Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari

Abu-al-Hasan Ali ben Abdallah al-Nuymari as-Shushtari (Arabic: ابو الحسن الششتري) or Al-Sustari (1212 in Exfiliana, near Guadix – 1269 in Damietta[1]) was an Andalusian-Arab Sufi Sheikh, philosopher, jurist, and poet.[2] He is best known by posterity for his poetry, which was designed to be sung in songs employing simple monorhymes to praise God with everyday musical idiom,[3] which won wide recognition beyond the hundreds of disciples in his own Shushtariyya brotherhood.[4]

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shushtarī
ابو الحسن الششتري
Born1212
Exfiliana, near Guadix, Al-Andalus
Died1269
Damietta, Egypt
RegionIslamic philosophy
SchoolSab'iniyya-Shushtariyya (absorbed into Shadhiliyya after his death)
Main interests
Poetry, Jurisprudence, Mysticism
Notable ideas
Shushtariyya order

Many verses of al-Shushtari's poetry (62 short poems called "Tawshih") were identified in the classical Andalusian music that is today sung in North Africa as well as other parts of the Middle East.[citation needed] In the Mashriq (the orient), he is remembered today for his poem A little sheikh from the land of Meknes (Arabic شويخ من أرض مكناس, "Shwiyikh min ardi Meknes") a song which retains huge popularity to this day.[citation needed]

Recordings

edit
  • Ritual sufí andalusí, al-Shushtari, Omar Metioui, Eduardo Paniagua, Madrid, Pneuma, 1998
  • Dhikr y sama':canto religioso de la cofradía sufí-andalusí al-Shushtari. Poemas del místico al-Shushtari, Omar Metioui, Eduardo Paniagua, Madrid, Pneuma, 1998.

References

edit
  1. ^ Poesía andalusí - Manuel Francisco Reina - 2007 - Al-Sustari A l-Sustari (1212-1269). Poeta y místico sufí. Nació cerca de Guadix en el pueblo de Sustar y murió cerca de Damietta durante una de sus.
  2. ^ Corriente, F., Poesía estrófica (cejeles o muashahat) atribuida al místico granadino a-sh-shushtari, CSIC, Madrid, 1988.
  3. ^ Lourdes María Alvarez Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shushtarī: songs of love and devotion 2009 "By contrast, it was Shushtari 's special talent to use popular song and informal diction to talk about the divine. His were songs that could be enjoyed and interpreted at many levels, songs that not only rejected rank and privilege and"
  4. ^ Page 5 "Shushtari's popular songs won him wide recognition, recognition that went far beyond the hundreds of disciples who formed the Sufi brotherhood known as the Shushtariyya (itself a branch of Ibn Sab'in's Sab'iniyya), an order eventually absorbed into the Shadhiliyya." Page 19 "Yet Ibn al-Khatib speaks of no rupture between the disciple and his master, instead claiming that Shushtari took over ... Furthermore, in both the I hat a and Rawdat al-tacrif, Ibn al-Khatib reproduces the complete text of Shushtari's ..."