An Earlier Copy of al-Suhrawardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif and Its Scribe, Abū Ṭāhir al-Ḥanafī

Aydogan Kars

doi:10.3390/rel11110613

Abstract

This paper introduces an accomplished Ḥanafī traditionist [muḥaddith] named Abū Ṭāhir ʿAbd al-Salām Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ al-Shīrāzī (b.bef.590/1194, d.661/1263), and two newly-discovered manuscripts that shed light on his life, works, and networks. The first manuscript is an earlier copy of ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī’s (539-632/1145-1234) influential Sufi treatise, Benefits of Intimate Knowledge [ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif] that Abū Ṭāhir copied in 603/1206. In addition to updating the terminus ad quem of al-Suhrawardī’s masterpiece, the manuscript also preserves a significant audition [samāʿ] record. While Abū Ṭāhir transcribed this early copy, he seems to have neither participated in the later transmission of the work nor formed a Sufi identity. A well-connected traditionist who has not yet received scholarly attention, he wrote many works, none of which have been studied so far. This paper introduces his life and works, traces his immediate teachers and pupils in transmitting prophetic sayings, and analyzes a hitherto unstudied manuscript of his Forty Sayings on the Virtue of Praying for the Messenger of God [Al-Arbaʿūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāt ʿalā Rasūl Allāh]. The paper demonstrates that the study of al-Suhrawardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif by non-Sufi traditionists can be traced back to its earliest extant copy available to us.

Highlights

Towards a Chronology of al-Suhrawardı’s Corpus Abū H. afs
Al-Qazwīnī mentions two more works in his Mashyakha as books that he was granted an authorization to transmit. Both of these works were penned by Abū Ṭāhir himself: Key to Paradise [Miftāḥ al-Janna], and a Book of Forty Sayings on the Eminence of Praying for the Messenger of God [Al-Arbaūn fī Faḍīlat al-Ṣalātalā Rasūl Allāh], peace and blessings upon him: Both of them are collections byImād al-Dīn Abū ṬāhirAbd al-Salām Ibn Abī al-Rabī
Abd al-Muh.sin came to Hijaz in 621/1224, when he taught Qut.b al-Dın and bestowed on him the Sufi robe

Summary

Introduction

Towards a Chronology of al-Suhrawardı’s Corpus Abū H. afs. Umar al-Suhrawardı’s (539-632/1145-1234) Benefits of Intimate Knowledge [ Awārif al-Ma ārif ] is one of the most influential Sufi manuals ever written.1 A critical edition of Awārif al-Ma ārif is still absent, and its date of composition is unclear. Among Abū T.āhir’s descendants, his grandson Abū Ja far Ah.mad Ibn Muh.ammad was a writer who penned poems.23 As for the teachers of Abū T.āhir in prophetic sayings, Mu ın al-Dın does not mention al-Suhrawardı. S.inwān al-Riwāya wa Finwān al-Dirāya: While this is the better-known work of Abū T.āhir mentioned by Ibn al-Fuwat.ıand Mu ın al-Dın, it seems to have survived in a single copy preserved in al-Maktaba al-Qādiriyya in Baghdad.

Results

Conclusion