Mansur al-Hallaj
| Mansur al-Hallaj | |
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The execution of Mansur Al-Hallaj (manuscript illustration from Mughal India, circa 1600)
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| Born | 858 CE Fars |
| Died | 26 March 922 CE Baghdad |
| Ethnicity | Persian |
| Era | Abbasid |
| Religion | Islam |
| Creed | Islam, Sunni |
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Mansur al-Hallaj (Arabic: ابو المغيث الحسين بن منصور الحلاج Abū 'l-Muġīṭ Al-Ḥusayn bin Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ; Persian: منصور حلاج Mansūr-e Ḥallāj) (c. 858 – 26 March 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH – 309 AH) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism. He is most famous 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 mystical 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.
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'. His grandfather was a Zoroastrian. His father moved to a town in Wasit famous for its school of Quran reciters. 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. During this period Al-Hallaj lost his ability to speak Persian and later wrote exclusively in Arabic.
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. 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. He retained from this period some apparently Shi'i expressions, but he remained faithful to Sunnism.
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