Faḍl Allāh Ḥurūfī Astarābādī (d. 796/1394), the founder of the Ḥurūfī movement which emerged in Iran during the Tīmūrid period and was centred around his person and teachings. The Ḥurūfīs believed that the letters of the Arabo-Persian alphabet contained hidden meanings and that these meanings took primacy over the apparent meaning of the text when interpreting the Qurʾān. They also believed that human bein…