The Ideas of Pseudo-Empedocles in Baghdad Mysticism of the Ninth-Tenth Centuries CE: Al-Ḥallāj’s Cosmology

This paper looks at the cosmological texts of eminent Sufi al-Ḥusayn b. Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj (d. 309 AH/922 CE) through prism pseudo-Empedocles’s influence. The medieval scholar Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Daylamī was first to juxtapose pseudo-Empedoclean doctrine and al-Ḥallāj’s passionate love (maḥabba). A connection between two postulated by L. Massignon, who reconstructed line succession Baghdad believers in ideas assumed a link Nestorian monastery Dayr Qunnā these ideas. Analysing cosmology reveals an influence some as they appear Arabic sources. Al-Ḥallāj’s fragmentary works his quotations will be examined considering fragments al-Daylamī’s Kitāb ʿAṭf al-alif, Persian text from Sharḥ al-shaṭḥiyāt Rūzbihān Baqlī, al-Sulamī’s Tafsīr. There are also short al-Ṭawāsīn, known quotations. Several concepts such azal, khiṭāb (as logos), qudra, dahr, maʿānī, ṣuwar encountered texts. For al-Ḥallāj, crucial concept creation is (ʿishq, maḥabba), which serves catalyst for creation. Desire (mashī ̉a) mode divine essence. Divine eternity (azal) opposed perpetuity (dahr). In we find secrets (asrār) that resemble maʿānī. But same time, intelligent matter underlying higher world. question creations seems go back understanding materia prima (ʿunṣur) material bodies (the second creations). source probably connected with church, this may way toward explaining links Sufis Christian milieu monasteries Qunnā.