Fazlallah Astarabadi (Naimi)

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Fazlallah Astarabadi (Naimi) (Persian: فضل‌الله استرآبادی), also known as Fazlallah Tabrizi Astarabadi[1][2] by a pseudonym al-Hurufi[1] and a pen name Naimi, was an Iranian [3][4] mystic who founded the Hurufi movement. The basic belief of the Hurufis 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[5][6]. The center of Fazlullah Naimi's influence was Baku and most of his followers came from Shirvan [7]. Among his followers was the famous Hurufi poet Nesîmî, one of the greatest Turkish mystical poets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries [3].

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[edit] Early life

Fazlallah was born in Astarabad, Iran, circa 1339/1340, to the family of a shoe-maker Abu Muhammed Tabrizi[1]. According to the traditional Hurufi biography, Fazlallah Astarabadi was born in a household that traced its descent to the seventh Shi'i Imam Musa al-Kazim.[8][9] Fazlallah's predecessor, in eighth or ninth generation, was Muhammed al-Yamani from the family which originated in Yemen, the center of heterodox Islam at the time[1]. Fazlallah's family was from the Sahfi'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, Fazlallah 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?

Fazlallah 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 Astarabadi, 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.

[edit] Works

Fazlallah composed his works in Standard Persian as well as the Persian dialect of Astarabad. His most significant work which establishes the foundation of Hurufism is titled Javidan Nama (Persian for Eternal Book)[9]. Two recensions were made of the Javidan Nama. The one which is designated as Kabir (great) is in the Astarabadi Persian dialect and the one that is entitled Saghir (small) is in standard Persian. Another book in the Astarabadi Persian dialect is the Nawm-nama, giving an account of the dreams of Fazlallah at various times in his life[9]. A prose work, entitled Mahabbat-nama in the Astarabad Persian dialect was imitated by Turkish Hurufis[9]. He also composed a book of poetry in standard Persian and gave it the title Arsh Nama[9]. In addition to this book, he also composed another small collection of poetry in standard Persian using the pen name Naimi[9]. From his poetic works, it is evident that he knew Arabic, Persian, and his native language[10], the Gurgan dialect. He was well-versed in Persian literature, and that he was capable of composing poetry in the classical style.

[edit] Sahib-i ta'vil: the Master of Esoteric Interpretation

According to Encyclopedia of Islam, one of the key tenets of Hurufism is that God reveals himself in the Word and that words (Huruf) are composed of sounds that are associated with letters. The total number of letters (and their numerical value according to Abjad (Abjad: The system that assigns the Perso-Arabic alphabets a numerical value)) is the total of all emanating and creating possibilities of God and is God himself made manifest.

Fazlallah 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, Fazlallah 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 the Islamic pilgrimage 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 al-Rida (d. 818) - who is buried in Marshhhad - he made a detour to al-Riza'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 Muhammad turned to Fazlallah 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 Fazlallah that he could see it if he stood under an orange tree, This Fazlallah 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 fealt like a pearly light which enabled him to understand the hadith. After this dream Fazlallah 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.

[edit] Amongst the Sarbadars

Fazlallah then moved to the region of Sabzavar in North east Iran, where a significant proportion of the local population were involved in apacyptical 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 Messiah. There is some evidence that he was here in 1360 and that he made the prediction that 'Ali Mu'ayyad would expel the Shaykiyya, but that the latter would return within a year. Fifteen years later Darvish Rukn al-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 onto Isfahan

[edit] Sojourn in Isfahan

Fazlallah 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. Fazlallah 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. Th Sufi Mu'in al-Din Shahrastani visited him and asked him about his understanding of a true man of god. he replied quoting Junayd Bhagdadi 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 Khwabnama (the Book of Dreams) became one of the main biographical sources about Fazlallah's life. These followers formed a tight-nit community around him sharing a hermit like life style and a deep brotherly love which led them to think of themselves as sharing the same soul. These sincere followers claimed the received Karamat, spirtitual gifts like special knowledge about sacred texts like the Bible and the Koran, an undertsanding 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 al-Din Rajayi and the Amir Farrukh Gunbadi Fazlallah' reputation spread throughout the provinces of Khurasan, Azerbaijan, and Shirvan. Eventually he decided to move to Tabriz.

[edit] Imprisonment and Execution

For his spread of Hurufism, circa 1394/1395, Fazlullah Nâimî was captured and imprisoned in Alinja, near Nakhchivan [11]. He was subsequently sentenced for his heresies by the religious leaders and executed at the orders of Miran Shah, the son of Tamerlane [12].

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Irène Mélikoff. Hadji Bektach: un mythe et ses avatars : genèse et évolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie, BRILL, 1998, Chapter IV, p. 116, ISBN 9004093443
  2. ^ Ryszard Kapuscinski. Imperium, Feltrinelli Editore IT, 2002, p. 56, ISBN 8807813262
  3. ^ a b "Nesimi, Seyid Imadeddin." Encyclopædia Britannica, Online Edition
  4. ^ Begum Ozden Firat, "Writing Over the Body, Writing with the Body, On Shirin Neshat's Women of Allah Series" in José van Dijck, Sonja Neef, F. C. J. Ketelaa, "Sign Here!: Handwriting in the Age of New Media",Amsterdam University, 2006
  5. ^ Gilles Veinstein. Syncrétismes Et Hérésies Dans L'Orient Seljoukide Et Ottoman (XIVe-XVIIIe Siècles), Peeters Publishers, 2005, p. 307, ISBN 9042915498
  6. ^ Ahmet Yaşar Ocak. Osmanlı Toplumunda Zındıklar ve Mülhidler, Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, Istanbul, 1998, pp. 131-135, ISBN 9753330790
  7. ^ Bryan S. Turner. Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology, Routledge, 2003, p. 284, ISBN 041512347X
  8. ^ Abbas Amanat, Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America , I.B. Tauris, 2002
  9. ^ a b c d e f Encyclopedia Iranica, "Astarabadi, Fazllalah", H. Algar.[1]
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ Irène Mélikoff. Sur Les Traces Du Soufisme Turc: Recherches Sur L'Islam Populaire En Anatolie, Editions Isis, 1992, pp. 163-174, ISBN 9754280479
  12. ^ Yaḥyá Nūrī. Khātamiyat-i Payāmbar-i Islām va ibṭāl-i taḥlīlī-i Bābīgarī, Bahāʼīgarī, Qādiyānīgarī, Madrasah-i Shuhadāʼ, 1981, p. 20

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