A Sufi Martyr, The Apologia of ‘Ain’ al-Qadat al Hamadhani – translation by A. J. Arberry

Abstract:

“Sectarian hostility and doctrinal intolerance took a heavy toll of human lives, and created a crowded calendar of martyrs in mediaeval Islam no less than in Christianity. The most famous victim of outraged orthodoxy was al-Ḥallāj, ‘martyr-mystic of Islam’ as he was called by the late Louis Massignon, erudite and eloquent expositor of his tragedy, condemned by lawyers and theologians for alleged blasphemy, and executed with appalling cruelty in Baghdad on March 26, 922.1 Next most celebrated mystic-martyr”