18
mentions no less than 1§ masters at whose feet he sat, 27 distinguished pandits whom he knew, and 15 celebrated mystics with whom he came in contact.
Aḥmad Qushāshī.Above all others he esteems and praises the mystic teacher Shaikh Aḥmad Qushāshī at Medina. He calls him his spiritual guide and teacher in the way of God, and tells how after his death he (Abdurraʾuf) obtained from his successor Molla Ibrahim permission to found a school himself. Thus after 1661 Abdurraʾuf taught in Acheh, and won so many adherents that after he died his tomb was regarded as the holiest place in all the land, till that of the sayyid called Teungku Anjōng somewhat eclipsed it after 1782.
We noticed above (footnote to p. 10) that the mysticism of Aḥmad Qushāshī was disseminated in the E. Indian Archipelago by a great number of khalifahs (substitutes), who generally obtained the necessary permission on the occasion of their pilgrimage to Mekka. In Java we find innumerable sàlasilahs or spiritual genealogical trees of this tarīqah or school of mystics. In Sumatra some even give their ṭarīgah the special name of Qushashite[1]; and it is only of late years that this Satariah, as it is usually called, has begun to be regarded as an old-fashioned and much-corrupted form of mysticism and to make place for the ṭarīqahs now most popular in Mekka, such as the Naqshibendite and Qadirite.
Satariah.I have called this school of Qushāshī corrupt for two reasons. In the first place its Indonesian adherents have been so long left to themselves,[2] that this alone is enough to account for the creeping in of all manner of impurities in the tradition. But besides this, both Javanese and Malays have made use of the universal popularity enjoyed by the name Satariah as a hall-mark with which to authenticate various kinds of village philosophy to a large extent of pagan origin. We find for instance certain formulas and tapa-rules which in spite of unmistakeable
indications of Hindu influence may be called peculiarly Indonesian,
- ↑ Aḥmad Qushāshī himself calls his ṭarīqah the Shaṭṭarite (after the well-known mystic school founded by as-Shaṭṭāri) and points out that some of his spiritual ancestors also represent the Qādirite ṭariqah. In the E. Indian Archipelago also, Satariah is the name most in use to designate this old-fashioned mysticism.
- ↑ In Arabia the Shaṭṭarite mysticism seems long to have fallen out of fashion; in Mekka and Medina the very name is forgotten. In British India it still prevails here and there, but as far as I am aware it does not enjoy anywhere a popularity which even approaches that which it has attained in Indonesia.
