Fażlu l-Lāh Astar-Ābādī (Persian: فضلالله استرآبادی, 1339/40 in Astarābād – 1394 in Nakhchivan), also known as Fażlullāh Tabrīzī Astarābādī[1][2] by a pseudonymal-Ḥurūfī[1] and a pen nameNāimī, was an Iranian mystic who founded the Ḥurūfī movement. The basic belief of the Ḥurūfiyyah was that the God was incarnated in the body of Fażlullāh and that he would appear as Mahdī when the Last Day was near in order to save Muslims, Christians and Jews.[3][4] His followers first came from the village of Toqchi near Isfahan and from there, the fame of his small community spread throughout Khorasan, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Shirvan.[5] The center of Fażlullāh Nāimī's influence was Baku and most of his followers came from Shirvan.[6] Among his followers was the famous Ḥurūfī poet Seyyed Imadaddin Nasimi, one of the greatest Turkic mystical poets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.[7]
Fażlullāh was born in Astarābād, Iran, circa 1339/1340, to a family of judges. According to the traditional Ḥurūfī biography, Fażlullāh Astarābādī was born in a household that traced its descent to the seventh Shī‘ah Imam, Musa al-Kazim.[5][8] Fażlullāh's predecessor, in eighth or ninth generation, was Muhammad al-Yamanī, from the family which originated in Yemen, the center of heterodox Islam at the time.[1] Fażlullāh's family was from the Shāfi‘ī school of Sunni Islam — however, this did not figure greatly in his religious development.
When his father died when he was still a child, Fażlullāh inherited his position and appeared at the courthouse on horse back everyday, acting as a figurehead while his assistants carried out the work of the court. At the age of eighteen he had an extraordinary religious experience when a nomadicdervish recited a verse by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi:
Why are you afraid of death when you have the essence of eternity? How can the grave contain you when you have the light of God?
Fażlullāh fell into a trance and when he inquired as to the verses meaning, his religious teacher told him that to understand it one would have to devote their life to religious pursuits and then one could experience the meaning rather than knowing it intellectually. After a year of trying to maintain his duties as a judge during the day while engaged in solitary prayer in a graveyard at night, he abandoned his family, possessions and security to become an itinerant religious seeker. As he left Astarābād, he exchanged his clothes for the felt clothing of a shepherd he met. From then on he always wore this shirt as a symbol of having abandoned worldly connections and comforts.
Works
Fażlullāh composed his works in Standard Persian as well as the Persian dialect of Astarābād. His most significant work which establishes the foundation of Ḥurūfism is titled Javidan-namah "Eternal Book".[5] Two recensions were made of the Javidan-namah. The one which is designated as Kabīr "Great" is in the Astarābādī Persian dialect and the one that is entitled Ṣaghīr "Small" is in standard Persian. Another book in the Astarābādī Persian dialect is the Nawm-namah, giving an account of the dreams of Fażlullāh at various times in his life.[5] A prose work, entitled Mahabbat-namah in the Astarābād Persian dialect was imitated by Turkish Ḥurūfīs.[5] He also composed a book of poetry in standard Persian and gave it the title Arsh-namah.[5] In addition to this book, he also composed another small collection of poetry in standard Persian using the pen name Nāimī.[5] From his poetic works, it is evident that he knew Arabic, Persian and his native language,[9] the Gurgan dialect. He was well-versed in Persian literature, and that he was capable of composing poetry in the classical style.
Sahib-i ta'vil: the Master of Esoteric Interpretation
According to Encyclopedia of Islam, one of the key tenets of Ḥurūfism is that Allah reveals himself in the Word and that words (ḥurūf) are composed of sounds that are associated with letters. The total number of letters (and their numerical value according to the abjad) is the total of all emanating and creating possibilities of God and is God himself made manifest.
Dreams of Fażlullāh
Fażlullāh made his way to Isfahan in central Iran. Unused to walking, he suffered a leg injury by the time he arrived. Here he found a variety of religious seekers many of whom shunned contacts with wider society and often flouted religious convention. However, Fażlullāh never joined any of these groups. He began to experience a series of dreams which he came to regard as prophetic. He then made Hajj to Mecca before moving to Kunya Urgench, the capital of Khwarazm. He decided to make another Hajj, but only got as far as Luristan when he had a dream in which a man told him to go to Mashhad. Concluding the man was ‘Alī ar-Riḍā (d. 818) — who is buried in Mashhad — he made a detour to ar-Riḍā's shrine before completing a second Hajj and returning to Urgench. Here he practiced sufi religious practices and continued to have a number of dreams. In one Jesus told him that four sufis — Ibrahim Bin Adham, Bayazid Bistami, Al-Tustari and Bahlul — were the most sincere religious seekers in the history of Islam. In another, Muhammad appeared to him explaining to an old man that dream interpretation was very hard as the surface identities of characters in dreams were stand-ins for others and that dreams involved far deeper meanings than their apparent concern. Then Prophet Muhammad turned to Fażlullāh and said that true dream interpretation was like a rare star that becomes visible every 30,000 years and encompasses seven thousand worlds. He told Fażlullāh that he could see it if he stood under an orange tree, This Fażlullāh did and saw seven stars one of which was bigger than the rest. And the luminous star emitted a ray of light which entered his right eye conveying a special intuitive knowledge to him. This felt like a pearly light which enabled him to understand the hadith. After this dream Fażlullāh claimed he could understand dreams and the language of birds. His followers called him sahib-i ta'vil — the master of esoteric interpretation following this. He rapidly attracted a crowd of people seeking explanations of dreams drawn from all walks of life. However, he preferred the company of religious aescetics and eventually decided to leave Urgench.
Fażlullāh then moved to the region of Sabzavar in North east Iran, where a significant proportion of the local population were involved in apocalyptical religion. From 1136 to 1381 this region was under the rule of the Sarbadars, a diverse collection of noble families who did not follow a dynastic principle, with many people affiliated to a religious group known as the Shaykiyya. This sect advised its followers to prepare arms ready for a great cosmic war that would be followed by the appearance of the Mahdi. There is some evidence that he was here in 1360 and that he made the prediction that ‘Alī Mu'ayyad would expel the Shaykiyyah, but that the latter would return within a year. Fifteen years later darwīsh Ruknu d-Dīn was expelled, only to return in triumph within the year. There are a number of stories relating to Fazlallah in this region, but he was to leave in 1365 traveling first to Yazd and then to Isfahan.
Sojourn in Isfahan
Fażlullāh made himself at home in a mosque in the suburb of Tuqchi where he attracted two kinds of visitors: firstly, religious seekers seeking a guide and secondly those who wanted him to interpret dreams for more worldly reasons. Fażlullāh would accept no money for his interpretations and led an ascetic life, going without sleep spending the night in prayer and weeping continually to control his carnal desires. The Sufi Mu'in al-Din Shahrastani visited him and asked him about his understanding of a true man of God. He replied quoting Junayd Baghdadi that it is someone who is silent on the outside so that his inner reality can speak through him. Shahrastani became one of his prominent followers alongside men like Nasrallah Nafaji whose Khwab-namah "Book of Dreams" became one of the main biographical sources about Fażlullāh's life. These followers formed a tight-knit community around him, sharing a hermit-like lifestyle and a deep brotherly love that led them to think of themselves as sharing the same soul. These sincere followers claimed the received Karamat, spiritual gifts like special knowledge about sacred texts like the Bible and the Qur'an, an understanding of hidden matters and clear interpretations of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad and his immediate entourage. Meanwhile, a steady stream of the social elite, such as scholars, ministers, military and administrative officers as well as all kinds of wealthy people would ask his advice. Giving advice to such people as Mawlana Zayn ad-Dīn Rajayī and the Amir Farrukh Gunbadi, Fażlullāh's reputation spread throughout the provinces of Khurasan, Azerbaijan and Shirvan. Eventually he decided to move to Tabriz.
Imprisonment and execution
For his spread of Hurūfism, circa 1394/1395, Fażlullāh Nā'imī was captured and imprisoned in Alinja, near Nakhchivan.[10] He was subsequently sentenced for his heresies by the religious leaders and executed at the orders of Miran Shah, the son of Tamerlane.[11]
^ abcIrène Mélikoff. Hadji Bektach: un mythe et ses avatars : genèse et évolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie, BRILL, 1998, Chapter IV, p. 116, ISBN90-04-09344-3
^Ryszard Kapuscinski. Imperium, Feltrinelli Editore IT, 2002, p. 56, ISBN88-07-81326-2
^Gilles Veinstein. Syncrétismes Et Hérésies Dans L'Orient Seljoukide Et Ottoman (XIVe-XVIIIe Siècles), Peeters Publishers, 2005, p. 307, ISBN90-429-1549-8
^"Nesimi, Seyid Imadeddin." Encyclopædia Britannica, Online Edition
^Abbas Amanat, Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America , I.B. Tauris, 2002
^Gölpinarli, Abdülbâkî. "Faḍl Allāh Ḥurūfī." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online.
^Irène Mélikoff. Sur Les Traces Du Soufisme Turc: Recherches Sur L'Islam Populaire En Anatolie, Editions Isis, 1992, pp. 163-174, ISBN975-428-047-9
^Yaḥyá Nūrī. Khātamiyat-i Payāmbar-i Islām va ibṭāl-i taḥlīlī-i Bābīgarī, Bahāʼīgarī, Qādiyānīgarī, Madrasah-i Shuhadāʼ, 1981, p. 20
External links
HORUFISM
ASTARĀBĀDĪ, FAŻLALLĀH (d. 796/1394), founder of the Ḥorūfī religion.
ʿALĪ AL-AʿLĀ (d. 822/1419), also known as Amīr Sayyed ʿAlī, principal successor of Fażlallāh Astarābādī, founder of the Ḥorūfī sect.
Usluer, Fatih (2020). "Hurufism: The Faḍlallāh Family, Children, and Testament". Iranian Studies. doi:10.1080/00210862.2020.1777393.
fazlallah, astarabadi, fażlu, lāh, astar, Ābādī, persian, فضل, الله, استرآبادی, 1339, astarābād, 1394, nakhchivan, also, known, fażlullāh, tabrīzī, astarābādī, pseudonym, Ḥurūfī, name, nāimī, iranian, mystic, founded, Ḥurūfī, movement, basic, belief, Ḥurūfiyya. Fazlu l Lah Astar Abadi Persian فضل الله استرآبادی 1339 40 in Astarabad 1394 in Nakhchivan also known as Fazlullah Tabrizi Astarabadi 1 2 by a pseudonym al Ḥurufi 1 and a pen name Naimi was an Iranian mystic who founded the Ḥurufi movement The basic belief of the Ḥurufiyyah was that the God was incarnated in the body of Fazlullah and that he would appear as Mahdi when the Last Day was near in order to save Muslims Christians and Jews 3 4 His followers first came from the village of Toqchi near Isfahan and from there the fame of his small community spread throughout Khorasan Iraq Azerbaijan and Shirvan 5 The center of Fazlullah Naimi s influence was Baku and most of his followers came from Shirvan 6 Among his followers was the famous Ḥurufi poet Seyyed Imadaddin Nasimi one of the greatest Turkic mystical poets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries 7 Fazlallah AstarabadiPersonalBorn1339 or 40Esterabad present day Gorgan Died1394 aged 53 55 NakhchivanReligionIslamDenominationTwelver ShiʿaMovementHurufismMain interest s Sufism Contents 1 Early life 2 Works 3 Sahib i ta vil the Master of Esoteric Interpretation 3 1 Dreams of Fazlullah 4 Amongst the Sarbadars 5 Sojourn in Isfahan 6 Imprisonment and execution 7 See also 8 References 9 External linksEarly life EditFazlullah was born in Astarabad Iran circa 1339 1340 to a family of judges According to the traditional Ḥurufi biography Fazlullah Astarabadi was born in a household that traced its descent to the seventh Shi ah Imam Musa al Kazim 5 8 Fazlullah s predecessor in eighth or ninth generation was Muhammad al Yamani from the family which originated in Yemen the center of heterodox Islam at the time 1 Fazlullah s family was from the Shafi i school of Sunni Islam however this did not figure greatly in his religious development When his father died when he was still a child Fazlullah inherited his position and appeared at the courthouse on horse back everyday acting as a figurehead while his assistants carried out the work of the court At the age of eighteen he had an extraordinary religious experience when a nomadic dervish recited a verse by Jalal ad Din Muhammad Rumi Why are you afraid of death when you have the essence of eternity How can the grave contain you when you have the light of God Fazlullah fell into a trance and when he inquired as to the verses meaning his religious teacher told him that to understand it one would have to devote their life to religious pursuits and then one could experience the meaning rather than knowing it intellectually After a year of trying to maintain his duties as a judge during the day while engaged in solitary prayer in a graveyard at night he abandoned his family possessions and security to become an itinerant religious seeker As he left Astarabad he exchanged his clothes for the felt clothing of a shepherd he met From then on he always wore this shirt as a symbol of having abandoned worldly connections and comforts Works EditFazlullah composed his works in Standard Persian as well as the Persian dialect of Astarabad His most significant work which establishes the foundation of Ḥurufism is titled Javidan namah Eternal Book 5 Two recensions were made of the Javidan namah The one which is designated as Kabir Great is in the Astarabadi Persian dialect and the one that is entitled Ṣaghir Small is in standard Persian Another book in the Astarabadi Persian dialect is the Nawm namah giving an account of the dreams of Fazlullah at various times in his life 5 A prose work entitled Mahabbat namah in the Astarabad Persian dialect was imitated by Turkish Ḥurufis 5 He also composed a book of poetry in standard Persian and gave it the title Arsh namah 5 In addition to this book he also composed another small collection of poetry in standard Persian using the pen name Naimi 5 From his poetic works it is evident that he knew Arabic Persian and his native language 9 the Gurgan dialect He was well versed in Persian literature and that he was capable of composing poetry in the classical style Sahib i ta vil the Master of Esoteric Interpretation EditAccording to Encyclopedia of Islam one of the key tenets of Ḥurufism is that Allah reveals himself in the Word and that words ḥuruf are composed of sounds that are associated with letters The total number of letters and their numerical value according to the abjad is the total of all emanating and creating possibilities of God and is God himself made manifest Dreams of Fazlullah Edit Fazlullah made his way to Isfahan in central Iran Unused to walking he suffered a leg injury by the time he arrived Here he found a variety of religious seekers many of whom shunned contacts with wider society and often flouted religious convention However Fazlullah never joined any of these groups He began to experience a series of dreams which he came to regard as prophetic He then made Hajj to Mecca before moving to Kunya Urgench the capital of Khwarazm He decided to make another Hajj but only got as far as Luristan when he had a dream in which a man told him to go to Mashhad Concluding the man was Ali ar Riḍa d 818 who is buried in Mashhad he made a detour to ar Riḍa s shrine before completing a second Hajj and returning to Urgench Here he practiced sufi religious practices and continued to have a number of dreams In one Jesus told him that four sufis Ibrahim Bin Adham Bayazid Bistami Al Tustari and Bahlul were the most sincere religious seekers in the history of Islam In another Muhammad appeared to him explaining to an old man that dream interpretation was very hard as the surface identities of characters in dreams were stand ins for others and that dreams involved far deeper meanings than their apparent concern Then Prophet Muhammad turned to Fazlullah and said that true dream interpretation was like a rare star that becomes visible every 30 000 years and encompasses seven thousand worlds He told Fazlullah that he could see it if he stood under an orange tree This Fazlullah did and saw seven stars one of which was bigger than the rest And the luminous star emitted a ray of light which entered his right eye conveying a special intuitive knowledge to him This felt like a pearly light which enabled him to understand the hadith After this dream Fazlullah claimed he could understand dreams and the language of birds His followers called him sahib i ta vil the master of esoteric interpretation following this He rapidly attracted a crowd of people seeking explanations of dreams drawn from all walks of life However he preferred the company of religious aescetics and eventually decided to leave Urgench Amongst the Sarbadars EditMain article Sarbadars Fazlullah then moved to the region of Sabzavar in North east Iran where a significant proportion of the local population were involved in apocalyptical religion From 1136 to 1381 this region was under the rule of the Sarbadars a diverse collection of noble families who did not follow a dynastic principle with many people affiliated to a religious group known as the Shaykiyya This sect advised its followers to prepare arms ready for a great cosmic war that would be followed by the appearance of the Mahdi There is some evidence that he was here in 1360 and that he made the prediction that Ali Mu ayyad would expel the Shaykiyyah but that the latter would return within a year Fifteen years later darwish Ruknu d Din was expelled only to return in triumph within the year There are a number of stories relating to Fazlallah in this region but he was to leave in 1365 traveling first to Yazd and then to Isfahan Sojourn in Isfahan EditFazlullah made himself at home in a mosque in the suburb of Tuqchi where he attracted two kinds of visitors firstly religious seekers seeking a guide and secondly those who wanted him to interpret dreams for more worldly reasons Fazlullah would accept no money for his interpretations and led an ascetic life going without sleep spending the night in prayer and weeping continually to control his carnal desires The Sufi Mu in al Din Shahrastani visited him and asked him about his understanding of a true man of God He replied quoting Junayd Baghdadi that it is someone who is silent on the outside so that his inner reality can speak through him Shahrastani became one of his prominent followers alongside men like Nasrallah Nafaji whose Khwab namah Book of Dreams became one of the main biographical sources about Fazlullah s life These followers formed a tight knit community around him sharing a hermit like lifestyle and a deep brotherly love that led them to think of themselves as sharing the same soul These sincere followers claimed the received Karamat spiritual gifts like special knowledge about sacred texts like the Bible and the Qur an an understanding of hidden matters and clear interpretations of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad and his immediate entourage Meanwhile a steady stream of the social elite such as scholars ministers military and administrative officers as well as all kinds of wealthy people would ask his advice Giving advice to such people as Mawlana Zayn ad Din Rajayi and the Amir Farrukh Gunbadi Fazlullah s reputation spread throughout the provinces of Khurasan Azerbaijan and Shirvan Eventually he decided to move to Tabriz Imprisonment and execution EditFor his spread of Hurufism circa 1394 1395 Fazlullah Na imi was captured and imprisoned in Alinja near Nakhchivan 10 He was subsequently sentenced for his heresies by the religious leaders and executed at the orders of Miran Shah the son of Tamerlane 11 His shrine is at Alinja See also EditMahdi Isma ili Sufism Nasimee Hurufiyya Shi a Islam Nuktawiyya Murad Mirza Nuqta yi Ula Bab Mahmoud Pasikhani Ahmed Lur List of extinct Shia sectsReferences Edit a b c Irene Melikoff Hadji Bektach un mythe et ses avatars genese et evolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie BRILL 1998 Chapter IV p 116 ISBN 90 04 09344 3 Ryszard Kapuscinski Imperium Feltrinelli Editore IT 2002 p 56 ISBN 88 07 81326 2 Gilles Veinstein Syncretismes Et Heresies Dans L Orient Seljoukide Et Ottoman XIVe XVIIIe Siecles Peeters Publishers 2005 p 307 ISBN 90 429 1549 8 Ahmet Yasar Ocak Osmanli Toplumunda Zindiklar ve Mulhidler Tarih Vakfi Yurt Yayinlari Istanbul 1998 pp 131 135 ISBN 975 333 079 0 a b c d e f g Encyclopedia Iranica ASTARABADi FAZLALLAH d 796 1394 founder of the Ḥorufi religion H Algar Bryan S Turner Islam Critical Concepts in Sociology Routledge 2003 p 284 ISBN 0 415 12347 X Nesimi Seyid Imadeddin Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Edition Abbas Amanat Imagining the End Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America I B Tauris 2002 Golpinarli Abdulbaki Faḍl Allah Ḥurufi Encyclopaedia of Islam Edited by P Bearman Th Bianquis C E Bosworth E van Donzel and W P Heinrichs Brill 2007 Brill Online Irene Melikoff Sur Les Traces Du Soufisme Turc Recherches Sur L Islam Populaire En Anatolie Editions Isis 1992 pp 163 174 ISBN 975 428 047 9 Yaḥya Nuri Khatamiyat i Payambar i Islam va ibṭal i taḥlili i Babigari Bahaʼigari Qadiyanigari Madrasah i Shuhadaʼ 1981 p 20External links EditHORUFISM ASTARABADi FAZLALLAH d 796 1394 founder of the Ḥorufi religion ʿALi AL AʿLA d 822 1419 also known as Amir Sayyed ʿAli principal successor of Fazlallah Astarabadi founder of the Ḥorufi sect Usluer Fatih 2020 Hurufism The Faḍlallah Family Children and Testament Iranian Studies doi 10 1080 00210862 2020 1777393 Faḍl Allah Ḥurufi Astarabadi Encyclopaedia Islamica Sufi Tale The Lover of the ABC Javidan namah جاودان نامه Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Fazlallah Astarabadi amp oldid 1119260791, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
