“Munisnameh” as an hagiographic source

Abstract

This article was tasked with the study of the formation of Sufi movements, preaching asceti-cism and increased spirituality, which were the main areas of the classical Muslim philosophy at the beginning of the Middle Ages, as well as studying the III and IV chapters of Munisnameh as a hagi-ographic source. These chapters were reviewed in comparison with the famous work of Farid ad-Din Attar “Stories of the Saints”. Considering that Attar’s “Stories of the Saints”, unlike the two chapters of “Munisnameh” Abubakr ibn Khosrov al-Ustad, is an independent fundamental work, we must pay tribute to the author of “Munisnameh” in which he covered an equally wide range infor-mation of the early Sufi movement. Sheikhs, Sufis, dervishes, their statements, edifications, and the reasons for their removal from worldly goods were compared. Based on these comparisons, conclu-sions were drawn that the authors used different sources, but the most important thing is that the na-mes of such Sufi, sheikhs, and dervishes, which are not mentioned in the book “Stories of Saints”, are mentioned in “Munisnameh”. This gives us reason to believe that many more researchers will use this material in order to study the Sufi currents.