Fażlu l-Lāh Astar-Ābādī (Naimi) , also known as
Fażlullāh Tabrīzī Astarābādī by a
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
al-Ḥurūfī and a
pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Naimi, 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. The center of Fażlullāh Naimi's influence was
BakuBaku , sometimes known as Baqy, Baky, Baki or Bakou, is the capital, the largest city, and the largest port of Azerbaijan and all the Caucasus. Located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, the city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City...
and most of his followers came from
ShirvanShirvan , also spelled as Shirwan and Šervān, is a historical region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both Islamic and modern times...
. Among his followers was the famous Ḥurūfī poet Imadaddin Nasimi, one of the greatest
TurkishThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
mystical poets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
Early life
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 Imām Mūsà al-Kāżim. Fażlullāh's predecessor, in eighth or ninth generation, was Muhammad al-Yamanī, from the family which originated in
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
, the center of heterodox Islam at the time. Fażlullāh's family was from the
Shāfi‘īThe Shāfi‘ī madhhab is one of the four schools of fiqh, or religious law, within Sunni Islam. The Shāfi‘ī school of fiqh is named after Imām ash-Shāfi‘ī. The other three schools of law are Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali.- Principles :...
school of Sunni
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
- 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
nomadNomadic people are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but traditional nomadic behavior is increasingly rare in...
ic
dervishA Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus....
recited a verse by
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad RumiJalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī , also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī , and popularly known as Mowlānā , but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, , was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and mystic...
:
- 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". 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. A prose work, entitled
Mahabbat-namah in the Astarābād Persian dialect was imitated by Turkish Ḥurūfīs. He also composed a book of poetry in standard Persian and gave it the title
Arsh-namah. In addition to this book, he also composed another small collection of poetry in standard Persian using the pen name Naimi. From his poetic works, it is evident that he knew Arabic, Persian and
his native language, the
GurganGürgan is a village in Baku, Azerbaijan. It forms part of the municipality of Gürgən-Pirallahı....
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 God 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
abjadAn abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel....
) is the total of all emanating and creating possibilities of God and is God himself made manifest.
Fażlullāh made his way to Isfahan in central
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. 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
propheticA prophecy is the message that has been communicated to a prophet which the prophet then communicates to others. In general, this message can involve divine inspiration, revelation, or interpretation. More specifically, it may be a professed psychic prediction. Confusion often exists between the...
. He then made
HajjThe Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca . It is currently the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
to
MeccaMecca , sometimes spelled Makkah is the holiest meeting site of the Islamic religion. The city is modern, cosmopolitan and whilst being closed to non-Muslims is nonetheless ethnically diverse.Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants...
before moving to
Kunya UrgenchKöneürgenç also known as Konya-Urgench, Old Urgench or Urganj, is a municipality of about 30,000 inhabitants in north-eastern Turkmenistan, just south from its border with Uzbekistan...
, 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
MashhadMashhad is one of the largest cities in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan...
. Concluding the man was
‘Alī ar-Riḍā‘Alī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā was the seventh descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the eighth of the Twelve Imams...
(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
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
told him that four sufis -
Ibrahim Bin AdhamIbrahim Bin Adham , also known as Abu Ben Adhem or Abou Ben Adhem, was an Arab Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. His full name was Sultan Ibrahim bin Adham, Bin Mansur al-Balkhi al-Ijli, Abu Ishaq....
, 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
hadithHadith are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Hadith are regarded by traditional schools of jurisprudence as important tools for determining the Muslim way of life, the sunnah. Hadith were originally oral traditions of Muhammad's actions and customs...
. 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.
Amongst the SarbadarsThe Sarbadars were a mixture of religious dervishes and secular rulers that came to rule over part of western Khurasan in the midst of the disintegration of the Mongol Ilkhanate in the mid-14th century...
Fażlullāh then moved to the region of Sabzavar in North east Iran, where a significant proportion of the local population were involved in
apacypticalApocalypse is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to refer to the end of the world, which may be a shortening of the phrase apokalupsis eschaton which literally means "revelation at the end...
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
dynasticA dynasty is a succession of people belonging to the same family, who, through various means and forms maintain power, influence or authority over the course of generations. Most commonly the term is used specifically in reference to royal houses and imperial dynasties — their authority manifests...
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
MessiahMessiah literally means "anointed "...
. 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
YazdYazd , is the capital of Yazd province in Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located some 175 miles southeast of Isfahan. In 2005 it had an estimated population of 433,836 people.
In 2006 it had an estimated population of 505,037....
and then onto Isfahan
Sojourn in Isfahan
Fażlullāh made himself at home in a
mosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, —...
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 BaghdadiJunaid ibn Muhammad Abu al-Qasim al-Khazzaz al-Baghdadi was one of the great early Persian Muslim mystics, or Sufis, of Islam and is a central figure in the golden chain of many Sufi orders.-Life:...
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-nit community around him sharing a hermit like life style and a deep brotherly love that 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
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
and the Qur'ān, 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 ad-Dīn Rajayī and the Amir Farrukh Gunbadi Fażlullāh's reputation spread throughout the provinces of
KhurasanGreater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
,
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Iranian Azarbaijan, Persian Azerbaijan, , is a region in northwestern Iran...
and
ShirvanShirvan , also spelled as Shirwan and Šervān, is a historical region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both Islamic and modern times...
. Eventually he decided to move to
TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former capitals and residence of the crown prince...
.
Imprisonment and Execution
For his spread of Hurūfism, circa 1394/1395, Fażlullāh Nā'imī was captured and imprisoned in Alinja, near Nakhchivan. He was subsequently sentenced for his heresies by the religious leaders and executed at the orders of
Miran ShahMiran Shah was a son of Timur, and a Timurid governor during his father's lifetime.Miran's Shah's first charge was a vast region centered around Qandahar, which he was granted in 1383. That same year, he destroyed a rebellion against Timurid authority by the Kartids, then vassals of Timur in...
, the son of Tamerlane.
His shrine is at Alinjaq.
External links