The al-saʿāda fī maqāmāt al-ʿibāda (The Elucidation of Bliss concerning the Spiritual Stations of Worship) is a ϳܰ’aic commentary (ٲڲī) written by Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh Gunābādī (d. 1909). A central work in the modern intellectual and religious history of Iran and Shi‘i Islam, it represents a mature synthesis between Twelver ‘iSee Shi‘a. and Sufism. In this first detailed study of Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāḥ’s , Alessandro Cancian argues that this commentary represents the foundational act of modern Twelver Shi‘i organised Sufism.
Cancian first explores the intellectual contexts of Iranian ‘i and Sufism, before introducing the author and the text. The eponymous master of the largest branch of the Niʿmatullāhī Sufi order (the Gunābādīyya), Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh was at the same time a religious scholar taught by some of the most authoritative Shi‘i ulama of his time, a philosopher in the Akbarian/Sadrian tradition who studied with renowned Qajar philosopher Mullā Ḥādī Sabzawārī (d. 1873) and a master of mysticism who drew from the classical tradition of Persian and Persianate Sufism. Cancian shows how these elements coalesced into the formation of a Shi‘i Sufi ṭaī粹, making a credible claim for Niʿmatullāhī Sufi legitimacy within the Twelver Shi‘i establishment and influencing subsequent ϳܰ’aic exegesis in Iran. Cancian then provides a thematic and genealogical analysis of the text alongside a study of its impact and legacy, and a translation of Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh’s own introduction, outlining his hermeneutical approach and theological and philosophical principles, is provided in an appendix.
This book will appeal to scholars in a range of disciplines within Islamic studies, including ϳܰ’aic exegesis, Shi‘i studies, Sufi studies, mysticism, and the intellectual history of Iran.
Illustrations
Note on Transliteration, Conventions and Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Section I
1. Introduction: The Emergence of Twelver Shi‘i Sufism in Early Modern Iran
2. Shi‘i Sufism
3. ϳܰ’aic Exegesis between ‘i and Mysticism
Section II
4. Sufism in Early Modern Iran
5. From Niʿmatullāhiyya to Gunābādiyya
6. Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh Gunābādī (d. 1909): His Life and Legacy
Section III
7. The al-saʿāda: An Introduction
8. A Shi‘i Sufi ٲڲī
9. Themes, Methods and Positioning
10. A Neglected Legacy: The al-saʿāda and its Reception in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
Appendix I:
Annotated Translation of Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh’s Introduction to the al-saʿāda fī maqāmāt al-ʿibāda
Appendix II:
The Structure of the al-saʿāda through Its Subheadings
Bibliography
Index of ϳܰ’aic Citations
General Index
‘An original and significant contribution that contextualises the ٲڲī al-Sā’ada within the history of Iranian Twelver Shi’ism and throws light on the development of the Shi’i Sufism that emerged as a consequence of the efforts of key Iranian Shi’i figures, especially those associated with the Gunābādī order. In addition to providing a translation of the introduction and parts of the , it also takes account of pertinent historiographical issues surrounding it and other related elements, such as Shi’i history and Sufism among Shi’i intellectuals. This book will be valuable also to those outside the field of expertise, and of interest to the general reader. An intellectually impressive work.’
– Milad Milani, Western Sydney University
Alessandro Cancian is a Senior Research Associate at 51Թ, London (IIS), where he works on Shi‘i Sufism, ϳܰ’aic exegesis and the intellectual and religious history of pre-modern Iran. An historian of religions and an anthropologist, he has published books and articles on religious education in Shi‘i Islam, Shi‘i Sufism and ϳܰ’aic exegesis. He is the author of La Scuola degli Imam: L’Iran e l’educazione religiosa nell’Islam sciita (2016) (The School of the Imams: Iran and Religious Education in Shi’i Islam) and he edited Approaches to the ϳܰ’aMuslims believe that the Holy ϳܰ’a contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More in Contemporary Iran (Oxford, 2019). He is co-editing the volume On Ethics for An Anthology of Qur’anic Commentaries (IIS/OUP). He is also an amateur perfumer, and is translating the treatise on perfume-making known as Mijmara (The Incense Burner) by the nineteenth-century Iranian Shaykhī master Muḥammad Karīm Khan Kirmānī.