Letters of a Sufi Scholar: The Correspondence of 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641-1731).

• Author: Ingalls, Matthew B.
• Position: Book review

Letters of a Sufi Scholar: The Correspondence of 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641-1731). By SAMER AKKACH. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 74. Leiden: BRILL, 2009. Pp. xxiv + 134 + 378 (Arabic). $232.

At its essence, Letters of a Sufi Scholar is a critical edition of the Damascene 'Abd al-Ghani b. Ismail al-Ndbulusi's (d. 1143/1731) hitherto unpublished Wasa'il al-tahtliq wa-rasa'il al-tamfiq, an Arabic text comprising seventy-two letters on a variety of religious topics that were written between al-Nabulusi and his Ottoman interlocutors over a span of twenty-nine years. Akkach prefaces his edition of the Wasa'il with three basic studies: an English survey of al-NAbulusi's biography and its intellectual and social context; brief descriptions, provided in both Arabic and English, for each of the letters of the Wasa'il; and eight brief thematic analyses of the Waseil which include several translated passages from the text. Additional contents, including relevant front and back matter, are noted below.

Born in 1050/1641 in Damascus, where he would spend his entire life with the exception of his celebrated travels, al-Ndbulusi descended from a prominent line of Shafici scholars, though he himself would adhere to the Hanafi school of law following the lead of his father !mini. This latter figure died when al-Nabulusi was only twelve years old, leaving his three sons and daughter to the care of their mother Zaynab. According to Akkach, surprisingly little information on al-Nabulusi's formative years following his father's death has reached us. Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi (d. 1061/1651), author of the superlative biographical dictionary al-Kawakib alsa'ira, appears as the most famous of al-Ndbulusi's early teachers, and the degree to which the other names associated with his education wielded an influence on him remains an open question. Moreover, although al-Nabulusi was initiated into the Qadiri and Naqshbandi Sufi orders, his formal training under shaykhs of these orders appears limited. Akkach accordingly posits that al-Nabulusi exemplified "urban Sufism," which is defined by a "personal, rather than institutional, approach to spirituality" (p. 7). Nevertheless, Sufism would emerge as al-Nabulusi's primary interest from an early age, notwithstanding what would become his commanding authority in countless other fields, both religious and profane. He similarly would fashion himself as a staunch defender of Ibn al-(Arabi (d. 637/1240) and his thought. For this reason among others, al-Ndbulusi encountered severe resistance from many quarters of the Damascene scholarly establishment, and the animosity between the two sides would have a pronounced...