Ali al-Baghdadi. Study of Biography and Poetry of a Dagestani Medieval Scientist

Abstract

This article explores the life and literary creativity of the medieval Dagestani scientist — Ali b. Muhammad al-Baghdadi (Bagdadilav), known as a specialist in Islamic law, Tassavuf, poetry and grammar of the Persian language. The subject of our research was the origin, the major events of the scientist’s life, as well as his literary heritage in the Avar language. Evidence suggests that al-Baghdadi may have Ottoman origin. In particular, an analysis of the work of al-Baghdadi speaks of this. Being a native of Iraq, Ottoman was his mother tongue, not Arabic. Arriving at the end of the first quarter of the 17th century in Dagestan, he continued his studies here. He studied in the villages of Highland Dagestan (Kudali and Ruguja). It can be argued that he was a follower of the Sufi Tarikat Khalwatiyya, who received permission to mentor from Shaykh Davud al-Kudali. Until now, researchers have been interested in the Arabic and Turkic works of al-Baghdadi. The author was able to find four poems of al-Baghdadi in the Avar language in manuscripts from the 17th century. The article presents the full text of four poetic texts in Russian and their facsimiles. Three of them are written in the instructive genre of poetry (Zukhdiya), and the fourth is an elegy (Marsiya). This piece of poetry is dedicated to five dead scientists from the village of Ruguja. The manuscripts, in which these poems are revealed, were rewritten by his friends, scientists — Shaban al-Ubudi and Muhammad al-Iri. The author discovered that al-Baghdadi was interested in the biography of a famous Sufi poet Nasimi (14 c.), who belonged to the extreme Shiite sect of the Hurufi. Despite this, the author himself strictly adhered to the Sunni Islam’s Shafi mazhab. Moreover, he is the author of a legal essay on the Shafiit mazhab. Its content excludes the possibility of al-Baghdadi’s belonging to the Hurufi sect.

Keywords:

Dagestan, Sufism, poetry, Islamic law, epigraphy.