Year: 2020
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The Egyptian Context [Al-Wāsiṭī] performed the greater pilgrimage and joined a circle of [Shāfiʿī jurists] in Mecca.For a period of time he lived in some of the Sufi convents (khawāniq) in Cairo, where he [also] associated with circles of jurists.However, his heart was not reassured by anything of the modern [Sufi] groups (al-ṭawāʾif) [he found there].He joined the Shādhiliyya group in Alexandria and found that they had what he was looking for, pertaining to gleams of experiential knowledge (maʿrifa), divine love (maḥabba), and a method for the spiritual path (sulūk).Hence, he acquired that from them and benefited from them, and followed their way and their guidance.1Thus Ibn Rajab sums up a significant part of al-Wāsiṭī's life, which covers the moment he decided to leave Iraq to the years he spent in Egypt.I say significant because his experiences in Egypt would leave a lasting impression on him and strongly influence the writings he would later produce in Damascus.Both his association with the Alexandrian Shādhiliyya, the ṭāʾifa named after the Moroccan Sufi Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Shādhilī (d.656/1258), and his time spent in Cairene Sufi convents, were essential components in the final shaping of his interpretation of Sufism.The current chapter is dedicated to his Alexandrian era, which we will again study through his autobiography and other relevant primary sources.Before we can do so, there are two issues regarding our source material that we must briefly address.First, contrary to Ibn Rajab's account, al-Wāsiṭī's autobiography tells us that he actually joined the Shādhiliyya in Alexandria before he tried his luck in Sufi convents, with no mention of these being Cairene, or of Cairo at all for that matter.We can nevertheless assume that his account of the time he lived in Sufi convents concerns the period he spent in Cairo as related by Ibn Rajab above.In the following pages we will naturally follow the chronology provided by al-Wāsiṭī himself in his autobiography, and start with his description of the Shādhiliyya.We will turn to his Cairene days in the next chapter.
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: Arjan Post
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3083324436