I have given in a somewhat compressed form the whole
of this illuminating narrative, one of those “human docu-
Value of this
“human
document.”
ments” which are so rare in Persian books
(though indeed, as already noted on p. 361, it was
originally written in Arabic), because it throws
so much light on the life of the Persian student of theology,
which, for the rest, mutatis mutandis, closely resembles
that of the mediaeval European student. We see the child
prematurely torn from the games and amusements suitable
to his age to undergo a long, strenuous, and arid course
of instruction in Arabic grammar and philology, reading
one grammar after another in an ascending scale of difficulty,
with commentaries, supercommentaries, glosses and
notes on each; we see him as a boy, now fired with
ambition, pursuing his studies in theology and law, half-
But if the poor student's path was arduous, the possible prizes were great, though, of course, attained only by a few. In the eyes of the Ṣafawí kings the mujtahid was the Power and position of the mujtahids under the Ṣafawís and their successors. representative of the Expected Imám, whose name they never mentioned without adding the prayer, “May God hasten his glad advent!” ('ajjala 'lláhu faraja-hu!). He had power of life and death. Ḥájji Ṣayyid Muḥammad Báqir ibn Muḥammad Taqí of Rasht, entitled Ḥujjatu'l-Islám (“the Proof of Islám”), is said to have put to death seventy persons for various sins or heresies. On the first occasion, being unable to find anyone to execute his sentence, he had to strike the first ineffective blow himself, after which someone came to his assistance and decapitated the victim, over whose body he then recited the funeral prayers, and while so doing fainted with emotion.*
Another mujtahid, Áqá Muḥammad 'Alí, a contemporary of Karím Khán-i-Zand, acquired the title of Ṣúfí-kush (“the Ṣúfí-slayer”) from the number of 'urafá and darwíshes whom he condemned to death.*
Another, Mullá 'Abdu'lláh-i-Túní, induced Sháh 'Abbás the Great to walk in front of him as he rode through the Maydán-i-Sháh, or Royal Square, of Iṣfahán, * with the object of demonstrating to all men the honour in which learning was held.
Mullá Ḥasan of Yazd, who had invited his fellow-townsmen to expel, with every circumstance of disgrace, a tyrannical governor, was summoned to Ṭihrán by Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh to answer for his actions, and threatened with the bastinado unless he disavowed responsibility for this procedure. As he refused to do this, and persisted that he was entirely responsible for what had happened, he was actually tied up to receive the bastinado, though it was not actually inflicted. That night the Sháh was notified in a dream of the extreme displeasure with which the Prophet regarded the disrespect shown by him to the exponent of his doctrine and law, and hastened next morning to offer his apologies and a robe of honour, which last was refused by the indignant ecclesiastic.*
Mullá Aḥmad of Ardabíl, called Muqaddas (“the Saint,” died in 993/1585), being asked by one of the King's officers who had committed some fault to intercede for him, wrote to Sháh 'Abbás the Great in Persian as follows: * <text in Arabic script omitted>
“Let 'Abbás, the founder of a borrowed empire, * know that this man, if he was originally an oppressor, now appears to be oppressed; so that, if thou wilt pass over his fault, perhaps God (Glorious and Exalted is He) may pass over some of thy faults.
“Written by Aḥmad al-Ardabílí, servant of the Lord of Saintship.”*
To this the Sháh 'Abbás replied:
<text in Arabic script omitted>
“'Abbás makes representation that he accepts as a spiritual favour and has fulfilled the services which you enjoined on him. Do not forget [me] your friend in your prayers!
“Written by 'Abbás, the dog of 'Alí's threshold.”
Another mujtahid of Ardabíl entitled Muḥaqqiq (“the Investigator” or “Verifier”) wrote on behalf of certain Sayyids to Sháh Ṭahmásp, who, on receiving the letter, rose to his feet, placed it on his eyes, and kissed it, and gave the fullest satisfaction to its demands. Then, because the letter addressed him as “O brother” (Ayyuha'l-Akh), the Sháh caused it to be placed with his winding-sheet and ordered that it should be buried with him, “in order that,” said he, “I may argue with the Angels of the Tomb, Munkir and Nakír, that I should not be subjected to their torment.”
Still more extraordinary is another anecdote in the same work * of how Prince Muḥammad 'Alí Mírzá gave a thou- A mansion in Paradise bought by a Prince. sand túmáns to each of two mujtahids in return for a paper, duly signed and sealed, promising him a place in Paradise. One of them (Sayyid Riḍá ibn Sayyid Mahdí) hesitated to do this, but the Prince said, “Do you write the document and get the doctors of Karbalá and Najaf to witness it, and I will get it (i.e. the mansion in Paradise) from God Most High.”
Many similar anecdotes might be cited, besides numerous
miracles (karámát) ascribed to most of the leading divines,
but enough has been said to show the extraordinary power
and honour which they enjoyed. They were, indeed, more
powerful than the greatest Ministers of State, since they
could, and often did, openly oppose the Sháh and overcome
him without incurring the fate which would almost in-
Modern
instances of
clerical power.
evitably have overtaken a recalcitrant Minister.
Nor is this a thing of the past, as is abundantly
shown by the history of the overthrow of the
Tobacco Concession in 1890-1, which was entirely effected,
in the teeth of the Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh and his Court, and
the British Legation, by the mujtahids, headed by Ḥájji
Mírzá Ḥasan-i-Shírází and Ḥájji Mírzá Ḥasan-i-Ashtiyání,
inspired and prompted by that extraordinary man Sayyid
Jamálu'd-Dín miscalled “the Afghán.”
*
Dr Feuvrier, the
Sháh's French physician, who was in Ṭihrán at the time,
gives a graphic account of this momentous struggle in his
Trois Ans à la Cour de Perse.
*
I have described it fully in
my Persian Revolution of 1905-1909,
*
and also the still
more important part played by Mullá Muḥammad Káẓim
of Khurásán and other patriotic mujtahids
*
in the Persian
struggle for freedom and independence in the first decade
of this century of our era. Mullá Muḥammad Káẓim, a
noble example of the patriot-priest, deeply moved by the
intolerable tyranny and aggression of the then government
of Russia, formally proclaimed a jihád, or religious war,
against the Russians on December 11, 1911, and was setting
out from Karbalá for Persia in pursuance of this object
when he died very suddenly on the following day, the
victim, as was generally believed, of poison.
*
He was not
the only ecclesiastical victim of patriotism, for the Thiqatu'l-
The mujtahids and mullás, therefore, are a great, though probably a gradually decreasing force, in Persia, and concern themselves with every department of human activity, from the minutest details of personal purification to the The fatwá. largest issues of politics. It is open to any Shí'a Muslim to submit any problem into the solution of which religious considerations enter (and they practically enter everywhere) to a mujtahid, and to ask for a formal decision, or fatwá, conformable to the principles of Shí'a doctrine. Such fatwá may extend to the denunciation of an impious or tyrannical king or minister as an infidel (takfír), or the declaration that anyone who fights for him is as one who fights against the Hidden Imám. The fact that the greatest mujtahids generally reside at Najaf or Karbalá, outside Persian territory, greatly strengthens their position and conduces to their immunity. To break or curb their power has been the aim of many rulers in Persia before and after the Ṣafawís, but such attempts have seldom met with more than a very transient The better side of the “clergy.” success, for the mullás form a truly national class, represent in great measure the national outlook and aspirations, and have not unfrequently shielded the people from the oppression of their governors. And although their scholarship is generally of a somewhat narrow kind, it is, so far as it goes, sound, accurate, and even in a sense critical. The finest Persian scholar I know, Mírzá Muḥammad ibn 'Abdu'l-Wahháb of Qazwín, is one who has superimposed on this foundation a knowledge of European critical methods acquired in England, France and Germany.