Abu-al-Hasan Ali ben Abdallah al-Nuymari as-Shushtari ( ar, ابو الحسن الششتري) or Al-Sustari (1212 in Exfiliana, near Guadix – 1269 in

Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easte ...

) was an Andalusian-

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

, philosopher, jurist, and poet. He is best known by posterity for his poetry, which was designed to be sung in songs employing simple monorhymes to praise God with everyday musical idiom, which won wide recognition beyond the hundreds of disciples in his own Shushtariyya brotherhood.Page 5 "Shushtari's popular songs won him wide recognition, recognition that went far beyond the hundreds of disciples who formed the Sufi brotherhood known as the Shushtariyya (itself a branch of Ibn Sab'in's Sab'iniyya), an order eventually absorbed into the Shadhiliyya." Page 19 "Yet Ibn al-Khatib speaks of no rupture between the disciple and his master, instead claiming that Shushtari took over ... Furthermore, in both the I hat a and Rawdat al-tacrif, Ibn al-Khatib reproduces the complete text of Shushtari's ..." Many verses of al-Shushtari's poetry (62 short poems called "Tawshih") were identified in the

classical Andalusian music Andalusi classical music ( ar, طرب أندلسي, ṭarab ʾandalusī; es, música andalusí), also called Andalusi music or Arab-Andalusian music, is a genre of music originally developed in al-Andalus by the Muslim population of the region a ...

that is today sung in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

as well as other parts of the Greater Middle East. In the Mashriq (the orient), he is remembered today for his poem ''

A little sheikh from the land of Meknes ''A little sheikh from the land of Meknes'' (Arabic شويخ من أرض مكناس) is a zajal by the Sufi poet Al-Shushtari (1212-1269). The poem is often taken as evidence that Al-Shushtari himself lived in Meknes at some time.Lourdes María Alv ...

'' (Arabic شويخ من أرض مكناس, "Shewiyekh men-ard Meknes") a song which retains huge popularity to this day.

Recordings

*''Ritual sufí andalusí, al-Shushtari'',

Omar Metioui Omar Metioui (Arabic: عمر المتيوي) (born 1962) is a Moroccan classical musician. Metioui was born in Tangier and originally trained as a pharmacist, then concentrated on performance of the oud (Arabic: عود ʿūd), or Arabic lute, as w ...

Eduardo Paniagua Eduardo Paniagua (born 1952 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish architect and musician, specializing in medieval Spanish music. Between 1966 and 1983, he was a member of the group Atrium Musicae de Madrid, led by his older brother Gregorio, playing ...

, Madrid, Pneuma, 1998 *''Dhikr y sama':canto religioso de la cofradía sufí-andalusí al-Shushtari. Poemas del místico al-Shushtari'', Omar Metioui, Eduardo Paniagua, Madrid, Pneuma, 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari 1212 births 1269 deaths Sufi poets Sufis of Al-Andalus 13th-century Al-Andalus writers