Author

al-Ḥallāj

Persian Sufi executed in Baghdad, famous for the saying “I am the Truth”.

c. 858–922

Also known as Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj, Mansur al-Hallaj

Biography

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj was born around 858 in Fārs, in southern Iran, and grew up in Iraq. His name means “the wool-carder”, his father’s trade. He studied with several of the leading Sufis of his day, among them Sahl al-Tustarī and al-Junayd of Baghdad, but broke with them and taught publicly, travelling widely, to Khurasan and, it is said, to India, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca several times.

His public preaching of the love of God, his ecstatic sayings, among them “anā al-Ḥaqq”, “I am the Truth”, the Truth being one of the names of God, and his political connections made him enemies among the jurists, the government and other Sufis. Arrested in Baghdad, he was held for about nine years, tried for heresy, and executed in 922. Accounts of his death describe him forgiving his executioners.

His surviving work, the Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn, and fragments of poetry and sayings, were collected and studied by the French scholar Louis Massignon, who devoted his life to him. For later Sufis, above all the Persian poets, al-Ḥallāj became the martyr of love, who revealed the secret of union and paid with his life.

Major works

Kitab al TawasinBook, 1913Massignon’s edition of al-Ḥallāj’s Kitāb al-Ṭawāsīn, short meditations in rhymed prose on the Prophet, on unity, and on Satan’s refusal to bow to Adam, the first critical edition of any of al-Ḥallāj’s works.

Philosophical ideas

Scholarship

In union the lover is so passed away in the Beloved that only God speaks; later Sufis read “I am the Truth” in this light, as the speech of God through one who had passed away.

Satan’s refusal to bow to Adam, in the Ṭawāsīn, is read as a paradox of love and monotheism, an idea that later Sufis took up and debated.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “al-Ḥallāj.” Author. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/al-hallaj.
Chicago (note): “al-Ḥallāj,” author, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/al-hallaj.
MLA: “al-Ḥallāj.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/al-hallaj.
BibTeX: @misc{authors-al-hallaj, title = {{al-Ḥallāj}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Author. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/al-hallaj} }

Related authors

Influenced by: Junayd of Baghdad

Related concepts

Related traditions

SufismTraditionThe mystical dimension of Islam, centred on the remembrance and love of God.