An Analysis of the Gnostic Roots in the Thought of the Kūfan Ghulāt and Their Influence on the Formation of Shiʿi Kalām in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries CE

Abstract

One of the lands associated with the ancient religions of Iran and the world is the region of Mesopotamia. With the fall of Babylon and the domination of Cyrus the Great, these regions became centers of decision-making, particularly for Iranians, to the extent that they were even referred to as Iranshahr. This vital region was also the birthplace of many world religions, in such a way that Iranian ideas and doctrines became interwoven with a wide range of ancient indigenous religions of the area. During this historical period, various intellectual movements and currents emerged in opposition to the Umayyads, many of whose teachings were also in conflict with the foundations of Islamic thought. With the emergence of these ideas and currents, a fundamental question may be raised: how did these ideas find their way into the intellectual, doctrinal, and even theological views of Muslim Shiʿi movements? In response to this question, our hypothesis is based on the assumption that the most prominent and enduring of these syncretic ideas were Gnostic and mystical doctrines, which re-emerged in Kūfa after the advent of Islam and even during the period of Umayyad rule, and subsequently continued until the formation of Shiʿi kalām in the seventh and eighth centuries CE. The findings of this study indicate that the overall intellectual, doctrinal, and social life of these currents also appeared in the form of radical social movements, such as the ghulāt Shiʿa, and was accompanied by a combination of elements and components such as dualism, gnosis, embodiment, metempsychosis, esotericism, mysticism, salvific doctrines, and extremist tendencies. These components have also been reported as being influenced by intellectual sources, syncretic doctrines, and the ideas of Gnostic and dualist currents.