al-Achlātī

Al-Achlātī ( Arabic الأخلاطي, DMG Al-Aḫlāṭī ; born before 1320; died uncertain: February 1397 or March 1397) was a Husainid Sherif who wrote various works on alchemy , fortune-telling and other occult sciences and was considered a Mahdi by some of his followers . After stays in Tabriz , Aleppo and Damascus , he moved to Egypt at the invitation of the Mamluk sultan az-Zāhir Barqūq and was in close contact with this ruler for the rest of his life. In Timurid intellectual circles, al-Achlātī was considered the most important contemporary expert on the mystical meaning of Arabic letters . In the area of ​​the Ottoman Empire he was best known as the spiritual teacher of Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn .

The most important sources for the life and work of al-Achlātī are the biographical entries about him in the works of the contemporary Egyptian scholars Ibn al-Furāt (d. 1405), Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 1449) and Badr ad-Dīn al-ʿAinī (d. 1451). In addition, he also plays an important role in the hagiographic works on Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn. While al-ʿAinī gives al-Achlātī's full name with Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Achlātī, he is referred to in most other sources and also in the manuscripts of his works as Husain al-Achlātī. Since he was engaged in the production of lapis lazuli (Arabic lāzuward ), he also appears in some Arabic sources with the Nisba al-Lāzuwardī.

Life

Lineage and early years

Al-Achlātī comes from the city of Ahlat in the east of today's Turkey . According to Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalānī, he was a Hussainid sharīf . Badr ad-Dīn al-ʿAinī also dubbed him a Saiyid . Al-Achlātī grew up on Iranian territory and learned how to make lapis lazuli . He also dealt with alchemy and the "science of necromancy " (ʿilm al-istiḫdām) . In one of his works, al-Achlātī relates that he was in Tabriz when the plague broke out there. Since the plague reached Tabriz in 1347, his visit to the city can probably be dated this year.

In addition, al-Achlātī gained a reputation as a connoisseur of the Jafr, the secret book handed down by the Shiite imams, in which the fate of mankind is allegedly written down in cryptic form. Sharaf al-Dīn Chān al-Bidlīsī reports in his Sharafnāma , written in 1597 , that al-Achlātī left his homeland with around 12,000 followers because, through his knowledge of the Jafr , he supposedly foresaw the Mongol invasions .

Stay in Syria

Al-Achlātī stayed in Damascus for a while. Here he had contact with the hadith scholar Sibt Ibn al-ʿAdschamī (d. 1438). In addition, Shāh Nūr ad-Dīn Niʿmatullāh Walī (d. 1431), the founder of the Niʿmatullāhīya order, sent his two disciples Sā'in ad-Dīn ʿAlī Turka and Sharaf ad-Dīn ʿAlī al-Yazdī to al-Achlātī in Damascus. so that they could learn from him the interpretation of the letters of the Jafr book. Al-Achlātī also interpreted hadiths based on the mystical meaning of the individual letters. and considered the interpretation of these traditions by the hadith scholars to be inadequate.

Another station of al-Achlātī was Aleppo , where he settled secluded from the people in the Friday mosque or in a zāwiya . According to other reports, he lived in seclusion in a place called Bābillā in eastern Aleppo, which was criss-crossed by gardens and vineyards and which the Aleppines used for recreation. There he was visited by the great personalities of Aleppo, including the Mamluk governor of the city. Most of the time, al-Achlātī did not open the door for his visitors, but only communicated with them from the arch above his door.

Relocation to Egypt and relationship with Barqūq

When the Mamluk Sultan Az-Zāhir Barqūq heard that al-Achlātī was well versed in medicine and medical treatment, he invited him to Cairo to treat his son Muhammad. He had a diseased foot without the doctors being able to cure him. Although al-Achlātī's treatment had no effect either, the Sultan was very dear to him. He showed him great veneration and assigned him a house in Fam al-Chaur on the banks of the Nile. A salary that the Sultan also offered him, al-Achlātī refused, although he had high expenses. Barqūq venerated al-Achlātī very much. If he wanted to meet with him, he sent either his chamberlain or his governor Sūdūn to see him. They then took him directly to the Sultan on horseback. Al-Achlātī and the Sultan were so close that when he went hunting, the latter would stop under the windows of his house and call out to him. Al-Achlātī then spoke to him from above without coming down to greet him. Many Mamluk emirs also attended al-Achlātī.

Lifestyle and following

Otherwise, al-Achlātī lived secluded in his house on the bank of the Nile and visited no one. He only allowed a select few people to enter his house. With regard to food, drink and clothing he is said to have lived in the greatest luxury. He was said to have gone further than most kings, both in this and in taking various electuaries . People didn't know how he made a living. Some attributed his wealth to his preoccupation with alchemy, others said he was in possession of a precious gem. Best known was the belief that he made his living making lapis lazuli. He is said to have kept his knowledge of lapis lazuli secret and not shared it with anyone.

On a religious level, al-Achlātī stood out because he did not attend Friday prayers or other church prayers . From this it was concluded that he must be a Shiite . Some of al-Achlātī's followers claimed that he was "the awaited Mahdi at the end of times" (al-mahdī al-muntaẓar fī awāḫir az-zamān) . They also dubbed him sultan and "pole of time" (quṭb az-zamān) . Some people also believed that he was a friend of God . He was visited by numerous people, some of whom asked for supplications and some for remedies. It was also said that al-Achlātī was in Mecca with a certain Mīr Buchārī.

One of the most important disciples of al-Hussain al-Achlātī was Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn, who like him was of Anatolian origin. After the hagiographic-biographical work on Bedr ed-Dīn from the pen of his grandson Chalīl ibn Ismāʿīl, al-Achlātī was of crucial importance for Bedr ed-Dīn to develop from an ordinary legal scholar into a free thinker and "revolutionary mystic". The work tells that Bedr ed-Dīn al-Achlātī met while he was in Cairo and was invited to Barqūq one evening with him.

Death and aftermath

Al-Achlātī died on the 29th Jumādā I 799 (= 28 February 1397) at the age of over 80. He was buried in the courtyard of the emir Sharaf ad-Dīn Yūnus ad-Dawādār near the Qubbat an-Nasr outside the Bāb an-Nasr, one of the city gates of Cairo. Numerous figures from the Mamluk military and administrative elite took part in the funeral procession with which his body was transferred from his home in Fam al-Chaur to Cairo, including the Atabeg Saif ad-Dīn Etmish al-Bijāsī.

Al-Achlātī left an extensive fortune without having made a testamentary disposition. These included numerous textiles, a lot of gold and slaves. When the Sultan learned of his death, he hired the clerk ( dawādār kabīr ) Qalamtāy to protect his house and his estate. In it he found, among other things, a golden goblet, bottles with wine, belts for monk's robes , a copy of the Gospel , books on philosophy ( ḥikma ), astrology and geomancy ( raml ) as well as a box with precious gems and bags of gold with it on Seal of the rulers of the Iranian territories. Since al-Achlātī had not appointed an heir, the Sultan confiscated all of his property.

Bidlīsī, who wrote towards the end of the 16th century, reports that the tomb of Al-Achlātī in Cairo was still venerated in his day and that there was a district there called the "district of the Achlātīs" (maḥalla-yi Aḫlāṭīyān) .

Works

Al-Achlātī has written a large number of works on the occult sciences. Two of them, Qawāʿīd al-ǧafr wa-ʿilm al-falak wa-zayāriǧ wa-ʿilm al-ḥurūf ("Rules of divination, astronomy, fortune -telling cards and the science of letters") and the Sifr-i Ǧafr ("Book The art of fortune telling ”) have already been published in print, the former in Beirut in 2002 and the latter in Tehran in 2007.

In addition, three other short works on the art of fortune-telling are preserved in the Suleymaniye library in Istanbul :

• In the treatise with the title Risāla-yi -afr-i ǧāmiʿa (" Epistles on the universal art of divination"; Ms. Haşim Paşa 103, ff. 32b-35a) al-Achlātī explains how to write a Jafr book and what its properties are must own who creates such a book. According to Achlātī, he must have a firm belief and clear intention and receive sufficient support for himself and his followers. He must be a Saiyid and have access to an open, airy space surrounded by green plants and water. He also has to be ready to spend 1001 days in seclusion. During this time he has to write 784 pages and is not allowed to correspond with other people. He is not allowed to work on Friday and Tuesday nights and when the moon is under the sign of Scorpio . On all other days he is supposed to finish one page. He must fast on Mondays, Thursdays and unlucky days. The name of the ruler who commissioned the book should be mentioned several times in the book.
• In the short Risāla-yi ǧāmiʿīya ("Universal Epistle "; Ms. Kemal Edip Kürkçüoğlu 56, ff. 302b-303b) it is explained that human history consists of three stages, the stage of prophecy , which began with Adam and ended with Mohammed , the level of friendship with God that ranged from ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib to the eleventh Imam Hasan al-ʿAskarī , and the level of divinity that began after his death.
• In another work with the title Ḥulūl al-maqāṣid (" Achievement of the Goals"; Ms. Bağdatli Vehbi Efendi 2024, ff. 52b – 7b) al-Achlātī describes how he drove the plague out of Tabriz with the help of a Jafr book. He explains that he used the Abdschad value of the letters in the expression Shahr-i Tabrīz ("The City of Tabriz") to create a Jafr book that he attached to a tree at the grave of the Kubrawiyya saint Bābā Faradsch-i Tabrīzī (d . 1173), whereupon the disaster disappeared from the city after a few days.

Finally, Ahmad Monzavi mentions four other works by al-Achlātī on alchemy in his catalog of Persian manuscripts:

• Barahna ("Revealed") about the elixir ,
• Rumūz al-ġarāʾib ("Symbols of Oddities "), treatise with a preface, several chapters and a closing word on "the strange sciences and wonderful symbols", prepared at the request of his son Muhammad,
• Kifāyat aṣ-ṣanʿa , on the magnum opus in alchemy,
• Kīmiyā , a treatise on alchemy, which was passed down mainly in Shiite circles.

His role in the hagiographic works on Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn

Al-Achlātī also plays an important role in the hagiographic works on Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn. The most important work of this kind comes from the pen of Bedr ed-Dīn's grandson Chalīl ibn Ismāʿīl. It is reported here that Bedr ed-Dīn met al-Achlātī when he was invited to Barqūq one evening. After spending the evening reading and explaining the Koran , Barqūq gave each of them an Ethiopian slave. The two slaves were sisters, al-Achlātī was named Māriya, her sister Jādhiba. Māriya gave birth to al-Achlātī a son named Mīr Hasan and learned a lot from him about "the secret of divine unity " (sirr-i tauḥīd) . When her sister gave birth to a son on the festival of sacrifice , Māriya visited her. On that occasion, she had conversations with Bedr ed-Dīn all night long about mystical matters which made such an impression on him that he later joined al-Achlātī as a disciple and gave up his legal career. Bedr ed-Dīn's health deteriorated continuously thereafter. Once when he collapsed on the street, al-Achlātī is said to have brought him back to consciousness in the presence of Barqūq through a dhikr , for which Barqūq subsequently gave him generous gifts. Bedr ed-Dīn later traveled to Iranian territory and made the acquaintance of Timur , who was impressed by his scholarship and wanted to give him his daughter as a wife. Bedr ed-Dīn preferred to return to Cairo in order to be able to succeed al-Achlātī. There he underwent a forty-day retreat on the instructions of al-Achlātī . Since this was bad for his health, al-Achlātī gave him good food to eat and advised him to keep vigil.

According to the report of Chalīl ibn Ismāʿīl, Bedr ed-Dīn underwent several other dervish exams at al-Achlātī, in which he experienced several ecstatic states. One evening when al-Achlātī was speaking in a company of learned sheikhs about the divine secrets and looking at Bedr ed-Dīn, he saw the spirit of the Prophet ( rūḥ-i Aḥmad ) in an ecstatic state . While practicing prosksynesis ( siǧda ) before him , he noticed how the spirit of the Prophet was united with al-Achlātī. After this event, Al-Achlātī called all the sheikhs of Cairo together and appointed Bedr ed-Dīn to be his successor. A short time later he died. Since the dervishes of his monastery got into a dispute after al-Achlātī's death, Bedr ed-Dīn, his actual successor, stayed only six months in Cairo and then returned via Jerusalem to his hometown Edirne .

While al-Achlātī appears in Chalīl's work as a spiritual healer, in another anonymous hagiographic work on Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn, two manuscripts of which exist in Turkish libraries, he is depicted as a magician with supernatural powers. It describes how al-Achlātī fights with jinn and travels to India with Bedr ed-Dīn.

literature

Oriental language sources

• Badr ad-Dīn al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān fī taʾrīḫ ahl az-zamān . Ed. Īmān ʿUmar Šukrī under the title as-Sulṭān Barqūq, muʾassis daulat al-mamālīk al-ǧarākisa . Maktabat al-Madbūlī, Cairo, 2002. pp. 420f.
• Šaraf Ḫān Bidlīsī : Šarafnāma . Ed. V. Véliaminof-Zernof. Eggers, Saint-Petersburg, 1860–62. Vol. IS 351f. Digitized
• Ḫalīl ibn Ismāʿīl Ibn Şeyḫ Bedr-üd-Dīn Maḥmūd: Manāqıbnāme . Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1943. - German summary in Hans Joachim Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Dīn's, the son of the judge of Samāvnā in the magazine of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft 100 (1950) 112–176. Here pp. 155–158. Digitized
• Ibn al-Furāt: Taʾrīḫ . Ed. Qusṭānṭīn Zuraiq, Naǧlā ʿIzz ad-Dīn. Al-Maṭbaʿa al-Amīrikānīya, Beirut, 1938. Vol. IX / 2, p. 478.
• Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī : Ad-Durar al-kāmina fī aʿyān al-miʾa aṯ-ṯāmina . Hyderabad, Deccan 1930. Vol. I, p. 32 digitized and Vol. II, p. 72f. Digitized .
• Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Inbāʾ al-ġumr bi-enthāʾ al-ʿumr . Ed. Ḥasan Ḥabšī. Laǧnat Iḥyāʾ at-tūrāṯ al-islāmī, Cairo, 1969. Vol. I, p. 531. Digitized
• Ibn Taġribirdī: al-Manhal aṣ-ṣāfī wa-l-mustaufī baʿd al-Wāfī . Ed. Muḥammad M. Amīn. Al-Haiʾa al-Miṣrīya al-ʿĀmma li-l-Kitāb, Cairo, 1988. Vol. V., pp. 171-173. Digitized

Secondary literature

• Michel Balivet: Islam mystique et révolution armée dans les Balkans ottomans. Vie du Cheikh Bedreddîn le "Hallâj des Turcs" (1358 / 59–1416). Ed. Isis, Istanbul, 1995. pp. 48-50.
• İlker Evrim Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī and the Islamicate Republic of Letters . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016. pp. 114-140.
• Ali Kozan, Sevil Akyol: Şeyh Bedreddīn'in Menkibevî hayatına dair bilinmeyen bir eser: menâkıb-ı Şeyh Bedreddin Sultan in Tarih Okulu Dergisi 14 (2013) 75–112. Digitized
• Ahmet Yaşar Ocak: Osmanlı toplumunda zındıklar ve mülhidler, 15. – 17. yüzyıllar . Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, İstanbul, 1998. pp. 148–150, 154–158.
• Ahmet Yaşar Ocak: Osmanlı sufiliğine bakışlar . Timaş, ​​İstanbul 2011. pp. 35–44.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 121f.
2. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
3. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 114f.
4. ↑ So in Ibn al-Furāt: Taʾrīḫ . 1938, Vol. IX / 2, p. 478.
5. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Inbāʾ al-ġumr . 1969, Vol. I, p. 531.
6. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
7. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 154.
8. ↑ Peter Christensen: The Decline of Iranshahr: Irrigation and Environments in the History of the Middle East 500 BC to AD 1500 . Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 1993. p. 212.
9. ↑ Bidlīsī: Sarafnāma . 1860, Vol. I, p. 351.
10. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Ad-Durar al-kāmina . 1930, Vol. II, p. 72.
11. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 118.
12. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 120.
13. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 120.
14. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Ad-Durar al-kāmina . 1930, Vol. II, p. 72.
15. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Inbāʾ al-ġumr . 1969, Vol. I, p. 531.
16. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Ad-Durar al-kāmina . 1930, Vol. I, p. 32.
17. ↑ Cf. Ibn Taġribirdī: al-Manhal a-ṣāfī . 1988, Vol. V, p. 172.
18. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
19. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
20. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Ad-Durar al-kāmina . 1930, Vol. II, p. 72.
21. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 421.
22. ↑ Ibn al-Furāt: Taʾrīḫ . 1938, Vol. IX / 2, p. 478.
23. ↑ Ibn al-Furāt: Taʾrīḫ . 1938, Vol. IX / 2, p. 478.
24. ↑ Ibn Taġribirdī: al-Manhal aṣ-ṣāfī . 1988, Vol. V, p. 172.
25. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
26. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Inbāʾ al-ġumr . 1969, Vol. I, p. 531.
27. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Ad-Durar al-kāmina . 1930, Vol. I, p. 32.
28. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
29. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, pp. 120, 126.
30. ↑ Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī: Ad-Durar al-kāmina . 1930, Vol. II, p. 73.
31. ↑ Ḫalīl ibn Ismāʿīl: Manāqıbnāme . 1943, p. 32.
32. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 128.
33. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, p. 149.
34. ↑ Ibn al-Furāt: Taʾrīḫ . 1938, Vol. IX / 2, p. 478.
35. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, p. 420.
36. ↑ Ibn al-Furāt: Taʾrīḫ . 1938, Vol. IX / 2, p. 478.
37. ↑ al-ʿAinī: ʿIqd al-ǧumān . 2002, pp. 420f.
38. ↑ Bidlīsī: Sarafnāma . 1860, Vol. I, p. 352.
39. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 152f.
40. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, pp. 153, 159.
41. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, pp. 153f.
42. ↑ Ahmad Munzawī: Fihrist-i nusẖahā-i ẖaṭṭī-i fārsī . Vol. I. Tehran 1969. pp. 615, 622, 626, 632.
43. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 136.
44. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, pp. 149f.
45. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, p. 150f.
46. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, p. 155.
47. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, p. 156.
48. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, p. 157f.
49. ↑ Kissling: The Menāqybnāme Sheikh Bedr ed-Din's. 1950, p. 157f.
50. ↑ Cf. Kozan / Akyol: Şeyh Bedreddīn'in Menkibevî hayatına dair bilinmeyen bir eser. 2013, p. 83.
51. ↑ Bınbaş: Intellectual Networks in Timurid Iran. 2016, p. 139.