Aisha al-Ba'uniyya

A Life in Praise of Love

Th. Emil Homerin

• Publisher: Oneworld Academic
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781786076113
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

Aisha al-Ba‘uniyya (c.1456–1517) was one of the greatest women mystics in Islamic history. A Sufi master and an Arab poet, her religious writings were extensive by any standard and extraordinary for her time. In medieval Islam a number of women were respected scholars and teachers, but they rarely composed works of their own. Aisha al-Ba‘uniyya, however, was prolific. She composed over twenty works, and likely wrote more Arabic prose and poetry than any other Muslim woman prior to the twentieth century.

The first full-scale biography of al-Ba‘uniyya in the English language, this volume provides a rare glimpse into the life and writings of a medieval Muslim woman in her own words. Homerin presents her work in the wider context of late-medieval Islamic spirituality, examining the influence of figures such as Ibn al-‘Arabi, al-Busiri and Ibn al-Farid, and emphasising the role of the person of the Prophet Muhammad in her spirituality. Aisha al-Ba‘uniyya is a fascinating introduction to a figure described by a sixteenth-century biographer as ‘one of the marvels of her age’.

GOD’S BLESSINGS

Divine grace raised me in a place of goodness and security, and nurtured me with the milk of good fortune. So I followed the path of propriety, and when I reached the age of discernment, the true Lord enabled me to read His awesome book [the Qur’an], and He blessed me with memorizing it completely when I was eight years of age. Then, I continued in the protection of the kind One’s caresses, until I attained knowledge of right and wrong when He pulled away from me the veil of selfishness and removed the screens of confusion. He bestowed upon me His divine inspirations and supported me with His hidden attractions.

Aisha al-Ba‘uniyya (Ibn al-Hanbali al-Halabi, Durr, 1:2:1063)

ORIGINS

When Aisha al-Ba‘uniyya speaks of her early blessed life, she may well be alluding to growing up within an extended family of scholars and writers in Damascus. Her ancestors originated in the village of Ba‘un in the area of ‘Ajlun, located today in Jordon’s northwestern corner. Nasir, Aisha’s great-grandfather, was a weaver and textile merchant there. Perhaps in search of educational and occupational opportunities for his sons, Nasir moved his family from Ba‘un to Nazareth around 1359. In time, his oldest son, Isma’il (d. 1407), became a deputy judge in Nazareth, and later devoted his life to spiritual practices.

Nasir’s younger son, and Aisha’s grandfather, Ahmad (1350–1413) was a gifted child. He memorized the Qur’an by the age of ten, and as a young man held several minor administrative positions in and around Nazareth. He later traveled to Cairo where he caught the attention of the sultan, Barquq (r. 1382–99), who appointed him preacher and administrator of the prestigious Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Barquq later promoted him to chief Shafi’i judge of Damascus, but Ahmad fell from royal favor for refusing to loan the sultan money from an orphans pension fund under his control. Some years later, during the reign of Barquq’s son, Faraj (r. 1399–1405, 1406–12), Ahmad again briefly served as the chief judge of Damascus. Then, in 1412, for a tumultuous two months, he served as the chief Shafi’i judge of all the Mamluk domains and authorized the removal of Faraj from the sultanate. Ahmad then retired to his home in Damascus, where he wrote a commentary on the Qur’an and a poem on proper religious belief. Ahmad was praised by his colleagues as a righteous and honorable man, a fine preacher, and an able administrator. Though he was ambitious and may have held a high opinion of himself, Ahmad refused to be bribed or swayed by the rich and powerful in legal matters.

Following their father’s example, Ahmad’s three sons also became religious scholars. His eldest son, Ibrahim (1375–1464), was an accomplished poet and orator, serving for a time as a preacher at the Umayyad Mosque. He then moved to Jerusalem where he preached at the al-Aqsa Mosque and oversaw the administration of all Muslim holy places in that city. Due to his literary eloquence, Ibrahim was known as the “Master of Literature in the Land of Syria.” Ahmad’s second son, Muhammad (1378–1466), was also a preacher for a time at the Umayyad Mosque, as well as a minor poet and historian.

Ahmad’s third son, Yusuf (1402–75), was Aisha’s father. He received a religious and legal education comparable to that of his brothers, and was appointed as a judge in the cities of Safad, Tripoli, Aleppo and, finally, as the chief Shafi’i judge in Damascus. Yusuf was regarded as an honest and pious man, and among the best judges to have served in Damascus. In addition, Yusuf composed works in both poetry and prose, and after retirement he undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca with his children and other family members. By the time of Aisha’s birth, the Ba‘unis had established themselves as an important family in Damascus, and one in service to the Mamluk sultans.

SLAVE SOLDIERS

Mamluk is an Arabic term usually designating a military slave. Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, slave traders, especially in the Caucasus, purchased Kipchak and Circassian boys generally between the ages of eight and twelve years old, and sold them to the regimes in Damascus, Cairo, and elsewhere. The boys were often housed and educated in barracks with a military school where they learned to read and write Turkish and, sometimes, Arabic. They were also instructed in the laws and rituals of their new religion, Islam, but, most of all, they learned the arts of horsemanship and warfare. As these slave boys grew into young men, they were manumitted by their owners, though the Mamluks usually remained loyal to their former masters, whom they served as soldiers. Mamluks were an essential part of the armies of the great Muslim warrior and counter-crusader, Saladin (d. 1193) who founded the Ayyubid sultanate of Egypt and Syria, and subsequent Ayyubid rulers likewise depended on Mamluks for their elite fighting forces against the crusaders.

However, the Ayyubids were challenged by a greater threat coming from the east. Beginning around 1220, Mongol armies began to conquer and control the northeastern territories of the Abbasid caliphate, in present-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Nearly unstoppable, the Mongol hordes methodically pressed on, pillaging a succession of cities until they reached Baghdad. There, in 1258, the Mongols sacked and burned the Muslim capital, slaughtering thousands of people, including the reigning Abbasid caliph, his family, and many descendants of the prophet Muhammad. The Muslim community was stunned, as they were now held hostage and ruled by pagans. Many Muslims feared that the end of time was near.

Having secured their rule over the Muslim heartlands, the Mongol hordes again moved west, this time into Syria, where they occupied Damascus, and began their march toward Egypt. Then, in 1260, at Ayn Jalut near the city of Nablus, the Mongol forces encountered a formidable army of Mamluk solders, who annihilated them. The Mamluks had proven their worth, and though they would fight the Mongols in years to come, this resounding victory presaged an end to Mongol rule in Muslim lands. Soon thereafter, the Muslim Abbasid caliphate was re-established in Cairo. Together with Damascus, the two cities blossomed into major centers of Islamic learning and Arab culture. As a result, many hailed the Mamluks as the saviors of Islam, as noted by the famous scholar and historian Ibn Khaldun (d. 1405):

When the [Abbasid] state was drowned in decadence and luxury and donned the garments of calamity and impotence and was overthrown by the heathen [Mongols]…then, it was with God’s benevolence that He rescued the faith by reviving its dying breath and restoring the unity of the Muslims in the Egyptian realms, preserving the order and defending the walls of Islam. He did this by sending to the Muslims, from His Turkish nation and from among its great and numerous tribes, rulers to defend them and utterly loyal helpers, who were brought from the House of War to the House of Islam under the rule of slavery, which hides in itself a divine blessing. By means of slavery they learn glory and blessing and are exposed to divine providence; cured by slavery, they enter the Muslim religion with the firm resolve of true believers and yet with the nomadic virtues unsullied by debased nature, unadulterated with the filth of pleasure, undefiled by the ways of civilized living and with their ardor unbroken by the profusion of luxury…

(Lewis, Islam, 1:97–8)

MAMLUK SULTANATE

After defeating the Mongols, the victorious Mamluk commander Baybars (r. 1260–77) soon replaced an Ayyubid child prince as sultan, and so began the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria. Following Baybars’ death, another Mamluk, Qalawun (r. 1279–90), assumed the sultanate, to be followed by two of his sons, the most notable being al-Nasir Muhammad. Al-Nasir Muhammad and his older brother were not technically Mamluks, but rather members of the awlad al-nas, or “the sons of the (elite) people” – that is, freeborn children of a Mamluk father. They were usually taught the arts of war and served as an auxiliary to the Mamluk cavalry. They also learned Arabic and often became government secretaries, scholars, and littérateurs. Al-Nasir Muhammad’s early years as sultan (r. 1293–4, 1298–1308) were interrupted by several powerful Mamluk commanders who briefly usurped his power, but his third and longest reign (1309–40) was largely one of peace and prosperity.

After the death of al-Nasir Muhammad in 1340, some of his senior Mamluk emirs, together with seven of his descendants, ruled the Mamluk sultanate for the next forty years. Yet there was increasing instability in the wake of the Black Death of 1348–9, which spread destruction and havoc throughout Egypt and Syria. Politically, a number of Mamluk factions fought for supremacy as the domination of Kipchak Turks slowly eroded and, eventually, a Ciracassian Mamluk emir named Barquq was declared sultan in 1382. Though he often faced revolts in Syria and Upper Egypt, Barquq helped to restabilize the Mamluk sultanate and reigned for over fifteen years. During this time, Aisha’s grandfather, Ahmad, served as chief judge of Damascus.

Tumultuous times soon followed Barquq’s death in 1399 and, sensing weakness, Ottoman forces began to raid the Mamluk sultanate’s northern frontier. Also worrisome was the westward march of the vast army of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (d. 1405). His forces put the Mamluks to flight, and then plundered much of Syria, including Damascus. This was followed by another devastating plague in 1403–5. The Mamluk sultanate slowly recovered during the fifteenth century, and subsequent sultans gradually restored order and consolidated their authority. A new period of peace and stability spread throughout Egypt and Syria during the long reign of the sultan Qaytbay (r. 1468–96), and that of his eventual successor Qansuh al-Ghawri (r. 1501–16), both of whom reigned during the lifetime of Aisha al-Ba‘uniyya.

SECRETARIES AND SCHOLARS

While the Mamluks were the ruling military elite, they relied upon hundreds of clerks and secretaries to help administer the sultanate. These positions were roughly divided between the Bureau of Finance and the Chancellery or Diplomatic Bureau. Both were located in Cairo, with smaller branches in Damascus and other cities.

Another literate class was composed of the ulama, “those who know” – that is to say, the scholars of religion. By the Mamluk period, these scholars specialized in a wide range of subjects including the Qur’an, hadith (the traditions of the prophet Muhammad), theology and mysticism, though their core curriculum remained law and jurisprudence. Professionally, they served in a number of capacities as prayer leaders, Qur’an readers, teachers, professors, preachers and spiritual guides, as well as legal advocates, notaries, lawyers, and judges in the court system. Like the secretaries, religious scholars were supported largely by the Mamluk sultanate, which relied on them to staff the judiciary and meet the religious needs of the populace. In many of these capacities, Aisha’s grandfather, father, uncles, brothers, and other members of the Ba‘uni family served the Mamluk sultans.

The Mamluks also established religious endowments of lands and revenues for mosques, schools, libraries, chantries, hospitals, and other institutions for pious deeds and learning, which supported many of the religious scholars and their students. Among the grandest endowments were the vast complexes built at this time by a number of sultans and chief emirs. In many cases, a large congregational mosque would be flanked by rooms for a madrasa, or law school, often with one separate wing for each of the four recognized schools of Sunni law. Frequently adjoining the mosque and schools was a mausoleum with the donor’s grave and those of his family members, and a khanqah, or chantry, where Muslim mystics would chant the Qur’an and pray daily on behalf of the deceased. Such complexes employed ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Maps
• Preface
• 1 God’s blessings
• 2 Aisha al-ba‘uniyya and the beloved prophet
• 3 O my love and happiness
• 4 Tree of mystical life
• 5 Gathering union
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Index