The Rifāʿiyya — in Dutch scholarship Rifa’iyah order — is one of the principal ṭuruq (Sufi orders) of orthodox Sunni mysticism, founded by the saint Ahmad Rifa’i — whose tomb at Mocha is reverenced — in the marshlands of southern Iraq in the twelfth century C.E. The Rifāʿiyya was the silsila into which Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī was initiated by his shaikh Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān, and was the spiritual genealogy by which Raniri, on his arrival in Acheh in 1637, claimed the authority of an orthodox mystic against the Wujudiyyah of Hamzah Pansuri and Shamsuddin of Pasai.
Origin and early diffusion
The Rifāʿiyya — also called the Baṭāʾiḥiyya, from the Arabic baṭāʾiḥ (“marshlands”) — was founded by Aḥmad ar-Rifāʿī in the marshlands of southern Iraq in the twelfth century C.E. The order spread rapidly through the Muslim world in the late middle ages, reaching Gujarat by the sixteenth century.
Transmission to Gujarat and the Malay-Indonesian world
The Rifāʿiyya was transmitted to Gujarat by Muḥammad al-ʿAddārs, who was born at Tarim in 1561 and came to Gujarat at the age of nineteen. Al-ʿAddārs received Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān into the order at Surat; Bā Shaybān, in his turn, initiated two of the principal Malay-Indonesian Sufis of the seventeenth century: Raniri (before his departure for Acheh in 1637) and Shaikh Yūsuf al-Makassar (after his departure from Celebes for Mecca in 1644). The Rifāʿiyya was thus the spiritual genealogy that linked the orthodox reaction of Acheh with the religious history of Makassar in the second half of the seventeenth century.
The devotional geography of the order
The devotional geography of the Rifāʿiyya as it was transmitted to the Malay-Indonesian world is itself a document of the order’s diffusion. The tomb of the founder, Aḥmad ar-Rifāʿī, is reverenced at Mocha — the coffee port of Yemen on the Red Sea — rather than in the marshlands of southern Iraq where the order was actually founded. The association of the founder’s tomb with Mocha is a measure of the devotional geography of the order as it was transmitted to the Malay-Indonesian world: a geography in which the founder’s sanctity was located at a Red Sea port frequented by Indian and Indonesian pilgrims and traders, and so made accessible to the Malay-Indonesian devotees of the order.
Significance
The Rifāʿiyya is the spiritual genealogy by which Raniri and Shaikh Yūsuf al-Makassar claimed the authority of an orthodox Sufi silsila against the Wujudiyyah of the Malay-Indonesian courts — in Acheh in the case of Raniri, in Makassar in the case of Shaikh Yūsuf. The transmission of the order from the marshlands of Iraq to the harbours of Gujarat and the courts of Acheh and Makassar is one of the principal channels by which the orthodox Sufi scholasticism of the Arab and Persian worlds was carried to the Malay-Indonesian archipelago in the seventeenth century. The public disputation between Raniri and the Wujūdiyyah at the court of Iskandar Thani in 1637 — the central event of the religious history of Acheh in the seventeenth century — was carried out under the authority of this silsila.
See Also
- Acheh
- Ahmad Rifa’i
- Gudjarat
- Iskandar Thani
- Makassar
- Mocha
- Muhammad al-Addars
- Raniri
- Raniri’s public debate against the Wujudiyyah in Acheh
- Sajjid Abu Hafs Umar Ba Sjaiban
- Surat
- Tarim
- Wujudiyyah
- Yusuf Makasar
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 §1 (“De auteur”), pp. 5–6.
The Rifāʿiyya — in Dutch scholarship Rifa’iyah order — is one of the principal ṭuruq (Sufi orders) of orthodox Sunni mysticism, founded by the saint Ahmad Rifa’i — whose tomb at Mocha is reverenced — in the marshlands of southern Iraq in the twelfth century C.E. The Rifāʿiyya was the silsila into which Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī was initiated by his shaikh Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān, and was the spiritual genealogy by which Raniri, on his arrival in Acheh in 1637, claimed the authority of an orthodox mystic against the Wujudiyyah of Hamzah Pansuri and Shamsuddin of Pasai.
Origin and early diffusion
The Rifāʿiyya — also called the Baṭāʾiḥiyya, from the Arabic baṭāʾiḥ (“marshlands”) — was founded by Aḥmad ar-Rifāʿī in the marshlands of southern Iraq in the twelfth century C.E. The order spread rapidly through the Muslim world in the late middle ages, reaching Gujarat by the sixteenth century.
Transmission to Gujarat and the Malay-Indonesian world
The Rifāʿiyya was transmitted to Gujarat by Muḥammad al-ʿAddārs, who was born at Tarim in 1561 and came to Gujarat at the age of nineteen. Al-ʿAddārs received Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān into the order at Surat; Bā Shaybān, in his turn, initiated two of the principal Malay-Indonesian Sufis of the seventeenth century: Raniri (before his departure for Acheh in 1637) and Shaikh Yūsuf al-Makassar (after his departure from Celebes for Mecca in 1644). The Rifāʿiyya was thus the spiritual genealogy that linked the orthodox reaction of Acheh with the religious history of Makassar in the second half of the seventeenth century.
The devotional geography of the order
The devotional geography of the Rifāʿiyya as it was transmitted to the Malay-Indonesian world is itself a document of the order’s diffusion. The tomb of the founder, Aḥmad ar-Rifāʿī, is reverenced at Mocha — the coffee port of Yemen on the Red Sea — rather than in the marshlands of southern Iraq where the order was actually founded. The association of the founder’s tomb with Mocha is a measure of the devotional geography of the order as it was transmitted to the Malay-Indonesian world: a geography in which the founder’s sanctity was located at a Red Sea port frequented by Indian and Indonesian pilgrims and traders, and so made accessible to the Malay-Indonesian devotees of the order.
Significance
The Rifāʿiyya is the spiritual genealogy by which Raniri and Shaikh Yūsuf al-Makassar claimed the authority of an orthodox Sufi silsila against the Wujudiyyah of the Malay-Indonesian courts — in Acheh in the case of Raniri, in Makassar in the case of Shaikh Yūsuf. The transmission of the order from the marshlands of Iraq to the harbours of Gujarat and the courts of Acheh and Makassar is one of the principal channels by which the orthodox Sufi scholasticism of the Arab and Persian worlds was carried to the Malay-Indonesian archipelago in the seventeenth century. The public disputation between Raniri and the Wujūdiyyah at the court of Iskandar Thani in 1637 — the central event of the religious history of Acheh in the seventeenth century — was carried out under the authority of this silsila.
See Also
- Acheh
- Ahmad Rifa’i
- Gudjarat
- Iskandar Thani
- Makassar
- Mocha
- Muhammad al-Addars
- Raniri
- Raniri’s public debate against the Wujudiyyah in Acheh
- Sajjid Abu Hafs Umar Ba Sjaiban
- Surat
- Tarim
- Wujudiyyah
- Yusuf Makasar
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 §1 (“De auteur”), pp. 5–6.