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

) 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 , native_name_lang = fa , settlement_type = Village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_alt = , image_caption = Tomb of Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani , image_flag ...

(today located in Semnan Province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

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 families ...

) and died on the day of Ashura 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 Abul Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdul-Karim Qassab Amoli also known as ''Abul Abbas Qassab Amoli'' ( fa, ابوالعباس قصاب آملی) was an 11th-century Iranian Sufi mystic. Coming from Tabaristan, he was of the tribe of Javan and his f ...

but claimed a deep spiritual relation with

Bayazid Bastami Abū Yazīd Ṭayfūr bin ʿĪsā bin Surūshān al-Bisṭāmī (al-Basṭāmī) (d. 261/874–5 or 234/848–9), commonly known in the Iranian world as Bāyazīd Bisṭāmī ( fa, بایزید بسطامی), was a PersianWalbridge, John. "S ...

, 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 Abul Hasan Hankari ( ar, ا بوالحسن ہنکاری) Abu Al Hasan Ali Bin Mohammad Qureshi Hashmi Hankari Harithi (born in 409 Hijri (c.1018 CE), in the town of Hankar), town of Mosul (city of northern Iraq, some 400 km north of Baghdad ...

. 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 Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (c. 1145 – c. 1221; fa, ابو حامد بن ابوبکر ابراهیم), better known by his pen-names Farīd ud-Dīn () and ʿAṭṭār of Nishapur (, Attar means apothecary), was a PersianRitter, H. ...

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

of his people". Kharaqani was the Master of the famous Persian Sufi and poet, Abdullah Ansari. Avicenna, Mahmud of Ghazni, 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, 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 The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

and

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

; 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

murid In Sufism, a ''murīd'' (Arabic مُرِيد 'one who seeks') is a novice committed to spiritual enlightenment by ''sulūk'' (traversing a path) under a spiritual guide, who may take the title murshid, '' pir'' or ''shaykh''. A ''sālik'' or Su ...

s 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 docum ...

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