Shaykh Mustapha Kamal Al Din Al Bakri

7/28/2019 Shaykh Mustapha Kamal Al Din Al Bakri

1/5

the israeli academic center in cairo

The eighteenth century witnessedthe widespread development ofIslamic renewal and reform trends.The religious-political movements

that emerged included, amongothers, the Wahabiya in Arabia,the Padri in Sumatra and theJihads in North and West Africa.Sufi turuq (fraternities) took anactive part in many of these move-ments. One of these was theKhalwatiya, which had originatedin the fourteenth century in Persia.In the eighteenth century thisorder underwent a revival initiat-ed by Mustafa Kamal al Din al

Bakri (16881748).Branches of the Khalwatiya hadbeen established in Cairo as earlyas the first half of the sixteenthcentury. Two influential ones werethe Ghulshaniya (named afterIbrahim al Ghulshani, d. 1534) andthe Dimardashiya (named after

Muhammad al Dimardash, d. 1525).Both were Khalwati shuyukh (pl. ofshaykh) of Persian origin, and partsof their liturgies were in Persian

and Turkish. This explains whytheir followings mainly comprisedmembers of the higher classes ofthe same origin, including soldiersand officers of the Turkish garrisonin Cairo, and why these ordersheld little appeal for ordinaryEgyptians. There is no evidencethat they had any significant num-ber of adherents outside Cairo.1

Matters changed, however, withthe arrival in Cairo from Jerusalem

of Mustafa al Bakri in 1718.Al Bakri was already famouswhen he arrived in Cairo, and hewas welcomed by a large crowd oflocal ulama (Muslim scholars). Itwas on that occasion that al Bakrifirst met Muhammad Salim alHifni, who was then a poor young

teacher who earned his living bcopying textbooks. It is most likethat al Hifni was already acquained with the Khalwatiya, since h

had spent time in the zawiyaShahin al Khalwati, who camfrom Persia in the second half the fifteenth century to become onof the first shuyukh of the order Egypt. Sources report that the twmen immediately formed a spiriual bond (irtibat qalbi), and al Bakaccepted al Hifnis oath of allgiance (Ahd).2

Although authorized by al Bakto initiate novices and teach th

Khalwati dhikr (the Sufi ritual physical movements), al Hifni dinot succeed in doing so for the nesixteen years, during which hseemed more concerned witteaching in various Cairo mosqueHe was considered a populateacher, and hundreds attende

Gideon Weigert

SHAYKH MUSTAPHA KAMAL AL DIN AL BAKRI

A SUFI REFORMER IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EGYPT

Gideon Weigert came to academia after a career in journalism, in the course of which he was in charge of Arabaffairs at the Jerusalem Post and a columnist in Arabic newspapers. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew

University of Jerusalem and is now associated with the Department of History at Ben Gurion University of the

Negev. His publications include fifteen books, pocket books, pamphlets and surveys on the problems of the

Arabs in Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. His latest book,My Life with the Palestinians,

an updated Hebrew version of his earlier English publication by the same title, was published in January 2001

by Haifa University Press.


2/5

his courses. In 1736, however, alHifni visited al Bakri in Jerusalem.For four intensive months, he wasgradually initiated into the differ-ent stages the murid (disciple) mustundergo in order to reach perfec-

tion (kamal). He was also taughtthe seven secret names (al asma alsaba). Al Bakri invested him withthe special Sufi dress (hirqa) andwith the crown of mysticalknowledge (taj al jrfan) and pro-claimed him his chief khalifa(successor).3 Upon his return toCairo, al Hifni propagated theKhalwatiya with such intensitythat he succeeded in admittingthousands to the order. For the

first time since the arrival in Cairoof Shaykh Shahin al Khalwati, theorder was headed by an Egyptiannative.

The Khalwatiya spread likewildfire under al Hifni, within afew years winning adherentsamong the common people inCairo, in the provicial towns and inthousands of villages along theNile valley, and becoming theleading order in Egypt. It was al

Hifni who completed the processof reform and revival that al Bakrihad begun, by bringing theKhalwatiya into full identificationwith the sharia (the canon law ofIslam), so that the order becamethe Muslim orthodoxy in Egypt.4

Time and again al Hifni recalled alBakris guidance in this respect,according to which Sufism withoutthe sharia was atheism (Al Haqiqabedun sharia zindaka).5 The

successful fusion between theKhalwatiya and the sharia wassymbolized by the 1757 appoint-ment of al Hifni to the highest postin the religious hierarchy of Egypt:Shaykh Mashaykh al Azhar (Rector ofAl Azhar). For seventy years afterhim (17671838), nine Khalwati

shuyukh occupied this position. Nowonder that the historian al Jabartidescribed the Khalwatiya as thebest Sufi order (khayr al turuq).6

But the influence of theseshuyukh extended much further

than Cairos Al Azhar. They notonly taught their students from allover the Muslim world the Islamicsciences. They also inculcatedthem with Sufism and initatedthem into their tariqa. Thus, thesegraduates returned to their nativecountries not only as freshly bakedulamabut also as carriers of a dualmessage: to spread Islam amongtheir people and to propagate theirmasters Sufi tariqa the

Khalwatiya of Al Bakris school.A good example of al Bakris

influence is to be found inMorocco. The country was ruled inthis period by two reformist-orien-tated sultans: Sidi Muhammad b.Abd Allah (17571790) and his sonMawlay Sulayman (17921822).Both had been strongly influencedby reformed Khalwati shuyukh inEgypt. The link was formedthrough the leading ulama of Fez,

who passed through Cairo on theirway to Mecca to make the Haj.Some of them studied for varyingperiods in the college of Al Azharwith such Khalwati shuyukh asSalim al Hifni (d. 1768), Ahmad alDardir (d. 1786) and Mahmud alKurdi (d. 1780).7 Upon their returnto the Maghrib they carried withthem Khalwati ideas of reform andrevival. Through these ulama, thesultans became acquainted with

the Cairo shuyukh, with some ofwhom they maintained a vividexchange of ideas. Sidi Muham-mad, for instance, correspondedwith Ahmad al Dardir and soughthis advice on various religiousissues. In 1784 he sent al Dardir agenerous grant, which enabled the

shaykh to perform the Haj andbuild his ownzawiya (prayer nichelater: Sufi hostel-mosque) in CairoThe same sultan later sent theKhalwati ulama of Egypt copies ofhis reformative instructions to the

qadis of his country, inviting theircomments on the documents.8

There had been direct connec-tions between Maghribi scholarsand reformed Khalwati shuyukh inCairo even before the period ofSidi Muhammad and his son. Thefirst link was made by Abd alRahman al Azhari (d. 1793), whoas a student at Al Azhar, was initi-ated into the Khalwatiya by aHifni.9 Upon his return to Algeria

in 1769, he began disseminatingthe Khalwatiya there and quicklygained a large following, particu-larly in his native region ofKabiliya. The order later becameknown as the Rahmaniya.

It was al Azhari who, in 1773initiated Sidi Ahmad al Tijani (d1815) into the Khalwatiya. ATijani visited Cairo in 1773 on hisway to perform the Haj. On hisway home from Mecca he was re-

initiated into the Khalwatiya byMahmud al Kurdi and was givenan ijaza (license) to propagate theorder in his native country. Foreight years after his return to theMaghrib, al Tijani initiated disci-ples into the Khalwatiya.10 Then, in1782, he declared himself the headof a new tariqa, though theTijaniya, as it became knownretained many basic elements of itsmother order, the Khalwatiya. One

of these was the requirement ofexclusive adherence to the tariqaThis unique feature had alreadybeen advocated by al Bakri in theKhalwatiya sixty years earlier.

Al Hifni considered himself adisciple of al Bakri, to whom heattributed all his accomplishments

4

BULLETIN


3/5

He often remarked that all hisknowledge came from his shaykh.According to al Jabarti, himself astudent of al Hifni, it was al Bakriwho erected the pillars of thereformed Khalwatiya (ashada arkan

hadhihi al tariqa).11 Who, then, wasal Bakri, and what were thereforms that he introduced into theKhalwatiya which enabled hiskhalifa, al Hifni, to lead it to becomethe most important Sufi order inEgypt?

Mustafa ibn Kamal al Din al Bakriwas born in Damascus in 1688. Inhis youth he was admitted intoseveral Sufi orders. His shaykh in

the Khalwatiya was Abd al Latif alHalabi, a disciple of the founder ofthe Qarabashiya branch, ShaykhAli al Qarabashi (d. 1685). A yearbefore his death in 1708, al Halabiappointed al Bakri, then 21, as hissole successor and authorized himto initiate new adherents into hisorder. From that time onward, alBakri made many journeysthroughout the Ottoman Empire inorder to disseminate the

Khalwatiya. He visited Istanbultwice and Iraq once, made the Hajto Mecca four times and visitedEgypt three times before finallysettling down in Cairo in 1748, ayear before his death.12

In 1710, at the age of 23, al Bakrimade his first pilgrimage to theholy places in Jerusalem, where hestayed for four months, recruitingnew adherents to the Khalwatiyaand spreading the order through-

out the Holy Land, as he recountedin his travel diary.13 Later, for someforty years, he made Jerusalem themain center of his activities, hisinfluence radiating from there tothe neighboring countries. Hisactivities revolved around azawiya.In Jerusalem he wrote over two

hundred works. He also intro-duced a series of reforms into thelitanies and practices of the order.

Al Bakris reforms rested on thefoundations of the Qarabashibranch of the Khalwatiya, which

spread in the seventeenth centuryfrom Thrace (Tur Aish) into Syria,first to Aleppo and later toDamascus. Al Bakri inherited theelements of the order from hisshaykh, al Halabi, including the fol-lowing classic, unique features:14

(a) Its leaders were simulta-neously ulama and Sufi shuyukh(ilm and amal); that is, they wereknowledgeable both in Islamic

sciences and in Sufi practices.(b) The Khalwati shaykh wasknown for his deep religiouszeal and strong conviction of therighteousness of his path(tariqa), as well as for his charis-ma and dominating personality.

(c) The order demanded thvery close ties be maintainebetween the murid (disciple) anhis shaykh (al rabta al qalbiya). Thlatter supervised his pupilconduct at all times (Muraqaba

Among the requirements of thorder are:

(a) Participation in commundhikr exercises and weekevening guidance session(hadra).(b) Assistance in the communreadings of the wird al Sattar, thmost important litany of thKhalwatiya, composed by Yahal Shirwani (1464), one of th

earliest shuyukh of the order.(c) In addition to requiring lonperiods of retreat (khalwa), thorder demands the observencof silence (samt) and vigil (sahaand participation in communprayer vigils (wird al Sahar).

Scholars such as F. de Jong, a formost author on Sufi turuq in Egyphave cast doubt on the revivalismintroduced by al Bakri,15 but ou

sources clearly document hreforms. Shaykh Hassan Husseini, the Hanafi Mufti Jerusalem, who was a major discple of al Bakri, refers to his masteas a mujadid (reformer) to his contemporaries and compatriots.16

Contrary to previously established practices in Sufi orders, Bakris major aim was to consoldate and centralize the orderpractices and to introduce reform

that reflected complete identifiction with Muslim orthodoxy. Thualthough he himself had been initated into several turuq in his youthe forbade his followers to belonto orders other than the KhalwatiySince simultaneous adherence several orders had previously bee


The greatzawiya of the Khalwatiyaorder in Baka al Gharbiya.


4/5

common, this was surely no minorinnovation in the world of me-dieval Islamic Sufism, and it wastherefore not easily implemented.Al Bakri had long arguments overthis issue with two of his major

disciples in Egypt, al Hifni andMahmud al Kurdi (d. 1780), bothhis own khulafa, Al Hifni eventual-ly gave up his allegiance to theShadhiliya order, while al Kurdiwas given permission to retaincertain elements of Shaykh alQusayris awrad (supplementaryprayer texts specific to each order).

Al Bakri also abolished the wilddisplays of ecstasy that had for-merly characterized dhikr perfor-

mances in the Khalwatiya. Otheraspects of his reforms included thefollowing:

(a) Al Bakri introduced changesin the text of the wird al Sattar.He instructed his followersnever to recite the wird in pri-vate, but only in a congregationand under the guidance of ashaykh. The reason for thisreform, as al Bakri himself

explained, was to enhance thesupervision of the shaykh overhis disciples. Al Bakri wasextremely conscious of main-taining the balance betweenpopular Sufism and strict adher-ence to the sharia.(b) Al Bakri favored the louddhikr (al jahri or lisani) over theinward or quiet dhikr (al khafi oral qalbi). Although his own writ-ings testify that participants

sometimes fainted during dhikrperformances over which hepresided in Jerusalem, there isno evidence that he ever permit-ted singing and music to accom-pany these performances.17

(c) Visits to tombs were always afeature of popular Sufism. Here,

too, al Bakri carefully avoidedcontravening sharia rulings thatprohibited the demonstrativeaspects of this cult, such as kiss-ing the tombstone, lighting can-dles next to it and other

idolatrous-looking practices.Thus, al Bakri regularly visitedtombs during his time inJerusalem, but he avoidedtombs of saints, restricting him-self scrupulously to those ofprophets and patriarchs. He wasalways careful not to addressprayers to the tomb dweller butrather to ask Allah alone to havemercy on the soul of the depart-ed.

(d) Voll and Levtzion have citedthe return to moderate Sufismas advocated by al Ghazali andthe rejection of the extremismespoused, for example, by Ibn alArabi as a distinctive aspect ofeighteenth-century renewal andreform.18 Already in the seven-teenth century, the Khalwatiya

had advocated the type ofSufism taught in the tenthcentury by al Juneid ibnMuhammed (d. Baghdad 910), amajor disciple of al Harith aMuhasibi (d. 857), leader of the

Baghdad school of Sufism. ABakri not only strongly urgedhis followers to follow in thefootsteps of al Juneid and hismoderate path of sobrietyseeking to reconcile the shariawith Sufi truth (Haqiqa),19 buthe also showed increased inter-est in al Ghazali. Excerpts fromal Ghazalis Ihya were inter-spersed in some of the awradthat he composed, and he wrote

a commentary on a poem attrib-uted to al Ghazali.20

The sources are extremely vagueregarding the origins of al Bakrisreforms. However, they mentionseveral cases in which al Bakrsought the guidance of the spiritu-al head of his order, ShaykhHassan ibn Ali al Qarabashibefore instituting reforms. Forexample, before he introduced

changes into the traditional text ofthe wird al sahar litany, he sent acopy of the planned text to theshaykh at Erdine and asked for hisapproval. In order to overcomeopposition to some of his reformsal Bakri was careful to assure hisdisciples that they derived fromthe basic principles of theKhalwatiya and to emphasize thatall his reforms were based on theDamascus Khalwati tariqa

(Khalwatiyat al Sham).21

Thus, in reg-ulating the mode of the dhikr excer-cises, al Bakri based himself on areligious verdict (fatwa) of anotherof his Damascus teachers, Abd alGhani al Nabulsi (d. 1143), a well-known Naqshabandi shaykh andauthor of several travel journals

6

BULLETIN

Shaykh Alif Ibn Husni al-Din al-Qasimi,shaykh of the Khalwatizawiya in Baka alGharbiya.


5/5


(rahlat), who had approved theintroduction of loud dhikr into Sufipractices.

It was these reforms of al Bakri,as disseminated by al Hifni, thatbrought the reformed Khalwatiya

in Egypt to its peak in the eigh-teenth century. Al Bakris completeidentification with the sharia wasdoubtless the decisive factor inenabling the Khalwati shuyukh todominate the highest position inEgypts Muslim hierarchy for closeto a hundred years. In numeroussermons to his disciples, al Bakriemphasized that his way wasthe way of the sharia, declaring thatwhoever does not understand

this is simply short of mind (qusurfi aqlihi). For him, Sufism andorthodoxy were inseparable (humamultaziman).

In conclusion, we should notethat the Khalwatiya as reformedby al Bakri is one of the few Sufiorders to have survived theupheavals of modernity and anti-Sufi trends in the Arab world.Moreover, it has witnessed a come-back in Jordan, in Israeli Arab vil-

lages and in the Palestinian WestBank, where scores ofzawaya haveopened. A major zawiya linkedwith the Rahmaniya branch of theKhalwatiya was established inBaka al Gharbiya, in the IsraeliLittle Triangle area, followed in1989 by the opening of a HigherCollege of Sharia Studies, offeringcourses in Islamic studies andSufism and preparing hundreds ofmale and female students for the

teaching profession.22

1. G. Weigert, The Khalwatiya in Egyptin the Eighteenth Century, Bulletin ofthe Israeli Academic Center in Cairo, No. 9(1994), pp. 1720.

2. Jabarti (al) Abd al-Rahman,Ajaeb elAthar fil tarajim wal Akhbar, Cairo 1297H., I, p. 289.

3. Ibid., pp. 295302.4. Weigert, The Khalwatiya

(above, note 1).5. Bakri (al) Mustapha Kamal al Din,

Majmu Awrad, Cairo 1324 H., p. 150.6. Jabarti (above, note 2), I, p. 166.7. For more on this topic see N. Levtzion

and G. Weigert, Religious Reform inthe Eighteenth Century,JerusalemStudies in Arabic and Islam, 19 (volumehonoring P. Shinar), Jerusalem 1995, pp.173197.

8. Jabarti (above, note 2), II, p. 148.9. Levtzion and Weigert, Religious

Reform (above, note 7).10. On al Tijani see D.S. Margoliouth,

Encyclopedia of Islam (shorter edition),s.v. Tijaniya, p. 594.

11.G. Weigert, The Khalwatiya in Egypt inthe Eighteenth Century: A Nucleus forIslamic Revival, Ph.D. Dissertation, TheHebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989(in Hebrew, English summary). For areconstruction of the line of Khalwatishuyukh al Azhar in the eighteenth cen-tury see pp. 140142.

12. Muradi (al) Muhammad Khalil, Silk alDurrar fi ayan al Qarn al thani ashr,Cairo 12911301 H., IV, p. 161.

13.Al Bakri,Al Khamra al Hissiya fi al Rihlaal Qudsiya (The intoxication of the

senses during a journey to HolyJerusalem), ms, Damascus 1122 H. Acopy of the manuscript of this diarywas discovered by the Jerusalemresearcher Fahmi al Ansari in thefamous al Khalidi family library in theOld City of Jerusalem.

14.Muradi, Silk al Durrar (above, note 12),loc. cit.; Jabarti (above, note 2), I, pp.294295; al Bakri,Majmu (above, note5), p. 147.

15. F. de Jong. Mustafa Kamal al Din alBakri (16881749): Revival and Reformof the Khalwatiyya Tradition? in N.Levtzion and J.O. Voll (eds.), EighteentCentury Renewal and Reform in Islam,Syracuse, N.Y., 1987, pp. 117132.

16. Hussayni (al) Hassan, Tarajim ahl alQuds fil qarn al Thani ashr, Amman1985, p. 158.

17. Baytar (al) Abd al Razaq, Khaliyat alBeshr fi Tarikh al qarn al Thalith ashr,Damascus 1383, p. 98.

18. Muhammad Hussein Makhlouf,Awraal Sadah al Khalwatiya, Cairo 1308 H., p34.

29. R.A. Nicholson,A Literary History of thArabs, Cambridge 1941, p. 392.

20.Al Bakri,Majmu (above, note 5), p. 1521. Ibid., pp. 175 and 187.22. Afif Ibn Husni al Din al Qasmi,Adwa

ala al Tariqa al Khalwatiya, Baka alGharbiya, Israel, 1997.

Shaykh Mustapha Kamal Al Din Al Bakri

Documents

Transcript of Shaykh Mustapha Kamal Al Din Al Bakri