EAbd al-Qa ̄dir al-J ̄ıla ̄n ̄ı (1088–1166) from the region of
G ̄ıla ̄n near the Caspian Sea in Iran as its founder, tracing its
silsila through al-Junayd. EAbd al-Qa ̄dir was a H:anbal ̄ı legal
scholar—a follower of the strictest, most literalist school of
Islamic law—and was invested with the S:u ̄f ̄ı habit by the
founder of the first H:anbal ̄ı madrasah. Although he was a
stern teacher, EAbd al-Qa ̄dir has become perhaps the most
famous saint in the Islamic world, and stories of his miracles
abound from Java to Morocco. His tomb in Baghdad has re-
mained a place of pilgrimage for members of the brother-
hood to the twenty-first century, with pilgrims—many of
them from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, where the
Qa ̄dir ̄ıyah was introduced in the late fourteenth century—
remaining there for weeks, silently sweeping his sanctuary
with little brooms. Old Sindhi songs tell how EAbd al-Qa ̄dir’s
spiritual realm extends through every town and region be-
tween Istanbul and Delhi.
The Qa ̄dir ̄ıyah had a very catholic appeal; all strata of
society from ruler to peasant found a place within it. In pop-
ular belief EAbd al-Qa ̄dir was a renewer of Islam, and among
members of the order there is a well-known story that he dis-
covered a man by the wayside on the point of death and re-
vived him. The “man” then revealed that he was the religion
of Islam. The order, it should be noted, was to play a particu-
larly important role in the Islamization of West Africa.
Rifa ̄E ̄ıyah. Slightly later than the founding of the
Qa ̄dir ̄ıyah, the establishment of the Rifa ̄D ̄ıyah order in south-
ern Iraq is credited to Ah:mad al-Rifa ̄D ̄ı (d. 1182). Although
never as popular as the Qa ̄dir ̄ıyah, it was widespread in An-
taolia by the fourteenth century and is still represented there
and in Egypt. It is distinguished by one of its ritual practices,
a particularly loud recitation of the dhikr, which led mem-
bers to be known as the Howling Dervishes.
Suhraward ̄ıyah. One of the oldest t:ar ̄ıqahs is the
Suhraward ̄ıyah, named after its founder, Abu ̄ al-Naj ̄ıb EAbd
al-Qa ̄hir al-Suhraward ̄ı (d. 1168), author of the above-
mentioned A ̄da ̄b al-mur ̄ıd ̄ın, and also a professor of Sha ̄fiEi
law at the Niz:a ̄m ̄ıyah college in Baghdad. Significantly he
was a pupil of Ah:mad al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı (d. 1126), younger brother
of the great Abu ̄ H:a ̄mid al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı (d. 1111), who helped
win acceptance for the S:u ̄f ̄ı dimension of Islam within the
wider Islamic community. The influence and scope of the
order was extended and given its decisive character by EAbu ̄
al-Naj ̄ıb’s fraternal nephew and student, Shiha ̄b al-D ̄ın Abu ̄
H:afs: EUmar al-Suhraward ̄ı (1145–1234), whose treatise
EAwa ̄rif al-maEa ̄rif (Masters of mystical insights) became a
standard work on the theory of S:u ̄f ̄ı devotion.
The Abbasid caliph al-Na ̄s:ir built a riba ̄t: for Shiha ̄b
al-D ̄ın and his disciples in 1203 and appointed him as the
caliphal envoy to the Ayyu ̄ bid rulers of Egypt and Syria in
1208 and then to the Salju ̄ qs of Asia Minor in 1221. Shiha ̄b
al-D ̄ın Suhraward ̄ı’s disciples spread from Asia Minor and
Syria through Persia and northern India, and it was they who
established the Suhraward ̄ıyah brotherhood on a permanent
footing. Its origins, however, are credited to Abu ̄ al-Naj ̄ıb
and his nephew, Shiha ̄b al-D ̄ın, who also figure in the silsila
of the Kubraw ̄ıyah brotherhood as teachers of its founding
figures, Najm al-D ̄ın Kubra ̄ (d. c. 1220) and Najm al-D ̄ın
Ra ̄z ̄ı (d. 1265). The Suhraward ̄ıyah became one of the most
prominent and influential brotherhoods, though it subdivid-
ed into numerous branches after the fourteenth century.Mawlaw ̄ıyah. The Mawlaw ̄ıyah order, more common-
ly known by its Turkish adjectival form, Mevlevi, takes its
name from the title Mawlaw ̄ı (my master), by which the Per-
sian mystic poet Jala ̄l al-D ̄ın Ru ̄m ̄ı (1207–1273) was ad-
dressed. His community of disciples in Konya was system-
atized into an order by Sult:a ̄n Walad (d. 1312), Ru ̄m ̄ı’s son,
who built a shrine dome (türbe) over Ru ̄m ̄ı’s resting place.
From this base Sult:a ̄n Walad and his son, U ̄lu ̄ EA ̄rif Chalab ̄ı,
established Mevlevi lodges throughout Anatolia, each with
its own deputized shaykh.
As a boy Rumi had lived with his father, Baha ̄D al-D ̄ın-i
Walad (d. 1231), a visionary and mystically minded H:anaf ̄ı
preacher (wa ̄Eiz:), in the small town of Wakhsh (in modern-
day Tajikistan) and then in Samarqand before migrating to
Anatolia. Though Baha ̄D al-D ̄ın is seen as the seminal figure
of the order, his importance has been exaggerated in the
hagiographical accounts of his life (the S:u ̄f ̄ı genre of biogra-
phy typically casts its subjects in a miraculous light, empha-
sizing their importance and spiritual authority). Baha ̄D
al-D ̄ın apparently had a small handful of disciples in Khora-
san but enjoyed no great reputation before accepting the pa-
tronage of the Salju ̄ q sultan in Konya, who established a ma-
drasah for him, which functioned more as a S:u ̄f ̄ı center than
a college of law. When Baha ̄D al-D ̄ın died, one of his old dis-
ciples came from Khorasan to take charge of the Konya disci-
ples, a role Ru ̄m ̄ı eventually assumed after he had completed
studies of law in Syria and a period of seclusion. Ru ̄m ̄ı also
cultivated relations with the Konya Salju ̄ qs and developed a
following of his own but temporarily abandoned this role late
in 1244 after meeting Shams al-D ̄ın Tabr ̄ız ̄ı, an itinerant
and iconoclastic S:u ̄f ̄ı with some training in Sha ̄fiE ̄ı fiqh, with
whom Ru ̄m ̄ı spent an intense period of s:uh:bah and seclu-
sion. The encounter and the eventual disappearance of
Shams from Konya led Ru ̄m ̄ı to an ecstatic form of love mys-
ticism expressed through poetry and sama ̄D, extravagantly
praising Shams, though subsequent figureheads of the disci-
ple community, S:ala ̄h al-D ̄ın Zarku ̄ b (d. 1258) and Husa ̄m
al-D ̄ın Chalab ̄ı (d. 1284), are also praised. Ru ̄m ̄ı’s extraordi-
nary output of Persian poetry in his Mathnaw ̄ı and D ̄ıwa ̄n
has been recited widely, from Bosnia to Bengal and through-
out Central Asia, inspiring many S:u ̄f ̄ıs of various t:ar ̄ıqah af-
filiations to imitate or comment upon it.
The Mevlevi t:ar ̄ıqah operated primarily in the territo-
ries of the Ottoman Empire, where it became a wealthy cor-
poration with close ties to the imperial court. It was a heredi-
tary order and, thanks to its central organization, did not
fragment, though its character did change somewhat in the
mid–sixteenth century, when D ̄ıwa ̄nah Muh:ammad
Chalab ̄ı and Yu ̄ suf S ̄ınacha ̄k introduced Sh ̄ıE ̄ı influences9008 T:AR ̄IQAH