Oddcast episode

June 15, 2025

Coming Back for More, Part XII: Mushegh Asatryan on Early Islamic Reincarnationism among the Ghulāt

We saw in Episode 222 of the podcast that, among the many beliefs held by early shī‘ī ‘extremists’ was belief in reincarnation. In this episode, an interview with Mushegh Asatryan of the University of Calgary, we explore the texts, the cosmology, and the reincarnationist beliefs of the earliest reincarnationists among the Believers, the so-called ‘Ghulāt’. In a wide-ranging discussion we cover, among other topics:

• A brief survey of which ghulāt texts survive, and among whose religious textual corpora,
• A look at the emenatory cosmogenesis of the ghulāt, in which
• Human beings are part of the divine economy, capable of descending to the depths of creation (reincarnating as inanimate objects) and ascending to the heights of spiritual nearness to god through seven steps of divine knowledge and virtue.
• We also discuss the notion of ḥulūl, or of divine indwelling, through which an aspect of god’s essence in the form of a rūḥ inhabits the bodies of patriarchs, prophets, and imams, making them more-than-human,
• The related question of the deification of Muḥammad and ‘Alī (often an accusation thrown at the ghulāt, but – it turns out – pretty much what they taught),
• The Nachleben of ghulāt reincarnationist ideas, and much more.

This one is an absolute banger, kids, and Asatryan delivers the goods in spectacular fashion.

Interview Bio:

Mushegh Asatryan is Associate Professor of History at the University of Calgary. He writes on the construction of ‘heresy’ and ‘orthodoxy’ in medieval Islam, early Islamic sectarianism, on ‘Abbāsid intellectuals, heretics, and rebels, and related things. He has an abiding interest in the history and doctrines of the ghulāt, on whom he has published quite a bit (including Controversies in Formative Shi‘i Islam, which is open access). His edited volume, Early Islamic Sectarianism in Context: The Ghulat Between Late Antiquity and Modernity will be out soon. You can read and download his earlier writings on the Ghulat and related things here.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Secondary:

Mushegh Asatryan. Kitab al-ashbah wa l-azilla, in ”An Early Shi’i Cosmology: Kitab al-ashbah wa l-azilla and its milieu”. Studia Islamica, 110:1–80, 2015.

Wladimir Ivanov. Umm al-Kitāb. Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, Tehran, 1998. Reprint with French translation by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi.

Pseudo-Mufaddal al-Ju’fi. Kitab al-haft wa l-azilla. Beirut, 1981. Available in multiple editions. First published in 1960 by Arif Tamir and Ignace Khalife.

Kitāb al-Ṣirāṭ narrated by an AI-generated Ja‘far al-Ṣadiq on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5bOZqoaJ7M&t=14299s.

Recommended Reading:

SHWEP CB4M XII Islamic Reincarnationism Recommended Reading

 

 

Themes

Ahl-i Ḥaqq, Cosmic Ascent, Esoteric Islam, Ghulāt, Ḥulūl, Ishrāqi Philosophy, Islam, Isma‘ilism, Kaisaniyya, Manichæism, Metempsychosis, Nuqṭawiyya, Nuṣayriyya, Shi‘ī Esotericism, Shiʿi Islam, Zoroastrianism