Ahl-i Haqq ('People of the Truth', also called Ali Ilahi)

Ahl-i Haqq, "Men of God", is a secret religion found mainly in western Persia, in the Kurdish lands and in Azerbaijan. Its beliefs mix Shia extremism, Sufi practice and older ideas of incarnation and metempsychosis. Its doctrine is set out in the Firkan of Ni'mat Allah.

The name Ahl-i Haqq is rather imprecise, since the Hurufis and some Sufi groups use the same words, and the people themselves call their faith the "religion of Truth" (haqiqat). The sect is also known to its neighbours as Ali Ilahi, a name the article judges unsuitable because 'Ali is not the dominant figure in its religion. It is not a single church with canonical unity; it is closer to a federation of associated movements, with twelve main khanadans or silsilas, and the account is based mainly on the Atash-begi documents, supplemented by the Firkan. ¹

Its central dogma is belief in the successive manifestations of the Divinity, seven in number. Each time God clothes himself in a garment, appearing with a group of four or five angels. In pre-eternity the Divinity was enclosed in a pearl. His first appearance was in Khawandagar, the creator of the world; the second was in 'Ali. The four first epochs correspond to the stages of knowledge: the shari'a, the tariqa, the haqiqa and the highest stage, represented by Sultan Sohak. The angels are emanations of one another, and the beings they correspond to include Benyamin, Dawud, Musa and Razbar, a fifth angel charged with the supervision of worship. Human souls pass through many incarnations, and the sect expects a Lord of Time to come to accomplish the desires of the faithful. ¹

The Ahl-i Haqq put great weight on collective assemblies (jam), held at fixed intervals and at important events, with kalams recited to music. Dhikr ceremonies bring darwishes into ecstasy, and the assemblies centre on offerings and sacrifices, including the cooking and distribution of food. Each member is commended to a pir in a ceremony of "sabz namudan", and a brother-and-sister union (shart-i ikrar) is formed between a man and a woman to attain moral perfection. The fast lasts three days in winter, except among the Atash-begi, who do not keep it. ²

The Firkan was written by Haji Ni'mat Allah of Diayhun-abad near Dinawar (1871–1920), of the Khamushi division. After 1324/1906 he took the role of messenger of the Lord of Time. His son Nur 'Ali Shah, born 1313/1895, wrote his biography and an introduction under the title Kashf al-Haqa'iq. The Firkan has four parts, and it reserves a special place for Khawandagar and Sultan Sohak, while it does not speak of seven epochs. ²

The Ahl-i Haqq are found mainly in Luristan, the Kurdish districts (among the Guran, east of Zohab, with Kerend as a town), and in Azerbaijan around Tabriz and Maku, with branches in Transcaucasia. There are small colonies in Hamadan, Tehran, Mazandaran, Fars and Khurasan, and among the Kurdish and Turkoman tribes of Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyya and perhaps Mosul. Their religion is typically syncretic, with Shia extremism at its base, and it shares the worship of 'Ali with the Druze and the Nusayris, though 'Ali is overshadowed by Sultan Sohak. European travellers from the early nineteenth century, such as Rawlinson, first gave reliable information about the sect, and Minorsky's studies, including his manuscript and his visits to the shrines at Baba Yadegar and Perdiwar, established the main lines of the account. ²