Ahmad al-Badawī

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Tomb of Badawi in Tanta

Sheikh Ahmad al-Badawī ( Arabic أحمد البدوي, DMG Aḥmad al-Badawī ; born around 1199 in Fez , Morocco ; died August 24, 1276 in Tanta , Egypt ) was a Shafiite preacher and Sufi . To this day he is considered the most popular saint among the Muslims of Egypt and is often only called as-Sayyid . He is the founder of the Egyptian Sufi order Badawiyya . Because he covered his face like a Bedouin , he was known as al-Badawi , "the Bedouin ". He also received numerous other nicknames .

Life and aftermath

Sayyid Ahmad appears to have been the youngest of seven or eight siblings. His mother's name was Fatima, his father ʿAli al-Badrī, nothing more is known about him. He traced his ancestry back to ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib . In the years 1206–1211, Ahmad and his parents made the pilgrimage to Mecca , which they reached after a four-year journey. His father died in Mecca. Ahmad distinguished himself there as a trained rider.

Around 1230 he seems to have gone through an internal crisis. He mastered the recitation of the Koran in seven different ways and briefly studied the basics of the Shafiite school of law. He immersed himself in religious devotion and turned down an offer of marriage. More and more he distanced himself from the community, became silent and only wanted to communicate with signs . According to some sources, in three dreams in 1236, he received the order to leave for Iraq , where he went with his older brother Hasan. In Baghdad and Tel Afar they visited the graves of the two great " Poles " Ahmed Rifai and Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, as well as other saints, including Mansur al-Hallādsch .

In 1236 he returned to the Ayyubid Empire after another vision that prompted him to travel to Tanta . Upon his arrival in the Nile Delta , he was received personally by the Ayyubid Sultan, al-Kamil Muhammad al-Malik . A short time later, the Ayyubid Sultan became one of his Murid (pupil; Arabic مريد "the willing one"). Sayyid Badawī became very famous in the Ayyubid Empire. People in love with God came from all over the world to take part in his Suhbat (Sufist for entertainment between sheikhs and disciples).

His way of life in Tanta is described as follows:

“He climbed onto the roof of a private house in Tanta and remained motionless there. He fixed the sun with his gaze so much that his eyes turned red and painful and resembled glowing coal. Sometimes he remained in deep silence, sometimes he screamed incessantly. He sometimes fasted forty days. "

Among his followers in Tanta was a boy named ʿAbd el-ʿĀl, who asked his master to heal his sick eyes, and who subsequently became his confidante and successor ( Khalifa ). Ahmad al-Badawi died on the 12th Rabīʿ al-awwal 675 AH or August 24, 1276.

The Badawi Mosque in Tanta

Badawī's tomb is located inside the Ahmad-al-Badawi Mosque , where the Koran is recited and Mevlid-Sherife poems are read aloud every year. Up to three million people, including scholars and awliya from various Sunni Sufi orders, take part in the week-long festival.

The mosque is 135 meters long and 60 meters wide. It marks the place of his grave with the large dome and under the smaller dome is the burial of his successor Sīdī ʿAbd el-ʿĀl el-Fīschāwī. It was built and renewed by the great Mamluk rulers of the Middle Ages, Baibars (r. 1260–1277) and Qait Bey (r. 1468–1496).

In honor of Ahmad al-Badawi, three festivals (Maulid) are celebrated in Egypt on the following dates:

  1. January 17th or 18th
  2. around the spring equinox
  3. about a month after the summer solstice , when the Nile is already carrying a lot of water but the canal locks are not yet open.

The calculation of the dates is based on the Coptic calendar . In his Mohammedan Studies Ignaz Goldziher points to a possible connection between the annual pilgrimages to Tanta and the processions in ancient Egypt to Bubastis , which Herodotus describes.

literature

  • Karl Vollers , Enno Littmann : Article Aḥmad al-Badawī , in Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd edition, Vol. 1, pp. 287–288.
  • Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen: al-Sayyid al-Badawi, un grand saint de l'islam égyptien , Cairo: Institut francais d'archéologie orientale 1994
  • Max Meyerhof : "Contributions to the popular belief in salvation of today's Egyptians". Der Islam Vol. 7, 1917 ( online )
  • Jürgen W. Frembgen: Journey to God. Sufis and dervishes in Islam. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2000.
  • Annemarie Schimmel : Mystical Dimensions of Islam . 1985
  • Abdel Hakim Qasem: Ayyam Al-Insan Al-Sab'a (The Seven Days of Man, first published in 1969)
  • Nebhâni, Câmi'u kerâmât-il-evliyâ Book-1, pages 309, 457, 460

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K. Vollers, E. Littmann: Encyclopaedia of Islam , Vol. 1, Article Aḥmad al-Badawī . 2nd edition, Brill, Leiden 1960.
Ahmad al-Badawī (alternative names of the lemma)
Aḥmad Ibn-ʿAlī al-Badawī; Aḥmad Ibn-ʿAlī al-Badawī; Aḥmad al-Badawī Ibn-ʿAlī; Aḥmad al-Badawī; As-Saiyid al-Badawī; Al-Saiyid al-Badawī; Ahmad al-Badawi; Aihamaide Baidawei; Abu'l-Fitan Ahmad; Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Badawi, Bedawi
personal data
SURNAME Ahmad al-Badawī
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ahmad al-Badawi; أحمد البدوي (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sufi saint
DATE OF BIRTH around 1200
PLACE OF BIRTH Fes , Morocco
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1276
Place of death Tanta , Egypt