“Dervish Naser Ali”, Shaikh Asadolah Izadghoshasb was born in 1262 in Gholpayeghan, Iran.
His father, Mohammad Izadghoshasb, a rather wealthy person was a poet in his own right. His mother died when Shams was only five years old. He started school at the age of six. By the time he was eighteen, he had studied literature, writing, poetry, mathematics, philosophy, religion, and erfan, with famous teachers of his time 2.
At eighteen years of age, he moved to Isfahan, which at that time was the center of knowledge in Iran. In the six month that was there, he continued studying the same subjects with many Isfahani scholars 3. He briefly returned to Golpayeghan but then moved to Iraq for further studies. In the city of Kazemain he studied with Seyed Ibraheem Khorasany and Agha Meerza Ibrahim Solmasy. He studied Ganoonche, which is a medical text of that time with agha Seyed Moosa Tabeeb Hamedany. At Najaf he studied with Sheikh Mohammad Bagher Esthbanaty who gave him the name of “Shams Ul Hokama”. He then moved to Gonabad to study with Haj Molla Soltan Mohammad Soltanalishah.
After completing his studies, he returned to his birth city of Golpayeghan to teach, but he felt confined in that environment. He yearned to be in the company of the other scholars he studied with in Isfahan. In 1289, at the age of 27 he became a teacher at the Sadr school in Isfahan. There he met Nosrat 4, an eighteen-year-old female patient of his. He continued his career in education by attaining the role of principal of the school Hekmat, a boy’s school of grades 1-6. He also became a teacher at ADAB and Sadee high school.
Shams and Nosrat had four children named Mirza Mohammad (who died at a young age), Iran, Abdul-baghi and Sedigeh. He was an open-minded person; during a time when women did not go to school, he encouraged his daughters to attend school and study foreign languages. Sedigeh, his youngest daughter, graduated from Dansh Sara Moghadamati in Isfahan at 9th grade. Abdul-baghi, his youngest son studied at Gol Bahar high school in Isfahan and continued at the University of Tehran studying the French language.
At age 47 Shams went back to Ghonabad to become a Shaikh of the Nimatullahi order devishes 5. It was then that Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hasan Saleh Ali Shah, the Gotb (Imam) of the time gave him the name of “Darveesh Naser Ali.”
Shams published his first book “Secrets of love” (Asrar-Ul-Eshgh) in 1030 in Isfahan. His son, Abdul-baghi Izadghoshasb, published the edited second edition in 1338. A third edition, which included a preface by Hosein Kazem Zadeh Iran-shahr, was published in 1349. Even a fourth edition was published in 1360. “Secrets of love” is an interpretation (Tafseer) of sureh Yousef from Qur’an and interview of profit Yusuf with Khezr.
The Dervish house of worship, was located next to the tomb of the great poet and Gonabadi Dervish Naser Ali (Mr. Izadgoshasb) at the historical Takht-e Foulad cemetery, where a number of respected Iranian figures are buried.
Crackdown on the Ne’matollahi dervishes in Isfahan came as an aftermath of dervishes being denounced during the Friday prayer. On the morning of Feb. 18, 2009, the shrine of Dervish Naser Ali in the cemetery of Takht-e-Foolad in Isfahan was robbed and completely destroyed. This building had been recorded as a national heritage site and used since 2001 for Sufi ceremonies. The security forces also cut off water and electricity to the area, and destroyed the walls around the poet’s tomb with a bulldozer.
At about 400 attackers, a group of intelligence forces, as well as pressure groups have been reported to have destroyed a National Heritage building that was used since 1380 for Dervish’s ceremonies and many dervishes were attacked with teargas, batons and weapon, detained and tried then.
The razing of the Gonabadi Dervish community’s house of worship in Isfahan was the third of its kind in the recent years. The demolition occurred after the illegal destruction of two other dervish community centers in Qom and Borujerd. Following this event, on 3th of Esfand (Feb 22) a group of dervishes held a sit-in in front of the Iranian parliament, which resulted in the arrest of 60 more people by police forces. Since then , the third day of Esfand month was named as “Dervish Day “and Sufi Dervishes in all over of the world have honored this day.
Now after the destruction of above mentioned worship- place, the Dervishes are still having their own regular religious ceremonies. Two years later, in 1389/ 2011
a number of workers along with some plain-clothes forces also destroyed cobblestone blocks of the place in order to shut down worship-place of Gonabadi Dervishes in Isfahan.
But now, it has been more than five years that Gonabadi Dervishes are holding their religious ceremonies without interruption in outside on dusty ground with no shelter in cold and hot weather.

Note:

{1. Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic, is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam.

2. Mola Mohammad Ali Ibn Molla Mohammad Sadegh

Molla Mohammad Javad Ibn Molla Abas

Haji Molla Ali Ibn Haji Ghafar

Hiji Mirza Mohammad Begher Ibn Marhoom Molla Mohammad Ali Agha Aaeed

Agha Mirza Mohammad kazem

3. Haj Agha Hosien Borojerdi

Agha Seyed Ali Najaf Abadi

Agha Meerza Mohammad Ali Taveeseer Kanee

Jahangheez Khane Ghashghaee

Agha Sheikh Mohammad Taghee najafee

Molla Mohammad Kashanee.

4. Nosrat had become ill with Hasbeh after her mother’s death. Her doctors have said that Nosrat is too sick and can’t be helped. Nosrat’s uncle, Haj Abdul Hadi, who had heard of Sham’s healing power asked him to see Nosart. To entice the poor Shams, Hadi tells him that if he makes her well Shams could marry her. Shams visits Nosrat’s and heals her. After several month Shams and Nosrat marry. Shams was so poor that Nosrat’s uncle, haj abdul hadi, paid for the wedding.}