ABSTRACT
Abu Hamid Ghazalis acceptance of Sufism as a genuine expression of Islamic belief and his composition of treatises in the field of speculative Sufism in the language of the Koran and philosophers may be regarded as something of a watershed in the history of Sufism. After Ghazali, numerous Sufi texts were composed in a similar style by affiliates of Sufi orders that had established roots in the Muslim world stretching from Andalusia to Central Asia. This chapter summarises Nasafi's ontological teachings and shows the similarities between his ideas and Ibn 'Arabi's vast corpus of teachings. Nasafi's audience were Persian speakers and were probably beginners of the Sufi path, so his treatises provided his dervishes with plenty to contemplate and served as a basis from which they could advance to the texts of the Greatest Shaykh himself. The chapter discusses Nasafi's ontology by focusing on the treatise Kitab-i tanzil.
