Tasavvuf Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi (Nov 2023)
A New Persian Translation of Ibn Khafīf’s al-Sīra and Its Translator: Tarjama al-Kitābu’s-Sīrat al-Shaykh Abī Abdillāh bin Khafīf al-Shīrāzī and Tājuddīn Kurbālī
Abstract
The greatest Sūfī of the city of Shīraz located in the Fars province of Iran is considered to be Abū ‘Abd Allah Muḥammad ibn Khafīf bin Isfikshād al-Dabbī al-Dailamī al-Shīrāzī who died in 371/982. Although he is accepted as one of the first ten Sūfīs to be followed in his era, unfortunately he is not known enough today. However, after Junayd al-Baghdādī, he accomplished an important task of transmitting Sūfism, bringing it together with Islamic sciences, determining its rules based on the Qur’ān and Sunnah, addressing problems related to Sūfism internally and externally, basing all his activities on strong evidence and writing them down. And therefore, he has a very successful personality. The first source that introduced him to us is Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Ali al-Dailamī, one of his students. The original work in Arabic, which he named Sīratu Abū ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Khafīf al-Shīrāzī, which will be addressed shortly as al-Sīra in this study, unfortunately still has not been seen the light of day, but a Persian translation of this work is available. The translation made by Rukn al-Dīn ibn Junayd al-Shīrāzī was published by Annemarie Schimmel in 1955 based on the Istanbul and Berlin copies of the manuscript. While I was hoping to find the original Arabic copy by means of technology, I came across a different Persian translation. This translation contains some more complete and additional information than the other translation and it includes answers of Ibn Khafīf himself to some questions about his life, which is quite exiting. We hope that this text, translated by an unbeknown translator named Tajuddīn Kurbālī, will provide more information about Ibn Khafīf and help to clarify his contributions to Sūfism, especially in the systematization phase. In this article, particular emphasis will be placed on the identity of Tajuddīn Kurbālī, and debate on the possibility of him being Shujā‘ Kurbālī, one of the commentators of Gulshan-i Rāz.
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