al-Karkhī, Maʿrūf - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Palmer, Aiyub
Leiden
Brill
(789 words)
Maʿrūf al-Karkhī (d. 200-1/815-6), born Fayrūz (or Fayruzān/Fayzurān), was a legendary ascetic and mystic of the second/eighth-ninth century. He was born to Christian or possibly Ṣābian parents of Persian origin. His nisba (agnomen) probably refers to an association with the Karkh quarter of Baghdad, where he spent most of his life, although it might refer to family connections with the city of Karkh Bājaddā, in Lower Iraq. The story of his conversion to Islam at the hands of the Shīʿī Imām ʿAlī al-