Sheikh Ahmad-e Jami

A Sufi poet of Khurasan; founder of the Jamiyya order. His full name is Abu Nasr Ahmad b. Abi'l-Hasan al-Nameqi. He is known by the titles Shaykh al-Islam, Shaykh-i Jam, Pir-i Jam and above all Zhinda-pil (Zandafil). Because he descended from the famous Companion Jarir b. 'Abd Allah al-Bajali he is also called Shaykh Ahmad al-'Arabi or Ahmad al-Bajali; after his birthplace, the village of Nameq, he was called Ahmad-i Nameqi, and because he became famous in the town of Jam where he later settled, Ahmad-i Jam or Ahmad-i Jami.

He was born in 441 (1049) in the village of Nameq in the Keşmir district of Khurasan. As he himself relates in his Siraj al-sa'irin, he spent his youth idly; certain extraordinary experiences he met with during a gathering of revelry he had arranged for his friends led him to repentance. Leaving his family and his village, he withdrew into seclusion on a mountain near the town of Jam. In this life of seclusion, which lasted eighteen years, he acquired knowledge of jurisprudence, theology, hadith, exegesis, literature and Sufism.

His spiritual and Sufi life is linked to the spiritual influence of the famous Sufi Abu Sa'id-i Abi'l-Khayr (d. 440/1049); in this respect the source notes that he may be called an Uwaysi. Yet according to the source, Jami and Abu Sa'id held views so different as to be almost the opposite of one another.

After leaving his seclusion he went among the people and was occupied with spiritual guidance for more than fifty years. In Sarakhs, Bazjan, Herat, Marw, Bakharz and Nishapur, where he went to preach and counsel, he became acquainted with scholars and emirs and strove for the spread of religious truths and the moral betterment of the people. In 1140 he went on pilgrimage and on his return stopped at Nishapur, where he met the town's notables.

He died on 10 Muharram 536 (15 August 1141) in his lodge in the village of Ma'dabad (Mahdabad) near the town of Jam and was buried there. Living at a time when some Sufis preferred celibacy, he had forty-two children — thirty-nine sons and three daughters — and advised others to marry. For nine centuries his descendants have been known in Iran as the Mashayikh-i Jam, and his spiritual influence continues today; Maham Begum, mother of Humayun, Banu Begum, mother of Akbar, and Banu Agha traced their genealogies to him.

His Circle of Influence — His children, grandchildren and disciples kept his spiritual memory alive with great care, and in time this movement became the Jamiyya order. The works of his sons Zahir al-Din 'Isa and Shihab al-Din Isma'il, and of his grandson Qutb al-Din Muhammad, son of his son Shams al-Din Mutahhar, have come down to us. Zahir al-Din 'Isa, author of Rumuz al-haqa'iq and Sirr al-bada'i', was among the leading figures of his age in learning and letters. Shihab al-Din Isma'il wrote a hagiography of his father, Dar Ithbat-i Buzurgi-i Shaykh-i Jam, answering the charges of his opponents; 'Abd al-Rahman Jami drew on this work when describing the shaykh in the Nafahat al-uns. His grandson Qutb al-Din Muhammad, whose pen name was Ibn Mutahhar, wrote a Sufi work entitled Hadiqat al-haqiqa.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — As his surviving works and the stories told of him show, he was a Sunni Sufi. In the Miftah al-najat he counts faithful adherence to the Ahl al-Sunna, after faith in God, as the most important duty. While pointing out that sama' is not forbidden, he says that those who practised it in his day followed their carnal desires; he advises his followers to practise silent rather than vocal dhikr. He likens ignorant and self-seeking shaykhs to eagles that see carrion from very far away, and warns those who attach themselves to such shaykhs: "Not every spring is fit to drink from, not every pasture fit to graze." He also opposes the exoteric scholars of his time, insisting that knowing Arabic does not make one learned and that not everyone who does not know Arabic is ignorant. This uncompromising stance won him many enemies, but his strong influence over the people left his opponents no way to harm him. In his prose works he stresses asceticism and piety; in his poems he speaks mostly of love, and he wrote amorous and at times even rindane verses. In his poems he uses the pen names Ahmad, Ahmad-i Jam and Ahmad-i Jami.

His Works — His works deal mostly with Sufism, manners, exhortation and counsel and are written in Persian in a plain style; he prefers to convey his meaning through dialogues and often resorts to similes and parables. The main ones are: the Miftah al-najat, written in an introduction and seven chapters at the wish of his repentant son Najm al-Din; the Uns al-ta'ibin, written to convey his ideas accurately when his followers had multiplied and it was no longer possible to meet everyone; the Rawdat al-mudhnibin, composed in 526 (1132); the Risala-i Samarqandiyya, consisting of letters he wrote from Samarkand; and the Divan, printed many times in India between 1302 and 1342, some editions of which have 2820 and others 4000 couplets (a manuscript of 2537 couplets is in the Süleymaniye Library together with his Qalandarnama). There are various manuscripts of the Bihar al-haqiqa, composed in 527 (1133), and the Kunuz al-hikma, written in 533 (1139); a copy of the three-volume Siraj al-sa'irin is in the National Library in Tehran.

His Tomb and Complex — Ma'dabad was not an important place at the time, but because the shaykh's tomb was there and his children and grandchildren lived there, it became a town visited, and even settled, by his disciples. Famous rulers such as Timur and Humayun were among its visitors. Before long Ma'dabad came to be called Turbat-i Jam or Turbat-i Shaykh-i Jam. The tomb built over his grave, regarded as a masterpiece of art, is known as the Gunbad-i Sabz or Gunbad-i Firuzshahi.