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The sub-sect of the Ali-ilahis, as they
are called by their neighbours, or
Ahl-i Haqq as they prefer to call
themselves is a variety of Shi'ite
extremism (ghulat) obviously forming
a super-structure over an earlier
primitive religion. What this was,
we cannot yet determine. In any case
it was neither Zoroastrianism, nor
ancient Babylonian religion, nor yet
Christianity. The Ali-ilahis themselves
always like to advance the theory
that their beliefs are the same as
those of the Alawis
(Nusayris) of Syria. This is extremely
doubtful, however, and the case most
probably is that the Ali-ilahis who
claim such connection themselves have
no idea of the Nusayri religious theories.
What forms the common element in Ali-ilahisim
and Nusayrism, and, in addition Druzism
and Satpanth, is merely the Shi'ite
extremist view point, and this is
obviously not enough for these religions
to be regarded as coming from one
common stock.
There is, in fact, a substantial difference
between Ali-ilahism on the one hand,
and Druzism and Nusayrism on the other.
While the last two Shi' ite sects
are strictly confined to one nation,
speaking one and the same language,
and ethnically homogeneous, the case
of Ali-ilahism is different. It forms
the religion of various tribes and
ethnical groups, speaking different
languages, and scattered amongst the
population belonging to different
religions. Turkish, Kurdish, Gurani,
Luri and Persian, are used by them
in various parts of the country, but,
although the sect is divided into
many sub-sects or branches, the sense
of unity is nevertheless in existence.
Thus Ali-ilahism, and Satpanth, are
not "tribal" religions,
but are independent from ethnical
and class affiliation. In Satpanth
it is easy, to assess its Hinduistic
and Tantric base because these two
systems are still going strong and
are well-known. In the case of Ali-ilahism
such original base does not exist
independently, and is entirely forgotten.
We can only hope to find some information
about it when Ali-ilahism is properly
studied and all its non Islamic elements
reliably traced and identified.
The greatest difficulty that faces the
student of Ali-ilahism is the absence
of original works of the sect. I was
often told that the heads of the sect,
whose headquarters are in the hills
near Kerind, a town on the Kermanshah-Baghdad
road, possess a library of Saranjam
literature, the books of which are
stored in rows (qatâr ba-qatâr).
It seems, however, that this is pure
imagination, and apparently the Ali-ilahis
have no recognized and standard religious
works from which one can obtain a
complete idea of their religion. For
the most part, it seems, just as in
the case of Satpanth, religious knowledge
is embodied in religious poems by
different authors, and especially
kalamsi.e. utterings of various saints
or manifestations of the Divine Substance.
These are just as polyglottic as the
Satpanth gnans . Those books which
like the text translated by V. Minorsky
deal, in prose, with various religious
subjects, are mostly the productions
of people of scanty education who
try to commit to writing, for memory
only, what they have heard from their
priests, who are supposed to be the
real guardians of the oral tradition.
These gentlemen are extremely jealous
of their privileges and part with
their knowledge only very unwillingly,
perhaps not without accepting some
tangible proofs of gratitude from
those who are very keen to learn more
about it. Therefore we have nothing
but hasty records of various stories,
mostly extolling the miraculous deeds
of various incarnations of the Deity
or different saints. The miracles,
and stories about them, are predominantly
of two types. One is intended to glorify
the saints and their acts for didactic
purposes, and the other explains the
origin of this or that practice or
custom in Ali-ilahi worship, the aetiological
myths, ithbat . The uneducated authors
of such notes, being absorbed with
the story itself, very often concentrate
on the dramatic contents of the tradition,
not bringing out clearly the religious
implications of the story and its
purpose or simply disregarding them.
Thus they turn tradition into all
accumulation of religious fairy tales
from which it is difficult to get
any clear or useful idea of the system.
The basic theory of Ali-ilahism is that
of the Shi'ite extremism in general,
namely of the manifestation of the
Divine Substance in human form in
this world. "Manifestations of
the Divine Substance", as well
informed Ali-ilahis say, "were
numberless." The one that occurred
at the beginning of the Islamic era
was in the form of Ali b. Abi Talib.
Thus, although the terms Imam or Imamat
are not mentioned, it appears that
the idea is the same as in Ismailism,
in its Fatimid interpretation, according
to which the world cannot exist without
the Imam.
It is also to parallel with other Shi'ite
sects that manifestations of the Divine
Substance, are always accompanied
by the manifestations of several,
in this case of four, associates,
yârûn-i chahâr malak,
as they are called, and in addition
a female associate (which is not found
in Ismailism) .This to some extent
resembles a reduced programme of the
Ismaili conception of religious history
of the world which is divided into
seven periods of millennial duration
dawr) at the beginning of which an
Apostle of God, Natiq is sent to humanity,
accompanied by his Asas, or Wasi,
and the latter followed by seven Imams,
each accompanied by twelve hujjats
.In tribal life, with its narrow limits
of vision, such a grand progamme would
surely have been excessive, and, perhaps,
this is why the number of the associates
has been reduced.
The fact that it is the Imam who is here
number one, and not the Prophet, is
easily explained by the evolution
common to all sects with extremist
tendencies. Such beliefs are already
attested by the earliest known heresiological
works and, despite the strong opposition
that they met in the Islamic society
as a whole, they always indicated
the tendency to further intensification.
Not only Persian darwishes, but even
orthodox lthna-'asharism has not escaped
this.
From whence comes that strange term applied
to the associates of the incarnation,
malak , "angel"? At first
it appears to be the influence of
Christianity. We may remember,
however, that there were "angels"
in the Khattâbite doctrine as
early as the first half of the second
eighth c., although their functions
were different. In the ideas of the
various incarnations we find that
the earliest set was headed by Sahabkar,
i.e. God, accompanied by the Biblical
and Coranic angels : Jabrail, Mîkâ'il,
and others. It is difficult to find
out whether this is merely a late
addition, to add symmetry to the general
scheme, and make subsequent incarnations
manifestations of those original substances.
At the time of the manifestation of Ali,
as an incarnation of the Divine Substance,
we find the names of the "four
angels" which show apparently
a very late origin. The first is Salmân
(Fârsî), that Persian
national Shi' ite saint. Next to him
comes Qanbar, a legendary Negro slave
of Ali who is hardly ever mentioned
in early Shi'ite tradition, but becomes
a prominent person under the Safawids
and later. Only the third place is
given to Muhammed the Prophet. The
fourth is reserved to Nusayr, probably
on account of the tendency to make
Ali-ilahism the same as Nusayrism.
Apparently an original Ali-ilahi feature
is the addition of a female incarnation,
here Fâtima, the daughter of
the Prophet. This development may
be due to Christian influences and
to the difference of the position
of woman in tribal life compared with
that in the towns, or, perhaps, even
almost completely obliterated trace
of some ancient cult of the Mother
Goddess which flourished in Mesopotamia.
From all the stories which are accessible
to us now it is not easy to see the
real purpose of the incarnation of
the Deity in human form. In the fragment
edited here the Deity, before disappearing,
appoints the four Angels and their
associates "to carry on the preaching
and guidance of men towards God"
(da'wat wa hidayat kunand ba-suy-i
Jawhar). Nothing is said of the Incarnation
giving any law or introducing reforms.
Vague references are incidentally
made to a certain "unutterable
mystery" which the Deity will
reveal.
The names of the incarnations and their
principal associates may be reminiscences
of certain Ali-ilahi tribal heroes
or saints. But it is quite possible
that at least some, in the case of
the incarnations of the Deity, as
"Jawhar" here, are conventionalized
surnames invented to camouflage their
memory from the uninitiated. Apparently
there is no chronology, and no "history"
. Tribal existence is so monotonous
in the struggle against want, nature,
and interminable feuds, and the style
of life is so stagnant that a century
or two hardly makes any difference
to the story.
The intensely tribal atmosphere of these
fragments which are so far known make
the problem of the origin of Ali-ilahism
extremely difficult to solve. When
and how had it become a religion independent
of a community? What was the organisation
which had brought about such unity
of belief? Or, if in reality it was
born as a tribal religion, what were
the historical conditions which led
to adoption by other peoples, speaking
different languages? These and many
other questions cannot be answered
at present. We do not even know what
exactly is the hierarchy and religious
organisation of Ali-ilahism, because
the ordinary adepts, for the most
part illiterate people, know too little
and have no intellectual keenness
to ask themselves such questions.
Their Sayyids, priests, are too concerned
with guarding their traditional privileges,
and are clever enough to do everything
they can to preserve the illusion
of their being the treasurers of some
mysteries of extraordinary importance.
They would be the last men to give
reliable information, or especially
hand over what they possess of their
religious books.
The Ali-ilahis are subdivised into a
considerable number of sub-sects,
and it always so happens that the
one to which the sectarian, with whom
you happen to be talking himself belongs,
is the oldest, the most important,
influential and "orthodox".
The names of such branches are differently
given by different people, and the
impression may be created that no-one
knows anything for certain, always
being ready to "improvise"
the answer concerning matters of which
he has no idea.
The religious practice of the sect consists
of the usual items of Islamic worship,
without, however, its Arabic shell.
The most important un-Islamic feature
is the jam', or community's meeting
at which sacrificial blessed food
is distributed. It is, in fact, a
close parallel of the Satpanth ghat-pat
. There are also fasts, payment of
a religious tax, and so forth, which
are technically called khidmat, "service."
The number of the khidhmats is ten,
and this number is apparently fixed.
It is characteristic of the level
of the religious education of the
sect that despite my persistent inquiries
at every opportunity of meeting any
sectarian, I could never get a complete
list of all ten. The text translated
by Minorsky contains several aetiological
myths of various khidhmats , but it
is difficult to recognize them without
knowing to what they refer.
The outlines given above will be sufficient
to help the reader to follow the text
of the fragment edited here. It would
be a deplorable loss for the cultural
history of Asia if the beliefs and
literature of the sect were allowed
to become extinct and forgotten without
having been critically studied, because
here we may trace important data that
might serve as the keys to the solution
of the problems of "sub-cultural"
exchange and connections of wide masses.
Page last updated:
Friday, July 11, 2008 16:40:35 -0400 |
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