The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi Sufism through the Eyes of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311)

The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi explores the life and teachings
of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), a little-known Ḥanbalī
Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). The first
part of this book follows al-Wāsiṭī’s physical journey in search of
spiritual guidance through a critical study of his autobiographical
writings. This provides unique insights into the Rifāʿiyya, the
Shādhiliyya, and the school of Ibn ʿArabī, several manifestations of
Sufism that he encountered as he travelled from Wāsiṭ to Baghdad,
Alexandria, and Cairo. Part I closes with his final destination,
Damascus, where his membership of Ibn Taymiyya’s circle and his role as a
Sufi teacher is closely examined.
The second part focuses on al-Wāsiṭī’s spiritual journey through a study
of his Sufi writings, which convey the distinct type of traditionalist
Sufism that he taught in early eighth/fourteenth-century Damascus.
Besides providing an overview of the spiritual path unto God from
beginning to end as he formulated it, this reveals an exceptional
interplay between Sufi theory and traditionalist theology.