Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Farid Ud-Din Attar, The Conference 

of the Birds, trans. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis 

(New York: Penguin Books, 1984); Ali bin Uthman al-

K  90  

baqa and fana

---

Hujwiri, The Kashf al-Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Trea-

tise on Sufism. Translated by R. A. Nicholson (Delhi: Taj 

Company, 1997); R. A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam

(New York: Schocken, 1975); Annemarie Schimmel, 

Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of 

North Carolina Press, 1975).

Baqli, Ruzbihan

 

(1128–1209)  leading mystic 

of 12th-century Iran, famed for his accounts of his 

visionary experience and controversial ecstatic sayings

Ruzbihan Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr al-Baqli 

al-Fasawi was born in Fasaa, a province in the 

south of i

ran

. When older, he moved to the 

nearby city Shiraz, where he delivered sermons 

at the town’s famous old 

mosqUe

 and enjoyed a 

large following among the townfolk, as well as 

some of the local rulers. In his 

aUtobiography

,

Ruzbihan explains that his spirituality is unrelated 

to his upbringing because he was born and raised 

in a family that was ignorant about God and was 

unable to understand him. He defines his call 

to mysticism in terms of his special relationship 

with God. Ruzbihan had spiritual experiences as 

early as age three. At age 15, he was addressed by 

voices from the unseen world (ghayb) calling him 

a 

prophet

. One day around this time, as he was 

leaving his shop for afternoon prayers, he heard 

an extraordinary voice and followed it to a nearby 

hill. There he saw a handsome 

shaykh

 telling him 

about God’s oneness (

tawhid

). Ruzbihan describes 

this event as a turning point in his spiritual awak-

ening. For the rest of his life, he experienced mys-

tical states, and secrets were disclosed to him.

Ruzbihan’s writings are in Persian and in Ara-

bic. They describe the visionary events that consti-

tuted the life of the author and the knowledge that 

he acquired by these events. Best known today 

as the author of Abhar al-ashiqin (The jasmine of 

lovers), Kashf al-asrar (The unveiling of secrets), 

and Sharh-i shathiyat (An exegesis of ecstatic say-

ings), Ruzbihan also wrote on a range of subjects 

including 

tafsir

 (interpretation), 

hadith

, and 

fiqh

(Islamic jurisprudence).

Sharh-i shathiyat is a classical reference on 

Islamic mysticism. It is a compilation of sayings 

by entranced mystics as they were experiencing 

spiritual states. Abhar al-ashiqin is a masterpiece 

in Persian belles lettres. It provides a geography 

of love whence God’s attributes of “might” (jalal) 

and “beauty” (jamal) come into view. Ruzbihan’s 

autobiography,  Kashf al-asrar, which he began 

writing at age 55, is a unique document in the 

genre of Muslim 

aUtobiography

. While similar to 

many Muslim biographies and autobiographies, 

Kashf al-asrar concerns the inner spiritual life of 

the author/protagonist, but unlike most of them, 

its plot is not centered on the external events that 

advance the story of his life. In this respect, Kashf 

al-asrar differs from the works that constitute the 

canon in the medieval Islamic biographical and 

autobiographical literature.

Today, Ruzbihan’s shrine is a pilgrimage site in 

his hometown, Shiraz.

See also s

UFism

.

Firoozeh Papan-Matin