Title

Reading the Sufis as Scripture through the Shar? Mamz?j: Reflections on a Late-Medieval Sufi Commentary

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Publication Title

Oriens

Department

Religion

Abstract

This article examines Zakariyy? al-An??r?’s (d. 926/1520) I?k?m ad-dal?la, a commentary on ?Abd al-Kar?m al-Qushayr?’s (d. 465/1072) Ris?la on Sufism, particularly those areas where the commentator employs a legal language to relieve tensions between his worldview and that of the Sufis in the Ris?la. The commentator’s approach effectively treats the Sufis’ lives as scripture and is a function of the integration of the legal, theological, and mystical realms within the worldview of late-medieval scholars. Moreover, a commentarial form known as the shar? mamz?j facilitated such an approach by endowing commentators with new forms of control over the received tradition while influencing the appreciation of such commentaries by increasing their processing fluency.

Comments

Volume 41, Issue 3-4.

Volume

41

Issue

3

pp.

457-477

ISSN

0078-6527

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