Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani

Ayn-al-Qużāt Hamadānī, also spelled Ain-al Quzat Hamedani or ʿAyn-al Qudat Hamadhani (1098–1131) (Persian: عین‌ القضات همدانی), full name: Abu’l-maʿālī ʿabdallāh Bin Abībakr Mohammad Mayānejī (Persian: ابوالمعالی عبدالله بن ابی‌بکر محمد میانجی), was a Persian[1][2][3] jurisconsult, mystic, philosopher, poet and mathematician who was executed at the age of 33.[4][5]

Contents

Origin of the title

Ayn-al-Qużat in Arabic means "the pearl of the judges". As Ayn means the eye or something very valid and Qozat is the plural of Qadi which means Judge.

Life

He was born in Hamedan and his ancestors were of Hamedan judges and had converted from Shia to Shafi`i.

Work

The most important Persian work of ʿAyn-al-qożāt, commonly known as Tamhīdāt (Preludes), is entitled Zobdat al-ḥaqāʾeq fī kašf al-ḵalāʾeq by the author himself and divided into ten tamhīds illustrating Sufi life and thought. Ayn al-Qożāt Hamadānī quoted a few verses apparently in his own Iranian dialect ( where it is called fahlavī; bayt-e pahlavī in a manuscript variant)[6]

Poetry

A famous quatrain is said to be his:

ما مرگ وشهادت از خدا خواسته ايم
وآن هم به سه چيزکم بهاخواسته ايم
گردوست چنين کندکه ماخواسته ايم
مـا آتـش و نفـت و بـوريا خــواسـته ايم

which is translated as:

I want death and Martyrdom from God
I want it in three low-priced things
If The friend does what I want
I want fire and oil and Straw

Notes

  1. ^ Hamid Dabashi, "Theology of discontent", Published by Transaction Publishers, 2006. pg 104: "..Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani, a twelfth century Persian mystic"
  2. ^ Nadia Eboo Jamal, "Surviving the Mongols", I B Tauris & Co Ltd (May 23, 2003). pg 91: "At the same time, there was an opposite, more diffused, movement of some Ismaili ideas entering into Persian Sufism, as is evident, for instance, in the work of the mystical philosopher 'Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani, who was executed in 525/1131 by the Saljuqs
  3. ^ Hellmut Ritter, John O'Kane, Bernd Radtke, "The ocean of the soul", Brill Academic Publishers (June 2003). excerpt from page 719: "'Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadhani (Abu'l Ma'aali 'Abda Allah b. Muhammad Mayanji, Persian mystic, executed in Hamadan
  4. ^ David Cook, Martyrdom in Islam. 2007. pg. 69
  5. ^ AYN-AL-QOŻĀT HAMADĀNĪ in Encyclopedia Iranica by G. Böwering
  6. ^ Fahlaviyat in Encyclopedia Iranica by Dr. Ahmad Taffazoli

See also