Abu 'l-Hassan Ali ibn Ahmad (or ibn Jaʻfar) ibn Salmān al-Kharaqāni ( fa, شیخ ابوالحسن خرقانی) is one of the master

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

s of Islam. He was born in 963 (352

Hijri year The Hijri year ( ar, سَنة هِجْريّة) or era ( ''at-taqwīm al-hijrī'') is the era used in the Islamic lunar calendar. It begins its count from the Islamic New Year in which Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Yathrib ...

) from

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

S.H. Nasr, "Iran" in History of Humanity: From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century, edited by Sigfried J. de Laet, M. A. Al-Bakhit, International Commission for a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind History of mankind, L. Bazin, S. M. Cissco. Published by Taylor & Francis US, 2000. pg 368 parents in Khorasan in a village called Qaleh Now-e Kharaqan (today located in Semnan Province, Iran near

Bastam Bastam ( fa, بسطام, also romanized as Basṭām; also known as Busṭām and Bisṭām) is a city in and capital of the Bastam District of Shahrud County, Semnan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 7,382, in 1,997 famili ...

) and died on the day of

Ashura Ashura (, , ) is a day of commemoration in Islam. It occurs annually on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Among Shia Muslims, Ashura is observed through large demonstrations of high-scale mourning as it marks ...

in 1033 (10th

Muharram Muḥarram ( ar, ٱلْمُحَرَّم) (fully known as Muharram ul Haram) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is forbidden. It is held to be the second holiest month after ...

, 425 Hijri). He was the disciple of Abul-Abbas Qassab Amoli but claimed a deep spiritual relation with Bayazid Bastami, a well-known Sufi Master who died almost a century before him but had spoken about the personality and state of Kharaqani. He was also influenced by Abul Hasan Hankari. His school of jurisprudence was

Shafi‘i The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...

. Attar of Nishapur, a famous Persian poet and Sufi, devoted a large part of his book ''Tadhkirat al-

Awliya A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by th ...

'' (Biography of the Saints) about the personality, state and stories of Kharaqani. Attar has him as ''Sultān-e Salātin-e Mashāyekh'' "King of kings of Sufi Masters", "Ocean of the spiritual knowledge, "Sun of the Lord", "Mystery of the Lord" and "

Qibla The qibla ( ar, قِبْلَة, links=no, lit=direction, translit=qiblah) is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the s ...

of his people". Kharaqani was the Master of the famous Persian Sufi and poet,

Abdullah Ansari Abu Ismaïl Abdullah al-Harawi al-Ansari or Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006–1088) ( fa, خواجه عبدالله انصاری) also known as ''Pir-i Herat'' () "Sage of Herat", was a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century in Herat (m ...

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...

Mahmud of Ghazni Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn ( fa, ; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi ( fa, ), was the founder of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At th ...

, Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr and

Nasir Khusraw Abu Mo’in Hamid ad-Din Nasir ibn Khusraw al-Qubadiani or Nāsir Khusraw Qubādiyānī Balkhi ( fa, ناصر خسرو قبادیانی, Nasir Khusraw Qubadiani) also spelled as ''Nasir Khusrow'' and ''Naser Khosrow'' (1004 – after 1070 CE) w ...

traveled to Kharaqan to meet him and expressed their deep admiring feelings and respect for him.

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلال‌الدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...

, Attar of Nishapur,

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari Abu Ismaïl Abdullah al-Harawi al-Ansari or Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006–1088) ( fa, خواجه عبدالله انصاری) also known as ''Pir-i Herat'' () "Sage of Herat", was a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century in Herat (m ...

Jami Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī ( fa, نورالدین عبدالرحمن جامی; 7 November 1414 – 9 November 1492), also known as Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti, or simply as J ...

and others have narrated many poems about Abu'l-Hasan and have reported his several stories. He was illiterate but had wide inspirational knowledge about the Quran and Hadith; his sayings and speeches are significantly magnificent due to their philosophical views. The book ''Nūr al-ʿUlūm'' "Light of the Sciences" is dedicated to Abu'l-Hassan. It is believed to have been written by his murids after his death. A single manuscript copy is currently held in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

Notes

Poetry and translations

* ''Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition'' translated and edited by Omid Safi. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. Contains a selection of al-Kharaqani's poetry in English.

External links

His biography in Persian

{{Authority control Sufi mystics Iranian Sufis Naqshbandi order 10th-century Iranian philosophers 11th-century Iranian philosophers Samanid-period poets Mystics from Iran