Tijani, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah al-
Tijani, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah al-Tijani). Fourteenth century Arab author from Tunis. He wrote an account of his travels through North Africa and a compendium on love and marriage.
Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah al-Tijani see Tijani, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah al-
Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah al-Tijani see Tijani, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah al-
Tijani, Ahmad al-
Tijani, Ahmad al- (Ahmad al-Tijani) (Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani al-Hassani al-Maghribi) (Sidi Ahmed Tijani) (1735/1737-1815). Founder of the Tijaniyah Sufi order. Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tijani was born at ‘Ayn Madi in southern Algeria. At the age of twenty he visited Fez, whre he successively experimented with the litanies of several Sufi orders and was disappointed with all of them. Ten years later, in 1767, during his residence in Tlemcen, he had his first spiritual realization (fath).
In 1772-1773, he set out to perform the hajj. At Azwawi near Algiers he was initiated by ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Azhari (d. 1793) into the Khalwatiyah order, which had experienced a revival in Egypt a few decades earlier. Al-Tijani ardently followed this course. He learned the secrets of the Khalwatiyah from Mahmud al-Kurdi (d. 1780) in Cairo and from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Karim al-Samman (d. 1775) in Medina. His attachment to the Khalwatiyah contrasted with his earlier discontent with other Sufi orders. On his return to the Maghrib in 1774-1775 he initiated his first disciples into the Khalwatiyah. The introduction of the revived Khalwatiyah to the Maghrib was a departure from the Sufi tradition of the Shadhiliyah to which most Maghribi orders belonged.
In 1782, al-Tijani returned to the desert edge in southern Algeria, where he had a visionary encounter in which the prophet Muhammad taught him a litany (wird) enunciating a new independent tariqah and instructed him to sever relations with other orders and shaykhs. In spite of the break, elements of the revived Khalwatiyah remained more embedded in the doctrines and rituals of the Tijaniyah than the founder and later Tijanis would admit. Indeed, one of the most unusual features of the Tijaniyah, the exclusivity of the order, was an elaboration of a principle advocated by Mustafa al-Bakri and applied to some extent in the Egyptian Khalwatiyah.
As his fame as a saint grew, al-Tijani was compelled by the Ottoman authorities to leave Algeria. He arrived in Fez in 1798, and lived there until his death in 1815. The reformist Moroccan sultan Mawlay Sulayman (1792-1822), who sought to eradicate popular Sufism, warmly received al-Tijani because of his Sufism combined strict observance of Islamic law with the rejection of asceticism and withdrawal from the world.
Al-Tijani claimed the rank of khatim al-awliya’ (the seal of the saints), which implied that he was the link between the Prophet and all past and future saints. His adherents therefore had higher spiritual rank as well and were promised access to paradise without the need for giving up their possessions, provided they observed the precepts of Islam as well as they could. In this way he attracted to his order rich merchants and senior officials. Some of the most senior ‘ulama’ in Fez were hostile to al-Tijani and rejected his claim to superior status, but other prominent scholars joined the order.
In its adherence to Islamic law and to orthodox practices, as well as its positive attidue toward worldly affairs, the Tijaniyah was one of a group of new Sufi orders that emerged out of trends of renewal and reform in the eighteenth century. The dynamism of the Tijaniyah found expression in its nineteenth century expansion, both militant and peaceful, mainly in West Africa.
Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani al-Hassani al-Maghribi (1735–1815), in Arabic سيدي أحمد التجاني (Sidi Ahmed Tijani) is the founder of the Tijaniyya Sūfī order. The al-Tijani was born in 1735 in Ain Madhi, Algeria and died in Fez, Morocco at age of 80 in 1815.
Contents
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* 1 Introduction: Sources on the life of Al-tijani
* 2 The Shaykh
* 3 Seal of sainthood
* 4 His companions
* 5 Notes
* 6 External links
* 7 References
[edit] Introduction: Sources on the life of Al-tijani
The greater part of the life and teaching of Shaykh Tijani can be drawn from two primary hagiographical works:
1. Kitab Jawahir al-ma'ani wa-bulugh al-amani fi fayd Sidi Abil al-Abbas at-Tijani (Gems of Indications and Attainment of Aspirations in the Overflowings of Sidi Abil Abbas Tijani) by Sidi Ali Harazem Berrada (d. 1797), and
2. Kitab al-Jami’a li-ma f-taraqa mina-l ‘ulumn (The Absolute in What Has Separated from the Sciences) by Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Mishri Sibai Hassani Idrissi (d. 1809).
Later hagiographies tend to be works of compilation drawn from these two primary sources. Such hagiographies are:
1. Kitab Rima'h al-Hizb al Rahim ala Nuhur Hizb ar-Rajim (The Spears of the League of the Merciful thrown at the Necks of the League of the Accursed) by Sidi Omar ibn Said al-Futi (d. 1864),
2. Kitab Bughyat al-mustafid li-shar'h minyat al-murid (Aspiration of the Beneficiary in Commenting the 'Demise of the Disciple' ) of Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Arbi Sayeh (d. 1894), and last but not least,
3. Kitab Kashf al-Hijab 'amman talaaqa bi-Shaykh Tijani mina-l As'hab (Rising the Veil of the Companions who encountered with Shaykh Tijani) by Sidi Ahmed ibn al-'Iyyashi Skirej al-Fasi (d. 1940).
Most of what we know about Shaykh Tijani comes from these books.
[edit] The Shaykh
Shaykh Tijani was born in 1735 in the small village of Ain Madhi, located in western-central Algeria about 30 miles (50 km) from the city of Laghuat (al-Aghwat).Shaykh Tijani became an orphan at the age of 15 when he applied himself to his studies. Having learned the Quran by heart at the early age of seven according to its own interpretation (bi tafsirihi), he studied the fundamentals of Maliki jurisprudence and texts like the Mukhtasar of Khalil, the Risala of al-Qushayri (d. 1052), the Akhdari (d. 1538) in logic, the Muqaddima of Ibn Rushd, the Mudawwana of Sahnun ("Abdessalam ibn Said Tanukhi Qayrawani," d. 854) with local scholars, such as Sidi Mohammed ibn Hammu Tijani, Sidi Aissa Bouakkaz Tijani, and Sidi Ibn Bouafiya Tijani.
In 1756, at the age of 21, during the reign of the Sultan Mawlana Mohammed ibn Abdellah (d. 1789), a scholar who wrote several books on Quranic commentary and Tradition ruling Morocco from 1757 to 1789, Shaykh Tijani entered al-Qarawiyyine University of Fez and studied in particular the books on the Tradition of the Prophet (al-'Hadith Nabawi Sharif) such al-Bukhari and Muslim. Meanwhile Shaykh Tijani busied himself with meeting Sufi teachers. He first met the head of Shadhilite Wazzaniya order Shaykh Sidi Tayyeb ibn Mohammed Wazzani (d. 1766). He also met the head of Shadhilite Fasiya order Shaykh Sidi Abdellah ibn Shaykh Sidi al-Arbi ibn Shaykh Tijaniibn Shaykh Sidi Abdellah Ma'in al-Andalusi (d. 1778). Shaykh Tijani also took the Qadiriya while in Fez, then he left it after a while; he then took the Nasiriya (after Sidi Mhammed Ben Nasir Dar'i; d. 1694) from Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdullah Tazzani called “ar-Rif”, then left it; then he took the Shadhilite Ghumariya (after Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdelmoumin Ghumari Hassani; d. 1847), first from a student, then in a dream from its founder, then he left it. He also took from the saint of Taza Shaykh Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmed Tawwash (d. 1791) who counselled him to seek seclusion (khalwa) and invocation (dhikr), but Shaykh Tijani refused. He finally met with Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Hassan al-Wanjali Zabibi (d. 1770), who told him when he first saw him and before he talked to him: "You will attain the rank (maqam) of the Great Qutb Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 1241).
Shaykh Tijani did not stay in Fez long and soon returned to Ain Mahdi. He then went to another Saharan centre known as "Sidi Shaykh", where lies the shrine of the Shadhilite mystic Sidi Abdellqadir Smahi (d. 1610), and stayed there retreating for five years. Shaykh Tijani in the following years travelled back and forth between the desert recluses and towns of the region, e.g. Tlemcen. There seems to be a pattern in Shaykh Tijani's travels, in that he went to the desert to meditate, while in the towns he took exoteric, non-mystical knowledge from the acknowledged masters and in the traditional manner. In 1771, Shaykh Tijani travelled to Mecca for pilgrimage. On his journey to the East, Shaykh Tijani was keen to met the noted Sufi Shaykhs of the time -just like he did in the Maghreb. One was the Algerian master, the Idrissid Sharif, Sidi Mohammed ibn Abderrahman Azharri (d. 1793), from whom the Rahmaniya Order came. Shaykh Tijani took the Khalwatiya from him and was reinitiated into it by the leading teacher in Cairo, Sidi Mahmoud al-Kurdi al-Iraqi al-Misri (d. 1771)—another teacher of the Fasite Sidi Abul Mawahib Abdelwahhab Tazi (d. 1783; direct heir of Moulay Abdellaziz ibn Masoud Debbarh on whom Kitab al-Ibriz was written; d. 1717).
Sidi Mahmud al-Kurdi granted Shaykh Tijani a full ijaza (license) to teach the Khalwatiya tariqa. From Egypt, Sidi Ahmed left to Mecca. There he heard of Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdellah al-Hindi (d. 1773); student of the venerated Shahdilite master Sidi Ahmed ibn Mhammed Ben Nasir Dar'i (d. 1714; buried in the Tal'a District, Fez). Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdellah had no permission to meet any body, but in spite of that, Shaykh Tijani received from him special knowledge, through a special envoy, without meeting with him. He foretold Shaykh Tijani about what he was destined to, and gave him good tidings that he will inherit all his secrets, endowments, cognition, and illuminations. He also told him that he would meet the Qutb Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdelkarim Samman (d. 1774) in Medina, and gave him glad tidings that he would attain the status of Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 1241), as he had been foretold before by Sidi Mohammed Wanjali of Fez.
Soon after Shaykh Tijani met with Sidi Mohammed Samman. The latter was the guardian of the Prophet's grave and the author of several Sufi works but it was especially as the founder of a new order that he became influential. He combined the Qadiriya, the Naqshabandiya, the Nasiriya with the Khalwatiya (through Sidi Mustapha ibn Kamluddin al-Bakri ; 1739 -who is himself the teacher of Sqalli, Azharri, and al-Kurdi). This combination became known as the Sammaniya. Sidi Mohammed Samman gave special permission to Sidi Ahmed Tijani in all the Beautiful Names of Allah (al-Asma' al-'Husna), the Ahzab of Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 1241), the Wadhifa of Shaykh Zarruq (d. 1484), Dalail al-Khayrat and al-Dur al-’Ala. He told Shaykh Tijani that he is the Grand Magnate (al-Qutb al-Jami') and gave him good tidings that he will realize his aspiration and obtain the "Absolute General Authorization" (al-Qutbaniya al-Jami'a al-'Udhma).
When Shaykh Tijani returned to the Maghreb, he again went to the desert, to a place called Bu Samghun, a Saharan oasis located south of Geryville, perhaps under compulsion from the Turkish authorities. In 1776 he made his second trip to Fez from Tlemcen, with the intention of visiting the Baraka of Fez Mawlana Idriss ibn Idriss (d. 798). He met, during this trip, with the Idrissid scholar, Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Mishri Sibai al-Hassani of Takrat (d. 1809). Since then, Sidi Mohammed al-Mishri, leaded the prayers for Shaykh Tijani, and wrote the answers on his behalf until 1793; the year that Shaykh Tijani started himself to lead the prayers, in compliance with the instruction of his grandfather the prophet Sidna Mohammed. In the Moroccan city of Oujda (Wajda), while returning back to Fez, he met, for the first time, Sidi Ali Harazem Berrada, who accompanied him to Fez. During this meeting, he authorized him in the Khalwatiya and confided him with special knowledge and foretold him of what would be of him in revelation and strengthening.
After visiting the shrine of Moulay Idriss al-Azhar (d. 798), Shaykh Tijani went back to Tlemcen and then departed to Qasr Shallala and Bu Samghun. In Bu Samghun, in 1782, Shaykh Tijani announced that Muhammad has authorised him in a daylight vision (yaqadatan; while he was awake) to establish his own order, Tariqa Ahmediya-Mohammediya-Ibrahimiya-Hanifiya-Tijaniya. The Prophet gave him permission to initiate during a period when Shaykh Tijani had fled from contact with people in order to devote himself to his personal development. He told him that he was to take Sufism directly from him—hence the name—and not use any of the chains of authority of teacher-to-disciple that were the main stay of all the Sufi orders,
"You owe no favour to any of the Shaykhs of the path, for I am myself your medium and provider in every truth. Abandon all that you have taken from all other tariqas and hold fast to this tariqa without seclusion (khalwa), or retirement from people (uzla), until you reach your promised maqam, and you are as you are, without hardship, difficulty, or strive, and abdicate all the saints."
The Prophet had furthermore assigned to him the obligatory wird (litany) which he has to transmit in general and unstrictly to any seeker who asks for it and accepts to abide by its conditions; a 100 of Astaghfirou Allah" (I seek Allah’s forgiveness) and a 100 of prayers upon the Prophet with any version, preferably with so-called Salat al-Fatih (Shaykh Tijani said, “The lives of all the people have been spent in futility, except the lives of the practisers of Salat al Fatih, for they have gained both worldly and Otherworldly profit”.) By 1785 the Prophet completed to him the wird by adding a 100 of Haylala (“la-ilaha illa’Allah”; There is no God but Allah). The born-global Tijaniya was widely accepted almost immediately after its birth. Shaykh Tijani became so reputed that great masses of people started visiting him to take his wird, to be affiliated with him, and get more of what he gives them in sense and meaning.
[edit] Seal of sainthood
Shaykh Tijani stayed in Bu Samghun for about fifteenth years. In 1796, he went to Fez, marking the real beginning of his Tariqa. In Fez Shaykh Tijani was received by the Sultan Moulay Slimane (d. 1823). One year after his entrance to Fez on the Mu'harram of 1797, Shaykh Tijani attained the "Absolute General Authorization" (maqam al-qutbaniya al-jami'a al-'udhma) he longingly sought. One month and few days later Shaykh Tijani declared that the Prophet appeared to him in daylight and had him informed that he is the "Concealed Pole” (al-Qutb al-Maktum). This holder of this status is widely known in Sufi literature as the Khatim al-Awliya (the Seal of Sainthood). In the chronicle he called Khatim al-Awliya, al-Hakim Tirmidhi (d. 905) informs us the Khatim al-Awliya is the person, “upon whom the leadership (imama) of the saints is incumbent, who bears in his hand the Banner of the saints, and whose intercession all the saints have need of, just as prophets have need of Prophet Sidna Mohammed”. Tirmidhi continues that that authority of the Khatim al-Awliya even extends to the eschatological realm. On the Day of Judgment he will come forth as the proof of the saints just as the Seal of Prophets Sidna Mohammed will come forth as the proof of the prophets. Indeed, Shaykh Tijani said to his companions in Fez,
"When Allah assembles His creatures at the place of standing, a herald will proclaim at the top of his voice, so that everyone at the place of standing will hear him: "O people of the final congregation, this is your Imam, from whom you obtained your support!"
The khatmiya maqam's absolute appearance was claimed before by Sidi Muhyiddin ibn Arabi al-‘Hatimi al-Maghribi (d. 1221) when he said: “We no doubt sealed sainthood by inheriting the Hachimi and the Messiah”. However he retracted (taraja'a) later when aware that the full, complete and absolute appearance in that maqam is to be for some one else. He discover not who will attain such absolute appearance. In his ‘Anqa’ Maghreb fi khatm al-awliya wa shams al-Maghreb (The Western Phoenix in the Seal of Saints and Sun of Morocco), which he wrote in Fez, Ibn Arabi introduces the Seal of Sainthood as, “the inheriting saint, who receives from the source, who recognizes the degrees and ascertains the entitlement of their holders, in order to give each creditor his rightful due, for that is one of the virtues of the Chieftain of the Envoys, the Captain of the Community." Very explicitly, the Egyptian Shadhilite Sidi Abdelwahhab Shaarani (d. 1490) illustrated in Durar al-Ghawas, "This community (Ummah) has two comprehensive Seals, and every degree and station has an inheritor. Every saint there has ever been, or will ever be, can only receive from these two Seals, one of whom is the Seal of the sainthood of the elite, while the other is the one by whom the common sainthood is sealed, for there will be no saint after him until the advent of the Final Hour."
Shaykh Ibn Arabi went too far to connect the nature of the Sealness of Prophethood and that of Sainthood. According to him, “The meaning of the Prophet's saying: ‘I was a Prophet while Adam was between the water and the clay -is 'I was a Prophet in actual fact, aware of my Prophethood, while Adam was between the water and the clay.” He then went on to say "None of the other Prophets was a Prophet, nor aware of his Prophethood, except when he was sent (on his mission) after his coming into existence with his material body and his complete fulfilment of the preconditions of Prophethood." Then he added: “the Seal of the Saints was likewise actually a saint, aware of his sainthood, while was between the water and the clay, and none of the other saints was a saint in actual fact, nor aware of his sainthood, except after his acquisition of the Divine characteristics that are stipulated in the definition of sainthood." Because he is characterised by the complete assimilation of the Mohammedian paradigm, the Seal of Sainthood acts as a deputy (khalifa) of Prophet and symbolically takes his place in isthmus (al-barzakh) as well as during the time allotted to him on earth. Shaykh Tijani has expressed his khatmiya-katmiya complex in many sayings,
“The bounties that flow from the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) are received by the natures of the prophets, and everything that flows and emerges from the natures of the Prophets is received by my own nature, and from me it is distributed to all creatures from the origin of the world until the blowing on the trumpet”; “No saint drinks or provides water to drink, except from our ocean, from the origin of the world until the blowing on the trumpet”; “The spirit of the Prophet and my spirit are like this'--pointing with his two fingers, the index finger and the middle finger. 'His spirit supports the Messengers and the Prophets and my spirit supports the poles, the sages, the saints, from pre-existence to eternity (mina al-azal ila abad)”; “These two feet of mine are upon the neck of every saint of Allah, from the time of Adam until the blowing of the trumpet”; “'Our station in the Presence of Allah in the Hereafter will not be attained by any of the saints, and it will not be approached by anyone, whether his importance is great or small. Of all the saints among from the very beginning of creation until the blowing on the trumpet, there is not one who will attain to my station.” Arabic:
إن جميع الأولياء يدخلون زمرتنا ويأخذون أورادنا ويتمسكوا بطريقتنا مـــن أول الوجود إلي يوم القيامة حتى الإمام المهدي إذا قام آخر الزمان يدخل زمرتنا بعد مماتنا وانتقالنا إلى دار البقاء." "طائفة من أصحابنا لو اجتمعت أقطاب الأمة ما وزنوا شعرة من بحر أحدهم والآن قد ظهر واحدا منهم." "لو أطلع أكابر الأقطاب على ما أعده الله لأصحابنا في الجنة لبكوا عليه طول أعمارهم وقالوا ما أعطيتنا شي يا ربنا." "أنا سيد الأولياء كما كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم سيد الأنبياء"."لا يشرب ولي ولا يسقى إلا من بحرنا من نشأة العالم إلى النفخ في الصور." "إن نسبة الأقطاب معي كنسبة العامة مع الأقطاب." "إن لنا مرتبة تناهت في العلو عند الله تعالى إلى حد يحرم ذكره وليس هو ما أفشيته لكم ولو صرحت به لأجمع أهل الحق والعرفان على كفري فضلا عمن عداهم وليست هي التي ذكرت لكم بل هي من ورائها." "طابعنا يغلب على كل طابع ولا يغلب عليه طابع."وقال رضي الله تعالى عنه وأرضاه مشيرا بأصبعيه السبابة والوسطى: "روحه صلى الله عليه وسلم وروحي هكذا روحه صلى الله عليه وسلم تمد الرسل والأنبياء عليهم السلام وروحي تمد الأقطاب والعارفين والأولياء من الأزل إلى الأبد.""كل الطرائق تدخل عليها طريقتنا فتبطلها وطابعنا يركب على كل طابع ولا يحمل طابعنا غيره""من ترك وردًا من أوراد المشايخ لأجل الدخول في طريقتنا هذه المحمدية التي شرفها الله تعالى على جميع الطرق أمنه الله في الدنيا والآخرة فلا يخاف من شيء يصيبه لا من الله ولا من رسوله ولا من شيخه أيا كان من الأحياء أو من الأموات. وأما من دخل زمرتنا وتأخر عنها ودخل غيرها تحل به مصائب الدنيا وأخرى ولا يفلح أبدًا" "وليس لأحد من الرجال أن يدخل كافة أصحابه الجنة بلا حساب ولا عقاب ولو عملوا من الذنوب ما عملوا وبلغوا إلا أنا وحدي" "إن أصحابنا يوم القيامة ليسوا مع الناس في الموقف بل هم مكشفون في ظل العرش في موضع وحدهم و لا يقدم عليهم أحد في دخول الجنة إلا الصحابة رضي الله عنهم." لما قيل له رضي الله عنه و أرضاه و عنا به بمَ نالوا ذلك قال: "من أجلي." قلتُ (أي العلامة سكيرج) و سره يظهر في قوله صلى الله عليه و سلم له رضي الله عنه و أرضاه و عنا به: "و فقراؤك فقراءي و تلاميذك تلاميذي و أصحابك أصحابي." فعُلِم أن بين أصحابه صلى الله عليه و سلم و بين أصحاب هذا الشيخ رضي الله تعالى عنه مناسبة تامة و لتلك المناسبة كانوا عند الله من الأكابر و إن كانوا في الظاهر من جملة العوام." ويستطرد ﺍﻟﺨﻠﻴﻔﺔ ﺴﻴﺪﻱ ﻋﻟﻲ ﺤﺭﺍﺯﻡ: "ووراء ذلك مما ذكر لي فيهم وضمنه أمر لا يحل لي ذكره ولا يرى وﻻ يعرف إلا في الدار الآخرة بشرى للمعتقد علي رغم أنف المنتقد." ويستطرد سيدي عمر الفوتي: "ومن هنا صار جميع أهل طريقته أعلى مرتبة عند الله تعالى في الآخرة من أكابر الأقطاب وإن كان بعضهم في الظاهر من جملة العوام المحجوبين"
Greatly simplified, Shaykh Tijani developed his path on loose lines. Obligations, as one to be expected in an order designed to expand, were simple. He imposed no penances or retreats and the conditions was not complicated; (1) praying in the mosque with the congregation whenever possible, meeting all the prerequisites for lawfully offering prayer; (2) praying upon the Prophet; and (3) not to visit living saints or the tombs of dead ones. The Shaykh stressed the quite dhikr even in congregation, and forbade above all the visitations of living and dead saints at the command of his grandfather, for they were all associated with baraka-possession. Shaykh Tijani affirmed that the Prophet had told him not to cut himself off from the world, and so he advised his disciples to live in comfort wearing classy clothes and eating choice food. Shaykh Tijani gave good tidings that his followers could rely on his own guarantee of salvation. This includes anyone who saw him on Mondays and Fridays and did not become his enemy, "If someone receives from me the well-known wird, which is essential to the Tariqa, or he receives it from someone I have authorized to teach it, he will enter the Garden of Paradise (“Jannat 'Illiyyine”; that of prophets and saints) -he and his children, his wives, and his descendants- without reckoning and without punishment, provided that they are not guilty of any insult, hatred, or enmity, and that he persists in loving the Shaykh until death.” (…) "Be of good cheer! Anyone who is devoted to our love, until he dies in that state, will certainly be resurrected among those who are safe, provided that he does not wear the garb of security from Allah's cunning (makr ‘Allah)."
Thus Shaykh Tijani emerged as a sudden Sufi authority and established Sufi leader, dedicating his life for spiritual education, training, guidance, and promotion of the endeavourers to the divine proximity. He possessed high spiritual energy, determination, perseverance of Allah's sacred rights, and firmness of resolution. He laboured in his beginnings on perfection of repentance with its conditions, and on adherence to Shari'a bounds. He minded his own business, and held fast to the Quran and Sunna and the footsteps of the righteous ancestors. He totally turned himself to his Lord, so Allah sufficed him. He reinforced his foundations first by preoccupying himself with the study of the Quran and Sunna, deep thorough comprehension of the fine and subtle sciences and abstruse issues, and strict observance of the principles the Shari'a: "If you hear someone quoting me, place the statement on the scale of the noble Shari'a. If it balances, take it; if it doesn’t, leave it, for within the noble Quran and Hadith, you will find the Tijaniya. Outside the circle of Quran and Hadith, there is no such thing."
For nearly fifty years Shaykh Tijani was the main active propagator of the doctrine. From his Fez headquarters, he organised his born-global Tariqa, which spread in easts and wests in his blessed lifetime. During the same period, some of Shaykh Tijani's appointed khalifas and muqaddams -mostly doctors of the Shari'a law (ulama)- had established new Tijani centres in Morocco and abroad and developed ramifications of their own. Shaykh Tijani remained in Fez until his pass on Thursday 22 September 1815. After the Shaykh performed the Subh prayer, he laid down on his right side while he asked for a glass of water then he returned to his bed. At that time his blessed soul went up to its creator. The funeral ablutions were carried out in his home at Dar-Lamraya. An abundant number of eminent scholars, notables and princes, in addition to the Fasite residents and Tijani community took part in the funeral. The great scholar Sidi Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn Ibrahim Dukkali led the funeral prayer at the Qarawiyyine mosque. People were rushing and trying hard to have that great honour of holding the blessed coffin of Shaykh Tijani and it was a scene full of deep emotions where tears and sorrows constituted the landmark of this great event. Shaykh Tijani was buried in his blessed Zawiya. Shaykh Tijani is followed today by over 300 million disciples active in the five corners of the globe.
[edit] His companions
The special companions of Abul Abbas Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani were graced to inherit Shaykh Tijani's spiritual methodology of initiation (tarbiya) and promotion (tarqiya). No hagiographical collection documents the names of these companions than Sidi Ahmed Skirej's (d. 1940) chronicle Kashf al-Hijab 'amman talaaqa bi-Shaykh Tijani mina-l As'hab (Rising the Veil on the Companions of Shaykh Tijani). In his narrative al-faqih Skirej set forth a remarkable hagiography of nearly350 successors (khalifas), representatives (muqaddams) and disciples initiated at the hand of Shaykh Tijani. Among the Moroccan figures reported in the book who made a contribution to the expansion of the Tijaniya are the names of: Sidi Ali Harazem b. al-Arbi Berrada al-Fasi (d. 1797) –author of Kitab Jawahir al-ma'ani wa-bulugh al-amani fi fayd Sidi Abil al-Abbas at-Tijani (Gems of Indications and Attainment of Aspirations in the Overflowings of Sidi Abil Abbas Tijani), Sidi Mohammed al-Ghali Boutaleb (d. 1829), Sidi Tayyeb Sefyani Hassani (d. 1844) –author of Al-Ifada al-Ahmediya li-murid sa’ada al-abadiya (The Ahmedi Notification for the Hunter of Eternal Rapture), Sidi Mohammed b. Abi Nasr Alawi (d. 1858), Sidi al-Haj Abdelwahhab b. al-Ahmar Tawdi (d. 1854), Sidi Mohammed b. Ali Sanusi (d. 1859), Sidi Omar b. Mohammed b. Shaykh Moulay Abdellaziz Debbarh (on whom Kitab al-Ibriz was exposed), Sidi al-Ghazi Lamteri, Sidi Ahmed b. Idriss (d. 1837), Sidi Mousa b. Maazouz (d. 11842), Sidi Mohammed b. Hamza al-Madani (d. 1821), Sidi Ahmed b. Abdessalam Filali Wadghiri (d. 1870), Sidi Mohammed Belqasim Basri Walhaji (d. 1878), Sidi Abu Yaaza b. Ali Berrada (d. after 1891), Sidi al-Haj Ali Amlas al-Fasi (d. after 1854), Sidi Tuhami b. Rahmoun (d. 1848), Sidi Allal Ben Kiran (d. 1863), Sidi Abdelwahhab b. Mohammed Tazi (d. 1864), Sidi al-Haj Tayyeb Laqbab (d. 1895), Sidi al-Haj Taleb Labbar (d. 1850), Sidi Mohammed Lahbabi (d. 1837), Sidi Abdellqadir Idrissi, Sidi Allal Benmousa, Sidi Dawdi Tilimsani (d. 1866), Sidi Tuhami Lahlou (d. 1862), Sidi Allal Ben Kiran (d. 1863), Sidi Abdellqadir Benshaqrun (d. 1804), Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmed al-Mazuni al-Fasi, and Sidi Mohammed b. al-Arbi Lmdaghri Alawi. During the same period, some of Shaykh Tijani's appointed khalifas had established new Tijani centres abroad and developed ramifications of their own. Of these the centres of Sidi Mohammed al-Ghali Boutaleb (d. 1829) and Sidi Alfa Hachim al-Futi (d. 1934) in Medina Munawwara; the centres of Sidi al-Mufaddal Saqqat, Sidi Mohammed b. Abdelwahid Bannani al-Misri (d. after 1854), and Sidi Mohammed al-Hafidh al-Misri (d. 1983) in Egypt; the centres of Shaykh al-Islam Sidi Ibrahim Riyahi Tunsi (d. 1851), Sidi Mohammed b. Slimane Manna’i Tunsi, Sidi Mohammed Ben Achour (d. before 1815) and Sidi Taher b. Abdesaadiq Laqmari (d. after 1851) in Tunisia; the centre of Sidi Uthman Filani Aklani (d. after 1815) in the Sudan; the centres of Sidi Mohammed Alawi Chinguiti (d. 1830), Sidi Mawlud Fall (d. 1852) and Sidi Mohammad al-Hafid b. al-Mokhtar Beddi in Mauritania; and the centres of Sidi Mohammed b. al-Mishri Sibai (d. 1809) –author of al-Jami’a li-ma f-taraqa mina-l ‘ulumn (The Absolute in What Has Separated from the Sciences) and al-Qutb Sidi Abul Hassan Ali b. Aissa Tamacini (d. 1845) in Algeria.
Ahmad al-Tijani see Tijani, Ahmad al-
Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani al-Hassani al-Maghribi see Tijani, Ahmad al-
Sidi Ahmed Tijani see Tijani, Ahmad al-
Tijani, Ahmad al- (Ahmad al-Tijani) (Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani al-Hassani al-Maghribi) (Sidi Ahmed Tijani) (1735/1737-1815). Founder of the Tijaniyah Sufi order. Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tijani was born at ‘Ayn Madi in southern Algeria. At the age of twenty he visited Fez, whre he successively experimented with the litanies of several Sufi orders and was disappointed with all of them. Ten years later, in 1767, during his residence in Tlemcen, he had his first spiritual realization (fath).
In 1772-1773, he set out to perform the hajj. At Azwawi near Algiers he was initiated by ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Azhari (d. 1793) into the Khalwatiyah order, which had experienced a revival in Egypt a few decades earlier. Al-Tijani ardently followed this course. He learned the secrets of the Khalwatiyah from Mahmud al-Kurdi (d. 1780) in Cairo and from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Karim al-Samman (d. 1775) in Medina. His attachment to the Khalwatiyah contrasted with his earlier discontent with other Sufi orders. On his return to the Maghrib in 1774-1775 he initiated his first disciples into the Khalwatiyah. The introduction of the revived Khalwatiyah to the Maghrib was a departure from the Sufi tradition of the Shadhiliyah to which most Maghribi orders belonged.
In 1782, al-Tijani returned to the desert edge in southern Algeria, where he had a visionary encounter in which the prophet Muhammad taught him a litany (wird) enunciating a new independent tariqah and instructed him to sever relations with other orders and shaykhs. In spite of the break, elements of the revived Khalwatiyah remained more embedded in the doctrines and rituals of the Tijaniyah than the founder and later Tijanis would admit. Indeed, one of the most unusual features of the Tijaniyah, the exclusivity of the order, was an elaboration of a principle advocated by Mustafa al-Bakri and applied to some extent in the Egyptian Khalwatiyah.
As his fame as a saint grew, al-Tijani was compelled by the Ottoman authorities to leave Algeria. He arrived in Fez in 1798, and lived there until his death in 1815. The reformist Moroccan sultan Mawlay Sulayman (1792-1822), who sought to eradicate popular Sufism, warmly received al-Tijani because of his Sufism combined strict observance of Islamic law with the rejection of asceticism and withdrawal from the world.
Al-Tijani claimed the rank of khatim al-awliya’ (the seal of the saints), which implied that he was the link between the Prophet and all past and future saints. His adherents therefore had higher spiritual rank as well and were promised access to paradise without the need for giving up their possessions, provided they observed the precepts of Islam as well as they could. In this way he attracted to his order rich merchants and senior officials. Some of the most senior ‘ulama’ in Fez were hostile to al-Tijani and rejected his claim to superior status, but other prominent scholars joined the order.
In its adherence to Islamic law and to orthodox practices, as well as its positive attidue toward worldly affairs, the Tijaniyah was one of a group of new Sufi orders that emerged out of trends of renewal and reform in the eighteenth century. The dynamism of the Tijaniyah found expression in its nineteenth century expansion, both militant and peaceful, mainly in West Africa.
Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani al-Hassani al-Maghribi (1735–1815), in Arabic سيدي أحمد التجاني (Sidi Ahmed Tijani) is the founder of the Tijaniyya Sūfī order. The al-Tijani was born in 1735 in Ain Madhi, Algeria and died in Fez, Morocco at age of 80 in 1815.
Contents
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* 1 Introduction: Sources on the life of Al-tijani
* 2 The Shaykh
* 3 Seal of sainthood
* 4 His companions
* 5 Notes
* 6 External links
* 7 References
[edit] Introduction: Sources on the life of Al-tijani
The greater part of the life and teaching of Shaykh Tijani can be drawn from two primary hagiographical works:
1. Kitab Jawahir al-ma'ani wa-bulugh al-amani fi fayd Sidi Abil al-Abbas at-Tijani (Gems of Indications and Attainment of Aspirations in the Overflowings of Sidi Abil Abbas Tijani) by Sidi Ali Harazem Berrada (d. 1797), and
2. Kitab al-Jami’a li-ma f-taraqa mina-l ‘ulumn (The Absolute in What Has Separated from the Sciences) by Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Mishri Sibai Hassani Idrissi (d. 1809).
Later hagiographies tend to be works of compilation drawn from these two primary sources. Such hagiographies are:
1. Kitab Rima'h al-Hizb al Rahim ala Nuhur Hizb ar-Rajim (The Spears of the League of the Merciful thrown at the Necks of the League of the Accursed) by Sidi Omar ibn Said al-Futi (d. 1864),
2. Kitab Bughyat al-mustafid li-shar'h minyat al-murid (Aspiration of the Beneficiary in Commenting the 'Demise of the Disciple' ) of Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Arbi Sayeh (d. 1894), and last but not least,
3. Kitab Kashf al-Hijab 'amman talaaqa bi-Shaykh Tijani mina-l As'hab (Rising the Veil of the Companions who encountered with Shaykh Tijani) by Sidi Ahmed ibn al-'Iyyashi Skirej al-Fasi (d. 1940).
Most of what we know about Shaykh Tijani comes from these books.
[edit] The Shaykh
Shaykh Tijani was born in 1735 in the small village of Ain Madhi, located in western-central Algeria about 30 miles (50 km) from the city of Laghuat (al-Aghwat).Shaykh Tijani became an orphan at the age of 15 when he applied himself to his studies. Having learned the Quran by heart at the early age of seven according to its own interpretation (bi tafsirihi), he studied the fundamentals of Maliki jurisprudence and texts like the Mukhtasar of Khalil, the Risala of al-Qushayri (d. 1052), the Akhdari (d. 1538) in logic, the Muqaddima of Ibn Rushd, the Mudawwana of Sahnun ("Abdessalam ibn Said Tanukhi Qayrawani," d. 854) with local scholars, such as Sidi Mohammed ibn Hammu Tijani, Sidi Aissa Bouakkaz Tijani, and Sidi Ibn Bouafiya Tijani.
In 1756, at the age of 21, during the reign of the Sultan Mawlana Mohammed ibn Abdellah (d. 1789), a scholar who wrote several books on Quranic commentary and Tradition ruling Morocco from 1757 to 1789, Shaykh Tijani entered al-Qarawiyyine University of Fez and studied in particular the books on the Tradition of the Prophet (al-'Hadith Nabawi Sharif) such al-Bukhari and Muslim. Meanwhile Shaykh Tijani busied himself with meeting Sufi teachers. He first met the head of Shadhilite Wazzaniya order Shaykh Sidi Tayyeb ibn Mohammed Wazzani (d. 1766). He also met the head of Shadhilite Fasiya order Shaykh Sidi Abdellah ibn Shaykh Sidi al-Arbi ibn Shaykh Tijaniibn Shaykh Sidi Abdellah Ma'in al-Andalusi (d. 1778). Shaykh Tijani also took the Qadiriya while in Fez, then he left it after a while; he then took the Nasiriya (after Sidi Mhammed Ben Nasir Dar'i; d. 1694) from Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdullah Tazzani called “ar-Rif”, then left it; then he took the Shadhilite Ghumariya (after Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdelmoumin Ghumari Hassani; d. 1847), first from a student, then in a dream from its founder, then he left it. He also took from the saint of Taza Shaykh Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmed Tawwash (d. 1791) who counselled him to seek seclusion (khalwa) and invocation (dhikr), but Shaykh Tijani refused. He finally met with Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Hassan al-Wanjali Zabibi (d. 1770), who told him when he first saw him and before he talked to him: "You will attain the rank (maqam) of the Great Qutb Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 1241).
Shaykh Tijani did not stay in Fez long and soon returned to Ain Mahdi. He then went to another Saharan centre known as "Sidi Shaykh", where lies the shrine of the Shadhilite mystic Sidi Abdellqadir Smahi (d. 1610), and stayed there retreating for five years. Shaykh Tijani in the following years travelled back and forth between the desert recluses and towns of the region, e.g. Tlemcen. There seems to be a pattern in Shaykh Tijani's travels, in that he went to the desert to meditate, while in the towns he took exoteric, non-mystical knowledge from the acknowledged masters and in the traditional manner. In 1771, Shaykh Tijani travelled to Mecca for pilgrimage. On his journey to the East, Shaykh Tijani was keen to met the noted Sufi Shaykhs of the time -just like he did in the Maghreb. One was the Algerian master, the Idrissid Sharif, Sidi Mohammed ibn Abderrahman Azharri (d. 1793), from whom the Rahmaniya Order came. Shaykh Tijani took the Khalwatiya from him and was reinitiated into it by the leading teacher in Cairo, Sidi Mahmoud al-Kurdi al-Iraqi al-Misri (d. 1771)—another teacher of the Fasite Sidi Abul Mawahib Abdelwahhab Tazi (d. 1783; direct heir of Moulay Abdellaziz ibn Masoud Debbarh on whom Kitab al-Ibriz was written; d. 1717).
Sidi Mahmud al-Kurdi granted Shaykh Tijani a full ijaza (license) to teach the Khalwatiya tariqa. From Egypt, Sidi Ahmed left to Mecca. There he heard of Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdellah al-Hindi (d. 1773); student of the venerated Shahdilite master Sidi Ahmed ibn Mhammed Ben Nasir Dar'i (d. 1714; buried in the Tal'a District, Fez). Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdellah had no permission to meet any body, but in spite of that, Shaykh Tijani received from him special knowledge, through a special envoy, without meeting with him. He foretold Shaykh Tijani about what he was destined to, and gave him good tidings that he will inherit all his secrets, endowments, cognition, and illuminations. He also told him that he would meet the Qutb Sidi Mohammed ibn Abdelkarim Samman (d. 1774) in Medina, and gave him glad tidings that he would attain the status of Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 1241), as he had been foretold before by Sidi Mohammed Wanjali of Fez.
Soon after Shaykh Tijani met with Sidi Mohammed Samman. The latter was the guardian of the Prophet's grave and the author of several Sufi works but it was especially as the founder of a new order that he became influential. He combined the Qadiriya, the Naqshabandiya, the Nasiriya with the Khalwatiya (through Sidi Mustapha ibn Kamluddin al-Bakri ; 1739 -who is himself the teacher of Sqalli, Azharri, and al-Kurdi). This combination became known as the Sammaniya. Sidi Mohammed Samman gave special permission to Sidi Ahmed Tijani in all the Beautiful Names of Allah (al-Asma' al-'Husna), the Ahzab of Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 1241), the Wadhifa of Shaykh Zarruq (d. 1484), Dalail al-Khayrat and al-Dur al-’Ala. He told Shaykh Tijani that he is the Grand Magnate (al-Qutb al-Jami') and gave him good tidings that he will realize his aspiration and obtain the "Absolute General Authorization" (al-Qutbaniya al-Jami'a al-'Udhma).
When Shaykh Tijani returned to the Maghreb, he again went to the desert, to a place called Bu Samghun, a Saharan oasis located south of Geryville, perhaps under compulsion from the Turkish authorities. In 1776 he made his second trip to Fez from Tlemcen, with the intention of visiting the Baraka of Fez Mawlana Idriss ibn Idriss (d. 798). He met, during this trip, with the Idrissid scholar, Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Mishri Sibai al-Hassani of Takrat (d. 1809). Since then, Sidi Mohammed al-Mishri, leaded the prayers for Shaykh Tijani, and wrote the answers on his behalf until 1793; the year that Shaykh Tijani started himself to lead the prayers, in compliance with the instruction of his grandfather the prophet Sidna Mohammed. In the Moroccan city of Oujda (Wajda), while returning back to Fez, he met, for the first time, Sidi Ali Harazem Berrada, who accompanied him to Fez. During this meeting, he authorized him in the Khalwatiya and confided him with special knowledge and foretold him of what would be of him in revelation and strengthening.
After visiting the shrine of Moulay Idriss al-Azhar (d. 798), Shaykh Tijani went back to Tlemcen and then departed to Qasr Shallala and Bu Samghun. In Bu Samghun, in 1782, Shaykh Tijani announced that Muhammad has authorised him in a daylight vision (yaqadatan; while he was awake) to establish his own order, Tariqa Ahmediya-Mohammediya-Ibrahimiya-Hanifiya-Tijaniya. The Prophet gave him permission to initiate during a period when Shaykh Tijani had fled from contact with people in order to devote himself to his personal development. He told him that he was to take Sufism directly from him—hence the name—and not use any of the chains of authority of teacher-to-disciple that were the main stay of all the Sufi orders,
"You owe no favour to any of the Shaykhs of the path, for I am myself your medium and provider in every truth. Abandon all that you have taken from all other tariqas and hold fast to this tariqa without seclusion (khalwa), or retirement from people (uzla), until you reach your promised maqam, and you are as you are, without hardship, difficulty, or strive, and abdicate all the saints."
The Prophet had furthermore assigned to him the obligatory wird (litany) which he has to transmit in general and unstrictly to any seeker who asks for it and accepts to abide by its conditions; a 100 of Astaghfirou Allah" (I seek Allah’s forgiveness) and a 100 of prayers upon the Prophet with any version, preferably with so-called Salat al-Fatih (Shaykh Tijani said, “The lives of all the people have been spent in futility, except the lives of the practisers of Salat al Fatih, for they have gained both worldly and Otherworldly profit”.) By 1785 the Prophet completed to him the wird by adding a 100 of Haylala (“la-ilaha illa’Allah”; There is no God but Allah). The born-global Tijaniya was widely accepted almost immediately after its birth. Shaykh Tijani became so reputed that great masses of people started visiting him to take his wird, to be affiliated with him, and get more of what he gives them in sense and meaning.
[edit] Seal of sainthood
Shaykh Tijani stayed in Bu Samghun for about fifteenth years. In 1796, he went to Fez, marking the real beginning of his Tariqa. In Fez Shaykh Tijani was received by the Sultan Moulay Slimane (d. 1823). One year after his entrance to Fez on the Mu'harram of 1797, Shaykh Tijani attained the "Absolute General Authorization" (maqam al-qutbaniya al-jami'a al-'udhma) he longingly sought. One month and few days later Shaykh Tijani declared that the Prophet appeared to him in daylight and had him informed that he is the "Concealed Pole” (al-Qutb al-Maktum). This holder of this status is widely known in Sufi literature as the Khatim al-Awliya (the Seal of Sainthood). In the chronicle he called Khatim al-Awliya, al-Hakim Tirmidhi (d. 905) informs us the Khatim al-Awliya is the person, “upon whom the leadership (imama) of the saints is incumbent, who bears in his hand the Banner of the saints, and whose intercession all the saints have need of, just as prophets have need of Prophet Sidna Mohammed”. Tirmidhi continues that that authority of the Khatim al-Awliya even extends to the eschatological realm. On the Day of Judgment he will come forth as the proof of the saints just as the Seal of Prophets Sidna Mohammed will come forth as the proof of the prophets. Indeed, Shaykh Tijani said to his companions in Fez,
"When Allah assembles His creatures at the place of standing, a herald will proclaim at the top of his voice, so that everyone at the place of standing will hear him: "O people of the final congregation, this is your Imam, from whom you obtained your support!"
The khatmiya maqam's absolute appearance was claimed before by Sidi Muhyiddin ibn Arabi al-‘Hatimi al-Maghribi (d. 1221) when he said: “We no doubt sealed sainthood by inheriting the Hachimi and the Messiah”. However he retracted (taraja'a) later when aware that the full, complete and absolute appearance in that maqam is to be for some one else. He discover not who will attain such absolute appearance. In his ‘Anqa’ Maghreb fi khatm al-awliya wa shams al-Maghreb (The Western Phoenix in the Seal of Saints and Sun of Morocco), which he wrote in Fez, Ibn Arabi introduces the Seal of Sainthood as, “the inheriting saint, who receives from the source, who recognizes the degrees and ascertains the entitlement of their holders, in order to give each creditor his rightful due, for that is one of the virtues of the Chieftain of the Envoys, the Captain of the Community." Very explicitly, the Egyptian Shadhilite Sidi Abdelwahhab Shaarani (d. 1490) illustrated in Durar al-Ghawas, "This community (Ummah) has two comprehensive Seals, and every degree and station has an inheritor. Every saint there has ever been, or will ever be, can only receive from these two Seals, one of whom is the Seal of the sainthood of the elite, while the other is the one by whom the common sainthood is sealed, for there will be no saint after him until the advent of the Final Hour."
Shaykh Ibn Arabi went too far to connect the nature of the Sealness of Prophethood and that of Sainthood. According to him, “The meaning of the Prophet's saying: ‘I was a Prophet while Adam was between the water and the clay -is 'I was a Prophet in actual fact, aware of my Prophethood, while Adam was between the water and the clay.” He then went on to say "None of the other Prophets was a Prophet, nor aware of his Prophethood, except when he was sent (on his mission) after his coming into existence with his material body and his complete fulfilment of the preconditions of Prophethood." Then he added: “the Seal of the Saints was likewise actually a saint, aware of his sainthood, while was between the water and the clay, and none of the other saints was a saint in actual fact, nor aware of his sainthood, except after his acquisition of the Divine characteristics that are stipulated in the definition of sainthood." Because he is characterised by the complete assimilation of the Mohammedian paradigm, the Seal of Sainthood acts as a deputy (khalifa) of Prophet and symbolically takes his place in isthmus (al-barzakh) as well as during the time allotted to him on earth. Shaykh Tijani has expressed his khatmiya-katmiya complex in many sayings,
“The bounties that flow from the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) are received by the natures of the prophets, and everything that flows and emerges from the natures of the Prophets is received by my own nature, and from me it is distributed to all creatures from the origin of the world until the blowing on the trumpet”; “No saint drinks or provides water to drink, except from our ocean, from the origin of the world until the blowing on the trumpet”; “The spirit of the Prophet and my spirit are like this'--pointing with his two fingers, the index finger and the middle finger. 'His spirit supports the Messengers and the Prophets and my spirit supports the poles, the sages, the saints, from pre-existence to eternity (mina al-azal ila abad)”; “These two feet of mine are upon the neck of every saint of Allah, from the time of Adam until the blowing of the trumpet”; “'Our station in the Presence of Allah in the Hereafter will not be attained by any of the saints, and it will not be approached by anyone, whether his importance is great or small. Of all the saints among from the very beginning of creation until the blowing on the trumpet, there is not one who will attain to my station.” Arabic:
إن جميع الأولياء يدخلون زمرتنا ويأخذون أورادنا ويتمسكوا بطريقتنا مـــن أول الوجود إلي يوم القيامة حتى الإمام المهدي إذا قام آخر الزمان يدخل زمرتنا بعد مماتنا وانتقالنا إلى دار البقاء." "طائفة من أصحابنا لو اجتمعت أقطاب الأمة ما وزنوا شعرة من بحر أحدهم والآن قد ظهر واحدا منهم." "لو أطلع أكابر الأقطاب على ما أعده الله لأصحابنا في الجنة لبكوا عليه طول أعمارهم وقالوا ما أعطيتنا شي يا ربنا." "أنا سيد الأولياء كما كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم سيد الأنبياء"."لا يشرب ولي ولا يسقى إلا من بحرنا من نشأة العالم إلى النفخ في الصور." "إن نسبة الأقطاب معي كنسبة العامة مع الأقطاب." "إن لنا مرتبة تناهت في العلو عند الله تعالى إلى حد يحرم ذكره وليس هو ما أفشيته لكم ولو صرحت به لأجمع أهل الحق والعرفان على كفري فضلا عمن عداهم وليست هي التي ذكرت لكم بل هي من ورائها." "طابعنا يغلب على كل طابع ولا يغلب عليه طابع."وقال رضي الله تعالى عنه وأرضاه مشيرا بأصبعيه السبابة والوسطى: "روحه صلى الله عليه وسلم وروحي هكذا روحه صلى الله عليه وسلم تمد الرسل والأنبياء عليهم السلام وروحي تمد الأقطاب والعارفين والأولياء من الأزل إلى الأبد.""كل الطرائق تدخل عليها طريقتنا فتبطلها وطابعنا يركب على كل طابع ولا يحمل طابعنا غيره""من ترك وردًا من أوراد المشايخ لأجل الدخول في طريقتنا هذه المحمدية التي شرفها الله تعالى على جميع الطرق أمنه الله في الدنيا والآخرة فلا يخاف من شيء يصيبه لا من الله ولا من رسوله ولا من شيخه أيا كان من الأحياء أو من الأموات. وأما من دخل زمرتنا وتأخر عنها ودخل غيرها تحل به مصائب الدنيا وأخرى ولا يفلح أبدًا" "وليس لأحد من الرجال أن يدخل كافة أصحابه الجنة بلا حساب ولا عقاب ولو عملوا من الذنوب ما عملوا وبلغوا إلا أنا وحدي" "إن أصحابنا يوم القيامة ليسوا مع الناس في الموقف بل هم مكشفون في ظل العرش في موضع وحدهم و لا يقدم عليهم أحد في دخول الجنة إلا الصحابة رضي الله عنهم." لما قيل له رضي الله عنه و أرضاه و عنا به بمَ نالوا ذلك قال: "من أجلي." قلتُ (أي العلامة سكيرج) و سره يظهر في قوله صلى الله عليه و سلم له رضي الله عنه و أرضاه و عنا به: "و فقراؤك فقراءي و تلاميذك تلاميذي و أصحابك أصحابي." فعُلِم أن بين أصحابه صلى الله عليه و سلم و بين أصحاب هذا الشيخ رضي الله تعالى عنه مناسبة تامة و لتلك المناسبة كانوا عند الله من الأكابر و إن كانوا في الظاهر من جملة العوام." ويستطرد ﺍﻟﺨﻠﻴﻔﺔ ﺴﻴﺪﻱ ﻋﻟﻲ ﺤﺭﺍﺯﻡ: "ووراء ذلك مما ذكر لي فيهم وضمنه أمر لا يحل لي ذكره ولا يرى وﻻ يعرف إلا في الدار الآخرة بشرى للمعتقد علي رغم أنف المنتقد." ويستطرد سيدي عمر الفوتي: "ومن هنا صار جميع أهل طريقته أعلى مرتبة عند الله تعالى في الآخرة من أكابر الأقطاب وإن كان بعضهم في الظاهر من جملة العوام المحجوبين"
Greatly simplified, Shaykh Tijani developed his path on loose lines. Obligations, as one to be expected in an order designed to expand, were simple. He imposed no penances or retreats and the conditions was not complicated; (1) praying in the mosque with the congregation whenever possible, meeting all the prerequisites for lawfully offering prayer; (2) praying upon the Prophet; and (3) not to visit living saints or the tombs of dead ones. The Shaykh stressed the quite dhikr even in congregation, and forbade above all the visitations of living and dead saints at the command of his grandfather, for they were all associated with baraka-possession. Shaykh Tijani affirmed that the Prophet had told him not to cut himself off from the world, and so he advised his disciples to live in comfort wearing classy clothes and eating choice food. Shaykh Tijani gave good tidings that his followers could rely on his own guarantee of salvation. This includes anyone who saw him on Mondays and Fridays and did not become his enemy, "If someone receives from me the well-known wird, which is essential to the Tariqa, or he receives it from someone I have authorized to teach it, he will enter the Garden of Paradise (“Jannat 'Illiyyine”; that of prophets and saints) -he and his children, his wives, and his descendants- without reckoning and without punishment, provided that they are not guilty of any insult, hatred, or enmity, and that he persists in loving the Shaykh until death.” (…) "Be of good cheer! Anyone who is devoted to our love, until he dies in that state, will certainly be resurrected among those who are safe, provided that he does not wear the garb of security from Allah's cunning (makr ‘Allah)."
Thus Shaykh Tijani emerged as a sudden Sufi authority and established Sufi leader, dedicating his life for spiritual education, training, guidance, and promotion of the endeavourers to the divine proximity. He possessed high spiritual energy, determination, perseverance of Allah's sacred rights, and firmness of resolution. He laboured in his beginnings on perfection of repentance with its conditions, and on adherence to Shari'a bounds. He minded his own business, and held fast to the Quran and Sunna and the footsteps of the righteous ancestors. He totally turned himself to his Lord, so Allah sufficed him. He reinforced his foundations first by preoccupying himself with the study of the Quran and Sunna, deep thorough comprehension of the fine and subtle sciences and abstruse issues, and strict observance of the principles the Shari'a: "If you hear someone quoting me, place the statement on the scale of the noble Shari'a. If it balances, take it; if it doesn’t, leave it, for within the noble Quran and Hadith, you will find the Tijaniya. Outside the circle of Quran and Hadith, there is no such thing."
For nearly fifty years Shaykh Tijani was the main active propagator of the doctrine. From his Fez headquarters, he organised his born-global Tariqa, which spread in easts and wests in his blessed lifetime. During the same period, some of Shaykh Tijani's appointed khalifas and muqaddams -mostly doctors of the Shari'a law (ulama)- had established new Tijani centres in Morocco and abroad and developed ramifications of their own. Shaykh Tijani remained in Fez until his pass on Thursday 22 September 1815. After the Shaykh performed the Subh prayer, he laid down on his right side while he asked for a glass of water then he returned to his bed. At that time his blessed soul went up to its creator. The funeral ablutions were carried out in his home at Dar-Lamraya. An abundant number of eminent scholars, notables and princes, in addition to the Fasite residents and Tijani community took part in the funeral. The great scholar Sidi Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn Ibrahim Dukkali led the funeral prayer at the Qarawiyyine mosque. People were rushing and trying hard to have that great honour of holding the blessed coffin of Shaykh Tijani and it was a scene full of deep emotions where tears and sorrows constituted the landmark of this great event. Shaykh Tijani was buried in his blessed Zawiya. Shaykh Tijani is followed today by over 300 million disciples active in the five corners of the globe.
[edit] His companions
The special companions of Abul Abbas Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani were graced to inherit Shaykh Tijani's spiritual methodology of initiation (tarbiya) and promotion (tarqiya). No hagiographical collection documents the names of these companions than Sidi Ahmed Skirej's (d. 1940) chronicle Kashf al-Hijab 'amman talaaqa bi-Shaykh Tijani mina-l As'hab (Rising the Veil on the Companions of Shaykh Tijani). In his narrative al-faqih Skirej set forth a remarkable hagiography of nearly350 successors (khalifas), representatives (muqaddams) and disciples initiated at the hand of Shaykh Tijani. Among the Moroccan figures reported in the book who made a contribution to the expansion of the Tijaniya are the names of: Sidi Ali Harazem b. al-Arbi Berrada al-Fasi (d. 1797) –author of Kitab Jawahir al-ma'ani wa-bulugh al-amani fi fayd Sidi Abil al-Abbas at-Tijani (Gems of Indications and Attainment of Aspirations in the Overflowings of Sidi Abil Abbas Tijani), Sidi Mohammed al-Ghali Boutaleb (d. 1829), Sidi Tayyeb Sefyani Hassani (d. 1844) –author of Al-Ifada al-Ahmediya li-murid sa’ada al-abadiya (The Ahmedi Notification for the Hunter of Eternal Rapture), Sidi Mohammed b. Abi Nasr Alawi (d. 1858), Sidi al-Haj Abdelwahhab b. al-Ahmar Tawdi (d. 1854), Sidi Mohammed b. Ali Sanusi (d. 1859), Sidi Omar b. Mohammed b. Shaykh Moulay Abdellaziz Debbarh (on whom Kitab al-Ibriz was exposed), Sidi al-Ghazi Lamteri, Sidi Ahmed b. Idriss (d. 1837), Sidi Mousa b. Maazouz (d. 11842), Sidi Mohammed b. Hamza al-Madani (d. 1821), Sidi Ahmed b. Abdessalam Filali Wadghiri (d. 1870), Sidi Mohammed Belqasim Basri Walhaji (d. 1878), Sidi Abu Yaaza b. Ali Berrada (d. after 1891), Sidi al-Haj Ali Amlas al-Fasi (d. after 1854), Sidi Tuhami b. Rahmoun (d. 1848), Sidi Allal Ben Kiran (d. 1863), Sidi Abdelwahhab b. Mohammed Tazi (d. 1864), Sidi al-Haj Tayyeb Laqbab (d. 1895), Sidi al-Haj Taleb Labbar (d. 1850), Sidi Mohammed Lahbabi (d. 1837), Sidi Abdellqadir Idrissi, Sidi Allal Benmousa, Sidi Dawdi Tilimsani (d. 1866), Sidi Tuhami Lahlou (d. 1862), Sidi Allal Ben Kiran (d. 1863), Sidi Abdellqadir Benshaqrun (d. 1804), Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmed al-Mazuni al-Fasi, and Sidi Mohammed b. al-Arbi Lmdaghri Alawi. During the same period, some of Shaykh Tijani's appointed khalifas had established new Tijani centres abroad and developed ramifications of their own. Of these the centres of Sidi Mohammed al-Ghali Boutaleb (d. 1829) and Sidi Alfa Hachim al-Futi (d. 1934) in Medina Munawwara; the centres of Sidi al-Mufaddal Saqqat, Sidi Mohammed b. Abdelwahid Bannani al-Misri (d. after 1854), and Sidi Mohammed al-Hafidh al-Misri (d. 1983) in Egypt; the centres of Shaykh al-Islam Sidi Ibrahim Riyahi Tunsi (d. 1851), Sidi Mohammed b. Slimane Manna’i Tunsi, Sidi Mohammed Ben Achour (d. before 1815) and Sidi Taher b. Abdesaadiq Laqmari (d. after 1851) in Tunisia; the centre of Sidi Uthman Filani Aklani (d. after 1815) in the Sudan; the centres of Sidi Mohammed Alawi Chinguiti (d. 1830), Sidi Mawlud Fall (d. 1852) and Sidi Mohammad al-Hafid b. al-Mokhtar Beddi in Mauritania; and the centres of Sidi Mohammed b. al-Mishri Sibai (d. 1809) –author of al-Jami’a li-ma f-taraqa mina-l ‘ulumn (The Absolute in What Has Separated from the Sciences) and al-Qutb Sidi Abul Hassan Ali b. Aissa Tamacini (d. 1845) in Algeria.
Ahmad al-Tijani see Tijani, Ahmad al-
Mawlana Ahmed ibn Mohammed Tijani al-Hassani al-Maghribi see Tijani, Ahmad al-
Sidi Ahmed Tijani see Tijani, Ahmad al-
Tijaniyya
Tijaniyya (Tijaniyah) (Tijani) (Tijāniyyah) (Al-Ṭarīqah al-Tijāniyyah -- "The Tijānī Path"). Name of an order (a Muslim brotherhood) in Algeria founded by Abu’l- ‘Abbas Ahmad al-Tijani (1737-1815). The reputation of the order was vastly increased when they held out for eight months in 1838 against amir ‘Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi’l-Din (r.1832-1847). The Tijaniyya became very popular not only in Algeria but also in Tunisia and sub-Saharan Africa. The Tijaniyya were divided into several branches. Today, the Tijaniyya brotherhood is one of the most dynamic in the sub-Saharan region.
The Tijaniyah movement was borne out of controversy. From its very inception (c. 1782), its members bought challenge to the accepted notions of monastic order. Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mukhtar al-Tijani (b. 1737 at Ayn Madi, southern Algeria), the founder of the brotherhood, proclaimed himself the “pole of poles” (qutb al-aqtab) and the “seal of sanctity” (khatm al-wilayah), as the Prophet, Muhammad, had averred himself the “seal of prophecy.” The leaders of the Tijaniyah were accused of prohibiting associates from visiting the tombs of the deceased virtuous (walis) from other orders and of disturbing the conviction that spiritual benefit (barakah) could be obtained from walis outside the brotherhood. Moreover, Tijanis were condemned for alleged attempts, against the grain of accepted practice, to prevent their members from affiliating with other Sufi organizations. Finally, at least in their North African context, Tijanis stood accused of favoring wealth over ascetisim (zuhd) and became noted for their abjuration of mysticism in place of which they encouraged a simplicity of belief and practice in their daily devotions.
Ahmad al-Tijani, as he came to be called, began life in the normal Sufi pattern. Traveling throughout the Maghrib in the familiar peripatetic manner, he sought out learned men for knowledge, embraced walis famed for their barakah, and affiliated himself with several religious orders, notably the Wazzaniyah, Darqawiyah, Nasiriyah, and Khalwatiyah, and also espoused many of the tenets of the Shadhiliyah. It was a pattern he was to renounce dramatically around 1782, when he broke the old silsilah (chain) of authority and linked piety and belief to his own powers of intercession.
The rapid proliferation of the orders posed an intractable problem to established authority in the Maghrib. Scores of religious brotherhoods had appeared, based on ethnic and occupational affinities. In Morocco, where the prophet Muhammad and his descendants (sharifs) were held in the highest favor, the organization of the orders came to be drawn tightly round their spiritual influence. By the middle of the nineteenth century, we find many of the educated affiliating with the Darqawiyah (the chief competitors of the Tijaniyah for this constituency), artisans inclining toward the Kattaniyah, for example, the shoemakers of Fez and the flaxweavers of Tangier, while many butchers and practitioners of unclean professions embraced the Hamadshah (Hamdushiyah) and the ‘Isawiyah. Finally, the residue of merchants and proprietors not attracted to the Tijaniyah joined the Tayyibiyah tariqah.
Coming as it did in the wake of the anti-Sufi Wahhabi movement in the Hejaz, the proclamation of Ahmad al-Tijani arrived at an auspicious moment. The sovereign of Morocco, Mawlay Sulayman, became his patron and saw merit in his revolutionary message. The abundance of tariqahs in Morocco and the high prestige of sharifian zawiyahs (lodges) had compromised the authority of the Moroccan ruler, and he perceived in alliance with the Tijaniyah a means of tightening his rein on political and economic affairs. The order received encouragement and was allowed to develop its retreat structure under Mawlay Sulayman’s protective hand. Despite claims to the contrary, Ahmad al-Tijani was not ranked among the illustrious sharifs, and the appeal of the Tijaniyah drew the attention of wealthy non-sharifians of the urban governmental class (including many converted Jews whom Mawlay Sulayman retained as advisers and financiers). These individuals, together with makhzan (government) officials, merchants, and influential families, held a considerable share of economic power, especially in Fez.
From the outset, the Tijaniyah espoused a much simplified corpus of ritual and system of organization, in contrast to the requirements of prayer which tied their rivals to the rigors of convention. Tijanis set much store by their epithet, “the way of Muhammad” (al-tariqat al-Muhammadiyah or al-tariqat al-Ahmadiyah), and prided themselves in their devotion to Sunni practice. Both the wirds (collected prayers) and the wazifah (daily office) of the order were characterized by a streamlined simplicity, sharply reducing the number of prayers required and the pattern of recitation. The old rigor of progression through the Sufi stages of perfection retained only a faint echo of past tradition. The most efficacious prayers and rituals commended by the founder were entrusted to those who comprised the inner circle.
The claim advanced by Ahmad al-Tijani that he was the “seal of sanctity” -- that he inhabited the eminence of light that lay between Muhammad and the saints of Islam -- was to rankle relations with rival orders and excite them to ridicule the Tijaniyah. This merit had its ancestry in the teachings of Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), who, it was suggested, had declined the dignity and left open the door for Ahmad al-Tijani to seize hold of it. Such distinctions had allowed the founder to trumpet his merit and abolish the line of virtuous teachers whose blessings and sustained the spiritual nourishment of other orders. Moreover, such distinctions had enabled al-Tijani to cut the power of the Qadiriyah, the oldest Sufi organization, and one fueled on the barakah of its ancient affiliations. Another charge uniting its rivals in disdain was that the Tijaniyah discouraged its members from associating with other orders and from frequenting the tombs of their walis. Tijani spokesman often defended this practice by declaring that a disciple could not hope to receive spiritual sustenance from two shaykhs simultaneously, any more than a woman could serve faithfully two husbands.
Before the rise of Ahmad al-Tijani, the most notable feature of the Shadhili-Jazuli tradition could be seen in the way in which charismatic power was harnessed and accessed fi sabil Allah, in the path of Allah. Even the simplest adept could link with the spiritual past and feel the flow of barakah that charged his spiritual energy and gave shape and significance to his interior life. The recitation of the wird and other assigned prayers served to recharge his spiritual apparatus and redirect his energy in the path of Allah. Thus, the hizb al-bahr and the dala’il al-khayrat (“proofs of blessings”) of al-Jazuli must be understood as strong currents of charismatic power linked to overt action fi sabil Allah: prayer for the success of Islam, pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places, hijrah from Islam’s enemies, and jihad.
Ahmad al-Tijani streamlined the charismatic “switchboard” -- condensed the currents of barakah into one powerful “microchip,” discarding, as it were, al the bulky “hardware” of past generations. The Wahhabi movement fueled this revolution as it sought to concentrate veneration in the person of Muhammad. It was a tendency that Ahmad al-Tijani was to recast in his own mold. Yet several other features of the Shadhili-Jazuli tradition were absorbed into the teachings of the Tijaniyah. There is danger in placing too much stress on the differences among the tariqahs at the expense of realizing the essential eclecticism and sharing of basic tenets that characterized the religious brotherhoods. Ahmad al-Tijani drank unabashedly from the font of the Shadhiliyah. Indeed, even in the Tijaniyah, there is a strong compulsion to link with individuals of the Sufi past and imbibe their barakah. Al-Shadhili’s hizb al-bahr (a powerful incantation of the ninety-nine names of Allah) became a touchstone of the Tijani canon, and his relentless pursuit of the person of the Qutb found a strong echo in al-Tijani’s fixation on this theme. In the Tijani view, the old silsilah, with its long chain of intermediaries, generated a feeble if permanent current. Ahmad al-Tijani closed the circuit of charisma as he concentrated power between Muhammad and himself. It was his claim that the Prophet was near him always, even in waking, allowing for a close and continuous discharge of spiritual grace and an increase in its velocity.
As it began to take root in the Maghrib, the Tijaniyah emerged as a force for stability and preservation of the status quo, at least during the lifetime of the founder. The Shadhili-Jazuli tradition, in retrospect, bequeathed a legacy of radical activity, forged on an anvil of opposition to the government of the day. Ahmad al-Tijani broke the mold of this radicalism and encouraged his followers to side with established authority. It was this shrewd an pragmatic policy that allowed the Tijaniyah, in the face of sharifian hostility, to spread and prosper under the protection of the makhzan. The sharifian tradition set much store by nobility of descent: al-Jazuli had staked his claim on the strength of a pure and noble lineage. Ahmad al-Tijani could not hope to stand level with his rivals and post a claim elsewhere -- on a higher level -- as he sought to outreach his rivals. Thus, during the founder’s time, adherence to authority became the watchword of Tijani political philosophy. With the passing of al-Tijani in 1815, and the overthrow of Mawlay Sulayman, this policy took on greater flexibility.
There has been a tendancy in past accounts of the Tijaniyah to read into their policies in the Maghrib a pro-French sentiment, but one must demote this view as these activities actually reflected a careful pragmatism not always favorable to French intentions. While it is true that the Tijaniyah managed to ride with success the vicissitudes of the post-Sulayman era and welcomed the French in the Maghrib with a greater liberality of temper than did many other religious organizations, its policies did not always maintain the coherence sustained under the founder. As the Tijaniyah shunned the extremes of militant jihad and renounced “monkery” in favor of a more active involvement in daily life, a strong element of revenge crept into their pragmatism. Indeed, claimants to the succession did nto hesitate to cultivate support wherever it could be found. Dissident Berber groups (a rich quarry for the order), forever at odds with established authority generally, were summoned frequently in support of these claims. After the death of al-Tijani in 1815, and as the French succeeded in seizing power from the Turks, no one pattern can be said to typify Tijani policy toward the various players in the Maghribian struggle for power. Even the attitude toward the Turks, steadfast in its contempt, displayed some flexibility. While the Turks on more than one occasion had laid siege to Ayn Madi (the mother zawiyah), Turkish support for the order in other areas (notably Tunisia) could not be ignored. Indeed, on several occasions prominent Turkish officials affiliated with the Tijaniyah and supplied funds amply to its coffers. Still, Tijanis came to endow with great significance Turkish attempts to impose authority by force and extract tribute from religious establishments (Turkish indignation was brought to a flame when Ayn Madi repeatedly withheld payment). Yet the Turks were not alone in their attempts to diminish the influence of the tariqahs when the occasion demanded, and all political powers rallied to their support when events seemed favorable.
The period of French overmastery offers an object lesson in Tijani pragmatism as it illustrates the unevenness of the order’s policies. When the French wrested hegemony from the Turks in the Maghrib during the nineteenth century and the brotherhoods declared their resentment, the Tijaniyah responded with cautious optimism. According to the founder, succession to power was to alternate between Ayn Madi and Tamalhat (on the Tunisian border). The rotation, however, did not always proceed smoothly, and the occasional roughness of the transition (or the retention of power by Ayn Madi) accounts for much of the intrigue and variation in policy among the principals of the succession and those who supported their claim. From 1877 until 1911, the zawiyah at Ayn Madi maintaine a fairly firm grip over Tijani affairs owning to the role played by a Frenchwoman, Aurelie Picard, who had married Sidi Ahmad, the head of the order, and feigned a commitment to Islam. The French lavished subsidies on their Tijani subordinates and thus compromised any claims to independence. Nevertheless, it was a period when all religious orders were being drawn into the pockets of the French and placed under surveillance, and when real or imagined movements by Tijani and other dissidents intensified the paranoia of French imperial policy.
The Tijaniyah’s strong association with the government of Morocco persisted until 1912 with the declaration of the Protectorate. By the end of the nineteenth century every large town in Morocco could boast at least one Tijani zawiyah (there were twelve in Marrakesh alone). The order in Morocco was much more “national” in outlook than its counterparts in Tunisia and Algeria, and much more consonant with the culture in which it was reared. Following the split between Ayn Madi and Tamalhat in the 1870s over the succession, intense rivalry ensued into the 1930s when Ayn Madi attempted to revive its claims and initiated active campaigns for support to Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, and Gambia. The order had already achieved significant in-roads in these lands and in Mali owing to the proselytization of the celebrated Moroccan ‘alim, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Kansusi (d. 1877), and the great Senegalese mujahid, al-Hajj ‘Umar ibn Sa‘id (‘Umar Tal, d. 1864). By the beginning of the twentieth century, Tijanis could claim more than half a million devotees in the Sudan.
The independence movement in the Maghrib produced the ultimate brotherhoods, absorbing to its purpose all the tone and rhetoric of the old organizations that had met their demise. One result of the Istiqlal (independence) movement was to drive the tariqahs underground, where their activities, severely circumscribed in the public arena retain only a semblance of their previous importance.
Tijaniyah see Tijaniyya
Tijani see Tijaniyya
Tijaniyyah see Tijaniyya
Al-Tariqah al-Tijaniyyah see Tijaniyya
The Tijani Path see Tijaniyya
Tijaniyya (Tijaniyah) (Tijani) (Tijāniyyah) (Al-Ṭarīqah al-Tijāniyyah -- "The Tijānī Path"). Name of an order (a Muslim brotherhood) in Algeria founded by Abu’l- ‘Abbas Ahmad al-Tijani (1737-1815). The reputation of the order was vastly increased when they held out for eight months in 1838 against amir ‘Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi’l-Din (r.1832-1847). The Tijaniyya became very popular not only in Algeria but also in Tunisia and sub-Saharan Africa. The Tijaniyya were divided into several branches. Today, the Tijaniyya brotherhood is one of the most dynamic in the sub-Saharan region.
The Tijaniyah movement was borne out of controversy. From its very inception (c. 1782), its members bought challenge to the accepted notions of monastic order. Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mukhtar al-Tijani (b. 1737 at Ayn Madi, southern Algeria), the founder of the brotherhood, proclaimed himself the “pole of poles” (qutb al-aqtab) and the “seal of sanctity” (khatm al-wilayah), as the Prophet, Muhammad, had averred himself the “seal of prophecy.” The leaders of the Tijaniyah were accused of prohibiting associates from visiting the tombs of the deceased virtuous (walis) from other orders and of disturbing the conviction that spiritual benefit (barakah) could be obtained from walis outside the brotherhood. Moreover, Tijanis were condemned for alleged attempts, against the grain of accepted practice, to prevent their members from affiliating with other Sufi organizations. Finally, at least in their North African context, Tijanis stood accused of favoring wealth over ascetisim (zuhd) and became noted for their abjuration of mysticism in place of which they encouraged a simplicity of belief and practice in their daily devotions.
Ahmad al-Tijani, as he came to be called, began life in the normal Sufi pattern. Traveling throughout the Maghrib in the familiar peripatetic manner, he sought out learned men for knowledge, embraced walis famed for their barakah, and affiliated himself with several religious orders, notably the Wazzaniyah, Darqawiyah, Nasiriyah, and Khalwatiyah, and also espoused many of the tenets of the Shadhiliyah. It was a pattern he was to renounce dramatically around 1782, when he broke the old silsilah (chain) of authority and linked piety and belief to his own powers of intercession.
The rapid proliferation of the orders posed an intractable problem to established authority in the Maghrib. Scores of religious brotherhoods had appeared, based on ethnic and occupational affinities. In Morocco, where the prophet Muhammad and his descendants (sharifs) were held in the highest favor, the organization of the orders came to be drawn tightly round their spiritual influence. By the middle of the nineteenth century, we find many of the educated affiliating with the Darqawiyah (the chief competitors of the Tijaniyah for this constituency), artisans inclining toward the Kattaniyah, for example, the shoemakers of Fez and the flaxweavers of Tangier, while many butchers and practitioners of unclean professions embraced the Hamadshah (Hamdushiyah) and the ‘Isawiyah. Finally, the residue of merchants and proprietors not attracted to the Tijaniyah joined the Tayyibiyah tariqah.
Coming as it did in the wake of the anti-Sufi Wahhabi movement in the Hejaz, the proclamation of Ahmad al-Tijani arrived at an auspicious moment. The sovereign of Morocco, Mawlay Sulayman, became his patron and saw merit in his revolutionary message. The abundance of tariqahs in Morocco and the high prestige of sharifian zawiyahs (lodges) had compromised the authority of the Moroccan ruler, and he perceived in alliance with the Tijaniyah a means of tightening his rein on political and economic affairs. The order received encouragement and was allowed to develop its retreat structure under Mawlay Sulayman’s protective hand. Despite claims to the contrary, Ahmad al-Tijani was not ranked among the illustrious sharifs, and the appeal of the Tijaniyah drew the attention of wealthy non-sharifians of the urban governmental class (including many converted Jews whom Mawlay Sulayman retained as advisers and financiers). These individuals, together with makhzan (government) officials, merchants, and influential families, held a considerable share of economic power, especially in Fez.
From the outset, the Tijaniyah espoused a much simplified corpus of ritual and system of organization, in contrast to the requirements of prayer which tied their rivals to the rigors of convention. Tijanis set much store by their epithet, “the way of Muhammad” (al-tariqat al-Muhammadiyah or al-tariqat al-Ahmadiyah), and prided themselves in their devotion to Sunni practice. Both the wirds (collected prayers) and the wazifah (daily office) of the order were characterized by a streamlined simplicity, sharply reducing the number of prayers required and the pattern of recitation. The old rigor of progression through the Sufi stages of perfection retained only a faint echo of past tradition. The most efficacious prayers and rituals commended by the founder were entrusted to those who comprised the inner circle.
The claim advanced by Ahmad al-Tijani that he was the “seal of sanctity” -- that he inhabited the eminence of light that lay between Muhammad and the saints of Islam -- was to rankle relations with rival orders and excite them to ridicule the Tijaniyah. This merit had its ancestry in the teachings of Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), who, it was suggested, had declined the dignity and left open the door for Ahmad al-Tijani to seize hold of it. Such distinctions had allowed the founder to trumpet his merit and abolish the line of virtuous teachers whose blessings and sustained the spiritual nourishment of other orders. Moreover, such distinctions had enabled al-Tijani to cut the power of the Qadiriyah, the oldest Sufi organization, and one fueled on the barakah of its ancient affiliations. Another charge uniting its rivals in disdain was that the Tijaniyah discouraged its members from associating with other orders and from frequenting the tombs of their walis. Tijani spokesman often defended this practice by declaring that a disciple could not hope to receive spiritual sustenance from two shaykhs simultaneously, any more than a woman could serve faithfully two husbands.
Before the rise of Ahmad al-Tijani, the most notable feature of the Shadhili-Jazuli tradition could be seen in the way in which charismatic power was harnessed and accessed fi sabil Allah, in the path of Allah. Even the simplest adept could link with the spiritual past and feel the flow of barakah that charged his spiritual energy and gave shape and significance to his interior life. The recitation of the wird and other assigned prayers served to recharge his spiritual apparatus and redirect his energy in the path of Allah. Thus, the hizb al-bahr and the dala’il al-khayrat (“proofs of blessings”) of al-Jazuli must be understood as strong currents of charismatic power linked to overt action fi sabil Allah: prayer for the success of Islam, pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places, hijrah from Islam’s enemies, and jihad.
Ahmad al-Tijani streamlined the charismatic “switchboard” -- condensed the currents of barakah into one powerful “microchip,” discarding, as it were, al the bulky “hardware” of past generations. The Wahhabi movement fueled this revolution as it sought to concentrate veneration in the person of Muhammad. It was a tendency that Ahmad al-Tijani was to recast in his own mold. Yet several other features of the Shadhili-Jazuli tradition were absorbed into the teachings of the Tijaniyah. There is danger in placing too much stress on the differences among the tariqahs at the expense of realizing the essential eclecticism and sharing of basic tenets that characterized the religious brotherhoods. Ahmad al-Tijani drank unabashedly from the font of the Shadhiliyah. Indeed, even in the Tijaniyah, there is a strong compulsion to link with individuals of the Sufi past and imbibe their barakah. Al-Shadhili’s hizb al-bahr (a powerful incantation of the ninety-nine names of Allah) became a touchstone of the Tijani canon, and his relentless pursuit of the person of the Qutb found a strong echo in al-Tijani’s fixation on this theme. In the Tijani view, the old silsilah, with its long chain of intermediaries, generated a feeble if permanent current. Ahmad al-Tijani closed the circuit of charisma as he concentrated power between Muhammad and himself. It was his claim that the Prophet was near him always, even in waking, allowing for a close and continuous discharge of spiritual grace and an increase in its velocity.
As it began to take root in the Maghrib, the Tijaniyah emerged as a force for stability and preservation of the status quo, at least during the lifetime of the founder. The Shadhili-Jazuli tradition, in retrospect, bequeathed a legacy of radical activity, forged on an anvil of opposition to the government of the day. Ahmad al-Tijani broke the mold of this radicalism and encouraged his followers to side with established authority. It was this shrewd an pragmatic policy that allowed the Tijaniyah, in the face of sharifian hostility, to spread and prosper under the protection of the makhzan. The sharifian tradition set much store by nobility of descent: al-Jazuli had staked his claim on the strength of a pure and noble lineage. Ahmad al-Tijani could not hope to stand level with his rivals and post a claim elsewhere -- on a higher level -- as he sought to outreach his rivals. Thus, during the founder’s time, adherence to authority became the watchword of Tijani political philosophy. With the passing of al-Tijani in 1815, and the overthrow of Mawlay Sulayman, this policy took on greater flexibility.
There has been a tendancy in past accounts of the Tijaniyah to read into their policies in the Maghrib a pro-French sentiment, but one must demote this view as these activities actually reflected a careful pragmatism not always favorable to French intentions. While it is true that the Tijaniyah managed to ride with success the vicissitudes of the post-Sulayman era and welcomed the French in the Maghrib with a greater liberality of temper than did many other religious organizations, its policies did not always maintain the coherence sustained under the founder. As the Tijaniyah shunned the extremes of militant jihad and renounced “monkery” in favor of a more active involvement in daily life, a strong element of revenge crept into their pragmatism. Indeed, claimants to the succession did nto hesitate to cultivate support wherever it could be found. Dissident Berber groups (a rich quarry for the order), forever at odds with established authority generally, were summoned frequently in support of these claims. After the death of al-Tijani in 1815, and as the French succeeded in seizing power from the Turks, no one pattern can be said to typify Tijani policy toward the various players in the Maghribian struggle for power. Even the attitude toward the Turks, steadfast in its contempt, displayed some flexibility. While the Turks on more than one occasion had laid siege to Ayn Madi (the mother zawiyah), Turkish support for the order in other areas (notably Tunisia) could not be ignored. Indeed, on several occasions prominent Turkish officials affiliated with the Tijaniyah and supplied funds amply to its coffers. Still, Tijanis came to endow with great significance Turkish attempts to impose authority by force and extract tribute from religious establishments (Turkish indignation was brought to a flame when Ayn Madi repeatedly withheld payment). Yet the Turks were not alone in their attempts to diminish the influence of the tariqahs when the occasion demanded, and all political powers rallied to their support when events seemed favorable.
The period of French overmastery offers an object lesson in Tijani pragmatism as it illustrates the unevenness of the order’s policies. When the French wrested hegemony from the Turks in the Maghrib during the nineteenth century and the brotherhoods declared their resentment, the Tijaniyah responded with cautious optimism. According to the founder, succession to power was to alternate between Ayn Madi and Tamalhat (on the Tunisian border). The rotation, however, did not always proceed smoothly, and the occasional roughness of the transition (or the retention of power by Ayn Madi) accounts for much of the intrigue and variation in policy among the principals of the succession and those who supported their claim. From 1877 until 1911, the zawiyah at Ayn Madi maintaine a fairly firm grip over Tijani affairs owning to the role played by a Frenchwoman, Aurelie Picard, who had married Sidi Ahmad, the head of the order, and feigned a commitment to Islam. The French lavished subsidies on their Tijani subordinates and thus compromised any claims to independence. Nevertheless, it was a period when all religious orders were being drawn into the pockets of the French and placed under surveillance, and when real or imagined movements by Tijani and other dissidents intensified the paranoia of French imperial policy.
The Tijaniyah’s strong association with the government of Morocco persisted until 1912 with the declaration of the Protectorate. By the end of the nineteenth century every large town in Morocco could boast at least one Tijani zawiyah (there were twelve in Marrakesh alone). The order in Morocco was much more “national” in outlook than its counterparts in Tunisia and Algeria, and much more consonant with the culture in which it was reared. Following the split between Ayn Madi and Tamalhat in the 1870s over the succession, intense rivalry ensued into the 1930s when Ayn Madi attempted to revive its claims and initiated active campaigns for support to Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, and Gambia. The order had already achieved significant in-roads in these lands and in Mali owing to the proselytization of the celebrated Moroccan ‘alim, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Kansusi (d. 1877), and the great Senegalese mujahid, al-Hajj ‘Umar ibn Sa‘id (‘Umar Tal, d. 1864). By the beginning of the twentieth century, Tijanis could claim more than half a million devotees in the Sudan.
The independence movement in the Maghrib produced the ultimate brotherhoods, absorbing to its purpose all the tone and rhetoric of the old organizations that had met their demise. One result of the Istiqlal (independence) movement was to drive the tariqahs underground, where their activities, severely circumscribed in the public arena retain only a semblance of their previous importance.
Tijaniyah see Tijaniyya
Tijani see Tijaniyya
Tijaniyyah see Tijaniyya
Al-Tariqah al-Tijaniyyah see Tijaniyya
The Tijani Path see Tijaniyya
Tilimsani, al-
Tilimsani, al- (1212-1291). The Arabic word means “the man from Tlemcen.” Many Arabic scholars are known by this name, among them Abu Ishaq Ibrahim (1212-1291), a jurist. Among other subjects, he wrote on the law of inheritance; ‘Afif al-Din Sulayman (1219-1291), Sufi. He was a pious man of affable manners, but was accused of being an adherent of the Nusayris. He was an ardent follower of Ibn al-‘Arabi and left several works; Shams al-Din Muhammad, son of ‘Afif al-Din (1263-1289). He wrote short amatory poems.
Tilimsani, al- (1212-1291). The Arabic word means “the man from Tlemcen.” Many Arabic scholars are known by this name, among them Abu Ishaq Ibrahim (1212-1291), a jurist. Among other subjects, he wrote on the law of inheritance; ‘Afif al-Din Sulayman (1219-1291), Sufi. He was a pious man of affable manners, but was accused of being an adherent of the Nusayris. He was an ardent follower of Ibn al-‘Arabi and left several works; Shams al-Din Muhammad, son of ‘Afif al-Din (1263-1289). He wrote short amatory poems.
Timur
Timur (Timur Lang) (Tamerlane) (Timour) (Timur Lenk) (“Timur the Lame”) (Tamburlaine) (b. 1336, Kesh, near Samarkand, Transoxania [now in Uzbekistan] - d. February 19, 1405, Otrar, near Chimkent [now Shymkent, Kazakhstan]). Central Asian Turkic conqueror of Khurasan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria (r. 1370-1404). Born near Samarkand in a family that claimed descent from Jenghiz Khan, he established dominion over Transoxiana during ten years of fighting. On the partition of the Qipcaq in 1375, he took the part of Ghiyath al-Din Toqtamish, khan of the Crimea (r.1376-1395), who afterwards became his opponent.
Timur's conquest of Persia began in 1380 with the occupation of Khurasan, followed by that of Gurgan, Mazandaran and Sistan. During the years 1386 and 1387, Fars, Iraq, Luristan and Azerbaijan were conquered, Isfahan being severely punished for rebellion by the massacre of 70,000 inhabitants. Timur is said to have had a lively disputation with Hafiz in Shiraz.
In 1392, Timur set out on what is known as the “five years’ war,” the main episodes being the massacre of heretics in the Caspian provinces, the destruction of the Muzaffarid dynasty, and the Mesopotamian campaign. The Jalayirid Ghiyath al-Din Ahmad fled into Syria, where he became a vassal of the Burji Mameluke Barquq. When the latter refused to extradite him, Timur invaded western Asia and took Edessa, Takrit, where he erected a pyramid of skulls, Mardin and Amid (Diyarbakr). Attacked by Toqtamish, he invaded Qipcaq territory in 1395, occupied Moscow for over a year, invaded Georgia and suppressed several risings in Persia.
Convinced that the Muslim rulers of India were much too tolerant, he set out in 1398, crossed the Indus and took Delhi, which was plundered and destroyed. A rebellion which had broken out in Syria, and the invasion of Azerbaijan by the Jalayirid Ahmad, who had returned to Baghdad, made Timur turn westwards again. He ravaged Georgia and took Sivas, Malatya, Aleppo, Hamat, Homs and Baalbek. He defeated the Mameluke Faraj (r.1399-1412), sacked Damascus, where he met Ibn Khaldun, and in 1401 took Baghdad by surprise. Here he wrought a great massacre.
Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I attacked the Byzantine emperor, an ally of Timur, and molested the Turkish princes of Anatolia. Returning from Georgia, Timur defeated Bayezid at the battle of Ankara in 1402. The Ottoman fell into his hands, but he treated him with respect. In 1404, Timur returned to Samarkand, where he received, among others, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, ambassador of Henry III of Castile, who has left a valuable account of the court of Samarkand.
A new campaign was planned, this time against China, which belonged to Timur’s suzerainty. In 1404, he crossed the Oxus on the ice, granted pardon to Toqtamish, but died soon afterwards. He is buried in the Gur-i Mir at Samarkand, which can still be admired. Timur favored the new Naqshbandiyya order, and on his campaigns he was accompanied by religious men, artists and men of letters.
Timur was a member of the Turkicized Barlas tribe, a Mongol subgroup that had settled in Transoxania (now roughly corresponding to Uzbekistan) after taking part in Genghis Khan’s son Chagatai’s campaigns in that region. Timur thus grew up in what was known as the Chagatai khanate. After the death in 1357 of Transoxania’s ruler, Amir Kazgan, Timur declared his fealty to the khan of nearby Kashgar, Tughluq Temür, who had overrun Transoxania’s chief city, Samarkand, in 1361. Tughluq Temür appointed his son Ilyas Khoja as governor of Transoxania, with Timur as his minister. But shortly afterward Timur fled and rejoined his brother-in-law Amir Husayn, the grandson of Amir Kazgan. They defeated Ilyas Khoja (1364) and set out to conquer Transoxania, achieving firm possession of the region around 1366. About 1370 Timur turned against Husayn, besieged him in Balkh, and, after Husayn’s assassination, proclaimed himself at Samarkand sovereign of the Chagatai line of khans and restorer of the Mongol empire.
For the next 10 years, Timur fought against the khans of Jatah (eastern Turkistan) and Khwārezm, finally occupying Kashgar in 1380. He gave armed support to Tokhtamysh, who was the Mongol khan of the Crimea and a refugee at his court, against the Russians (who had risen against the khan of the Golden Horde, Mamai); and his troops occupied Moscow and defeated the Lithuanians near Poltava.
In 1383, Timur began his conquests in Persia with the capture of Herāt. The Persian political and economic situation was extremely precarious. The signs of recovery visible under the later Mongol rulers known as the Il-Khanid dynasty had been followed by a setback after the death of the last Il-Khanid, Abu Said (1335). The vacuum of power was filled by rival dynasties, torn by internal dissensions and unable to put up joint or effective resistance. Khorāsān and all eastern Persia fell to him in 1383–85. Fars, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Georgia all fell between 1386 and 1394. In the intervals, he was engaged with Tokhtamysh, then khan of the Golden Horde, whose forces invaded Azerbaijan in 1385 and Transoxania in 1388, defeating Timur’s generals. In 1391 Timur pursued Tokhtamysh into the Russian steppes and defeated and dethroned him. However, Tokhtamysh raised a new army and invaded the Caucasus in 1395. After his final defeat on the Kur River, Tokhtamysh gave up the struggle. Timur occupied Moscow for a year. The revolts that broke out all over Persia while Timur was away on these campaigns were repressed with ruthless vigor. Whole cities were destroyed, their populations massacred, and towers built of their skulls.
In 1398 Timur invaded India on the pretext that the Muslim sultans of Delhi were showing excessive tolerance to their Hindu subjects. He crossed the Indus River on September 24 and, leaving a trail of carnage, marched on Delhi. The army of the Delhi sultan Mahmud Tughluq was destroyed at Panipat on December 17, and Delhi was reduced to a mass of ruins, from which it took more than a century to emerge. By April 1399 Timur was back in his own capital. An immense quantity of spoil was conveyed away; according to Ruy González de Clavijo, 90 captured elephants were employed to carry stones from quarries to erect a mosque at Samarkand.
Timur set out before the end of 1399 on his last great expedition, in order to punish the Mamelūke sultan of Egypt and the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I for their seizures of certain of his territories. After restoring his control over Azerbaijan, he marched on Syria. Aleppo was stormed and sacked, the Mamelūke army defeated, and Damascus occupied (1401), the deportation of its artisans to Samarkand being a fatal blow to its prosperity. In 1401 Baghdad was also taken by storm, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred, and all its monuments were destroyed. After wintering in Georgia, Timur invaded Anatolia, destroyed Bayezid’s army near Ankara (July 20, 1402), and captured Smyrna from the Knights of Rhodes. Having received offers of submission from the sultan of Egypt and from John VII (then co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire with Manuel II Palaeologus), Timur returned to Samarkand (1404) and prepared for an expedition to China. He set out at the end of December, fell ill at Otrar on the Syr Darya west of Chimkent, and died in February 1405. His body was embalmed, laid in an ebony coffin, and sent to Samarkand, where it was buried in the sumptuous tomb called Gūr-e Amīr. Before his death he had divided his territories among his two surviving sons and his grandsons, and, after years of internecine struggles, the lands were reunited by his youngest son, Shāh Rokh.
Timur Lang see Timur
Tamerlane see Timur
Timour see Timur
Timur Lenk see Timur
"Timur the Lame" see Timur
Tamburlaine see Timur
Timur (Timur Lang) (Tamerlane) (Timour) (Timur Lenk) (“Timur the Lame”) (Tamburlaine) (b. 1336, Kesh, near Samarkand, Transoxania [now in Uzbekistan] - d. February 19, 1405, Otrar, near Chimkent [now Shymkent, Kazakhstan]). Central Asian Turkic conqueror of Khurasan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria (r. 1370-1404). Born near Samarkand in a family that claimed descent from Jenghiz Khan, he established dominion over Transoxiana during ten years of fighting. On the partition of the Qipcaq in 1375, he took the part of Ghiyath al-Din Toqtamish, khan of the Crimea (r.1376-1395), who afterwards became his opponent.
Timur's conquest of Persia began in 1380 with the occupation of Khurasan, followed by that of Gurgan, Mazandaran and Sistan. During the years 1386 and 1387, Fars, Iraq, Luristan and Azerbaijan were conquered, Isfahan being severely punished for rebellion by the massacre of 70,000 inhabitants. Timur is said to have had a lively disputation with Hafiz in Shiraz.
In 1392, Timur set out on what is known as the “five years’ war,” the main episodes being the massacre of heretics in the Caspian provinces, the destruction of the Muzaffarid dynasty, and the Mesopotamian campaign. The Jalayirid Ghiyath al-Din Ahmad fled into Syria, where he became a vassal of the Burji Mameluke Barquq. When the latter refused to extradite him, Timur invaded western Asia and took Edessa, Takrit, where he erected a pyramid of skulls, Mardin and Amid (Diyarbakr). Attacked by Toqtamish, he invaded Qipcaq territory in 1395, occupied Moscow for over a year, invaded Georgia and suppressed several risings in Persia.
Convinced that the Muslim rulers of India were much too tolerant, he set out in 1398, crossed the Indus and took Delhi, which was plundered and destroyed. A rebellion which had broken out in Syria, and the invasion of Azerbaijan by the Jalayirid Ahmad, who had returned to Baghdad, made Timur turn westwards again. He ravaged Georgia and took Sivas, Malatya, Aleppo, Hamat, Homs and Baalbek. He defeated the Mameluke Faraj (r.1399-1412), sacked Damascus, where he met Ibn Khaldun, and in 1401 took Baghdad by surprise. Here he wrought a great massacre.
Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I attacked the Byzantine emperor, an ally of Timur, and molested the Turkish princes of Anatolia. Returning from Georgia, Timur defeated Bayezid at the battle of Ankara in 1402. The Ottoman fell into his hands, but he treated him with respect. In 1404, Timur returned to Samarkand, where he received, among others, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, ambassador of Henry III of Castile, who has left a valuable account of the court of Samarkand.
A new campaign was planned, this time against China, which belonged to Timur’s suzerainty. In 1404, he crossed the Oxus on the ice, granted pardon to Toqtamish, but died soon afterwards. He is buried in the Gur-i Mir at Samarkand, which can still be admired. Timur favored the new Naqshbandiyya order, and on his campaigns he was accompanied by religious men, artists and men of letters.
Timur was a member of the Turkicized Barlas tribe, a Mongol subgroup that had settled in Transoxania (now roughly corresponding to Uzbekistan) after taking part in Genghis Khan’s son Chagatai’s campaigns in that region. Timur thus grew up in what was known as the Chagatai khanate. After the death in 1357 of Transoxania’s ruler, Amir Kazgan, Timur declared his fealty to the khan of nearby Kashgar, Tughluq Temür, who had overrun Transoxania’s chief city, Samarkand, in 1361. Tughluq Temür appointed his son Ilyas Khoja as governor of Transoxania, with Timur as his minister. But shortly afterward Timur fled and rejoined his brother-in-law Amir Husayn, the grandson of Amir Kazgan. They defeated Ilyas Khoja (1364) and set out to conquer Transoxania, achieving firm possession of the region around 1366. About 1370 Timur turned against Husayn, besieged him in Balkh, and, after Husayn’s assassination, proclaimed himself at Samarkand sovereign of the Chagatai line of khans and restorer of the Mongol empire.
For the next 10 years, Timur fought against the khans of Jatah (eastern Turkistan) and Khwārezm, finally occupying Kashgar in 1380. He gave armed support to Tokhtamysh, who was the Mongol khan of the Crimea and a refugee at his court, against the Russians (who had risen against the khan of the Golden Horde, Mamai); and his troops occupied Moscow and defeated the Lithuanians near Poltava.
In 1383, Timur began his conquests in Persia with the capture of Herāt. The Persian political and economic situation was extremely precarious. The signs of recovery visible under the later Mongol rulers known as the Il-Khanid dynasty had been followed by a setback after the death of the last Il-Khanid, Abu Said (1335). The vacuum of power was filled by rival dynasties, torn by internal dissensions and unable to put up joint or effective resistance. Khorāsān and all eastern Persia fell to him in 1383–85. Fars, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Georgia all fell between 1386 and 1394. In the intervals, he was engaged with Tokhtamysh, then khan of the Golden Horde, whose forces invaded Azerbaijan in 1385 and Transoxania in 1388, defeating Timur’s generals. In 1391 Timur pursued Tokhtamysh into the Russian steppes and defeated and dethroned him. However, Tokhtamysh raised a new army and invaded the Caucasus in 1395. After his final defeat on the Kur River, Tokhtamysh gave up the struggle. Timur occupied Moscow for a year. The revolts that broke out all over Persia while Timur was away on these campaigns were repressed with ruthless vigor. Whole cities were destroyed, their populations massacred, and towers built of their skulls.
In 1398 Timur invaded India on the pretext that the Muslim sultans of Delhi were showing excessive tolerance to their Hindu subjects. He crossed the Indus River on September 24 and, leaving a trail of carnage, marched on Delhi. The army of the Delhi sultan Mahmud Tughluq was destroyed at Panipat on December 17, and Delhi was reduced to a mass of ruins, from which it took more than a century to emerge. By April 1399 Timur was back in his own capital. An immense quantity of spoil was conveyed away; according to Ruy González de Clavijo, 90 captured elephants were employed to carry stones from quarries to erect a mosque at Samarkand.
Timur set out before the end of 1399 on his last great expedition, in order to punish the Mamelūke sultan of Egypt and the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I for their seizures of certain of his territories. After restoring his control over Azerbaijan, he marched on Syria. Aleppo was stormed and sacked, the Mamelūke army defeated, and Damascus occupied (1401), the deportation of its artisans to Samarkand being a fatal blow to its prosperity. In 1401 Baghdad was also taken by storm, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred, and all its monuments were destroyed. After wintering in Georgia, Timur invaded Anatolia, destroyed Bayezid’s army near Ankara (July 20, 1402), and captured Smyrna from the Knights of Rhodes. Having received offers of submission from the sultan of Egypt and from John VII (then co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire with Manuel II Palaeologus), Timur returned to Samarkand (1404) and prepared for an expedition to China. He set out at the end of December, fell ill at Otrar on the Syr Darya west of Chimkent, and died in February 1405. His body was embalmed, laid in an ebony coffin, and sent to Samarkand, where it was buried in the sumptuous tomb called Gūr-e Amīr. Before his death he had divided his territories among his two surviving sons and his grandsons, and, after years of internecine struggles, the lands were reunited by his youngest son, Shāh Rokh.
Timur Lang see Timur
Tamerlane see Timur
Timour see Timur
Timur Lenk see Timur
"Timur the Lame" see Timur
Tamburlaine see Timur
Timurids
Timurids. The term is sometimes used for all the descendants of Timur, but it means more specifically the princes of his family who ruled in Persia and central Asia in the fifteenth century, and later India, where they were called “Mughals.” Timur’s sons and grandsons ruled in two great kingdoms, one in western Persia and Iraq, the other in Khurasan and Transoxiana. Under their rule the eastern Islamic world, notwithstanding many political troubles, was a splendid cultural unity. The so-called Timurid art covers the fields of architecture, music, miniature painting in the schools of Herat, Shiraz, and Tabriz, leatherwork, bookbinding and calligraphy. Some of the princes were artists and scholars themselves, like Ulugh Beg, an astronomer in his own right; Ghiyath al-Din BayBaysunghur (d.1433), the son of Shahrukh Mirza, a calligrapher of the first rank; and Husayn Bayqara (r.1470-1506), an artist and poet. All rulers were great patrons of letters and science. Zahir al-Din Babur, the last Timurid ruler of Farghana, survived the conquest of the dynasty by the Shaybanids in 1506 and founded in 1526 the line of the Mughal emperors in India.
The Timurids were a dynasty of Turkish origin in Transoxiana and Afghanistan, and (until 1405) northern India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, eastern Anatolia, and parts of the Caucasus from 1363 to 1506. Their main capitals were Samarkand and, from 1405, Herat. The founder of the dynasty was Timur (1328-1405) from the Transoxianan Turkish tribe of the Barlas. Emir of Kesh (Shahr-i Sabz) from 1360, he conquered large parts of Transoxiana from 1363 onwards with various alliances (Samarkand in 1366 and Balkh in 1369), and was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of the Mongolian Chaghatai ulus, he subjugated Mongolistan and Khwarazmia in the years that followed and began a campaign westwards in 1380. By 1389, he had removed the Kartids from Afghanistan (Herat) and advanced into Iran and Iraq from 1382 (capture of Isfahan in 1387, removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz in 1393, and expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad. In 1394, he triumphedover the Golden Horde and enforce his sovereignty in the Caucasus. In 1398, subjugated northern India and occupied Delhi, in 1400/1401 conquered Aleppo, Damascus and eastern Anatolia, in 1401 destroyed Baghdad and in 1402 triumphed over the Ottomans at Ankara. In addition, he transformed Samarkand into the “Center of the World.” In 1405, Timur died in Utrar during a campaign to conquer China. Following attempts by several grandsons to seize power, his son Shah Rukh (r. 1405-1447) won through, maintaining sovereignty in most of Timur’s territories from Herat, although Anatolia and Iran/Iraq were lost to the Qara Qoyunlu. Various cultural centers emerged under Timur’s grandsons, with Samarkand remaining important under the learned astronomer Ulugh Beg (1409-1449). Internal power struggles followed after 1447, but the government in Samarkand remained stable under Abu Said (1451-1469). His son, Sultan Ahmad (1469-1494), was oppressed by the Shaybanids, who captured Samarkand in 1497. The last chapter of cultural fecundity was opened in Herat under Husain Baiqara (1469-1506), whose court was an important artistic center. In 1506, Timurid rule was ended by the Shaybanids with the capture of Herat. A fifth-generation descendant of Timur, Babar became the first Mughal of India.
Timurids comprised the Timurid dynasty which controlled most of Iran and Central Asia from about 1385 to 1507, were the last Turco-Mongolian conquest dynasty to rule in Southwest Asia. Their reign was politically fragmented but rich in cultural achievement, and the synthesis of Turco-Mongolian and Islamic traditions that developed under their rule strongly influenced the dynasties that followed them.
The dynasty’s founder was Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane), who rose to power about 1370 in Transoxiana among the Turkish tribes of the part of the former Mongol empire known as the Ulus Chagatai. From 1380 to his death in 1405 Timur conquered much of Southwest Asia. The succession struggle that followed his death severely depleted the dynasty’s military and economic power. His youngest son, Shahrukh, emerged as victor. In 1409, Shahrukh took his father’s capital Samarkand, appointed his son Ulug Beg its governor, and then made his own capital in the eastern Iranian city of Herat. By 1421, he had established his rule throughout the Timurid realm.
The western Timurid provinces, however, were threatened by the nomadic Turkmen confederations of the Karakoyunlu and the Akkoyunlu. Shahrukh managed with some difficulty to maintain control over them, but later Timurid rulers were less successful. The Timurids also had to protect their realm from the threats of two Mongol successor states, the Uzbek horde north of the Aral Sea and the Mughal confederation on their eastern border.
Shahrukh’s death in 1447 brought another power struggle, complicated by Ulug Beg’s murder at the hands of his own son in 1449. The Timurid realm now broke up. Abu Sa’id, descended from Timur’s son Amiranshah, ruled Transoxiana; Shahrukh’s grandson Abu al-Qasim Babur controlled Khurasan; and another of his grandsons, Sultan Muhammad, held southern central Iran. In 1458, Abu Sa’id repulsed an invasion by the Karakoyunlu and then took over Khurasan, briefly reuniting most of the Timurid territories. In 1469, Abu Sa’id was killed campaigning against the Akkoyunlu. The realm now lost both its territories west of Khurasan and its internal unity. Transoxiana passed to Abu Sa’id’s sons, and Khurasan fell to Sultan Husain Baiqara, a descendant of Timur’s second son, Umar Shaikh, who ruled in Herat from 1470 to 1506.
Timurid and Turkmen rule ended in the early sixteenth century when the Safavids conquered Iran. The Uzbeks, who had become increasingly involved in Timurid affairs, took Samarkand in 1501 and Herat in 1507. The Timurid dynasty, however, continued. In 1526, Abu Sa’id’s grandson Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur conquered India and founded the Indian Timurid, or Mughal, dynasty.
The Timurids inherited two political and cultural traditions, the Turco-Mongolian heritage of their ancestors and the Islamic tradition of the lands they controlled. They used both of these to legitimate their rule. They carefully established their connection to the charismatic dynasty of Jenghiz Khan. In the Mongol tradition only Jenghiz Khan’s descendants were entitled to the sovereign title khan. Both Timur and his grandson Ulug Beg maintained Chinggisid puppet khans. Many Timurid rulers married Chinggisid princesses, and most added Turco-Mongolian titles to their names. At the same time, the Timurids sought legitimacy within the Islamic tradition through patronage of culture and religion. They treated religious leaders with marked respect and turned their courts into centers of literary and artistic activity.
The political power of religious leaders now grew markedly, especially that of the Sufi Naqshbandi order, which rapidly became a major force in eastern Iran and Transoxiana. The Central Asian head of the Naqshbandi, Khwaja Ahrar (d. 1490), held great wealth and decisivie influence over Abu Sa’id and his sons.
The dynasty and its Turkish followers also took an active interest in art and literature, which they both patronized and practiced. The numerous Timurid courts in Fars, Khurasan, and Central Asia provided support for a rich cultural and scientific life. Ulug Beg made Samarkand a center for astronomy and science. He built an observatory there and with his scientists developed a well-known set of astronomical tables.
The greatest cultural center was Herat. Here Shahrukh patronized literature and historical writing in both Persian and Turkish, and his son Baysonghur founded a library and atelier for the creation of manuscripts. Under Sultan Husain Baiqara, Herat attracted the finest talents of the age in literature, calligraphy, miniature painting, and music. The Persian poet and mystic Abd al-Rahman Jami and the Chagatai poet Ali Shir Neva’i, both men of outstanding talent, flourished at Sultan Husain’s court. It was there also that Chagatai (eastern Turkish) first became fully established as a language of high culture. The Timurids were also active builders. They left behind them many remarkable monuments distinguished for their imposing size and rich decoration.
The regional empires that followed the Timurids -- the Ottomans, Safavids, Uzbeks, and Mughals -- were ruled largely by Turks whose own heritage, like that of the Timurids, combined the Turco-Mongolian and Islamic traditions. Artists and writers who had served the Timurids received a ready welcome among their successors, and the Timurid courts, particularly Husain Baiqara’s, long remained symbols of cultural brilliance throughout the Turco-Iranian world.
The rulers of the Timurid Empire were:
* Timur (Tamerlane) 1370–1405 (771–807 AH) – with Suyurghitmiš Chaghtay as nominal overlord followed by Mahmūd Chaghtay as overlord and finally Muhammad Sultān as heir
* Pir Muhammad bin Jahāngīr 1405–07 (807–08 AH)
The Timurid rulers of Herat were:
* Shāhrukh 1405–47 (807–50 AH; overall ruler of the Timurid Empire 1409–47)
* Abu'l-Qasim Bābur 1447–57 (850–61 AH)
* Shāh Mahmūd 1457 (861 AH)
* Ibrāhim 1457–1459 (861–63 AH)
* Sultān Abu Sa’id Gūrgān 1459–69 (863–73 AH; in Transoxiana 1451–69)
* Yādgār Muhammad 1470 (873 AH)
* Sultān Husayn Bayqarah 1470–1506 (874–911 AH)
* Badi ul-Zamān 1506–07 (911–12 AH)
* Muzaffar Hussayn 1506–07 (911–12 AH)
Herat is conquered by the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani
The Timurid rulers of Samarkand were:
* Khalīl Sultān 1405–09 (807–11 AH)
* Mohammad Taragai bin Shāhrukh-I 1409–49 (811–53 AH; overall ruler of the Timurid Empire 1447–49)
* 'Abd al-Latif 1449–50 (853–54 AH)
* ‘Abdullah 1450–51 (854–55 AH)
* Sultān Abu Sa’id 1451–69 (855–73 AH; in Herat 1459–69)
Abu Sa'id's sons divided his territories upon his death, into Samarkand, Badakhshan and Farghana
* Sultān Ahmad 1469–94 (873–99 AH)
* Sultān Mahmūd ibn Abu Sa’id 1494–95 (899–900 AH)
* Sultān Baysunqur 1495–97 (900–02 AH)
* Mas’ūd 1495 (900 AH)
* Sultān Alī Mīrzā 1495–1500 (900–05 AH)
Samarkand was conquered by the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani
Other Timurid rulers were:
* Qaidu bin Pir Muhammad bin Jahāngīr 808–811 AH
* Abu Bakr bin Mīrān Shāh 1405–07 (807–09 AH)
* Pir Muhammad bin Umar Sheikh 807–12 AH
* Rustam 812–17 AH
* Sikandar 812–17 AH
* Alaudaullah 851 AH
* Abu Bakr bin Muhammad 851 AH
* Sultān Muhammad 850–55 AH
* Muhammad bin Hussayn 903–06 AH
* Abul A'la Fereydūn Hussayn 911–12 AH
* Muhammad Mohsin Khān 911–12 AH
* Muhammad Zamān Khān 920–23 AH
* Shāhrukh II bin Abu Sa’id 896–97 AH
* Ulugh Beg Kābulī 873–907 AH
* Sultān Uways 1508–22 (913–27 AH)
Timurids. The term is sometimes used for all the descendants of Timur, but it means more specifically the princes of his family who ruled in Persia and central Asia in the fifteenth century, and later India, where they were called “Mughals.” Timur’s sons and grandsons ruled in two great kingdoms, one in western Persia and Iraq, the other in Khurasan and Transoxiana. Under their rule the eastern Islamic world, notwithstanding many political troubles, was a splendid cultural unity. The so-called Timurid art covers the fields of architecture, music, miniature painting in the schools of Herat, Shiraz, and Tabriz, leatherwork, bookbinding and calligraphy. Some of the princes were artists and scholars themselves, like Ulugh Beg, an astronomer in his own right; Ghiyath al-Din BayBaysunghur (d.1433), the son of Shahrukh Mirza, a calligrapher of the first rank; and Husayn Bayqara (r.1470-1506), an artist and poet. All rulers were great patrons of letters and science. Zahir al-Din Babur, the last Timurid ruler of Farghana, survived the conquest of the dynasty by the Shaybanids in 1506 and founded in 1526 the line of the Mughal emperors in India.
The Timurids were a dynasty of Turkish origin in Transoxiana and Afghanistan, and (until 1405) northern India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, eastern Anatolia, and parts of the Caucasus from 1363 to 1506. Their main capitals were Samarkand and, from 1405, Herat. The founder of the dynasty was Timur (1328-1405) from the Transoxianan Turkish tribe of the Barlas. Emir of Kesh (Shahr-i Sabz) from 1360, he conquered large parts of Transoxiana from 1363 onwards with various alliances (Samarkand in 1366 and Balkh in 1369), and was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of the Mongolian Chaghatai ulus, he subjugated Mongolistan and Khwarazmia in the years that followed and began a campaign westwards in 1380. By 1389, he had removed the Kartids from Afghanistan (Herat) and advanced into Iran and Iraq from 1382 (capture of Isfahan in 1387, removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz in 1393, and expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad. In 1394, he triumphedover the Golden Horde and enforce his sovereignty in the Caucasus. In 1398, subjugated northern India and occupied Delhi, in 1400/1401 conquered Aleppo, Damascus and eastern Anatolia, in 1401 destroyed Baghdad and in 1402 triumphed over the Ottomans at Ankara. In addition, he transformed Samarkand into the “Center of the World.” In 1405, Timur died in Utrar during a campaign to conquer China. Following attempts by several grandsons to seize power, his son Shah Rukh (r. 1405-1447) won through, maintaining sovereignty in most of Timur’s territories from Herat, although Anatolia and Iran/Iraq were lost to the Qara Qoyunlu. Various cultural centers emerged under Timur’s grandsons, with Samarkand remaining important under the learned astronomer Ulugh Beg (1409-1449). Internal power struggles followed after 1447, but the government in Samarkand remained stable under Abu Said (1451-1469). His son, Sultan Ahmad (1469-1494), was oppressed by the Shaybanids, who captured Samarkand in 1497. The last chapter of cultural fecundity was opened in Herat under Husain Baiqara (1469-1506), whose court was an important artistic center. In 1506, Timurid rule was ended by the Shaybanids with the capture of Herat. A fifth-generation descendant of Timur, Babar became the first Mughal of India.
Timurids comprised the Timurid dynasty which controlled most of Iran and Central Asia from about 1385 to 1507, were the last Turco-Mongolian conquest dynasty to rule in Southwest Asia. Their reign was politically fragmented but rich in cultural achievement, and the synthesis of Turco-Mongolian and Islamic traditions that developed under their rule strongly influenced the dynasties that followed them.
The dynasty’s founder was Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane), who rose to power about 1370 in Transoxiana among the Turkish tribes of the part of the former Mongol empire known as the Ulus Chagatai. From 1380 to his death in 1405 Timur conquered much of Southwest Asia. The succession struggle that followed his death severely depleted the dynasty’s military and economic power. His youngest son, Shahrukh, emerged as victor. In 1409, Shahrukh took his father’s capital Samarkand, appointed his son Ulug Beg its governor, and then made his own capital in the eastern Iranian city of Herat. By 1421, he had established his rule throughout the Timurid realm.
The western Timurid provinces, however, were threatened by the nomadic Turkmen confederations of the Karakoyunlu and the Akkoyunlu. Shahrukh managed with some difficulty to maintain control over them, but later Timurid rulers were less successful. The Timurids also had to protect their realm from the threats of two Mongol successor states, the Uzbek horde north of the Aral Sea and the Mughal confederation on their eastern border.
Shahrukh’s death in 1447 brought another power struggle, complicated by Ulug Beg’s murder at the hands of his own son in 1449. The Timurid realm now broke up. Abu Sa’id, descended from Timur’s son Amiranshah, ruled Transoxiana; Shahrukh’s grandson Abu al-Qasim Babur controlled Khurasan; and another of his grandsons, Sultan Muhammad, held southern central Iran. In 1458, Abu Sa’id repulsed an invasion by the Karakoyunlu and then took over Khurasan, briefly reuniting most of the Timurid territories. In 1469, Abu Sa’id was killed campaigning against the Akkoyunlu. The realm now lost both its territories west of Khurasan and its internal unity. Transoxiana passed to Abu Sa’id’s sons, and Khurasan fell to Sultan Husain Baiqara, a descendant of Timur’s second son, Umar Shaikh, who ruled in Herat from 1470 to 1506.
Timurid and Turkmen rule ended in the early sixteenth century when the Safavids conquered Iran. The Uzbeks, who had become increasingly involved in Timurid affairs, took Samarkand in 1501 and Herat in 1507. The Timurid dynasty, however, continued. In 1526, Abu Sa’id’s grandson Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur conquered India and founded the Indian Timurid, or Mughal, dynasty.
The Timurids inherited two political and cultural traditions, the Turco-Mongolian heritage of their ancestors and the Islamic tradition of the lands they controlled. They used both of these to legitimate their rule. They carefully established their connection to the charismatic dynasty of Jenghiz Khan. In the Mongol tradition only Jenghiz Khan’s descendants were entitled to the sovereign title khan. Both Timur and his grandson Ulug Beg maintained Chinggisid puppet khans. Many Timurid rulers married Chinggisid princesses, and most added Turco-Mongolian titles to their names. At the same time, the Timurids sought legitimacy within the Islamic tradition through patronage of culture and religion. They treated religious leaders with marked respect and turned their courts into centers of literary and artistic activity.
The political power of religious leaders now grew markedly, especially that of the Sufi Naqshbandi order, which rapidly became a major force in eastern Iran and Transoxiana. The Central Asian head of the Naqshbandi, Khwaja Ahrar (d. 1490), held great wealth and decisivie influence over Abu Sa’id and his sons.
The dynasty and its Turkish followers also took an active interest in art and literature, which they both patronized and practiced. The numerous Timurid courts in Fars, Khurasan, and Central Asia provided support for a rich cultural and scientific life. Ulug Beg made Samarkand a center for astronomy and science. He built an observatory there and with his scientists developed a well-known set of astronomical tables.
The greatest cultural center was Herat. Here Shahrukh patronized literature and historical writing in both Persian and Turkish, and his son Baysonghur founded a library and atelier for the creation of manuscripts. Under Sultan Husain Baiqara, Herat attracted the finest talents of the age in literature, calligraphy, miniature painting, and music. The Persian poet and mystic Abd al-Rahman Jami and the Chagatai poet Ali Shir Neva’i, both men of outstanding talent, flourished at Sultan Husain’s court. It was there also that Chagatai (eastern Turkish) first became fully established as a language of high culture. The Timurids were also active builders. They left behind them many remarkable monuments distinguished for their imposing size and rich decoration.
The regional empires that followed the Timurids -- the Ottomans, Safavids, Uzbeks, and Mughals -- were ruled largely by Turks whose own heritage, like that of the Timurids, combined the Turco-Mongolian and Islamic traditions. Artists and writers who had served the Timurids received a ready welcome among their successors, and the Timurid courts, particularly Husain Baiqara’s, long remained symbols of cultural brilliance throughout the Turco-Iranian world.
The rulers of the Timurid Empire were:
* Timur (Tamerlane) 1370–1405 (771–807 AH) – with Suyurghitmiš Chaghtay as nominal overlord followed by Mahmūd Chaghtay as overlord and finally Muhammad Sultān as heir
* Pir Muhammad bin Jahāngīr 1405–07 (807–08 AH)
The Timurid rulers of Herat were:
* Shāhrukh 1405–47 (807–50 AH; overall ruler of the Timurid Empire 1409–47)
* Abu'l-Qasim Bābur 1447–57 (850–61 AH)
* Shāh Mahmūd 1457 (861 AH)
* Ibrāhim 1457–1459 (861–63 AH)
* Sultān Abu Sa’id Gūrgān 1459–69 (863–73 AH; in Transoxiana 1451–69)
* Yādgār Muhammad 1470 (873 AH)
* Sultān Husayn Bayqarah 1470–1506 (874–911 AH)
* Badi ul-Zamān 1506–07 (911–12 AH)
* Muzaffar Hussayn 1506–07 (911–12 AH)
Herat is conquered by the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani
The Timurid rulers of Samarkand were:
* Khalīl Sultān 1405–09 (807–11 AH)
* Mohammad Taragai bin Shāhrukh-I 1409–49 (811–53 AH; overall ruler of the Timurid Empire 1447–49)
* 'Abd al-Latif 1449–50 (853–54 AH)
* ‘Abdullah 1450–51 (854–55 AH)
* Sultān Abu Sa’id 1451–69 (855–73 AH; in Herat 1459–69)
Abu Sa'id's sons divided his territories upon his death, into Samarkand, Badakhshan and Farghana
* Sultān Ahmad 1469–94 (873–99 AH)
* Sultān Mahmūd ibn Abu Sa’id 1494–95 (899–900 AH)
* Sultān Baysunqur 1495–97 (900–02 AH)
* Mas’ūd 1495 (900 AH)
* Sultān Alī Mīrzā 1495–1500 (900–05 AH)
Samarkand was conquered by the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani
Other Timurid rulers were:
* Qaidu bin Pir Muhammad bin Jahāngīr 808–811 AH
* Abu Bakr bin Mīrān Shāh 1405–07 (807–09 AH)
* Pir Muhammad bin Umar Sheikh 807–12 AH
* Rustam 812–17 AH
* Sikandar 812–17 AH
* Alaudaullah 851 AH
* Abu Bakr bin Muhammad 851 AH
* Sultān Muhammad 850–55 AH
* Muhammad bin Hussayn 903–06 AH
* Abul A'la Fereydūn Hussayn 911–12 AH
* Muhammad Mohsin Khān 911–12 AH
* Muhammad Zamān Khān 920–23 AH
* Shāhrukh II bin Abu Sa’id 896–97 AH
* Ulugh Beg Kābulī 873–907 AH
* Sultān Uways 1508–22 (913–27 AH)
Timurtash, Husam al-Din
Timurtash, Husam al-Din (Husam al-Din Timurtashi) (b.1104). Prince of the Artuqid dynasty which ruled in Mardin and Mayyafariqin (r.1122-1152). His great opponent was Imad al-Din ibn Aq Sunqur Zangi, although they joined in the siege of Diyarbakr in 1132.
Husam al-Din Timurtash see Timurtash, Husam al-Din
Timurtash, Husam al-Din (Husam al-Din Timurtashi) (b.1104). Prince of the Artuqid dynasty which ruled in Mardin and Mayyafariqin (r.1122-1152). His great opponent was Imad al-Din ibn Aq Sunqur Zangi, although they joined in the siege of Diyarbakr in 1132.
Husam al-Din Timurtash see Timurtash, Husam al-Din
Timurtash Pasha
Timurtash Pasha (d. 1405). Ottoman general and vizier. In 1375, he became governor of Rumeli and led many campaigns in the European part of the Ottoman empire. In 1386, it was his intervention which brought the Ottoman victory over the Ilek-Khan ‘Ala’ al-Din ibn Khalil (r.1381-1403) in the plain of Konya. In the battle of Ankara of 1402, he fell into the hands of Timur, but was released.
Timurtash Pasha (d. 1405). Ottoman general and vizier. In 1375, he became governor of Rumeli and led many campaigns in the European part of the Ottoman empire. In 1386, it was his intervention which brought the Ottoman victory over the Ilek-Khan ‘Ala’ al-Din ibn Khalil (r.1381-1403) in the plain of Konya. In the battle of Ankara of 1402, he fell into the hands of Timur, but was released.
Tippu Tip
Tippu Tip (Tipu Tib) (Hamid bin Muhammad al-Murjebi) (Muhammed Bin Hamid) (Hamad bin Muḥammad bin Jumah bin Rajab bin Muḥammad bin Sa‘īd al-Murghabī) (b. 1837 - d. June 14, 1905, Zanzibar [now in Tanzania]). Most powerful of the late 19th century Arab and Swahili traders in the east central African interior. Tippu Tip, who was also known by the names Tippu Tib and Hamid bin Muhammed al-Murjebi, built a vast mercantile empire which dominated eastern Zaire until the European occupation of Africa in the 1890s.
Tippu Tip was born in Zanzibar (Tanzania) to an Afro-Arab man and a mainland African woman. His commercial career began when he was twelve. His initial involvement was to accompany his father on short trading trips. Later though, he was a member of major expeditions into western Tanzania.
Around 1850, Tippu Tip separated from his father to undertake his own enterprises. Over the next fifteen years, Tippu Tip steadily accumulated wealth and experience until he was able to finance and organize large and well-armed caravans.
By the late 1860s, the operations of Tippu Tip extended to northeast Zambia. It was in Zambia that Tippu Tip engaged and defeated the Bemba. By defeating the Bemba, Tippu Tip captured a store of ivory -- a store which greatly added to his wealth.
From Zambia, Tippu Tip moved to into the Congo basin in the land which is today known as Zaire. In the Manyema region of eastern Zaire, Tippu Tip persuaded an African chief to abdicate for the purpose of allowing Tippu Tip to rule. Having thus established a political base, Tippu Tip began to expand his commercial empire.
Around 1874, Tippu Tip moved farther north into Manyema and secured recognition as unofficial governor over the region from other coastal traders. With Kasongo, on the Lualaba River, as his headquarters, Tippu Tip traded widely for ivory, raided for slaves, and established wide ranging alliances with the local chieftains and other traders. By the early 1880s, Tippu Tip was the de facto ruler of eastern Zaire.
In 1882, Tippu Tip ended his twelve year hiatus and returned to the eastern coast. The purpose of his return was to negotiate with the Zanzibari Sultan, Sultan Barghash. For his journey to the coast, Tippu Tip assembled the largest caravan to ever traverse Tanzania. Along the way, Tippu Tip made an alliance with the Nyanwezi chief Mirambo.
Once in Zanzibar, Tippu Tip accepted Barghash’s proposal to serve as the sultan’s agent in Zaire.
Around this same time, European imperialist pressure began to mount on the interior from all sides. Europeans assumed that Tippu Tip had even greater control over Arab slave traders than was the case. While Tippu Tip visited Zanzibar in 1886, his subordinates clashed with the forces of the Belgian King Leopold. At Zanzibar, Leopold’s agent, Henry Stanley, persuaded Tippu Tip to accept the official governorship of eastern Zaire and to curb slaving in return for a salary. Returning to Zaire in 1887, Tippu Tip found that Leopold’s government was unwilling to give him the material (financial) support he needed to satisfy his allies and supporters. Tippu Tip found himself increasingly challenged by revolts amongst his African subjects and by aggressive Arab slavers.
In 1890, Tippu Tip left Zaire for the last time. After his departure, Leopold’s government overwhelmed the Arabs and dismantled Tippu Tip’s empire. Tippu Tip lost most of his wealth and retired to Zanzibar.
Tippu Tip’s commercial role in eastern Zaire may not have been a lasting one. However, he is remembered even today for the permanent contribution he made to the development of the Swahili language in Zaire. He did this by writing his autobiography -- a book which became a classic in Swahili literature.
Tippu Tip’s first trading trip to the African interior was in the late 1850s or early 1860s, accompanied by only a few men. By the late 1860s he was leading expeditions of 4,000 men, and shortly thereafter he began to establish a rather loosely organized state in the eastern and central Congo River basin. Ruling over an increasingly large area in the 1870s, he either confirmed local chiefs or replaced them with loyal regents. His main interests, however, were commercial. He established a monopoly on elephant hunting, had roads built, and began to develop plantations around the main Arab settlements, including Kasongo on the upper Congo River, where he himself settled in 1875.
In 1876–77, Tippu Tip accompanied the British explorer Henry (later Sir Henry) Morton Stanley partway down the Congo River, and later he sent expeditions as far as the Aruwimi confluence, 110 miles (180 km) downriver of Stanleyville (now Kisangani, Congo [Kinshasa]). In the early 1880s he threw in his lot with Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar, who hoped to use him to extend Arab influence in the Congo region against the threat of Leopold’s International Association of the Congo (the king’s private development enterprise). Tippu Tip returned to Stanley Falls in 1883 to try to take over as much of the Congo basin as possible on behalf of Barghash. He remained in the Congo until 1886, when he again went to Zanzibar with more ivory.
By that time Leopold’s claim to the Congo basin had been recognized by other European nations, and Tippu Tip had apparently decided that an accommodation with the International Association was inevitable. In February 1887 he signed an agreement making him governor of the district of the Falls in the Congo Free State (now Congo [Kinshasa]). It proved to be an impossible position: the Europeans expected him to keep all the Arab traders in the area under control but would not allow him the necessary weapons, and many Arabs resented his alliance with the Europeans against them. In April 1890 he left the Falls for the last time and returned to Zanzibar.
Tipu Tib see Tippu Tip
Hamid bin Muhammad al-Mujebi see Tippu Tip
Muhammed Bin Hamid see Tippu Tip
Hamad bin Muḥammad bin Jumah bin Rajab bin Muḥammad bin Sa‘īd al-Murghabī see Tippu Tip
Tippu Tip (Tipu Tib) (Hamid bin Muhammad al-Murjebi) (Muhammed Bin Hamid) (Hamad bin Muḥammad bin Jumah bin Rajab bin Muḥammad bin Sa‘īd al-Murghabī) (b. 1837 - d. June 14, 1905, Zanzibar [now in Tanzania]). Most powerful of the late 19th century Arab and Swahili traders in the east central African interior. Tippu Tip, who was also known by the names Tippu Tib and Hamid bin Muhammed al-Murjebi, built a vast mercantile empire which dominated eastern Zaire until the European occupation of Africa in the 1890s.
Tippu Tip was born in Zanzibar (Tanzania) to an Afro-Arab man and a mainland African woman. His commercial career began when he was twelve. His initial involvement was to accompany his father on short trading trips. Later though, he was a member of major expeditions into western Tanzania.
Around 1850, Tippu Tip separated from his father to undertake his own enterprises. Over the next fifteen years, Tippu Tip steadily accumulated wealth and experience until he was able to finance and organize large and well-armed caravans.
By the late 1860s, the operations of Tippu Tip extended to northeast Zambia. It was in Zambia that Tippu Tip engaged and defeated the Bemba. By defeating the Bemba, Tippu Tip captured a store of ivory -- a store which greatly added to his wealth.
From Zambia, Tippu Tip moved to into the Congo basin in the land which is today known as Zaire. In the Manyema region of eastern Zaire, Tippu Tip persuaded an African chief to abdicate for the purpose of allowing Tippu Tip to rule. Having thus established a political base, Tippu Tip began to expand his commercial empire.
Around 1874, Tippu Tip moved farther north into Manyema and secured recognition as unofficial governor over the region from other coastal traders. With Kasongo, on the Lualaba River, as his headquarters, Tippu Tip traded widely for ivory, raided for slaves, and established wide ranging alliances with the local chieftains and other traders. By the early 1880s, Tippu Tip was the de facto ruler of eastern Zaire.
In 1882, Tippu Tip ended his twelve year hiatus and returned to the eastern coast. The purpose of his return was to negotiate with the Zanzibari Sultan, Sultan Barghash. For his journey to the coast, Tippu Tip assembled the largest caravan to ever traverse Tanzania. Along the way, Tippu Tip made an alliance with the Nyanwezi chief Mirambo.
Once in Zanzibar, Tippu Tip accepted Barghash’s proposal to serve as the sultan’s agent in Zaire.
Around this same time, European imperialist pressure began to mount on the interior from all sides. Europeans assumed that Tippu Tip had even greater control over Arab slave traders than was the case. While Tippu Tip visited Zanzibar in 1886, his subordinates clashed with the forces of the Belgian King Leopold. At Zanzibar, Leopold’s agent, Henry Stanley, persuaded Tippu Tip to accept the official governorship of eastern Zaire and to curb slaving in return for a salary. Returning to Zaire in 1887, Tippu Tip found that Leopold’s government was unwilling to give him the material (financial) support he needed to satisfy his allies and supporters. Tippu Tip found himself increasingly challenged by revolts amongst his African subjects and by aggressive Arab slavers.
In 1890, Tippu Tip left Zaire for the last time. After his departure, Leopold’s government overwhelmed the Arabs and dismantled Tippu Tip’s empire. Tippu Tip lost most of his wealth and retired to Zanzibar.
Tippu Tip’s commercial role in eastern Zaire may not have been a lasting one. However, he is remembered even today for the permanent contribution he made to the development of the Swahili language in Zaire. He did this by writing his autobiography -- a book which became a classic in Swahili literature.
Tippu Tip’s first trading trip to the African interior was in the late 1850s or early 1860s, accompanied by only a few men. By the late 1860s he was leading expeditions of 4,000 men, and shortly thereafter he began to establish a rather loosely organized state in the eastern and central Congo River basin. Ruling over an increasingly large area in the 1870s, he either confirmed local chiefs or replaced them with loyal regents. His main interests, however, were commercial. He established a monopoly on elephant hunting, had roads built, and began to develop plantations around the main Arab settlements, including Kasongo on the upper Congo River, where he himself settled in 1875.
In 1876–77, Tippu Tip accompanied the British explorer Henry (later Sir Henry) Morton Stanley partway down the Congo River, and later he sent expeditions as far as the Aruwimi confluence, 110 miles (180 km) downriver of Stanleyville (now Kisangani, Congo [Kinshasa]). In the early 1880s he threw in his lot with Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar, who hoped to use him to extend Arab influence in the Congo region against the threat of Leopold’s International Association of the Congo (the king’s private development enterprise). Tippu Tip returned to Stanley Falls in 1883 to try to take over as much of the Congo basin as possible on behalf of Barghash. He remained in the Congo until 1886, when he again went to Zanzibar with more ivory.
By that time Leopold’s claim to the Congo basin had been recognized by other European nations, and Tippu Tip had apparently decided that an accommodation with the International Association was inevitable. In February 1887 he signed an agreement making him governor of the district of the Falls in the Congo Free State (now Congo [Kinshasa]). It proved to be an impossible position: the Europeans expected him to keep all the Arab traders in the area under control but would not allow him the necessary weapons, and many Arabs resented his alliance with the Europeans against them. In April 1890 he left the Falls for the last time and returned to Zanzibar.
Tipu Tib see Tippu Tip
Hamid bin Muhammad al-Mujebi see Tippu Tip
Muhammed Bin Hamid see Tippu Tip
Hamad bin Muḥammad bin Jumah bin Rajab bin Muḥammad bin Sa‘īd al-Murghabī see Tippu Tip
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (Tippu Sahib) (Fateh Ali Tipu) ("Tiger of Mysore") (b. 1750, Devanhalli [India] died May 4, 1799, Seringapatam (1750-1799). Ruler of Mysore, western India (r.1783-1799). Having first concluded peace with the British, he became their bitter enemy. In 1792, Lord Cornwallis attacked Seringapatam, Tipu’s capital, and compelled him to submit. He was in communication with the French at Pondicherry in southern India and was admitted as a citizen of the French Republic under the title of “Citizen Tipu.” He was killed in 1799 fighting against the British who again attacked his capital.
Tipu Sultan was the innovative son and successor of Haidar Ali Khan and an even more resolute rival of the English than his father. Born at Devanhalli in Karnataka, Tipu was well versed in warfare and administration. He vigorously prosecuted the ongoing war with the British and forced them to sue for peace. The Treaty of Mangalore that was concluded in 1784 disappointed the British so much that Warren Hastings called it “a humiliating pacification.” This treaty excited the jealousy of the Marathas and the nizam of Hyderabad, who declared a war against Tipu Sultan in 1786. Tipu Sultan emerged unscathed in this war, but felt that it was difficult to unite the Indian powers against the British. He therefore turned to the external powers of France and the Ottoman Empire, whose help he sought by sending embassies, but was disappointed in these ventures as well. His efforts to promote commercial relations with the Ottoman Empire, China, Muscat, Pegu, Armenia, and Hormuz bore some fruit.
Such hectic activity hostile to the interests of the British strained Tipu’s relations with them. In 1790, Charles Cornwallis formed a triple confederacy of the British, the Marathas, and the nizam, who joined in the Third Mysore War to reduce Tipu Sultan’s kingdom by half. This war intensified his hostility against the British, and he again sought French support. Napoleon was willing to come to India, but his defeat in Syria resulted in his return to France. Tipu invited Zaman Shah of Afghanistan to invade India, but the British frustrated this attempt as well. Arthur Wellesley declared war on Tipu, who was defeated and killed in the Fourth Mysore War on May 4, 1799. He preferred death to dishonor, in accordance with his maxim, “To live like a lion for a day is better than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.” His promotion of the well-being of his people through trade, commerce, industry, and agriculture, his reforms of coinage and the calendar, banking and finance, revenue and the judiciary, the army and navy, and several other innovative measures make him a fascinating historical figure.
Tippu was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employ of his father, Hyder Ali, who was the Muslim ruler of Mysore. In 1767 Tippu commanded a corps of cavalry against the Marathas in the Carnatic (Karnataka) region of western India, and he fought against the Marathas on several occasions between 1775 and 1779. During the second Mysore war he defeated Col. John Brathwaite on the banks of the Coleroon River (February 1782). He succeeded his father in December 1782 and in 1784 concluded peace with the British and assumed the title of sultan of Mysore. In 1789, however, he provoked the British invasion by attacking their ally, the raja of Travancore. He held the British at bay for more than two years, but by the Treaty of Seringapatam (March 1792) he had to cede half his dominions. He remained restless and unwisely allowed his negotiations with Revolutionary France to become known to the British. On this pretext the governor-general, Lord Mornington (later the marquess of Wellesley), launched the fourth Mysore war. Seringapatam, Tippu’s capital, was stormed by British-led forces on May 4, 1799, and Tippu died leading his troops in the breach.
Tippu was an able general and administrator, and, though a Muslim, he retained the loyalty of his Hindu subjects. However, he proved cruel to his enemies and lacked the judgment of his father.
Tippu Sahib see Tipu Sultan
Fateh Ali Tipu see Tipu Sultan
Tiger of Mysore see Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (Tippu Sahib) (Fateh Ali Tipu) ("Tiger of Mysore") (b. 1750, Devanhalli [India] died May 4, 1799, Seringapatam (1750-1799). Ruler of Mysore, western India (r.1783-1799). Having first concluded peace with the British, he became their bitter enemy. In 1792, Lord Cornwallis attacked Seringapatam, Tipu’s capital, and compelled him to submit. He was in communication with the French at Pondicherry in southern India and was admitted as a citizen of the French Republic under the title of “Citizen Tipu.” He was killed in 1799 fighting against the British who again attacked his capital.
Tipu Sultan was the innovative son and successor of Haidar Ali Khan and an even more resolute rival of the English than his father. Born at Devanhalli in Karnataka, Tipu was well versed in warfare and administration. He vigorously prosecuted the ongoing war with the British and forced them to sue for peace. The Treaty of Mangalore that was concluded in 1784 disappointed the British so much that Warren Hastings called it “a humiliating pacification.” This treaty excited the jealousy of the Marathas and the nizam of Hyderabad, who declared a war against Tipu Sultan in 1786. Tipu Sultan emerged unscathed in this war, but felt that it was difficult to unite the Indian powers against the British. He therefore turned to the external powers of France and the Ottoman Empire, whose help he sought by sending embassies, but was disappointed in these ventures as well. His efforts to promote commercial relations with the Ottoman Empire, China, Muscat, Pegu, Armenia, and Hormuz bore some fruit.
Such hectic activity hostile to the interests of the British strained Tipu’s relations with them. In 1790, Charles Cornwallis formed a triple confederacy of the British, the Marathas, and the nizam, who joined in the Third Mysore War to reduce Tipu Sultan’s kingdom by half. This war intensified his hostility against the British, and he again sought French support. Napoleon was willing to come to India, but his defeat in Syria resulted in his return to France. Tipu invited Zaman Shah of Afghanistan to invade India, but the British frustrated this attempt as well. Arthur Wellesley declared war on Tipu, who was defeated and killed in the Fourth Mysore War on May 4, 1799. He preferred death to dishonor, in accordance with his maxim, “To live like a lion for a day is better than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.” His promotion of the well-being of his people through trade, commerce, industry, and agriculture, his reforms of coinage and the calendar, banking and finance, revenue and the judiciary, the army and navy, and several other innovative measures make him a fascinating historical figure.
Tippu was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employ of his father, Hyder Ali, who was the Muslim ruler of Mysore. In 1767 Tippu commanded a corps of cavalry against the Marathas in the Carnatic (Karnataka) region of western India, and he fought against the Marathas on several occasions between 1775 and 1779. During the second Mysore war he defeated Col. John Brathwaite on the banks of the Coleroon River (February 1782). He succeeded his father in December 1782 and in 1784 concluded peace with the British and assumed the title of sultan of Mysore. In 1789, however, he provoked the British invasion by attacking their ally, the raja of Travancore. He held the British at bay for more than two years, but by the Treaty of Seringapatam (March 1792) he had to cede half his dominions. He remained restless and unwisely allowed his negotiations with Revolutionary France to become known to the British. On this pretext the governor-general, Lord Mornington (later the marquess of Wellesley), launched the fourth Mysore war. Seringapatam, Tippu’s capital, was stormed by British-led forces on May 4, 1799, and Tippu died leading his troops in the breach.
Tippu was an able general and administrator, and, though a Muslim, he retained the loyalty of his Hindu subjects. However, he proved cruel to his enemies and lacked the judgment of his father.
Tippu Sahib see Tipu Sultan
Fateh Ali Tipu see Tipu Sultan
Tiger of Mysore see Tipu Sultan
Tirimmah ibn Hakim al-Ta’i, al-
Tirimmah ibn Hakim al-Ta’i, al-. Celebrated poet of the seventh century. He was an opponent of the poet al-Farazdaq.
Tirimmah ibn Hakim al-Ta’i, al-. Celebrated poet of the seventh century. He was an opponent of the poet al-Farazdaq.
Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Tirmidhi) (al-Hakim) (d. 898). Theologian from Khurasan, a jurist of the Hanafi school of law, and a mystic.
Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Tirmidhi see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Hakim, al- see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Tirmidhi) (al-Hakim) (d. 898). Theologian from Khurasan, a jurist of the Hanafi school of law, and a mystic.
Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Tirmidhi see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Hakim, al- see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Abd Allah al-
Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-
Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al- (Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-Tirmidhi) (Abū ‛Īsá Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsá ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī al-Tirmidhī) (Tirmizi) (Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād al-Tirmidhī) (824 - October 8, 892). Author of one of the canonical collections of traditions. He travelled widely in order to collect traditions, which are brought together in the work which made him famous. Nearly one half is devoted to such subjects as dogmatic theology, popular beliefs, devotion, manners and education, and hagiology.
Tirmidhī was a medieval Arab collector of hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). He wrote al-Jāmi‛ al-ṣaḥīḥ, popularly called Sunan al-Tirmidhi, one of the six canonical hadith compilations used in Sunni Islam. He was born (and would die) in Bâgh (Persian meaning 'Garden'), a suburb of Termez (Arabic Tirmidh), Khurasan - present day in Uzbekistan, to a family of the widespread Banū Sulaym tribe. Starting at the age of twenty, he travelled widely, to Kufa, Basra and the Hijaz, seeking out knowledge from, among others, Qutaybah ibn Sa‛īd, Bukhārī, Imam Muslim and Abū Dāwūd.
Tirmidhī was blind in the last two years of his life, said to have been the consequence of his weeping over the death of Bukhārī. Tirmidhi is buried in Sherobod, 60 kilometers north of Termez. He is locally known as Iso At Termizi or Termiz Ota (Father of Termez City).
Tirmidhī wrote nine books, of which, after the Jāmi‛, al-'Ilal and Shamā’il are best-known. Only four of his works survive. He played a major part in giving the formerly vague terminology used in classifying hadith according to their reliability a more precise set of definitions.
The life of al-Tirmidhī is poorly documented. He journeyed to Khorāsān, to Iraq, and to the Hejaz in search of material for his collection and studied with such renowned scholars of Hadith as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, and Abū Dāʿūd al-Sijistānī.
His canonical collection Al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ (“The Sound Collections”) includes every spoken tradition that had ever been used to support a legal decision, as well as material relating to theological questions, to religious practice, and to popular belief and custom. Of special interest in this work are the author’s critical remarks on the links in the chains of transmission (isnāds).
In the Kitāb al-shamāʾil (“Book of Good Qualities”), al-Tirmidhī presented those hadiths specifically commenting on the character and life of Muhammad.
Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-Tirmidhi see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-
Abū ‛Īsá Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsá ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī al-Tirmidhī see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-
Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al- (Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-Tirmidhi) (Abū ‛Īsá Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsá ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī al-Tirmidhī) (Tirmizi) (Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Sawrah ibn Shaddād al-Tirmidhī) (824 - October 8, 892). Author of one of the canonical collections of traditions. He travelled widely in order to collect traditions, which are brought together in the work which made him famous. Nearly one half is devoted to such subjects as dogmatic theology, popular beliefs, devotion, manners and education, and hagiology.
Tirmidhī was a medieval Arab collector of hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). He wrote al-Jāmi‛ al-ṣaḥīḥ, popularly called Sunan al-Tirmidhi, one of the six canonical hadith compilations used in Sunni Islam. He was born (and would die) in Bâgh (Persian meaning 'Garden'), a suburb of Termez (Arabic Tirmidh), Khurasan - present day in Uzbekistan, to a family of the widespread Banū Sulaym tribe. Starting at the age of twenty, he travelled widely, to Kufa, Basra and the Hijaz, seeking out knowledge from, among others, Qutaybah ibn Sa‛īd, Bukhārī, Imam Muslim and Abū Dāwūd.
Tirmidhī was blind in the last two years of his life, said to have been the consequence of his weeping over the death of Bukhārī. Tirmidhi is buried in Sherobod, 60 kilometers north of Termez. He is locally known as Iso At Termizi or Termiz Ota (Father of Termez City).
Tirmidhī wrote nine books, of which, after the Jāmi‛, al-'Ilal and Shamā’il are best-known. Only four of his works survive. He played a major part in giving the formerly vague terminology used in classifying hadith according to their reliability a more precise set of definitions.
The life of al-Tirmidhī is poorly documented. He journeyed to Khorāsān, to Iraq, and to the Hejaz in search of material for his collection and studied with such renowned scholars of Hadith as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, and Abū Dāʿūd al-Sijistānī.
His canonical collection Al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ (“The Sound Collections”) includes every spoken tradition that had ever been used to support a legal decision, as well as material relating to theological questions, to religious practice, and to popular belief and custom. Of special interest in this work are the author’s critical remarks on the links in the chains of transmission (isnāds).
In the Kitāb al-shamāʾil (“Book of Good Qualities”), al-Tirmidhī presented those hadiths specifically commenting on the character and life of Muhammad.
Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-Tirmidhi see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-
Abū ‛Īsá Muḥammad ibn ‛Īsá ibn Sawrah ibn Mūsá ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī al-Tirmidhī see Tirmidhi, Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-
Tirmidhi, Sayyid Burhan al-Din
Tirmidhi, Sayyid Burhan al-Din (Sayyid Burhan al-Din Tirmidhi). Thirteenth century Sufi. He was the teacher of Jalal al-Din Rumi.
Sayyid Burhan al-Din Tirmidhi see Tirmidhi, Sayyid Burhan al-Din
Tirmidhi, Sayyid Burhan al-Din (Sayyid Burhan al-Din Tirmidhi). Thirteenth century Sufi. He was the teacher of Jalal al-Din Rumi.
Sayyid Burhan al-Din Tirmidhi see Tirmidhi, Sayyid Burhan al-Din
Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan (Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana) (Malik Khizar Hayar Tiwana) (Nawabzada Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana) (1900-1975). Unionist premier of the Punjab (1943-1946 and 1946-1947). He joined the first cabinet under provincial autonomy in 1937 and succeeded Sikandar Hayat Khan as premier after the latter’s death in December 1942. In 1946, following the election in which the Muslim League became the plurality party but was unable to form a ministry, Khizr headed a Unionist Congress-Akali Dal ministry until April 1947. He was not directly active in politics after India’s independence later that year.
Tiwana came from a Rajput family which had, since the 15th century, been prominent among the landed aristocracy of the Punjab. Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana's father was Major General Sir Malik Umar Hayat Khan (1875–1944), who acted as honorary aide-de-camp to George V and George VI and served as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1924-1934.
Tiwana was educated, like his father, at Aitchison College, Lahore. At the age of 16 he volunteered for war service and was commissioned to the 17th Cavalry in 1918. As well as his brief World War I service, Tiwana served in the Afghan campaign which followed, earning a mention in dispatches.
Tiwana then assisted his father in the management of family estates in the Punjab, taking responsibility for them while his father was in London, 1929-1934. He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937 and immediately joined the cabinet of Sir Sikander Hyat Khan, who had successfully led the Unionist Muslim League in the election, as Minister of Public Works. Tiwana remained in this post until 1942, succeeding Sir Sikander as Prime Minister to the Punjab from 1942 until 1947. He was a member of the Indian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946. Tiwana resigned his premiership on March 2, 1947. Although he remained at Simla until independence, he did not thereafter seek an active part in politics and left the country, returning to Pakistan in October 1949. Among his principal concerns was the preservation of the family estates at Kalra from the exigencies of land reform and government control.
Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana see Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
Malik Khizar Hayar Tiwana see Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
Nawabzada Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana see Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan (Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana) (Malik Khizar Hayar Tiwana) (Nawabzada Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana) (1900-1975). Unionist premier of the Punjab (1943-1946 and 1946-1947). He joined the first cabinet under provincial autonomy in 1937 and succeeded Sikandar Hayat Khan as premier after the latter’s death in December 1942. In 1946, following the election in which the Muslim League became the plurality party but was unable to form a ministry, Khizr headed a Unionist Congress-Akali Dal ministry until April 1947. He was not directly active in politics after India’s independence later that year.
Tiwana came from a Rajput family which had, since the 15th century, been prominent among the landed aristocracy of the Punjab. Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana's father was Major General Sir Malik Umar Hayat Khan (1875–1944), who acted as honorary aide-de-camp to George V and George VI and served as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1924-1934.
Tiwana was educated, like his father, at Aitchison College, Lahore. At the age of 16 he volunteered for war service and was commissioned to the 17th Cavalry in 1918. As well as his brief World War I service, Tiwana served in the Afghan campaign which followed, earning a mention in dispatches.
Tiwana then assisted his father in the management of family estates in the Punjab, taking responsibility for them while his father was in London, 1929-1934. He was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937 and immediately joined the cabinet of Sir Sikander Hyat Khan, who had successfully led the Unionist Muslim League in the election, as Minister of Public Works. Tiwana remained in this post until 1942, succeeding Sir Sikander as Prime Minister to the Punjab from 1942 until 1947. He was a member of the Indian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946. Tiwana resigned his premiership on March 2, 1947. Although he remained at Simla until independence, he did not thereafter seek an active part in politics and left the country, returning to Pakistan in October 1949. Among his principal concerns was the preservation of the family estates at Kalra from the exigencies of land reform and government control.
Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana see Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
Malik Khizar Hayar Tiwana see Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
Nawabzada Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana see Tiwana, Malik Sir Khizr Hayat Khan
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