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Ahmad ibn Isa al-Kharraz

أحمد بن عيسى الخراز

899 CE · 286 AH

A major Sufi, named al-Kharraz after the trade of leather-stitching.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic
Counted among
Sunni
Era
Abbasid Fragmentation
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
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Life in time

8008258508759009259509751000 c.
The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation · The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era Contemporaries: Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani · Abd Allah ibn Muhammad (Umayyad amir of Cordova) · Abu al-Arab al-Tamimi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad · Abu'l-Sa'ib 'Utba al-Hamadhani · Abu Awana, Ya'qub ibn Ishaq

Spirituality and Sufism

Place in the story

  • Saint (as venerated)Tradition

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

Overview

Abu Sa'id Ahmad ibn Isa al-Kharraz, one of the leading Sufis, called al-Kharraz after the craft of leather-stitching. The encyclopaedia gives his death as 286 AH (899 CE). 1

The date is recorded as reported and needs an additional source. His sayings and reports need an additional source.

People and things also explored

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)· The angelic and the satanic inspiration (lamma)· Asking people for help (al-masala)· The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)· Tabattul (withdrawal from the world)· Intimacy with God (uns billah)· Certainty and its degrees (yaqin)

Sources

  1. Mawsu'at A'lam al-Ulama' wa-l-Adaba' al-Arab wa-l-Muslimin — Dar al-Jil / ALECSO
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Ahmad ibn Isa al-Kharraz”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ahmad-ibn-isa-al-khazzaz/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)

The body of proper conduct the believer is commanded in his words, deeds and relations with God and His servants; from the formula 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day' in Abu Hurayra's hadith Ibn Rajab derives that these traits are of the traits of iman and that deeds enter into iman, dividing the hadith's three commands into what belongs to God's rights — speaking good or keeping silent — and what belongs to His servants' rights — honouring the neighbour, withholding harm from him and honouring the guest; he transmits Aswad ibn Asram's report of the Prophet's counsel 'do not say with your tongue except what is good and do not extend your hand except to good', and that the tongue's uprightness is of the traits of iman; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: speaking good or keeping silent, leaving what does not concern one, 'do not become angry', and loving for one's brother what one loves for oneself.