Atlas

Chains of transmission from the Prophet, read as the sources give them.

About this atlas

The atlas holds the chains of transmission from the Prophet as the standard references and the classical sources record them: the Sufi orders, the chains of Qurʾān recitation, the teachers of the schools of law and ḥadīth, and the lines of the Prophet's family, with the places they spread and the living houses and teachers who carry them today. Every link shows its sources; where they differ, both readings are shown, and we do not rule on any community's claims. Ibn ʿArabī's own life, teachers and readers are on their own page.

Change chain set

Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt) الطريقة العلوية

Sufi orders · Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-Faqīh al-Muqaddam · c. 1200s · Tarīm · 12 routes to the Prophet recorded

The Sufi path of the Bā ʿAlawī sayyids of Ḥaḍramawt, a family descended from Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā al-Muhājir. TDV ascribes the order to al-Faqīh al-Muqaddam (d. 653/1255) and notes his admiration for Abū Madyan. It spread through his descendants from Tarīm to Aden, the Ḥijāz and India.

How to read the marks

Two sources: a solid rule. Two independent references give the same link.
One source: a lighter rule, so labelled.
The community's own account: a dotted rule. The order tells it; we have not yet read it against a reference source.
A gap in the rule: the sources omit names between the two. The label says which.
The sources differ: tap the ≠ to read each reading with its source.
A ring: a spiritual link, without a meeting (uwaysī).

Route 1 of 12, the best-sourced: other routes (11)

Routes are ordered by how many steps rest on two sources, then by how few rest on the community's own account or on another chain set's record, then by length. The best-sourced opens first.

Route

Dates are given where the sources give them. Years are CE; the Hijri year is in each name's detail.

two sources
one source
the community's own account
names omitted
sources differ

632
one source · this step is recorded in Naqshbandiyya, not in Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)
Sources: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye'
Sources differ (1): Naqshbandī tradition: Maslak al-ʿārifīn (early 8th/14th c.) cites a report attributed to the Prophet, 'whatever God poured into my heart I poured into Abū Bakr's heart'; al-Qazwīnī (978/1570) adds that the Prophet taught Abū Bakr the dhikr of the heart three times in the cave of Thawr (as reported by TDV). (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye')
Sources differ (2): TDV Sıddîkıyye: the Thawr-cave narration is not found in hadith and history works, the Sufi classics or the earliest Naqshbandī sources, though later Naqshbandī circles largely accepted it. (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye')
Sources differ (3): The Naqshbandī shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Marjānī of Kazan said the chain said to come through Abū Bakr has no scholarly basis (as reported by TDV). (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye')
Sources differ (4): Buehler: three of the first six links of the Bakrī silsila are historically impossible (n. 14); Dina Le Gall, cited by him, finds 16th-17th c. Naqshbandī chains often give parallel Bakrī and ʿAlid derivations. (Arthur F. Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1998), ch. 4, pp. 88, 90 n. 28)
634
one source · this step is recorded in Naqshbandiyya, not in Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)
Sources: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye'; naqshbandi.org, 'Origins' (Naqshbandi Haqqani Order's own golden chain)
656
the community's own account · this step is recorded in Naqshbandiyya, not in Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)
Sources: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye'
Sources differ (1): Muḥammad Pārsā (Risāla-yi Qudsiyya) inserted Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr between Salmān and Jaʿfar. (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye')
Sources differ (2): The order's own chain (Haqqani) lists Salmān, Qāsim, Jaʿfar in sequence. (naqshbandi.org, 'Origins' (Naqshbandi Haqqani Order's own golden chain))
Sources differ (3): TDV Sıddîkıyye: from the 6th/12th century, amid Sunni–Shiʿi debate, some orders declared chains reaching ʿAlī, and in the 16th century some Kubrawīs in Samarqand implicitly objected to the Abū Bakr chain by saying the well-known orders came through ʿAlī. Naqshbandī chains through ʿAlī are not detailed in the sources read. (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Sıddîkıyye'; TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Nakşibendiyye')
Sources differ (4): Algar (Iranica 'Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq iii'): from the 8th/14th century the main Naqshbandī initiatic line places Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq between Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr and Bāyazid. (Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ iii. And Sufism' (Hamid Algar))
765
the community's own account · this step is recorded in The Prophet's family: descent and imamate lines, not in Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt) · omits: ʿAlī al-ʿUraydī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, ʿĪsā (per Ibn ʿInaba's ʿUraydī line; the Bā ʿAlawī chain names them)
Sources: TDV, 'Bâ Alevî' (Sâmî es-Sakkâr, 1991, vol. 4, pp. 355-357)
Sources differ (1): Ibn ʿInaba traces al-Ṣādiq's son ʿAlī al-ʿUraydī to Muḥammad and ʿĪsā al-Rūmī, and (L6779-6783) reports al-ʿUmarī's statement that a ʿĪsā al-Azraq al-Rūmī al-ʿUraydī left twelve sons without descendants. The text read does not say whether this is the Bā ʿAlawī ancestor, and does not name Aḥmad al-Muhājir. (Ibn ʿInaba, ʿUmdat al-ṭālib (OpenITI))
two sources · omits: ʿUbayd Allāh (ʿAbd Allāh), ʿAlawī b. ʿAbd Allāh and later generations; the basis note says the full genealogy is not traced. Ho (p. 39-40) confirms the intermediates: ʿUbayd Allāh, ʿAlawī, Muḥammad, ʿAlī the Endower of Qasam, Muḥammad Principal of Mirbat.
Sources: TDV, 'Bâ Alevî' (Sâmî es-Sakkâr, 1991, vol. 4, pp. 355-357); TDV, 'Aleviyye' (Hadramut) (Süleyman Uludağ, vol. 2, 1989, p. 370)
1255

How to read the marks

Two sources: a solid rule. Two independent references give the same link.
One source: a lighter rule, so labelled.
The community's own account: a dotted rule. The order tells it; we have not yet read it against a reference source.
A gap in the rule: the sources omit names between the two. The label says which.
The sources differ: tap the ≠ to read each reading with its source.
A ring: a spiritual link, without a meeting (uwaysī).

Branches (2)

Each opens as a side-chain from the founder, with the same marks.

Āl al-Saqqāfآل السقافfounder d. 810/1407 or 819/1416 (TDV gives both) · Tarīm · 2 names

الفقيه المقدم محمد بن علي1255
the community's own account · omits: about 150 years of generations between Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (d. 653/1255) and al-Saqqāf (d. 810/1407 or 819/1416), by the atlas dates; the sources read name none.
عبد الرحمن السقاف1407

Ayderûsiyye (al-ʿAydarūsiyya)العيدروسيةfounder d. 914/1508 · Aden · 2 names

عبد الرحمن السقاف1407
one source · omits: Abū Bakr al-Sakrān and ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAydarūs (al-Saqqāf is the great-grandfather; the two names are from the standard Ḥaḍramī genealogy and were not read in a source for this atlas).
أبو بكر بن عبد الله العيدروس1508

Ḥaddādiyyaالحداديةfounder d. 1132/1720 · Tarīm · 2 names

الفقيه المقدم محمد بن علي1255
one source · omits: roughly fourteen generations between Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (d. 1255) and al-Ḥaddād (d. 1132/1720) by the atlas dates; none named in the sources read.
عبد الله بن علوي الحداد1720

Living today

Public roles only, as the communities and the press report them, dated.

Head · as of Oct 2026 · the community's own account
Director (dean) of Dār al-Muṣṭafā, Tarīm, which he founded in 1993 after the unification of Yemen (The Muslim 500); Dār al-Zahrāʾ, its sister institution for women, opened in 2001
Wikipedia (lead only)
Teacher · as of Oct 2026 · the community's own account
Bā ʿAlawī preacher
the community's own account: al-Jifrī's official biography

How to cite

Mashraba Reader, Atlas of transmission, “Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)”, https://www.mashraba.org/atlas/baalawiyya (data of 31 October 2026).

Not yet confirmed (4)

These links are told by an order or a secondary source and still have to be read against a primary or reference source.

(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)) In the Amūdiyya account the khirqa mission passes from Muḥammad al-Faqīh to his student ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣāliḥ; ʿAbd Allāh is named as teacher of the Amūdī, not stated as teacher of Muḥammad b. ʿAlī.
(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)) TDV Bâ Alevî names ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saqqāf, d. 810/1407 or 819/1416, as great ancestor of Āl al-Saqqāf and the ʿAydarūs; a secondary summary of the article calls him the son; generational gap unresolved.
(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)) Wikipedia names al-Saqqāf as a Hijaz teacher of Ḥabīb ʿUmar; not checked against a specialist source.
(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt)) al-Jifrī's official biography: he studied Bukhārī, Muslim and the Iḥyāʾ with al-Saqqāf.

Where the sources differ (4)

(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt))
- TDV Amûdiyye cites the Silsila quddūsiyya: Abū Madyan told his deputy Muḥammad al-Faqīh to go to Ḥaḍramawt; he fell ill in Mecca and sent his student ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣāliḥ, through whom Abū ʿĪsā al-ʿAmūdī joined. TDV does not say here that this Muḥammad al-Faqīh is Muḥammad b. ʿAlī.
- TDV Bâ Alevî mentions Muḥammad b. ʿAlī's admiration for Abū Madyan and no khirqa or envoys.
- Harīrīzāde (Tibyān) repeats the story but found no chain for the Amūdiyya; al-Zabīdī gives a chain via ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Marzūqī (both as reported in TDV Amûdiyye).
- Trimingham (1971, p. 15 n. 1): Muḥammad b. ʿAlī was initiated into the Way deriving from Abū Madyan Shuʿayb and is said to have been the first to introduce Sufi discipline (tahkīm) into Ḥaḍramawt; dates 574/1178-653/1255. Jāmī (pp. 612–615) dates Abū Madyan's death 590.
- Ho (2006, p. 41): Abū Madyan's student al-Muqʿad died in Mecca; before dying he instructed ʿAbd Allāh al-Maghribī to invest the First Jurist with the cloak and appoint him (takhkīm) as representative of Abū Madyan's pathway.
(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt))
- Ho (2006, p. 41): ʿAbd Allāh al-Maghribī was instructed by Abū Madyan's student al-Muqʿad before the latter's death at Mecca.
(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt))
- Death date 810/1407 versus 819/1416, both given in the same TDV article.
(Bā ʿAlawiyya (Ṭarīqa ʿAlawiyya of Ḥaḍramawt))
- Trimingham (1971, p. 73) says Abū Bakr al-ʿAydarūs "acquired a Kubrawī silsila" and describes the ʿAydarūsiyya as a restricted lineal ṭarīqa, a derivative of the ʿAlawī line.