Khargushi, Tahdhib Al-Asrar

Khargushi (d. Nishapur, 407/1016?), Tahdhib al-asrar, is a fairly large collection of sayings in the renunciant/Sufi tradition, comprising over twice as many items as Sarraj, al-Luma and Sulami, abaqat al-sufiyya. A first printed edition appeared in 1999. Examination of the Tahdhib confirms that Khargushi was Shafi i in law, Ash ari in theology, but mainly a preacher devoted to piety. It also tends to confirm current common wisdom about the history of Sufism: that it developed out of the earlier renunciant tradition, that Malamatism was a distinctive Nishapuran school of mystical piety with such affinities to Baghdadi Sufism as make it easily assimilable to it, and that Khargushi's time was still that of the teaching master, the training master not appearing till half a century later. Its similarities to Sarraj, al-Luma and Abu Nu aym, ilyat al-awliya’ make both of those appear more mainstream than has sometimes been feared.