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Mansur al-Hallaj | |
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The execution of Mansur Al-Hallaj (manuscript illustration from Mughal India, circa 1600)[1] | |
Personal | |
Born | 858 CE Fars |
Died | 26 March 922 CE[4] Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate |
Religion | Islam |
Ethnicity | Persian |
Era | Abbasid |
Creed | Islam, Sunni[2][3] |
Muslim leader | |
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Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: ابو المغيث الحسين بن منصور الحلاج Abū ‘l-Muġīth Al-Ḥusayn bin Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj; Persian: منصور حلاج Mansūr-e Hallāj) (c. 858 – 26 March 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH – 309 AH) was a Persian mystic, poet and teacher of Sufism.[5][6][7] He is best known for his saying: “I am the Truth” (Ana ‘l-Ḥaqq), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of annihilation of the ego which allows God to speak through the individual. Al-Hallaj gained a wide following as a preacher before he became implicated in power struggles of the Abbasid court and was executed after a long period of confinement on religious and political charges. Although most of his Sufi contemporaries disapproved of his actions, Hallaj later became a major figure in the Sufi tradition.
Early years
Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder (Hallaj means “cotton-carder” in Arabic) in an Arabized town called al-Bayḍā’.[8] His grandfather was a Zoroastrian.[7] His father moved to a town in Wasit famous for its school of Quran reciters.[8] Al-Hallaj memorized the Qur’an before he was 12 years old and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study at the school of Sahl al-Tustari.[8] During this period Al-Hallaj lost his ability to speak Persian and later wrote exclusively in Arabic.[7][8]
When he was twenty, al-Hallaj moved to Basra, where he married and received his Sufi habit from ‘Amr Makkī, although his lifelong and monogamous marriage later provoked jealousy and opposition from the latter.[8] Through his brother-in-law, al-Hallaj found himself in contact with a clan which supported the Zaydi Zanj rebellion, which had elements of Shi’i school of thought.[8] He retained from this period some apparently Shi’i expressions, but he remained faithful to Sunnism.[2][3][8]
He later went to Baghdad to consult the famous Sufi teacher Junayd Baghdadi, but he was tired of the conflict that existed between his father-in-law and ‘Amr Makkī and he set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, against the advice of Junayd Baghdadi, as soon as the Zanj rebellion was crushed.[8]