Perspectives on Early

Islamic Mysticism

This monograph explores the original literary produce of Muslim mystics during
the eighth–tenth centuries, with special attention to ninth-century mystics, such
as al-Tustarī, al-Muḥāsibī, al-Kharrāz, al-Junayd and, in particular, al-Ḥakīm
al-Tirmidhī. Unlike other studies dealing with the so-called ‘Formative Period’,
this book focuses on the extant writings of early mystics rather than on the later
Ṣūfī compilations.
These early mystics articulated what would become a hallmark of Islamic
mysticism: a system built around the psychological tension between the self
(nafs) and the heart (qalb) and how to overcome it. Through their writings,
already at this early phase, the versatility, fluidity and maturity of Islamic mysti-
cism become apparent. This exploration thus reveals that mysticism in Islam
emerged earlier than customarily acknowledged, long before Islamic mysticism
became generically known as Ṣūfism.
The central figure of this book is al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, whose teaching and
inner world focus on themes such as polarity, the training of the self, the open-
ing of the heart, the Friends of God (al-awliyāʾ), dreams and visions, divine
­language, mystical exegesis and more.
This monograph thus offers a fuller picture than hitherto presented of the ver-
satility of themes, processes, images, practices, terminology and thought models
during this early period. The volume will be a key resource for scholars and
­students interested in the study of religion, Ṣūfī studies, Late Antiquity and
Medieval Islam.

Sara Sviri is Professor Emerita at the Department of Arabic and the Department
of Comparative Religions of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She had also
taught at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College
London and at The Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Oxford. Her fields
of study include Islamic mysticism, mystical philosophy, comparative aspects of
Early Islam, the formative period of Islamic mysticism, Medieval Jewish mysti-
cism and the mystical wisdom of Ibn al-ʿArabī. Her book The Taste of Hidden
Things: Images on the Sufi Path was published in 1997. Her comprehensive Sufi
Anthology was published in Hebrew in 2008. The Arabic version of the Anthology
came out in Beirut by Manshūrāt a­ l-jamal (2016).
Routledge Sufi Series

General Editor: Ian Richard Netton

Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

The Routledge Sufi Series provides short introductions to a variety of facets of the
subject, which are accessible both to the general reader and the student and scholar
in the field. Each book will be either a synthesis of existing knowledge or a dis-
tinct contribution to, and extension of, knowledge of the particular topic. The two
major underlying principles of the Series are sound scholarship and readability.

18  Ibn al-ʿArabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture

From Mysticism to Philosophy
Caner K. Dagli

19  Sufism and Jewish-Muslim Relations

The Derekh Avraham Order
Yafiah Katherine Randall

20  Practicing Sufism

Sufi Politics and Performance in Africa
Edited by Abdelmajid Hannoum

21  Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī and the Controversy of the Sufi Gaze
Lloyd Ridgeon

22  Sufism in Ottoman Egypt

Circulation, Renewal and Authority in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries
Rachida Chih

23  Perspectives on Early Islamic Mysticism

The World of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and his Contemporaries
Sara Sviri

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/

middleeaststudies/series/SE0491
Perspectives on Early
Islamic Mysticism
The World of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī
and his Contemporaries

Sara Sviri
First published 2020
by Routledge
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© 2020 Sara Sviri
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her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
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ISBN: 978-0-415-30283-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-02272-6 (ebk)
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To Paul Nwyia, with admiration for his pioneering work
Contents

List of figuresix
Acknowledgementsx

Introduction: perspectives on Early Islamic Mysticism – the

world of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and his contemporaries 1

PART I
Asceticism and mysticism (zuhd and taṣawwuf ) 21

  1 ‘Ṣūfism’: reconsidering terms, definitions and processes 23

 2 Zuhd in Islamic mysticism: conduct and attitude 37
  3 Wa-rahbāniyyatan ibtadaʿūhā: monasticism
and asceticism – false and sincere 58

PART II
Schools and teachers 75

  4 Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and the Malāmatīs of Nīshāpūr 77

  5 Teachers and disciples in Baghdād and Nīshāpūr 102
  6 Facing hostility in Transoxiana: Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī
and Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl 123

PART III
Polarity 137

  7 Between fear and hope: coincidence of opposites

in Islamic mysticism 139
viii   Contents
  8 The self (nafs) and her transformation  169
  9 Faces of al-Ḥaqq: the name and the named 192

PART IV
The spiritual hierarchy 215

10 Wilāya: contemplating friendship with God 217

11 Myrtle and holy men: echoes of ancient traditions
in a woman’s dream 237

PART V
Language and hermeneutics 265

12 The power of words: mystical linguistics

in al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī 267
13 
The Countless Faces of Understanding: Istinbāṭ,
listening and exegesis 298

Bibliography 325
Index 350
Figures

2.1  Map of Salmān’s search for truth 41

6.1  Map of Transoxiana 124
6.2  Scheme of correspondence 131
7.1  Scheme of polar states 152
9.1  Scheme of divine polarity 206
Acknowledgements

The chapters collected in this monograph reflect years of studying Islamic

­Mysticism, in particular its early phases. It all started with taking up Arabic at
school. Hence, first and foremost, my deepest gratitude and indebtedness go to the
late Prof. Meir J. Kister, my Arabic teacher and mentor – first at high school and
then at university. Kister was an inspiring teacher not only for me. It can be clearly
stated, that inspiration and enthusiasm are not confined to the realm of mysticism.
Deep gratitude and indebtedness I wish to extend to Prof. Shaul Shaked. He
supervised my by now ‘ancient’ dissertation on al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī. During a
difficult and turbulent period in my life, Shaul Shaked’s commitment, support,
expertise and understanding had been essential for the completion of my doctorate.
From among my friends and colleagues at the department of Arabic Lan-
guage and Literature and the Department of Comparative Religion at the
Hebrew University, deep gratitude goes to Ella Almagor, Yohanan Friedman,
Sarah and Guy Stroumsa, David Shulman, Bruria Bitton-Ashkeloni, Reuven
Amitai, Meir Bar-Asher, Meir Hatina and Etan Kohlberg. Their abiding friend-
ship had been there for me at times of presence and absence. Sharing with them
preliminary thoughts and drafts were vital for my attempts at processing and
articulating the vast material at hand.
The idea of the monograph came up years ago when I met Ian Netton in
Oxford. He suggested that I submit a proposal for a book on al-Ḥakīm
al-Tirmidhī to the Sufi Studies Series of which he had been the editor. Although
a proposal had been submitted, circumstances intervened to postpone the actual
writing of the monograph. A few years ago, at a conference in Exeter, I again
met Ian and raised the idea of resurrecting the old proposal. Ian, as ever the
editor of Routledge Sufi Series, was forthcoming and supportive and referred me
to Joe Whiting at Routledge. Eventually, the manuscript was submitted in Feb-
ruary 2019 and was immediately placed in the capable and receptive hands of
Titanilla Panczel, an editorial assistant of the Middle Eastern, Islamic and
Jewish Studies at Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group. A very special gratitude
I hence forward to Ian Netton, Joe Whiting and Titanilla Panczel, three helpful
agents in the process of publishing the book.
For permission to publish previously published versions, thanks are due to
the following: to Annabel Keeler and Sajjad Rizvi, the editors of The Spirit and
 Acknowledgements  xi
the Letter: Approaches to the Esoteric Interpretation of the Qur’an; to David
Shulman and Guy Stroumsa, the editors of Self and Self-Transformation in the
History of Religions; to the late Leonard Lewisohn, the editor of The Heritage of
Sufism, Vol. 1 and The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism, Vol. 2; to Genev-
iève Gobillot and Jean-Jacques Thibon, the editors of Les maîtres Soufis et leurs
disciples: IIIe–Ve siècles de l’hégire IXe–XIe S.: enseignement, formation
et transmission; and to the editors of the periodicals Jerusalem Studies in Arabic
and Islam and the Journal of Semitic Studies.
In shaping the chapters enclosed in the monograph, I had been assisted by
dedicated and talented students: Adva Werker, Suzanne Ebraheem and Noga
Feinguelernt. The historian Dr Ronnie Weinstein, a good friend and a perceptive
reader, read the manuscript and offered useful comments. Yael Klein suggested
stylistic and linguistic improvements. The much appreciated and indispensable
help of these dedicated assistants was enabled by a generous grant from
the Israel Scientific Foundation (ISF). During the period of research and writing,
the ISF have supported my work and I wish to extend to them my gratitude.
Last but not least: a special gratitude is due to Dr Guy Ron-Gilboa, a former
doctoral supervisee of mine and now a promising young scholar. Guy’s qualities
as an excellent Arabist and scholar of Early Arabic Literature, as well as his
astute in-depth reading, have been extremely helpful in the various stages of
­preparing the manuscript. It is gratifying to extend to Guy and to all my helpers
a deep warm gratitude.
It goes without saying, that the responsibility for the information and
­interpretation put forward in this monograph is mine.
Introduction
Perspectives on Early Islamic
Mysticism – the world of al-Ḥakīm
al-Tirmidhī and his contemporaries

The chapters brought together in this monograph are the outcome of an enduring
study of Islamic Mysticism, in particular its early manifestations. Historically,
these refer to the period from the second/eighth to the fourth/tenth centuries,
during which Muslim mystics wrote the earliest documents that became avail-
able to us. In literary terms, it draws mainly on texts written by individual
authors rather than on manuals and compilations. This can also be said to refer
to the phase before Islamic mysticism became known as Ṣūfism. The main prot-
agonist of my study has been al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, a ninth-century mystic from
the town of Tirmidh in Transoxiana. The main notions that have inspired my
monograph are ‘Sweetness and Inner Struggle’; al-Tirmidhī often uses the word
‘sweetness’ (ḥalāwa), by which he describes the resonance of the mystical
experiences that occur in his heart, while the notion of ‘inner struggle’ reflects
the effort vis-à-vis the nafs, the ‘lower-self’, the ‘personality’, which stands in
his way. These two facets are inseparable; they delineate the polar process
familiar to generations of seekers and wayfarers on the mystical path.

Overview
My study started with a PhD dissertation on the ninth-century mystic al-Ḥakīm
al-Tirmidhī.1 The dissertation was supervised by Prof. Shaul Shaked, one of the
great experts of the Iranian religions, who, at that time, had been teaching also
courses on Islamic mysticism. Before embarking on a research proposal, I had
consulted with my university teacher and mentor, Prof. M.J. Kister. As I recall,
he simply referred me to an article by Othman Yahya titled “L’oeuvre de
Tirmiḏī (Essai Bibliographique)”.2 Prior to this, I had not been aware of an
al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, a mystic, to be distinguished from Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī,
the renowned ḥadīth compiler. But reading Yahya’s article – mostly a bibliog-
raphy with a short biographical introduction – a few things caught my attention:
first, the large number of titles under al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī’s name – Yahya lists
106 titles. Though I had already started to familiarize myself with some liter-
ature concerning Ṣūfism, I had not hitherto come across al-Tirmidhī’s name. In
view of the vast corpus attributed to him, I wondered why he had not become a
‘household’ name in the history of Ṣūfism, on a par, say, with al-Junayd,