the enigmatic imam ahmad ibn idris

The Enigmatic Imam: The Influence of Ahmad Ibn IdrisAuthor(s): Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih KarrarSource: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (May, 1987), pp. 205-219Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/163354Accessed: 13/12/2010 21:44

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Int. J. Middle East Stud. 19 (1987), 205-220 Printed in the United States of America

Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

THE ENIGMATIC IMAM: THE INFLUENCE OF AHMAD IBN IDRIS

THE LIFE OF AL-FASI IS AN ENIGMA1

Despite his importance, no substantial study has been devoted to the career of Abui 'l-Abbas Ahmad b. Idris al-Hasani al-'Ara'ishi al-Fasi (d. 1837); most accounts of him appear by way of a preface to studies of his pupils.2 And yet through his teachings, pupils, and family, he was undoubtedly one of the key religious figures of the early 19th century Arab Muslim world. Indeed, his influence, direct and indirect, appears to have stretched from North Africa to Indonesia. Three of his pupils from his immediate circle established major brotherhoods, the Sanusiyya, Khatmiyya, and Rashidiyya, from which stemmed several other orders. Of his descendants, one branch established a local dynasty in southern Arabia that survived until 1933 when it was incorporated into the Sa'udi state,3 while another branch, somewhat belatedly, established an Idrisiyya tarTqa in Upper Egypt and the northern Sudan. Also significant is the influence exercised by Ibn Idris through those of his pupils who founded not major orders but local schools propagating his teachings such as the Egyptian al-hdjj CAli CAbd al-Haqq al-Qu.s1, or, who under his influence, founded or revitalized local or family orders, such as the Majdhubiyya and Isma'iliyya in the northern and western Sudan respectively. Finally, his influence was not confined to his family and pupils; in the course of his travels, he initiated or gave ijazas, both general and for specific texts, or corresponded with many scholars, including such figures as Muhammad Hasan al-Madani (d. 1847) and Muhammad b. 'Al al-Shawkanl (d. 1834).

Yet Ibn Idris remains an enigma. That he was very influential is beyond doubt; why, is less easy to explain. His doctrinal position was not unique; others held the same or similar positions. He wrote relatively little; his teachings are known largely through the writings of his students and contemporaries, his few surviving letters, and through his litanies and prayers. The explanation must lie in his personality; not so much what he taught, but how he taught it. That, rather than doctrinal originality, best explains the enormous authority he exercised over his students and contemporaries and why established scholars so eagerly sought ijazas from him. While the several accounts we have of him simply take his spiritual authority for granted, his letters underscore its pastoral nature. In letters to his closest pupils, such as his near contemporary, al-Sanisi, or the much younger al-Mlrghanl, he writes as a wise and loving master guiding them

? 1987 Cambridge University Press 0020-7438/87 $5.00 -.00

206 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

along the mystical path; to his humbler followers, he gives simple and authorita- tive rulings on a variety of matters that were both great and small.

TOWARD A BIOGRAPHY

Ibn Idris was born into a holy family at Maysur in the district of al-'Ara'ish (Larache) on Morocco's Atlantic coast; the date of his birth is given as either Rajab 1173/February-March 1760 or 1163/1749-50, the latter date supported by Idrisi family tradition.4 He was a descendant through the Imam Idris b. CAbd Allah al-Mahd of the Sharifian Idrisi dynasty, sometime rulers of Fez (788-974).

After the usual Qur'anic studies, Ahmad went at the age of about 20 to study at the Qarawiyyin mosque school in Fez. There he studied a wide range of sub- jects under a number of teachers, who included Muhammad al-TawidT b. Suda (d. 1216/1801-2), al-Majidri (or al-Mijaydri) al-Shinqiti, Abi 'l-Mawahib 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Tazi, and Abu '1-Qasim al-Wazir. Other teachers referred to in the sources include 'Abd al-Karim al-Yazighi (d. 1784) and Muhammad al-Tayyib b. Kiran (d. 1812).5 Ibn Kiran was later to teach al-Sanusi.6 Among the texts Ibn IdrTs studied were the works of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1499) and the asanTd of Ibn Suda from the latter's period of study in Egypt.7

It was from among the same teachers that Ibn IdrTs took his Sufi affiliations; he was initiated into the Khadiriyya by al-TazT and into the Nasiriyya Shadhiliyya by al-Wazir, while al-Shinqiti taught him the famous prayer attributed to cAlI b. Abi Talib, al-hizb al-sayfi.8 In other words, Ibn Idris received an education that combined the formal religious sciences, apparently with an emphasis on tafsTr and hadTth, with the mysticism of the brotherhoods. He soon began to form a circle of students around him, to whom he inveighed against the popular practice of saint worship, exhorting them to go back to the sources (usul) of belief, the Qur'an and Sunna. This was to be the consistent theme of his teaching throughout his life.9

Ibn Idris seems to have become a figure of controversy, becoming involved in disputes with the ulama at the Qarawiyyin.10 This may be the reason why, in the middle of 1212/1797-98, Ahmad set out with an entourage from Fez on the pilgrimage; he was never to return to Morocco. Traveling via Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, he stopped at Benghazi, where he taught people from Jabal al-Akhdar and Barqa. He then took a boat from Benghazi directly to Alexandria, arriving apparently in early 1798, some few months before Bonaparte's invasion.1 From Alexandria he traveled up to Cairo where he gave a series of public lectures at al-Azhar which large audiences attended, a number of whom went with him when he continued on to Mecca at the end of 1213/1798-99 or the beginning of 1214/1799-1800.12

Ahmad was to stay in Mecca, except for the years spent on his two, possibly three, extended visits to Upper Egypt, until his enforced departure for the Yemen in 1243/1827-28. From the outset, he appears to have encountered hostility from the Meccan ulama, but to have enjoyed the support and patronage of the Sharif Ghalib b. Musa'ad, amir of Mecca between 1788 and 1814. It was the latter who granted Ahmad the palace (saray) of al-Ja'fariyya in Mecca for the use of himself and his followers."3

The Enigmatic Imam 207

Ghalib was himself driven out of Mecca by the Wahhabis under SaCi'd b. CAbd al-'Aziz in 1803, but the latter is said to have treated Ibn Idris with the greatest respect, giving him a silk robe and protecting his followers.14 Interest- ingly, Ahmad only left Mecca in 1813, the year that the Wahhabis were expelled from the holy city by the forces of Muhammad CAll Pasha. Together with al-Mlrghanl, he crossed the Red Sea to al-Zayniyya, a village near Luxor (al-Uqsur) approximately half way between Qina and Isna. Al-Zayniyya was apparently a religious center of some importance as well as being at the end of a short desert crossing from the Nile to the Red Sea coast.'5 Ibn Idris may have visited al-Zayniyya before; one source suggests that during his first stay in Egypt he visited Upper Egypt where he was initiated into the Khalwatiyya by one Hasan b. Hasan Bey al-Qina'l, a student of Mahmud al-Kurdi (d. 1780).16 It was during this apparent second visit, between 1813 and 1817, that al-Mlrghani was permitted by Ibn Idris to undertake a missionary journey through the northern and western Sudan, a journey that was to lay the foundations of the Khatmiyya tariqa.17

Ahmad returned to Mecca in 1817. But conditions there were beginning to turn against him; there was continuing tension between the Sharifian Zayd clan, to which his patron Ghalib belonged, and the occupying forces of Muhammad 'All. Ten years later, in 1243/1827-28, matters finally came to a head. Muham- mad 'All transferred the position of amir from the Zayd to the 'Awn clan, while the Meccan ulama seemed to have used the demarche to bring charges of heresy against Ahmad.18 In the same year, Ahmad was forced to leave; he set out for the Yemen with all his pupils except for al-Sanuis who stayed behind to act as his master's agent in Mecca.

Ibn Idris' reputation was already known in the Yemen and the contrast between his reception by the networks of scholarly clans there and the hostility of the Meccans is striking.19 Indeed, one recent study describes Ibn Idris' coming as contributing to a Sufi revival in the Yemen.20 But among the Yemeni scholars were "ulama who had attained the highest rank of ijtihad";21 in other words, whose doctrinal position was very close to that of Ibn Idris. He went first to Mukha in the far south where he stayed for four months, before moving to Zabid where he was the guest for nearly a year of the town's Mufti, CAbd al-Rahman b. Sulayman al-Ahdal (d. 1835).22 From Zabid he traveled north via Bayt al-Faqlh and al-Hudayda to al-Qutayc and Bajil. His progress along the coastal region of the Yemen seems to have been marked by extraordinary enthusiasm; wherever he went, he initiated into his "way" or gave ijazas for a wide range of texts, mainly the canonical collections of hadith and Ibn Hajar.23 His position was undoubtedly enhanced by a warm recommendation from the great Yemeni scholar, Muhammad al-Shawkanl, whom he did not actually meet but with whom he corresponded.24 Among those he taught was, for example, the qadi of Bayt al-Faqih, 'Abd al-Rahman b. Ahmad al-Bahkall (d. 1836).25 To the young al-Hasan b. Ahmad 'Akish al-Damid! (d. 1872-73) he taught the Risala of Abu 'l-Qasim al-Qushayri and Ibn 'Ata' Allah's al-Hikam; to Abu Bakr b. cAbd Allah al-'Attas (d. 1866) his prayer, al-Salah al-'azimiyya.26 But these were by no means the only scholars he met; both Yemeni and Idrisi sources give many more names.27


There were, however, to be in the Yemen echoes of his disputes in Fez and Mecca. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad Abl Tali'a al-Tihami (d. 1843-44), hearing that Ibn Idris had rejected the exoteric (zdhir) interpretation of certain Qur'anic verses, "since it did not conform to Sufi principles (qawd'id al-suCfiyya)," wrote a refutation called Talbis Iblis, "The Devil's Deceit," the title recalling Ibn al-Jawzi's scathing attack on Sufism in his time. To this, another Yemeni scholar, Ibrahim b. Yahya al-Damidi, responded with a counter-blast. Harmony prevailed in the end; al-Hasan 'Akish records,

(al-Tihami) came into contact with our Shaykh through some of his students and received a pardon. The pardon was both requested and expected by al-Tihami, since he was one of the eminent, and slander upon the reputation of the ulama is a lethal poison.28

The doctrinal difference seems to have disappeared in the face of Ibn Idris' spiritual status.

After nearly two years of travel, Ibn Idris came, in Sha'ban 1244/October- November 1828, to the town of Sabya in the district of 'Asir. Asir's ruler, 'All b. Mujaththil (d. 1834) welcomed him and gave him a grant upon which to live. Now an old man, Ibn Idris seems to have decided to settle in Sabya. Once more, as before in Fez and Mecca, his teaching began to provoke opposition, this time from a group of Wahhabi-inspired ulama led by one Nasir al-Kubaybi. Matters came to a head just over a year later, when in Jumada II 1245/November- December 1829, Ibn Mujaththil ordered a public debate (mundzara) to be held between al-Kubaybi and Ibn Idris, a debate recorded verbatim by al-Hasan cAkish.29 The debate is too long to be analyzed here, but characteristic is Ibn Idris' criticism of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab,

We do not deny his merit. His intention was righteous in what he did. He eliminated innovations and unfortunate practices, but that mission was sullied by excess. He declared those Muslims who had a belief in anything other than God Most High to be unbelievers, and moreover allowed them to be killed and their property to be seized without justification.30

Ibn Idris died in Sabya on 21 Rajab 1253/21 October 1837.31 Of his descendants, one branch later emerged as the Idrisi dynasty of 'Asir, while another branch, founded by his sons Muhammad and CAbd al-'Al (sic, for al-'Ali), propagated what became the Idrisiyya tariqa in Upper Egypt, based on al- Zayniyya, and around Dongola and Omdurman in the northern Sudan, where they settled and still live.

IBN IDRIS' TEACHINGS: A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION32

Ibn Idris' teachings fall within the parameters of two fundamental doctrinal positions; as regards fiqh, a rejection of taqlTd and the madhhabs, and a return to the Quran, Sunna, and ijma' of the Companions; as regards Sufism, an emphasis on the Prophet as the way to God. The two positions were, of course, two sides of the same coin, a purer Islam emphasizing the believer's own personal way to salvation and "intellectual honesty."33


In his rejection of taqlid, Ibn IdrTs was doctrinally very close to the Wahhabis and al-ShawknL.34 He expounded his own distinctively mystical interpretation of the Qur7an and hadith. This, naturally, brought him into conflict with the Meccan ulama,

He was rejected by the people of Mecca and the reason for their rejection (inkdr) was his reliance ('amal) on the Sunna, inasmuch as he did not follow a madhhab, but relied only on the Book of God and the Sunna.35

His assertion of ijtihad appears in all his scholarly encounters, with the Meccans, with the Egyptian Ahmad al-SawT (d. 1825), or in the Yemen.36 What is less clear is whom he considered qualified to exercise ijtihad; certainly not every Muslim,

As for the ijtihad of the Companions and the successors (al-tabiTin) following the example of the Messenger, it is not a matter within the capacity of everyone.3

His rejection of taqlid seems to have been paralleled by a distaste for its practitioners,

Beware of those who ascribe to themselves learning (ilm) without acting in accordance with it. For they have made learning a secular business ... and have traded their faith for the world.38

Central to his mysticism was the concept of al-tariqa al-Muhammadiyya, namely that there was only one "way," that of the Prophet, who alone could act as intermediary between the seeker and God,

He, the teacher (al-ustadh) said, "The leaders of this tariqa took their way through intermediaries (bi-wasa'it), but I took my tariqa from the Messenger of God, May God bless and grant him peace, without any intermediary; thus my way is the Muhammadiyya Ahmadiyya; its beginning and end is from the Muhammadan light.39

The idea of al-tariqa al-Muhammadiyya was not, of course, new, but it did lay great stress on sanction by Prophetic revelation, an idea fundamental to Ibn Idris and his students. As one example, a Sudanese holy man, Muhammad al-Majdhub (d. 1832), was initiated into the Khatmiyya by al-MirghanT during the latter's journeys in the Sudan. Subsequently, he went to Mecca and studied with Ibn Idr?s. While in Medina, the Prophet appeared to him, ordering him to leave the Khatmiyya and return to the tariqa of his ancestors, the Shadhiliyya. He returned to the Sudan, settling at Sawakin on the Red Sea coast, where he established a zawiya from which he propagated his own order, known as al-Muhammadiyya al-Shadhiliyya al-Majdhibiyya.40

Schimmel links the notion of al-tariqa al-Muhammadiyya to that of the Muslim community being under threat,

It is Muhammad who makes Islam a distinct religion, and it is typical that, in a time when Islam was defeated everywhere in the political field, and when the Western powers encroached practically and spiritually upon the Muslim world, those mystics who founded new orders and fraternities called them tariqa Muhammadiyya.41

However true this may be of such figures as Ahmad Brelwi (d. 1831) in India, in the case of Ibn Idris, his students, and associates the reality was probably more


complex. An emphasis on European encroachment risks undervaluing the internal dynamic within the Muslim world. Although a number of his direct and indirect students did lead movements in resistance to European aggression such as al-Sanisi's successors, Muhammad 'Abd Allah Hasan of Somalia and possibly the Padri movement in Sumatra, this phase came after their initial missionary or reformist enterprise. Although he had witnessed Bonaparte's occupation of Egypt, there is nothing in his writings to suggest any direct preoccupation with the threat of the infidel.

That he was animated by a conscious proselytizing spirit is better attested. Already, some time before 1813, Ahmad sent a very young al-Mlrghani on a missionary journey to Eritrea (see below). His students kept up the tradition; al-Sanusi bought slaves, educated them, and sent them back as missionaries to their homeland, Wadai (modern Chad).42 A Sudanese student, CAbd Allah al- Mawarzi, undertook missionary work among the non-Muslim Nuba of southern Kordofan.43 The nomad connection may have been part of the missionary spirit. Al-Saniisi's relationship with the nomads of Libya and the central Sahara is well known through the work of Evans-Pritchard, as is that of Muhammad CAbd Allah Hasan, a member of the Salihiyya tariqa, of Somalia.44 Further examples are the links established between the Majdhubiyya and the Beja nomads of the eastern Sudan and those between the Khatmiyya and the Bani 'Amir and Shukriyya of the same area.45 Ibn IdrTs himself established close ties with the nomads around Mecca and later around his final home at Sabya.46

Ibn Idris' method of teaching seems to have been essentially informal. A circle grew up around him, be it in Fez, Mecca, or Sabya; his relationship with his students varied no doubt in proportion to the latters' age, learning, and status in the mystical way. Thus, his letters to al-Sanusi seem much more as between equals-relatively-than those to al-Mlrghani, which are written very much from walid to walad. Indeed, in one letter to al-Mlrghanl, he urges him to be guided by al-Sanuis, since the latter was "a true likeness of us," nuskha sahiha minna.47 There was no formal hierarchy or distinctive dress, although he did occasionally present the Sufi livery (khirqa) or send one of his gowns "as a blessing and likeness (tashabbuh)."48 His form of teaching was the majlis or open lecture,

Ibrahim al-Rashid records that on one occasion he held six majalis in three days; two a day, one after the evening prayers, the other after the morning prayers.49

The forty or so surviving letters to and from Ibn Idris confirm the impression of extraordinary spiritual status; the series of letters to and from al-Mlrghani are within the classic tradition of the spiritual master guiding a novice who oscillates between exaltation and self-doubt.50 To others he writes on more prosaic matters. Thus, in two letters to a student in Sudanese Nubia, he rules on the admissibility of amputating an otiose finger, on the use of burnt date stones as a cure for diarrhea, on whether one should pray over the bier of one who has neglected prayer (tarik al-salah), and on the leaning of a writing tablet (lawh) upon which Qur'anic verses have been written against the wall. The latter point gives a good illustration of his style of argument,


There is no objection to this. Indeed, the tablet upon which is written the Qur'an has its origin from the earth. And the earth has its origin from the water. And the water has its origin from the Light of our lord Muhammad, may the blessings and peace of God be upon him. And the origin of everything is pure, and leaning the tablet against the wall is likewise, and the Book likewise.51

IBN IDRIS AND HIS PUPILS

It is impossible within the compass of this article to discuss all of Ibn Idris' pupils and the movements that stemmed from them. We shall confine ourselves to those who regarded themselves as his pupils, or pupils of his pupils, rather than those he met or whose ideas he shared, such as al-Shawkani or al-MadanL.52 One point that perhaps needs to be stressed is that there is no evidence that Ibn Idris ever himself established a tariqa in any formal sense.

His pupils fall roughly into three categories; those who established major brotherhoods; those who propagated his teachings but whose endeavors were only consolidated into orders by the generation that followed them; and those who established local schools or circles teaching Idrisiyya doctrines.

The first group, including al-Sanfisi, al-Mirghani, and his own family, the Adarisa, are well known and have been much studied, although Ibn Idris' role in their careers has tended to be undervalued.53 The missionary impulse is well illustrated in the career of al-Mirghani; as a young student of Ibn Idris in Mecca, al-Mirghani was sent by his master to "Balgha" in the bilad al-Jabarta, probably the Baqla region in Eritrea. He came up against the hostility of the local ruler and prudently returned to Mecca.54 When he accompanied his master to al- Zayniyya in 1813, the latter sent him to preach in al-Manfalut and Asyut, apparently without great success. But it was al-MirghanT who urged his teacher to let him go to the Sudan; at first, Ibn IdrTs was reluctant,

As to what you have said about going to the Sudan, it will be very inconvenient; it will be a very long journey. If you can avoid it, do so. As for the holy men of the Sudan, they have been bearing excessive burdens, and they wish to lay them upon the shoulders of others.55

After receiving a Prophetic vision, the master relented. But here follows an ambiguity; during his travels in the Sudan, al-Mirghani, 25 or 26 years old, appears to have claimed to have been a mujtahid. This may be deduced from an undated fatwa denouncing him written by the Egyptian scholar, Hasan al-'Attar (d. 1853), in response to a request from a certain Muhammad b. Abi Sa'id al-Karaksi of Shendi.56 Al-MTrghani also began to initiate people into his own order, the Khatmiyya, "the seal of the orders," khatim al-turuq, although a Sudanese source, the Funj Chronicle, makes it clear that he was received as a pupil of Ibn Idrls.57 The ambiguity is reinforced by the letters exchanged between the two; they suggest a difficult relationship with the master constantly needing to reprove or restrain his student, but since virtually none are dated and their language obscure, and they are difficult to interpret, they have yet to be edited or translated. A factor complicating their relationship may have been that of Ibn Idris' closest students, al-Mirghani alone came from a Meccan Sharifian family.


The ambiguity of al-Mirghanl's relations with his sheikh contrast with the straightforwardness of al-Sanusi. The latter, after studying with Ahmad in Mecca, spent two years with him in the Yemen, and it was not until after Ahmad's death that he formally established his tariqa with its first zawiya at Abi Qubays just outside Mecca.58

Among those orders that stemmed directly or indirectly from the generation following al-Sanusi and al-Mlrghanl were the Isma'iliyya, Majdhubiyya (known as mujaddada, "renewed," since it had existed before), and Rashldiyya; from the latter came the Salihiyya and Dandarawiyya. Isma'1l al-Wall never met Ibn Idris, being initiated into the Khatmiyya by al-Mlrghanl when the latter visited al-Ubayyid in Kordofan in 1816. He subsequently broke away on the basis of divine and prophetic injunctions and formed his own order. Like most of the Ibn Idris-inspired orders, the Isma'lliyya were keen missionaries; Isma'il and his son, Muhammad al-Makki (d. 1906), undertook combined slave-raiding/proselytizing expeditions into the Nuba Mountains of southern Kordofan.59 Like Isma'il al-WalT, Muhammad al-Majdhub was first initiated by al-Mirghan?, but later went and studied with Ibn IdrTs in Mecca. As we have seen, he also broke away from the Khatmiyya.

Ibrahim al-Rashid (d. 1874) joined Ibn IdrTs' circle at a later date than al- MirghanT or al-Sanius.60 Born into a family living near Karima in the northern Sudan that claimed 'Alid descent, IbrahTm was said to descend from Ahmad b. Yusuf al-Rashidi (d. 1524-25), founder of the Rashidiyya or Yusufiyya order in Morocco. After a traditional education, Ibrahim went first to Mecca and then to Sabya in 1248/1832-33, staying with Ibn IdrTs until the latter's death. Most accounts suggest that Ibrahim was closest, both personally and spiritually, of all his students to Ibn Idris, if not his acknowledged successor.61 Ibrahim then moved across the Red Sea to al-Zayniyya; after a lengthy and successful missionary journey in the northern Sudan, where he initiated followers into the tariqa Muhammadiyya Ahmadiyya, he returned to Mecca.62 Here, he again became involved in the continuing dispute over the spiritual succession to Ibn Idris and was twice accused of heresy before the council of ulama (the first occasion was in 1273/1856-57). He rebutted the charges so successfully that he won many followers from among the pilgrims from Syria and India.63 It was his nephew, al-Shaykh b. Muhammad Salih al-Rashidi (d. 1919) who was respon- sible for organizing the Rashidiyya into an independent order, although for reasons that are unclear, al-Shaykh broke away in 1887 to form his own order, the Salihiyya. The Salihiyya soon spread widely in Somalia; one of those initiated by al-Shaykh was the Somali leader, Muhammad 'Abd Allah (Abdille)

64 Hasan.4 The eastern dimension of Ibn Idr1s' influence has yet to be fully explored. It is

Rinn who links the Padri or kaum puteh movement in Minangkabau in central Sumatra to three pilgrims who had encountered Ibn IdrTs in Mecca before their return to Sumatra in 1803.65 This has yet to be confirmed by any Indonesian source, but accounts of their teaching sound very close to that of Ibn Idris.66

Coincidental, but suggestive, is the fact that the Padri movement was to be drawn into a struggle against European encroachment, this time against the Dutch.


A final category of Ibn Idris' students are those who founded not orders, but local schools propagating his teachings. There are several examples; one from Egypt is 'All CAbd al-Haqq al-Qusl (d. 1877) who studied with Ibn Idris and then spent five years with al-SanisT in Cyrenaica before returning to settle at Asyut. He established a local school and, like his teachers, affirmed that "The gate of ijtihad is always open," and wrote two works on the subject.67 Our first Sudanese example is al-hdjj Muhammad Balol al-Sunni, a Bidayri from Kirtl in the northern Sudan, who stayed with Ibn Idris for seven years. It was his master who bestowed upon him the laqab, al-Sunni. On his return to the Sudan, he undertook a series of missionary journeys before settling at Qarri, just north of Khartoum. His school still (1982) flourishes under his grandson, al-Sadiq al- SunnY, and still teaches the doctrines of Ibn Idris.68 Another Sudanese example was also a BidayrT, but a student of al-Rashld; 'Abdullahi (sic) al-Dufari studied with al-Rash-d in the Hijaz before returning to the Sudan. After a period of traveling, he finally settled at al-Kawa on the White Nile. It was al-Dufanr who provided a link between Ibn Idris and the Sudanese Mahdiyya, since one of those to whom he taught the awrad and ahzab of Ibn Idris was Muhammad Ahmad, the future Mahdi. The only two mortal figures, apart from the Prophet, that the Mahdi refers to by name in his formal proclamation on his Mahdi-ship are Ibn al-'Arab? and Ibn Idrls; from the latter,

Sheikh Ahmad b. Idris said, "Fourteen generations of the people of God (ahl Alldh) have denied the coming of the Mahdi." He then said, "He (the Mahdi) will appear from a place unknown to them and in a condition that they will deny."69

CONCLUSION

Trimingham attempts a number of generalizations concerning the main char- acteristics of the reform movements led by the two Ahmads, al-Tijanl and Ibn Idrls.70 Some of Trimingham's points need modification or should be discarded in the light of new evidence. Ibn Idrls was not responding to a Wahhabi challenge, since his fundamental ideas were already formed before he left Morocco. There is no evidence either in his writings or those of his close students or contemporaries that Ibn Idrls was consciously Pan-Islamist or ever expressed concern about the European threat.7' Those IdrisT-inspired movements that did become involved in resisting the Europeans did so because the latter forced their attentions upon them, not vice versa.

Trimingham's assertion that tariqa Muhammadiyya meant that "The purpose of dhikr was union with the spirit of the Prophet, rather than union with God," needs qualification, "since the Prophet is a manifestation of the divine essence."72 On another level, the tariqa Muhammadiyya seems to have served two purposes, as being the Sufi counterpart to a return to usul al-dTn, and through the Prophetic vision or injunction, a sanction for the creation of hierarchic and relatively centralized tariqas animated not only by a spiritual but also a quasi- political loyalty to the founder and his order.73 Although it was true that these orders, "maintained established liturgical and ethical Sufism," it is untrue that they eschewed mysticism, did not guide the neophytes, or rejected esoteric teaching.74 It was a question of one's place in the hierarchy.


The latter point leads to a consideration of the social and economic implica- tions of Ibn Idris' teachings and the activities of his students. The Sanusiyya, Khatmiyya, and the others brought to the areas in which they proselytized new institutions-zdwiyyas, madrasas, and khalwas-new levels of learning and a new type of mass organization. Can these innovations be linked to forces of socioeconomic change in the societies that received them? To take two geo- graphically widely separated areas, in both Minangkabau and the Funj Sultanate of Sinnar, the early 19th century, for a complex of reasons, saw the emergence of a new quasi-urban Muslim trading class within an essentially non-Muslim political order.75 It was to these groups that the Padri and Khatmiyya had their greatest appeal. But this type of argument should not be taken too far; else- where, it was mainly nomads and agriculturalists who joined the Sanisiyya, Salihiyya, or Majdhubiyya. We still know far too little of the history of the regions involved to essay a profile of those who were attracted to these orders.

Was there, in fact, a Sufi revival in the early 19th century and if so, what distinguished it from the 18th? And what was Ibn Idris' role within it? The present article does not pretend to have answered these questions. Although the dimensions of the influence of Ibn Idris are beginning to emerge more clearly, he himself, like a true imam, remains an enigma.

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL RECORDS OFFICE UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN, NORWAY KHARTOUM, THE SUDAN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The present article is the first preliminary result of the research on Ibn Idr?s, his teachings and students being undertaken by a working group at the Faculty of Arts, University of Bergen. The present authors wish to thank our colleagues in the group, Professor Joseph N. Bell, Dr. Einar Thomassen, and Mr. Knut Vikor. In their turn, Bell, O'Fahey, Thomassen, and Vikor wish to thank Ali Salih Karrar for introducing them to Ibn Idris.

We are grateful to Professors P. M. Holt, F. De Jong, B. G. Martin, and J. 0. Voll for additional information and comments on an earlier draft. We refer the reader to B. G. Martin, "A Short Note on Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi," Islam et societe en Afrique subsaharien (forthcoming), for a fuller account than we have given here of Ibn Idris' teachings.

NOTES

'B. G. Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods in 19th-Century Africa (Cambridge, 1976), p. 217, n. 22. 2For example, J. S. Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971), pp. 117-21. Although

most Western writers call him "al-FasT," he always referred to himself simply as Ahmad b. Idris, while some of his students and associates such as al-SanusT and al-Ahdal called him, "Abu 'l-'Abbas al-cAra'ishL."

3For a recent study, see Johannes Reissner, "Die Idrisiden in 'Asir. Ein historischer Oberblick," Die Welt des Islams, 21 (1981), 164-92.


4Both dates are given in Salih Muhammad al-JaCfari al-Husayni, ACtdr azhar aghsan hazirat al-taqdTs ff kardmat al-'alim . . al-sayyid Ahmad b. IdrTs (Cairo, 1394/1974), pp. 55 and 34. The date, 1163, is preferred by the descendants of Ibn Idris in Omdurman (The Sudan); interview, Sheikh Idris Muhammad 'Abd al-'Al/Karrar, May 1977.

50n his teachers, see L. Rinn, Marabouts et khouan (Algiers, 1884), pp. 402-3; an anonymous glossator on the margins of MajmCua sharffa (Awrdd wa-ahzab wa-qasa'id) (Cairo, n.d.), p. 125; Salih al-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafis ... al-sayyid Ahmad b. IdrTs (Cairo, 1380/1960), pp. 2-3, and J. O. Voll, "Two Biographies of Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760-1837)," International Journal of African Historical Studies, 6 (1973), p. 644.

6Muhammad b. CAlI al-Sanusi, Iqaz al-wasnan bi 'l-hadTth wa 'l-Quradn (Beirut, 1968), introduc- tion, p. 8, and N. A. Ziadeh, SanusTyah: A Study of a Revivalist Movement in Islam (Leiden, 1958), p. 36. On Ibn KTran, see CUmar Kahhala, Mu'jam al-Mu'allifTn, 15 vols. (Beirut, 1957), vol. 10, p. 109.

7Al-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqa al-nafTs, p. 3.

8Ibid., 11; al-Ja'fari, ed., Adtr, pp. 9-10, and Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 641 (n. 33) and 644. On the Khadiriyya, see Trimingham, Sufi Orders, pp. 114 and 277.

9Further research is obviously needed on the milieu at the Qarawiyyln that produced such figures as al-Sanius, Ahmad al-Tijani, and Ibn Idrfs. Certainly, in the case of the latter, the sources give the

impression that his ideas were formed before he left Morocco. '0Ibn Idris alludes to this in al-Hasan b. Ahmad CAkish, Mundzara sayyidT Ahmad ibn IdrTs,

radiya Allah canhu, wa-fuqaha' al-Najdiyya, Cairo, n.d., p. 22 (on this work, see below, n. 29). "Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 645 says that he arrived in Egypt in 1213/1798-99. One of Ibn Idris'

karama or miracles was to bring about the French invasion of Egypt because the Alexandria customs damaged his books; see al-JaCfari, ed., Atadr, p. 37. The story may not be too apocryphal in that Ahmad while traveling along the North African coast could well have heard rumors of the impending French invasion force assembling at Toulon.

'2Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 636 and n. 18.

3Interview, Sheikh Idris Muhammad CAbd al-'Al/Karrar, May 1977, Omdurman. On the wider background, see M. Abir, "The 'Arab Rebellion' of Amir Ghalib of Mecca (1788-1813)," Middle Eastern Studies, 3 (1971), 185-200.

14Al-Jacfari, ed., Actdr, pp. 39-40. Ibn Idris says that in Mecca he became acquainted with three of the sons of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab, cAbd Allah, Husayn, and Sulayman, as well as with Sacid b. 'Abd al-CAziz; cAkish, Mandzara, p. 11.

'5See cAll Pasha Mubarak, al-Khitat al-jadTda (Bulaq, 1304-6/1886-88), vol. 11, p. 9. 16Muhammad KhalTl al-Hijrisi, al-Jawhar al-nafrs cala salawat Ibn IdrTs (Bulaq, 1310/1892-93),

p. 6. '7Ibn Idris' ties with Upper Egypt need further investigation. G. Baer, Fellah and Townsmen in the

Middle East (London, 1982), p. 293 reports an uprising in the Isna area in 1824 led by, "A Maghribl called Ahmad b. Dris (Idris), who had become involved with the customs at Qusayr [compare with the Alexandria story] on his way back to Mecca [and who] declared that he had been sent by God ('se disait inspirait,' according to Clot Bey)." According to Mubarak, al-Khitat, vol. 14, p. 76 (not cited by Baer), the insurgent, whom he calls simply "al-shaykh Ahmad," after being defeated by Ahmad Pasha b. Tahir Pasha, fled back to the Hijaz, after which no more was heard of him. IdrisT sources repeat that Ibn Idris visited Upper Egypt more than once: "twice or three times," al-Ja'fari, ed., Atar, p. 37. Is this insurgent Ibn Idris our Ibn Idris? If they are the same person, there is a politically activist dimension to Ibn Idris that has yet to be discovered.

"8Muhammad cUthman al-Mlrghanl, Mandqib ... al-sayyid Ahmad ibn IdrTs (Wad Madani, 1391/1971), pp. 31-32.

19CAl b. Muhammad b. 'All, an alim from al-Mikhlaf al-Sulaymanl just north of 'Asir, met Ibn Idris in Mecca in 1236/1820-21; 'Akish, Munazara, p. 7. Al-Ahdal (see below, 22) is said not only to have met Ibn Idris in Mecca but also to have invited him to the Yemen; see Amln al-Rlhanl, Muluk al-cArab (Beirut, 1925), vol. 1, p. 260.


20'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Hibshi, al-Sufiyya wa 'l-fuqahd'ff 'l-Yaman (San'a', 1396/1976), pp. 38-39, citing two works in manuscript, al-Ahdal (see below, n. 22), al-Nafas al- YamdnT wa 'l-ruh al-r.hdnr ft ijazdt al-quddt BanT al-Shawkani, and Lutf Allah Jahhaf, Kitdb durar nuhuir al-huir al-CTn.

2'cAkish, Mundzara, p. 8. 22On al-Ahdal, see Encyclopaedia of Islam (new edition, Leiden, 1960-), vol. 1, pp. 255-56, and

Kahhala, Mu'jam, vol. 5, p. 140. For a biography of Ibn Idris allegedly written by al-Ahdal, see Voll, "Two Biographies," pp. 640-45.

23A list is given in Siddiq Hasan Khan, al-Tdj al-mukallal minjawdhir ma'thir al-tirdz al-dkhir wa 'l-awwal, CAbd al-Hakim Sharaf al-Din, ed., 2nd ed. (Bombay, 1383/1963), p. 436.

2A letter from al-Shawkani to al-Ahdal praising Ibn Idris is cited in 'Akish, Mundzara, p. 8. Ibn Idris is not mentioned in a recent study of al-Shawkam, Husayn b. Abdullah al-Amri, The Yemen in the 18th & 19th Centuries (London, 1985).

25On al-BahkalT, see Kahhala, Mu'jam, vol. 5, p. 117. 26Muhammad Zubara al-Sanac', Nayl al-watar min tardjim rijdl al-Yaman fi 'I-qarn al-thdlith

'ashar (Cairo, 1348/1929-30), vol. 1, pp. 314-18 (cAkish), and p. 46 ('Attas). On 'Akish, see Kahhala, Mu'jam, vol. 3, pp. 201-2.

27See, for example, Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, pp. 308-9 (al-HashimT) and pp. 385-86 (al-Mufti); see also, al-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafis, pp. 16-17 and passim.

28Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, p. 192. 29This is Akish's Mundzara (see above, n. 10). 'Akish says he wrote it at the request of one of the

sons of al-Ahdal, Muhammad b. CAbd al-Rahman, and that he read a first draft to Ibn Idris. The work is not listed in the standard accounts of 'Akish's writings and no manuscript has yet been located. The printed text is not entirely satisfactory; pp. 2-23 comprise the actual debate, followed by four pages of commentary in the form of answers by Ibn Idris to some of the issues that arose in the debate. This breaks off in mid-sentence. Bell and O'Fahey are preparing a translation.

3Ibid., pp. 10-11. 31Al-MadanT, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafis, p. 17, and al-Ja'fari, A'tdr, p. 41. 32The following pages should be read in conjunction with Martin, "Short Note," unpublished ms.

The principal source for Ibn Idris' teachings is al-'lqd al-nafTs ft nazm jawdhir al-tadrTs sayyid Ahmad ibn IdrTs (many printings; the most recent being Cairo, Mustafa al-Bab? al-Halabl, 1399/1979). It was compiled by an Indian scholar, Ismac'l al-Nawwab, from Ibn Idris' lectures as recounted by one of the latter's Sudanese students, 'Abd Allah al-Mawarzi (interview, Shaykh Idfrs Muhammad 'Abd al-'Al, Omdurman, May 1977). Al-Ciqd al-nafis also contains some of Ibn Idris' other writings such as his Ruh al-sunna and Risalat al-qawd'id. But a complete study of Ibn Idris' teachings cannot be undertaken until all of his writings have been located.

33Martin, "Short Note." 34For a concise statement of the Wahhabi position, see 'Abd al-Rahim CAbd al-Rahman CAbd

al-Rahim, Min ta'rTkh shibh al-jazfra al-'Arabiyya f 'l-asr al-hadTth, 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 41-42. On al-Shawkani, see al-Amri, The Yemen, pp. 140-71.

35Al-Mirghan?, Mandqib, p. 31; see also, Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, p. 223. 36On al-Sawi, see Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 637, and G. Delanoue, Moralistes et politiques

musulmans dans l'Egypte du XIXe siecle (Cairo, 1982), pp. 210-11. For some of the taqlid versus ijtihad arguments of this period, see R. Peters, "Idjtihdd and taqlTd in 18th and 19th Century Islam," Die Welt des Islams, 20 (1980), 131-45.

37 Al-Iqd al-nafJs, p. 20; see also, Martin, "Short Note." 38From an undated letter to a Sudanese student, MakkT b. 'Abd al-'Aziz, in al-Madani, ed., Atdr,

pp. 52-54. 39Al-Hasan 'Akish, Uqud al-durar fT tardjim rijdl al-qarn al-thdlith 'ashar, apud al-Ja'fari, ed.,

al-Muntaqd al-nafis, p. 26. By "this tariqa," Ibn Idris apparently means the Shadhiliyya; Ahmadiyya refers to the Prophet, not Ibn Idris.

40Makhtuta kdtib al-shana, al-Shatir Busayll 'Abd al-Jalil, ed. (Cairo, 1963), p. 111. 4'Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, 1975), p. 227; see also,

pp. 373-74 and 403-4. The tariqa Muhammadiyya concept obviously requires further research. Peter Gran's promised (1979) article on the subject has not appeared, as far as we know, nor are his


comments in his Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1840 (Austin, 1979), pp. 134-35, very helpful since he gives no references (as far as we are aware, neither Ibn Idrns nor his pupils ever evinced "strong feelings about coined money," which Gran asserts was one of the hallmarks of the tariqa Muhammadiyya movement). But, as Gran notes, a seminal work on the subject is Muhammad al-Birkawi (d. 1573), al-TarTqa al-Muhammadiyya (see C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur [Leiden, 1937-49], vol. 2, p. 585, and Supplement, vol. 2, p. 655). Among the several commentaries of al-Birkawi's work is one by 'Abd al-GhanT al-NabulsT (d. 1731). There exists a precis of both al-Nabulsi's commentary and the original text by Ahmad b. Nasir al-Salawi, Kitib minah al-samadiyya ft ikhtisdr al-hadTqa al-nadiyya (ms., Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, tasawwuf, 171).

The significance of this is that al-Salawi was born in 1206/1791-92 in Sale in Morocco and studied in Fez. He made the pilgrimage and settled in Egypt, ending his life as grand qadi of the Turco- Egyptian Sudan. He made many friends among the Sudanese religious class and wrote several works, including a commentary on the celebrated Mawlid of Ahmad al-Dardayr (see Brockelmann, supplement, vol. 2, p. 480). In other words, he was yet another North African, along with al-Tijanii, Ibn Idris, and al-Sanius, who had studied in Fez around the turn of the 18th/ 19th centuries and who was preoccupied with the tariqa Muhammadiyya idea; on al-Salawi, see Karrar and O'Fahey, "Al-Salawi and the Sudan," Sudan Notes and Records (forthcoming).

42H. Duveyrier, La confrerie musulmane de Sfdi Mohammed ben -Ali es-Senousi (Paris, 1884), pp. 18-19.

43CAli Salih Karrar, Athar al-ta'alHm al-IdrTsiyya fi 'l-turuq al-sufivya ft 'l-Stddn, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Khartoum, 1977, p. 69.

44E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Oxford, 1949); on Muhammad CAbd Allah Hasan, see Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods, pp. 177-201.

45P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1881-1898, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1970), pp. 82-83. 46A. le Chatelier, Les confreries musulmanes du Hedjaz (Paris, 1887), p. 15. 47Al-Jacfarn, ed., A'tar, p. 83. 48Ibid., 63; see also, Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, pp. 314-18. 49AI-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafts, p. 35; see also, Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 637. 5?Texts and translations of the letters are being prepared for publication by the working group at

the University of Bergen. 5"Al-Jacfari, ed., AC'tr, pp. 49-52. 52On Ibn Idris' impact on al-MadanT, see M. Lings, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh

Ahmad al-cAlawi, 2nd ed. (London, 1973), p. 71. See also, F. De Jong, "Madaniyya," Encyclopaedia of Islam (new ed.), vol. 5, pp. 948-49.

53Studies of the Sanusiyya are numerous: on al-Saniusi's teachings, see C. A. Nallino, "Le dottrine del fondatore della confraternita senussita," in Raccolta di scritti, editi ed inediti (Rome, 1940), vol. 2, pp. 395-410. On the Khatmiyya, see J. 0. Voll, A History of the Khatmiyyah in the Sudan, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1969. On the Idrisiyya in Egypt, see F. De Jong, Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions in Egypt (Leiden, 1978), p. 111 and passim, and in the Sudan, Karrar, Athar al-tacalTm, pp. 82-95.

54Ahmad b. Idris b. al-Nasayh, Kitab al-ibdna al-nturiyya ft shdan sahib al-tar'qa al-Khatmiyya, ms., ff. 5-6 (Bergen collection, accession no. 240). This important source on the history of the Khatmiyya is being edited for publication by Karrar and Dr. M. I. Abu Salim and translated by the present writers.

"5Al-Jacfari, ed., Actdr, p. 96. 56We follow here Delanoue, Moralistes et politiques, pp. 350-52 (especially p. 350, n. 12) and 615.

Al-'Attar's fatwa appears to be the same work as described by Gran, Islamic Roots, pp. 139-43 and 199. There are, however, certain differences between Delanoue and Gran; Delanoue reasonably identifies the unnamed mujtahid as al-Mlrghani because his Sudanese enquirer says that the former, while in the Sudan, called himself khdtim al-awliyd', "the seal of the saints"; Gran states that the fatwa which he entitles Risalat al-'alldma al-cAttdrfT 'l-ijtihdd was directed against al-Saniusi who, as far as is known, never visited the Sudan. In an appendix (p. 199) Gran says that al-Sanius, "was a student or acquaintance of al-'Attar when he came to al-Azhar around 1832." "Around 1832," al-Sanfisi was either with his master in Sabya or acting as his agent in Mecca. Delanoue gives the


name as we have given it; Gran gives it as "Muhammad b. Abi SaCid al-KirkasT al-Sannawl" (the latter is probably al-Sinnari, i.e., from Sinnar, occasionally spelled with .sad), from al-Shind7 (obviously Shendi or Shandi), living at al-Shaki (a town unknown to us). The differences continue; according to Delanoue (p. 615), the manuscript of the fatwa is to be found in the Dar al-Kutub (Cairo), majmfcTaymfir, 343, ff. 44-81, having been copied in Jumada II 1266/April-May 1850 by one 'All Abui Futuih. According to Gran (p. 199), it is to be found in majami'Taymuir, 323, ff. 45-81, being copied in 1841/1264 (but 1264 = 1847-48) by 'All b. Futuih.

57Isma'll al-Wall (d. 1863) says this clearly in his Kitab al-'uhud al-wafiya al-jaliyya ff kayfiyyat sifat al-tarTqa al-lsmdCiliyya (completed Ramadan 1239/May 1824), ms. f. 5 (Bergen collection, accession no. 197; there are printed versions), "I took the tariqa from him, that is his tariqa known as the Khatmiyya." Trimingham's assertion that al-MTrghanl inaugurated his order after Ibn Idris' death is unfounded, Sufi Orders in Islam, p. 117. For the Funj Chronicle, see Makhtuta katib al-shina, Busayll, ed., p. 73.

58Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, p. 12. It is, perhaps, indicative of al-Mlrghanm's relationship with his own class-the Meccan ulama-that his first zawiya was established at Dar al-Khayzaran in the heart of Mecca; Chatelier, Confreries, p. 14.

59See further, Abdalla Mahmoud Ibrahim, A History of the Ismaciliyya Tariqa, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1980. A qasTda on one of the Nuba Mountains expeditions by a son of IsmaCll al-Wali, Ahmad al-Azhari (d. 1882), is given in Muhammad CAbd al-Rahlm, Nafathat al-yara'Jf 'l-adab wa 'l-tarfTkh wa 'l-ijtimda (Khartoum, 1932), vol. 1, pp. 104-6.

60What follows is based on Ali Salih Karrar, The Sufi Brotherhoods in the Sudan until 1900, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bergen, 1985, pp. 111-24. This thesis provides a detailed account of those tariqas in the Sudan derived, directly or indirectly, from Ibn Idrls.

6'This is underscored in a letter from Ibn Idrls' sons to al-Rashld, dated Shawwal 1273/May-June 1857, expressing their support for him in his time of troubles, i.e., the heresy charges; al-Jacfarl, A'tdr, pp. 65-66.

62The name is given thus in an autograph sanad issued by al-Rashid in 1272/1855-56; Bergen collection, KH327.15/34.

63Chatelier, Confrries, pp. 94-95. 64Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods, pp. 177-201. "Al-Shaykh" was his name and not a title, as most

sources state. On another student of al-Rashld, Muhammad al-Dandarawl and his order, see Karrar, Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 122-24. The extent of Ibn Idrls' influence in northeast Africa has yet to be fully charted; on the Salihiyya, Ahmadiyya, and Dandarawiyya in Somalia and East Africa, see E. Cerulli, Somalia (Rome, 1957), vol. 1, pp. 189-95; I. M. Lewis, "Sufism in Somaliland: a Study in Tribal Islam," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 17 (1955), 581-602 and 18 (1956), 145-60, and A. H. Nimtz, Jr., Islam and Politics in East Africa (Minneapolis, 1980), pp. 61-62.

65Rinn, Marabouts, p. 46. 66The most recent study of the Padri movement, but based largely on Dutch sources, is C. Dobbin,

Islamic Revivalism in a Changing Peasant Economy: Central Sumatra, 1784-1847 (London, 1983). Professor Anthony Johns of the Australian National University points out (personal communication) that no study of the religious writings generated by the movement has yet been made; this he hopes to undertake.

67Delanoue, Moralistes et politiques, p. 128, n. 64a. 68Karrar, personal observation, 1982; see also, Karrar, Athar al-taCdllm, pp. 67-69. 69Muhammad Ibrahim Abi Salim, ed., Manshiurt al-Mahdiyya (Beirut, 1969), p. 25. See also,

Holt, Mahdist State, pp. 105-6 for an analysis of the proclamation. On al-Dufarl, see Karrar, Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 118-21. There is a Mahdist thread to the Ibn Idrls story, although he himself denied any claims to be the Mahdi; see Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods, p. 116. Both al-Sanius and al-Mlrghanl were preoccupied with the Mahdist idea; for the former, see Martin, op. cit., pp. 116-18, and for the latter, Ibn al-Nasayh, Kitab al-ibana, ms., ff. 55 and 71-76.

70Trimingham, Sufi Orders, pp. 106-7. A major question to be answered is the relationship, if any, between al-Tijafii and Ibn Idrls; al-Nabhinl, for example, describes the former as a khalffa of the latter, see Yusuf al-Nabhanl, Jami' karamdt al-awliyad (Cairo, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 349.


7"Trimingham, Sufi Orders, pp. 115, who in the question of Pan-Islamism cites a brief biography by a grandson, Shams al-Din b. 'Abd al-Muta'al, Kanz al-sacdda wa 'l-rashad (Khartoum, 1939), pp. 9-18. By the 20th century, the IdrisT family in both the Yemen and the Sudan were involved in both secular and religious politics; see, Reissner, "Die IdrTsiden," passim, and Karrar, Athar al- ta'alTm, pp. 121-42.

72De Jong, Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions, p. 151, n. 120. 73The Mahdi used the Prophetic vision (hadra) to justify the overthrow of an entire political order. 74See further, Karrar, Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 133-73. Nor is it true to say that these orders were

less concerned with silsilas (Trimingham, Sufi Orders, pp. 106-7). The literature abounds with them; one example is al-Sanuisl, al-SalsabTl al-marn ff 'l-tardiq al-arba'Tn (there are several editions; one may be found on the margins of the same author's al-Masa'il al-'ashar, Cairo, 1353/1953).

75See Dobbin, Islamic Revivalism, passim; for Sinnar, see Jay Spaulding, The Heroic Age of Sinndr (East Lansing, 1985).

the enigmatic imam ahmad ibn idris

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