Hurufism

Not to be confused withHurufiyya movement.

Hurufism(Arabic:حُرُوفِيَّةḥurūfiyyah,Persian:حُروفیانhorūfiyān) was aSufimovement based on themysticismof letters (ḥurūf),which originated inAstrabadand spread to areas of westernIran(Persia) andAnatoliain the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

Foundation

The founder and spiritual head of the Hurufi movement wasFazlallah Astarabadi(1340–94). Born in Astrabad (nowGorgan,Iran), he was strongly drawn toSufismand the teachings ofMansur al-HallajandRumiat an early age. In the mid-1370s, Fazlallah started to propagate his teachings all overIranandAzerbaijan.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 TowerinNakhchivanby 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.

Fazlallah's greatest work was theJāvdānnāme-ye Kabir( "Great Book of Eternity" ), likely written inBakubefore 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.

Key elements

According to Fazlallah, the key to open the seventh sealed book, theQurʾan,is akabbalistic system of lettersthat is expounded by later Hurufis in theHidayat Namah,Jawidanand in theMahram Namah.TheUniverseis eternal and moves by rotation.Divine countenanceis imperishable and is manifest in Man, the best of forms,zuhur kibriya.God isincarnated in every atom.Hurufis consideredFazlallah Astarabadia manifestation of God's force afterAdam,MosesandMuhammad.God is also embodied in words and the 28 letters of theArabic Alpha bet,and the 32 letters of thePersian Alpha betare the basis for love and beauty in the world.Sevenis a key number corresponding to noble parts of the face, the verses ofAl-Fatihaand verbal confession of faith. Man is a supreme copy of the divine and the key tohaqiqa.

According to R. N. Frye'sThe Cambridge History of Iran,Hurufism was an expression ofIsma'ilismin its mystical identification of the human figure but differed in its recognition ofhaqiqain the substance of letters rather than in the person of theImam.

Impact

After Fazlallah's death his ideas were further developed and propagated byImadaddin Nasimiand "certain accursed ones of no significance"in Azerbaijan andSeyid Ishagin Turkey. The poetImadaddin Nasimi(?–1417) and other Hurufis makekabbalistictendencies subordinate to mystic concepts of Sufism, and specifically those of Mansur Al-Hallaj, who was another great influence on Imadaddin Nasimi.

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 inAnatoliaand 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 Alpha bet 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 theQadiriyyaand theNaqshbandi,contributed in the collection, retrieval, and translation of Hurufi manuscripts.

Hurufi manuscripts

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,includingFadl’Allah Yazdânî’s Cāvidān-Nāma,Shaykh Sāfî’s Hākikāt-Nāma, Ali’ûl-A’lâ’s Māhşar-Nāma,Amîr Gıyâs’ad-Dîn’s İstivâ-Nāme,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 Babaprovided an extensive compendium of Hurufi ideas inThe Key to the Unseen.

In contemporary culture

The scenes of Fazlallah's execution and of Nasimi's brutal flailing in Aleppo appear in theNasimi(1973) movie produced in Azerbaijan SSR.

Hurufism plays a role in Turkish author Orhan Pamuk's novelThe Black Book.

Hurufism also plays a role inIan McDonald's futuristic novel,The Dervish House.

See also

• Abjad numerals
• Ahmed Lur
• Arabic Alpha bet
• Arabic numerals
• Báb
• Eastern Arabic numerals
• Ideas of reference and delusions of reference
• 'Ilm al-Huruf
• Isma'ilism
• Kabbalah,a Jewish movement finding secret meanings in Hebrew letters.
• List of extinct Shia sects
• Mahmoud Pasikhani
• Murād Mīrzā
• Nuqtavi
• One Dimension Group

External links

• Encyclopedia Iranica, HORUFISM
• Encyclopedia Iranica, JĀVDĀN-NĀMA, the major work of Fażl-Allāh Astarābādi
• Encyclopedia Iranica, ASTARĀBĀDĪ, FAŻLALLĀH (d. 796/1394), founder of the Ḥorūfī sect.
• Encyclopedia Iranica, ʿALĪ AL-AʿLĀ (d. 822/1419), also known as Amīr Sayyed ʿAlī, principal successor of Fażlallāh Astarābādī.

Further reading

• Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı(Ed.), Hurûfilik Metinleri Kataloğu, XII. Dizi- Sa. 6a TTK, 1989.
• Fazlullah Esterâbâdî, Câvidannâme; Dürr-i Yetim İsimli Tercümesi, haz. Fatih Usluer, İstanbul, Kabalci Yayınevi, 2012.
• H.T. Norris "The Hurufi Legacy of Fadlullah of Astarabad", inHeritage of Sufism,2003. Oxford, One World
• Shahzad BashirFazlallah Astarabadi and the Hurufis,Oneworld Publications (May 25, 2005)
• Fatih Usluer, "Le Houroufisme. La doctrine et son influence dans la littérature persane et ottomane", EPHE-Paris, PhD Thesis, 2007.
• Fatih Usluer, "Hurufilik", Kabalcı Yayınevi, 2009
• Fatih Usluer, "Misâlî'nin Miftâhu’l Gayb'ı Metin ve Açıklama", Turkish Studies, International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Volume 2/2, Spring, S. 2, turkishstudies.net, (Ed. Prof. Dr. Gurer Gulsevin, Dr. Mehmet Dursun Erdem), pp. 697–722.
• Fatih Usluer, "Hurûfî Metinleri ile İlgili Bazı Notlar", Ege Üniversitesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Araştırmaları Dergisi, S. 13, Ocak/Jan 2007.
• Fatih Usluer, "Nesîmî Şiirlerinin Şerhlerinde Yapılan Yanlışlıklar," Turkish Studies, International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Volume 4/2,Winter, 2009,Wayback Machine,ss. 1072–1091.
• Fatih Usluer, "Mir Fâzılî’nin Taksîm-i Salât u Evkât’ının Şerhi", Hacı Bektaş Veli Dergisi, Volume 50, ss. 145–222.Wayback Machine
• Rıfkı Melul Meriç, HURUFİLİK, Dil Tarih Coğrafya Fakültesi Basılmamış Mezuniyet Tezi, Ankara, 1935.
• Fatih Usluer, "Hurûfî Şifreleri", Journal of Turkish Studies, Volume 33/II, ss. 201–219.
• Fatih Usluer, "Hurufilikte On İki İmam", Turkish Studies, International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Volume 5/1, Winter, ss. 1361–1389.[1]
• Fatih Usluer, "Hurufism Among Albanian Bektashis", The Journal of International Social Research, Volume III/15, ss. 268–280.
• Fatih Usluer, "Feyznâme-i Misâlî Neşirleri", Hacı Bektaş Veli Dergisi, Volume 56, ss. 299–323.
• Fatih Usluer, "Hurufilikte Rüya Tabirleri", Milli Folklor, Vol. 90, ss. 134–146.
• Fatih Usluer, "Les Themes Bibliques chez les Houroufis", Ishraq, Vol. II, ss. 426–443.