Building al-Būnī’s Legend
From the fourteenth century onward, the figure of al-Būnī (d. 622/1225) became the greatest authority in the science of letters (or sīmiyāʾ). His life was not well known in the Middle Ages but some hagiographical notices concerning him circulated. The purpose of this article is to establish ʿAbd al-...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2016
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| In: |
Journal of Sufi studies
Year: 2016, Volume: 5, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-26 |
| Further subjects: | B
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī
al-Būnī
al-Būnī
hagiography
hagiographie
science of letters
science des lettres
Shams al-āfāq fī ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-awfāq
Shams al-āfāq fī ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-awfāq
Shams al-maʿārif
Shams al-maʿārif
sīmiyāʾ
sīmiyāʾ
Sufism
soufisme
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | From the fourteenth century onward, the figure of al-Būnī (d. 622/1225) became the greatest authority in the science of letters (or sīmiyāʾ). His life was not well known in the Middle Ages but some hagiographical notices concerning him circulated. The purpose of this article is to establish ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī’s (d. 858/1454) part in the process of building al-Būnī’s legend. Indeed, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī’s renowned Shams al-āfāq fī ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-awfāq (The Sun of the Horizons: The Science of Letters and Magic Squares) established al-Būnī the premier authority in the science of letters. Although the Shams al-āfāq clearly aimed to position the science of letters in a mythical background (with biblical references, for example), it also portrayed the Sufi environment in which al-Būnī was thought to live. The biographical notices in which al-Būnī is quoted can help us to understand how al-Bisṭāmī wrote an apparently self-consistent picture of the emergence and transmission of the science of letters. Moreover, some mystical pedigrees in the Shams al-āfāq indicate that this treatise must be one of the sources of the later Shams al-maʿārif al-kubrā since they are almost identical in both texts. Thus, the Shams al-āfāq was an important stage in the diffusion of the image of the figure of al-Būnī and the works attributed to him. |
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| Physical Description: | Online-Ressource |
| ISSN: | 2210-5956 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of Sufi studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22105956-12341281 |