Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Advanced Learning and Exchange with Sufi Masters

According to al-Hujwīrī, Umm ʿAlī furthered her scholarly training by attending lessons with one of the most celebrated Islamic mystics of her time, Abū Yazīd (Bāyazīd) al-Bisṭ ạ̄ mī (d. 261/874 or 264/877-8).82

Al-Hujwīrī’s account of what she did when she arrived to study with Abū Yazīd is as follows:

Chūn pīsh-i Bāyazīd āmad, burqaʿ az rūy bar-dāsht, wa bā way sukhan-i gustākh mī-guft. Aḥmad az ān mutaʿajjib shud wa ghayrat bar dilash mustawlī gasht. Guft: “Yā Fātịma, ān chi gustākhī būdat bā Bāyazīd?” Guft: “Az āncha tū maḥram-i tabīʿat-i manī, wa way maḥram-i tạ rīqat-i man. Az tū bi hawā rasam, wa az way bi khudā. Wa dalīl bar īn, ān ki way az sụ ḥbat-i man bī-nīyāz ast, wa tū bi man muḥtāj.”83

When she came to Bāyazīd [Abū Yazīd], she removed her veil from her face and spoke with him boldly. Aḥmad was surprised by this, and jealousy seized his heart. He said, “Oh Fātịma, why this boldness with Bāyazīd?” She said, “As much as you are my natural partner, he is my spiritual partner. Through you I reach love, and through him I reach God. This is because he does not need my company, while you need me.”

Al-Hujwīrī tells us that the relationship between Umm ʿAlī and Abū Yazīd was not to last. One day, the great mystic commented on her hands and the henna painted on them. The utterance of such observations on a part of her body was a step too far for her, and Umm ʿAlī declared that it had rendered their companionship unlawful (ḥarām).

It seems that Atṭ ạ̄ r picked up this account from al-Hujwīrī, as his description of Umm ʿAlī’s relationship with Abū Yazīd is almost identical:

Chūn pīsh-i Bāyazīd andar āmadand Fātịma niqāb az rūy bar-dāsht, wa bā Abū Yazīd sukhan mī-guft. Aḥmad az ān mutaghayyir shud, wa ghayratī bar dilash mustawlī shud. Guft: “Ay Fātima, īn chi gustākhī būd ki-bā Bāyazīd kardī?” Fātịma guft: “Az ān-ki tu maḥram-i tạ bīʿat-i manī, wa Bāyazīd maḥram-i tạ rīqat-i man, az tū bi-hawā birasām wa az way bi-khudāy rasam. Wa dalīl-i sukhan īn-ast, ki ū az sụ ḥbat-i man bī-niyāz ast, wa tu bi-man muḥtājī.”84

When they arrived at Bāyazīd’s, Fātịma removed her veil from her face, and spoke with Abū Yazīd. Aḥmad became angry at this, and jealousy seized his heart. He said, “Oh Fātịma, why this boldness with Bāyazīd?” Fātịma said, “As much as you are my natural partner, Bāyazīd is my spiritual partner. Through you I reach love, and through him I reach God. This is because he does not need my company, while you need me.”

How are we to explain Umm ʿAlī’s unveiling in front of her teacher and scholarly companion Abū Yazīd? This is very different from what we learn from Mamluk accounts, that women who studied with men sat behind a screen so they could not be seen. They also studied alongside men, at times in full view and in public spaces.85 The informal setting, of course, lent itself well to administering the teaching of women whose movements were more restricted than those of men. Even where men and women did seem to interact in full view of each other, the unveiling of a woman’s face strikes one as unusual. Is it possible that Umm ʿAlī unveiled herself in order to assume the role of a male scholar?

Umm ʿAlī’s reverse gendering finds its echo in a statement by al-Hujwīrī, who cites Abū Yazīd as saying this about Umm ʿAlī: “Whoever wishes to see a man disguised in women’s clothes, let him look at Fātịma!”86 Alyssa Gabbay, in her study of Raziya, a noblewoman of the Delhi Sultanate, tried to make sense of her cross-dressing and identification as a man. Gabbay understood that Raziya had “exploited a metaphorical space in which elite daughters could exercise greater agency within a society that normally severely restricted their actions.”87 I find this a plausible explanation also for Umm ʿAlī’s reverse genderization.

But perhaps Abū Nuʿaym al-Isf̣ ahānī saw precisely this part of the account on Umm ʿAlī as problematic and adjusted the narrative somewhat. His (Arabic) account of Shaykh “Aḥmad b. Khiḍr” begins with Umm ʿAlī, who was “a daughter of notables” (min banāt al-kibār):

[Umm ʿAlī] excused (ḥallalat) her husband of paying [the later instalments of ?] her bride-price (ṣadaq),88 on the condition that he marry her (an yuzawwijahā) to Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭ ạ̄ mī. He took her to Abū Yazīd. She came before him and sat down in front of him, her face unveiled. Aḥmad expressed amazement and said to her, “I see that you are unveiled before Abū Yazīd.” She replied, “Because whenever I look at him I lose the fortune of my soul, and whenever I look at you I return to the fortunes of my soul.” But when he left, he [Aḥmad] said to Abū Yazīd, “Give me some advice.” He said, “Learn chivalry ( futuwwa) from your wife.”89

It is interesting that Abū Nuʿaym also refers to Umm ʿAlī’s manly characteristics ( futuwwa). His account diverges from the Persian ones in one main detail: Umm ʿAlī was married by her husband Aḥmad to Abū Yazīd. Presumably this would have been preceded by a divorce. Whether this actually happened we cannot know, but it is interesting that Abū Nuʿaym felt it necessary to mention such a marriage, which may have been carried out in name only, in order to enable Umm ʿAlī to study under this man. Oddly, Abū Nuʿaym does not give his source for the account.

The idea of a nominal marriage is reminiscent of the Baghdādī al-Masʿūdī’s (d. 345/956) account of a marriage carried out on the orders of the caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd between his friend the Barmakid Jaʿfar and his sister ʿAbbāsa. This segment of al-Masʿūdī’s Murūj al-dhahab is analyzed in detail by Julie Scott Meisami in her article on love and the fall of the Barmakids.90 The caliph wanted to enjoy the company of Jaʿfar and ʿAbbāsa together. Al-Masʿūdī stresses that the marriage was one in name only, having Hārūn al-Rashīd say to Jaʿfar, “which will allow you to spend evenings with her, to look upon her, and to associate with her in gatherings in which I am with you, but no more than that.” The marriage between ʿAbbāsa and Jaʿfar, however, was consummated against the caliph’s wishes, and Hārūn al-Rashīd quarrelled with Jaʿfar. Of course, there is a second element in our story of Umm ʿAlī, which is that she was already married and had to divorce, perhaps temporarily, in order to pursue her educational goals. Jane Khatib-Chahidi discusses how certain kinds of “fictive marriages” are still practiced by devout women in Shiʿi Iran as a way for enabling women to interact with men in a non-sexual manner. Seen in this light, the meaning of the account on Umm ʿAlī may be that she was so devout that she even subjected herself to a nominal marriage before agreeing to study with Abū Yazīd.91 The purpose of the account is thus to emphasize her piety.

Another part of Abū Nuʿaym’s characterization that stands out is the description of Umm ʿAlī as “chivalrous” ( futuwwa). This seems to echo al-Hujwīrī’s earlier description of her as “a woman dressed in man’s clothes.”

It is also reminiscent of the anecdote on Umm ʿAlī’s coaching of Aḥmad on how to host a member of the futuwwa, as well as the account that, when Aḥmad brought her to Abū Yazīd, Umm ʿAlī did not behave like a normal prospective bride, who would have lowered her veil. The metaphor of futuwwa should not be read as referring to her gender; it refers non-technically to the quality of young men and, in Sufi terminology, especially to a reckless lack of self-regard. Thus, the meaning seems to be complimentary towards her, rather than derogatory or critical.92

Annemarie Schimmel explains this kind of reverse gendering: “One should not be misled by the constant use of the word ‘man’ in the mystical literature of the Islamic languages: it merely points to the ideal human being who has reached proximity to God where there is no distinction of sexes; and Rābiʿa is the prime model of this proximity.”93 This explanation, seeing the term “male” as asexual and merely as indicating proximity to God, denies the implications of power enshrined in this male image. I would prefer to suggest Umm ʿAlī’s scholarly prowess might be explained only by making her “male.”

In a later source, Jāmī’s (d. 898/1492) Nafaḥāt al-uns, Umm ʿAlī is described differently. The Nafahāt al-uns post-dates the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh by three centuries and is the only one of the Sufi biographical compilations mentioned so far that has a section devoted to female Sufis, with more than thirty-three entries on women. Most of these are women from Basra and Kufa in the first centuries of Islam, with a handful of eastern women, notably a woman from Khwārazm, one from Nishapur, and one from Bisṭ ạ̄ m.94 Jāmī actually does not connect Umm ʿAlī to Balkh specifically (or any other place). A large proportion of the women are identified through their marital or family relations to men, some of whose biographical dates we know. It is, yet again, through the men’s lives that we can historicize these women. Umm ʿAlī’s life story stands out, together with a handful of others in Jāmī’s compilation, as having studied under great male scholars of the ninth and tenth centuries CE, and having achieved scholarly excellence and piety through charitable acts.95 Jāmī states:

Wa bā Aḥmad dar āncha būd muwāfiqat namūd. Bāyazīd-rā wa Abū Ḥafs-̣ rā - qaddasa Allāh taʿālā ruḥ-huma - dīda būd wa az Bāyazīd suʾālāt karda būd. Abū Ḥ afs ̣ gufta-ast ki: “Hamīsha ḥadīth-i zanān-rā makrūh mī-dāshtam, tā ān waqt ki Umm ʿAlī zawja-yi Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh-rā dīdam” . Bāyazīd . gufta-ast: “Har-ki tasṣ ạ wuf warzad bāyad bi-himmatī warzad chūn himmat-i Umm ʿAlī, zawja-yi Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh.”96

She agreed with Aḥmad b. Khidrawayh on everything. She met with Abū Yazīd and Abū Ḥ afs9̣ 7 - may God bless their souls - and studied under Abū Yazīd. Abū Ḥ afs ̣ has said, “I never valued women’s ḥadīth until I met Umm ʿAlī, the wife of Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh” . Abū Yazīd . has said, “Whoever wants to study Sufism must do so with the degree of effort which Umm ʿAlī, the wife of Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh, had shown.”

The notable difference from the earlier accounts is that the manly characterizations of Umm ʿAlī are missing, but Jāmī continues the tradition of her strengths as a scholar who enjoyed the company of some of the greatest male Muslim mystics of her time. It is interesting that Jāmī added the sentence emphasizing that Umm ʿAlī agreed with everything that Aḥmad believed in or did: it reads almost like an effort to correct the imbalance in the relationship in favour of Umm ʿAlī that we encounter in the earlier sources.

Conclusion

Umm ʿAlī of Balkh presents a very different case of female religious authority from that of Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya. The two had three things in common: their era - Rābiʿa preceded Umm ʿAlī by just one generation - their serious engagement with Muslim learning and mysticism as ʿulamāt, and their gender. Here is where the similarity ends. Each of these women had a particular path to scholarship, and each focussed on her own field of scholarship. While Rābiʿa came from the lowest stratum of society - she had been manumitted from slavery - Umm ʿAlī possessed exceptional wealth, not from her own labours but through inheritance from a family of the highest pedigree. Rābiʿa’s disciples came from all walks of life, while Umm ʿAlī’s social circle was centred on the provincial elite. Rābiʿa received many offers of marriage but rejected them all, choosing celibacy;98 Umm ʿAlī had to ask Aḥmad b. Khiḍrawayh more than once before he sought her hand in marriage. Rābiʿa famously refused help from her friends, as a mark of her extreme asceticism and otherworldliness,99 while Umm ʿAlī donated stipends to the poor. Rābiʿa developed and taught concepts in Islamic mysticism focussed on love and communion with God, while Umm ʿAlī studied and taught the Qurʾan. We do not hear of Rābiʿa learning from any particular master,100 while we read that Umm ʿAlī studied with her teacher Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbdallāh, whose book of tafsīr she transmitted. Umm ʿAlī, like any good ʿālim, travelled to study for an extended period, while travel is not highlighted in the accounts of Rābiʿa.

In terms of the representations of these women, Rābiʿa tends to be accorded her own entries in the biographical dictionaries, while Umm ʿAlī is usually mentioned in relation to her husband. This seems to reflect a historiographical tradition rather than a real weighting of these two women’s contributions to Islamic scholarship and mysticism. The author of the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh was clearly impressed with the mahd-i ʿaliyya - the “[lady of ] high standing”—concluding that it was no wonder that Balkh’s shuyūkh were exceptional, considering how great their wives were.101 This male author, rather predictably, saw accomplished women as a prerequisite for male eminence. It is reminiscent of the phrase, “Behind every successful man stands a great woman.” Could it be that behind this successful woman stood a great man? Thus, al-Wāʾiz’̣s praise should not detract from the fact that the author still did not feel compelled to devote a separate biography to her.

However, the Shaykh al-Islām and other mediaeval authors of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries CE give us clues as to how a woman like Umm ʿAlī used strategies that enabled them to manoeuvre in the world of scholarship. These included reverse genderization (i.e., “being a man”) and engaging in nominal marriage. The stories of Umm ʿAlī that are repeated (with variations) in numerous sources during this period are the product of the historiographical tradition from which they spring. At some point between the mid-ninth and the early eleventh centuries, their stories became canonical in the biographical traditions and were introduced into the biographical sources and, in Umm ʿAlī’s case, into the local history of Balkh.

We find a subtle change in the later sources on Umm ʿAlī’s character: by the fifteenth century she loses those “manly” attributes that appear in the earlier sources. She becomes the virtuous woman who helps the poor and follows her husband in everything he believes - no divorce, no nominal marriage with Abū Yazīd. There is no more unveiling, no challenging or teaching her husband. Umm ʿAlī becomes pacified by historiography. Umm ʿAlī, like other women scholars in the later sources, are still represented as excelling in their scholarship and mystical experience, but social conventions eventually obliged the male authors who memorialized them to turn their legacy quiet, though not completely silent, for which we should be thankful.

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Appendix

The following excerpt on the ninth-century Balkhī scholar Umm ʿAlī is taken from the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh, written in Persian in 676/1278 and based on an Arabic original of 610/1214 that does not survive.102 The Persian text has been translated and transcribed, with a commentary.

Shaykh al-Islām Abū al-Qāsim Qushayrī, may God have mercy on him, related that, one day, an esteemed visitor arrived at Shaykh Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh[’s house]. The shaykh said to his wife, “I want to invite this friend in because he is the head (sayyid) of the generous and the free of all times.” The lady (khātūn) said, “Oh Aḥmad! Can’t you do that, and don’t you know how one ought to invite these people of humanity and [fol. 135b]103 chivalry (murūwat wa-futuwwat)?” The shaykh said, “It cannot be, but that a meal must be prepared?” The lady explained that, “according [to practice, you must] slaughter sheep, cows, and asses and leave [their remains] at the entrance to our house.” The shaykh asked, “I understand the sacrifice of the cows, but what is the need for the asses?’ The mistress of the house (kad-bānū) retorted, “If one brings an honoured guest to the house, does it matter that the alley dogs get some food thanks to that?”

And in the history books it has come down to us that: The mahd-i ʿaliyya (“[lady of ] high standing”)104 who was the wife of Shaykh Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh, was the daughter of Mālik b. Ṣāliḥ, and her mother was known as Muʾmina (lit. “believer [fem.]”). [Her mother] was the daughter of Ḥasan [b.] [Ḥ]umrān, who was the governor (wālī) of Khorasan.105 The grave (turbat) of the lady Muʾmina106 is in a place in Ba[l]kh107 called the Arch of Muʾmina (ṭāq-i Muʾmina) and it is in [a?] ribāṭ.108 The lady of Shaykh Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh, may God have mercy on him, has transmitted the book of Tafsīr by Ṣāliḥ [b.] ʿAbdallāḥ. They say that she sold her own land and property for 79,000 dirhams and embarked on the ḥajj. When she arrived in Mecca, she performed the ḥajj of [fol. 136a] Islam, and completed all its rites. Then she turned to the study of Islamic learning ( ʿilm). She resided [in Mecca] for seven years, becoming skilled in all the subjects of ʿilm, and attended the sessions of ḥadīth (aḥādīth istimāʿ kard). After that, she returned to Balkh, and in Balkh she was buried near the tomb of Shaykh Aḥmad.

ʿAlī b. Faḍl, may God have mercy on him, relates about Shaykh Aḥmad Khiḍrawayh, may God have mercy on him, that, Umm ʿAlī, the elder wife would say [in Arabic], “The faith of a believer is like a mountain: it is safe from the movements of the wind.” And [Shaykh Aḥmad] had another wife, Ḥakīma Zāḥida, and she said, “The faith of a believer is like a supple tree that flexes [in the wind] but does not fall.” The meaning (maʿnī) [of the Arabic] is that the faith of a believer is like a mountain that is immune to the blowing and quivering of the wind. The younger wife [on the other hand] contended that the faith of a believer was like a young tree, which leans in all directions but does not fall.

One day they brought the news to Umm ʿAlī that Shaykh Aḥmad had passed away. Both ladies were in the kitchen, baking bread. The younger wife rushed to the door to obtain more details, leaving off her [fol. 136b] bread-baking duties. After just a short while, the happy news arrived that the shaykh was alive, having [merely] fainted and [now] regained consciousness. For a second time the younger wife had run to the door to find out everything about his recovery. [During all this time,] Umm ʿAlī, who had spoken about the faith of the believer as a mountain, had remained still and seated, never stopping baking bread. She had not been upset and aggrieved by the news of the shaykh’s death, nor had she been overjoyed and elated by the [subsequent] notification that he was in good health. In that moment, the wife Ḥakīma Zāhida, who had said that the faith of a believer was like a young tree that leaned in all directions but did not fall over, had understood the words of Umm ʿAlī. Thus, it is clear now that each of us has his own station (maqām) and time (waqt). If the wives of these pure [ones] were such, [just think] at what levels the great shuyūkh must have been!