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Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari

Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari

1259 CE–1310 CE · Alexandria

Ibn ʿAtaʾ Allah al-Iskandari (c. 658 AH/1259 CE – 709 AH/1310 CE) was an Egyptian Sunni jurist of the Maliki school and the third master of the Shadhili Sufi order. Born in Alexandria, where he received a traditional legal education, he later moved to Cairo and became a disciple of Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Mursi, going on to teach at the al-Azhar Mosque and the Mansuriyya madrasa. He is best known for systematizing the teachings of the order's founder Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili and for his aphoristic manual al-Hikam al-ʿAtaʾiyya, one of the most widely read works of Sunni Sufi devotion. He died in Cairo and was buried in the Qarafa cemetery at the foot of the Muqattam hills, where his tomb remains a site of visitation. His exact birth year is uncertain in the sources.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria (al-Iskandariyya) is the great Mediterranean port-city of northern Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE and a leading centre of learning in antiquity. After the Muslim conquest of Egypt (642) it remained a major commercial and scholarly hub; the Shadhili Sufi Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 1309) took his nisba from the city, and the modernist reformer Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) was active in Egypt's intellectual life there and in Cairo.

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Islamic world

Works(6)