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`Alā al-Dawlah Simnānī (d. 787/1385).

 

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad Biyabanak,

`Alā al-Dawlah Simnānī (b.  659/ 1261 -  d. 736/ 1336).

شیخ ابوالمکارم رکن‌ الدین علاء الدوله احمد بن محمد بن احمد بیابانکی سمنانی

Shaykh Abū al-Makārim Rukn al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Aḥmad Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Biyābānakī `Alā al-Dawlah Simnānī 

Stephen Lambden UC Merced.

IN PROGRESS AND REVISION : Last updated 10-12-2017.

A Kubrāwî Sufi mystic, `Alā al-Dawlah Simnānī (d. 1336) spent his youth at the Ilkhanid court, a poet and mystical philosopher who modified Ibn `Arabi's concept of waḥdat al-wujūd. A favorite saint of the later Naqshbandiyya. He came to oppose the influence of Ibn al-`Arabi in Persia.

GENERAL SOURCES

J. van Ess,

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA SEMNĀNĪ ' by  J. van Ess in Encyclopedia Iranica : Originally Published: December 15, 1984. Last Updated: July 29, 2011. Print ed. in Vol. I, Fasc. 7, pp. 774-777.  http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ala-al-dawla-semnani

Brustad, Kristen/Jamal J. Elias.

  •  ` The Autobiography of `Alā al-Dawlah Simnānī (1261-1336)'  in Dwight F. Reynolds, ed. Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition. University of California Press, 2001) ,  pp,188ff.

 

Select Writings of `Alā al-Dawlah Simnānī (d. c. 787 / c. 1260-1 /1336).

Tafsir

    • Tafsīr Najm al-Qur'ān. mss. see Elias 1995 index.
    • al-`Urwah li-ahl al-khalwah wa-al-jalwah. ed. Najīb Māyil Haravī, Tehran : Intisharat-i Mawlā, 1st ed. 1404 AH =1362/1983. (644pp.)

    Diwan

    •  دیوان اشعار
    • Divan-i kamil-i Ash`ar-i Farsi va `Arabi ,Tihran : Shirkat-i Muallifan va Mutarjiman-i Iran,1985. This Persian Book includes an introduction on the life of the poet by Zabih Allah Safa, xix, [10], 515 pp.
    • Manāzir al-mahādir, ed. H. Haydarkhanî, Tehran, 13718/1992
    • Tadhkirat al-mashāyikh, Tehran, 1971 in M. T. Dānishpazhūh and H. Landolt [eds.], Majmū'a-yi sukhanrānīhā wa maqālahā dar bāra-yi falsafa wa 'irfān-i Islāmī, pp. 152—60.
    • Muṣannafat-i Fārsī ed. Najib Mayil Haravi. Tehran: Intisharat-i `Ilmi va Farhangi/ Kitab-khanah-i Milli-yi Iran, 1382/2003 (469pp.). *

    CORRESPOMNDENCE

    Landolt, Hermann.

    Nur al-Din Isţarayeni (d. 717/1317), his teacher.

    •  Landolt, ed. and trans., Correspondence spirituelle, échangé entre Nouroddin Esţarayeni (ob, 717/1317) et son disciple '-Alaoddawleh Sem-nani (ob. 736/1336) (Tehran and Paris, 1972).
    • " ... correspondence with his spiritual master Esfarāyenī, which continued until the latter’s death in 717/1317. It was edited by H. Landolt (Correspondence spirituelle échangée entre Nuraddin Esfarayeni et son disciple ʿAlaoddawleh Semnani, Tehran, Bibliothèque Iranienne 21, 1972)." (EIr. see above).

    ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Kāšānī (d. 736/1335).

    Another correspondence links ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla with ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Kāšānī (d. 736/1335, half a year before ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla himself), the author of the so-called Tafsīr-e Ebn ʿArabī. The two letters (one by each) have been translated and commented upon by H. Landolt in Der Islam 50, 1973, pp. 29ff. They deal with the evaluation of Ebn ʿArabī’s mystical philosophy. It is possible that ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla’s unconcealed antipathy toward the šayḵ al-akbar is related to the fact that he sensed traits in common with the Buddhist (Vajrayāna) doctrines preferred by the monks at Arḡūn’s court (cf. M. Molé in REI 29, 1961, pp. 92ff.).

    SECONDARY SOURCES.

    Landolt, Hermann.

    •  "Simnānī on Wahdat al-Wujud," in Collected Papers on Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, ed. Mehdi Mohaghegh and Hermann Landolt (Tehran, 1971).
    •  Landolt, ed. and trans., Correspondence spirituelle, échangé entre Nouroddin Esţarayeni (ob, 717/1317) et son disciple '-Alaoddawleh Sem-nani (ob. 736/1336) (Tehran and Paris, 1972). " ... correspondence with his spiritual master Esfarāyenī, which continued until the latter’s death in 717/1317. It was edited by H. Landolt (Correspondence spirituelle échangée entre Nuraddin Esfarayeni et son disciple ʿAlaoddawleh Semnani, Tehran, Bibliothèque Iranienne 21, 1972)." (EIr. see above).

    Nwyia, Paul.

    • "Muqaddimat tafsīr al-Qur’ān li-`Alā’ al-Dawla Simnānī," al-Abḥāṭ,vol. 26 (1973-77), 141-57.

    Marijan Mole,

    •  "Un traité de ^la^ud-dawla Simnānī sur `Ali ibn Abī Tālib," Bulletin de l'Institut Français de Damas 16 (1958-60).

    Meier, F.

    • Die Fawāʾiḥ al-Jamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-Jalāl des NaJm aL-dīn al-Kubrā, Wiesbaden, 1957.
    •  Article, `     ' in EI2 I, pp. 346-47

    Elias, Jamal , J.

    • Ṣūfī Thought and Practice in the Teachings of `Alā’ ad-dawla as-Simnānī, Ph.D. dissertation, Yale, 1991.
    • The Throne Carrier of God, The Life and Thought of `Ala ad-Dawla as-Simnani. New York, Albany : SUNY Press, 1995.