Russian terrorism in Tehran: a Qajar Princes’ letters during the “Minor Tyranny” of 1908

During the Minor Tyranny of 1908, a daughter of Naser al-Din Shah named Malakeh-ye Iran suffered the indignity of having her house in Tehran plundered when the autocratic Shah attempted to re-assert control over the newly won powers of the democratic Constitutional movement. It is generally thought that the ransacking of her house was due to the sympathetic views towards the Constitutional movement that she shared with her husband, Zahir al-Dawleh and their radical son, Zahir al-Soltan. Malakeh-ye Iran’s letters to her husband, who was in Gilan at the time of the attack, graphically describe this traumatic event and are intriguing because neither her supposed “pro-Constitutional” views are apparent, nor does she blame the autocratic Shah (and her nephew), Mohammad ‘Ali for the destruction of her home. It is to be speculated whether her reluctance to blame and criticise the Shah was due to her family connections or whether she feared that the letters might be intercepted and read by the Shah’s spies. Aside from shedding light on one of the most dramatic periods of the Constitutional Movement, the letters also demonstrate the erudition of a Qajar princess, and the bravery and courage of a hitherto unexplored character whose exploits and role during the Constitutional period deserve greater attention

Reading Sufi history through ādāb: The perspectives of Sufia, Jawānmardān and Qalandars

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Short back and sides: were the Qalandars of late Safavid Iran domesticated?

Qalandars have often been depicted in negative terms in medieval and pre-modern literature by Sufis themselves, clerics and historians. Treatises composed by Qalandars are rare, thus the possibility of producing a balanced survey of their form of Sufism and contribution to the socio-political and religious climate of any given period is difficult. One such text, the “Sulīmān Qalandar Nāma”, however, completed in 1668, offers an intriguing perspective of Qalandars in late Safavid Iran. An analysis of this text, along with a focus on the dynamics of late Safavid religion and politics suggests that far from being antinomian and otherworldly Sufis, these Qalandars were supportive of the Shīʿa Safavid dynasty. The text offers an intriguing marriage between traditional Qalandar themes and those inspired by Shīʿa Islam, and it testifies to the continuing importance of the Qalandars, providing evidence for the cultural continuity of this form of Sufism in the region

'Ajam Sufis and Shi'i spirituality in 19th century Iran

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Ahmad Qabil, a reason to believe and the New Religious Thinking in Iran

hmad Qabil (d. 2012) was a mid-ranking seminarian who achieved considerable fame in Iran due to his foregrounding of reason in his jurisprudential writings, his opposition to both the strict ‘literalist’ version of sharica law propounded by the authorities in the Islamic Republic and the authoritarian regime of Ayatollah Khamenei, and for his 2004 fatwa which permitted women the choice about head covering (hijab). His commitment to reason and justice meant that his political and jurisprudential compositions and activities cannot be divorced from each other; rather, they developed in symbiotic fashion. Largely ignored by Western scholars, this article examines Qabil’s contribution to the so-called ‘New Religious Thinking’ movement in Iran. His writings and activities are significant because the reason-driven approach reflects an attempt to navigate a path based on sources within the Islamic jurisprudential tradition towards ‘universal’ standards that are common in the West, and thereby avoid the accusations of ‘cultural erosion’ through intellectual borrowing from the West

The origins of Sufism

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Black Curls in a Mirror: The Eighteenth-Century Persian Kṛṣṇa of Lāla Amānat Rāy’s Jilwa-yi ẕāt and the Tongue of Bīdil

This paper is the first substantial study of the Jilwa-yi ẕāt, an unabridged Persian verse translation of the tenth skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, completed in Delhi in 1732–33 by Amanat Ray, a Vaisnava pupil of the influential poet- philosopher Mırza ‘Abd al-Qadir Bıdil. The paper focuses especially on the textualization of Krsna and Krsnaite devotion within the framework of Persian literary conventions and the dominant Sufı-Vedantic conceptual atmosphere, with a special attention for the intertextual ties with the works of Bıdil. A few philological remarks on the contours of a hitherto largely ignored Krsnaite subjectivity in Persian are also included

Nothing but the truth: the Sufi testament of 'Aziz Nasafi

`Aziz Nasafi is among the most important Islamic mystics of the medieval period. His achievement was to integrate various ideas, including those of Ibn `Arabi and Najm al-Din Kubrä into a coherent whole, providing Persian speaking Sufis with an introduction to the speculative and practical dimensions of Sufism. This thesis is an attempt to present Nasafi's main teachings. After introducing his life, times and works, the second chapter focuses upon ontology. This is the spine of Nasafi's treatises and it is based upon the Sufi interpretation of God's incomparability and similarity (tanzih wa tashbih) and His infinite self-disclosure which occurs within a form processed by the imagination. The second chapter investigates the different forms of knowledge available to Sufis, which includes sense perception, reason and mystical knowledge. Nasafi's presentation depicts all three in a hierarchical structure with Sufi knowledge at the pinnacle. Having discussed the theoretical nature of Sufism, chapter four deals with the practical element of Sufism and how it is able to contribute to felicity in this life. Having followed the Sufi path, it is possible that a wayfarer may experience unity with God. This is examined in chapter five, and Nasafi's description is compared with that of other Sufis in an attempt to show his "orthodox" position within Sufism. It is also argued that modern models of mystical experience do not fit Nasafi's depiction of tashbih-tanzih, and that one also needs to re-think the idea of perennial philosophy. Finally, the perfection of man is considered through examining the relationship between Prophecy and Friendship of God. Sufis interpreted Friendship as the interior element of Prophecy and were able to offer new insights to Islamic doctrine

Mysticism in Medieval Sufism

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Sufi orders in the medieval period

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