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Hurufism[1] (Arabic:حُرُوفِيَّةḥurūfiyyah,Persian: حُروفیانhorūfiyān) was aSufi movement based on themysticism of letters (ḥurūf),[2] which originated inAstrabad and spread to areas of westernIran (Persia) andAnatolia in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
The founder and spiritual head of the Hurufi movement wasFazlallah Astarabadi (1340–94). Born in Astrabad (nowGorgan, Iran), he was strongly drawn toSufism and the teachings ofMansur al-Hallaj andRumi at an early age. In the mid-1370s, Fazlallah started to propagate his teachings all overIran andAzerbaijan. While living inTabriz, Fazlallah gained an elite following in the court of theJalairid Sultanate. At that time, Fazlallah was still in the mainstream ofSufi tradition. Later, he did move towards more esoteric spirituality, and, failing to convertTimur, was executed in 1394 nearAlinja Tower inNakhchivan by the ruler's son,Miran Shah. The large uprising of Hurufis was crushed, but the popular movement survived for another decade or so in different guises.[3]
Fazlallah's greatest work was theJāvdānnāme-ye Kabir ("Great Book of Eternity"), likely written inBaku before his arrest, which survived due to its dissemination due to copies made by his daughter Makhdumzāde. It was largely preserved in popular culture due to its use by dervishes of theBektashi Order.[3][better source needed]
According to Fazlallah, the key to open the seventh sealed book, theQurʾan, is akabbalistic system of letters that is expounded by later Hurufis in theHidayat Namah,Jawidan and in theMahram Namah. TheUniverse is eternal and moves by rotation.Divine countenance is imperishable and is manifest in Man, the best of forms,zuhur kibriya. God isincarnated in every atom. Hurufis consideredFazlallah Astarabadi a manifestation of God's force afterAdam,Moses andMuhammad. God is also embodied in words and the 28 letters of theArabic alphabet, and the 32 letters of thePersian alphabet are the basis for love and beauty in the world.[clarification needed]Seven is a key number corresponding to noble parts of the face, the verses ofAl-Fatiha and verbal confession of faith. Man is a supreme copy of the divine and the key tohaqiqa.[citation needed]
According to R. N. Frye'sThe Cambridge History of Iran, Hurufism was an expression ofIsma'ilism in its mystical identification of the human figure but differed in its recognition ofhaqiqa in the substance of letters rather than in the person of theImam.[4]
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After Fazlallah's death his ideas were further developed and propagated byImadaddin Nasimi and "certain accursed ones of no significance" in Azerbaijan andSeyid Ishag in Turkey. The poetImadaddin Nasimi (?–1417) and other Hurufis makekabbalistic tendencies subordinate to mystic concepts of Sufism, and specifically those of Mansur Al-Hallaj, who was another great influence on Imadaddin Nasimi.[citation needed]
Through Nasimi's poetry Hurufi ideas influenced, to different degrees, people likeNiyazi-i Misri,Fuzûlî, Habibi,Ismail I, andRushani. The Bektashi Order, which is still active inAnatolia and theBalkans, was a repository for the Hurufi teachings and writings. One of Fazlallah's personal students, Rafî'î, emigrated into the Balkans. He transmitted a central thesis of Hurufism, that the cardinalities of the Arabic and Persian alphabet respectively enumerate all types of shape and sound, by axes of symmetry. A Hurufi rebellion in Kwarezem was suppressed by the Mongols, and that motivated the exodus of Hurufis to the Balkans. The Bektashi manuscripts show almost 500 years of Hurufism in the Balkans, with a peak in the 1700s. Other Sufi orders, such as theQadiriyya and theNaqshbandi, contributed in the collection, retrieval, and translation of Hurufi manuscripts.[citation needed]
From the Balkans, a great number of records were recorded in what is today Albania, but the relation between Bektashism and Hurufism is evidenced from Greek transcriptions. In total, many of the Hurufi manuscripts that are existent today were safeguarded in the libraries of Bektashi lodges,[5] includingFadl’Allah Yazdânî’s Cāvidān-Nāma,[6][7]Shaykh Sāfî’s Hākikāt-Nāma, Ali’ûl-A’lâ’s Māhşar-Nāma,[8]Amîr Gıyâs’ad-Dîn’s İstivâ-Nāme,[9]Frişte Oğlu’s Ahirat-Nāma, and some other books written on "Hurufi Theology" likeAşık-Nāma,Hidāyat-Nāma,Mukāddama’t-ûl-Hākayık,Muhārram-Nāma-i Sayyid İshāk,Nihāyat-Nāma,Tûrāb-Nāma,Miftāh’ûl-Gayb,Tuhfat’ûl-Uşşak,Risâla-i Noktā,Risāle-i Hurûf,Risāla-i Fāzl’ûl-Lah, andRisāla-i Virān Abdāl. Hurufi terms and concepts permeate Bektāshi poetry.Gül Baba provided an extensive compendium of Hurufi ideas inThe Key to the Unseen.
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