Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi


Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma′il al-Nabulsi , was an eminent Sunni Muslim scholar and Sufi, was born in Damascus in 1641 into a family of Islamic scholarship. His father, Isma'il Abd al-Ghani, was a jurist in the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam and a contributor to Arabic literature. The family was Damascene, but came originally from Nablus and Jerusalem.
Before the age of 20 he was teaching and giving formal legal opinions. He joined both the mystical orders Qadiriyya and Naqshbandi, and spent seven years in isolation in his house studying the mystics on their expression of divine experiences. He taught in the Umawi Mosque in Damascus and the Salihiyya Madrasa, becoming renowned throughout the region as an accomplished Islamic scholar. He travelled extensively, seeing Istanbul, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and Tripoli.
He died and was buried in Damascus in 1731 at 90 years of age.

His works

He left over 200 written works. His views on religious tolerance towards other religions were developed under the inspiration of the works of the 13th century Sufi master, Ibn Arabi. He made two visits to Palestine, in 1690, and 1693-4, visiting Christian and Jewish sites, as well as sacred Muslim shrines, and he enjoyed there the hospitality of local Christian monks. Subjects he wrote about include Sufism, Rihla, agriculture, and poetry. He also wrote ethnographic works based on his travels to Tripoli, Egypt, Jerusalem, Lebanon and other areas of the Middle East.