Binding with a Perfect Sufi Master: Naqshbandī Defenses of rābiṭa from the Late Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic
This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa - the binding of the disciple with a Sufi master by envisioning the image of the master in different parts of the body. Despite being criticized as a non-Qurʾanic practice and as a form of idolatry, rābiṭa was m...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2020]
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| In: |
Die Welt des Islams
Year: 2020, Volume: 60, Issue: 1, Pages: 56-78 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ottoman Empire
/ Turkey
/ Naqšbandīya
/ Religious leader
/ Imagination
/ Meditation
/ Pupil
/ History
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam KBL Near East and North Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Turkey
B Mysticism B Ritual B Naqshbandī B Ottoman Empire B Sufism B Syria |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa - the binding of the disciple with a Sufi master by envisioning the image of the master in different parts of the body. Despite being criticized as a non-Qurʾanic practice and as a form of idolatry, rābiṭa was made a ritual of prominence among the Khālidī-Naqshbandī suborder which took shape in early nineteenth-century Syria and spread throughout the late Ottoman Empire. Tracing defenses of the practice from Arabic sources in the early nineteenth century to Turkish language treatises in the twentieth century, I argue that the Sufi ādāb manual al-Bahja al-saniyya composed by Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Khānī (1798-1862) established a repertoire of arguments that have been adopted and reused in Turkish language treatises until the present with little variation, revealing a remarkable continuity of apologetics over nearly two centuries. Additionally, the article considers the role of this ritual in defining the nature of master-disciple relationships and establishing hierarchies of Sufi devotion and obedience. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Die Welt des Islams
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700607-00600A02 |