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Mashrabaمشربة

Atlas

Chains of transmission from the Prophet, read as the sources give them.
About this atlas

The atlas holds the chains of transmission from the Prophet as the standard references and the classical sources record them: the Sufi orders, the chains of Qurʾān recitation, the teachers of the schools of law and ḥadīth, and the lines of the Prophet's family, with the places they spread and the living houses and teachers who carry them today. Every link shows its sources; where they differ, both readings are shown, and we do not rule on any community's claims. Ibn ʿArabī's own life, teachers and readers are on their own page.

Change chain set

Niʿmatullāhiyya النعمة اللهية

Sufi orders · Shāh Niʿmat Allāh Walī · c. 1400s · Mahan (Kirmān) · 4 routes to the Prophet recorded

Order of Shāh Niʿmat Allāh Walī (d. 1431, Mahan), pupil of ʿAbd Allāh al-Yāfiʿī whom Trimingham ties to the Abū Madyan line. Trimingham calls it Shīʿī without loss of orthodoxy in Iran. After Raḥmat ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1861) it divided into Gunābādī, Ṣafī ʿAlī-Shāhī and Munawwar ʿAlī-Shāhī lines.

How to read the marks
  • Two sources: a solid rule. Two independent references give the same link.
  • One source: a lighter rule, so labelled.
  • The community's own account: a dotted rule. The order tells it; we have not yet read it against a reference source.
  • A gap in the rule: the sources omit names between the two. The label says which.
  • The sources differ: tap the ≠ to read each reading with its source.
  • A ring: a spiritual link, without a meeting (uwaysī).
Route 1 of 4, the best-sourced: other routes (3)

Routes are ordered by how many steps rest on two sources, then by how few rest on the community's own account or on another chain set's record, then by length. The best-sourced opens first.

Dates are given where the sources give them. Years are CE; the Hijri year is in each name's detail.

  • two sources
  • one source
  • the community's own account
  • names omitted
  • sources differ
  1. 632

  2. two sources · this step is recorded in Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings, not in Niʿmatullāhiyya

    661

  3. two sources · this step is recorded in The Prophet's family: descent and imamate lines, not in Niʿmatullāhiyya

    680

  4. two sources · this step is recorded in The Prophet's family: descent and imamate lines, not in Niʿmatullāhiyya

    713

  5. two sources · this step is recorded in Schools of law and ḥadīth, not in Niʿmatullāhiyya

    733

  6. one source · omits: the generations between al-Bāqir (d. c. 733) and Niʿmat Allāh (b. 1330), not named

    1431

Order of Shāh Niʿmat Allāh Walī (d. 1431, Mahan), pupil of ʿAbd Allāh al-Yāfiʿī whom Trimingham ties to the Abū Madyan line. Trimingham calls it Shīʿī without loss of orthodoxy in Iran. After Raḥmat ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1861) it divided into Gunābādī, Ṣafī ʿAlī-Shāhī and Munawwar ʿAlī-Shāhī lines.

How to read the marks
  • Two sources: a solid rule. Two independent references give the same link.
  • One source: a lighter rule, so labelled.
  • The community's own account: a dotted rule. The order tells it; we have not yet read it against a reference source.
  • A gap in the rule: the sources omit names between the two. The label says which.
  • The sources differ: tap the ≠ to read each reading with its source.
  • A ring: a spiritual link, without a meeting (uwaysī).

Branches (3)

Each opens as a side-chain from the founder, with the same marks.

Gunābādī (Sulṭān ʿAlī-Shāhī)گنابادی19th c.-present · Bidokht (Gunābād) · 5 names
  1. رحمت علی‌شاه1861

  2. one source · omits: Saʿādat ʿAlī Shāh (Iranica summary) and Ṭāʾūs al-ʿUrafāʾ (Trimingham)

    سلطان علی‌شاه گنابادی

  3. one source · omits: Gunābādī poles between Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh and ʿAlī Tabandeh (the same article names Ṣāliḥ ʿAlī Shāh, Tabandeh's father, only as guide)

    محبوب علی‌شاه تابنده1997

  4. one source

    نورعلی تابنده2019

  5. one source

    علیرضا جذبی
Ṣafī ʿAlī-Shāhīصفی علیشاهی19th c.- · Isfahan · 2 names
  1. رحمت علی‌شاه1861

  2. one source

    صفی علی‌شاه
Munawwar ʿAlī-Shāhī (Nurbakhsh line, Khāniqāhī-Niʿmatullāhī)منور علیشاهی19th c.-present · Tehran · 5 names
  1. رحمت علی‌شاه1861

  2. one source

    منور علی‌شاه

  3. one source · omits: Wafāʾ ʿAlī Shāh, Ṣādiq ʿAlī Shāh (names from excerpt only)

    مونس علی‌شاه ذوالریاستین1953

  4. two sources

    جواد نوربخش2008

  5. two sources

    علیرضا نوربخش

Living today

Public roles only, as the communities and the press report them, dated.

How to cite

Mashraba Reader, Atlas of transmission, “Niʿmatullāhiyya”, https://www.mashraba.org/atlas/nimatullahiyya (data of 31 October 2026).

Not yet confirmed (0)

These links are told by an order or a secondary source and still have to be read against a primary or reference source.

    Where the sources differ (4)
    • (Niʿmatullāhiyya)
      • Trimingham classes the order as keeping Shīʿī orthodoxy in Iran (via the Gunābādī) and as the most active order in Iran; the date and manner of the order's Shīʿī turn were not found in sources read.
    • (Niʿmatullāhiyya)
      • Iranica (summary): the Munawwar ʿAlī-Shāhī line has the strongest claim to the main Niʿmatullāhī descent and its members call themselves exclusively Niʿmatullāhī. The Gunābādī line records Saʿādat ʿAlī Shāh as Raḥmat ʿAlī Shāh's successor. Reported as the branches' own claims; no winner named here.
    • (Niʿmatullāhiyya)
      • No rival claimant to the Nurbakhsh line's headship was found in the sources read; claimants outside it were not searched.
    • (Niʿmatullāhiyya)
      • Peace-mark (Mohebi, 2018, human-rights activists' site): government pressure around Tabandeh's residence affected the choice of a successor and divided the order. No claimants named; no rival to Jazbi located in sources read.
      • As reported: Amnesty (2011) links the arrests of Gunābādī dervishes to the Supreme Leader's Oct 2010 speech on 'false mysticism'; Wikipedia's Tabandeh article reports over 300 Sufis arrested after the Feb 2018 protests and Tabandeh held under house arrest for two years until his death. Reported attributions, not our finding.