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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 is the main Mediterranean port of northern Egypt and the country's second city. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, it became the capital of the Ptolemies, whose Museum and Great Library made it the leading centre of Hellenistic learning. It also held one of the largest Jewish communities of antiquity, where the Greek Bible translation known as the Septuagint was produced and Philo wrote. Church tradition traces its patriarchate to Mark the Evangelist, and its catechetical school was led by Clement and Origen. Arab forces under Amr ibn al-As took the city in 641, and it remained a commercial and scholarly hub of the Islamic world; the Sufi master Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari was born there.
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