Saʿd al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn Ḥamuwayh al-Ḥamuwayī al-Juwaynī[a] (1190/99 – 1252/60)[b] was aPersianṢūfīshaykh from a prominent Ṣūfī family. He belonged to the order of theKubrāwiyya. A prolific writer, he is credited with at least 47 works plus poetry. He was a noted mystic and much of his writing is esoteric and numerological.
Born and died inKhorasan, he studied inDamascus, went on a pilgrimage toMecca and lived for a time inTabrīz andMosul. He fled theMongol invasion of Khwārazm in 1220. By 1242 he had contracted an illness that resulted in the loss of a finger.
Saʿd al-Dīn was born inBaḥrābād. His full name was Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Abu ʾl-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamuwayh.[4] A fuller name, complete with honorifics is given in themashyakha: Saʿd al-Dīn Abu ʾl-Saʿādāt Muḥammad ibn Muʿīn al-Dīn Muʾayyad ibn Jamāl al-Dīn Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ḥamuwayh.[2] Saʿd al-Dīn's brother Muʿīn al-Dīn ʿUmar was also a Ṣūfī.[4] He should not be confused with his like-named second cousin, Saʿd al-Dīn ibn Tāj al-Dīn.[3] His family is known as theAwlād al-Shaykh (Banū Ḥamawiya).[3][6]
In his youth, Saʿd al-Dīn studied atJabal Qāsiyūn outsideDamascus under his father's paternal cousin, Ṣadr al-Dīn Abu ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad al-Ḥamuwayī. The source do not agree on what he studied. Jāmī believed it was mysticism, butal-Dhahabī calls Ṣadr al-Dīn aShāfiʿī jurist.[4]
It is not known when Saʿd al-Dīn became a disciple of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, but it was before theMongol invasion of Khwārazm in 1220. He had already completed hisḥajj (pilgrimage) at the time. At the approach of the Mongols, Kubrā ordered all his students to return to their homes. Saʿd al-Dīn'sijāza was issued around this time. Saʿd al-Dīn appears to have returned to his uncle (then inMosul) shortly before the latter's death in 1220. He eventually returned to Jabal Qāsiyūn, where he taughtṢadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, who relayed Saʿd al-Dīn's works to his step-fatherIbn al-ʿArabī, who is said to have admired them.[4]
How long Saʿd al-Dīn remained in Jabal Qāsiyūn is unknown, but he eventually moved back to Baḥrābād, where he resided in his family'skhānqāh (Ṣūfī school). He made a short trip toGūrpān to visit with Aḥmad al-Jūrfānī, a student ofRāzī al-Dīn ʿAlī Lālā, a student of Kubrā. He spent nine months inTabrīz in 1242–1243. According toIbn al-Karbalāʾī, shortly before his arrival in Tabrīz, he developed a disease which caused him to lose a finger. Possibly this wasleprosy. His followers in Tabrīz buried his finger in a local cemetery. According to a legend associated with this stay says that he saw the youngNajm al-Dīn Zarkub Tabrīzī playing with other children in the street, placed his hand on his head and predicted his future greatness.[4] Saʿd al-Dīn's sonṢadr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm was born inAmol inTabaristan in 644 (1247).[3][7]
Jāmī records two anecdotes of Saʿd al-Dīn entering into trances. In one, after sitting with his eyes closed for a long time, he called Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī to him, opened his eyes and told him, "I wished that the first face my eyes looked upon after they had been honored by a vision of [the Prophet's] beauty should be yours." In the other, he spirit left his body and he lay still for thirteen days. People believed he had died, and when he came to he was unaware how long he had been gone. Ibn al-Karbalāʾī in hisRawḍāt al-jinān (1567) records instances of Saʿd al-Dīn predicting the future.[4]
Saʿd al-Dīn died inKhorasan.[3] The cause of his death is unknown; possibly it was related to the disease he had contracted almost two decades earlier.[4]
Saʿd al-Dīn wrote in bothArabic andPersian. There are at least 29 extant prose works attributed to him, plus another 18 attributed that are possibly lost. His prose works range from short treatises to lengthy books. He also wrote poetry. His works can be roughly divided between those that are esoteric, which often containʿilm al-ḥurūf (letter and number mysticism), and those that are exhortative in a typically Kubrawī style. The latter include commentaries on theQurʾān and theḤadīth.[8]
There are 23 titled works that survive in manuscript copies. There are six further works that survive in copies but untitled. There are 18 works cited by title, but not known to survive. They include a work on theNew Testament.[8]
Works in Persian
Questions and Answers
On the Particulars of Sūra Yāsīn
On the Complete Actualization of Prayer
On the Science of Letters and Symbol
The Subtleties of Unity in the Wonders of Solitary Devotion
Treatise of the Lamp
Commentary on the Tradition "I Was a Hidden Treasure"
Commentary on Ten Traditions
On Mystical Explanations
On the Recollection of Gabriel
Commentary on the Basmala
Works in Arabic
The Ocean of Meanings
On the Removal of the Curtain and Lifting of the Veil
Book of the Beloved
Book of the Point
Mirror of the Spirits and Signs on the Tablets
On Mystical Journeying and Flight
On the Science of Absolute Realities
On the Appearance of the Seal of Saints
The Seven Paths
Keys to the Secrets
The Nature of Letters and Symbols
On the Meaning of the Letters of the Alphabet
Lost works
The Cause of Separation of the Exile
The Book of the Eye and Vision
Treatise on the Knot and Untying
On the Reality of Time and Hour
On the Letter of the Ascension
On the Equanimity of the Compassionate
Words from the New Testament
The Stages of Burning
The Revelatory Encounter
The Trigonometry of the King and Kingdom
The Covering of Letters and Words
Exploration of the Meaning of Unveiling
The Purification of the Prophet, Upon Him be Peace
The Book of Support and Victory
Manufactured Traditions in the Collected Recension
Heart of the Hereafter
The Vessel of the Virtuous on the Sea of Secrets
Peace for the Pious in Comprehending the Conditions of Certitude
^There is much confusion over the spelling of Saʿd al-Dīn's family name.[1] This especially concerns thevocalization, since traditional writtenArabic does not indicate most vowels. The Arabic sources give various spellings for the name:ḥmwya,al-ḥmwwyh,al-ḥmwwʾy,al-ḥmwyy and, especially in later sources,al-ḥmwi. The formḥmwya, which appears afteribn ("son of"), may be rendered Ḥamūya, Ḥamawiyya or Ḥamuwiyya.[2] Other spellings include Ḥammūya and Ḥamawayh.[3] Thenisba formal-ḥmwyy may be rendered al-Ḥamūyaī or al-Ḥamūyiyī, whileal-ḥmwi gives al-Ḥamawī.[2] Other spellings include al-Ḥammūʾī and al-Ḥamūʾī.[3] The most likely spelling of the name is Ḥamuwayh and for thenisba forms al-Ḥamuwayī, al-Ḥamuwwayī and al-Ḥamuwwaīʾī, with the first of these being most likely.[2] A copy of theijāza (teaching licence) issued byNajm al-Dīn Kubrā to Saʿd al-Dīn in April or May 1214 gives his name as Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn Abī Bakral-Ḥmwwyy. A copy of a letter sent to Saʿd al-Dīn by a fellow pupil of Kubrā,Sayf al-Dīn Bākharzī, on 22 February 1220 gives his name as Saʿd al-Milla wa ʾl-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾayyad ibn Abī Bakr al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibnḤamwyh al-Ḥmwyy.[2] The interpretation of the name has also provoked confusion. An early biographer,ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Isnawī, interpreted the name as referring toHama in Syria, but no members of the family are known to have lived there. The family originated inJuwayn (Joveyn) in Persia. It is more likely that Ḥamuwayh was the personal name of an ancestor. The earliest known member of the family was Muḥammad, son of Ḥamuwayh, who died in Juwayn in 1135 or 1136. Ḥamuwayh may in turn be aPersianized diminutive form of Aḥmad or Muḥammad.[2]
^The primary sources give contradictory dates for Saʿd al-Dīn's birth and death. According toFaṣīḥ Khwāfī, he was born on 23rd day of the month ofDhu ʾl-Ḥijja inAH 585, which would correspond to 1 February 1190. The familymashyakha (spiritual lineage chart), composed by his great-grandson Ghiyāth al-Dīn, agrees with the day but places it in the year 586, which corresponds to 21 January 1191.[4] Both sources place his death on 18Dhu ʾl-Ḥijja 649, which is 3 March 1252. A marginal notice in a 14th-century manuscript (Garrett Collection, Mach 2753) gives his dates as 15Jumādā al-ʾawwal 588 and 12Dhu ʾl-Ḥijja 649, which are 29 May 1192 and 25 February 1252.[3] An early copy of Saʿd al-Dīn'sKitāb al-maḥbūb (manuscript A1418 Topkapı) contains anijāza issued by his son, which gives his father's date of death as 10Dhu ʾl-Ḥijja 649 (23 February 1252).[4] According to his contemporary,Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī, he died in AH 650.[3] The Persian poetJāmī in hisNafaḥāt al-uns agrees with Ibn al-Jawzī on the year and, drawing fromal-Yāfiʿī, specifies the day as 10Dhu ʾl-Ḥijja, corresponding to 11 February 1253. He makes his age at death 63, which puts his birth in 587 (1191).[3][5] TheTārīkh-i guzīda agrees with the day 10Dhu ʾl-Ḥijja, but puts it in the year 658, which corresponds to 16 November 1260, which puts his birth as late as 595 (1198/99).[5]
Elias, Jamal J. (1994). "The Sufi Lords of Bahrabad: Saʾd al-Din and Sadr al-Din Hamuwayi".Iranian Studies.27 (1–4):53–75.doi:10.1080/00210869408701820.
Hofer, Nathan (2014). "The Origins and Development of the Office of the 'Chief Sufi' in Egypt, 1173–1325".Journal of Sufi Studies.3 (1):1–37.doi:10.1163/22105956-12341260.
