Sufi
Iranian mystic, Abū’l ḤasanʿAlī b.Uṯmān b.ʿAlī al-Ğaznavī al-Jullābī al-Hujwīrī was born at Hujwīr, a suburb of Ğazna, in Afghanistan. Little is known of Hujvīrī’s life except that which he mentions or alludes to in his Kašf al-maḥjūb, from which it may be gleaned that he traveled widely throughout the Islamic world, having resided for some time in ʿĪrāk, and experienced a short and unpleasant marriage. Hujvīrī also makes reference to nine of his works in Kašf al-maḥjūb, all of which are no longer extant. Hujvīrī’s death can best be placed at some time between 465/1072 and 469/1077 at Lahore. He was revered as a saint following his death and his tomb became a place of pilgrimage.
Kašf al-maḥjūb
In the Kašf al-maḥjūb, Hujvīrī aims at presenting the complete system of Sufism by discussing both its doctrines and practices, often relating what others before him have written on the subject before putting forth his own opinion. “Though Hujvīrī was neither a profound mystic nor a precise thinker,” Nicholson wrote in the preface to his translation of Kašf al-maḥjūb, “his work on the whole forms an admirable introduction to the study of Sufism…His exposition of Sufi doctrine and practice is distinguished not only by wide learning and first-hand knowledge but also by the strongly personal character impressed on everything he writes”.