Dark Side History: The Sufi Saint Poetess Rabia (c. 717 - 801 AD)

The Sufi Saint Poetess Rābiʼa al-ʼAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya (c. 717 - 801 AD), also know as Rābiʼa Al-Baṣriya (Rabia from Basra), is one of the most famous sufi saint women within Islamic traditions & history and among the most distinguished of female poets within the Arabic poetic tradition. This video aims to bring some knowledge about her into the public and explain her in her context within the greater history of Islam & Sufism (Islamic Mysticism).
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Other videos of interest:
How to Understand: What is Sufism? (Islamic Mysticism): • How to understand: Wha...
How to Understand: The Groups/Sects in Islam! (An Overview): • How to Understand: The...
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Sources and further reading:
‘Abd al-Rahman Badawi, 1978 [1948], Shahidat al- 'ishq al-ilahi Rabi’a al- ‘Adawiyya , Kuwait: Wakkalat al-Matbu’at
Abu Talib al-Makki, Muhammad ibn ‘Ali b. ‘Atiyya, Qut al-qulub fi mu’malat al-Mahbub wa wasf tariq al-murid ila maqam al-tawhid, edited by Basil ‘Uyun al-Sadr (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 1997
Ahmed, Leila (1992). Women and Gender in Islam. Yale University.
Attar, Farid od-Din Mohammad ebn Ebrahim, Muslim saints and mystics: episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliyaʾ ("Memorial of the saints"), Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1966
Cornell, Rkia Elaroui, 2019, "Rabi‘a from Narrative to Myth : The Many Faces of Islam's Most Famous Woman Saint, Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya" [Elektronisk resurs].
Cornell, Rkia Elaroui, 1999, Early Sufi Women: Dhikr an-niswa al-muta 'abbidat as sufiyyat: A Bilingual Critical Edition of as Sulami's Dikr An-Niswa Al-Muta 'abbitdat As-Sufuyyat
El Sakkakini, Widad. 1982. First among Sufis: the life and thought of Rabia al-Adawiyya, the woman Saint of Basra. London, UK: Octagon Press.
ibn al-Jawzi, Abu al-Faraj ‘ Abd al-Rahman, Sifat al-safwa, ed. Mahmud Fakhuri and Muhammad Rawwas Qal’anji (Beirut, 1986),
Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-a ’yan
Jahiz, Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr, al-Bayan wa al-tabyin, ed. Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Daljamuni (Beirut: n.d. reprint of 1900 first edition), vol. 3
Kayaalp, Pinar, "Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya", in Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014, Vol. II, pp. 511-512
Al-Muhasibi, Abu ‘Abdallah al-Harith ibn Asad (d. 857 CE), al-Qasd wa-l-ruju’ ila Allah, ‘Abd al-Qadir Ahmad ‘Ata, ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1980, p. 104
Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54
Sells, Michael, 1996, Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic, and Theological Writings. Paulist Press, Mahwah, N.J.
Smith, Margaret ,1995,. Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. 8, "Rābiʼa al-ʼAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya". Brill. pp. 354-56.
Smith, Margaret, 2010,. Rabi'a The Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam. Cambridge University Press
Renard, John (ed.) (1998). Windows on the house of Islam: Muslim sources on spirituality and religious life. Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press
Widad al-Sakkakini, 1989 [1955], al- ‘Ashiqa al-Mutasawwifa (The Sufi Lover) (Damascus: Dar Tlas li-l-Dirasat wa-l-Tarjamat wa-l-Nashr
#Rabia #Suufi #Islam #sufi #Sufism #History #Sufisaint

[@theculturedjinni]

I hope you liked this video discussing this female Sufi saint & poet. Please, don't be afraid to comment or voice any questions as I love interacting with you my dear viewers and I will try to respond as quickly as possible to you. Also, please like, subscribe & push the bell icon as those actions do help this channel to grow!

[@omarelmorsy139]

The followers of the preacher Hasan al-Basri founded a ribat (hospice, hostel, base or retreat) on Abadan Island on the Tigris near Basra. Karamustafa also cites Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya, Shaqiq al-Balkhi, Al-Darani, Dhul-Nun al-Misri, Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi, and Bayazid Bastami as so me of the pioneering figures in the introspective trends that would lead to what would later be called Sufism According to the late medieval mystic, the Persian poet Jami, Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah (died c. 716) was the first person to be called a "Sufi"

[@theculturedjinni]

👍 These people very much were pioneers. Regarding Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah being the first described as a Sufi is a common view, though it is hard to attest who really was first as there are a lot of arguments that could be made for even earlier figures (arguably 'Umar ibn al-Khattaab could be argued to be among the first here) and this is a topic that with a lot of complexities that I might go into in a later video.

[@omarelmorsy139]

@@theculturedjinni well I personally don't be believe that abd al Allah Muhammad ibn al hanfiya is the first sufi because sufism didn't develop in the umayyad but the abbasid peroid whete there was actually sufi scholars like Abu qasim al qushayri who wrote in sufism as science and knowledge, and honestly sufism didn't have that importance and followers until 13th to 16th where sufism became dominant in the Islamic world, I heared that a lot of the indians that converted to Islam was because of sufi saints

[@theculturedjinni]

@@omarelmorsy139 It also is very much a matter of definition too and how you define Sufism, mystical Islamic traditions are attested in Umayyad period sources and you could argue that this is Sufism, but the Sufi traditions we have today mostly descend from the Abbasid period or later traditions. I will say that sufism became more important later as you say around the 13th to 16th, but it was still an important part of the religious life of the Abbasid & Fatimid periods too and heavily interconnected with & and commented upon in a lot of the theological traditions that developed in those times.

[@omarelmorsy139]

@theculturedjinni the safavids can be considered a rare occasion when a sufi order becomes militaristic and make an actual threat, the fact that a sufi order under the rule of 14 year old shah ismail dominated iran and reformed it's identity is actually impressive

[@theculturedjinni]

@@omarelmorsy139 Yes, the Qizilbash are an interesting case of this. Though it is not entirely unique either as similar happened with the Ottomans being in the beginning heavily supported by radical Maaturiidi hanafi Suufi groups and I would argue that the Ottomans more or less are responsible for most views on modern sunni Sufism (though Sufism being so broad you do get a lot of variation and side developments).