The Saint of ʿAyḏāb: An Early Case of Sufi Sainthood on the Red Sea Littoral of the Egypt-Sudan Border Region (late 6th/12th–early 7th/13th c.)

This article presents a very early case of Sufi sainthood among the Beja and other African populations in what is today the Sudan-Egypt borderland. This Sufi saint’s career is mentioned and briefly described in a report from around the turn of the 6th-7th/12th-13th centuries. Brief as it is, the report offers interesting insights into the practice of Sufism by the population of Aydhab, a Red Sea port, in this period.