Last week, in conversation with the renowned Israeli field archeologist and historian, Yossi Stepansky,*1 I was so stunned by the information that he shared that I had to sit down. Conveniently, I was passing my favourite felafel restaurant near ‘Shem and Ever’ in Tzfat at that moment, and so I was soon restored. Nevertheless, I am still bursting with excitement over the information that he shared with me.
To cut to
the chase:
A recent discovery in the Florentine Scroll (Megilla Firenza Ms. Magl. III, 43) *2 has revealed that the location of the kever of Rabbeinu Abraham ben HaRambam may actually be right next to that of his father in Tverya (Tiberias).
I catch the bus to Tverya specifically to visit
the kever of HaRambam almost
every month, one of the few
excursions I make from my hermitage in
Tzfat. The newly discovered possibility
that Rabbeinu Abraham is also buried there is an extremely uplifting one, and one which could make the Tverya complex a major
site of contemporary Jewish-Sufi pilgrimage
and devotion.
oo0oo
The Megilla Firenza is
“a little-known 14th-century scroll whose
illustrations and texts trace the journey of its maker, a Jewish Egyptian
painter, from Cairo to Lebanon through the land of Israel and its holy sites.
Eleven meters long and featuring some 130 places and landmarks, the Florence
Scroll (so-called because it is housed in the National Central Library of
Florence) is the second oldest extant document – after the 6th-century Madaba
map – to offer a detailed and extensive portrayal of the land of Israel.”
The curator of
the 2021-2022 Israel Museum exhibition of the scroll was Dr. Rachel
Sarfati and she has completed a fully illustrated study of the megilla, (in hebrew only at the
moment, but an English language edition is in preparation). Though the existence of the Megilla Firenza
was news to me, she has been painstakingly studying it since 2011.
On Pages 106-108 of her new book, “The Florence Scroll,a 14th century
pictorial pilgrimage”, Dr. Sarfati states that the Florentine Scroll contains strong evidence
that the grave of Rabbeinu Abraham ben HaRambam (1186–1237 C.E.) lies in the near vicinity of the graves of his father and grandfather in
Tverya.
In the Scroll’s
illustration of that Tverya site, to the left of the kever of the
Rambam, we see a tomb with the superscript “Abraham” and the word “Kifaya”. She writes:
The
inscription accompanying the illustration of R. Avraham's tombstone [in the
Florentine scroll] consists of an abbreviation of the name of
the sefer that he wrote in Arabic: Kifayat al-Abadin,
(Sufficient for the Servants of God), which surely indicates that this is a reference to [Abraham] the son of the
Rambam, who was governor of the Jews of Egypt in the first half of the 13th
century.
Dr. Sarfati reminds us that Rabbi Abraham ben HaRambam passed away in 1237,and she concludes that the megilla had to be drawn after that date, suggesting the first decade of the fourteenth century. Significantly, the assumed Tverya tomb of R’ David Maimuni I (died 1300)*4 does not figure in the Megilla Firenza. Dr. Sarfati posits that the reason for the omission might be because she believes that the scroll was written after R’ David HaNagid passed away but probably before his bones were brought to Tiberias for reburial.
It is highly likely that that the Egyptian owner of the Florentine Scroll was himself connected to the ‘Maimonidean’ Fostat Jewish community (though obviously not at the time Rabbeinu Abraham was Nagid) and consequently [in my opinion] he would certainly have been aware of the Kifaya.
Furthermore, I wonder if the reason for reference to the Kifaya is because the owner was a Jewish Sufi himself. If this were so, perhaps the reason R’ David I Maimonides does not
get a mention on the scroll might be because of his somewhat negative attitude
to the way the Egyptian Pietist movement
was developing during his nagidship. Although many members of the Maimonidean dynasty (especially Rabbeinu Abraham, R'Obadya, and R'David ben Joshua) were all staunch supporters of ascetic and solitary practice, R'David (Obadya's brother) had strong reservations.*5 It is also notable that the tomb of R'Abraham, unlike some of the neighbouring tombs drawn in this section of the scroll, is crowned with the the same kind of prominent canopy attributed to his illustious father. These factors would amplify the Jewish-Sufi significance of the illustration in the Florentine Scroll.
Though the Kifaya we know today (usually in
translation as Rosenblatt’s Highways to Perfection or Wincelberg’s Guide for the Servants of God) is reconstructed from
fragments and is far from complete, the sections which have come down to us (so
far) are, without doubt, the foundational manual for Jewish-Sufis to this day—a
Jewish Kitab Adab al-Muridin as it
were.
The mention of the Kifaya on the Megilla
Firenza is a clear indicator of its great significance to the creator of the
scroll, and may also be evidence of its general fame. As Professor Paul B. Fenton has intimated,
though it has been somewhat neglected in recent times Rabbeinu Abraham’s
complete and monumental Kifaya was once widely distributed and studied. Professor
Fenton writes:
By dint of its sheer volume, this work was probably the most important product of all Judaeo-Arabic literature. In its original form the work consisted of four parts, each divided into ten sections, each of which was again subdivided into ten chapters. Only two parts have come down to us in a more or less complete state, they alone containing 500 pages. Supposing that the remaining chapters were of the same scale, the work must have consisted of about 2,500 pages, i.e. thrice the size of the Mishneh Tôrâh.*6
The section of the megilla showing the graves of the Rambam and R’Abraham *7
The term Jewish-Sufi was first coined by Professor
Fenton to describe the mediaeval Egyptian Pietists who followed a Sufi pattern
of devotional life. They existed (in embryo form) at the time of the Rambam
himself but it was not until the
time of R’ Abraham HeHasid and Rabbeinu
Abraham ben HaRambam that the pietist group became a flourishing movement.
I have considered
myself to be an aspiring Jewish Sufi since the 1980's, spurred on by experience as a gamelan musician in the environment of Islamic-Javanese kebatinan, but I
became a devoted murid (disciple) of R’ Abraham
ben HaRambam when I first encountered his Kifaya in 2003. For me personally, and for all other Jewish Sufis
who follow the halachic-sufi path that he promulgated,
this revelation by Dr. Sarfati has great importance.
Were it not for the kindness of Yossi Stepansky, I would never have been aware of the Megilla Firenza and its Maimonidean significance, but Providence seems to work ‘at the appointed time’ and that time is Now: The ‘Maimonidean’ Egyptian Pietists believed that their activities would advance the return/restoration of prophetic inspiration. I share this belief and consider the Jewish-Sufi ‘Path’ which the Kifaya describes to be one of the principal means by which that restoration will be brought about.*8
The Hidaya of Ibn Paquda was a manual of ethics and spiritual practice that took the
form of contemporary and classic Sufi manuals, but it was written as a guide
for individuals. By contrast, Rabbeinu
Abraham’s Kifaya was (and still
is) the manifesto of a tariqa: a spiritual pathway, a community of like-minded
seekers, and an organised movement. The Kifaya
mentioned in the Florence Scroll was, to some
extent, a commentary and
expansion of the work of the Rambam, but
it was much more than this—its chapters described a pietest “special
way” (al-suluk al-khass) to be followed by gnostic aspirants alongside
and in tandem with their own meticulous and loving halachic observance of the “common
way” (al-suluk al-‘amm) followed by all Jews.
These chapters of the Kifaya were (and still are) an inspiring compendium of principles for a specifically Jewish form of Sufic activity that traces its silsila (lineage) exclusively to Jewish prophets, whose kirkha (initiation garment) was the mantle of the prophet Elijah, and whose Sufic arba’inniya (forty day retreat in a solitary cell) was modelled on that of Moses. Though Rabbeinu Abraham held the literature (and many of the principles and practices) of Islam in the highest regard and with profound respect, he did not trace his Sufi movement’s spiritual lineage through any Islamic line, but sought to adapt and adopt only those Islamic Sufic practices that he believed were remnants of the practices of the biblical bnei nevi’im (schools of the prophets).
Rabbeinu Abraham writes:
Do not hold us in contempt for comparing [our]
situation with that of the Sufis [of Islam], for it was the Sufis who imitated the [hebrew] prophets and
walked in their footsteps,not the prophets in theirs.
He also maintained, and frequently defended, his ‘orthodox’ Jewish integrity and that of his
followers in this context. As such, he
is truly the ‘rebbe’ of the kind of ‘hasidism’ we now call Jewish-Sufism and
his (presumed) kever is thus especially significant to us.
Addendum December 11 2022:
Dr Sarfati's book is now also available in English.
For those who found this article to be of interest: There is now a new online Jewish Sufi group ( Tariqa Eliyahu HaNabi ) with its own website and Facebook Page. (click HERE to view further details)
©Nachman Davies
Tzfat, Lag
BaOmer 2022
The kever of the Rambam in Tverya
May the merits of
the Rambam and his son, Rabbeinu Abraham shield us.
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