Showing posts with label Abu Yazid al-Bestami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abu Yazid al-Bestami. Show all posts
Abu Yazid Taifur ibn ‘Isa ibn Sorushan al-Bestami was born in Bestam in north-eastern Persia, the grandson of a Zoroastrian; there he died in 261(874) or 264(877), and his mausoleum still stands. The founder of the ecstatic (“drunken”) school of Sufism, he is famous for the boldness of his expression of the mystic’s complete absorption into the Godhead. In particular his description of a journey into Heaven (in imitation of the Prophet Mohammad’s “ascension”), greatly elaborated by later writers, exercised a powerful influence on the imagination of all who came after him.
