Binding with a Perfect Sufi Master:

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Binding with a Perfect Sufi Master: "
M. Brett Wilson

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1085778
Doc. No	:	LA129407
Call No	:	‭10.1163/15700607-00600A02‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	M. Brett Wilson
Title & Author	:	Binding with a Perfect Sufi Master: [Article] : Naqshbandī Defenses of rābiṭa from the Late Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic\ M. Brett Wilson
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Die Welt des Islams
Date	:	2020
Volume/ Issue Number	:	60/1
Page No	:	56–78
Abstract	:	This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa – the binding of the disciple with a Sufi master by envisioning the image of the master in different parts of the body. Despite being criticized as a non-Qurʾanic practice and as a form of idolatry, rābiṭa was made a ritual of prominence among the Khālidī-Naqshbandī suborder which took shape in early nineteenth-century Syria and spread throughout the late Ottoman Empire. Tracing defenses of the practice from Arabic sources in the early nineteenth century to Turkish language treatises in the twentieth century, I argue that the Sufi ādāb manual al-Bahja al-saniyya composed by Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Khānī (1798-1862) established a repertoire of arguments that have been adopted and reused in Turkish language treatises until the present with little variation, revealing a remarkable continuity of apologetics over nearly two centuries. Additionally, the article considers the role of this ritual in defining the nature of master-disciple relationships and establishing hierarchies of Sufi devotion and obedience. This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa – the binding of the disciple with a Sufi master by envisioning the image of the master in different parts of the body. Despite being criticized as a non-Qurʾanic practice and as a form of idolatry, rābiṭa was made a ritual of prominence among the Khālidī-Naqshbandī suborder which took shape in early nineteenth-century Syria and spread throughout the late Ottoman Empire. Tracing defenses of the practice from Arabic sources in the early nineteenth century to Turkish language treatises in the twentieth century, I argue that the Sufi ādāb manual al-Bahja al-saniyya composed by Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Khānī (1798-1862) established a repertoire of arguments that have been adopted and reused in Turkish language treatises until the present with little variation, revealing a remarkable continuity of apologetics over nearly two centuries. Additionally, the article considers the role of this ritual in defining the nature of master-disciple relationships and establishing hierarchies of Sufi devotion and obedience.
Descriptor	:	Mysticism
Descriptor	:	Naqshbandī
Descriptor	:	Ottoman Empire
Descriptor	:	Ritual
Descriptor	:	Syria
Descriptor	:	Turkey
Descriptor	:	Sufism
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/15700607-00600A02‬