Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: John Calvert and William Shepard, 

A Child from the Village (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Uni-

versity Press, 2004); Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in 

Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh. Translated by Jon 

Rothschild (Berkeley: University of California Press, 

2003); Sayyid Qutb, Milestones. Translated by Ahmad 

Zaki Hammad (Indianapolis: American Trust Publica-

tions, 1993); William Shepard, Sayyid Qutb and Islamic 

Activism: A Translation and Critical Analysis of Social 

Justice in Islam (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996).

Qutb, Sayyid

  

577  J

---

578

AF

J:

Rabia al-Adawiyya

 

(Rabia al-Basriyya, 

Rabia al-Qaysiyya)

 

(ca. 717–801)  legendary 

female Muslim mystic and saint, considered to be one 

of the first Sufis

What is known about Rabia al-Adawiyya is culled 

from many different hagiographic sources span-

ning several centuries, and it is not easy to sepa-

rate fact from legend. Indeed, Rabia’s legend has 

developed over time, but she is most famous for 

her ascetic lifestyle, weeping over her separation 

from God, for whom she developed a profound 

love.

Born in Basra during the Abbasid era, she was 

most likely influenced by her socioreligious milieu. 

Basra housed a school for 

Women

 ascetics at a time 

when an impulse for 

asceticism

 was increasing. 

Basra was also the home of the renowned ascetic 

al-h

asan

 

al

-b

asri

 (642–728), with whom Rabia 

was often associated in legend, although the two 

probably never met. However, there is no reason 

to doubt the accounts of her contemporary al-

Jahiz (d. 868) regarding her association with other 

female mystics and her ascetic lifestyle. According 

to some sources, Rabia was a slave of the al-Atik 

clan until freed by her master when he recognized 

her great spiritual attainment. She then dedicated 

her life to the continuous worship of God.

It is interesting to note the different ways in 

which Rabia’s figure has been constructed and 

reinterpreted over the centuries, as those who 

told her stories shaped and reshaped her legacy. 

For example, al-Jahiz’s stories of Rabia simply 

portrayed a self-denying ascetic from his com-

munity, who was known for refusing all worldly 

things. Her love was for God alone; she would 

not marry, nor let the promise of 

paradise

 or 

fear of the F

ire

 distract her from him. Approxi-

mately four hundred years later the Persian mystic 

Farid al-Din Attar depicted Rabia as possessing 

miraculous powers and a biting wit, in addition 

to her deep piety. In one story he described her 

as capable of flying in the sky on her carpet, and 

in another as illuminating the darkness with her 

fingers, which one night shone like lanterns. 

When she was making a pilgrimage to m

ecca

,

the k

aaba

 miraculously came to her. She was also 

often credited for her sarcastic rebukes of male 

disciples for being too worldly. A 1963 Egyptian 

film portrayed her as a beautiful young slave girl 

forced to perform Oriental dances by her master, 

but she then discovered God and dedicated her 

life to preaching and 

prayer

. The famed Egyptian 

vocalist  U

mm

  k

UlthoUm

 (d. 1975) recorded the 

songs for this movie. More recently, the Egyptian 

R

---

feminist writer Leila Ahmed has depicted her as a 

social rebel whose example has inspired Muslim 

women to free themselves from the limitations of 

their biological roles, and whose legend reflects 

countercultural understandings of gender.

Her devotees believe that her tomb is located 

on J

erUsalem

’s Mount of Olives in a 17th-century 

mosqUe

 near a church that memorializes the place 

of  J

esUs

’s ascent into heaven. A modern mosque 

named in her honor has been built in a suburb of 

c

airo

, Egypt.

See also a

bbasid

 c

aliphate

; 

slavery

; s

UFism

.

Sophia Pandya