Rabi'a From Narrative to Myth

Rabia al-Adawiyya is a figure shrouded in myth. Certainly a woman by this name was born in Basra, Iraq, in the eighth century, but her life remains recorded only in legends, stories, poems and hagiographies. The various depictions of her as a deeply spiritual ascetic, an existentialist rebel and a romantic lover seem impossible to reconcile, and yet Rabia has transcended these narratives to become a global symbol of both Sufi and modern secular culture. In this groundbreaking study, Rkia Elaroui Cornell traces the development of these diverse narratives and provides a history of the iconic Rabias construction as a Sufi saint. Combining medieval and modern sources, including evidence never before examined, in novel ways, Rabia From Narrative to Myth is the most significant work to emerge on this quintessential figure in Islam for more than seventy years.