Alte Vorbilder des Sufitums & Weltverzicht.

• Author: BOWERING, GERHARD
• Position: Review

Alte Vorbilder des Sufitums, Pt. 1: Scheiche des Westens; Pt. 2: Scheiche des Ostens. By RICHARD GRAMLICH. Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Veroffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, Mainz, vol. 42. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ, 1995, 1996. Pp. 665; 604.

Weltverzicht: Grundlagen und Weisen islamischer Askese. By RICHARD GRAMLICH. Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Veroffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, Mainz, vol. 43. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ, 1997. Pp. 461. DM 98.

The former pair of volumes by Richard Gramlich under review here form a whole. They represent a collection of annotated translations mainly from the Arabic but sometimes also from the Persian sources of Sufism. In meticulous German renderings, with copious references to the sources, the author presents the teachings of a selection of early Muslim mystics who lived from the first half of the second/eighth to the middle of the fourth/tenth century. Each of the two volumes has a geographical focus. Volume one deals with "The Shaykhs of the West," Sufi masters who flourished mainly in Syria and Iraq. Volume two concentrates on "The Shaykhs of the East," Sufi masters who were active in Iran and Transoxania. Both volumes follow the same method and structure and draw heavily on the many previous German translations from the primary sources that the author has made over the last two decades. The material, scattered in a plethora of Arabic sources mostly in fragmentary form, is collected in the two volumes in systema tic fashion and arranged chronologically with regard to the principal teachings of individual Sufis. A selected bibliography at the end of volume 2 (pp. 450-69) is followed by a detailed subject and name index (pp. 471-604) that covers both volumes, marking the references of volume one in plain figures and those of volume two in italics.

Outside of some minor figures, volume one deals principally with Malik b. Dinar (d. 131/749 or slightly earlier; pp. 59-121), Ibrahim b. Adham (d. 161/777-78; pp. 135-282), Dawud al-[Ta.sup.[contains]]i (d. 165/781-82; pp. 283-324), [[blank].sup.[subset]]Amr b. [[blank].sup.[subset]]Utman al-Makki (d. 291/903-4 or 297/909-10; pp. 345-80), Abu 1-Husayn al-Nuri (d. 295/907-8; pp. 381-446), Ruwaym b. Abmad (d. 303/915-16; pp. 447-82), Abu Muhammad al-Jurayri (d. 312/924; pp. 483-512) and Abu Bakr al-Sibli (d. 334/946; pp. 513-665). Volume two focuses on Saqiq al-Balki (d. 194/809; pp. 13-62), Hatim al-Asamm...