—the Persian, the Bayḍāwī, the Sufi. Al-Bayḍāʾ is a city in the province of Fars (1). His grandfather Maḥmī was a Zoroastrian.

Al-Ḥusayn was brought up in Tustar. There he attached himself to Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī; in Baghdad he kept company with al-Junayd and Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Nūrī; he also studied under ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Makkī. He travelled constantly, undertaking long journeys and strenuous spiritual disciplines.

His spiritual state was approved by Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAṭāʾ, Muḥammad ibn Khafīf, and Ibrāhīm Abū al-Qāsim al-Naṣrābādhī. Yet the rest of the Sufis, shaykhs, and scholars disowned him, as you will see, on account of his misconduct and deviation. Some accused him of ḥulūl (incarnationism), others of outright heresy, of sorcery, and of sleight-of-hand. A faction of the deviant and the morally lax hid behind his name, adopted his views, and peddled them to the ignorant.

We ask Allah to safeguard us in matters of religion.

Ibn ʿAllān and others told me that Abū al-Yumn al-Kindī informed them, saying: “Abū Manṣūr al-Shaybānī told us, Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb told us, and Masʿūd ibn Nāṣir narrated to me—”