Dhul-Nun al-Misri

Dhūl-Nūn al-Miṣrī
This 17th-century Mughal miniature illustrates a pivotal episode from the life of Dhul-Nun al-Misri, where he encounters an ascetic suspended upside down from a tree. Dhul-Nun is depicted as one of the Muslim mystics holding a closed book, a symbol of his realization that direct spiritual experience supersedes written scholarship.
Born796
Akhmim, Upper Egypt
Died859-862 (aged 63-66)
Giza, Upper Egypt
Resting placeCity of the Dead, Cairo, Egypt
Other namesZūl-Nūn al-Miṣrī
EducationAncient Egyptian disciplines of alchemy, medicine, and Greek philosophy
Known forEarly Sufi mystic and alchemist

Dhūl-Nūn al-Miṣrī (d. Giza, 859-862), often rendered in English literature as Zūl-Nūn al-Miṣrī, was an early Egyptian Sufi mystic and alchemist. His surname "al Misri" means "The Egyptian".

He was born in Akhmim, Upper Egypt in 796 and is said to be of Nubian descent. Dhul-Nun is said to have made some study of the scholastic disciplines of alchemy, medicine, and Greek philosophy in his early life, before coming under the mentorship of the mystic Saʿdūn of Cairo, who is described in traditional accounts of Dhul-Nun's life as both "his teacher and spiritual director."

Celebrated for his legendary wisdom both in his own life and by later Islamic thinkers, Dhul-Nun has been venerated as one of the greatest saints of the early era of Sufism.


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