efendi 1051

Personal compilation of prayers, salawat, Qur’anic verses, supplications, poems (including Ka'b b. Zuhayr’s famous Banat Su'ad), an alphabetical list of the names of the Companions who fought at Badr (compiled apparently at the request of a ruler), fragments from al- Busayri and al-Suyuti, a hizb by Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili, a list of the Prophet’s names, his wives and a summary of the signs of the Mahdi drawn from the hadith. The hand throughout is apparently that of Muhammad Musawwid Zade al-Tarabzuni. No vowels, 160 fols. Note that fol. 144a carries the date AH 1169 (the Dawr begins on fol. 144b). (The earliest date in the compilation is 1159; the latest is 1171.) The chain appears on fol. 145a.

Muhammad al-shahir bi-Musawwid Zade al-Tarabzuni ~ Ibrahim ~ Khayr al-Din ~ Muhammad al-mashhur bi-Kamil Zade al-Tarabzuni ~ 'Abd al-Rahman al-Mawsili ~ his shaykh Fath Allah al-Mawsili ~ his shaykh Khalil al-Baghdadi al-sufi ~ Ibrahim al- Madani al-sufi ~ Safi al-Din Ahmad b. Muhammad al-sufi ~ his shaykh Abu’l-Mawahib Ahmad b. 'Ali b. 'Abd al-Quddus al-'Abbasi al-Shinnawi then al-Madani al-sufi ~ his father 'Ali b. 'Abd al- Quddus ~ his shaykh 'Abd al-Wahhab b. Ahmad al-Sha'rawi al-sufi ~ his shaykh Zayn al-Din Zakariya b. Muhammad al-qadi al-faqih al-sufi ~ Abu’l-Fath Muhammad b. al-Qaymani{?} al-Maraghi al- sufi ~ his shaykh Sharaf al-Din Isma'il b. Ibrahim 'Abd al-Samad al-Hashimi al-'Uqayli al-Jabarti al-Zabidi al-sufi ~ Abu’l-Hasan 'Ali b. 'Umar al-Wani al-sufi ~ Ibn 'Arabi

7. Laleli 1520

Beautiful gold-embellished compilation in a single hand of prayers attributed to Ibn 'Arabi (the Awrad, Dawr al-a'ld, Hizb al-ahadiya, Tawajjuh waqt al-sahar, Tahsin) followed by a prayer attributed to Abu Madyan and a list of the names and dates of death of the rightly guided caliphs and the imams of the main four Sunni fiqh madhahib: 70 fols., dated AH 1164 (f. 67b). The introduction gives an ‘open’ ijaza (to anyone wishing to read the texts in question) and a chain which appear to be associated with the entire contents of the compilation of ‘awrad and adhkar’. (See manuscript frontispiece; Beneito and Hirtenstein, The Seven Days of the Heart, pp. 174-175, giving a translation and discussion of this ijaza and chain. We give the chain below for the sake of completeness). The Dawr text (fols. 31a-36a) is very clear and has full vowels. (Note that, sometimes omitting some of the smaller texts, Dugumlu Baba 490 and 489 and Haci Mahmud Efendi 4179, the last used by Beneito and Hirtenstein, all printed facsimiles, are versions of Laleli 1520, retaining the ijaza and chain.)

Muhammad al-Madani b. Sa'd al-Din al-Basri ~ Muhammad b. 'Ali al-'Alawi al-Yamani ~ 'Abd al-Shakur al-Mu'ammar ~ Shah Mas'ud al-Isfara’ini al-Mu'ammar ~ 'Ali al-Qunawi ~ Ibn 'Arabi

8. Hamidiye 1440

Compilation in a single hand of works by Ibrahim b. Hasan al- Kurani: Majmu’at rasa’il, including Maslak al-ta'rrf bi-tahqiq al-taklif ’ala mashrab ahl al-kashf wa’l-shuhud al-qa’ilin bi-tawhid al- wujud,1 200 fols., addressing theological issues relating to the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud. Contents recorded from AH 1086 to 1094 in al-Kurani’s presence in Medina by a disciple, several of them in al-Kurani’s home on the outskirts of Medina2 and one at the rear of al-Haram al-Sharif al-Nabawi (the Prophet’s Noble Sanctuary) there.5 The Dawr (fols. 31b-32b) is the only prayer in this collection and the only text not by al-Kurani. It has few vowels. Note that the copy of the text ending on fol. 31a is dated AH 1089 (and made at al-Kurani’s house on the outskirts of Medina), which is likely also to

be the date of the Dawr copy, which it can be presumed was recorded from al-Kurani alongside his own works.

It is noteworthy that Ragib Pa§a 1464 (193 fols.) is a second compilation of the same overall title as H, in a different hand from the latter: there is no evidence in this case that the scribe was al-Kurani’s disciple. It seems that al-Kurani requested that a second copy of H (which we can call H2) be made after that compilation had been completed in 1094. Some texts thus give the same details of time/ place as texts in H. Others then add a ‘final copy’ date some five or six years later. The Dawr (fols. 31a-32 b)4 follows on the same page on the end of a text by al-Kurani concerning which it is recorded that the rough copy was made from al-Kurani in his house on the outskirts of Medina in AH 1089 and the final one copied out in his house adjacent to Bab al-Rahma of the Prophet’s Mosque in AH 1094.5 The Dawr is followed (fol. 32b) by a verse from al-Shafi'i, an anonymous supplication and an untitled and un-attributed portion of Ibn 'Arabi’s Tuesday morning wird.

9. Pertev Pa§a 644

Compilation in a single hand of works by or attributed to Ibn 'Arabi (K. al-Hu, K. al-Haqq, K. al-Jalala, K. al-Ba’, K. al-Nasa’ih, R. al- Anwar) plus various other texts, including a fragment from al-Sulami and a prayer by Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili. The Dawr (fols. 62b-64a) is prefaced by a discussion of its properties. Undated, but the preface suggests that this version was received from al-Qushashi.

10. Murad Buhari 320

Personal compilation ofprayers, talismans, poems, etc. dated AH 1203 (fol. 127a) in the hand of, and signed by Muhammad b. Muhammad b. 'Abdallah al-Hadi. The Dawr (fols. 60b-63a) is without vowels.

K. Izmirli Hakki 3635

Compilation in a single hand of prayers (including al-Salat al-kubra attributed to Ibn 'Arabi and prayers by al-Shadhili) and accompanying commentaries, 160 fols. Commentary on the Dawr by Husayn

b. Isma'il b. Mustafa al-Hisari (fols. 51b-120b, the text of the prayer repeated fols. 121b-125b), entitled Kashf al-kurub wa fath jami’ al- abwab wa kashf al-lughub. Copy dated AH 1282 (fol. 125b), but the preamble has the author report that he wrote the commentary in AH 1205 (fol. 51b). (Copy A 3470 [University of Istanbul Library] is incomplete and undated.)

L. Esad Efendi 415

Collection in a single hand of Ottoman Turkish and Arabic religious texts and prayers (including the hirz of Abu Madyan), 161 fols. The Dawr (fols. 158b-161a) has some vowels and is dated AH 1220.

M. Re§id Efendi 501

Compilation in a single hand of prayers by Ibn 'Arabi (Hizb al-’arif bi’llah, Du’a’ asma’ Allah al-husna, Hizb al-nur, the Awrad, Salawat sharifa) and others (including those by 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, al- Shadhili, 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani, al-Shafi'i and Imam 'Ali), as well as anonymous supplications and protective prayers, all in one hand, 126 fols. Possibly dates to the lifetime of al-Nabulusi, i.e. before AH 1143, as the copyist, possibly his disciple, refers to him twice in terms that suggest he was still alive (e.g. fol. 94a). The Dawr (fols. 109b-111b) has full vowels and plentiful marginal alternatives.

Alongside these copies, particular attention was paid in producing the text to two copies with full vowels: Nafiz Pa§a 702 and Ankara Milli 489.

In addition to those referred to throughout our text and notes, the following copies were also consulted: Izmirli Hakki 1516 (undated), Esad Efendi 1405 (undated), Ulu Cami 936 (dated AH 1194), Esad Efendi 3430 (undated).

Notes

1. Knysh, ‘Ibrahim al-Kurani’, p. 41 n. 10 refers to a copy of the same title in what may be a comparable collection: Majmu'a, Yahuda Collection, #3869.
2. For example fols. 29a, 30a-b, 34b. Texts here end with comments such as the following (fol. 29a): ‘Our shaykh the author, may God cause us to benefit from him, said: “The rough copy was completed at noontime on Tuesday 11th Safar 1086, in my home in the outskirts of al-Madina al-Munawwara: the best prayer and blessing be upon the most excellent of its inhabitants.”’
3. See fol. 46a, dated 1088: his disciple (the scribe) here asks God to keep al- Kurani safe, to preserve him and give him strong health.
4. The text of the Dawr in H2, which has many vowels, is identical to H with the exception that the scribe fails to incorporate four marginal additions, on one occasion adds his own insertion in the margin (sirr after majd in verse 4), and chooses yahdihi in verse 7 (given in the margin in H) over the erroneous yahdi (given in the text in H). These differences do not merit its separate inclusion in preparing our text, but they do serve to point up the extent to which copyists and scribes have felt justified in showcasing a ‘personal’ version of the prayer.
5. For example, fol. 31a has: ‘The author, may God cause us to benefit from him, said: “The rough copy was completed before noon on Thursday 30th Muharram at the beginning of 1089 in my house on the outskirts of al-Madina al-Munawwara. the final copy (lit. its copying out and embellishment) was completed on the afternoon of Saturday the 22nd of Rajab 1094 in my house adjacent to Bab al-Rahma of the Prophet’s Mosque.”’ Similar examples arise in fols. 30a and 26a.

Note that the latter part of this compilation encompasses two additional texts by al-Kurani (one of them recorded in 1084 and another after his death) and two by al- Ghazali. From f. 95a (encompassing one of the additional al-Kurani texts) it is in a second hand.

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INDEX

'Abidin, Abu’l-Yusr 6, 7, 13n8, 104nll

Abraham (Prophet Ibrahim) 53n16, 77, 115n99, 116n112

Abu Hurayra 110n56, 111n68, 115n98, 115n105, 116n110, 117n116

AbUMadyan 52n7, 106n31, 110n59, 122

AbU Shama, 'Abd al-Rahman 66n167

AbU Tawq, Hashim 12n5

adab 38, 108n46

Ahmadi/Ahmadiyya (Badawiyya) 29, ’58n76

al-'Alawi, Wajih al-Din 58n81

Aleppo 22, 24, 26, 39, 42

al-'Amm, Salim 12n5

al-anfds (sing, nafas) 72, 105n24

Ash'ari; Ash'arism 26, 33, 35, 49, 56n44, 61n114

'AshUr, Muhammad Amin 11n 4

Awrad (al-usbu') 3n1, 3n3, 7-9,

13n6, 13n11, 16n26, 51n1, 53n14, 109n54, 111n65, 111n66, 111n71, 112n75, 114n92, 115n102, 116n112, 122-124

al-'AydarUs, AbU Bakr b, 'Abdallah 51n4

al-Azhar 35, 39, 40, 63n132

Ba'alawi, Muhammad al-Shilli 33 Bab al-Rahma (Prophet’s Mosque,

Medina) 123, 125n5

al-Babili, al-Shams Muhammad 32 al-Badawi, Ahmad 13n6, 29, 58n76

Badawiyya see Ahmadi/Ahmadiyya Baghdad 23, 34, 64n150, 68n186

al-BajUri, al-Burhan 43

al-Bakri, Muhammad Kamal al-Din b, Mustafa 40

al-Bakri, Mustafa Kamal al-Din 12n5, 13n7,' 36-38, 40, 47, 63n129, 67n173, 119, 120

BanU 'Asakir 22

al-BanUri, Adam 59n97

baraka 8, 12n4, 25, 40, 44, 45, 48, 49, 52n10, 66n167, 66n169, 72, 106n26

al-Barzanji, Muhammad b, 'Abd al-RasUl 60n111

basmala 14n16, 110n64, 111n65

al-Basri, 'Abdallah b, Salim 33, 37, 59n94, 61n112

Beshara 9-10

al-Biqa'i, Burhan al-Din 27, 28 al-Budayri al-Dimyati, Muhammad 35-38, 47, 120

Cairo 22, 24, 28-30, 34-36, 38-40, 46, 47, 67n179

Celvetiyye 16n24

Chishtiyya 34

Dala’il al-khayrat 6, 8, 13n10, 15n19

Damascus 5-8, 15n21, 23, 24, 29-31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46, 47, 53n14, 61n114, 63n143, 64n150, 66n169, 68n187, 106n25

al-DamUni, Mahmud b, 'Ali 41 al-DamUni, Muhammad

b, MahmUd 40, 41, 46, 70, 73, 74, 106n25, 107n33, 108n46, 120

al-Dardayr, Ahmad (also al-Dardayri) 12n4, 39, 63n132

dawr (cycle) 3n4

‘deliberate interpolation’ hypothesis 29, 58n70

al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din 25 dhikr (pl, adhkar) 29, 30, 57n63

Dimyat 24, 35

al-Dimyati, 'Imad al-Din 24 al-Dimyati, Sharaf al-Din 'Abd al-Mu’min 23, 24, 66nl66, 67nl73, 121

Divine Names 3n1, 7, 12n5, 69, 74, 76-78

du a’ see supplication

Du'd’ asmd’ Allah al-husnd 124

Egypt 9, 23, 26, 27, 30, 38-40, 43, 46 evil eye 105n16

Fatma Hanim 9, 16n24

fihris 1, 26, 27

fiqh; faqih 24, 26, 28, 29, 32-35, 38, 43, 48, 55n37, 56n47, 57n63

Fusus al-hikam 15n21, 46, 52n8, 58n70 al-Futuhdt al-Makkiya 13n8, 15n21, 23, 41, 46, 62n121, 68n183

al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid 40, 125n5 al-Ghazzi, Badr al-Din 28-31, 46, 66n166,168, 119, 121

al-Ghazzi, libril b. Zayn al-'Abidin 103n8

al-Ghazzi, Najm al-Din 30, 31, 46, 66n166, 66n168, 119, 121

al-Ghazzi, Radi al-Din 30 al-Ghurab, Mahmud Mahmud 6,7

Goliath (Jalut) 114n95

Gumu§hanevi, Ahmed Ziya’uddin 1,8

al-Hadi, Muhammad b.'Abdallah 123 hadith 6, 22-38, 42-44, 48, 52n11, 54n20, 55n37, 56n44, 61n112, 62n118, 63n138, 66n167, 74, 104n13, 110n56

al-Halabi al-Sirafi, Muhammad b.Muqbil24, 26, 27, 57n49, 121

Hanafi 39, 41, 42, 60n102

Hanbali 26, 36, 56n47, 61n114 al-Hanbali, 'Abd al-BaqiTaqi al-Din b.Mawahib 36, 61n114

Haram (Meccan Sanctuary; Sacred Precinct of Mecca) 28, 60n102

Haramayn (Mecca and Medina) 31,

32. 43, 58n81, 67n178, 67n179 al-Harawi, Nasir al-Din Muhammad

b. 'Ali, 24, 66n166, 121 al-Harun, Ahmad 6-7 al-Hashimi, Muhammad (al-Jaza’iri

al-Tilimsani) 14n14 hawqala 107n34, 111n65 al-Hifnawi, Muhammad b. Salim

(also al-Hifni) 13n7, 36, 38-40, 47, 67n173, 120

Hijaz 22,23,27,28, 32, 34, 39,43, 46, 60n111, 64n150, 65n153 himma 73

hirz (pl. ahrdz) 3n4, 72, 107n32, 108n41, 110n64

Hirz al-aqsdm 73, 107n31, 107n32, 124 al-Hisari, 'Abd al-Wahid al-Mu'ammar 33

al-Hisari, Husayn b. Isma'il 97n42, 108n41, 124

al-Hisn al-hasin 106n27, 107n32, 108n41

al-Hisni, Husayn 41

hizb (pl. ahzdb) 3n4, 47, 69, 72, 73 Hizb of al-Nawawi 7, 15n19, 56n40 Hizb al-ahadiya 122

Hizb al-'drifbi’lldh 124

Hizb al-bahr 44, 51n3, 52n7, 104n15, 106n30, 107n31, 110n60

Hizb al-nasr 52n7, 106n30

Hizb al-nur 124

Hudayi, Aziz Mahmud 16n24 al-Husayni, 'Ali al-Wasfi b. Husayn 51n3

Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad 37 Ibn 'Arabi, 'Imad al-Din Muhammad b. Muhyi al-Din 54n21

Ibn 'Arabi, Muhyi al-Din (Shaykh Muhyi al-Din; the Shaykh al-Akbar) 1, 2, 3n1, 5-9, 11n4, 14n12, 15n21, 17, 22-29, 33-38, 40-42, 45, 46, 48-50, 51n1, 51n5, 52n12, 54n19-21, 58n70, 61n114, 67n176, 77, 104n10, 107n31, 110n61, 110n63, 117n118, 119-124

Ibn 'Arabi, Sa'd al-Din Muhammad b. Muhyi al-Din 22,23, 121

Ibn 'Asakir, Abu Muhammad al-Qasim b. Muzaffar 22-24, 119

Ibn Bakhila, Da’ud 51n3

Ibn al-Bukhari, al-Fakhr 26

Ibn Fahd al-Makki, 'Abd al-'Aziz ('Izz al-Din) b. 'Umar 27, 28, 120

Ibn Fahd al-Makki, Muhammad (Taqi al-Din) 27

Ibn Fahd al-Makki, Siraj al-Din 'Umar b. Muhammad (Taqi al-Din) 25-27, 120

Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, 25-28, 46, 48, 55n37, 119

Ibn Idris, Ahmad 43

Ibn Mashish, 'Abd al-Salam 52n7, 107n31

Ibn al-Shuwaykh, Badr al-Din Hasan al-Maqdisi 30

Ibn Taymiya, Taqi al-Din

Ahmad 26, 35, 48-50, 68n186

Ibn Tulun 28

ijaza 5-8, 18, 23, 24, 26-8, 30-33, 36, 38,40, 44,45, 52n11, 54n21, 61n114, 65n166, 69, 74, 119, 120, 122

‘child ijaza’ 36, 45, 52n12, 54n19, 65n166

'ilm (and ahi al-'ilm) 44, 52n10

Indonesia 34

Iraq 23, 64n150

al-Isfahani, shaykh Abu Shuja' Zahir b. Rustam 54n19

al-ism al-jami' 76

Ismail Pasha 9, 16n23

Istanbul 8, 16n24, 17

Istighatha 51n1,51n6

al-Jabarti al-Zabidi, Isma'il 23-25, 46, 67n176, 121

al-Taza’iri, 'Abd al-Qadir (Amir) 42, 49, 64n152

al-Jaza’iri, Muhammad al-Sa'di 39

al-Jazari, Muhammad b. Muhammad Abu’l-Khayr Shams al-Din (also

Ibn al-Jazari) 67n176, 106n27 al-Jazuli, Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad

b. Sulayman 6

Jerusalem 32, 35-40,47, 119 al-Jili, 'Abd al-Karim 25, 33 jinn 70, 72, 104n13, 104n14, 105n17, 105n22

Joseph (Prophet Yusuf) 77-78, 116n112

al-Jundi,Muhammad 41,42,49,119 al-Jundi, Muhammad Amin

b. Muhammad 42, 49, 119

kalam see theology

karama (pl. karamat, act of spiritual grace) 7, 12n4, 14n12, 28, 38, 43

kash (acquisition) 33, 61n114 al-Kattani, 'Abd al-Hayy b. 'Abd al-Kabir 37, 66n171

Khalid al-Naqshbandi, shaykh Diya’ al-Din 41, 42, 49

Khalidiyya see Naqshbandiyya- Khalidiyya

Khalwati/Khalwatiyya 13n7, 37, 38, 40, 42, 47, 63n129, 63n132

Khatmiyya (Mirghaniyya) 43 khawass (special properties) 2, 69-74 Khidr40

khirqa 23, 30, 33, 46, 78

K. Kashf al-ma'na 'an asma’ Allah al-husna 77

K. al-Mu’ashsharat al-maymuna 23

K. al-Rashahat al-anwariya fi sharh al-awrad al-akhariya 53n14, 103n7 al-Kurani, Ibrahim b. Hasan 32, 34, 35, 37, 47, 49, 67n173, 109n51, 120-123

al-Kurani, Ilyas b. Ibrahim 37, 47 al-Kurani, Muhammad b. Ibrahim 40

al-Kurani, Tahir b. Ibrahim (Muhammad Abu’l-Tahir) 37, 38, 120 ’

al-Kurdi, Hasan b. Musa 53n14 al-Kurdi, Mahmud (al-Khalwati) 39, 40, 120

London 9, 17

Ma'arrat Nu'man 41-42 madhhab (pl. madhahib) 22, 33, 48, 56n44, 58n73, 122

al-Maghribl, Ahmad al-Shadhili

(al-Maqqarl) 38

magic squares 73

Mahallat Ruh 29, 30 al-Mahdall, Yusuf 43 al-MahdawI, 'Abd al-'AzIz 107n31, 110n59

majlis (pl. majalis) al-salat 'ala al-nabi 5,6,

Majmu 'at al-ahzab 1, 8

Malatya 22

Maliki 32

Malta 39

Manzumat asma’ Allah al-husna

al-Dardayriya 12n4, 63n132

Maqam Ibrahim (‘Station of

Abraham’) 22, 31, 53n16, 54n19 al-Maqdisi al-Salihi al-Hanbali, al-Salah Muhammad 26 al-Maraghi, Muhammad Abu’l-Fath

(al-Maraghi al-saghir) 26-28, 121 al-Mar'ashi, Mahmud Efendi 42 marid (pl. marada) (disobedient and

insolent [jinn]) 70, 104n13

Maryam bint Muhammad (Khatun) 53n15

mashyakha 27, 53n14

mausoleum of Ibn 'Arabi (also shrine;

tomb) 5, 15n21, 36, 103n8

Mecca 22, 26, 27, 31-33, 42-44, 46, 60n102

Medina 26, 30, 32-6, 46, 67n178, 68n185, 119, 121-123

al-Mirghani, 'Abdallah b. Ibrahim

(al-Mahjub) 42 -44, 120 al-Mirghani, Muhammad

'Uthman 43

al-Mirghani, Muhammad Yasin

b. 'Abdallah 42, 43, 120 Mirghaniyya see Khatmiyya Morocco 39, 63n134

Moses (Prophet Musa) 77, 112n76, 113n85, 114n89, 114n90, 115n101, 116n108

al-Mudarris, 'Abd al-Rahman 42

Muhammad see Prophet Muhammad al-Muhibbi, Muhammad b. Fadlallah (Amin) 22, 31, 33

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society (MIAS) 9, 10

mu' jam shuyukh (pl. ma'ajim shuyukh) 23-25,27,28, 53n14

muqatta'at 72, 107n31

al-Muradi, Muhammad Khalil

b. 'Ali 40

murid 5, 6, 29, 30

al-Murshidi, al-Jamal Muhammad (Abu’l-Mahasin) 25, 56n40, 120

al-Murtada al-Zabidi (Muhammad Murtada) 24, 43, 46

Mu'tazili; Mu'tazilism 56n44

al-Nabulusi, 'Abd al-Ghani 12n4-5, 31, 32, 36-38, 41, 61n114, 62n116, 66n166, 67n173, 119, 121, 124

al-Nabulusi, Ibrahim b. Isma'il b. 'Abd al-Ghani (grandson of'Abd al-Ghani) 41, 46, 66n166, 121

al-Nabulusi, Isma'il (son of'Abd al-Ghani) 41

al-Nabulusi, Isma'il (father of'Abd al-Ghani) 32, 36

al-Nabulusi, Isma'il (greatgrandfather of 'Abd al-Ghani) 30

Naqshbandi/Naqshbandiyya 8, 15n19, 30, 32-38, 47, 61n111, 67n181, 64n150, 68n185

Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya (also Mujaddidiyya-Khalidiyya) 1, 64n150

Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya 34, 41, 68n185

al-Nass, Mamduh 7

al-Nass, Muhammad Samir 7, 14n14

Palestine 27, 40, 47

Prophet Muhammad (Messenger;

Envoy of God) 7, 14nl6, 40, 43, 54nl6, 103n9, 104n13, 105n20, 113n79, 113n85, 114n90, 115n96, 116n113, 117n118

Prophet’s Mosque (Medina)

(al-Masjid al-Nabawi) 37, 123

Prophet’s Noble Sanctuary (Medina) (al-Haram al-Sharif al-Nabawi) 122 '

Qadiri/Qadiriyya 32, 34, 36, 37, 107n31

Qarabashiyya (Khalwatiyya) 37-39 qarin (pl. qurand’) (spirit companion) 70, 104n13

qarin al-su’ (the Evil One; Satan) 71, 105n19

Qarun 112n74

al-Qawuqji, Muhammad b. Khalil (Abu’l-Mahasin) 43, 44, 73, 120

Qunawi, Sadr al-Din 23

Qur’an (also Qur’anic worldview) 31, 35, 45, 48, 49, 56n44, 61n114, 71, 74, 77

Qur’anic quotations (also texts; verses) 2, 74-77, 106n26-28, 108n41

al-Qushashi, Safi al-Din Ahmad 31-35, 46,49, 61n111, 67n176, 120, 121, 123

al-Ramli, al-Shams Muhammad 31

Rauf, Bulent 9, 17

al-Sakhawi, Muhammad b. 'Abd

al-Rahman 26, 27

al-salafal-sdlih, 35, 56n44

salafi/salafism 26, 29, 35, 48-50, 56n44, 61n114

Salafi/Salafiyya (19th-century reform movement) 49, 68n186

salawat; tasliya; al-saldt 'ala al-nabi (calling down peace and blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad) 11n4, 12n5, 14n16, 69, 72, 103n9, 104n10

al-Saldt al-Mashishiya 40

Saldt/Salawdt of Ibn 'Arabi (Salawat

kubrd; Salawat and Saldt sharifa)

3n3, 36, 51n6, 119, 120, 123, 124 Salawdt ofal-Dardayr 12n4, 63n132 al-Salihiyya 5, 14n12 Salimiyya madrasa 36, 41 samd' (certificate of audition) 24, 27 sanad (chain of transmission or

authorities) 2, 18, 41, 44-46, 48, 49, 52n11, 66n167, 76, 119-122 al-Sanusi, Muhammad b. 'Ali 43 Satan 71, 104n13, 105n19, 111n70 Saul(Talut) 114n95 Shadhili/Shadhiliyya 14n14, 27, 32, 43, 65n162, 106n31

al-Shadhili, Abu’l-Hasan 73, 121, 123, 124

Shafi'i 22, 23, 25-31, 34, 37, 38, 54n19, 59n85

al-Shafi'i, Muhammad b. Idris

(al-Imam) 65n166, 123, 124 shahdda 71, 105n18, 116n111 Shahrazur 34, 64n150

al-Sha'rani, 'Abd al-Wahhab 28, 29,

46, 49, 57n63, 58n76, 121, 124 al-Sharbini,'Abd al-Rahman 31 shari'a 34, 35, 48, 60n109, 61n111 al-Sharqawi, 'Abdallah 39, 40 Shattariyya 30, 32, 34, 37, 60n109 Shaykh Muhyi’l-Din Mosque 5-7, 15n20

al-Shinnawi, Abu’l-Mawahib Ahmad b. 'Alib. 'Abd al-Quddus 29-32, 67n176, 121

al-Shinnawi, 'Ali b. 'Abd al-Quddus 29, 67n176, 121

al-Shinnawi, Muhammad 29, 58n76 Sibghatullah b. Ruhullah al-Sindi

(al-Barwaji; al-Baruji) 30, 32, 58n81 silsila 23, 35, 46, 67n176 al-Sindi, Muhammad Hayat 37,

59n94

Singkel, 'Abd al-Ra’uf 33, 34 Sirhindi, Ahmad 34, 35, 59n97, 68n185

al-Sulami, Muhammad b. Husayn (Abu 'Abd al-Rahman) 123

Sunbul, Muhammad Sa'ld 37, 38, 120

Sunbul, Muhammad Tahir b. Muhammad Sa'ld 38, 42, 64n153, 120

Sunna 35, 48, 49, 61n111 supplication (du’a’) 3n4, 103n8, 108n44, 108n46, 117n119

surat al-An'am 14n16

surat al-Fatiha 7, 11n4, 12n5, 14n16

surat al-Ikhlas 107n34

surat al-Inshirah 14n16, 104n10, 114n90

surat al-Waqi'a 71

surat Ya Sin 12n4, 13n7

surat Yusuf 77, 113n80

al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din 26, 27, 30, 43, 46, 57n49, 66n166, 66n171, 67n176, 121

Syria 23, 27, 32, 41-43, 46, 49

al-ta'alluq 77

al-Tabari al-Makki, 'Abd al-Qadir

b. Muhammad b. Yahya 31, 33, 120 al-Tabari al-Makki, Ahmad

b. 'Abdallah 54n19

al-Tabari al-Makki, Radi al-Din Ibrahim b. Muhammad 22, 66n166, 120

al-Tabari al-Makki, Yahya b. Makram b. Muhibb al-Din 28, 31, 120

al-Tabari al-Makki, Zayn al-'Abidin b. 'Abd al-Qadir 33, 46, 120

tabi'a (pl. tawabi') (female jinn companion) 70, 104n13

al-Tafilati, Muhammad 39, 46, 47, 74, 119

al-tahaqquq 77

Tahsin 122

al-takhalluq 77, 78

takhrij 55n37

talisman 73, 106n27, 107n33

al-Tanukhi, Burhan al-Din Abu

Ishaq Ibrahim (al-Burhan al-Shami) 23-25, 119

tariqa (pl. turuq) 5, 11n 1, 14n12, 18, 28, 29, 32-36, 47, 61n111, 67n177

Tarjuman al-ashwaq 103n8

Tawajjuh waqt al-sahar 122

ta’widh; ta’awwudh (taking refuge)

106n27, 111n70

theology (kalam) 33-35, 38,48, 61n114

al-Tilimsani, Muhammad b. 'Isa 32

al-'Ujaymi al-Makki, al-Hasan

b. 'Ali, 33, 37

umm al-sibyan 71, 105n20

al-Uskudari, Isma'il b. 'Abdallah 62n126

usul (principles of the faith) 33, 38

uwaysi sufism; uwaysi sufi 36, 43, 67n174

wahdat al-wujud (Oneness of Being) 31, 33-36, 48, 49, 56n44, 61n114, 67n181, 68n186, 122

Wali Allah, Shah 37, 68n186

al-Wani, Nur al-Din Abu’l-Hasan

'Ali b.'Umar 23, 66n166,'121

wird (pl. awrad) 3n4, 38, 69, 103n2

Wird al-sahar 12n5, 38

Yemen 25, 32, 39

Yivlik, Ahmed 8, 15n21

Zakariya al-Ansari, 26-30, 46,

66n166, 67n172, 173, 119, 121

al-Zarruq, Ahmad 13n6

zawba'a (pl. zawabi’) (storm demon) 70, 104n13

‘Whoever recites this prayer will be like the sun
and the moon among the stars’

This is the first study of a widely used and much-loved prayer by Ibn 'Arabi. The Dawr al-ala (‘The Most Elevated Cycle’), also known as the Hizb al-wiqaya (‘The Prayer of Protection’), is a prayer of remarkable power and beauty. It is said that whoever reads it with sincerity of heart and utter conviction, while making a specific plea, will have their wish granted.

This precious book provides a definitive edition of the Arabic text, a lucid translation and a transliteration for those unable

to read Arabic. In addition, there is an illuminating analysis of the transmission and use of the prayer across the centuries. Of particular interest are the major figures in Islamic scholarship and mysticism who have been associated with it, and perceptions of its properties.

Suha Taji-Farouki is Research Associate at the Department of Academic Research and Publications, The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London), and Lecturer in Modern Islam atthe Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. She has published widely on aspects of modern Islam and Islamic thought.

21-        B, C, D and F: والبراعة والبلاغة

23• G and H omit word

24- H and I add: عوارف

2 5- C omits word• D: وببشارة اشارة (with alternative وباشاش بشائر)

34. Some omit this or the preceding word or change their order

35• C, D and J add ذلك خير

37• F, I and K give instead يا تواب يا رحيم. G gives instead يا حكيم يا تواب

39• H gives والراجين من انعطاف رحمة قل • I gives والراجين قل. A, B, E and K give والراجين الذين قيل لهم. C gives والراجين الذين قلت فيهم.

40• Some (including A, B, D and L) add عدن

41•        A, B, E, F, G, I, J, K and Ladd: الذين

45. Some add or substitute يسيرا and/or واسعا. Phrase missing inJ

47. Phrase وعملا بريرا missing from F, G, H and J; given as alternative in M

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[1]22. B, D omit word

[2] B, C, H, J and L omit verse ٢٨

[3]36•        F and L give instead ذلك فضل الله (Q• 57:21; 62:4)

[4] Hand ل omit verse ٣١

[5] The copies vary in the number of repetitions of these Names• The Names

[6] E and K add ان تجعل لي من لدنك

[7] Phrase وعلما غزيرا missing from G and H

[8]        Some copies give different expanded versions of the salawat