Islamic Studies Shaykhism
by
Farshid Kazemi
  • LAST MODIFIED: 29 June 2015
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0188

Introduction

The Shaykhīs (Shaykhīyya) or the Shyakhī school (also called the Kashfiyya), is a movement that emerged within Twelver Shīʿī Islam (Ithnā ʿasharī) in 19th-century Iran and Iraq, and derives its teachings from the charismatic philosopher and mystic Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1826 [AH 1241])), and his successor Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī (d. 1844 [AH 1259]). Shaykhī thought is a critical confluence of various intellectual currents, which include, inter alia, the school of Isfahan (Mullā Ṣadrā, et al.), Akbarian Sufism (Ibn al-ʿArabi), Illuminationist philosophy (Suhrawardi), Ismāʾīlī and bāṭinī motifs, Islamicate alchemy and occult sciences, Shīʿī gnosis (ʿīrfān) and messianism, and an Akhbārī veneration and valorization of the Imāms. After the conflict of the Akhbārīs and the Uṣūlīs subsided, the Uṣūlīs found a new opponent in the Shaykhīs, who differed with them on the principles or pillars of Shīʿī Islam. In the early Shaykhī period (al-Aḥsāʾī and al-Rashtī), the five pillars of Shīʿī belief (divine unity, prophethood, Imamate, resurrection, and justice) were in a radical gesture reduced to four, by joining divine unity with justice, and prophethood with resurrection, and by adding the controversial doctrine of the “fourth support” (al-rukn al-rābiʿ) or “the perfect Shīʿī.” With this doctrine al-Aḥsāʾī and al-Rashtī were directly challenging the ideology and authority of the Uṣūlī clerical establishment who claimed that the ʿulamāʾ were collectively the true representatives of the Imam in his occultation (ghayba). Among other controversial doctrines of the Shaykhīs that brought them into conflict with the more legally minded ʿulamāʾ of the time was their complex hermeneutics of the resurrection body in the imaginal world of hūrqalyā, the supra-sensible existence of the Hidden Imam in that realm rather than the physical world, the prophet Muḥammad’s ascension (miʿrāj) as a journey in his subtle hūrqalyāʾī body, rather than physical body, the theophanic status of the Shīʿī Imams, and an emphasis on visionary experience and intuitive knowledge (kashf), rather than imitative (taqlīd) knowledge. After al-Rashtī’s death, the Shyakhīs turned toward two fundamentally different directions: a group turned toward messianic expectations, which they found in the Bābī movement (See Bābīs); while other groups directed their efforts to the continuation and routinization of Shaykhī authority and leadership. The most successful of these groups were the Kirmānī Shaykhīs who rallied around the figure of Ḥājj Mīrzā Karīm Khān Kirmānī as the next Shaykhī successor. At various times during their history, the Shaykhīs were branded as heterodox by the Uṣūlī clerics who established themselves as the normative orthodoxy. The Shaykhīs have negotiated their identity and legitimacy on the margins of Twelver Shīʿīsm, and live in various countries and regions, with perhaps the largest enclave of Shaykhī votaries in Kerman, Iran. It is estimated that there are about 400,000 Shaykhīs living in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Kuwait, and the oasis of al-Ahsāʾ in Saudi Arabia.

General Overviews

In many respects, research into the vast and complex phenomenon of the Shaykhīyya still remains a desideratum, but some important and significant strides have been made in the past century. The first scholarly interest in the Shaykhīyya appeared in the 19th century with the work of such Orientalists as the French scholar A. L. M. Nicolas (Nicolas 1910–1914). After a prolonged period of neglect, work on the Shaykhīs resumed by another French scholar, Henry Corbin (Corbin 1972), who coined the term: “The Shaykhī school” (l’école Shaykhie). There are now some important studies available on the Shaykhīs. Scholl 1987 are both excellent academic summaries of the Shaykhīyya. MacEoin 1988, is an overview of the Bālāsarīs, a term of derision applied to the rest of Twelver Shi’is by the Shaykhis. Bayat 1982 is a social and intellectual history of both the early and later Shaykhīs. Rafati 1979 is a valuable scholarly analysis of the thought and philosophy of the Shaykhīyya and Eschraghi 2004 is a rigorous and insightful study in German of the philosophical and metaphysical doctrines of the early Shaykhīs. Ṭaliqānī 1999 is a valuable monograph on the history and doctrines of the Shaykhīs in Arabic.

  • Bayat, Mangol. Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1982.

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    Bayat provides an excellent overview of the social and intellectual history of the Shaykhīs. A significant contribution of the volume is its conceptual periodization of the Shaykhīs into the radical early Shaykhīyya (Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī), and the socialization of the later Kirmānī Shaykhīs (Karīm Khān Kirmānī) in Qajar, Iran.

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  • Corbin, Henry. En Islam Iranien, Aspects spirituels et philosophiques. Vol. 4, L’Ecole d’Ispahan, L-Ecole shaykhie Le Douzieme Imam. Paris: Gallimard, 1972.

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    The fourth volume of Corbin’s magnum opus, En Islam Iranien, contains a chapter on “The Shaykhī school” (see pp. 205–300). It is in three sections: on Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsā’ī (pp. 205–231), his successors (pp. 232–255), and some Shaykhī doctrines (pp. 256–300). However, Corbin did not appreciate some of the conceptual breaks between the early Shaykhīs, and the later Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

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  • Eschraghi, Armin. Frühe S̆aiḫī- und Bābī-Theologie: die Darlegung der Beweise für Muḥammads besonders Prophetentum: (ar-Risāla fī it̲bāt an-nubūwa al-khāṣṣa). Leiden, The Netherlands: Boston, 2004.

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    The first section of this groundbreaking scholarly study––ostensibly a semi-critical edition and discussion of an early work of the Bāb––contains an insightful discussion of Shaykhī theology, cosmogony, ontology, epistemology, prophetology, and imamology. Eschraghi problematizes some of the unwarranted assertions and assumptions in the academic literature on the Shaykhīs.

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  • MacEoin, Denis. “Bālāsarī.” Encyclopædia Iranica 3 (1988): 583–585.

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    An article on the development of the term Bālāsarī, in the Shaykhī lexicon, which refers to Shiʾites in general, and the history of their often antagonistic relations with the Shaykhīs and in particular the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

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  • Nicolas, A. L. M. Essai sur le Chéikisme. 4 vols. Paris: Paul Guethner and Ernst Leroux, 1910–1914.

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    These four volumes by the French Orientalist are still an indispensible resource for the study of the early Shaykhīs. Volumes 1 and 2 contain lists of al-Aḥsāʾī and al-Rashtī’s works. Volume 3 is on the doctrines of Shaykhīs, and Volume 4 on Shaykhī theology.

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  • Rafati, Vahid. The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shi’i Islam. PhD diss., University of California–Los Angeles, 1979.

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    This was a pioneering work and remains one of the important studies on the philosophical thought of the Shaykhī school, with a focus on ontology and eschatology. Unpublished.

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  • Scholl, Steven. “Shaykhīyah.” In Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 2. 2d ed. Edited by Lindsay Jones, 8307–8309. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 1987.

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    A brief overview of the life and thought of al-Aḥsāʾī and the development of the Shaykhī School. Sajjad H. Rizvi revised Scholl’s work with some new additions especially in the Bibliography in 2005.

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  • Ṭaliqānī, Muḥammad-Ḥusayn. al-Shaykhiyya: nashʾatha wa-tatawwurha wa-masadir dirasatha. Beirut, Lebanon: al-Amal li-l-Matbuʿat, 1999.

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    An important Arabic overview of the Shaykiyya, its emergence, development, and sources of studies.

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Bibliography

At present, most of the bibliographical information available on the Shaykhīs remains in primary sources (Arabic and Persian). The most important bibliography of Shaykhī literature is by the fourth leader of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs, Abū al-Qāsim Kirmānī n.d. A partial translation of Kirmānī’s work is provided by Momen 1991. Guiraud 2000 is an excellent annotated bibliography of the Shaykhīs in French, and Amir-Moezzi and Schmidtke 1997 is a catalogue of Shaykhī works in France.

Early Shaykhīyya

The history of the Shaykhīyya has been divided into two periods. The first period called the early Shaykhīyya, covers the leadership of Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī and the successorship of Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī, and the second period called the Later Shaykhīs, covers the development of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs. In this section, sources on the first two Shaykhī leaders will be provided.

Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahṣāʾī

As the eponymous leader and founder of the Shaykhīyya, Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahṣāʾī seems not to have intended to create a distinctive school within Twelver Shīʿīsm, but may well have harbored an initiatic self-awareness, though it is unclear if he thought of himself as “the fourth support.” A single academic volume on the life, works, and teachings of Shaykh Aḥmad remains a scholarly terra incognita. However, there are now some useful academic studies available. Amir-Moezzi 2008 and Zeinolabedin and Qasemi 2014 are both excellent overviews of the life, works, and teachings of al-Aḥsāʾī. MacEoin 2009 provides a collection of important analytical studies of the Shaykhīs, with a wealth of primary source references. Important primary sources for biographical and autobiographical information on Shaykh Aḥmad are Maḥfūẓ 1957, and al-Aḥsāʾī 1892–1893. Aspects of al-Ahṣāʾī’s nature of religious authority are discussed in Cole 2001, and Lawson 2005 provides a groundbreaking study of the Shaykh’s views on the Shiʿite mystic al-Fayḍ al-Kashani (d. 1680 [AH 1091]).

  • al-Aḥsāʾī, Shaykh ʿAbdallāh. Sharḥ-i ḥālāt-i Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī. Bombay: n.p., 1892–1893.

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    A biography composed by the son of Shaykh Aḥmad. It is one of the primary sources for all the later biographies of the Shaykh.

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  • Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. “al-Aḥsaʾi, Shaykh Aḥmad.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 3d ed. Vol. 1. Edited by Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson, 90–92. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2008.

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    A brief overview of the life of Shaykh Aḥmad, with a bibliography of biographical and autobiographical information on the Shaykh.

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  • Cole, Juan R. I. “Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i on the Sources of Religious Authority.” In The Most Learned of the Shi`a: The Institution of the Marja` Taqlid. Edited by Linda S. Walbridge, 82–93. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

    DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137996.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    An indispensible study of al-Ahṣāʾī’s conception of the sources of religious authority in Twelver Shiʿism.

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  • Lawson, B. Todd. “Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Twelver Shi’ism: Ahmad al-Ahsa’i on Fayḍ Kashani (the Risalat al-’Ilmiyya).” In Religion and Society in Qajar Iran. Edited by Robert Gleave, 127–154. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005.

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    A detailed and insightful analysis of al-Aḥsāʾī’s problematization of the views of the Shiʿi mystic and philosopher of the Safavid era, al-Fayḍ al-Kāshānī. (d. 1090/1679).

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  • MacEoin, Denis. The Messiah of Shiraz, Studies in Early and Middle Babism. Iranian Studies 3 Boston and Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.

    DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004170353.i-740Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This is a collection of MacEoin’s academic work on Babism, with a substantial portion of it dedicated to the Shaykhīs. It includes the authors PhD dissertation originally titled From Shaykhism to Babism (written in 1979). It also contains all of his articles on the Shaykhīs spread out in various encyclopedias. For the Shaykhīyya see especially pp. 59–106, 107, 138, and 607–618.

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  • Maḥfūẓ, Ḥusayn ʿAlī. Sīrat Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī. Baghdad, Iraq: Maṭbaʻat al-Maʻārif, 1957.

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    This work has the autobiographical writings of Shaykh Aḥmad.

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  • Zeinolabedin, Ebrahimi, and Jawad Qasemi. “Al-Aḥsāʾī.” In Encyclopaedia Islamica. Edited by Wilferd Madelung and Farhad Daftary. Brill, 2014.

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    This article contains useful material on al-Aḥsāʾī’s life, views, and works, as well as his place in Shiʿi philosophical thought. It is an ongoing abridged and edited translation of the Great Encyclopaedia of Islam in Persian (Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī), which is projected to be sixteen volumes.

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Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī

After Shaykh Aḥmad the leadership of the Shaykhīs rested on one of his most outstanding pupils, the Iranian philosopher-scholar and mystic Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī (d. 1843 [AH 1259]). Throughout his life, al-Rashtī defended the views of his master against his detractors, and maintained that the Shyakh’s teachings were in perfect accord with Shiʿite belief and doctrine, and any argument to the contrary represented a lack of understanding or willful malice on the part of his audience. Aside from the sources cited in the section on general overviews, as yet, there is no single extended study dedicated to al-Rashtī. Eschraghi 2013, MacEoin 2008, and Algar 2007 are three excellent encyclopedia articles on the life, works, and teachings of al-Rashtī. Nicolas 1914 is an important resource on the life and works of the Sayyid.

Later Shaykhīs

Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī does not seem to have appointed a clear successor after his death, though it is thought that he may have given secret oral instructions to a group of Shaykhī votaries of the imminent appearance of a messianic figure. It was unclear, however, whether this figure was to be the Hidden Imam or his intermediary. This ambiguity gave rise to a power struggle among the Shaykhī ranks that eventually lead to a contest for leadership roles within the Shaykhī hierarchy. Aside from the Shaykhīs who turned to the radical messianic movement of Babism, the groups that vied for successorship were the Tabrīzī Shaykhis in Azarbaijan, led by Ḥājī Mīrzā Shafīʿ Tabrīzī (d. 1884 [AH 1301]) and the Kirmānī Shaykhīs, who made the most successful bid for succession led by Ḥajji Mīrzā Muḥammad Karīm Khān Kirmānī (d. 1870 [AH 1288]), who became a bitter enemy of the Bab, and won over the remaining Shaykhis in Iran and Iraq.

Kirmānī Shaykhīs

Presently there is very little academic work available on the Kirmānī Shaykhīs, but a few notable studies may be mentioned. Jalali 1982 is a PhD thesis on Karīm Khān Kirmānī, the first leader of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs, and Corbin 1986 is an excellent study of one of the more arcane texts of Kirmānī on color mysticism. MacEoin 1983, is on Abū’l-Qāsem Khān Ebrāhīmī’, the fourth leader of the Shaykhī school of Kirmān. Scarcia 1963, provides an analysis of the conflict between the Bālāsarīs and the Shaykhīs in Kerman. Corbin 1993 is a succinct discussion of the Shaykhī school and the Kirmānī succession, and MacEoin 2008 is a brief article on the Shaykhīyya and the development of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs. Hermann 2007 is an important study of the development of the branch of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs, and Rezai and Hermann 2007 is an article on the role of religious endowments in the formation of the Kirmānī Shaykhī community in the Qajar era.

  • Corbin, Henry. “‘The Realism and Symbolism of Colours in Shi`ite Cosmology,’ According the ‘Book of the Red Hyacinth’ by Shaykh Muḥammad Karīm Khān Kirmānī (d. 1870).” In Temple and Contemplation. By Henry Corbin, 1–54. Translated by Philip Sherrard. London and Boston: KPI, 1986.

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    An excellent study of a text on color mysticism by Karīm Khān Kirmānī, called Kitāb Yāqūtih Aḥmar. Corbin draws interesting comparisons between this text and a work by the German Romantic thinker and poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (d. 1832).

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  • Corbin, Henry. History of Islamic Philosophy. Translated by Liadain Sherrard and Philip Sherrard. London: Kegan Paul, 1993.

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    Originally published in French, Histoire de la philosophie Islamique (Paris: Gallimard, 1964). For the Shaykhīyya see, pp. 352–356. For Corbin the Kirmānī Shaykhīs represented normative Shaykhīsm, and most of his discussion of the history and doctrines of the Shaykhī school covers the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

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  • Hermann, Denis. Aspects de l’Histoire Sociale et Doctrinale de l’Ecole Shaikhi au Cours de la Periode Qajar (1843–1911). PhD diss., Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Études, 2007.

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    This is the author’s PhD dissertation on aspects of the social history and doctrines of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

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  • Hermann, Denis, and Omid Rezai. “Le rôle du VAQF dans la formation de la communauté Shaykhi Kermani à l’époque Qa ̄ja ̄r (1259–1324/1843–1906).” Studia Iranica 36.1 (2007): 87–131.

    DOI: 10.2143/SI.36.1.2021797Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A study of the role of waqf (religious endowment) in the formation of the Kirmānī Shaykhīyya community during the Qajar period.

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  • Jalali, Aflatun. “The Shaikhiyya of Hajji Muhammad Karim Khan in Kirman.” PhD diss., University of Manchester, 1982.

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    A doctoral dissertation on the Kirmānī Shaykhīs which remains unpublished.

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  • MacEoin, Denis. “Abu’l-Qasem Khan Ebrahimi.” In Encyclopædia Iranica I/4 (1983): 363–364.

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    On the life of the fourth leader of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs. A newer version of the article is available online.

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  • MacEoin, D. “Shayk̲h̲iyya.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. Vol. 6. Edited by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs, 403–405. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2008.

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    An overview of the Shaykhīyya with a valuable discussion of the successorship disputes, and the rise of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

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  • Scarcia, Gianroberto. “Kerman 1905: La guerra tra Sheikhi e Balasari.” Annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli 13 (1963): 195–238.

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    A valuable study of the history of the conflict, or “war,” between the Shaykhīs and Bālāsarīs in 1905 in Kerman.

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Bābīs

The Bābīs (bābīyya) are not sensu stricto, a Shaykhī branch, but many of the earliest votaries of the Bābī movement were drawn from low to mid-level ranking clerics among the Shaykhīs. In this section only studies that outline the emergence of the Bābī religion from its Shaykhī milieu will be presented. Aside from some of the works presented in the section on general overviews that bear on the relationship of the early Shaykhīyya and the Bābīs, the standard and exemplary study is Amanat 1989. MacEoin 1982a is a scholarly study of early Shaykhī recations to the Bab’s messianic claims, and MacEoin 1982a is an excellent discussion of a cryptic letter by Shaykh Ahmad and its Shaykhī and Baha’i interpretations. Mazandarani 2000 is an important primary source on the development of the Bābī religion from the early Shaykhīyya. Lawson 2012 provides one of the best scholarly readings of the literary origins of the Bābī movement, and its conceptual relation to early Shaykhīsm. Saiedi 2008 is an exploration of the complex writings and thought of the Bāb, with many references to the early Shaykhīs. Zarandī 1932 is a translation of the standard hagiographical account of the rise of Bābīsm, from the messianic expectations of the early Shaykhīs. Rafati 2014 a groundbreaking study in Persian, of Shaykhī philosophical concepts in the Bābī and Bahā’ī religions.

  • Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 1989.

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    Amanat provides an invaluable historical analysis of the Shaykhī school as the intellectual matrix for the development of the Bābī religion. See especially pp. 48–69.

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  • Lawson, Todd. Gnostic Apocalypse in Islam: The Qur’an, Tafsir, Messianism, and the Literary Origins of the Bābī Movement. London: Routledge, 2012.

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    Lawson discusses the early writings and thought of the Bāb, which are riddled with esoteric, mystical, and gnostic motifs many of which are directly related to Shaykhīsm, and form the conceptual background of the literary production of the Bāb.

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  • MacEoin, Denis. “Early Shaykhí Reactions to the Báb and His Claims.” In Studies in Bábí and Bahá’í History. Vol. 1. Edited by Moojan Momen, 1–47. Los Angeles: Kalimat, 1982a.

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    As the title suggests the study deals with the early Shaykhī reaction to the claims of the Bāb.

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  • MacEoin, Denis. “Some Baha’i and Shaykhi Interpretations of ‘The mystery of reversal.’” Baha’i Studies Bulletin 1.1 (1982b): 11–23.

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    This is an excellent study of a highly cryptic letter by Shaykh Aḥmad, which is interpreted messianically by Bābīs and Bahaʾis. It pertains to the interpretation of the “mystery of reversal” (sirr al-tankīs), which refers to the Arabic letter waw in a graphical representation of the “Most Great Name of God” (al-ism al-ʿazam) with a poem attributed to ʿAli, that has its provenance in Islamic magic.

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  • Mazandarani, Fadil. Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq Vol. 1. Lansing, MI: H-Bahai, 2000.

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    This Persian text treats the early Shaykhī period of Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī and Sayyid Kaẓim Rashti as the intellectual backdrop to the rise of the Babi movement. Contains important primary source citations on the Shaykhīs. Vol. 1 edited by Adel Shafipour in 2008. [class:webLink]

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  • Rafati, Vahid. Nasím-i-Saḥarí. Hofheim-Langenhain, Germany: Bahā’ī Verlag, 2014.

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    An important book in Persian on the philosophical connections of aspects of Shaykhī thought in the Bābī and Bahaʾi writings.

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  • Saiedi, Nader. Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Bāb. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2008.

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    For Shaykh Aḥmad see pp. 16–7, 88, 178–9, 193, 201–202, 207–208, 211, 225, 232, 235; for Kaẓim Rashti see pp. 16–17, 30, 88, 225, and 381–382.

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  • Zarandī, Nabīl. The Dawn-Breakers: Nabīl’s Narrative. Edited and translated by Shoghi Effendi Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ī Publishing Trust, 1932.

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    The first volume of a two-volume hagiography called Tārīkh-i Nabīl, written by the Bahaʾi poet and historian Nabīl Zarandī in late19th century, chronicling the early Shaykhī period, from a Bahaʾi perspective. See especially pp. 1–46.

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Shaykhi Works

The vast and complex oeuvre of the Shaykhīyya largely remains in manuscript form, though some books of the Shaykhī leadership, such as the works of al-Rashtī and al-Aḥsāʾi, have been published since the mid-19th century, mostly in Kerman, Iran. A number of publications of Shaykhī works have appeared since the 1990s, from Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria. Since most of the textual sources are in Arabic and Persian, in this section only a few of the well-known Shaykhī texts will be presented.

Arabic and Persian Works

Al-Aḥsāʾī and al-Rashtī 2004 contains one of the most important volumes on the two Shaykhs’ meditations on the Hidden Imam. Al-Rashtī 2001 is a commentary on an imamological sermon of ʿAlī. Al-Rashtī 2010 is an exposition of Shaykhī doctrines and their orthodoxy to a Shiʾi audience. Al-Aḥsāʾī 1999 is a monumental four-volume commentary on a prayer for visitation by the tenth Shiʾi Imam. Al-Aḥsāʾī 2009 brings together the complete works of Shaykh Ahmad in 9 volumes. Al-Aḥsāʾī 2007 is a commentary on a work by the seminal figure of the school of Isfahan, the Safavid philosopher Mullā Sadrā Shirazi. Kirmānī 1974–1976 is a four-volume encyclopedia of the doctrines of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

  • al-Aḥsā’ī, Shaykh Aḥmad bin Zayn al-Dīn. Sharḥ al-ziyāra al-jāmiʿa al-kabīra. 4 vols. Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Mufīd, 1999.

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    A commentary by Shaykh Aḥmad on a prayer for visitation for all of the Twelver Imams by the tenth Imam ʿAlī al-Hādī (aka ʿAlī al-Naqī) (d. 868 [AH 214]). The work contains the Shaykh’s views on the theophanic status of the Imams, for which he was accused of tafwīḍ (ascribing the attributes of God on created beings) by some of the more orthodox clerics.

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  • al-Aḥsāʾī, Aḥmad, and Kāẓim al-Rashtī. Asrār al-imām al-mahdī. Edited by ʿAbd al-Rasūl Zayn al-Dīn. Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Maḥajja al-Bayḍāʾ, 2004.

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    The Mysteries of the Imam al-Mahdi, is a compilation of some of al-Aḥsāʾī’s and al-Rashtī’s writings on the twelfth Imam. A subject in dire need of serious scholarly study.

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  • al-Aḥsā’ī, Shaykh Aḥmad bin Zayn al-Dīn. Sharḥ al-mashāʿir. Beirut, Lebanon: Muʾassasat al-Balagh/Mu`assat al-Ihqaqi, 2007.

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    A critical philosophical commentary by al-Aḥsā’ī on Mullā Sadrā’s (d. 1640 [AH 1050]) Kitāb al-mashāʾir (The Book of Penetrations), which deals with Sadrā’s ontology.

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  • al-Aḥsā’ī, Shaykh Aḥmad bin Zayn al-Dīn. Jawāmiʿ al-kalim. 9 vols. Basra, Iraq: n.p., 2009.

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    The complete oeuvre of Shaykh Aḥmad in nine large volumes. The volumes consist of works on various subjects inter alia, hermeneutics of the Qurʾan and the reports (akhbar) of the Imams, philosophy, theology (kalam), mysticism (‘irfan), Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), etc.

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  • al-Rashtī, Sayyid Kāẓim. Sharḥ al-khuṭba al-ṭutunjiyya. 3 vols. Edited by Hajji Mīrzā `Abd al-Rasūl al-Ihqāqī. Kuwait: Jami`a al-Imam al-Sādiq, 2001.

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    A commentary on a sermon ascribed to ʿAlī (c. 661 [AH 40]), the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muḥammad, called the “Sermon of the Gulf,” which contains a series of highly ecstatic theophanic utterances. It was transmitted by the Shiʾi mystic and philosopher Rajab al-Bursī (d. c. 1411 [AH 814]) in his text, Mashāriq anwār al-yaqīn (The dawning-place of the lights of certainty).

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  • al-Rashtī, Sayyid Kāẓim. Dalīl al-mutaḥayyirīn, Basra, Iraq: n.p., 2010.

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    Dalīl al-mutaḥayyirīn (The Proof of the Perplexed) is a defense of the views of Shaykh Aḥmad, by al-Rashtī, and an exposition of the doctrines of the Shaykhīs, especially against accusations of unorthodoxy by some of the Shiʿ ulama. The title also recalls the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides’ famous text, Dalālat al-ḥayyirīn (The guide for the perplexed).

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  • Kirmānī, Ḥajji Mīrzā Muḥammad Karīm Khān. Kitāb Irshād al-ʿawāmm. 4 vols. 5th ed. Kirman, Iran: n.p., 1974–1976.

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    This four-volume Persian work by Ḥajji Mīrzā Muḥammad Karīm Khān Kirmānī (d. 1870 [AH 1288]), may be considered one of the most significant works of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs and their doctrinal positions. The work contains an exposition of the school’s theology, cosmogony, prophetology, imamology, eschatology, etc.

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Critical Editions and Translations

At present, there are very few critical editions and translations of Shaykhī writings. One of the best critical editions of Shaykhī literature is Behmardī 2004, representing one of the works of al-Rashtī. Hamid 1998 is a partial critical edition, translation, and analysis of a major work of Shaykh Aḥmad. Corbin 1989 is an important collection of translations from the early to later Shaykhīs. Brown (undated) is an excellent collection of translations on Shaykh Aḥmad’s texts on alchemy.

  • Behmardī, Waḥīd, ed. Risālat as-Suluk fī’l-Ahlāq wa’l-A`māl. By al-Sayyid Kāzim ibn Qāsim al-Ḥusaynī ar-Rashtī. Beiruter Texte und Studien 93. Beirut, Lebanon: al-Maʻhad al-Almānī lil-Abḥāth al-Sharqīyah, 2004.

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    An excellent critical edition of an epistle by Sayyid Kāẓim, on the spiritual path and the mystic journey. Contains an introduction by Behmardi (pp. 9–40) with other invaluable scholarly apparatus.

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  • Corbin, Henry. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shīʿite Iran. Translated by Nancy Pearson. 5th ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

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    English translation of Corbin’s Terre céleste et corps de resurrection de l’Iran Mazdéen à l’Iran Shîʿite (Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 1960). Contains a collection of translations from the works of Shaykh Aḥmad and the Kirmānī Shaykhīs. See pp. 180–331. Mostly texts related to the realm of hūrqalyā, the resurrection bodies, alchemy, and eschatology.

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  • Hamid, Idris Samawi. The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh ‘Ahmad al-Ahasa’i: Critical Edition, Translation, and Analysis of Observations of Wisdom. PhD thesis, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1998.

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    A partial critical edition, translation and analysis of al-Fawá’id al-ḥikmiyyah, by Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsā’ī. It is one of the only full-length studies on a text of the Shaykh in a Western language.

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Shaykhī Thought

Much of Shaykhī thought draws heavily from the vast reservoir of the heritage of Islamicate thought in general, and Shiʿism in particular. In this section, we will discuss some important doctrines such as Shaykhī metaphysics and philosophy, cosmogony and cosmology, escatology and apocalyptic, mysticism and the spiritual path, visionary dreams and oneiric encounters, and finally an elaborate imaginal topography.

Metaphysics and Philosophy

The Shaykhīs have a complex philosophy of a metaphysics of process, or dynamic metaphyscis, which contains novel characteristics in the history of Islamicate philosophy. Carney 2003 is a comparison of Ismaʾili and Shaykhī theology and imamology. Hamid 2003 provides an astute analysis of the reversal of “existence and essence” in the metaphysics of Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā’ī. Scarcia 1958 is an important article on the metaphysical and philosophical doctrine of the Shaykhīs.

  • Carney, ʿAbd al-Hakeem (Seth). “The Theos Agnostos: Isma’ili and Shaykhi Perspectives.” Journal for Islamic Studies 23 (2003): 3–35.

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    This is a useful comparative analysis of the negative theology of the Shaykhīs and the Ismaʾilis, and its philosophical implications on their similar conceptions of imamology.

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  • Hamid, Idris Samawi. “The Polarity of Existence and Essence in the Metaphysics of Shaykh Ahmad Ahsa’i.” In The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming (Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue). Edited by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, 199–218. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2003.

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    Discusses the reversal of traditional hylomorphism (existence and essence distinction), which is quite central to Shaykh Aḥmad’s metaphysics of process.

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  • Scarcia, Gianroberto. “Stato e dottrine attuali della setta sciita imamita degli Shaikhi in Persia.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 29.2 (1958): 215–241.

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    Scarcia is a professor of Arabic-Islamic cultural history at the University of Venice. He ably studies the then current state (in 1958) and doctrines of “the sect of Shi’a Imami Shaykhīs of Persia,” which is ostensibly that of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

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Cosmology and Cosmogony

Shaykhī cosmology and cosmogony conceptualizes a pre-existent Logos (kalima), the primordial Will (al-mashīʿa al-awaliyya) or primal Intellect (al-ʿaql al-awwal) or Muḥammadan light (al-nūr al-muḥammadī), that is the cause of the existentiation of the cosmos. Cole 1994 is an excellent discussion of al-Aḥsāʾī’s textual cosmos. MacEoin 1993 is an encyclopedia article on Shaykhī cosmology and cosmogony, and Hamid 2005 deploys Shaykh Aḥmad’s cosmological doctrines in reading the Matrix films.

Eschatology and Messianism

Shaykhī eschatological and messianic contemplations have been little studied, and are in need of greater scholarly inquiry. Amir-Moezzi 2001 exemplifies one of the only studies dedicated to the Shaykhi hermeneutics of the occultation (ghayba), largely drawn from the writings of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs.

  • Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. “An Absence Filled with Presence: Shaykhiyya Hermeneutics of the Occultation.” In The Twelver Shia in Modern Times. Religious Culture and Political History. Edited by Rainer Brunner and Werner Ende, 38–57. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2001.

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    One of the best discussions of the esoteric hermeneutics deployed by the Shaykhīs on the concept of the occultation. Amir-Moezzi follows Corbin on not distinguishing the early Shaykhīs from the later Kirmānī Shaykhīs, and includes some of the hermeneutics of al-Rashtī on the occultation.

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Visionary Dreams and Oneiric Encounters

As a religious scholar, al-Aḥsāʾī obtained several ijazas (authorizations from mujtahids), but always considered the ones he received from the Twelve Imams, in his visionary and oneiric encounters, to be the true ijazas. Like his master, al-Rashtī had a series of visionary dreams of the Imams, in one of which he was instructed to seek out Shaykh Aḥmad. It was due to their emphasis on visionary and intuitive knowledge (kashf), that they were also called the Kashfiyya among the Shiʾis. Corbin 1966 is a study of visionary dreams and their role in the Shaykhī school, and Amir-Moezzi presents a brief study of the motif of visionary encounters in Shiʿism, with some references to the Shaykhīs, now largely superseded, both in breadth and depth, by Ghaemmaghami 2013.

  • Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. “Contribution á la Typologie des Rencontres avec l’Imâm Caché.” Journal Asiatique 284.1 (1996): 109–135.

    DOI: 10.2143/JA.284.1.556544Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A brief discussion of the typology of encounters with the Hidden Imam in Shiʿism, with some references to the motif of encounters in early Shaykhīyya. There is also an English translation in a collection of Amir-Moezzi’s articles: The Spirituality of Shiʿi Islam: Beliefs and Practices (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011), pp. 431–460.

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  • Corbin, Henry. “The Visionary Dream in Islamic Spirituality.” In The Dream and Human Societies. Edited by Grunebaum and Callois, 381–408. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966.

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    Corbin’s brief discussion of Shaykh Aḥmad’s and Sayyid Kaẓim’s visionary dreams of the Shiʿi Imam’s, as well as other members of the Kirmānī Shaykhīs. It is a small but important contribution to the significance of visions and dreams on the spirituality and authority narrative of the Shaykhī school.

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  • Ghaemmaghami, Omid. Seeing the Proof: The Question of Encountering the Hidden Imam in Early Twelver Shī`īsm. PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2013.

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    A magisterial and groundbreaking study of the motif of encounters with the Hidden Imam, with a few references to the phenomenon in the early Shaykhīs.

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Mysticsm and the Spiritual Path

Shaykhī mysticism is an initiatic mysticism of love and devotion (walāya) to the theophanic reality and infallibility of the Shiʿi Imams or the Fourteen Pure Ones (chahārdah ma‘sūmīn), namely the prophet, the Twelve Imams, and Fatima the daughter of the prophet. For the early Shaykhīyya the highest station of the true believer is to have mystical communion with the Imams, not a mystical union with the Divine. It is for this reason that the Shaykhīs vehemently rejected waḥdat al-wujūd (ascribed to Ibn al-ʿArabic) or the monistic “unity of existence.” In this respect, both the early Shaykhīs and the later Shaykhīs condemned the Sufis, for their pretensions to union with the Divine, which the Shaykhīyya claimed to be impossible, based on philosophical grounds of the absolute transcendence of God. They also rejected the claims of Sufi masters to exalted spiritual stations such as walī (saint) and quṭb (pole), which according to the Shaykhīs, were solely reserved for the Imams. Cole 2001 and Cole 1997 provides the best studies on the views of Shaykh Aḥmad on mysticism and the spiritual path, and Moussavi 1996 is an excellent overview of the development of Shaykhī concept of religious authority in light of earlier trends in Sufi and Shiʿi discourse.

Imaginal Topography

The Shaykhī cosmos is pervaded by an elaborate number of visionary and imaginal topographies. Perhaps the most famous example is Lawson 2010, an exploration of the autonomous world of images or similitudes (ʿālam al-mithāl). Other such worlds are the important realm of hūrqalyā, situated in a world of barzakh, an isthmus, between the visible and invisible world, discussed respectively by Moʿīn 1955 and Corbin 1989; the esoteric and pre-existential world of particles (ʿālam adh-dharr) is discussed by Kazemi 2009; and finally the land of the Green Isle (jazirat al-khadhra) studied by Ghaemmaghami 2013, wherein the Shiʿi Hidden Imam (Qaʾim) is said to reside until his reappearance at the eschatological end-time.

  • Corbin, Henry. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, From Mazdean Iran to Shīʿite Iran. 5th ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

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    Some of the foundational studies and contemplations of Corbin on hūrqalyā (see pp. 84–105). The best etymological derivation is provided by Rudolf Macuch, who derives it from the Mandaic anhūr qalyā (burning fire), from Mandaean Aramaic, which is precisely where al-Aḥsāʾī said he borrowed it, namely from the Sabeans (or Mandeans) of Iraq.

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  • Ghaemmaghami, Omid. “To the Abode of the Hidden One: The Green Isle in Shīʿī, Early Shaykhī, and Bābī- Bahā’ī Sacred Topography.” In Unity in Diversity: Mysticism, Messianism, and the Construction of Religious Authority in Islam. Edited by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, 137–173. Boston and Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013.

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    Originally a paper presented at the conference “Messianism and Normativity in Late Medeivel and Modern Persianate World,” Freie Universitat, Berlin, 17–18 September 2010. An excellent discussion of the motif of the Green Isle (jazirat al-khadrā) in Shaykhī visionary topography (pp. 154–158).

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  • Kazemi, Farshid. “Mysteries of Alast: The Realm of Subtle Entities (‘Alam-i dharr) and the Primordial Covenant in the Babi-Baha’i Writings.” Baha’i Studies Review 15.1 (2009): 39–66.

    DOI: 10.1386/bsr.15.39_1Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A scholarly analysis of the pre-existential world of particles (‘ālam al-dharr) and the primordial covenant (Qurʾan 7:171–2) and its Shiʿi and Shaykhī background, especially in the works of Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī (pp. 45–49).

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  • Lawson, B. Todd. “Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsā’ī and the World of Images.” In Shiʿi Trends and Dynamics in Modern Times (XVIIth–XXth Centuries)/Courants et dynamiques shi‘ites à l’époque moderne (XVIIIe-XXe siècles). Edited by Denis Hermann and Sabrina Mervin, 19–31. Beiruter Text und Studien 115 Beirut, Lebanon: Orient-Institut, 2010.

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    An eloquent study of ‘ālam al-mithāl or the World of Images in the Shaykh’s oeuvre, with elegant and insightful references to literature and literary theory.

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  • Moʿīn, M. “Havarqalyā.” Revue Fac. Lettres de l’Univ. de Téhéran (1955), 78–105.

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    Aside from its derivation from the works of the illuminationist philosopher, Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Suhrawardī (d. 1191 [AH 587]), Moʿīn posits the etymological origins of this term to be the Hebrew habal qarnaīm and that it should be pronounced as havarqalyā rather then hūrqalyā.

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Countries and Regions

There are very few histories written on Shaykhī communities in various countries and regions. Naqvi 2001 is an excellent discussion of the Shaykhyya in Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent, and Steinberg 2001, in the same volume, covers the history of the Shaykhīs in the al-Aḥsā region in Saudi Arabia. Matthiesen 2014 provides an excellent discussion of the Shaykhī networks in al-Aḥsā, Kuwait, and Basra.

  • Matthiesen, Tob. “Mysticism, Migration and Clerical Networks: Ahmad al-Ahsaʾi and the Shaykhis of al-Ahsa, Kuwait and Basra.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 34.4 (2014): 386–409.

    DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2014.984903Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    An important new study based on the author’s field research in archives and libraries in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It traces the development of the Shaykhī community in the regions of al-Aḥsā, Kuwait, and Basra.

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  • Naqvi, Syed Hussain Arif. “The Controversy about the Shaikhiyya Tendency among Shia `ulamā’ in Pakistan.” In The Twelver Shia in Modern Times: Religious Culture and Political History. Edited by Rainer Brunner and Werner Ende, 135–149. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2001.

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    An important contribution to our knowledge of the Shaykhī community in Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent.

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  • Steinberg, Guido. “The Shi`ites in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (al-Aḥsā), 1913–1953.” In The Twelver Shia in Modern Times: Religious Culture and Political History. Edited by Rainer Brunner and Werner Ende, 236–254. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2001.

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    A valuable history of the Shaykhīs in al-Aḥsā, the birthplace of Shaykh Aḥmad.

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