Adab al-Muluk: Ein Handbuch zur islamischen Mystik aus dem 4./10. Jahrhundert.

• Author: Landolt, Hermann

Adab al-Muluk, a hitherto unknown "Handbook of Islamic Mysticism," now available in Bernd Radtke's edition, was discovered some thirty years ago as part of a collective manuscript belonging to the Khanaqah-i Ahmadi in Shiraz. This Sufi maj-muah, first brought to scholarly attention by Iraj-i Afshar (in Yaghma 18 [1344/1965]: 251-54), immediately caught the interest of Fritz Meier, who then fully described and discussed it in a substantial article titled, "Ein wichtiger Handschriftenfund zur Sufik," Oriens 20 (1967): 60-106. Seven among the thirteen Sufi texts still found in this manuscript (which originally contained fourteen, according to the table of contents) are works by the little-known Hanbali mystic Abu Mansur Mamar b. Ahmad al-Isfahani (d. 418/1027) - among them the important Nahj al-Khass, which had previously been edited by Serge de Laugier de Beaurecueil on the basis of one other manuscript (in Melanges Taha Husain, ed. A. Badawi [Cairo: Dar al-Maarif, 1962], 45-65 + 76-66, sic); two are by Sulami (d. 412/1021). The first among the thirteen, and undoubtedly the most important, is the anonymous Adab al-Muluk.

In a way comparable to Kalabadhi's Ta arruf and other mous "Sufi handbooks" of the late 4th/10th century, this treatise covers the major topics of classical Sufism in twenty-eight chapters ranging from "the basis of Sufism," i.e., "poverty" (faqr), to "ecstasy" (wajd), plus an introduction and a conclusion (see Radtke's usefully annotated summary of the whole work in the German introduction, pp. 23-33). Of particular interest is chapter 27, on "Listening to Music" (sama), where this practice is introduced as a "specialty" of the Sufis and one of their "essentials" (asl min usul al-sufiyyah). The author also says there that he himself has composed a more detailed book on this subject. Generally emphasizing conduct rather than specifically legal or theological concerns, he describes the Sufis, with particular assurance in chapter 17, as the supporters of Tradition (sunnah) having a mission to fight the "Innovators." Their "inspired knowledge" (ilm al-batin=ilham, ch. 9) is far superior to the science of the fuqaha, Hadith scholars, Quran readers, Quran commentators and philologists. Being, unlike these scholars, devoted exclusively to God, they indeed are the "Kings of This world and the Other." Hence the title, "Conduct of the Kings" (p. 6f.). The Arabic title page of the present edition wisely adds the subtitle Fi Bayan Haqa iq al-Tasawwuf...