Fazlallah Astarabadi and the Hurufis (Makers of the Muslim World)

Captures the achievements of this Sufi thinker and founder of the Gnostic Hurufism CONTENTS......Page 8 PREFACE......Page 10 1 EARLY LIFE......Page 14 BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD......Page 15 RELIGIOUS WANDERING......Page 19 DREAMS IN KHWARAZM......Page 21 SABZAVAR......Page 25 THE RISE TO SOCIAL PROMINENCE......Page 27 2 ENLIGHTENMENT......Page 32 MARRIAGE......Page 33 DREAM INTERPRETATION IN TABRIZ......Page 35 ENLIGHTENMENT......Page 38 ACCEPTING THE MISSION......Page 40 POLITICAL AMBITIONS......Page 42 3 DEATH......Page 46 TIMUR-I LANG......Page 47 ARREST......Page 50 LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT......Page 52 EXECUTION......Page 54 4 COSMOS AND HUMANITY......Page 58 THE MACROCOSM......Page 61 THE MICROCOSM......Page 64 COSMIC TIME......Page 69 5 APOCALYPSE, LANGUAGE, AND SALVATION......Page 74 RELIGIOUS LINGUISTICS......Page 77 THE SCIENCE OF LETTERS......Page 79 FROM ARABIC TO PERSIAN......Page 82 OPERATIONS ON LETTERS......Page 86 LETTERS AND PHYSICAL REALITY......Page 88 ABBREVIATIONS AND NEW CHARACTERS......Page 90 THE WAGES OF APOCALYPTICISM......Page 94 6 SHRINE AND SUCCESSORS......Page 98 THE SHRINE......Page 99 A SPLIT COMMUNITY......Page 103 THE SECOND COMING......Page 107 MAJOR DISCIPLES......Page 110 ATTACK ON MIRZA SHAHRUKH (1427)......Page 114 UPRISINGS IN ISFAHAN AND TABRIZ......Page 118 ATTEMPT TO CONVERT THE OTTOMAN MEHMET THE CONQUEROR......Page 119 SUMMARY......Page 120 7 LEGACY......Page 122 IRAN......Page 123 INDIA......Page 127 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE......Page 128 MODERN INTERPRETATIONS......Page 135 ORHAN PAMUK’S THE BLACK BOOK......Page 136 Appendix HURUFI LITERATURE......Page 142 FURTHER READING......Page 145 INDEX......Page 148 Fazlallah Astarabadi was a 14th-century Islamic religious leader who believed that the world was about to come to an end. He claimed that he had received direct revelations from God in his dreams and that this made him equal in stature to the prophets Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. His followers were called Hurufis (Letterists) because of their belief that the sounds and letters that made up human languages contained all spiritual truths. They considered Fazlallah a manifestation of God in a human body, and even after his execution in 1394 expected that he would return and create a just society before the world was destroyed in an apocalypse.This succinct and readable study of Fazlallah Astarabadi's life and thought also provides a history of his movement and an analysis of his legacy for later Muslims. Complete with a guide to further reading, this engaging guide to an important figure will prove an indispensable resource for readers of all backgrounds. "Fazlallah Astarabadi was a 14th-century Islamic religious leader who believed that the world was about to come to an end. He claimed that he had received direct revelations from God in his dreams and that this made him equal in stature to the prophets Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. His followers were called Hurufis (Letterists) because of their belief that the sounds and letters that made up human languages contained all spiritual truths. They considered Fazlallah a manifestation of God in a human body, and even after his execution in 1394 expected that he would return and create a just society before the world was destroyed in an apocalypse. This study of Fazlallah Astarabadi's life and thought also provides a history of his movement and an analysis of his legacy for later Muslims. Complete with a guide to further reading, this engaging guide to an important figure will prove an indispensable resource for readers of all backgrounds"--Jacket Fazlallah Astarabadi was a 14th-century Islamic religious leader who believed that the world was about to come to an end. This book is the first comprehensive study of Astarabadi's life and thought and also offer a history of his movement. It emphasizes the diversity of medieval Islam by describing an apocalyptic movement founded on the idea that the cosmos contains embedded secrets that become manifest through extraordinary human beings.