THE WANDERINGS OF ABŪ AL-ḤASAN AL-ŠĀḎILĪ (D. 1258) ACCORDING TO IBN ‘AṬĀ’ ALLĀH’S LAṬĀ’IF AL-MINAN AND IBN AL-ṢABBĀĠ’S DURRAT AL-ASRĀR
THE WANDERINGS OF ABŪ AL-ḤASAN AL-ŠĀḎILĪ (D. 1258) ACCORDING TO IBN ‘AṬĀ’ ALLĀH’S LAṬĀ’IF AL-MINAN AND IBN AL-ṢABBĀĠ’S DURRAT AL-ASRĀR

Summary/Abstract: Al-Šāḏilī was one of the great spiritual masters in Islam, founding an important eponymous Sufi order (tariqa). Born in Morocco, he died and was buried in Egypt, on his way to Mecca. His life was marked by his numerous travels and wanderings whereby he met other influential figures, among scholars and governors. It was in Tunisia, where he founded his first circle of disciple, that his fame started to grow so much so that he was called by the name of a Tunisian village (Šāḏila) to which he never really belonged. Fragmentary information that reached us on his life is mainly due to Ibn ‘Aṭā’ Allāh al-Iskandarī (d. 1309) who wrote Laṭā’if al-minan and Ibn al-Ṣabbāġ and his Durrat al-asrār. This article retraces the main episodes of his life with regard to his travels and humbly questions some assertions largely admitted by the academia so far: such as whether Šāḏilī left written records of his teachings, and whether he was Ibn Mašīš’s unique disciple.

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