11. Núru'd-Dín 'Alí ibn 'Abdu'l-'Álí, known as Muḥaq-qiq-i-Thání (“the Second Investigator”) (No. 84), came Divines of the Ṣafawí and post­Ṣafawí periods. to Persia from Karak, his native place, and was highly honoured and esteemed by Sháh Ṭahmásp I. He died in 940/1533-4.

12. Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, called Muqaddas-i-Arda-bílí “the Saint of Ardabíl” (No. 83), was highly honoured by Sháh 'Abbás the Great. He died in 993/1585.

13. Mír Muḥammad Báqir-i-Dámád (No. 77), the grand­son of Muḥaqqiq-i-Thání (No. 11 supra), also stood high in the favour of Sháh 'Abbás, and died in 1041/1631-2. Concerning his book the Ṣiráṭu'l-Mustaqím (“the Straight Path”) a Persian poet composed the following epigram:

* <text in Arabic script omitted> He himself wrote poetry under the takhalluṣ, or pen-name, of Ishráq.

14. Shaykh Muḥammad Bahá'u'd-Dínal-'Ámilí, com­monly called Shaykh-i-Bahá'í (No. 37), was equal in fame, influence and honour with the above-mentioned Mír Dámád, these two being amongst the men of learning who gave most lustre to the court of Sháh 'Abbás the Great. The literary activities of Shaykh-i-Bahá'í, who was born near Ba'labakk in 953/1546, and died in 1031/1622, were not confined to theology. In that subject his best-known work is the Jámi'-i-'Abbásí, a popular Persian manual of Shí'a Law, which he did not live to complete. He also compiled a great collection of anecdotes in Arabic named the Kashkúl (“Alms-bowl”), a sequel to his earlier and less-known Mikhlát. He also wrote several treatises on Arithmetic and Astronomy, and composed the Persian mathnawí poem entitled Nán u Ḥalwá (“Bread and Sweet­meats”).

15. Muḥammad ibn Murtaḍà of Káshán, commonly known as Mullá Muḥsin-i-Fayḍ (No. 76), though reckoned “a pure Akhbárí” (<text in Arabic script omitted>), and detested by Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsá'í the founder of the Shaykhí sect, who used to call him Musí' (“the Evil-doer”) instead of Muḥsin (“the Well-doer”), was in fact more of a mystic and a philosopher than a theologian. His best-known theological work is probably the Abwábu'l-Janán (“Gates of Paradise”), com­posed in 1055/1645. Ten years later he went from Káshán to Shíráz to study philosophy with Mullá Ṣadrá, whose daughter he married. He was also a poet, and in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá * the number of his verses is said to amount to six or seven thousand.

16. Mír Abu'l-Qásim-i-Findariskí, though omitted from the Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá, was accounted “the most eminent philosopher and Ṣúfí of his time, and stood high in the estimation of Sháh 'Abbás I, whom he is said, however, to have scandalized by his habit of mixing with the lowest orders and attending cock-fights.” * He spent some time in India in the reign of Sháh-Jahán and died in Iṣfahán about 1050/1640-1.

17. Mullá Ṣadru'd-Dín Muḥammad ibn Ibráhím of Shíráz, commonly called Mullá Ṣadrá, is unanimously accounted the greatest philosopher of modern times in Persia. That in the Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá no separate article should be devoted to one whose life was a constant conflict with the “clergy,” and whose clerical disguise was even more transparent than that of his teachers Mír Dámád and Shaykh-i-Bahá'í, is not surprising, but much incidental mention is made of him in this and other similar works, like the Lú'lú'atu'l-Baḥrayn, and his teaching affected theology, notably that of the Shaykhí school, * in no small degree. His death is placed by the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát about 1070/1660, * but by the Lú'lú'atu'l-Baḥrayn twenty years earlier.

18. 'Abdu'r-Razzáq-i-Láhijí, like Mullá Muḥsin-i-Fayḍ, was a pupil of Mullá Ṣadrá. His two best-known works, both in Persian, are the Sar-máya-i-Ímán (“Substance of Belief”) and the Gawhar-i-Murád (“Pearl of Desire”). He

<graphic>

Autograph of Mullá Ṣadrá of Shíráz, the Philosopher
Or. 4935 (Brit. Mus.), 1
To face p. 408

shared with Shaykh Ṭabarsí, the author of the Majma'u'l-Bayán , the curious belief in the “essential meaning” of words, by which he meant that there existed a real relation between the sound and meaning of every word, so that having heard the sound of a strange word it was possible by reflection to conjecture the sense.*

The last six persons mentioned were all philosophers as well as, or even more than, theologians. The following, except the last, Ḥájji Mullá Hádí, are all Shí'a divines of the strictest type.

19. Mullá Muḥammad Taqí-i-Majlisí (No. 36) is said to have been the first to compile and publish Shí'a traditions, which he received from the Muḥaqqiq-i-thání, in the Ṣafawí period. Allusion has already been made to his alleged Ṣúfí proclivities. He died in 1070/1659-60, a date expressed by the ingenious chronogram: * <text in Arabic script omitted>

“The crown of the Holy Law fell: scholarship become headless and
footless.”

By removing the “crown,” i.e. the initial letter, of <text in Arabic script omitted>, and the “head” and “foot,” i.e. the initial and final letters of <text in Arabic script omitted>, we get the three letters <text in Arabic script omitted> = 800 + 200 + 70 = 1070.

20. Mullá Muḥammad Báqir-i-Majlisí (No. 33), son of the above, who has been already mentioned repeatedly in this chapter, was even more famous than his father. His great work is the Biḥáru'l-Anwár (“Oceans of Light”), an immense compilation of Shí'a traditions; but he composed many other works, of which the following are in Persian: 'Aynu'l-Ḥayát (“the Fountain of Life”); Mishkátu'l-Anwár (“the Lamp of Lights”); Ḥilyatu'l-Muttaqín (“the Orna­ment of the Pious”); Ḥayátu'l-Qulúb (“Life of Hearts”), not completed; Tuḥfatu'z-Zá'irín (“the Pilgrims' Present”); Jalá'u'l-'Uyún (“the Clearing of the Eyes”), * etc. He died, as already stated, in 1111/1699-1700.

21. Sayyid Muḥammad Mahdí of Burújird, entitled Baḥru'l-'Ulúm (“the Ocean of Learning”) (No. 27), was born in 1155/1742-3, and appears to have died about 1240/ 1824-5.

22. Sayyid Muḥammad Báqir ibn Sayyid Muḥammad Taqí of Rasht, entitled Ḥujjatu'l-Islám (No. 26), has been already mentioned for his severity in inflicting punishments for infractions of the Sharí'at. He was wealthy as well as influential, and, according to the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát (p. 125), spent 100,000 “legal dínárs” * in building a great mosque in the Bídábád quarter of Iṣfahán. He was born about 1180/1766-7, went to 'Iráq to pursue his studies at the age of sixteen or seventeen, returned to Iṣfahán in 1216 or 1217 (1801-3), and died on Sunday the 2nd of Rabí' i, 1260 (March 23, 1844). According to his namesake, the author of the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát, his death was mourned for a whole year by the people (presumably the devout and orthodox only!), because none after him dared or was able to enforce the rigours of the Ecclesiastical Law to the same extent. By a strange coincidence, the “Manifestation” of Mírzá 'Alí the Báb, and the subsequent rise of that heresy which did so much to weaken the power of the orthodox Shí'a faith, took place just two months after his death.

23. Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zaynu'd-Dín ibn Ibráhím al-Aḥsá'í , the founder of the Shaykhí school or sect, spent most of his life at Yazd, whence he went by way of Iṣfahán to Kirmánsháh. There he remained until the death of the governor of that city, Prince Muḥammad 'Alí Mírzá, son of Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh, who favoured him and invited him to make his abode there. He then retired to the Holy Shrines of 'Iráq, where he composed most of his numerous works, of which the most famous are the Sharḥu'z-Ziyárati'l-Kabíra and the Sharḥu'l-Fawá'id. He vehemently opposed Mullá Ṣadrá, Mullá Muḥsin-i-Fayḍ, and the Ṣúfís, but was himself denounced as a heretic by Ḥájji Mullá Muḥammad Taqí of Qazwín, whose death at the hands of a Bábí assassin about A.D. 1847 earned for him the title of “the Third Martyr” (Shahíd-i-Thálith). Shaykh Aḥmad died in 1243/1827-8, being then nearly ninety years of age.*

24. Mullá Aḥmad-i-Niráqí, who died of cholera in 1244/ 1828-9, was a poet as well as a theologian, and composed a Persian poem entitled Ṭáqdís in imitation of the Mathnawí of Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí. His poetical name was Ṣafá'í, and an article is consecrated to him in the Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (vol. ii, p. 330).

25. Ḥájji Mullá Hádí of Sabzawár, * the last great Persian philosopher, also wrote poetry under the nom de guerre of Asrár. He was born in 1212/1797-8 and died in 1295/1878.