Shah Nematullah

From the times of Muhammad there is a war within Islam between the fundamentalists, who say that jihad should be understood as a real war and that infidels must be killed, and the sufis who say that jihad is an inner war within one's soul between an egoistic infidel which is to be killed and the true inner believer who sees all people as children of God. There is a war between Wahhabis who say there are no saints and all mausolea must be blown up and the dervishes who treat their Sufi teachers as saints, build mausolea for them and make pilgrimages there to be close to the masters even after their death. The fundamentalists hate the dervishes but the dervishes refuse to hate anybody, including their oppressors. One of those great Sufi teachers was Shah Nematullah who lived in the 15^th century and whose tomb is in the village of Mahan, close to the city of Kerman, in the desert of central Iran.

I went there (almost a decade ago) and found a charming place with an atosphere of quiet prayer, very different from gaudy and crowded Shiah mausolea near Tehran. A relaxed atmosphere where men and women pray together in mixed groups – very unusual in the present-day Iran, men and women are strictly separated in mosques. It is interesting that the mausoleum is open because the Iranian regime persecutes the Sufis, including the Nematullahi order.

More about Shah Nematullah

Deserts and mountains around Mahan.

Minaret of the mausoleum of Shah Nematullah

Inside the mausoleum courtyard.

Courtyard of the mausoleum of Shah Nematullah.

A door inside the mausoleum of Shah Nematullah.

A portrait of Shah Nematullah over his tomb.

The dome above the tomb of Shah Nematullah.

A quiet prayer in the mausoleum.