Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus

 Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus : New,
Imam 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi [d.1143h],
*[A5] Paperback - 184 pages,
by Elizabeth Sirriyeh,
Published by Routledge TandF Group.

Back in Stock March 2020


Description :

Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641 to1731C.E.) was the most outstanding scholarly Sufi of Ottoman Syria. Many contemporaries and later Sufis gained their knowledge of Sufism from his writings. Many studied the works of the Andalusian mystic Ibn al-Arabi, the Egyptian poet Ibn al-Farid and other masters through his mystical interpretations. Yet despite Nabulusi's importance for understanding Arab Sufism in the Ottoman age, very little has been published on this significant Sufi author.  


This pioneering book seeks to introduce the reader to Nabulusi's Sufi experience and work. Set against the background of Islamic life and thought in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Syria and Palestine, al-Nabulusi was regarded as the leading religious poet of his time and as an excellent commentator of classical Sufi texts. At the popular level, he has been read as an interpreter of symbolic dreams. Moreover, he played a crucial role in the transmission of the teachings of the Naqshbandiyya in the Ottoman Empire, and he contributed to the eighteenth-century Syria and Palestine.


This book opens with an exploration of Nabulusi's early life as scholar and Sufi saint in the making, earning enemies by his support for Ibn Arabi and more controversial medieval mystics. His debt to Shaykh ibn 'Arabi is examined further in a study of one of Nabulusi's books on Sufi doctrine, written at the age of 33 years. In his forties Nabulusi underwent a time of intense visions, especially during a seven-year period of retreat. This time also saw the production of Nabulusi's popular book of dream interpretation. Following discussion of his personal visionary experience and writing on dreams, further chapters deal with the journeys of his later middle age in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and the Hijaz. These chapters emphasise the mystical content of his travel writings, including his interest in the significance of ecstatics' visions and visits to holy tombs.





Imam 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi :


He is al-Shaykh al-Imam 'Abd al-Ghani bin Isma'il bin Ahmad Ibrahim bin Isma'il al-Hamawi, al-Maqdasi, al-Nabulusi (Nabulsi, Nabalusi, Nablusi) a descendant of Sayyadina Umar bin al-Khattab, radi Allahu ta'ala anhu. Shaykh al-Nabulusi was a high ranking Hanafi jurist, theologian, and spiritual master in the Ottoman era from Damascus, Syria. He was born on a Sunday 4th of Dhul Hijjah 1050 AH and went onto memorise the Qur'an at the age of 5. He used to frequent his fathers sessions in his youth until he passed away when the Imam was at the age of 12 years.


Al-Nabulusi had transmissions from his father in the following subjects; Hadith, Fiqh and Tafsir and he also used to study and take from the works of Shaykh al-Akbar, Muhiy ad-Din ibn al-'Arabi, rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alayhi. He studied from various scholars and he produced many a great scholar.


He was a gifted and prolific author, and a virtual encyclopedia of Islamic knowledge, who joined the exoteric and esoteric, authoring over 200 books on a variety of sciences. He taught in the renowned Umawi Mosque in Damascus and the Salihiyya Seminary. He passed away in 1143 after Hijri.




Elizabeth Sirriyeh is Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies in the School of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds. She is the author of 'Sufis and Anti-Sufis: the Defence, Rethinking and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World' (1999).






Table of Contents :


---Preface,
---Abbreviations,


---[1]. The Making of a Scholarly Saint,

---[2]. The Spiritual Song of Ibn 'Arabí,

---[3]. The Naqshbandí Recluse,

---[4]. Interpreter of True Dreams,

---[5]. Solitude in a Crowd,

---[6].  'A New Kind of Mystical Travel Literature'

---[7]. Last Years in Salihiyya, 1707 to 1731,


---Conclusion: 'The Illustrious Mystic' and 'Sultan of the Learned' 


---Bibliography,
---Index.









See Sufi Books Homepage.




*Dimensions : 21.8 x 14.1cm.








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  • Written by: Sh. Abdul Ghani al-Nablusi

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This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 18 December, 2019.

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