Ghulat

The term mainly refers to a wide variety of extinct Shiʿi sects active in 8th and 9th-century Kufa in Lower Mesopotamia, and who despite their sometimes significant differences shared several common ideas.

[1] These common ideas included the attribution of a divine nature to the Imams, metempsychosis (the belief that souls can migrate between different human and non-human bodies), a particular gnostic creation myth involving pre-existent 'shadows' (aẓilla) whose fall from grace produced the material world, and an emphasis on secrecy and dissociation from outsiders.

[2] They were named ghulāt by other Shiʿi and Sunni Muslims for their purportedly "exaggerated" veneration of Muhammad (c. 570–632) and his family, most notably Ali (c. 600–661) and his descendants, the Imams.

[12] Like Shi'i Islam itself, the origins of the ghulāt lie in the pro-Alid movements of the late 7th century that fought against the Umayyad Caliphate (r. 661–750) to bring one of Ali's descendants to power.

The earliest use of the term ghulāt is found in several reports about the followers of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, leader of a revolt against the Umayyads on behalf of Ali's son Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, which was part of the Second Fitna, 680–692.

According to these reports, some of al-Thaqafi's followers organized regular meetings in the houses of various Kufan women to listen to diviners (wikt:كاهن⁩) prophesying about future events.

[14] The Arabic verb ghalā, 'to exaggerate', 'to transgress the proper bounds', was in broader use at the time to denounce perceived 'un-Islamic' activities,[15] which may include soothsaying (kahāna).

[23] There had been an earlier movement in Kufa called the Sabāʾiyya, named after the South Arabian Jewish convert Abd Allah ibn Saba', who according to some reports had insisted that Ali was not dead and would return (rajʿa) to seek revenge upon those that opposed him.

One important difference with the later groups is the prominent role played by women, who organized the early ghulāt meetings in their houses and who often acted as teachers, upholding a circle of disciples.

[34] Abu Mansur al-Ijli (died c. 738–744) was the leader of a ghulāt sect called the Manṣūriyya who was killed by the Umayyad governor Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi.

[35] Abd Allah ibn Harb (died 748–9) was the leader of a ghulāt sect called the Janāḥiyya who was killed by the Abbasid activist Abu Muslim al-Khurasani.

[36] Abu al-Khattab al-Asadi (died 755) was the leader of a ghulāt sect called the Khaṭṭābiyya who was killed by the Abbasid governor Isa ibn Musa.

It was later transplanted to Syria by the 10th-century Nusayris, whose final redaction of the work was preserved in a Persian translation produced by the Nizari Isma'ilis of Central Asia.

[41] The work presents itself as a revelation of secret knowledge by the Shi'i Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (677–732) to his disciple Jabir ibn Yazid al-Ju'fi (died c. 745–750).

[41][b] It contains a lengthy exposition of the typical ghulāt myth of the pre-existent shadows (Arabic: aẓilla) who created the world by their fall from grace, as is also found in the Kitāb al-Haft wa-l-aẓilla attributed to al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi (died before 799).

[46] It sets out in great detail the ghulāt myth of pre-existent 'shadows' (Arabic: aẓilla) who created the world by their fall from grace, and who were imprisoned in material human bodies as punishment for their hubris.

[48] It involves such notions as the transmigration of souls (tanāsukh or metempsychosis) and the idea that seven Adams exist in the seven heavens, each one of them presiding over one of the seven historical world cycles (adwār).

[58] The Kitāb al-Ṣirāṭ ('Book of the Path') is another purported dialogue between al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi and Ja'far al-Sadiq, likely composed in the period between the Minor and the Major Occultation (874–941).

[60][h] Believers who perform good works and advance in knowledge travel upwards on the ladder, putting on ever more pure and luminous 'shirts' or bodies, ultimately reaching the realm of the divine.

[61] This upwards path is represented as consisting of seven stages above that of humanity, each located in one of the seven heavens:[62] At every degree the initiate receives the chance to gain a new level of 'hidden' or 'occult' (bāṭin) knowledge.