Nur ‘Ali Shah

Nur‘ali Shah Isfahani, Muhammad ‘Ali ibn Fayz‘ali Shah Mirza ‘Abd al-Husayn ibn Mulla Muhammad ‘Ali (d. 1797). A distinguished mystic and poet flourishing in the nineteenth century. He was originally from Tun in Khurasan (modern day Firdaws), but his great grandfather had settled in Isfahan and he and his father had been born in Isfahan. He first took up exoteric sciences and achieved mastery of literary disciplines. In his early youth, he departed with his father for Shiraz where they were both patronized by Sayyid Ma’sum ‘Alishah Dakkani and were accorded the titles Fayz’ali Shah and Nur’ali Shah respectively. Following the execution of Ma’sum’ali Shah, Nur’ali Shah succeeded him as the chief shaykh of the Ni’matullahi Order. Finally, he was excommunicated by fanatics and he had to depart from his hometown, but owing to the unrest caused by the vulgar people, he had to lead the life of a vagabond. Having endured a life imbued with agonies and traveling in the provinces of Persia and the Arab Iraq, he died in Mosul. His works include: an exegesis in verse of Surat al-Baqara (2); Jami’ al-Asrar, devoted to morals and counsels; Jannat al-Wisal, a mystical mathnawi in which he makes mention of the patronage of Ahmad Shah, the ruler of Baghdad. He had originally in mind to compose the mathnawi in eight volumes, but he died left the third volume incomplete which was posthumously completed by his disciple, Rawnaq’ali Shah who supplemented two more volumes to it. Later, Nizam’ali Shah Kirmani composed volumes six and seven; Divan of poetry, including his ghazals, qasidas, and qit’as; Risala-yi Usul wa Furu’; Risala dar Kimiya; Risala dar Maw’iza; Rawzat al-Shuhada’, on the passions of Imam Husayn (AS); a commentary in verse on Khutbat al-Bayan; Mishkat al-Najah.

Subh-i Gulshan (558); Majma’ al-Fusaha’ (2/ 496).