Anjuman-i Ukhuvvat (Society of Brotherhood) was a mystical society rooted in Ṣūfism, originally a continuation of the Ṣafīʿalīshāhī branch of Niʿmatallāhiyya, an Iranian Shīʿī Ṣūfī order founded by the Syrian-born Persian mystic and author Shāh Niʿmatallāh Valī (d. 834/1431). The founder and first leader ( quṭb, lit., pole) of the Ṣafīʿalīshāhī lineage was Mīrzā Ḥasan Iṣfahānī, called Ṣafīʿalīshāh (d. 1899) (van den Bos, 92; Zarcone, 317). Ṣafīʿalīshāh’s personal characteristics and social activities assured him a large following that incl…

The Gunābādiyya is the largest of the three main Niʿmatallāhiyya orders and the predominant Shīʿī Ṣūfī silsila (“chain” of spiritual authority) in Iran (Modarrisī Chahārdahī, 188ff.). (The Niʿmatallāhiyya, historically influential in Central Asia and India but today mostly in Iran, with significant groups in western Europe, goes back to Shāh Niʿmatallāh Valī, d. 843/1431, a Syrian-born Iranian mystic and author who settled in Kirmān, in southeastern Iran.) Under the Niʿmatallāhī master Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn Raḥmat ʿA…

Sayyid Mīr ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Maʿṣūm ʿAlī Shāh Dakanī (b. c. 1147/1734–5, d. end twelfth/eighteenth century) was an Indian-born spiritual master of the Niʿmatallāhī Ṣūfī order who revived Niʿmatallāhī Ṣūfism in Persia in the second half of the twelfth/eighteenth century (the Niʿmatallāhiyya, historically influential in Central Asia and India but today mostly in Iran, with significant groups in the West, goes back to Shāh Niʿmatallāh Valī, d. 843/1431, a Syrian-born Iranian mystic and author who settled in K…

The Dhahabiyya is one of the three main Shīʿī Ṣūfī orders in Iran (the others are the Khāksār and three autonomous branches in the Niʿmatallāhiyya line). Its name referred initially to several distinct groups (Zarrīnkūb, 183) and is usually, but problematically, connected with the word dhahab (gold) (see Algar, who indicates, for instance, that reference to the order as silsilat al-dhahab, in reflection of the first eight Shīʿī Imāms in their spiritual genealogy, does not distinguish the Dhahabiyya from other orders, including Sunnī Ṣūfī orders). Its silsila (“chain” of spiritual…

Riḍā ʿAlī Shāh Dakanī (b. c.1142–3/1730, d. 1214/1799–1800) was the last of the Deccan-based aqṭāb (lit., poles, that is, heads of the order; Ar. pl. of quṭb) in the Niʿmatallāhī Ṣūfī order, as recognised in the salāsil (“chains” of spiritual authority, Ar. pl. of silsila) of its current branches (Gramlich, 1:27–57). The leadership of the Niʿmatallāhī order had been transferred from Persia to the Deccan in the first half of the ninth/fifteenth century (Algar, Niʿmat-Allāhiyya, 46), and would return there thanks to Riḍā ʿAlī Shāh (the Niʿmatallāhiyya, historically infl…

Ḥājj Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Dhū l-Riyāsatayn Mūnis ʿAlī Shāh, born 13 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1290/11 May 1873 (Ādamiyyat, Dānishmandān, 575) in Shiraz (Humāyūnī, 233), was a spiritual master in the Dhū l-Riyāsatayn order (a group of people who congregate together, mostly under a contemporary spiritual leader) of the Niʿmatallāhiyya Ṣūfī path (a line of succession and a spiritual tendency). The latter, historically influential in Central Asia and India but today mostly in Iran, with significant groups in western Europe, go…

The Kubraviyya, a major Ṣūfī order indigenous to Central Asia, along with the Yasaviyya and the Naqshbandiyya, was the most prominent of the three in the region during the Mongol era (the founding of these orders has been ascribed to Aḥmad Yasavī, d. early sixth/twelfth century, and Bahāʾ al-Dīn Naqshband, d. 791/1389). 1. Najm al-Dīn Kubrā and the origins of the Kubraviyya Named after the Central Asian mystic, scholar, and author Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221), who perished in the Mongol conquest of Khvārazm, the organisation garnered significant prestige in the region’s cul…

Meteorology in Islam was part of the natural sciences. The knowledge of meteorological phenomena contributed to weather forecasting. The principles and causes of the phenomena required scientific proofs, which overcame the controversies of astrologers, as well as incorrect opinions based on tradition. A statement to this effect by the philosopher al-Kindī (d. between 247/861 and 259/873) (Brentjes, 19f.) is based on his knowledge of Aristotle’s methodology and meteorology, as known to the Arabs as early as the third/ninth century. 1. The Aristotelian tradition At that time, Ar…

Astrology (ʿilm (or ṣināʿat) aḥkām al-nujūm, “the science (or art) of the judgements of the stars”) has always held a significant position in Islamic society, in spite of frequent condemnation by both scientists and religious authorities. The astrologer (munajjim) learnt his art usually by apprenticeship, sometimes in an observatory. He had to be knowledgeable in arithmetic and astronomy, and the dust-board (takht, for calculating), the astrolabe, tables of planetary movement (zīj), and ephemeris (taqwīm) were his tools of trade. He could be found practising in the s…