Sheikh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i of Saudi Arabia was an important and independent Muslim innovator

In 1991, Juan was awarded a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities grant for research on Shiite Muslim thought and history. Some of his articles on the esoteric Shiite thinker Sheikh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i (1753 – 1826) of what is now Saudi Arabia were written out of this NEH research. Juan was convinced that Sheikh Ahmad was an important and independent Muslim innovator in mystical thought, and that he had been unfairly associated with the later Babi and Baha’i traditions and so somewhat marginalized in the study of modern Shi’ism. Juan saw some parallels between Sheikh Ahmad’s approach to deconstructing apparent essences and Zen Buddhism. Juan is what William James calls “religiously musical” and can feel as well as understand the attractions of mystical writing, and these explorations in esoteric Shi’ism were not merely an intellectual exercise for him. At the same time, he read more deeply in the literature on the Kabbalah and on postmodern approaches to the study of religion, as aids in understanding Shaykh Ahmad. See e.g., “The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i,” Studia Islamica 80 (1994):145-163 and “Individualism and the Spiritual Path in Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i,” Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha’i Studies No. 4 (September, 1997)

https://www.juancole.com/about/toward-authorized-biography