One of the chief results of the Shí'a revival effected by the Ṣafawí dynasty was the establishment of the powerful The Shí'a hierarchy. hierarchy of mujtahids and mullás, often, but not very accurately, described by European writers as “the clergy.” This title is, however, more applicable to them than to the 'ulamá, or “doctors,” of the Sunnís, who are simply men learned in the Scripture and the Law, but not otherwise possessed of any special Divine virtue or authority. The great practical difference between the 'ulamá of the Sunnís and of the Shí'a lies in The doctrine of Ijtihád. their conception of the doctrine of Ijtihád, or the discovery and authoritative enunciation of fresh religious truths, based on a comprehensive knowledge of the Scripture and Traditions, and arrived at by supreme effort and endeavour, this last being the significa­tion of the Arabic word. One who has attained to this is called a mujtahid, whose position may be roughly described as analogous to that of a Cardinal in the Church of Rome. No such dignitary exists amongst the Sunnís, who hold that the Bábu'l-Ijtihád, or “Gate of Endeavour” (in the sense explained above), was closed after the death of the founders of their four “orthodox” schools or sects, Abú Ḥanífa (d. 150/767), Málik ibn Anas (d. circâ 179/795), ash-Sháfi'í (d. 204/820), and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855). Thus the “Gate of Endeavour,” which, according to the Shí'a view, is still open, has for the Sunnís been closed for more than a thousand years; and in this respect the Shí'a doctrine must be credited with a greater flexibility and adaptability than that of the Sunnís, though in other respects narrower and more in­tolerant.

As will appear in the course of this chapter, the power and position attained by these prelates tended to divert Attractions of theology for the ambitious. the ambitions of young men who possessed, or believed themselves to possess, the necessary intellectual qualifications from poetry, belles lettres, and other forms of mental activity to theology, and from this tendency in part resulted the dearth of poets and abundance of divines under the Ṣafawís. Those were spacious times for the “turbaned classes” (ahlu'l-'amá'im), and every poor, half-starved student who frequented one or other of the numerous colleges (madrasa) founded, endowed and maintained by the piety of the Ṣafawí Sháhs, who delighted to call themselves by such titles as “Dog of the Threshold of the Immaculate Imáms,” or “Promoter of the Doctrine of the Church of the Twelve,” dreamed, no doubt, of becoming at last a great mujtahid, wielding powers of life and death, and accorded honours almost regal.

No class in Persia is so aloof and inaccessible to foreigners and non-Muslims as that of the mullás. It is easy for one Aloofness of the clerical class. who has a good knowledge of Persian to mix not only with the governing classes and officials, who are most familiar with European habits and ideas, but with merchants, tradesmen, artisans, land­owners, peasants, darwíshes, Bábís, Bahá'ís, Ṣúfís and others; but few Europeans can have enjoyed intimacy with the The Qiṣaṣu'l­'Ulamá, or “Tales of the Divines.” “clergy,” whose peculiar, exclusive, and gene­rally narrow life is, so far as my reading has gone, best depicted in an otherwise mediocre and quite modern biographical work entitled Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá (“Tales of the Divines”) * by Muḥammad ibn Sulaymán of Tanukábun, who was born in 1235/ 1819-20, wrote this book in three months and five days, and concluded it on the 17th of Rajab, 1290 (Sept. 10, 1873). It contains the lives of 153 Shí'a doctors, ranging from the fourth to the thirteenth centuries of the Muhammadan (tenth to nineteenth of the Christian) era, arranged in no intelligible order, either chronological or alphabetical. To his own biography, which he places fourth in order, the author devotes more than twenty pages, and enumerates 169 of his works, besides various glosses and other minor writings. From this book, which I read through during the Easter Vacation of 1923, having long ago made use of certain parts of it bearing on the Shaykhís and Bábís, I have disentangled from much that is tedious, trivial or puerile, a certain amount of valuable information which is not to be found in many much better biographical works, whereof, before proceeding further, I shall here speak briefly.

What is known as 'Ilmu'r-Rijál (“Knowledge of the Men,” that is of the leading authorities and transmitters 'Ilmu'r-Rijál, or theological biography. of the Traditions) forms an important branch of theological study, since such knowledge is necessary for critical purposes. Of such Kutu-bu'r-Rijál (“Books of the Men”) there are a great many. Sprenger, in his edition * of one of the most important of these, the Fihrist, or “Index,” of Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn 'Alí of Ṭús, entitled Shaykhu'ṭ-Ṭá'ifa, who died in 460/ 1067, ranks with it in importance four other works, the Asmá'u'r-Rijál (“Names of the Men”) of Shaykh Aḥmad ibn 'Alí an-Najáshí * (d. 455/1063); the Ma'álimu'l-'Ulamá of Muḥammad ibn 'Alí ibn Shahr-áshúb of Mázandarán, who died in 588/1192; the Íḍáḥu'l-Ishtibáh (“Elucidation of Confusion”) of Ḥasan ibn Yúsuf ibn Muṭahhar al-Ḥillí (b. 648/1250; d. 726/1326); and the Lú'lú'atu'l-Baḥrayn, * a work of a more special character, dealing especially with the 'ulamá of Baḥrayn, by Yúsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibráhím al-Baḥrání (d. 1187/1773-4). Another work, similar to the last in dealing with a special region, is the Amalu'l-Ámil fí 'Ulamá'i Jabal-'Ámil, composed by Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn 'Alí…al-Ḥurr al-'Ámilí (b. 1033/1623-4) in 1097/1686. All these works are written in Arabic, but of the older books of this class there is one in Persian (compiled in 990/1582) which must on no account be overlooked. This The Majálisu'l­Mú'minín. is the Majálisu'l-Mú'minín (“Assemblies of Believers”) of Sayyid Núru'lláh ibn Sharíf al-Mar'ashí of Shúshtar, who was put to death in India on account of his strong Shí'a opinions in 1019/ 1610-11. This book is both of a wider scope and a more popular character than those previously mentioned, since it contains, in twelve chapters, notices of eminent Shí'as of all classes, not merely theologians, and includes not only those who adhered to the “Sect of the Twelve” (Ithnà-'ashariyya ) but all those who held that 'Alí should have immediately succeeded the Prophet.

Of modern works of this class, composed within the last sixty years, three, besides the above-mentioned Qiṣaṣu'l- The Rawḍátu'l­Jannát. 'Ulamá, deserve special mention. The most general in its scope, entitled Rawḍátu'l-Jannát fí Aḥwáli'l-'Ulamá wa's-Sádát (“Gardens of Paradise: on the circumstances of Divines and Sayyids”), * was composed in Arabic by Muḥammad Báqir ibn Ḥájji Zaynu'l-'Ábidín al-Músawí al-Khwánsárí, whose auto­biography is given on pp. 126-8 of vol. i, in 1286/1869-70. The biographies, which are arranged alphabetically, include learned Muslims of all periods, and are not confined to theologians or members of the Shí'a sect. Thus we find notices of great Mystics, like Báyazíd of Bisṭám, Ibráhím ibn Adham, Shiblí and Ḥusayn ibn Manṣúr al-Ḥalláj; of Arabic poets, like Dhu'r-Rumma, Farazdaq, Ibnu'l-Fáriḍ, Abú Nuwás and al-Mutanabbí; of Persian poets, like Saná'í, Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár, Náṣir-i-Khusraw, and Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí; and of men of learning like al-Bírúní, Thábit ibn Qurra, Ḥunayn ibn Isḥáq and Avicenna, etc., besides the accounts of Shí'a theologians down to comparatively modern times which give the book so great a value for our present purpose.