Introduction

Over the past decades, the reformist (maktabi) branch of Iranian Ahl-e Haqq (Yaresan) has undergone a stupendous metamorphosis that, although showing similarities with other former ghulat groups, nevertheless seems to be unique. The transformation process started three generations ago in Iran with the writing down of the community's religious tenets, which had previously been transmitted orally. It was Nur Ali Elahi (d. 1974), called ‘Ostad Elahi’ by his admirers, who was mainly responsible for reconciling the doctrines of the Ahl-e Haqq with Twelver Shi‘a Islam by placing them in the context of the esoteric Shi‘a. Subsequently, his son Bahram Elahi (b. 1931) gave his father's teachings a universal dimension by publishing books in French for the growing Western community and by establishing the Ostad Elahi Foundation in Paris (2000) that is said to teach ‘ethics and human solidarity’ according to Nur Ali Elahi's concepts. The Foundation was even granted NGO special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This contribution will focus on the web presentation, the activities and networks of the Foundation. It will be argued that the community has tried to benefit from a booming Western interest in esotericism and a global ethos.

The Challenges of Modernity

Since the nineteenth century the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) has witnessed a series of reform and social movements that have tried to come to terms with the challenges posed by Western colonial interventions (including missionary efforts), state efforts at modernisation, and the influx of new secular ideologies. In time, other hitherto marginalised religious groups were also certain to react to these challenges in order to adapt their tenets of belief to the altered socio-political and cultural conditions, and to reposition themselves in the emerging modernised society and state.

The so-called ghulat, or extreme Shi‘a communities (Turkish Alevis, Syrian Alawites/Nusayris, Ahl-e Haqq, henceforth AH), offer a particularly interesting example. Over centuries they were accused of heresy or even worse of polytheism, excluded and/or oppressed by the mainstream religion. They lived for the most part in remote areas, in secluded communities, and preserved their orally transmitted esoteric, gnostic teachings and secret rituals, which by tradition were only available to the initiated.