PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: Sufism

Rūmī was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Mas̄navī-yi Maʿnavī (“Spiritual Couplets”), which widely influenced mystical thought...

Al-Mahdī was the creator of a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and founder of a movement that remained influential in Sudan a century later. As a youth he moved from orthodox...

Al-Ḥallāj was a controversial writer and teacher of Islamic mysticism (Ṣūfism). Because he represented in his person and works the experiences, causes, and aspirations of many Muslims, arousing admiration...

Al-Muḥāsibī was an eminent Muslim mystic (Ṣūfī) and theologian renowned for his psychological refinement of pietistic devotion and his role as a precursor of the doctrine of later Muslim orthodoxy. His...

Al-Ghazālī was a Muslim theologian and mystic whose great work, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīnIḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”), made Sufism (Islamic mysticism) an acceptable part of orthodox...

Aşık Paşa was a poet who was one of the most important figures in early Turkish literature. Very little about his life is known. A wealthy and respected figure in his community, he apparently was also...

Sayyid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan was a Somali religious and nationalist leader (called the “Mad Mullah” by the British) who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian colonial...

Saʿd od-Dīn Maḥmūd Shabestarī was a Persian mystic whose poetic work Golshan-e rāz (The Mystic Rose Garden) became a classic document of Ṣūfism (Islāmic mysticism). The details of Shabestarī’s life are...

Jāmī was a Persian scholar, mystic, and poet who is often regarded as the last great mystical poet of Iran. Jāmī spent his life in Herāt, except for two brief pilgrimages to Meshed (Iran) and the Hejaz....

ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī was a Syrian mystic prose and verse writer on the cultural and religious thought of his time. Orphaned at an early age, ʿAbd al-Ghanī joined the Islamic mystical orders of the...

Ad-Damīrī was a Muslim theologian, best known for his encyclopaedia of animals. A student of some of the leading scholars of his day, ad-Damīrī mastered theology as well as law and philology. He gave lectures...

Bedreddin was an Ottoman theologian, jurist, and mystic whose social doctrines of communal ownership of property led to a large-scale popular uprising. A convert to Ṣūfism (Islāmic mysticism), in 1383...

Yunus Emre was a poet and mystic who exercised a powerful influence on Turkish literature. Though legend obscures the facts of his life, he is known to have been a Sufi (Islamic mystic) who sat for 40...

ʿAbd al-Salām Yāsīn was a Moroccan religious leader. A former school inspector fluent in English and French, he began practicing Sufism in the 1960s. By the early 1970s he had adopted a more political...

Reynold Alleyne Nicholson was an English orientalist who exercised a lasting influence on Islāmic studies. Educated at Aberdeen University and the University of Cambridge, Nicholson was lecturer in Persian...