Bionote
Abū l-Maʿālī ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Miyānajī (al-Mayānijī), known as ʿAyn al-Qużāt Hamadānī, was a Sufi, philosopher, and scholar active for the most part during the 6th/12th century. He was born in Hamadan into a family that had migrated there from Miyāna, affiliated with both Shīʿī and Shāfiʿī schools of thought. His father, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿAlī Miyānajī, and his grandfather Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ḥasan Miyānajī (d. 471/1078), were both judges in Hamadan (the latter killed one morning during dawn prayers in the mosque). ʿAyn al-Qużāt studied speculative theology in his early years, though the practice generated much anxiety and confusion for him, until he read the works of Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1112). In 516/1122, he met and studied with Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (d. 520/1126) for some weeks while the latter was passing through Hamadan. He maintained contact with Aḥmad through letters after the latter’s departure. ʿAyn al-Qużāt became the disciple of the illiterate Sufi master Baraka Hamadānī (d. 520/1126), Muḥammad b. Ḥamūya (d. 530/1137), and one Shaykh Fatḥa. He spent much of his time holding lessons in his lodge or visiting Sufis’ graves, but also was a practicing judge. By 521/1127, accusations emerged in Hamadan that ʿAyn al-Qużāt was making claims to divinity. He was an open critic of the Seljuk government and persons who sought out livelihood in its administration. In the course of his struggles with the mustawfī ʿAzīz al-Dīn (d. 527/1133), one of ʿAyn al-Qużāt’s followers, by the minister Qawām al-Dīn Abū l-Qāsim Dargazīnī (d. 527/1133), ʿAyn al-Qużāt was arrested as a heretic and infidel. He was imprisoned in Baghdad for several years while Dargazīnī prepared a case against him with the backing of other scholars. ʿAyn al-Qużāt Hamadānī was executed in Hamadan in 525/1131 by being flayed, crucified upon the door of his college, then burnt (some say alive) inside an oiled mat. He may have had a son named Aḥmad. ʿAyn al-Qużāt’s grave in Hamadan was a popular site of pilgrimage until its destruction by the Safavids.