Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006-1089 Ce)

An Early Sufi Master

A. G. Ravan Farhadi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138180291
• eBook ISBN: 9781136780844
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Études ethniques

Consisting of a bibliographical account of this early Sufi master's childhood, youth, and years as a teacher and spiritual leader, as well as of translations of a selection from his books and treatises, this work traces the life and teachings of Abdullah Ansari - from poverty and destitution as a boy, by way of furious arguments with scholars advocating a more rationalistic approach to their faith, to his final pronouncements on the path of Love and Union.

PART ONE

AN OUTLINE OF

THE LIFE OF

‘ABDULLĀH ANṢĀRĪ OF HERĀT

(1006-1089 C.E.)

SOURCES FOR HIS BIOGRAPHY

In studying the history of the life of ‘Abdullāh Anṣārī of Herāt, we are fortunate to have some excellent sources available in Arabic and Persian:

1. The Appendices to the Generations of Hanbalites (Ḍayl‘alā Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila) by Ibn Rajab of Baghdād (D. 796/1393)¹ provides important material in Arabic on the life history of Anṣārī.

2. The Characters of Great and Prominent People (Siyar al-A‘lām al-Nubalā’) by Al-Dhahabī² also contains interesting information in Arabic.

3. The Breezes of Intimacy (Nafaḥāt al-Uns) by Mawlānā ‘Abd-al-Raḥmān Jāmī of Herāt (817–898/1414–1492)³, contains an important chapter on Anṣārī in Persian. The text also includes a summary of a pamphlet written by Jāmī, “The Records and Acts of the Senior-of-Islam ‘Abdullāh Anṣārī” (Manāqib-é Shaykh al-Islām ‘Abdullāh Anṣārī). The full text of the “Records” was edited by the late Professor A.J. Arberry.⁴ The “Records” are mainly autobiographical, in that they are based on the notes of novices who wrote the material based on the narrations of their old master Anṣārī about his memories of childhood and early youth. (See: Nafaḥāt p. 336 to 355.

We do not need to repeat here all the references to the above mentioned sources. Serge de Laugier de Beaurecueil has provided detailed references to these sources in his Khwāja ‘Abdullāh Anṣārī, Mystique Hanbalite.⁵

The large amount of precisely dated events of Anṣārī’s life available to us, especially in the work of Ibn Rajab, allows us to make a good chronology of his life. There are very few great figures who lived many centuries ago about whom there is so much accurate information.

His Genealogy, Name, and Titles

Anṣārī’s genealogy can be found in the earliest manuscripts of his works:

1. ‘Abdullāh Abū-Ismā‘īl Anṣārī, son of

2. Muḥammad Abū-Manṣūr Anṣārī, son of

3. ‘Alī Abū-Ma‘ād Anṣārī, son of

4. Aḥmad Anṣārī, son of

5. ‘Alī Anṣārī, son of

6. Ja‘far Anṣārī, son of

7. Manṣūr Anṣārī, son of

8. Abū-Manṣūr Mat Anṣārī, son of

9. Abū-Ayyūb Khālid ibn Zayd al-Khazrajī al-Najjārī al-Azdī.

His family name derives from the Anṣār (“Helpers”), who were Muslim citizens of Yathrīb, the Arabian city later named “Madīnah,” who generously helped the Prophet and his Meccan followers, the Muḥājir (“Immigrants”), to establish themselves in 622 C.E. and during the subsequent decade.

Abū-Ayyūb had taken charge of the Prophet’s journey, and was afterwards called the “Companion in Charge of the Camel Saddle” (Ṣāḥib al-Raḥl). The Prophet honored him by staying first in his house after arriving in Yathrīb. Abū-Ayyūb later took part in battles against the armies of Rūm (Byzantium). His son, Abū-Manṣūr Mat al-Anṣārī, came to Herāt during the Caliphate of ‘Uthmān (23–35/644–656) in the company of Aḥnaflbn Qays, the Arab expedition leader who conquered Herāt (in 31/652). Abū-Manṣūr Mat and his successive descendants seem to have generally lived in Herāt until ‘Abdullāh Anṣārī was born in 396/1006.

The name “Khwāja,” which often precedes Anṣārī’s name in Persian writings, means “Master” (and was a term used by Ferdawsī in his Shāh-Nāma, c.a. 1000 C.E.). It was traditional, and still is, for descendants of the major companions of the Prophet living in Persian-speaking lands to be addressed by this honorific title. It will not be used in this book, and it is not used in the Arabic sources.

The name “Hirawī,” or “Harawī,” is an Arabic name meaning “belonging to Heray” or “Harī,” the early name of Herāt (the final āt is an Arabic ending plural form). “Herāt” means “Harī and its countryside.” (Other place names near Herāt have a similar construction, such as “Ghōrāt” and “Badghēsāt”). It is important to remember that Anṣārī’s Arab biographers wrote his last name as “al-Hirawī” (or “al-Harawī”), rather than “Anṣārī.” The English form, “of Herāt,” is used here since it expresses better the meaning of “Hirawī.”

The ancient name of Herāt is “Harayva” (Avestan, Old Persian). Its Middle Persian name was “Hérév.” In early Islamic times, the name of the city was pronounced “Haré” and “Héré.” “Harawī” or “Hérawī/Hirawī” is an Arabicized form meaning “belonging to Haré.”

His title, “Shaykh al-Islām” (“The Senior of Islām”), was recorded in the decree of the ‘Abbāsīd Caliph al-Qā’im in 462/1070. This title is often used by authors who quote Anṣārī. The decree also contained the titles “Shaykh al-Shuyūkh” (“Senior of the Seniors”) and “Zayn al-‘Ulamā” (“Ornament of the Scholars”). He was also given the title “Nāṣir al-Sunnah” (“Supporter of the Prophetic Tradition”).

‘Abū-l-Faḍl al-Maybodī, the author of “Kashf al-Asrār” (see the preliminary notes on this work), often calls Anṣārī “Pīr-é Ṭarīqat” (“Shaykh of the Path”) when quoting his Ṣūfī commentaries.

The title “Pīr-é Herāt” (the Shaykh of Herāt”) was later used in Persian texts.

The name “‘Abdullāh” (“Servant of God”), is more correctly written as “‘Abd-Allāh,” but it is written here according to the common transliteration in English. His surname (kunyat), “Abū-Ismā‘īl,” is rarely used in common quotations. In the time of Anṣārī, this kind of name was still formally given to male children in Persian-speaking lands, but later seems to have become omitted in spoken language. Eventually this practice was abandoned in Persian-speaking countries, as well as in Turkish-speaking ones.

Stages of His Life

“I belong to the spring, the season of flowers
and sweet smelling plants (rayāḥin).”

A) Ages 1 to 10: Childhood (1006–1016 C.E.):

‘Abdullāh Anṣārī was born in Herāt on the evening of May 4, 1006 C.E. (Sha‘bān 2,396 H). He said, “I was born in the Old Citadel (Kohan-dezh). I have grown up there, (and) no other place has been dearer to me.” (Quoted by Jāmi in Manāqib)

His father, Abū-Manṣūr, was a shop keeper in the “Old Citadel” district and was a Ṣūfī. He had spent many years of his youth in Balkh, first as the disciple of Abū-l-Muẓaffar Ḥabbāl of Termēz, an ascetic Ṣūfī of the Hanbalite school. After that, he became a disciple of Sharīf Ḥamza ‘Aqīlī of Termēz, who lived in Balkh in the company of Sufis that were following the Baghdad traditions (of the “Junayd” school of Sufism). When Abū-Manṣūr returned to Herāt, he started a family. He remained a scrupulous and dedicated Ṣūfī, and associated with the Ṣūfī masters of Herāt.

‘Abdullāh was put in a school that was taught by a woman. Then he attended the Mālīnī school. By age six he learned the reading of the Qur‘ān taught to him by the school “readers” (muqri’). At the age of nine, his father and a teacher named Jārūdī began to dictate Traditions (aḥādīth — sayings of the Prophet) to him.

However, about this time his father suddenly abandoned his family and shop, and left Herāt to look for his former Ṣūfī companions in Balkh.

B) Ages 11 to 19: A Precocious Teenager (1017–1025 C.E.):

‘Abdullāh continued his studies, which by age eleven included the study of poetry under a “well-read scholar” (adīb). His daily practice was to study and memorize passages from the Qur‘ān and Traditions, and to write letters and poetry. He studied so hard at home that he hardly allowed himself time to eat (“my mother put cooked spinach in my mouth”). Still abandoned by the father, the family remained destitute, but helped by some friends.

From the ages of thirteen to sixteen ‘Abdullāh had four significant teachers:

(1) A Ṣūfī named Shaykh ‘Amū, who had met many Sufis (including ‘Ab-ul-‘ Abbās Nahāwandī) during his extensive travels, and who also had built a Ṣūfī convent (khānaqāh) in a suburb of Herāt. When ‘Abdullāh was only fourteen, the shaykh appointed him to be his successor.

(2) An explainer of the Qur‘ān named Yaḥyā Ibn ‘Ammār Shaybānī, who was an opponent of the Ash‘arī philosophers (whom he called “innovators” — ahl-é bid‘at).

(3) ‘Abdul-Jabbār Jarrāḥī, who taught him Traditions from the Collection (Jāmi‘) of Tirmidhī.

(4) Ṭāqī of Sejestān, a sensitive and penetrating Ṣūfī master who began teaching him in his adolescence and who told him, “O ‘Abdullāh, praise be to God! What a light He has put in your heart!”

From the ages of seventeen to nineteen he continued his studies of the Qur’ān and Traditions and also continued to be exposed and initiated into different levels of the Ṣūfī path.

C) Ages 20 to 27: Toward Maturity (1026–1033 C.E.):

At the age of twenty, his spiritual mentor, Ṭāqī died, and ‘Abdullāh went to the city of Nishāpūr to further study Traditions and to meet well-known Ṣūfī masters such as Abū-Naṣr Manṣūr Aḥmad al-Mufassir, Abū-Sa‘īd Sayrafī, and Abū-l-Ḥasan Aḥmad Salīṭī. He avoided contacts with those who were influenced by Ash‘arite philosophy, which included Abū-l-Qāsim al-Qushayrī (d. 1072), the author of the famous Treatise (Risāla) on Sufism.

During the next year he was quite active in Herāt in the meetings of the scholars of the Traditions. Then, at age twenty-two, Shaykh ‘Amū made him the director of his Ṣūfī convent in Herāt. Anṣārī’s teacher of Quranic commentary, Yaḥyā b. ‘Ammār Shaybānī, died several years later (in 1031).

When Anṣārī was twenty-six, in 1032, he offered to accompany the elderly Imām Abū-l-Faḍl b. Sa‘d of Herāt to Mecca for the Pilgrimage (Ḥajj). However, when the caravan reached Baghdād, it had to return to Khorāsān because of news that the roads between Irāq and the Hijāz in Arabia were too dangerous. By the spring of 1032, he was back in Herāt.

He tried again the next year. While staying in Nishāpūr at the Ṣūfī convent of Ibn Bākū, he met the famous Ṣūfī Abū-Sa‘īd b. Abū-l-Khayr, who told him about the Ṣūfī master, Kharaqānī. H...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• List of Tables and Appendixes
• Transliterations and Dates
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART ONE: AN OUTLINE OF HIS LIFE
• PART TWO: SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS
• APPENDIXES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX