Bāyazīd: The Life and Teachings of the Mystic Abū Yazīd al-Basṭāmī (d. ca. 234/848)

Annabel Keeler is an Affiliated Researcher at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. She works in the field of Sufi exegesis as well as the formative period of Islamic mysticism. Her published works include: Sufi Hermeneutics: The Qur’an Commentary of Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī, The Spirit and the Letter: Approaches to the Esoteric Interpretation of the Qurʾan, and a translation of Tafsīr al-Tustarī.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsNotes on TransliterationIntroductionPart1 Bāyazīd’s Life and His Speech1 Bāyazīd’s Life and his Teachers1 Family Background in Basṭām2 Bāyazīd’s Education and his Teachers3 Bāyazīd as Spiritual Master in Basṭām: Veneration and Censure2 Bāyazīd’s Disciples and Associates1 Bāyazīd’s Close Disciples2 Other Associates of Bāyazīd3 The Question of Bāyazīd’s Dates4 The Speech of Bāyazīd1 The Corpus of Bāyazīd’s Sayings2 Modes of Expression in the Speech of BāyazīdPart2 The Teachings of Bāyazīd, Fundamentals5 The Path and Its Pitfalls1 Spiritual Psychology in Third-/Ninth-Century Mysticism2 Bāyazīd’s Understanding of the Make-Up of the Human Being3 Pitfalls of the Path6 On Some Pillars and Tenets of Islam1 Observing the Obligatory Practices2 The Hajj3 Messengers of God and the Prophet4 Paradise and Hell7 What Bāyazīd Says about God1 God, His Names and Attributes2 Divine Transcendence and Inaccessibility3 Intimacy4 Awareness of God versus Heedlessness5 Nothing but HimPart3 Further Dimensions of the Spiritual Path8 Spiritual Virtues, States, and Stations1 Poverty2 Submission to the Divine Will3 Complete Trust in God4 Humility versus Arrogance5 Mindfulness of God (taqwā) and Veracity (ṣidq)6 Annihilation (fanāʾ) and Subsistence (baqāʾ)7 Unification (jamʿ) and Separation (tafriqa)9 Knowledge and Love1 Knowledge2 Love10 Absence and Presence, Veils and Mirrors1 Absence (ghayba) and Presence (ḥudūr)2 Veils and Veiling3 MirrorsPart4 Bāyazīd as Spiritual Master and in the Community11 Bāyazīd as Spiritual Master1 Bāyazīd’s Homilies and Counsel to His Disciples2 Explanation of the Path for Others3 Female Disciples of Bāyazīd12 Bāyazīd in the Wider Community1 Different Paths among the Muslims2 Bāyazīd under Censure: Challenges and Critiques3 Critique and Corrective4 Bāyazīd and his Zoroastrian NeighboursPart5 Bāyazīd’s Autobiographical Accounts13 Bāyazīd’s Accounts of His Spiritual Journey1 The Beginning of the Path and the Struggle with the Nafs2 Becoming Free of Self3 Descriptions of the Whole Journey14 Spiritual Peregrination, Flight, and the Miʿrāj15 The Longer Miʿrāj NarrativesPart6 Controversy, Paradox, and Contradiction16 Shaṭḥ, Paradox, and the Paradoxical1 Definitions and Translations of the Shatḥ2 Ecstatic Utterances of Bāyazīd3 Paradoxes and the Paradoxical4 A Few Other Controversial Sayings17 Apparent Contradictions1 Bāyazīd and “Miracles”2 The Sense of Pride (iftikhār) versus the Acknowledgement of Neediness (iftiqār)Part7 After Bāyazīd18 The Impact and Influence of Bāyazīd on Islamic Mysticism1 Early Responses to Bāyazid2 Later Responses to the Shaṭḥiyyāt3 Bāyazīd’s Wider Corpus in Sufi Literature4 Bāyazid among Love Mystics5 ʿAṭṭār and Rūmī6 Ibn ʿArabī7 Influence versus Appropriation8 Abū l-Ḥasan Kharaqānī9 A Glimpse at Bāyazīd’s Literary InfluenceConclusion & Closing RemarksBibliographyIndex of People and PlacesIndex of Subjects and Terms