Baghdadi tradition remembers Sultan Ali ibn Yahya as the father of Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifa‘i, whose teaching at Umm Ubayda gave rise to the Rifa‘i way. Sultan…
Baghdadi tradition remembers Sultan Ali ibn Yahya as the father of Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifa‘i, whose teaching at Umm Ubayda gave rise to the Rifa‘i way. Sultan Ali is buried in the mosque bearing his name, جامع سيد سلطان علي, in Baghdad’s historic al-Murabba‘a quarter. Known by the kunya Abu al-Hasan, Sultan Ali was born in Basra in 459 AH/1067. Biographical accounts describe him as a learned ascetic who received spiritual training from his cousin Hasan ibn Muhammad Asla al-Makki al-Rifa‘i. His title “Sultan” expressed his standing among the masters of Baghdad’s inward path rather than political rule. The journey that brought him to Baghdad Sultan Ali travelled from Basra to Abbasid Baghdad during the caliphate of al-Mustarshid, seeking to give counsel amid a period of unrest. He became ill in the capital and died there in 519 AH/1125. Malik ibn al-Musayyib buried him within his house, and the mosque later developed around the grave. Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifa‘i was still a child when his father died. He was raised in the Wasit region through his maternal family, studying under his uncle Mansur al-Bata’ihi and the scholar Ali al-Wasiti. He later settled at Umm Ubayda in southern Iraq, where his teaching joined Shafi‘i learning with humility, service and the purification of character. The mosque, madrasa and Rifa‘i zawiya The mosque stands in al-Rusafa near al-Rashid Street. The Ottoman governor Qara Ali rebuilt it in 998 AH/1590 and established a madrasa and zawiya, a lodge for worship, teaching and spiritual retreat. A further restoration was completed in 1300 AH/1882 under Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The complex also contains the grave of Baha al-Din Muhammad Mahdi al-Rawas, the nineteenth-century Iraqi scholar, poet and Rifa‘i teacher. After the Mosque of al-Rawas was demolished in 1954, his grave was transferred here.