SAINTHOOD AND AUTHORITY IN EARLY ISLAM:

Publisher: Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2020, 219pp. ISBN: 9789004408302

In the work under review, Aiyub Palmer’s sets down the findings of his scholarly investigation into the works and thoughts of the famous 10th century Muslim sage and theorist, al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi. He examines the various aspects of al-Tirmidhi’s intellectual formation and the significant contribution he made to the development of the socio-spiritual imaginary of wilayah (sainthood) that forms the bedrock of Islamic mysticism.

The rise and consolidation of Sufism as an institution in Islamicate societies has invited varied explanations. The multi-angled approaches to the question stem from the overlapping nature of the question which cuts across the disciplines of psychology, sociology and anthropology. Goldziher, for example, sees it as a reprise to the uncompromising monotheism that Islam originally stood for. This line of thinking finds resonance in the Tayimiyyan critique of Sufism which is followed in modern times by the Wahhabi school.