Aḥmad Jām, Shaykh Abū Naṣr Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Abī al-Ḥasan al-Nāmiqī, who was given the laqab Zhandah Pīl (or Zandah Fīl) (440–536/1048–1142), was a well-known Sufi who was held to be a descendant of one of the Prophet’s Companions, Jarīr b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī. He was therefore also known as Aḥmad al-ʿArabī or Aḥmad al-Bajalī (Ghaznawī, 16; Abū al-Makārim, 10–11; Būzjānī, 26).

Aḥmad was born in the village of Nāmiq (or Nāmaq, Namik), a dependency of Turshīz in Khurāsān, but there …