The Influence of Andalusi Ṣūfism on the Central Islamicate World: Ibn Sabʿīn’s son and his Kitāb al-Sulūk fī ṭarīq al-qawm

Abstract

The aim of the present contribution is to edit and translate the treatise Kitāb alSulūk fī ṭarīq al-qawm (Book on the voyage along the pathway of the spiritual kindred), a short Ṣūfī text extant in one known manuscript, MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Hekimoğlu 506, fols. 11v–16r. The manuscript ascribes the text to Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. Sabʿīn, a son of the Andalusi philosopher and Ṣūfī Ibn Sabʿīn (d. 669 H/1270 CE), whose name was otherwise unknown. To provide some context, I will summarize the extant information about Ibn Sabʿīn’s life and present the available data about his son. Then, I will summarize the contents of this short treatise and examine its link to the school of Ibn Sabʿīn. And last, I will describe the manuscript on which the edition is based, and provide the edition and translation of this work. The Kitāb al-Sulūk fī ṭarīq al-qawm represents a witness during the early Mamlūk period of the spread of Andalusi intellectual Ṣūfism, particularly in the school of Ibn Sabʿīn, to the Mashriq.