ash-Shaʿrānī

ash-Shaʿrānī (born 1492, Cairo—died 1565, Cairo) was an Egyptian scholar and mystic who founded an Islamic order of Ṣūfism. Throughout his life Shaʿrānī was influenced by the pattern of his education. His introduction and exposure to Islāmic learning were limited; his formal education was concerned with the ʿulūm al-wahb (“gifted knowledge of the mystic”), as opposed to a traditional and rigorous study of Islāmic sciences. He attempted to seek the middle ground between the rigid...