Khaki Khurasani

Khaki Khurasani, Imamquli, Isma'ili poet and preacher of 17th-century Persia (b. Dizbad; d. Dizbad, after 1056 AH / 1646 CE). He was born in Dizbad, a village in the hills half way between Mashhad and Nishapur, which at the time was the largest dwelling place of the Isma'ilis of northern Khurasan.

Little is known about his life and education but, judging from his poems, he was a talented poet and well versed in Islamic religious sciences. It appears that a visit to Dizbad by the thirty-sixth Isma‘ili Imam, Murad Mirza (d. 981/1574), left a lasting impression on the youthful Khaki, prompting him to devote his entire life to the preaching of the Isma‘ili faith.

Local narratives of his encounter with the Isma‘ili Imam, which is reminiscent of the encounter of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi with Shams Tabrizi, soon turned into legend and caused the inauguration of a new milestone in the cultural history of his native place that has survived to this day.

Though not as a religious ceremony, on the last Friday of the month of Mordad in the Persian calendar (middle of August), people of Dizbad of all religious persuasions gather together in the depth of a gorge called Nowhasar to pay homage to the place where Khaki was blessed and granted spiritual insight by the Imam.