BISṬĀMĪ, ABŪ YAZĪD AL- (Abū Yazīd) Ṭayfūr, born ʿĪsā b. Surūshān, better known as Bāyazīd (or Abū Yazīd) Bisṭāmī, famed as the "King of the Gnostics" (Sulṭān al-ʿārifīn), is perhaps the most famous of early Persian Ṣūfīs, widely renowned for his ecstatic sayings and extraordinary spiritual discourses. Born in 777–778, he passed in most of his life in Bisṭām, located in the modern-day province of Simnān in northern Iran, where he died in 848 or 875.

School, Stature, and Sayings

His master in Sufism was reputedly Abū ʿAlī al-Sindī, an illiterate sage. His antinominian utterances, such as his claim to have visited the Almighty's court...