Dagestani Sufi Literature in the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: A Historical Outline

Abstract

Sufi literature appears in Dagestan in the 11^th and 12^th centuries as Sufi encyclopaedia by Abu Bakr ad-Darbandi Rayhan al haqa'iq witnesses. In the later period no local Sufi authors were known until the 19^th century. Shamil Shikhaliev found about 30 such works that date back mostly to the 19^th and the first half of the twentieth centuries. The most popular among them are works by Naqshbandi sheiks Muhammad al-Yaraghi, Jamal ad-Din al-Ghazi-Ghumuqi, 'Abd al-Rahman as-Suguri, Muhammad al-'Ubudi, Ilyas al- Tsudakhari, Shu'ayb al-Bagini, Sayf Allah-qadi al-Nitsubkri, Hasan al-Qahi, Sharaf ad-Din al-Kikuni. Some of their authors also belonged to the Shadhili tradition introduced in Dagestan in the beginning of the 20^th century. These works touched chiefly upon Sufi ritual practices and technique of mystical path.