Santé et saintété. Dimensions physiologiques de la vie morale et spirituelle chez Ibn ʿAta' Allah al-Iskandari (m. 709/1309)

In traditional societies, health and illness are often represented as associated to observance or non-observance of religious norms. Since a history of such representations in medieval Egypt is still far from having been written, the present paper focuses on a specific case study: the theories of the relationships between physiological, moral and spiritual dimensions of human life which can be found in Egyptian Sufi master Ibn ʿAṭā’ Allāh al-Iskandarī (d. 709/1309), third sheikh and first true “writer” of the ṭarīqa Šāḏiliyya (or at least of its mainstream branch). In this framework, special attention will be paid to a hitherto unexplored aspect of Ibn ʿAṭā’ Allāh’s thought: the relationships that he evokes between the practice of ḏikr and two fundamental physiological processes of the human body, namely blood circulation and food absorption. Ibn ʿAṭā’ Allāh’s references to these relationships show how deeply he was influenced by the “physiology of passions” (Paul Nwyia) developed by the Khurasanian theosophist, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmiḏī (d. 318/930), a mystical thinker greatly appreciated by the founding masters of the Šāḏiliyya and noted by Ibn ʿAṭā’ Allāh as a major authority on the subject of sanctity (walāya).