Abu'l-Hasan al-Zawzani

أبو الحسن الزوزني

c. 977 CE · 366 AH – August 1059 CE · Ramadan 451 AH

Shaykh of the Sufis of Baghdad, companion of Abu'l-Hasan al-Husri and transmitter from Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami; the ribat opposite the Mansur mosque — built for al-Husri — came to bear his name, and he used to say 'I accompanied a thousand shaykhs, the first of them al-Husri, and from each I kept a tale'. Died Ramadan 451, buried in the ribat 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Scholar
Era
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Life in time

925950975100010251050107511001125 c. c. c. c.
Abbasid Fragmentation · The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks Contemporaries: al-Tanukhi al-Qadi Abu al-Qasim Ali ibn al-Muhsin · Abu'l Tayyeb Tabari · Abu l-Ala al-Maarri · Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi' · قاضي القضاة ابن ما كولا الحسين بن علي العجلي

Summary

Al-Zawzani, shaykh of the Sufis of Baghdad; born in 366 to an elderly mother, he kept company with Abu'l-Hasan al-Husri and transmitted from Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, becoming shaykh of the Sufis — the ribat facing the Mansur mosque was named for him, though it had been built for al-Husri and al-Zawzani his companion. 1

His saying and death

He used to say: 'I kept company with a thousand shaykhs, al-Husri first among them; from every shaykh I preserve one saying.' He died in Ramadan 451 and was buried in the ribat. 1

Connections

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Studied under
Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami

People and things also explored

Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami

Sources

  1. al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi , j.8 p.555
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Abu'l-Hasan al-Zawzani”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/al-zawzani/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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People

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Related

Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami

Draft card for Abu Abd al-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Sulami of Nishapur, author of Tabaqat al-Sufiyya and chronicler of eleventh-century Sufism, d. 1021; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.