Hulul and tajassud: Islamic accounts of the concept of incarnation

The study is intended to analyze the Islamic interpretation of the Christian concept of incarnation (tajassud) and the “extremist” one of hulūl (inhabitance), so as to find out if it is possible to assimilate both concepts. The Islamic sources, here analyzed, speak of tajassud referring it to the incarnation of Jesus while they use the term hulūl referring it to the ghulāt (extremists) who believed that either the imam had divine qualities or even that he was the incarnation of God. The discriminatory usage of both terms does not exclude the possibility of similarities between them up to the point that in some Islamic sources Christians and “extremists” had to be put on the same level under this regard. The possibility of a Christian influence on some doctrines professed by the extremist movements seems to be acceptable especially if we contemplate that the ghulāt developed a strong strain of interconfessionalism, their “mission” being to address men of different cultures and religious traditions.