{"id":87126,"date":"2020-11-10T16:02:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T14:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=87126"},"modified":"2021-10-10T15:40:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T12:40:14","slug":"sufi_journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/sufi_journey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sufi Journey to Jerusalem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Late one night in the spring of 1690, the Sufi saint and scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (1641-1731) had a dream. In his mind\u2019s eye, al-Nabulsi saw himself leaving his house and making his way to one of the markets in Damascus, his home city. As he later recounted, (in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nli.org.il\/he\/books\/NNL_ALEPH002488475\/NLI\">Elizabeth Sirriyeh<\/a>\u2019s translation), he found there<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">one of the finest Arab horses offered to us to ride and we rode it and went on our way. Suddenly we encountered two strong and energetic young men; they were well-dressed, magnificently clothed in green and red. Each of them put the palm of his hand under my foot while I was riding and their palms took the place of stirrups, each on one side, and I rode the horse like that with the two young men.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The author of a notable&#8211;and still popular&#8211;book on dream interpretation, al-Nabulsi was an expert on deciphering the symbolic content of our nighttime visions. But not even he could see the dream was in fact a premonition. A few days later, al-Nabulsi set out on his famous journey to Jerusalem, which served as the basis for one of the most important accounts of seventeenth century Palestine. At the head of the caravan, as prefigured in the dream, marched two young <em>majadhib<\/em>, Sufi ecstatic holy men, who seemed \u201clike angels.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87136\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87136\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Yah_1019_Majnun_and_animals-990034189120205171.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-87136\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Yah_1019_Majnun_and_animals-990034189120205171-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"763\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Yah_1019_Majnun_and_animals-990034189120205171-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Yah_1019_Majnun_and_animals-990034189120205171-393x600.jpg 393w, https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Yah_1019_Majnun_and_animals-990034189120205171.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of Qays, known as Majnun, \u201cthe mad one,\u201d as an ascetic surrounded by wild animals from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nli.org.il\/en\/manuscripts\/NNL_ALEPH003418912\/NLI#$FL13403041\">a 1798 copy of Nezami Ganjavi\u2019s <em>Khamsa<\/em><\/a>, from the National Library of Israel collections. Majnun, driven mad by his unrequited love for Leila, served as a model for Sufi ecstatic piety.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Al-Nabulsi was one of the leading Muslim intellectuals of his age, a wide-ranging figure whose over 250 works include treatises on Islamic law, the benefits of smoking, agriculture, poetry, commentaries on the classics of Sufi mystical literature, and more. Dozens of manuscripts of works by al-Nabulsi are included in the collection of the National Library of Israel. While a copy of al-Nabulsi\u2019s Jerusalem travelogue is not among them, the collection does include an early 1902 printed edition of the work, acquired by the scholar and collector <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/en\/yahuda\/\">Abraham Shalom Yahuda<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The scion of a wealthy family of judges and religious authorities that traced its own origins back to Jerusalem, al-Nabulsi garnered an early scholarly reputation and was teaching already at the age of twenty. As his engagement with Sufism (especially the work of Ibn Arabi, whom he considered his spiritual father) deepened, al-Nabulsi increasingly withdrew from public life. During one seven-year period, he is said to have remained confined in his house, letting his hair and nails grow long, and achieving a spiritual transcendence which he attributed to the overwhelming experience of God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87143\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87143\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ms-ar-239-nabulsi-ilm-al-malaha-ff.10-11-990029084450205171.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-87143 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ms-ar-239-nabulsi-ilm-al-malaha-ff.10-11-990029084450205171.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ms-ar-239-nabulsi-ilm-al-malaha-ff.10-11-990029084450205171.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ms-ar-239-nabulsi-ilm-al-malaha-ff.10-11-990029084450205171-300x209.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87143\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A late nineteenth century manuscript of Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi&#8217;s agricultural treatise,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nli.org.il\/en\/manuscripts\/NNL_ALEPH002908445\/NLI#$FL137205442\"> <em>&#8216;Ilm al-mal\u0101\u1e25a f\u012b &#8216;ilm al-fal\u0101\u1e25a<\/em><\/a>, from the National Library of Israel collections<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Al-Nabulsi\u2019s six-week-long journey to Palestine, which included seventeen days in Jerusalem, was only one of four long excursions that followed this period of seclusion. Aside from that journey, al-Nabulsi traveled through today\u2019s Syria and Lebanon, completed the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca (on which occasion he returned to Jerusalem for a second stay) and visited Egypt as well. Each of these trips became the subject of a travelogue.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In composing these travelogues, a genre known as <em>rihla<\/em> in Arabic, al-Nabulsi was following a well-worn tradition, the most famous example of which is Ibn Battuta\u2019s (1304-1368) account of his thirty-year-long wanderings that took him from Morocco to China. However, al-Nabulsi\u2019s travel writing is distinguished by his focus on Sufi themes and characters; it is no accident that the journey begins with an encounter with the two ecstatics. This is clear even from the title of al-Nabulsi\u2019s Jerusalem travelogue: <em>Al-hadra al-unsiyya fi al-rihla al-qudsiya<\/em> (&#8220;The Intimate Presence on the Jerusalem Journey&#8221;). The \u201cIntimate Presence\u201d refers both to the name for the Sufi spiritual gathering, often held on Thursday nights, and to God\u2019s own presence, which al-Nabulsi hoped to experience on the journey.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87140\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87140\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-87140\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nabulsi-jerusalem-travels-990022152760205171-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nabulsi-jerusalem-travels-990022152760205171-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nabulsi-jerusalem-travels-990022152760205171-399x600.jpg 399w, https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nabulsi-jerusalem-travels-990022152760205171.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 1902 edition of al-Nabulsi\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nli.org.il\/en\/books\/NNL_ALEPH002215276\/NLI\"><em>Al-hadra al-unsiyya fi al-rihla al-qudsiya<\/em><\/a>, formerly owned by manuscript dealer Abraham Shalom Yahuda, from the National Library of Israel collections<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Al-Nabulsi crossed into the country via the Golan Heights, passing the snow-capped Mount Hermon. He complained of the cold and the lawlessness of the country, reporting murders, the looting of a mosque, and even a plot to kidnap him near Jenin, which, he said, was foiled by divine intervention.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Arriving in Jerusalem, al-Nabulsi and his party were met by a delegation of dignitaries, including members of a local Sufi order, who, along with a growing crowd, accompanied the group as they entered the Damascus Gate and made their way to the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount). On entering the sacred precinct, al-Nabulsi recited an appropriate verse (here in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/pdf\/25482426.pdf?ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-5187_SYC-5188%2F5188&amp;refreqid=fastly-default%3A150f791ceb5bb03f6cecae5b09a41090\">Samer Akkach<\/a>\u2019s translation) on the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, from where he ascended to heaven:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>You journeyed by night from a sanctuary to a sanctuary<\/p>\n<p>As the full moon journeys in the thick of darkness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The travelogue, written in rhymed prose and interspersed with similar verses, includes descriptions about Jerusalem\u2019s Muslim landmarks, including the Mamila cemetery and the Mount of Olives, as well as the city\u2019s Christian sites. Al-Nabulsi and his party also made a side trip to Hebron to see the Tomb of the Patriarchs, venerated as the burial site of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Curiously, in his account of seeing the Dome of the Rock, which follows a long section recounting the powers and virtues of the site, al-Nabulsi erroneously states that the building was constructed by the Crusaders, rather than, as was also well known at the time, the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik (644-705).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While the travelogue provides fascinating details about Jerusalem and his visit there, al-Nabulsi\u2019s primary concern lies elsewhere: seeking out and describing spiritual experiences, particularly his encounters with holy men and sacred shrines and tombs. In terms of the latter, for instance, al-Nabulsi records stopping to pray at the tomb of Samuel, located just north of Jerusalem, before entering the city. As for living holy men, these included both the members of established Sufi orders, and, even more so, the <em>majadhib<\/em>, ecstatic mystics who lived on the margins of society and its norms. Al-Nabulsi describes some of these <em>majadhib<\/em> as wandering unclothed and others as wearing only rags, endowed with special powers to read others\u2019 minds and see the future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Al-Nabulsi met large numbers of such holy men in both the city and the countryside. He describes a party of <em>majadhib<\/em> from Jenin who meet him as he arrives in the city, having learned of his coming by divine inspiration, and another ecstatic near Nablus who would march armed through the market. Near the village of Yabad, just outside Jenin, al-Nabulsi encounters an ascetic named Sheikh Za\u2019id. A former slave, he was overcome one day by a sudden divine illumination and moved to a cave where he sat, naked, grinding coffee beans and dispensing coffee, blessings, and advice to those who came to consult him. Za\u2019id, al-Nabulsi relates, was both fantastically strong and could see the future, and predicted a happy ending for the author\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What\u2019s fascinating about al-Nabulsi\u2019s description of a country teeming with miracle-working saints, venerable tombs, and ecstatic holy men&#8211;and his other travelogues paint a similar picture&#8211;is the fact that it has almost entirely vanished. While such figures continued to be part of the rural and urban landscape for generations, by the first decades of the twentieth century there were few of them left. They had been obliterated by the combined forces of modernization, and colonialism, as well as competing Wahabi and Salafi ideologies, which denounced Sufism as un-Islamic. One of the pleasures of reading al-Nabulsi is the glimpse he provides us into this strange and lost world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>This article is part of the Maktoub digital Islamic manuscripts project at the National Library of Israel. \u00a0Supported by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcadiafund.org.uk\/\">Arcadia Fund<\/a>, Maktoub will provide free, global access to more than 2,500 rare Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts and books preserved at the Library, and to the stories behind their creation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A seventeenth century travelogue by a famous Sufi mystic describes a strange and surprising image of Ottoman Palestine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":87130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[1615],"tags2":[],"class_list":["post-87126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","tag-islam"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Sufi Journey to Jerusalem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A seventeenth century travelogue by a famous Sufi mystic describes a strange and surprising image of Ottoman Palestine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/sufi_journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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