Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Rāzī (d. 304/916–917) and Malāmatī-oriented Sufi Piety during the Third/Ninth Century

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the individual case of Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 304/916–917), the early mystic of Rayy whose biography reflects the diversity and complexity of Sufi piety during the third/ninth century. The paper explores Ibn al-Ḥusayn’s main spiritual worldviews manifested through a body of statements and letters or letter fragments attributed to him in the sources. His tense relationships with Sufi contemporaries, particularly those of the Baghdadi mainstream led by al-Junayd are also examined. It further investigates Ibn al-Ḥusayn’s homoerotic statements and cross-checks them with a wide range of data that portray him as a mystic with a strong malāmatī temperament. By focusing on Ibn al-Ḥusayn’s image in basic Sufi and non-Sufi biographies, the paper argues that what appears to be homoerotic implications in his provocative statements were a protest against the powerful and patronizing elite of Baghdadi Sufis.