Search

Bābā Ṭāhir ʿUryān (“the Naked”) was a legendary or semi-legendary mystic and poet of central-western Iran, usually dated to the fourth/tenth or fifth/eleventh century. Associated with him in that part of Iran are two tombs, one at Hamadhān and one at Khurramābād, the capital of the province of Luristan, where he is much venerated. The tomb at Hamadhān was mentioned in 740/1340 and was described in 1922, before it was rebuilt. It was a low brick building, with a nearby structure consisting of a roo…

The principles or practice of people who engage in rigorous self-discipline, abstinence and austerity for the sake of spiritual or intellectual discipline. The Arabic term zuhd — not found in the Qurʾān — has usually been translated as “asceticism” but would be better rendered as “renunciation of the world.” Another Arabic word that does not appear in the Qurʾān, nask (also vocalized as nusk and nusuk), which designates the pious lifestyle of the hermit, is a closer equivalent of “asceticism.” There is not much about asceticism in the Qurʾān, but a certain am…