ABŪ BAKR B. MOḤAMMAD B. AḤMAD WĀʿEẒ SARAḴSĪ, IMAM, a follower (but apparently not a contemporary) of Shaikh Abū Saʿīd b. Abi’l-Ḵayr (d. 440/1049). Abū Bakr appears in two narratives of the Asrār al-tawḥīd, relating stories he heard from those who had known the shaikh directly. In one, he simply recounts a brief anecdote which introduces a longer narrative, the whole being related by Ḵᵛāǰa Aḥmad Moḥammad Ṣūfī. In the other, he quotes two bayts from a qaṣīda he recited over the shaikh’s tomb in the presence of the saint’s family and followers; and he goes on to tell an anecdote from the shaikh’s life which, in response to the poem, was recited by ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad b. Ḥosayn Ṣūfī Saraḵsī. The subject of the qaṣīda was the theological dispute over the placelessness of God. This sole surviving fragment of Abū Bakr’s poetry is an interesting example of the early use of poetry as a vehicle for theological debate.
Bibliography:
Moḥammad b. Monawwar Mayhanī, Asrār al-tawḥīd, ed. Ḏ. Ṣafā, Tehran, 1332 Š./1954.
(J. W. Clinton)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 19, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 3, p. 265
J. W. Clinton, “ABŪ BAKR SARAḴSĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/3, p. 265; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abu-bakr-b-5 (accessed on 30 January 2014).
