Masters of the path
Masters on this site
Teachers of the Rifāʿī path from the twelfth century to the twentieth, each with the sources that speak of them. Living masters are not profiled here until they agree — see our policy.
- Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī 512–578 AH / 1118–1182 CE (most sources; variants below)
Pîr — founder of the Rifāʿī path · All branches
Shāfiʿī scholar and Sufi master of the Baṭāʾiḥ marshlands in southern Iraq, who taught from the Anṣār lodge at Umm ʿUbayda.
- Shaykh Manṣūr al-Baṭāʾiḥī (al-Bāz al-Ashhab) died less than a year after seating his nephew at Umm ʿUbayda
Maternal uncle, guardian and guide of the founder · Before the order
Took the founder into his care after his father's death, gave him the khirqa and seated him in the Anṣār lodge at Umm ʿUbayda.
- Shaykh ʿAlī Abu'l-Faḍl al-Wāsiṭī d. 539 AH / 1144 CE (Evrâd 2011)
Teacher of the founder in ḥadīth and the path · Before the order
Muḥaddith of Wāsiṭ who taught the young Ahmad and granted him an ijāza in both the sharīʿa and the ṭarīqa sciences.
- Sayyid Aḥmad ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Ṣayyādī 574–670 AH (community account)
Second Pîr; grandson of the founder through his daughter Zaynab · Sayyâdiyya
Remembered as the founder of the Sayyâdî branch, active in Egypt, Yemen and Syria; his tomb is at Sayyād in Syria.
- Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥadīdī al-Rifāʿī 16th century
Brought the İzzeddînî line to Istanbul · İzzeddîniyya
Born in Basra; held the first Rifāʿī ceremony in Istanbul at the Tevâşî Hasan Ağa mosque in Üsküdar, then left a khalīfa and moved to Damascus after 1592.
- Sayyid Abdullah al-Hāshimī al-Makkī (Arap Şeyh) b. Mecca 1795 or 1829 — d. Sivas 1922 (sources disagree)
Sayyâdî sheikh; Şeyhü'l-Ekber and Nakîbü'l-Eşraf in inner Anatolia · Sayyâdiyya
Spread the Sayyâdî line through Afghanistan and Anatolia and settled at Sivas, where he founded a lodge. The two sources that describe him disagree on his age by about 35 years.
- Sayyid Muḥammad al-Anṣārī 1860–1939
Rifāʿī-Sayyâdî and Qādirī sheikh of the Ayn-i Ali Baba lodge, Kasımpaşa · Sayyâdiyya
Born in Baghdad to a Qādirī family; received Sayyâdî khilāfa from the Arap Şeyh at Sivas and was sent to Istanbul, where he was known as the Arab Sheikh.
- Sayyid Muḥyiddīn al-Anṣārī d. 9 January 1978
Sheikh at Kasımpaşa; source of two living American lines · Sayyâdiyya / Qādiriyya
Son of Muḥammad al-Anṣārī. Both the Chicago community's treatise and the Qadiri Rifai Tariqa of the Americas trace their authority through him.
- Sheikh Jamālī Jamāladdīn al-Rifāʿī seated 1969 — d. 7 December 2004
Sheikh at Prizren; Sheikhu'l-Mashāyikh of the Balkans · İzzeddîniyya / Sayyâdiyya
Led the revival of Rifāʿī lodges in the Balkans and secured legal protection for dervish lodges in Yugoslavia; published the Derviş Mecmuası.
- Kenan Rifâî born Thessaloniki — d. 7 July 1950, Istanbul
Sheikh of the Ümmü Kenan lodge, Istanbul · Istanbul circle (Kenan Rifâî)
Educator and Sufi who received Rifāʿī khilāfa from Shaykh Hamza al-Rifāʿī in Medina. After the 1925 closure of the lodges he kept teaching in private sohbet; his women students carried the circle on.
- Sâmiha Ayverdi 20th century
Writer and successor in Kenan Rifâî's circle · Istanbul circle (Kenan Rifâî)
Recorded Kenan Rifâî's sohbets, led the circle after him, and co-founded the Kubbealtı Academy (1970) with the architect Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi.
- Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Rifāʿī (Hattat Aziz Efendi) 1871 or 1872 — 1934
Calligrapher; student of Kenan Rifâî · Istanbul circle (Kenan Rifâî)
Master of thuluth, naskh and jalī thuluth who taught in Istanbul and Cairo. He signed his works “Sheikh” as a member of the order.
- Seyyid Muḥammad Fatḥ al-Maʿārif 1132/1719 – 1240/1824
Founder of the Maʿrifiyya branch · Maʿrifiyya
Born in Egypt, a descendant of the Pîr; came to Istanbul around 1800 and led the branch from its Âsitâne at Kartal.
- Hüseyin Kemâleddin Efendi (Bayoğlu) 1879 or 1888 – 1951
Sheikh of the Entekkeliler lodge, Manisa · Maʿrifiyya
Defended his quarter during the Greek occupation of Manisa; after 1925 kept a shop and preached at İbrahim Çelebi mosque.
- Burhan Baba (Burhaneddin Aktıhanoğlu) 1925 – 2 January 2002
Rifāʿī-Maʿrifī guide of İzmir; murshid of Sherif Baba · Maʿrifiyya
A Basmane hotelier remembered for his charity and his teaching that religion is love.