Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubra One of the greatest and most celebrated of mystics...

Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubra One of the greatest and most celebrated of mystics, the chains of many orders go back to him. He was the pupil and disciple of Shaykh Ruzbihan, and was also his son-in-law. He had many pupils and disciples, amongst whom was Baha' al-Din Walad, the father of Jalal al-Din Rumi. He lived in Khuwarizm (in the present day USSR) at the time of the Mongol invasions.

Before his city was attacked, he was sent a message informing him that he could lead a party of his family and disciples out of the city to safety. Najm al-Din's reply was that, 'Throughout all the days of comfort I have lived alongside these people. Now that the day of difficulties has come I will not leave them.' He then manfully strapped on a sword and fought alongside the people of the city until he was martyred. This happened in the year 624/1227. 2.

Shaykh Farid al-Din al-'Attar: One of the foremost of mystics, al- 'Attar has works both in verse and in prose. His book Tadhkirat al- 'awifya' on the lives and characters of the sufis and mystics - which begins with al-'Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (A) and ends with al-'Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (A) - is considered a source book of documentary significance, and great importance is attached to it by the orientalists.

Similarly, his work Mantiq al-tayr ('The Speech of the Birds') is a masterpiece of mystical literature. Rumi, commenting about al-'Attar and Sana'i, says: 'Attar was the spirit and Sana'i his two eyes, We are following in the steps of Sana'i and 'Attar. Rumi has also said: 'Attar passed through seven cities of love, While we are yet in the bend of a single lane. What Rumi means by the 'seven cities of love' are the seven valleys of which al-'Attar speaks in his Mantiq al-tayr.

Muhammad Shabistari in his Gulshan-e raz says: I am not ashamed of my poetry,For, the like of 'Attar a hundred centuries will not see. Al-'Attar was the pupil and disciple of Shaykh Majd al-Din of Baghdad, who was amongst the pupils and disciples of Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubra. He also benefited from the company of Qutb al-Din Haydar, another of the shaykhs of the age and one after whom the town in which he is buried, Turbat-e Haydariyyah, was named.

Al-'Attar lived during the time of the Mongol invasions, and died - some say at the hands of the Mongols - around 626-28/1228-1230. 3. Shaykh Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi: He is the author of the celebrated 'Awarif al-ma'arif, an excellent text of 'irfan and sufism. He claimed descent from Abu Bakr.