Abu-al-Hasan Ali ben Abdallah al-Nuymari as-Shushtari ( ar, ابو الحسن الششتري) or Al-Sustari (1212 in Exfiliana, near

Guadix Guadix (; Local pronunciation: aˈðih is a city and municipality in southern Spain, in the province of Granada. The city lies at an altitude of 913 metres, on the centre of the Hoya of Guadix, a high plain at the northern foothills of the Sierr ...

– 1269 in

Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...

) was an Andalusian-

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

, philosopher, jurist, and poet. He is best known by posterity for his poetry, which was designed to be sung in songs employing simple monorhymes to praise God with everyday musical idiom, which won wide recognition beyond the hundreds of disciples in his own Shushtariyya brotherhood.Page 5 "Shushtari's popular songs won him wide recognition, recognition that went far beyond the hundreds of disciples who formed the Sufi brotherhood known as the Shushtariyya (itself a branch of

Ibn Sab'in Ibn Sab'īn ( ar, محمدبن عبدالحق بن سبعين ') was an Arab Sufi philosopher, the last philosopher of the Andalus in the west land of Islamic world. He was born in 1217 in Spain and lived in Ceuta. He was known for his replies to ...

's Sab'iniyya), an order eventually absorbed into the

Shadhiliyya The Shadhili Order ( ar, الطريقة الشاذلية) is a tariqah or Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") ...

." Page 19 "Yet

Ibn al-Khatib Lisan ad-Din Ibn al-Khatib ( ar, لسان الدين ابن الخطيب, Lisān ad-Dīn Ibn al-Khaṭīb) (Born 16 November 1313, Loja– died 1374, Fes; full name in ar, محمد بن عبد الله بن سعيد بن عبد الله بن � ...

speaks of no rupture between the disciple and his master, instead claiming that Shushtari took over ... Furthermore, in both the I hat a and Rawdat al-tacrif, Ibn al-Khatib reproduces the complete text of Shushtari's ..." Many verses of al-Shushtari's poetry (62 short poems called "Tawshih") were identified in the

classical Andalusian music Andalusi classical music ( ar, طرب أندلسي, ṭarab ʾandalusī; es, música andalusí), also called Andalusi music or Arab-Andalusian music, is a genre of music originally developed in al-Andalus by the Muslim population of the region ...

that is today sung in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

as well as other parts of the

Greater Middle East The Greater Middle East, is a political term, introduced in March 2004 in a paper by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as part of the U.S. administration's preparatory work for the Group of Eight summit of June 2004, denoting a v ...

. In the

Mashriq The Mashriq ( ar, ٱلْمَشْرِق), sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is a term used by Arabs to refer to the eastern part of the Arab world, located in Western Asia and eastern North Africa. Poetically the "Place of Sunrise", the n ...

(the orient), he is remembered today for his poem '' A little sheikh from the land of Meknes'' (Arabic شويخ من أرض مكناس, "Shewiyekh men-ard Meknes") a song which retains huge popularity to this day.

Recordings

*''Ritual sufí andalusí, al-Shushtari'', Omar Metioui,

Eduardo Paniagua Eduardo Paniagua (born 1952 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish architect and musician, specializing in medieval Spanish music. Between 1966 and 1983, he was a member of the group Atrium Musicae de Madrid, led by his older brother Gregorio, playing wi ...

, Madrid, Pneuma, 1998 *''Dhikr y sama':canto religioso de la cofradía sufí-andalusí al-Shushtari. Poemas del místico al-Shushtari'', Omar Metioui, Eduardo Paniagua, Madrid, Pneuma, 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari 1212 births 1269 deaths Sufi poets Sufis of Al-Andalus 13th-century Al-Andalus writers