there are reports of conversations between

the Prophet and Umar b. al-Kha;;b as

well as references to the practices of the
early Islamic community, none of which is
supported by an isnd . During the third and
fourth centuries A.H., however, the differ-
ences between the two groups diminished,
as a synthesis between the two forms of
legal jurisprudence was achieved.
Bi bli ography
Sources
Ab Ysuf, Ikhtilf Ab anfa wa-Ibn Ab
Layl, ed. Ab l-Waf al-Afghn (Cairo
1357/1939), 84, 88, 144, 182, 218 ; Hill al-
Ray, Akm al-waqf (Hyderabad 1355/1937) ;
Ibn al-Muqaffa, Rislat al-aba, ed. Fahd
Sad and Tnyus Franss (Beirut 1960), 167 ;
Ibn Qutayba, al-Marif, ed. Tharwat Uksha
(Cairo 1969), 6767 ; al-Sh, al-Risla, ed.
Ahmad Muhammad Shkir, Cairo 1979.
Studies
Jonathan E. Brockopp, Competing theories of
authority in early Mlik texts, in Bernard G.
Weiss (ed.) Studies in Islamic legal theory (Leiden
2002), 322 ; Jonathan E. Brockopp, Early
Mlik law. Ibn Abd al-akam and his major
compendium of jurisprudence, Leiden and Boston
2000 ; Wael B. Hallaq, The origins and evolu-
tion of Islamic law, Cambridge and New York
2005 ; Wael B. Hallaq, Was al-Shai the mas-
ter architect of Islamic jurisprudence? IJMES
25 (1993), 587605 ; Peter C. Hennigan,
The birth of a legal institution. The formation of
the waqf in third-century A. H. anaf legal dis-
course, Leiden and Boston 2004 ; Christopher
Melchert, The formation of the Sunni schools of
law, 9th10th centuries C.E., Leiden and New
York 1997 ; Christopher Melchert, Tradition-
ist-jurisprudents and the framing of Islamic
law, ILS 8 (2001), 383406 ; Joseph Schacht,
The origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence, Oxford
1950 ; Nurit Tsafrir, The history of an Islamic
school of law. The early spread of Hanafism,
Cambridge MA 2004 ; Nurit Tsafrir, Semi-
Hanafs and Hanaf biographical sources, SI
84 (1996), 6785.
Peter Hennigan
Ahl-i Haqq
The Ahl-i aqq (lit., people of truth)
is a syncretistic religion or, according to
some adherents, an esoteric Sh com-
munity, that appears to have emerged rst
among the Grn of southern Kurdistan
in the fteenth or sixteenth century C.E.
and that survives in various parts of Iran
and Iraq, among Grn, Lurs, Kurds,
Azerbaijanis, and Iranians. A preferred self-
designation of the community, especially
in the Kirmnshh region, is Yrisn.
In the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, the Ahl-i
Haqq are known as Kka and constitute
a distinct ethno-religious community. The
teachings of the Ahl-i Haqq are handed
down orally to the initiated, commonly in
the form of religious poems (kalm) , sung
and explained by specialists, the kalmkhwn
( kalm -readers). Although it is essentially
an oral tradition, there do exist written
collections of kalm (intended as memory
aids for the kalmkhwn , not as holy scrip-
ture to be read by ordinary devotees). The
oldest kalm are in an archaic form of
Grn, the language spoken by the Grn
and Kka, and new kalm continued to be
composed in that language until the late
nineteenth century. There are also poems
and treatises in Turkish and Persian, be-
longing to later stages of development of
the Ahl-i Haqq religion in Azerbaijan and
northern Iran.
The rst serious studies of the Ahl-i Haqq,
by Vladimir Minorsky and Wladimir
Ivanow, were based largely on their expe-
riences with Persian-speaking Ahl-i Haqq
communities and an analysis of Persian
Ahl-i Haqq treatises and a few Turkish
poems. Ivanows Truth-worshippers was the
rst edition and translation of a signicant
amount of Ahl-i Haqq manuscript mate-
rial. Numerous Grn kalm were later
ahl-i aqq 51
edited, translated into French, and an-
notated by Mohammad Mokri, who had
acquired a large collection of Ahl-i Haqq
manuscripts. Mshallh Sr and Siddq
Saf-zda also published a considerable
volume of Grn kalm , with Persian
translations and commentaries. Cecil
Edmonds, who had had contact with the
Kka in the 1920s as a British political
ofcer, published interesting material on
the social organisation, religious beliefs, and
practices of this community, partly on the
basis of Grn kalm and oral explanation.
The Kurdish Ahl-i Haqq reformer Hjj
Nimatallh Jayhnbd (d. 1920) and
his son Nr Al Ilh (d. 1974) composed
important works in Persian, in which they
presented Ahl-i Haqq doctrines, again
based largely on Grn kalm , in a more
consistent and systematic form ( Shhnma-yi
aqqat, Burhn al-aqq, Lsotrisme kurde , and
Jayhnbds unpublished Furqn al-akhbr ,
which was used extensively by Minorsky).
Publication of these works brought some
of the teachings previously revealed only
to initiates into the public domain; they
have become the major sources on doctrine
for later researchers. It should be noted,
however, that Ilh and his son Bahrm
Elh (Bahrm Ilh) went much further
in reconciling Ahl-i Haqq doctrines with
esoteric Shism than many Ahl-i Haqq
communities thought warranted.
1. Doctri ne
A central tenet of Ahl-i Haqq doctrine
is belief in a series of consecutive divine
incarnations, each initiating a new cycle of
sacred history. Al b. Ab Tlib is recog-
nised as one of these divine incarnations;
the Ahl-i Haqq are therefore sometimes
categorised with other ghult (extremist)
groups as Al-ilh (deifiers of Al).
However, the Ahl-i Haqq cosmology is
far more developed than that of any of
these other groups. Not only do the Ahl-i
Haqq recognise a number of major and
minor divine incarnations, but in each
of them the Divinity is accompanied by
four or more angels. Nor is Al the most
important of these divine incarnations; in
fact, Al occupies but a modest place in the
Ahl-i Haqq tradition. The central divine
gure is Sul;n Sahk, who ourished in
Hawramn in the fteenth or sixteenth cen-
tury, and the oldest sacred texts (kalm) that
are associated with his cycle are in Grn.
The various Ahl-i Haqq communities have
slightly differing lists of incarnations, but
most agree on two major incarnations
between the cycle of Al and the cycle of
Sul;n Sahk: Shh Khshn, associated
with Luristn and wandering dervishes,
and Shh Fal, in whom we may perhaps
recognise the Hurf Falallh Astarbd.
Ahl-i Haqq communities in Azerbaijan and
north-central Iran mention several later in-
carnations, the most important of whom is
tesh Beg, or Khn tesh, an Azerbaijani
Ahl-i Haqq saint buried near Margha in
eastern Azerbaijan.
The Companions always include incar-
nations of the four archangels (chr malak)
and are usually said to constitute a heptad,
the haftan ( haft tan , seven bodies). Sul;n
Sahks four main companions were Pr
Binymn, Dwd, Pr Ms, and Mus;af.
Each of the four is invested with certain
ritual functions (thus, Binymn is the pr ,
the master who initiates the other compan-
ions, Dwd is the dall , or guide, Pr Ms
the scribe, and Mus;af the executioner);
they are associated with the four elements,
the four directions of the compass, and
four colours. They are identical with the
four archangels Jibrl, Mkl, Isrfl, and
Azrl, who emanated from the essence
of Khwandkr, the Creator, who was
52 ahl-i aqq
none other than the rst manifestation of
Sul;n Sahk.
A fth companion is the female spirit
Ramzbr, who appears in various cycles as
the virgin mother of the divine incarnation.
She was Khtn Dyark, a young woman
of the Kurdish Jf tribe, who gave birth to
Sul;n Sahk; in earlier cycles, she was the
virgin Mm Jalla, who became pregnant
after inhaling a particle of light from the
sun and nine months later vomited up the
child Shh Khshn; she was Als mother,
F;ima bt. Asad.
The various Ahl-i Haqq communities
are not unanimous as to the identity of the
other two companions. All groups include
Bb Ydigr, whose shrine in Sarna, in
the district of Kirind west of Kirmnshh,
is presently the Ahl-i Haqqs most impor-
tant place of pilgrimage. As the seventh
person in the heptad, some groups men-
tion Shh Ibrhm, who may have been an
early successor of Sul;n Sahk and whose
descendants constitute one of the larger
khnadn (lineages) of Ahl-i Haqq religious
specialists. Others make Shh Ibrhm a
dark adversary of Bb Ydigr and count
Sul;n Sahk himself as one of the haftan .
In most views, Shh Ibrhm and Bb
Ydigrby their angelic names Aqq
and Yaqq, or Rchyr and Aywatdo
constitute pairs of opposites; according to
one myth, they emanated from the light of
the deitys left and right eyes, respectively
( Jayhnbd, 42).
The haftan have a counterpart in a sec-
ond heptad, the haftawna ; these are often
presented as more earthly and material
spirits, complementary to the heavenly
haftan in some interpretations and opposed
to them in others. In the period of Sul;n
Sahk, the haftawna manifested them-
selves as his seven sons, and ve of them
are the ancestors of still-existing khnadn
of religious specialists. Ahl-i Haqq texts
mention various other groups of spiritual
beings including a group of forty, the chiltan
(reminiscent of the Krklar (Turk., Forty)
of the Anatolian Alev tradition), seventy-
two khalfa , ninety-nine pr , and some larger
groups (see, e.g., Elh, sotrisme kurde ,
479; Jayhnbd, passim).
Several observers and some educated
Ahl-i Haqq themselves believe they have
recognised in the haftan the seven angels,
Amesha Spenta, of Zoroastrianism, and
that beneath an Islamic veneer the Ahl-i
Haqq religion represents essentially an
older form of Iranian religion (see, e.g.,
Hamzehee). There seems to be some sup-
port for this view in the dualistic beliefs of
some subgroups of the Grn, which op-
pose Bb Ydigr and Shh Ibrhm as
angels of light and darkness and the haftan
and haftawna as spiritual and material
forces, between which a cosmic struggle is
being waged. Many other elements of the
Ahl-i Haqq belief system, however, connect
them at least as strongly with (heterodox)
Sh traditions as with a distant pre-Islamic
past. There are numerous correspondences
with Ismlism, especially the teachings
contained in the Umm al-kitb (Halm), as
well as with Turkish Kzlba belief and
practice, although there appears to be
no direct genealogical connection. Roux
has moreover pointed out the remarkable
presence of Turkish religious ideas in the
Grn kalm (Roux).
The human (or occasionally animal)
embodiment of the angelic spirit is called
its jma or dn (both lit., gown), and the
movement from one incarnation to another
of ordinary human souls as well as the
haftan and other angelic spirits, is referred
to as dna dn (from gown to gown), suggest-
ing the metaphor of changing clothes. The
Ahl-i Haqq recognise two types or degrees
ahl-i aqq 53
of incarnation: full manifestation (uhr) of
the deity and the angels; and more ephem-
eral and temporary forms of indwelling
in a human being, sometimes called ull
(those who alight and stay) but more
commonly referred to as mihmn (guest).
The major incarnations are referred to
(using the word mahar , manifestation)
as Shh-mazhar (or Sul;n-mazhar), Bin-
ymn-mazhar, etc., the lesser ones as
Shh-mihmn and similar expressions. Al
was thus Shh-mazhar and Al Qalandar,
a beloved Ahl-i Haqq saint of the Grn
region, is believed to have been Ydigr-
mihmn. In the latter case the association
between the two saints is so close that their
mythical biographies seem to merge; both
are believed to have been killed and be-
headed by enemies of their religion under
similar circumstances. The kalmkhwn
tend also to identify other famous victims
of beheadings (including John the Baptist,
Husayn, and a nineteenth-century Ahl-i
Haqq dervish of Kirmnshh, Teymr) as
Ydigr-mihmn or Ydigr-mazhar. The
angels can also be present in seemingly
inanimate objects, such as Als sword Dh
l-Fiqr, and between successive incarna-
tions they may assume the shape of a spark
of re, a pomegranate seed, or a bird.
The teshbeg Ahl-i Haqq communities
of Azerbaijan and northern Iran consider
tesh Beg (who may have lived in the
seventeenth century) as Shh-mazhar,
and his three brothers Jamshd, Alms,
and Abdl, along with his sister Khtn
Parkhn, to be full manifestations of the
other angels. They attribute the same
status to two leading personalities inter-
vening between Sul;n Sahk and tesh
Beg, named Qirmiz (Shh Ways Qul)
and Mamad, who appear to reect the
spread of the Ahl-i Haqq teachings from
the Grn region by way of Luristn to
Azerbaijan (see Ivanow, 13348). Other
Ahl-i Haqq communities, when aware of
tesh Beg, grant him and his predeces-
sors at most the status of Shh-mihmn.
The Kka, who lived in Ottoman terri-
tory, count Hjj Bektsh and some other
Bektsh saints, whose names are hardly
known among the Iranian Ahl-i Haqq,
among the major manifestations (Edmonds,
Beliefs and practices; van Bruinessen). The
54 ahl-i aqq
major
cycles
names of the
incarnations
of God
I Khwandkr Jibrl Mkl Isrfl Azrl Yaqq Aqq
II Al Salmn Qanbar Jafar-i
Tayyr
Nusayr F;ima bt.
Asad
Husayn Hasan
III Shh Khshn Kka
Rid
Chalab Shahryr Bb
Faq
Mm
Jalla
Bb
Buzurg
IV Shh Fal Mansr
[Hallj]
Nasm Zakariy Turka Ayna Barra
V Sul;n
Sahk
Binymn Dwd Pr Ms Mus;af
Dwudn
Khtn
Dyrk /
Ramzbr
Bb
Ydigr
Shh
Ibrhm
VI tesh Beg Jamshd
Beg
Alms
Beg
Abdl Beg Khtn
Parkhn
Names of the incarnations of God and seven angels in the six major cycles ( dawra ) of incarnation.
Grn recognise only four major cycles
(but numerous minor ones) after the cycle
of Creation, culminating in Sul;n Sahk.
They associate Al with shara (religious
law), Shh Khshn with arqa (religious
way), Shh Fal with marifa (mystical
knowledge), and Sul;n Sahk with aqqa
(truth, sacred canon).
The table summarises the names of the
major manifestations about which there
is agreement among most Ahl-i Haqq
communities. It is, however, compiled
from different sources, and no community
would agree on all of the names here;
there is broad agreement on the various
incarnations of Sul;n Sahk, Binymn,
Dwd, and Ramzbr but more variety
in the identication of the incarnations of
the other angels. Similar tables, based on
teshbeg and Kka sources, respectively,
are presented by Minorsky (Ahl-i Hakk)
and Edmonds (Beliefs and practices).
2. Ri tual speci ali sts: p r,
dal l, kalmkh
w
n
Like other syncretistic religious commu-
nities such as the Yazds and the Kzlba
Alevs of Turkey, the Ahl-i Haqq have a
hereditary and endogamous class of ritual
specialists, called sayyid s, without whose
presence rituals are not valid. There are
a limited number of lineages of sayyid s,
known as khnadn (family) or jq (also
jgh , hearth), that descend from known
Ahl-i Haqq saints. Elh ( sotrisme , 49)
and Saf-zda (Nma-yi saranjm , 248) list
eleven khnadn: (1) Al Qalandar, (2) Shh
Ibrhm, (3) Ydigr, (4) Khmsh, (5)
Hj Bb-Husayn, or Hj Bways, (6)
Mr-Sr, (7) Sayyid Mus;af, (8) tesh-
beg, (9) Dh l-Nr Qalandar, or Zunr,
(10) Bb-Haydar, (11) Shh-Hiys.
Each adult has a special relationship with
the particular sayyid who ofciated at his
initiation ceremony, and usually entire
village communities are afliated with the
same khnadn . In most regions, only a
few khnadn have inuence, and in cer-
tain regions some khnadn have a virtual
monopoly, as for instance the teshbeg
in Azerbaijan and northern Iran. The fol-
lowers of the various khnadn constitute
sub-communities, between which certain
minor differences in belief and ritual prac-
tice have developed.
Sayyid s can ofciate as pr s at religious
ceremonies; in that capacity they represent
Binymn, the rst spiritual teacher. Major
ceremonies also require the presence of
a dall , or guide, who has to belong to
another group of families said to descend
from seven of the seventy-two khalfa s of
Sul;n Sahks time. These families do not
have a social standing comparable to that
of the sayyid khnadn . In practice, many
rituals are performed without the presence
of a dall .
The third ritual specialist is the kalm-
khwn . This is not a hereditary but an
achieved position; kalmkhwn s may be of
sayyid, dall , or commoner background.
Good musicians and singers, who have
memorised many kalm and can explain
them, enjoy great prestige. Whereas many
sayyid s and khalfa s are not particularly
knowledgeable about Ahl-i Haqq doctrine
and traditions, it is the kalmkhwn who are,
together with the daftardn (scholars with a
profound knowledge and understanding
of the daftar or collections of kalm ), the
guardians of the Ahl-i Haqq teachings.
The kalmkh
w
n accompanies himself on
the tanbr , a long-necked lute, which is used
for both profane and sacred music; there
are distinct modes (arz, nam) for the latter,
that are played only with texts belonging
to the sacred canon (aqqat) . The music
of the Ahl-i Haqq differs significantly
from Kurdish folk music and from that
of other religious communities. Durings
ahl-i aqq 55
study (in Musique et mystique ) of musical
practices in the reformed branch of the
Ahl-i Haqq at Tehran is complemented by
Hooshmandrads excellent work on musical
and ritual practices among the Grn.
3. Ri tual
The most important ritual is the jam , a
gathering of the initiated male members
of the village community, in which the
spiritual presence of Sul;n Sahk and
the haftan is invoked. Kalm are chanted
by a kalmkhwn , a dhikr (repetitive litany) is
performed and, most importantly, an offer-
ing of a sacricial animal (nadhr) , or more
commonly a non-animal offering (niyz) of
fruits, nuts, and sweets, is consecrated and
eaten by the participants. The jam must
be presided over by a sayyid (the pr ) and
a dall ; the ritual function of the khdim
(servant), who assists the pr and serves
the participants, is usually performed by
a commoner.
The initiation ritual (called sar sipurdan ,
surrendering ones head) takes place in
a special jam and involves the dissection of
a nutmeg (perhaps symbolising the novices
head) and the nadhr of a rooster. The pr
cuts up the nutmeg and consecrates it,
together with the niyz , adding to the com-
mon formula of consecration the name of
the khnadn with which the novice will be
afliated. The nutmeg, niyz , and nadhr are
divided among the participants in the jam
and partly eaten, partly taken home.
Niyz is the most common ritual, per-
formed as it is, not only in the jam but also
by individuals or small numbers of relatives
or friends on various occasions, especially
during visits to sacred places, as a vow or a
form of thanksgiving. Each nadhr has to be
preceded by a niyz , in order to consecrate
the knife with which the animal is to be
slaughtered. A sayyid must be present at
a niyz to consecrate the offering, and a
commoner has to act as the khdim . The
latter remains standing; the other men pres-
ent sit in a circle with the sayyid . Among
the Grn, there are no strict rules on the
minimum number of attendants; in the
reformed branch of Master Ilh, at least
ve persons have to be present, including
the sayyid and the khdim (During, Systme
des offrandes).
The Ahl-i Haqq have one major annual
festival, the d-i Khwandkr, taking place
around the rst full moon of the Kurdish
winter. This is a three-day fast followed
by a day of celebration, the d proper.
Each evening a jam is held, and the fast
must be kept until the moment the niyz is
distributed. On the nal day, each family
is expected to bring an animal for a large
sacricial meal. A special type of bread,
baked with animal fat, is also prepared
on that day.
4. Doctri nal reformulati ons
An important reformulation of Ahl-i
Haqq doctrine took place among the
Grn in the mid-nineteenth century under
the inuence of a charismatic leader be-
longing to the Khmsh khnadn , Sayyid
Haydar, who became known later as
Sayyid Barka. As present memory has it,
the sayyid had gathered thirty-six dervishes
around him, each of whom composed a
volume of inspired poetry. Their thirty-six
daftar of kalm constitute probably the most
signicant body of authoritative religious
texts among the Grn today; many of
the most cherished kalm belong to this
set. Sayyid Barka was believed to be
Dwd-mazhar, and eventually ve of the
other haftan manifested themselves in him.
The chr malak (Binymn, Dwd, Pr
Ms, and Mus;af) moreover were also
present in nine of the dervishes each, and
56 ahl-i aqq
together with these four indwelling spirits,
the dervishes also constituted, in a sense,
the forty persons (chiltan) . This was the
last great period of revelation, and several
of the peculiarities of the Grns beliefs,
such as the special veneration for Bb
Ydigr over the other haftan , appear to
date to this period. Other peculiarities, to
which some of the Grn owe their repu-
tation among their Muslim neighbours as
devil-worshippers (shaynparast) , is their
veneration of Dwd in his manifestation
as Malak Tws (known to Muslims as
Shay;n) and their affectation of a taste
for wild boar. These may have older origins
but appear to have been strengthened in
the circle around Sayyid Barka. Under
the sayyid s successors, latent dualist ideas
were formulated more explicitly, making
Shh Ibrhm and the haftawna represent
dark cosmic forces opposed, rather than
complementary, to Bb Ydigr and the
haftan .
By the time of his death in 1863,
Sayyid Barka had established himself
as the pr of all the Grn and had
found recognition among other Ahl-i
Haqq communities as well. The village
of Ttshm, which he is alleged to have
founded and which has remained the seat
of the Haydar family, his descendants
and successors, is considered the spiritual
centre of the Grn. He was succeeded
by his grandson, Sayyid Rustam, who
also had considerable charismahe was
said to be Ms-mihmn and wielded
signicant power in Kirmnshh in the
early twentieth century. The next pr s of
the Grn were Rustams sons Shams
al-Dn and Nr al-Dn, succeeded by the
latters grandson Sayyid Nasr al-Dn,
who at the time of writing is the venerated
leader of the community. He steered the
heterodox community safely through the
turbulent years of the Islamic revolution
and war with Iraq (Mir-Hosseini, Inner
truth; Hooshmandrad).
A different reformulation of the Ahl-i
Haqq belief system was that of Hjj
Nimatallh Jayhunbd and his succes-
sors, who, as noted above, brought it into
accommodation with Twelver Shism.
Jayhnbd was a Kurd of Sunn family
background who lived among the Ahl-i
Haqq of the Sahna district and was initi-
ated into the Shh-Hiys khnadn . He was
a visionary, and he set about systematizing
the teachings, rephrasing the myths of
the Grn kalm s in Persian in a more
consistent, chronological narrative. Con-
temporaries detected a strong millenarian
element in his teachings (Stead). He found
a larger following among the Ahl-i Haqq of
northern Iran than in his own community.
Nr Al Ilh (Elh), recognised by many
as a great spiritual master, settled in Tehran
and brought existing Ahl-i Haqq groups
and new converts into his reformed branch
of the Ahl-i Haqq. Under his successor,
Bahrm Elhi, the integration into esoteric
Shism was completed. He publishedin
French, for the benet of a growing circle
of Western convertsseveral books on
spirituality that made only scant reference
to the original Ahl-i Haqq concepts, and
he edited his fathers conversations with
disciples in a format that shunted the spe-
cically Ahl-i Haqq bases of his thought
into the background (Ilh, thr al-aqq ; cf.
Mir-Hosseini, Breaking the seal).
Ofcial terminology in post-revolution-
ary Iran distinguishes three branches of
the Ahl-i Haqq: Maktab, or Ahl-i Haqq
(i.e., the reformed branch led by Elh),
Shay;nparast (i.e., the Grn who follow
the Haydar family), and Al-Ilh, under
which term all other communities are com-
bined. The Kka and related communities
ahl-i aqq 57
(Srl, Bjaln, Ashir-i Saba ) in Iraq ap-
pear to have remained untouched by the
developments in Iran; they did not follow
the movements toward dualism or toward
scripturalisation and accommodation with
ofcial Shism.
Bi bli ography
Martin van Bruinessen et al., Haji Bektash,
Sultan Sahak, Shah Mina Sahib and various
avatars of a running wall, Turcica 213 (1991),
5569 ; Martin van Bruinessen, When Haji
Bektash still bore the name of Sultan Sahak,
in Alexandre Popovic and Gilles Veinstein
(eds.), Bektachiyya. tudes sur lordre mystique des
Bektachis et les groupes relevant de Hadji Bektach ,
Istanbul 1995 ; Jean During, Musique et mys-
tique dans les traditions de lIran , Paris 1989 ;
Jean During, Le systme des offrandes dans
la tradition Ahl-e Haqq, in Krisztina Kehl-
Bodrogi, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, and Anke
Otter-Beaujean (eds.), Syncretistic religious com-
munities in the Near East (Leiden 1997), 4964 ;
Cecil J. Edmonds,The beliefs and practices
of the Ahl-i Haqq of Iraq, Iran 7 (1969),
89106 ; Cecil J. Edmonds, Kurds, Turks, and
Arabs (London 1957), 182201 ; Nr Al-Shh
Elh, Lsotrisme kurde , trans. Mohammad
Mokri, Paris 1966 ; Bahrm Elhi, Le chemin
de la lumire. La voie de Nur Ali Elhi , Paris
1985 ; Bahrm Elahi, Fondements de la spiritualit
naturelle , Paris 1996 ; Bahrm Elhi, La voie de
la perfection. Lenseignement secret dun matre kurde
en Iran , Paris 1976, 2002
5
; Heinz Halm, Die
islamische Gnosis. Die extreme Schia und die Ala-
witen , Zrich 1982 ; M. Reza Hamzehee, The
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Martin M. van Bruinessen
Ahmad b. Hbi;
Amad b. bi (or Hi;, or Khbi;)
(d. 227232/842847) was a theologian
from Basra, who is considered to have been
a Mutazil. He started his career as a stu-
dent of the Mutazil theologian al-Nazzm
(d. before 235/850), but Ibn Hbi;s
views on three issues distinguishedand
distancedhim from his mentor and
58 amad b. bi