Traditional attribution · Essential works
Prayers and Sayings in Attar's Memorial of the Saints
تذکرة الاولیاء، ذکر رابعه عدویه (Tadhkirat al-awliya', capítulo de Rabia)
The chapter devoted to Rabia in the *Tadhkirat al-awliya* is the fullest and most influential biography: it narrates her poor childhood, slavery, liberation, the pilgrimage in which the Kaaba comes out to meet her, her dialogues with the ascetics of Basra and her prayers. The most famous of these asks God to burn her in Hell if she worships Him from fear and to shut Paradise to her if she worships Him from hope. Attar presents her as "the woman worth a hundred men".
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Authorship note
Composed in Persian by Farid al-Din Attar in the early thirteenth century, more than four hundred years after Rabia's death. It is the source of most of the stories and prayers circulating under her name today (slavery, the prayer of Hell and Paradise, the dialogues with Hasan al-Basri); scholarship regards them as hagiography.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya'
Arkana, 1990
Translation: A. J. Arberry
ISBN 0140192646
Primera edición: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966.
Rabia al-Adawiyya
Mystics and Saints of Islam (cap. III: «Rabia, the Woman Sufi»)
The Conscious LibraryMystics and Saints of Islam (cap. III: «Rabia, the Woman Sufi»)
Francis Griffiths, Londres, 1910
Translation: Claud Field
Adaptación inglesa basada en Attar. Dominio público.
Persa · فارسی
Rabia al-Adawiyya
Tadhkiratu 'l-Awliya («Memoirs of the Saints»), texto persa
The Conscious LibraryTadhkiratu 'l-Awliya («Memoirs of the Saints»), texto persa
Luzac, Londres / Brill, Leiden, 1905
Translation: Reynold A. Nicholson (ed.)
Edición crítica en dos volúmenes (1905–1907). Dominio público.
Français
Le Mémorial des saints
Éditions du Seuil, 1976
Translation: A. Pavet de Courteille
ISBN 2020044684
Traducido de la versión uigur; primera edición, París, 1889.
Other works by Rabia al-Adawiyya
- The Two Loves (attributed verses) · 996
- I Have Made You the Confidant of My Heart (attributed verses) · 1000
- Ascetic Sayings Transmitted with Chains (Ibn Abi l-Dunya, al-Dhahabi) · 894
- Sayings in al-Sulami and al-Qushayri's Epistle · 1045
- First among Sufis · 1982
- Rabi'a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam · 1928
- Rabi'a from Narrative to Myth · 2019
- Doorkeeper of the Heart: Versions of Rabi'a · 1988
Sources
- Attar, Farid al-Din. Tadhkirat al-awliya', capítulo de Rabia; en la adaptación inglesa de Claud Field, Mystics and Saints of Islam, Londres: Francis Griffiths, 1910, cap. III «Rabia, the Woman Sufi» (Project Gutenberg 24314).
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