duties such as pilgrimage, prayer, and fasting. For
example, al-Shadhili performed the hajj to mecca
every two years, and he promised to protect and
assist any of his followers who accompanied him.
Equally important is living a full work and fam-
ily life within the larger Muslim community. This
sober and pragmatic approach to Sufism has made
this movement attractive to middle- and upper-
class Muslims to the present day.
Few Sufi tariqas have had as widespread an
influence as the Shadhiliyya. Shadhiliyya move-
ments rapidly spread throughout Egypt and across
North Africa, and they reached iran during its
first century. Though it was initially associated
with elites in urban settings, subsequent leaders
from around the Islamic world transformed the
orientation of the movement leading to the devel-
opment of popular movements with mass appeal.
Subsequently, Shadhiliyya movements appeared
in West and east aFrica and the islands of the
Indian Ocean. Today new branches of the Shad-
hiliyya continue to form and attract new follow-
ers such as the Burhaniya Disuqiyah, founded by
Shaikh Muhammad Uthman Abdu (d. 1983) in the
sUdan, which subsequently spread to Egypt and
syria. The 20th century has also seen Shadhiliyya
branches established in new regions of the world
such as eUrope, North America, and South Asia.
Shauna HuffakerFurther reading: Vincent Cornell, Realm of the Saint:
Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin: Uni-
versity of Texas Press, 1998); Michael Gilsenan, Saint
and Sufi in Modern Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1973); Muhammad ibn Abi al-Qasim Ibn al-Sab-
bagh, The Mystical Teachings of al-Shadhili: Including His
Life, His Prayers, Letters, and Followers. Translated by
Elmer Douglas (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1993); Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimen-
sions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1975); J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in
Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).
shafaa See intercession.
Shafii, Muhammad ibn Idris al- (767–820)
leading legal theorist and eponymous founder of the
Shafii Legal School
Known as the “father of Muslim jurisprudence”
(fiqh), al-Shafii was born in the area of Gaza in
palestine to an arab family that claimed descent
from the prophet mUhammad (ca. 570–632). He
grew up in mecca and is reported to have become
skilled in archery and the composition of Arabic
poetry. He studied hadith and law with malik ibn
anas (d. 795) in medina for 10 years. Biographi-
cal sources report that al-Shafii became involved
with a pro-Shii group in Yemen and was brought
to baghdad, the flourishing capital of the abbasid
caliphate for punishment. The caliph harUn
al-rashid (r. 786–809) reportedly pardoned him
as a result of the intercession of al-Shaybani (d.
804), a leading Hanafi jurist who had also studied
with Malik. Al-Shafii stayed in iraq to study fiqh
with al-Shaybani and the other early founders of
the hanaFi legal school, but then he moved
to Fustat (later part of cairo) in egypt. Maliki
jurists there rejected him because he was critical
of Maliki legal theory, having been influenced by
the teachings of both the Hanafis and ahmad ibn
hanbal (d. 855). Indeed, he may even have been
murdered there by a Maliki faction. He was buried
in Cairo’s Southern Cemetery, where his mosque-
tomb has become a major shrine. A mawlid (saint
festival) is held there annually, and devotees are
known to bring letters to him requesting his
intercession in legal matters. The legal school that
bears his name developed into one of the lead-
ing ones in Islamdom during the Middle Ages
and continues to prevail in east aFrica, parts of
Yemen, South india, indonesia, and malaysia.
Al-Shafii’s major writings are the Risala (Trea-
tise) and Kitab al-umm (Book of Guidance). In
these and shorter works he laid the groundwork
for what would become the prevailing system of
Islamic jurisprudence. On the one hand, he rejected
the Maliki position that law had to be based on the
living example of the community in Medina. On
the other, he strongly opposed the Hanafi school’s
acceptance of reasoned opinion (ray) in legal rea-K 616 shafaa