Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: M. Kisaichi, “The Almohad Social-

Political System or Hierarchy in the Reign of Ibn 

Tumart.” Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo 

Bunko 48 (1990): pp. 81–101; Roger Le Tourneau, The 

Almohad Movement in North Africa in the Twelfth and 

Thirteenth Century (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer-

sity Press, 1969).

Ibrahim

  See a

braham

.

Ibrahim Ibn Adham

 

(730–777)  early Sufi 

saint who was a model for piety in Sufi tradition and 

whose conversion story mirrors that of the Buddha

Ibrahim ibn Adham was born a prince in Bactria, 

Balkh (present-day a

Fghanistan

)—where Bud-

dhism flourished until the 11th century—in a 

recently created Arab settlement. Legend tells that 

Ibn Adham’s conversion to the Sufi path began 

when out hunting in the forest one day he was 

confronted by a voice prompting him to examine 

his true calling in life. Like the Buddha, to whom 

Ibn Adham is frequently compared, he thereupon 

chose to renounce his claim to kingship and set off 

for m

ecca

, leaving an infant son and wife behind, 

to spend the rest of his life in saintly devotion to 

a

llah

. In 748, he migrated from m

ecca

 to s

yria

,

where for the following few decades he lived the 

life of a wandering Sufi in the desert. It is believed 

that he died around 777 in Syria while participat-

ing in raids against Byzantine Christians. He is 

reported to have transmitted several 

hadith

 and 

is remembered for his extreme 

asceticism

 and 

generosity.

One of the earliest Sufis, Ibrahim ibn Adham’s 

legend grew and developed in the centuries fol-

lowing his death as he became a frequent model of 

piety in Sufi treatises written in communities from 

Arabia to East Asia. Early sources on Ibrahim ibn 

Adham include hagiographies written in the 11th 

century by al-Sulami and in the 13th century by 

Farid al-Din al-Attar. Ibrahim ibn Adham’s story 

was told in the oldest Persian treatise on s

UFism

,

the classic Kashf al-mahjub by Al-Hujwiri in 

Lahore, Pakistan. A 17th-century Malay text, Bas-

tanu’s-salatin, written by an Indian Muslim named 

Ar-Raniri, presented Ibrahim ibn Adham as one of 

the greatest early 

saints

 of Islam. He stands out 

as a paradigm of saintly devotion in such hagi-

ographies, like the most famous and earliest of 

known 

Women

 Sufis, r

abia

 

al

-a

daWiya

 (d. 801). 

But as he embodied the ideal of unsurpassed piety 

and asceticism, Rabia stood for the ideal of pas-

sionate love for God. One famous story described 

Ibn Adham’s 14-year journey to Mecca and his 

frequent stops for prayer at holy sites along the 

way, only to discover upon reaching Mecca that 

the k

aaba

 had to meet Rabia.

See also b

Uddhism

 

and

 i

slam

.

Megan Adamson Sijapati