The Javdan-nama of Fadlallah Astarabadi (d. 796/1394) is the foundational text of the Hurufi group, which emerged in Iran in the second half of the 14th century. The Javdan-nama is a voluminous and complex work, a corpus of fragments rather than a coherent and thematically structured presentation of the doctrines. This work is regarded by the Hurufis as a sacred text (Javdan-nama-yi ilahi), resulting from the specific revelation Fadlallah would have received in the course of his spiritual career. The wish to present his work as the fruit of an independent mystical experience would also explain the quasi-absence of explicit references to any other works or authors. Notwithstanding this lack of direct references, the text of the Javdan-nama shows that Fadlallah was well-versed in the traditional Islamic disciplines, such as Hadith, both Sunnite and Shiite, Qur’anic exegesis, and jurisprudence. Some fragments of the Javdan-nama contain Sufi terminology, and more specifically the symbolic imagery of the Persian mystical poetry. But some of the central doctrinal positions of the Javdan-nama are very similar to the ideas usually associated with the early esoteric Shiism, the Ghulat and the Ismaili currents. Theory of the spiritual exegesis (ta’wil) based on the elaborations upon the cosmological and ontological role of letters and sounds, divinity of human being, holy triad, elements of the theory of transmigration, religious syncretism, in particular, integration of the symbolism of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures into the doctrinal discourse are examples of the Ghulat coloration of the Javdan-nama. In the light of the new sources becoming available, the role of the esoteric Shiism in the Islamic intellectual history is being reassessed in the contemporary scholarship, as is shown, for example, by the recent studies on the Nusayris. The Hurufi doctrine, which had a wide and lasting influence on many currents in Muslim lands, in particular, in Ottoman Empire, might be another channel through which the ideas of the early esoteric Shiism were transmitted into the modern and contemporary periods.