Bākharzī, Abū al-Maʿālī Sayf al-Dīn Saʿīd b. al-Muṭahhar b. Saʿīd (586–659/1190–1261), known as Shaykh al-ʿālam (‘[Sufi] Master of the World’), was a traditionist, Sufi and one of the leading masters of the Kubrawiyya order.

As suggested by his nisba, Sayf al-Dīn was born and raised in Bāk-harz, a district of the province of Quhistān in Khurasān (al-Qurashī, 2/225; see also Faṣīḥ, 2/236, 316, who gives an incorrect birthdate), and received his early training in the Islamic sciences there. He su…