Ahl-i Haqq (original) (raw)
Related papers
Inner Truth and Outer History: The Two Worlds of the Ahl-i Haqq of Kurdistan
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1994
A principal belief of the Ahl-i Haqq, an esoteric sect centered in Iranian Kurdistan, is that the Divine Essence has successive manifestations in human form. The Ahl-i Haqq religious universe comprises two distinct yet interrelated worlds: the inner world (ʿālam-i bāṭin) and the outer world (ʿālam -i ẓāhir), each with its own order and its own rules. We as ordinary human beings are aware of the order of the outer world, but our life is governed by the rules of the inner world, where our ultimate destiny lies.
Eren Tasar, Allen J. Frank, Jeff Eden (eds.), From the Khan's Oven. Studies on the History of Central Asian Religions in Honor of Devin DeWeese, 2022
Out of the sources relevant for the history of Central Asia after the Mongols, from the 13th century to the 19th and beyond, and in particular as far as the history of organized Sufism goes, there cannot be many which Devin DeWeese has not seen and worked with.* But there may be shades of intensity. One of the literary genres which perhaps have not succeeded in drawing his attention is the compilation of drafts, models, copies and so forth of official documents and correspondence which often go together with texts of a more private character, the inshāʾ collections. They are well-known for the pre-Mongol period and in fact, they form one of the most important types of non-narrative sources for the Seljuq and Khwārazmian periods, largely the long 12th century, and for Mongol rule in Iran as well.1 But there are a number of collections produced in Transoxiana during the sixteenth and later centuries. One of the manuscripts which would certainly merit more attention is kept at St. Petersburg, Institute of Oriental Studies, under the shelf number A-210. It has been described in the Short Catalog produced by Miklukho-Maklai long ago, but remains underused.2 In the catalog, it is described as "a collection of official documents and private correspondence as well as of specimens for the editing of the latter", and we are also told that the manuscript includes excerpts from earlier, Timurid, compilations of inshāʾ, and in particular the Nāma-yi nāmī made by Khwāndamīr and the Ruqaʿāt of Jāmī.3 I have myself given a brief outline of the manu
Islam's margins: Ahl-e Haqq, angels and peacocks, and the marginal scholars who loved them
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (ed.), Sufi Non-Conformism: Antinomian Trends in the Persianate Cultural Traditions. Leiden University Press, 2024, pp. 245-266., 2024
This chapter is a tribute to my late friend Peter Lamborn Wilson, aka Hakim Bey (d. 2022), and to the late Vladimir A. Ivanow (d. 1970), two marginal scholars who spent years in self-chosen exile in Iran and shared a fascination with Ismāʿīlism and the small heterodox communities that might be influenced by it, and who in different ways contributed to my motivation to carry out field research among the Ahl-i Haqq of Gūrān, reputedly the most antinomian community that could be found in Iran. I have often had reason to revisit Ivanow’s writings, especially his book The Truth-Worshippers of Kurdistan, while over the years I have kept corresponding with Wilson about the place of Satan and the Peacock Angel in the cosmology and anthropology of the Ahl-i Haqq and the Yezidis. I shall focus on two aspects of the Ahl-i Haqq religion: the place in their pantheon of seven angelic beings (haft tan) who appear in human incarnations in each cycle of history, and the social and ritual role of holy lineages (khānadān) in Ahl-i Haqq communities. Both suggest similarities or perhaps historical connections with other communities such as Yazidis and Alevis, as well as a possible connection with pre-Islamic Iranian religions. Some authors have claimed that the Ahl-i Haqq religion is, beneath a thin Islamic veneer, essentially a survival of Zoroastrianism or a “popular” variant of Iranian religion. I shall argue that there is a much more pervasive influence of early Islam in Ahl-i Haqq religion (as well as Yezidism and Alevism) than these scholars are willing to admit.
"If we accept the idea that “Father Abraham” (who is considered as being the father of all the monotheistic religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam) was actually the same “Brahma” of the Indians and the Zoroaster of the Persians, the story becomes even more interesting and eligible for some further research and more intellectual debates." This paper by Prof. Tajar is about prayer, worship and devotions in Persian literature.