Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (20/113)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

so Ibn Tāshfīn (1), the ruler of the day, grew alarmed at his rising fame and imagined that he might turn out to be another Ibn Tūmart. It is therefore said that he had him killed in secret, giving him poison to drink—Allah knows best.

Ibn al-ʿArīf learned the variant Quranic readings from two of the remaining disciples of Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, and he received the Sufi cloak (2) from Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-Bāqī mentioned earlier, the last of Abū ʿUmar al-Ṭalamankī’s students to pass away.

Ibn Masdī said: “Perfection pitched its pavilion over Ibn al-ʿArīf. Because of men like him the lands were illumined, while a host of the envious were stifled. They reported him to the sovereign of their age and frightened the ruler with the possible outcome of his affair, for hearts had gathered around him and strangers had rallied to him. Consequently he was exiled to Marrakesh. It is said that he was poisoned and died a martyr. When he was being taken to Marrakesh he felt desolate, so he threw all his writings into the sea, and nothing of them remained except what had already been copied from him.”

Those who narrated from him include Abū Bakr ibn al-Rizq, the ḥāfiẓ; Abū Muḥammad ibn Dhī al-Nūn; and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Andarashī (3). The last of these also received the khirqa from him and kept company with my grandfather, the ascetic Mūsā ibn Masdī; he was perhaps the final survivor among Ibn al-ʿArīf’s companions.

He then said: “Ibn al-ʿArīf was born in Jumādā al-Ūlā of the year 481 AH.”

(1) The person intended is Ali b. Yusuf b. Tashfin; his biography appears under no. 75. (2) Al-Qashani, an eighth-century AH Sufi, writes in his Istilahat al-Sufiyya, pp. 159–160: “The sufi mantle (khirqa al-tasawwuf) is the garment that the novice receives from the hand of his shaykh, the one into whose spiritual direction he enters and at whose hand he repents. Its purposes include: adopting the shaykh’s outward dress so that the disciple’s inner self may assume his qualities, just as his exterior now shares his clothing—this being the garment of piety both outwardly and inwardly—and receiving the baraka of the shaykh transmitted through his blessed hand, and so forth.” Cf. al-Sakhawi, al-Maqasid al-Hasana, p. 331. (3) The nisba refers to the fortress of Andarsh in Almeria, where he had lived, as Ibn Hajar notes in Lisan al-Mizan 1/259–260.

تَاشفِيْنَ (١) سُلْطَانُ الوَقْتِ مِنْ ظُهُوْرِه، وَظَنَّ أَنَّهُ مِنْ أُنْمُوْذَجِ ابْنِ تُوْمَرْتَ، فَيُقَالُ: إِنَّهُ قَتلَه سِرّاً، فَسقَاهُ - وَاللهُ أَعْلَمُ -. وَقَدْ قرَأَ بِالرِّوَايَاتِ عَلَى اثْنَيْنِ مِنْ بَقَايَا أَصْحَاب أَبِي عَمْرٍو الدَّانِي، وَلَبِسَ الخِرْقَةَ (٢) مِنْ أَبِي بَكْرٍ عَبْد البَاقِي المَذْكُوْر آخرِ أَصْحَاب أَبِي عُمَرَ الطَّلَمَنْكِيِّ وَفَاةً. قَالَ ابْنُ مَسْدِي: ابْنُ العَرِيْف مِمَّنْ ضَرَبَ عَلَيْهِ الكَمَالُ رِوَاقَ التعرِيف، فَأَشرقت بِأَضرَابِه البِلاَد، وَشَرِقت بِهِ جَمَاعَةُ الحُسَّاد، حَتَّى لَسَعَوْا بِهِ إِلَى سُلْطَان عصره، وَخوَّفُوهُ مِنْ عَاقبَة أَمرِه، لاشتمَال القُلوبِ عَلَيْهِ، وَانضِوَاءِ الغُربَاء إِلَيْهِ، فَغُرِّب إِلَى مَرَّاكُش، فَيُقَالُ: إِنَّهُ سُمَّ، وَتُوُفِّيَ شهيداً، وَكَانَ لَمَّا احتُمل إِلَى مَرَّاكُش، اسْتوحش، فَغرَّقَ فِي البَحْرِ جَمِيْعَ مُؤلَّفَاته، فَلَمْ يَبْقَ مِنْهَا إِلاَّ مَا كُتِبَ مِنْهَا عَنْهُ. رَوَى عَنْهُ: أَبُو بَكْرٍ بنُ الرِّزْقِ الحَافِظُ، وَأَبُو مُحَمَّدٍ بنُ ذِي النُّوْنِ، وَأَبُو العَبَّاسِ الأَنْدَرَشِيُّ (٣) ، وَلَبِسَ مِنْهُ الخِرْقَة، وَصَحِبَ جَدِّي الزَّاهِدَ مُوْسَى بنَ مَسْدِي، وَلَعَلَّهُ آخِرُ مَنْ بَقِيَ مِنْ أَصْحَابِهِ. ثُمَّ قَالَ: مولدُ ابْنُ العَرِيْفِ فِي جُمَادَى الأُوْلَى، سَنَةَ إِحْدَى وَثَمَانِيْنَ وَأَرْبَعِ مائَةٍ.

(١) يقصد علي بن يوسف بن تاشفين، سترد ترجمته برقم (٧٥) . (٢) قال القاشاني وهو من صوفية القرن الثامن الهجري في كتابه " اصطلاحات الصوفية " ص ١٥٩، ١٦٠: خرقة التصوف: هي ما يلبسه المريد من يد شيخه الذي يدخل في إرادته، ويتوب على يده، لامور، منها التزيي بزي المراد ليتلبس باطنه بصفاته، كما تلبس ظاهره بلباسه، وهو لباس التقوى ظاهرا وباطنا..ومنها وصول بركة الشيخ الذي لبسه من يده المباركة إليه..الخ. وانظر " المقاصد الحسنة " ص ٣٣١ للسخاوي. (٣) نسبة إلى حصن أندرش من المرية، وكان قد سكنه، كما ذكر ابن حجر في ترجمته في " لسان الميزان " ١ / ٢٥٩، ٢٦٠.