This contribution has two purposes. One is to provide scholars of Islamic culture and religious studies with the first comprehensive study in English of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī's (d. 412/1021) thought and methodologies in defending Sufism and defining its borders, constituents and relationships with other aspects of Islamic piety. The second purpose is to examine al-Sulamī's apologetic project in defending Sufism against both internal Sufi polemics and external detractors. That al-Sulamī's oeuvre needs to be examined and the representations of his apologia need to be thoroughly reconstructed is undoubtedly important. However, I do not agree with Chowdhury who asserts that unlike his contemporaries and predecessors such as al-Junayd, al-Sarrāj and al-Kalābādhī, al-Sulamī has been overlooked in European scholarship (p. 4). Actually, they have all been generally ignored. Al-Sarrāj's (d. 378/988) Kitāb al-Lumaʿ, for instance, is the earliest and most important encyclopaedic manual for studying Sufism and the Sufi system of thought. In spite of its importance, it has not sparked any comprehensive study of its own. The same could also be said of al-Kalābādhī's (d. 380/990) Kitāb al-Taʿarruf.

Chowdhury relies on a Riyāḍ manuscript containing 26 treatises attributed to al-Sulamī (known as Sulamiyyāt), to offer a comprehensive analysis of al-Sulamī's methodology, his approach to Sufism and its specific relationship to the Khurāsānian denomination of Sufism as well as the broader notion of what the author calls “Ṣūfī orthodoxy”, the ahl al-sunna wa-l-ḥadīth whose members were principally Shāfiʿites and Ashʿarites (p. 68).

The monograph includes a brief introduction and eight chapters. After a detailed survey of the literature on al-Sulamī in chapter 1, chapter 2 is dedicated to the historical, social, and religious context of Nishapur. A special focus in this chapter is dedicated to the emergence of Sufism and its sophisticated relationships with other types of Islamic thought. Chapter 3 examines the main figures who inspired and influenced al-Sulamī and his world views, and chapter 4 is dedicated to al-Sulamī's biography. The latter includes his circle of teachers and students, the criticism addressed to him by some detractors on issues of ḥadīth transmission and inclusion of so-called heretical traditions, and his alleged plagiarism from al-Sarrāj. Chapter 5 provides a survey of al-Sulamī's oeuvre supported by detailed references to a broad array of manuscript materials and secondary literature. Chapter 6 refers to the mystical lexicon of al-Sulamī, and chapter 7 is dedicated to his method of self-transformation. The last chapter summarizes al-Sulamī's apologetic agenda through systematizing Sufism and bringing it into agreement with the Sunnah.

Chowdhury's monograph would have benefitted from an introductory reference to what apologia and apologist mean in early medieval Islam, and the ways in which these Western terms fit with Islamic religious thought and rhetoric. While it could be argued that a great part of Sufi textbooks and anthologies written during this time are, by their very nature, apologetic, even if certain authors do not appear explicitly to respond to any criticism, such a reference at the beginning of the book would still be useful.

Chowdhury makes the point that al-Sulamī's apologetic strategies in portraying Sufism as an organic part of Islam can be found throughout his diverse writings. He also investigates the common fabrication accusation levelled at al-Sulamī and his understanding of the prophetic traditions, and deals with it impressively. Chowdhury also refutes those who would accuse al-Sulamī of plagiarizing al-Sarrāj by citing two extensive examples and noting al-Sulamī's cultural scene, where oral and written transmission of data played a fundamental role and where overlap would naturally occur. The shared perspectives of al-Sulamī and al-Sarrāj, for example, go far beyond phrasing and structures. They share a more sophisticated interest in the experiential encounter with the Quran and the esoteric implications of God's name and the letters constituting God's speech. Al-Sulamī's Sharḥ maʿānī al-ḥurūf corresponds with al-Sarrāj's references to the terms ḥarf (pl. ḥurūf) (letter/letters) and to al-Sarrāj's discussions of the devotional practices through which the mystic experiences the beatific vision of God's secrets behind every letter of His speech (Sarrāj, Kitāb al-Lumaʿ, Leiden, 1914, pp. 74, 89).

The term rukhaṣ (dispensations) interested al-Sulamī on different occasions in his works (pp. 123, 159). I think the author should have detailed the semantic changes in the Sufi perception of rukhaṣ and how it later came to describe the behaviour of a particular group of lay-affiliates in the writings of Abū al-Najīb al-Suhrawardī (d. 563/1168) and his nephew, Abū Ḥafṣ al-Suhrawardī (d. 632/1234).

Chowdhury's investigation of al-Sulamī's method of self-transformation needs a clearer statement on what distinguishes al-Sulamī's so-called method from those of other contemporaries including the malāmatiyya. Chowdhury's reference to “isnād provisions” as part of al-Sulamī's apologetics is not accurate. Al-Sulamī used isnād since this was one of the basic features of the Islamic writing tradition and was not considered an apologetic tool. Al-Sulamī's exegesis, on the other hand, could certainly be added as part of his apologetic tools. On a technical level, while the translations of many passages of primary sources are a significant contribution of Chowdhury's book, some long quotations of secondary literature are unnecessary (pp. 68–9, 71).

To sum up, A Ṣūfī Apologist of Nīshāpūr provides a study model for examining important Sufi authors during the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries. This endeavour is particularly significant in light of the fact that al-Sulamī differs prominently from other contemporary authors of Sufi compendia since he did not provide us with one comprehensive textbook that combines Sufi rules of ethics, jargon, training methods, biographies of great masters, and al-Sulamī's own conception of the different ranks of the Sufi path. Examining al-Sulamī through a multiplicity of documents and writings is very compelling.