Encyclopedia of Religion

(Darren Dugan) #1

into the order. The Mevlevi order promoted calligraphy and
Persian literature, though it operated almost exclusively in
Turkish- or Arabic-speaking environments. In later years
there seems to have been much overlap between Mevlevi
membership and that of other Anatolian orders, such as the
Bekta ̄sh ̄ıyah, founded around the same time, and the
Khalwat ̄ıyah, founded in the fourteenth century, both of
which appeared more active by the twentieth century than
the Mevlevis.


After serving 1001 days in the kitchen of the Mevlevi
lodge, initiates were permitted to participate in the character-
istic “turning” ceremony, a meditative graceful spinning per-
formed in distinctive robes and hats to the accompaniment
of a musical ensemble, usually consisting of a singer/reciter
and a variety of instruments, almost always including drums
and a reed flute. Beginning in the late eighteenth century,
a visit to one of the Mevlevi lodges to observe one of these
so-called Whirling Dervish ceremonies became an important
part of European tourists’ experience of Istanbul.


Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah. Rather different in character is the
Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah, founded by Abu ̄ al-H:asan al-Sha ̄dhil ̄ı of Tunis
(1196–1258), who traveled widely in the Maghreb and
Spain, finally settling in Alexandria, where he died. In con-
trast to both the Rifa ̄E ̄ıyah and the Mawlaw ̄ıyah, this t:ar ̄ıqah
practices internalized and silent devotions. Thus its appeal
is individualistic, focusing on the development of private
prayer. Nonetheless the emphasis of Abu ̄ al-H:asan’s teaching
was against the solitary and the institutional life alike, and
he urged his followers to realize their yearning for God
through faithful attention to their daily responsibilities in so-
ciety. They were not enjoined to beg or even to live in volun-
tary poverty; Egyptian sources refer to the Sha ̄dhil ̄ıs’ tidy at-
tire, which distinguished them from many of the other S:u ̄f ̄ıs
thronging the streets of Cairo. The Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah of Yemen
are also credited with discovering the value of brewed coffee
beans as a means of staying awake during periods of night
prayer.


This order has no special theosophical ideas apart from
the fact that members are held to have been predestined to
join it from pre-eternity. Rather, the goal is a deep yet sober
spirituality, drawing on al-Muh:a ̄sib ̄ı, the teacher of al-
Junayd, on al-Makk ̄ı and his Qu ̄t al-qulu ̄b (The nourish-
ment of the heart), and on the spiritual teaching of
al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı in the fourth volume of Ih:ya ̄D^ Eulu ̄m al-d ̄ın (The
vivification of the religious sciences). Its teaching is subtle
and not directed at the masses, as can be seen from the
H:ikam (Maxims), an enduring classic of S:u ̄f ̄ı spirituality
written by Abu ̄ al-H:asan’s immediate successor, Ibn EAta ̄D
Alla ̄h al-Iskandar ̄ı (d. 1309). This work, a collection of 262
brief sayings followed by four short treatises and a number
of prayers, has generated numerous commentaries in many
of the languages of the Muslim world.


Like many of the orders, the Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah produced a va-
riety of local offshoots all over the Muslim world. Among
them, the H:a ̄mid ̄ıyah Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah is one of the modern or-


ders that still attracts and provides a basic spiritual formation
for many Egyptians. The appeal of the Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah extends
primarily to the officials and civil servants of the middle class,
whose responsibilities, values, and attitudes are embodied in
the order’s attention to detail. Even after the Atatürk govern-
ment prohibited S:u ̄f ̄ı orders in Turkey in 1925, the
Sha ̄dhil ̄ıyah retained its attraction for the middle class. It has
also gained a following among some European Muslims.

Chisht ̄ıyah. India was particularly fertile ground for the
development of the t:ar ̄ıqahs, and it is impossible to write the
history of Islam in the subcontinent without a detailed study
of them. Along with the Suhraward ̄ıyah, the Chisht ̄ıyah was
among the earliest t:ar ̄ıqahs operating in India, and the first
to originate in the subcontinent. It was founded by MuE ̄ın
al-D ̄ın Chisht ̄ı (d. 1236), a native of S ̄ısta ̄n, who had been
for a time a disciple of Abu ̄ Naj ̄ıb al-Suhraward ̄ı. He arrived
in Delhi in 1193 and then moved to Ajmer, an important
city in newly conquered Rajputana, where he founded a
kha ̄naqa ̄h. Niz:a ̄m al-D ̄ın Awliya ̄D (d. 1325) spent fifty years
extending the Chisht ̄ıyah throughout India by dispatching
hundreds of his own disciples from his center in Delhi. The
simplicity and ardor of Chisht ̄ı teaching, their extreme hos-
pitality and charity, and their readiness to welcome guests
without discrimination attracted many followers. In fact the
Chisht ̄ıyah illustrates in an exemplary manner the extraordi-
nary contribution of the t:ar ̄ıqahs to the Islamization of the
subcontinent.
At first the adherents kept their distance from govern-
ment, but later they developed a close association with the
Mughal court. Sal ̄ım (later Jaha ̄ng ̄ır), the heir apparent of
Emperor Akbar (d. 1605), was born in the home of a Chisht ̄ı
shaykh, and in gratitude Akbar commissioned a splendid
darga ̄h for the Chisht ̄ıyah in Fatehpur Sikri. Jaha ̄ng ̄ır him-
self decorated the Chisht ̄ı city of Ajmer with beautiful build-
ings of white marble, and Jaha ̄na ̄ra ̄ Begum (d. 1681), daugh-
ter of Sha ̄hjaha ̄n and Mumta ̄z Mah:all, wrote about the life
of MuE ̄ın al-D ̄ın Chisht ̄ı and requested to be buried in his
shrine compound. The Chisht ̄ıyah, like other t:ar ̄ıqahs in
India, contributed immensely to the development of litera-
ture in the vernacular languages, and a Chisht ̄ı, EAbd
al-Rah:ma ̄n, who lived during the reign of Awrangz ̄ıb (1658–
1707), is regarded as the greatest mystical poet in the Pashto
language. This t:ar ̄ıqah was noted for its active encourage-
ment of the practice of sama ̄E, an example followed by vari-
ous other orders in South Asia, where the genre of S:u ̄f ̄ı music
known as Qawwa ̄l ̄ı, which Fateh Ali Khan and other per-
formers popularized around the world in the 1980s,
developed.
Naqshband ̄ıyah. Baha ̄D al-D ̄ın-i Naqshband (1318–
1388) traces his mystical heritage through Am ̄ır Kula ̄l, a
spiritual adviser to T ̄ımu ̄ r (Tamerlane), to the Persian-
speaking Central Asian lineage of S:u ̄f ̄ıs, the Khwa ̄jaga ̄n, ini-
tiated by Abu ̄ Yu ̄ suf EAl ̄ı Hamada ̄n ̄ı (d. 1140). Baha ̄D al-D ̄ın
founded the Naqshband ̄ı t:ar ̄ıqah in Bukhara, which he left
only three times: twice for pilgrimage to Mecca and once to

T:AR ̄IQAH 9009
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