This Baghdad maqam marks the city where al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (الحسين بن منصور الحلاج) was executed in 309 AH/922 CE. A preacher, poet and mystic, he…
This Baghdad maqam marks the city where al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (الحسين بن منصور الحلاج) was executed in 309 AH/922 CE. A preacher, poet and mystic, he became one of the most discussed figures in the history of Islam’s inward path. Al-Hallaj means “the cotton-carder,” a name connected with the textile craft practised by his family. He was also called Hallaj al-Asrar, “the carder of secrets,” because of his reputation for speaking about what lay within people’s hearts. From Wasit to the masters of Baghdad Born near Bayda in Fars around 244 AH/857–858 CE, al-Hallaj moved as a child to Wasit, where he memorised the Qur’an. He studied with Sahl al-Tustari, joined the circle of Amr ibn Uthman al-Makki in Basra and met al-Junayd of Baghdad. His family ties included Abu Yaqub al-Aqta, whose daughter he married. Al-Hallaj performed the Hajj several times and undertook a prolonged retreat near the Ka'bah. His journeys later carried him through Khuzistan, Khurasan, Transoxiana and lands farther east. Unlike teachers who confined spiritual instruction to a small circle, he preached openly and gathered a wide public following. The poet of “Ana al-Haqq” Al-Hallaj is remembered above all for the expression “Ana al-Haqq” — “I am the Truth.” His words divided the spiritual masters of his age: some rejected their public utterance, while later writers read them through fana, the passing away of awareness of the self before Allah. His writings include Kitab al-Tawasin , a series of meditations named after the Arabic letters Ta and Sin, and a Diwan preserving his poetry. One poem places death and life beside each other in the language that came to define his memory: “Kill me, my trusted friends, for in my being killed is my life; My death is in my life, and my life is in my death.” Al-Hallaj, Diwan Eight years of imprisonment Al-Hallaj spent about eight years imprisoned while accusations concerning his teachings and public activity were examined amid struggles within the Abbasid court. He was executed in Baghdad in 309 AH/922 CE. His body was burned and his ashes were cast into the Tigris. The site on Baghdad’s Karkh side is therefore a commemorative maqam: a structure honouring al-Hallaj’s connection with the city of his imprisonment and death rather than a grave containing his blessed body. His story later entered the works of Farid al-Din Attar, Jalal al-Din Rumi and other poets of the inward path.