#O22
1846
Octavo (ca. 22,5x14,5 cm). 56 pp (numbered in Eastern Arabic system). Text in Ottoman Turkish within printed ornamental border, first page decorated with traditional floral and geometric ornaments. Period Ottoman green quarter sheep with black papered boards and gilt tooled ornaments on the spine. Binding slightly rubbed on extremities, paper slightly age toned, otherwise a very good copy.
Very rare Ottoman imprint with only one paper copy found in Worldcat. Attractive copy of the Bulaq edition of an influential work by noted Sufi spiritual leader Mawlyana Ziyaeddin Halid al-Bagdadi. The book describes crucial doctrines and principles of the Halidi Sufi order, founded by Halid Al-Bagdadi and named after him, and continues to be the main source of “tasawwuf”, or Sufi praying, for its followers. The author was a prominent figure in Islamic culture and theology, a great murshid (spiritual guru), and the second Sufi mystic (after famous Jelaleddin Rumi, 1207-1273) who obtained a deeply respectable title of “Mawlyana”, or “Our Master”. He was also granted the title of sheikh in various Sufi schools. The Halidi branch of the Sufi order, which he established, very soon spread over Kurdistan and a large part of modern-day Iraq and Turkey, and due to its loyalty to the Ottoman Empire, played a major role in establishment of the global Islamic unity. The Bulaq edition was prepared by Mustafa ben Muhammed al-Murwi (d. 1862), one of the main editors in the typography. Page 55 contains the interpreter’s (Sherif Ahmet bin Ali) commentary on the original manuscript. Özege 20574.
