SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The academic discussions on the Islamic renunciation traditions and the formation of Islamic Mysticism have been progressing since scholars started to apply modern critical research methods by comparing and studying various Medieval Muslim accounts on the different figures presumed to be the earliest “Ṣūfīs”. For example, Louis Massignon examined the stories of early figures in Islamic asceticism and argued from a terminological perspective that Islamic mysticism grew out from earlier ascetic traditions. Many later scholars have since also recognized this pattern of evolution and transition from Islamic asceticism to mysticism, and more importantly, a diversification of practices and doctrine from renunciants to mystics. One figure that is of particular interest, who was also not given sufficient research attention before is, I believe, an early ʿAbbāsid renunciant called Maʿrūf al-Karkhī (d. 200 AH/820 CE),being a widely revered local saint in Baghdad known to afford economic and spiritual protections to the poor and the needed and deemed by many as the founding figure of Baghdad renunciant circle lived at the eve of this transition. He is also recognized by the later Ṣūfīs as a key figure who linked influential later masters, such as al-Junayd (d. 298 AH/910 CE), with the Ahl al-Bayt through his alleged tutelage under Imam ʿAlī al-Riḍā (d.202 AH/818 CE). This dissertation thus seeks to examine and analyze the life, practices, doctrines, and legacy of Maʿrūf al-Karkhī in the context of the early ʿAbbāsid physical and spiritual world. Paying attention to various perspectives of Maʿrūf’s life and engaging with both of his historical identity and later images, this dissertation has divided its analysis in two main parts: the first part being Maʿrūf al-Karkhī and his socio-economic role in the early ʿAbbāsid Baghdad, in which Maʿrūf’s family background, ethnicity, social identity and economic role played in the society of Baghdad and Karkh will be thoroughly investigated as to reflect, in a larger picture, the socio-economic conditions and features of early ʿAbbāsid urban renunciant communities. The second part will be on Maʿrūf al-Karkhī’s spiritual role and legacies in early ʿAbbāsid renunciant traditions, in which his remarks, teachings and practices in various subjects will be carefully examined and contextualized in the early ʿAbbāsid renunciant traditions by comparison with his earlier, contemporary and later fellow renunciants and Ṣūfīs, as well as his relationship with several other important religious movements such as the Ḥanbalīs and the Shīʿīs, seeking at the same time in Maʿrūf al-Karkhī the traces of transition from renunciation to mysticism and the influence of earlier masters on him