Arslān al-Dimashqī - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
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[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Geoffroy, Eric
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
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Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
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(722 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Shaykh Arslān b. Yaʿqūb, al-Jaʿbarī al-Dimashqī (d. between 555/1160 and 560/1164) was a Syrian Ṣūfī and the "patron saint" of Damascus. Born in Qalʿat Jaʿbar, in northeastern Syria, between 470/1077 and 475/1082, he settled in Damascus probably at a fairly early date and earned his living as a carpenter for about twenty years. He initially resided in the Christian quarter of Bāb Tūmā, where he applied himself to his devotional practices in a mosque not far from his workshop. It is said that he