0021-1818_islam_98-1-2-i-259

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centres d’enseignement Sunnites auxquels on la compare: al-Azhar au Caire, al-
Qarawiyy\n à Fez ou al-Zaytuna à Tunis. Ces derniers sont des institutions rigides
avec bureaucratie, fonctionnariat, organisation pyramidale oligarchique. Alors
que Najaf est une institution qui s’incarne en ses mujtahid” (p. 112).
The second, and last, contribution in this section is entitled “Fiqh et soufisme
à la période qajare: quelques notes sur l’oeuvre juridique des maîtres ni^matullah\
gunabad\” (pp. 113–127). Its author, Shahram Pazouki of the Iranian Institute
of Philosophy in Tehran, returns to the Sufi circles and themes of the previous
section, this time to provide a picture of the solid legal (read usuli) training of
the Ni^mat Allah\ Sufi masters. In particular, Pazouki describes the life and
works of two qutbs of the Gunabadiyya branch, Sultan ^Al\ Shah Gunabad\
(d. 1327/1909–10) and his son and successor Nur ^Al\ Shah Gunabad\ (d. 1337/
1918). Rach acknowledged as mujtahid and held in high respect in usuli circles,
they produced what the author calls a marginal – with respect to their prevailing
mystic interests – but interesting legal literature. Pazouki convincingly illustrates
how, in the context of a “hiérarchisation croissante du clergé usuli sur la
base des compétences en matière de droit et la formation, sur ce principe, de la
marja^iyya” (p. 118), these Sufi masters combined the usuli approach to religious
law with a mystic outlook. Observance of the Shar\^a, then, is meaningless if separated
from the mystic path under the guide of a “friend of God” (wali). This
allows for an idea of the law that is at the same time unchanging in its spiritual
principles and outwardly adaptable to the state of spiritual and moral accomplishment
of the individual, a concept which only the initiate can fully comprehend.
In this perspective, the two Ni‘mat Allah\ masters expressed their views on
topics of importance at the time in the form of legal rulings (fatwas). Probably
intended for their disciples only, these rulings are hardly conventional. The two
masters prohibited slavery, regarded as an archaic and therefore illicit institution,
and opium smoking because of its damages on the minds and behavior of the
faithful; they also discouraged polygamy and divorce to the point of proscription,
and rejected the notion of intrinsic impurity of the ahl al-kitab.
The third section touches on the ever important themes of Sunni-Shiite polemic,
and the impact of modern constitutional ideas on the Shiite ^ulama# and
their reactions to them.
The anti-Shiite polemical literature in Indian Sunnite milieu is discussed by
Sajida Sultana Alvi of McGill University, Montreal, in “Sunni Ulama’s Discourses
on Shi^ism in Northern India during the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth Centuries:
An Overview” (pp. 131–151). Approaching the subject from “the perspective of the
intellectual history rather than that of the law (p. 133)”, Alvi discusses the polemical
works of four Sunni Naqshband\-affiliated ^ulama#, among whom are
A1mad Sirhind\ (d. 1023/1632) and the celebrated Shah Wal\ Allah (d. 1175/1762).