IBN ʿAṬĀʾ ALLĀH (AH c. 650–709, c. 1252–1309 CE), more fully Ahmād ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn ʿAṭā Allāh al-Iskandarī, was an Arab Ṣūfī saint and sage of Egypt. He was the third great master of the Shādhilī order of Sufism founded by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī (d. 1258) and the first shaykh of the order to reduce its teachings and practices to writing. Born in Alexandria into an illustrious dynasty of Mālikī religious scholars, he early evinced mastery in all of the religious disciplines and became an authority on Islamic law while professing antagonism toward Sufism. But a chance encounter with his future Ṣūfī shaykh, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī (d. 1287), dramatically transformed him into an ardent...