Malamatiyya

The Malāmatiyya (ملامتية) or Malamatis were a Muslim mystic group active in 9th century Greater Khorasan. Their root word of their name is the Arabic word malāmah (ملامة) "blame". The Malamatiyya believed in the value of self-blame, that piety should be a private matter and that being held in good esteem would lead to worldly attachment. They concealed their knowledge and made sure their faults would be known, reminding them of their imperfection. The Malamati is one for whom the doctrine of "spiritual states" is fraught with subtle deceptions of the most despicable kind; he despises personal piety, not because he is focused on the perceptions or reactions of people, but as a consistent involuntary witness of his own "pious hypocrisy".

"Malamati" can also refer to a method of teaching within Sufism based on taking blame.

Malamatiyyas and Sufis

The Malamati originates in a town called Nishapur in Khorasan in the ninth and tenth centuries. Nishapur was one of the four main towns in Greater Khorasan and it was at the crossroads of two main routes. Because of their distance from Baghdad, the Malamatiyyah originally had very little influence from Sufi practice and thought.