New sources for the study of Sufism in Mamluk Egypt

Abstract

This article is an introduction to the writings of two significant but little-studied Sufi thinkers of fourteenth-century Cairo. Muhammad Wafā' and his son ‘Alī were poets and mystical philosophers. They founded a new branch of the Shādhiliyya Sufi order, and their descendants went on to become one of the most important families in Egypt. The numerous writings of this father and son, in the tradition of Muhy al-Dīn Ibn ‘Arabī, have as yet received little attention from scholars of Islamic thought. This study introduces these thinkers and surveys their extant writings, almost all of which remain in manuscript form. Beyond describing the contents, the article also seeks to position their thought within the wider context of Islamic mysticism.