Bayazid

The Life and Teachings of the Mystic Abu Yazid al-Bastami (d. ca. 234/848)
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-68048-7
Verlag: World Bank Publications

Buch, Englisch, Band 9, 344 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 522 g

Reihe: Studies on Sufism

Abu Yazid al-Bastami (d. ca 234/848), popularly known as “Bayazid”, remains one of the most celebrated yet controversial figures in the history of Islamic mysticism. This in-depth study of his life and teachings is based on the earliest available sources. The book sets out in detail what is known of Bayazid’s family, his education, his disciples and associates. It explores the distinctive rhetoric that has made some of his sayings so memorable, and shows how his mode of expression adds a sense of urgency, often drama, to quite conventional doctrines of Sufism.

Through the varied corpus of his sayings, this study traces Bayazid’s teachings concerning many aspects of the mystical path, as well as his reflections on God, the Prophet, heaven and hell. Having considered his role as spiritual master, his favourable view of women and his place in the wider community, the study then turns to the controversial side of Bayazid: his apparently blasphemous utterances, and his so-called mi'raj. The book goes on to explore how the two seemingly contradictory sides to Bayazid might be reconciled, and finally, provides a brief survey of the extent of his influence on later Sufism and its literature.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Keeler, Annabel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Philosophie & Wissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Islamische & Arabische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Spiritualität & Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Acknowledgments

Notes on Transliteration

Introduction

Part1 Bayazid’s Life and His Speech

1 Bayazid’s Life and his Teachers

1 Family Background in Bas?am

2 Bayazid’s Education and his Teachers

3 Bayazid as Spiritual Master in Bas?am: Veneration and Censure

2 Bayazid’s Disciples and Associates

1 Bayazid’s Close Disciples

2 Other Associates of Bayazid

3 The Question of Bayazid’s Dates

4 The Speech of Bayazid

1 The Corpus of Bayazid’s Sayings

2 Modes of Expression in the Speech of Bayazid

Part2 The Teachings of Bayazid, Fundamentals

5 The Path and Its Pitfalls

1 Spiritual Psychology in Third-/Ninth-Century Mysticism

2 Bayazid’s Understanding of the Make-Up of the Human Being

3 Pitfalls of the Path

6 On Some Pillars and Tenets of Islam

1 Observing the Obligatory Practices

2 The Hajj

3 Messengers of God and the Prophet

4 Paradise and Hell

7 What Bayazid Says about God

1 God, His Names and Attributes

2 Divine Transcendence and Inaccessibility

3 Intimacy

4 Awareness of God versus Heedlessness

5 Nothing but Him

Part3 Further Dimensions of the Spiritual Path

8 Spiritual Virtues, States, and Stations

1 Poverty

2 Submission to the Divine Will

3 Complete Trust in God

4 Humility versus Arrogance

5 Mindfulness of God (taqwa) and Veracity (?idq)

6 Annihilation (fana?) and Subsistence (baqa?)

7 Unification (jam?) and Separation (tafriqa)

9 Knowledge and Love

1 Knowledge

2 Love

10 Absence and Presence, Veils and Mirrors

1 Absence (ghayba) and Presence (?udur)

2 Veils and Veiling

3 Mirrors

Part4 Bayazid as Spiritual Master and in the Community

11 Bayazid as Spiritual Master

1 Bayazid’s Homilies and Counsel to His Disciples

2 Explanation of the Path for Others

3 Female Disciples of Bayazid

12 Bayazid in the Wider Community

1 Different Paths among the Muslims

2 Bayazid under Censure: Challenges and Critiques

3 Critique and Corrective

4 Bayazid and his Zoroastrian Neighbours

Part5 Bayazid’s Autobiographical Accounts

13 Bayazid’s Accounts of His Spiritual Journey

1 The Beginning of the Path and the Struggle with the Nafs

2 Becoming Free of Self

3 Descriptions of the Whole Journey

14 Spiritual Peregrination, Flight, and the Mi?raj

15 The Longer Mi?raj Narratives

Part6 Controversy, Paradox, and Contradiction

16 Sha??, Paradox, and the Paradoxical

1 Definitions and Translations of the Shat?

2 Ecstatic Utterances of Bayazid

3 Paradoxes and the Paradoxical

4 A Few Other Controversial Sayings

17 Apparent Contradictions

1 Bayazid and “Miracles”

2 The Sense of Pride (iftikhar) versus the Acknowledgement of Neediness (iftiqar)

Part7 After Bayazid

18 The Impact and Influence of Bayazid on Islamic Mysticism

1 Early Responses to Bayazid

2 Later Responses to the Sha??iyyat

3 Bayazid’s Wider Corpus in Sufi Literature

4 Bayazid among Love Mystics

5 ?A??ar and Rumi

6 Ibn ?Arabi

7 Influence versus Appropriation

8 Abu l-?asan Kharaqani

9 A Glimpse at Bayazid’s Literary Influence

Conclusion & Closing Remarks

Bibliography

Index of People and Places

Index of Subjects and Terms

Über Autor(innen)

Annabel Keeler is an Affiliated Researcher at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. She works in the field of Sufi exegesis as well as the formative period of Islamic mysticism. Her published works include: Sufi Hermeneutics: The Qur’an Commentary of Rashid al-Din Maybudi, The Spirit and the Letter: Approaches to the Esoteric Interpretation of the Qur'an, and a translation of Tafsir al-Tustari.