Najm ad-Dīn ʿUmar an-Nasafī was a Sufi author of the late sixth century of the Hegira (twelfth century C.E.), named by Voorhoeve as the source of the section on the heretical Ṣūfī sects in the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī. His small tract Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa (“Book on the Exposition of the Doctrines of the Sufis”) supplies the first eleven of the thirteen heretical Ṣūfī sects that Raniri treats in the same order, as well as the Persian verse of the Wākiʿiyya.
The Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa
The Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa is a small tract of seven folios preserved in a manuscript at Rome — Vatican, Borg. Arab. 254 f. 56. In it the first eleven of the thirteen heretical Ṣūfī sects that Raniri treats in the *Tibjān* are set out in the same order as in Raniri’s treatise. The Persian verse of the Wākiʿiyya — quoted in the *Tibjān* — is also found in this same tract. Voorhoeve received a photocopy of the manuscript through the intermediation of Professor Levi della Vida and the good offices of S. A. Bonebakker.
Source of the Tibjān
For the section of the *Tibjān* in which he treats the quasi-Ṣūfī sects, Raniri names his sources himself (Tibjān p. 86). The principal of these is the small tract of Najm ad-Dīn an-Nasafī. The first eleven of the thirteen heretical Ṣūfī sects that Raniri treats — the Ḥubbiyya, the Awliyāʾiyya, the Shamrakhiyya, the Ibāḥiyya, the Ḥāliyya, the Hūriyya, the Wākiʿiyya, the Mutajāhiliyya, the Mutakāsiliyya, the Ibhāmiyya, and the Ḥulūliyya — are taken, with some additions from other sources, from an-Nasafī’s tract, in the same order. The twelfth sect — the Wujūdiyya, the principal object of Raniri’s polemic — is Raniri’s own; and the thirteenth is taken from the *Tamhīd* of Abū Shakūr as-Sālimī.
Significance
Najm ad-Dīn an-Nasafī is, through his Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa, the source of the section on the heretical Ṣūfī sects in the *Tibjān* of Raniri. His small tract — preserved in a single Vatican manuscript — is one of the principal channels by which the scholastic classification of Muslim heresies was transmitted to the Malay-Indonesian world. The identification of an-Nasafī as the source of this section of the Tibjān establishes the textual genealogy of Raniri’s account of the heretical Ṣūfī sects, and places the Tibjān within the wider Arabic scholastic tradition of the cataloguing of religious deviations.
See Also
- Abu Syakur as-Salimi
- Ma’rifat al-madhahib
- P. Voorhoeve
- Raniri
- Tamhid fi bayan at-tawhid
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Wujudiyyah
Source
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2b (“De bronnen van de Tibjān”), pp. 13–15, where the Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa of Najm ad-Dīn ʿUmar an-Nasafī is identified as the source of the section on the quasi-Ṣūfī sects in the Tibjān.
Najm ad-Dīn ʿUmar an-Nasafī was a Sufi author of the late sixth century of the Hegira (twelfth century C.E.), named by Voorhoeve as the source of the section on the heretical Ṣūfī sects in the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī. His small tract Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa (“Book on the Exposition of the Doctrines of the Sufis”) supplies the first eleven of the thirteen heretical Ṣūfī sects that Raniri treats in the same order, as well as the Persian verse of the Wākiʿiyya.
The Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa
The Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa is a small tract of seven folios preserved in a manuscript at Rome — Vatican, Borg. Arab. 254 f. 56. In it the first eleven of the thirteen heretical Ṣūfī sects that Raniri treats in the *Tibjān* are set out in the same order as in Raniri’s treatise. The Persian verse of the Wākiʿiyya — quoted in the *Tibjān* — is also found in this same tract. Voorhoeve received a photocopy of the manuscript through the intermediation of Professor Levi della Vida and the good offices of S. A. Bonebakker.
Source of the Tibjān
For the section of the *Tibjān* in which he treats the quasi-Ṣūfī sects, Raniri names his sources himself (Tibjān p. 86). The principal of these is the small tract of Najm ad-Dīn an-Nasafī. The first eleven of the thirteen heretical Ṣūfī sects that Raniri treats — the Ḥubbiyya, the Awliyāʾiyya, the Shamrakhiyya, the Ibāḥiyya, the Ḥāliyya, the Hūriyya, the Wākiʿiyya, the Mutajāhiliyya, the Mutakāsiliyya, the Ibhāmiyya, and the Ḥulūliyya — are taken, with some additions from other sources, from an-Nasafī’s tract, in the same order. The twelfth sect — the Wujūdiyya, the principal object of Raniri’s polemic — is Raniri’s own; and the thirteenth is taken from the *Tamhīd* of Abū Shakūr as-Sālimī.
Significance
Najm ad-Dīn an-Nasafī is, through his Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa, the source of the section on the heretical Ṣūfī sects in the *Tibjān* of Raniri. His small tract — preserved in a single Vatican manuscript — is one of the principal channels by which the scholastic classification of Muslim heresies was transmitted to the Malay-Indonesian world. The identification of an-Nasafī as the source of this section of the Tibjān establishes the textual genealogy of Raniri’s account of the heretical Ṣūfī sects, and places the Tibjān within the wider Arabic scholastic tradition of the cataloguing of religious deviations.
See Also
- Abu Syakur as-Salimi
- Ma’rifat al-madhahib
- P. Voorhoeve
- Raniri
- Tamhid fi bayan at-tawhid
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Wujudiyyah
Source
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2b (“De bronnen van de Tibjān”), pp. 13–15, where the Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa of Najm ad-Dīn ʿUmar an-Nasafī is identified as the source of the section on the quasi-Ṣūfī sects in the Tibjān.