A Study of the Term “Hurqalya” according to Shaykh Ahmad Ahsai’s Intellectual System

The views of Shaykh Ahmad bin Zaynuddin Ahsai have raised extensive debates regarding some intellectual discussions. One of the keywords of his intellectual system is the term “Hurqalya” which has also been used among the scholars before Shaykh Ahsai like for example, Shaykh Ishraq. While addressing the historical background of the research, the writer indicates Ahsai’s meaning of “Hurqalya” in different instances in his works through a brief study of the term both in lexicological terms as well as in the specific context of Shaykh Ahsai and shows that it indicates the Imaginal world and the world of Ideas. Apart from this, sometimes the word is used in more a more specific meaning to indicate the cosmos of the Imaginal world. Similarly, while studying these two common uses of the term “hurqalya” in different works of Ahsai and explaining its characteristics in more detail, the writer strives to extract its characteristics in order to clarify its relation to the Imaginal world and to show the differences between Shaykh Ahsai’s views in comparison to other scholars, particularly with the philosophers before him.