Sufism, Black and White

Orfali and Saab’s (edited) Sufism, Black and White is a critical edition of Kitab al-Bayad wa’l-Sawad min khasa’is hikam al-[ibad fi na[t al-murid wa’l-murad (“The Black and White in the Words of Wisdom by Bondsmen Describing the Seeker and the Mystic Quest”), by Abu’l-Hasan [Ali b. al-Hasan al-Sirjani (d. ca. 470/1077). It includes an introduction in English, a list of illustrations, lists of Qur’anic verses and Hadith, and indexes of technical Sufi expressions, poems and places. Sirjani was from the city of Sirjan, an old city located in the Kirman province in Iran, with a two-thousand-year history. Although Brockelmann does not mention Sirjani, numerous hagiographies, Sufi biographies as well as Sufi manuals have provided us with some biographical data about the author of al-Bayad wa’l-Sawad, among which one can mention Hujwiri’s (d.1077) Kashf al-Mahjub (Tehran: 1383/1994, p. 261), Ansari’s (d.1088) Tabaqat al-Sufiyyah (Tehran: 1386/1997, p. 488), Muhammad b. Munawwar’s (d.541) Asrar al-Tawhid (Tehran: 1366/1987, vi, p. 343), [Attar’s (d.1220) Tadhkirat al- Awliya’ (Brill: 1905, p. 315), Jamal al-Din Abu Ruh Mihani’s(d.541) Halat wa Sukhanan-i Abu Sa[id Abi’l-Khayr (Tehran: 1376/1997, pp. 88-89), Abu Tahir Silafi’s (d.576) Mu[jam alSafar (Beirut: 1993, p. 159), Ibn [Asakir’s (d.1175) Ta’rikh Madinat Dimashq (Beirut: 1415, v. XXII, p. 60), Junayd Shirazi’s (d. 1451) Shadd al-Izar fi Hatt al-Awzar[an Zuwwar al-Mazar (Tehran: 1328/1949, pp. 180-81), Jami’s (d.1492) Nafahat al-Uns min Hadarat al-Quds (Tehran: 1373/1984, pp. 269-70), Haji Khalifah’s (d. 1657) Kashf al-Zunun[an Asami al-Kutub wa’l-Funun (Beirut: 1993, v.II, p. 983), Isma[il Pasha Baghdadi’s (d.1920) Hadiyyat al-[Arifin (Istanbul: 1951, p. 692) and [Umar Rida Kahhalah’s(d.1987) Mu[jam al-Mu’allifin (Beirut: p. 77).