Bahauddin Amili

Sheikh Bahai's tomb

Sheikh Bahauddin Amili or Sheikh Bahaʾi (Amili) ( Arabic بهاء الدين العاملي, DMG Bahāʾ ad-dīn al-ʿĀmilī ; * March 20, 1546 , Baalbek , Lebanon ; † August 20, 1622 , Persia ), called Sheikh Bahai ( Arabic الشيخ البهائي/ Persian شیخ بهایی), was a Shiite theologian and lawyer ( Obermullah ) as well as poet and Sufi in Persia of the Safavid period , who had a great knowledge of philosophy , logic , astronomy , mathematics and architecture . He is considered to be one of the founders of the Isfahan School . In later years he was one of the teachers of Mulla Sadra . In his treatise The Anatomy of Heaven , Sheikh Bahai presented the possibility of the earth rotating around its axis.

life and work

Sheikh Bahai came from a Shiite family of scholars. His father was one of the prominent religious scholars ( ulema ) of the Jabal Amil region in what is now southern Lebanon , who took him to Iran at the age of thirteen to avoid religious persecution by the Ottomans . He studied first in Qazvin (the then Safavid capital), then in Jerusalem with Muhammad al-Maqdisī, then in Herat (now Afghanistan ) and finally settled in Isfahan (Esfahan, Iran).

During his pilgrimage to Mecca , he visited many scholars for instruction and traveled to Iraq , Egypt , the Hejaz and Palestine (Jerusalem) to enrich his knowledge of religion and science.

He wrote about a hundred treatises and books in Arabic and Persian . Amili is also a writer of literary works and poems. Many students were trained by him.

He went from mullah to Sheikh al-Islam , i.e. H. highest theologian, appointed at the court of Shah Abbas I and chief justice (chief mullah) of the highest religious court in the capital Isfahan.

He wrote various works on a variety of disciplines, such as Koranic exegesis , Hadith , grammar, law ( Fiqh ), mathematics, astronomy and poetry.

Various structures at the time of the Safavids were designed by him, including the royal mosque and an allegedly single-candle heater for a bathhouse in Isfahan .

Sheikh Bahai was buried in Mashhad in the shrine of Imam Reza .

mysticism

As the Israeli scholar Etan Kohlberg pointed out in his Encyclopædia Iranica article , Sheikh Bahai was also an adept of mysticism . Mohammad Baqer Majlesi criticized him for his clear Sufi devotion . During his travels he dressed like a dervish and frequented Sufi circles. He also appears in the chain of spiritual genealogies of the two Sufi orders Nurbakhshi and Ne'matollahi . In his treatise on the unity of existence , i. H. of the concept of wahdat al-wudschūd , he explains that the Sufis are the true believers, calls for an unbiased assessment of their utterances and refers to his own mystical experiences. His Persian poetry is also full of mystical allusions and symbols. At the same time, Sheikh Bahai calls for strict observance of the Sharia as a prerequisite for entering the Tarīqa and does not think much of the antinomist mysticism.

Works

Sheikh Bahai's manuscript

( hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk et al.)

• Abbas Collection: A famous work on the Shiite Furūʿ al-fiqh is his work Jami'-i Abbasi (pers.جامع عباسی/ Ǧāmiʿ-i ʿAbbāsī / 'Abbas Collection'), a manual from the time of the Safavid - Shah Abbas I (r. 1587–1629) for Shiite Sharia principles and laws.
• Beggar bowl : One of his main works is Kaschkul (pers.کشکول/ Kaškūl / 'beggar's bowl, alms bowl') on philosophy and poetry, a collection of stories and poems mainly related to the religion of the Sufi ascetics.
• On fasting: In his treatise on fasting ( Arabic شرح رسالة فى الصوم, DMG Šarḥ Risāla fī ṣ-Ṣaum ) it is forbidden to eat the meat of animals killed by non-Muslims ( ahl al-kitab ).
• Regarding prayer 43 of Sahifa as-Sadschadiyya: His al-Ḥadāʾiq aṣ-ṣālīḥīn fī šarḥ aṣ-Ṣaḥīfa al-saǧǧādiyya is a commentary on prayer No. 43 of Sahifa as-Saddschadiyya , a collection of supplications important to the Shiites Imam Ali Zain al-Abidin is attributed to the Shiites .
• Bread and Sweets & Milk and Sugar: His Sufi Masnawī poems bread and sweets (Nān va ḥalvā / "Bread and Halva " / نان و حلوا) and milk and sugar (Šīr u Šakar / شير و شكر) describe the Muslim religious and social Life.
• Anatomy of the sky: Its anatomy of the sky ( Arabic تشريح الاَفلاك, DMG Tašrīḥ al-aflāk ) is an astronomical treatise in five sections and describes the theory of the structure of the universe . In it he supports the view of the rotation of the earth on its orbit around the sun. The work was commented on several times.
• Summa of Arithmetic: Its Summa of Arithmetic ( Arabic خلاصة الحساب, DMG Ḫulāṣat al-ḥisāb ) is an overview of the new achievements of Arabic and Persian mathematical research, written as an elementary mathematics textbook. The work has been translated into Persian and German.
• Forty-Hadith compilation: his forties Hadith -Zusammenstellung (short:اربعین/ Arbaʿīn ) is an annotated compilation of forty traditions ascribed to the Prophet Mohammed .
• On Divination: His work On Divination (Fāl-nāmeh) is a work written for divination purposes.
• Arabic grammar: His work al-Fawāʾid aṣ-Ṣamadiyya (الفوائد الصمدية) is an Arabic grammar.
• Essence of the basics (of law): His work Zubdat al-uṣūl (زبدة الأصول), as its title suggests, represents an essence of the fundamentals of law.
• Science of the Hadith Tradition: His work al-Wadschīza , also known under a different title, deals with the science of the Hadith tradition.
• Treatise on the Unity of Existence: In his treatise on the Unity of Existence (short: Risāla fī l-wudschūdiyya) he explains , according to Etan Kohlberg , that the Sufis are the true believers, demands an impartial evaluation of their utterances and refers to his own mystical experiences.

various

Sheikh Bahai is respected by Shiites and Sufis alike. Iranian historians regard him as one of the most important representatives of the Islamic revival movement, as a mujaddid ("innovator").

Several of his works are part of the Madrasa curriculum of the Safavids and the Dars-i-Nizami - curriculum .

The Sheikh Baha'i University in Isfahan has been named after him.

Clifford Edmund Bosworth and Devin Stewart have made a great contribution to researching his work in recent times.

Edition of his works

The Iranian Markiz-i Iḥyā'-i Āthār-i Islamī ("Islamic Manuscript Revival Center") has recently published a 30-volume compendium of his Arabic and Persian works (Majmu`a-yi Āthār-i Shaykh Bahā'ī), along with some accompanying volumes on the author and his writings.

See also

• Qutb Shāhī Sultanate (advance of the Mughals)

literature

• E. Kohlberg: BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN ʿĀMELĪ, SHAIKH MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN BAHĀʾĪ. In: Encyclopædia Iranica .
• ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Bahā 'al-Dīn al-`Āmilī = Shaykh Bahā'ī ) (detailed bibliography).
• Clifford Edmund Bosworth : Baha al-din al-Amili and his literary anthologies. University of Manchester, Manchester, 1989 ( review ).
• Devin Stewart : Taqiyyah as Performance: the Travels of Baha 'al-Din al-`Amili in the Ottoman Empire (991-93 / 1583-85). In: Princeton Papers in Near Eastern Studies. 4, 1996, pp. 1-70 (see also CV ).
• history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk Baha 'ad-Din al-Amili (JJ O'Connor & EF Robertson) .
• Behnaz Hashemipour: ʿĀmilī: Bahāʾ al ‐ Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al ‐ ʿĀmilī. In: Thomas Hockey et al .: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0 , pp. 42-3 ( islamsci.mcgill.ca PDF).
• Fuat Sezgin (Ed.): Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad Ibn Ḥusayn: texts and studies Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main: Inst. For the History of Arab.-Islamic Science. 1998.
• Jalal SA Shauky: Mathematical Works of Baha 'al-Din al-Amili. Aleppo 1976.
• BA Rosenfeld, E. Ihsanoglu: Mathematicians, Astronomers & Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and their Works (7th-19th Centuries). Istanbul 2003.
• Biographical note .
• al-ʿĀmili. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam. Second Edition ( partial view ).
• al-ʿĀmīlī. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam. First Edition (1913–1936) ( partial view ).
• Vera B. Moreen: ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad ibn Bahāʾ al-Dīn Ḥusayn al-.

Web links

• english.irib.ir: Sheikh Bahai, prominent scholar of Safavid era ( IRIB )
• iranreview.org: Sheikh Bahai Prominent Scholar of Safavid Era (with an English translation of his poem 'Plead For Unison' by Maryam Dilmaghani)
• Sheikh Bahaei: Scientific, Literary Star ( IRIB )
• english.irib.ir: Sheikh Bahai ( IRIB )
• isfahan.org.uk: Masjed-e-Imam: Sh. Bahai's Sundial
• norislam.com: Bahading Amili (Yang Keli)
• ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: irib.ir ) (Biography)
• coiradio.com: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Sheikh Bahaee ) (The Call of Islam Radio)
• payvand.com: Menar-e-Jonban
• isfahan-mansion.com: Sheik Baha'i House
• imamreza.net: Sheikh Bahai, the renowned religious scholar during the Safavid era

Remarks

1. ↑ Information on the life data from global.bridica.com: Bahāʾ ad-dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-ʿĀmilī  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - The information 1547–1621 (e.g. ( Encyclopædia Iranica ) or hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk) is also encountered.  
2. ↑ The Isfahan School - named after the Persian place Isfahan (Esfahan), the capital of the Safavids - was of great influence on art and philosophy in Iran.
3. ^ Encyclopædia Iranica . iranicaonline.org: MOLLĀ ṢADRĀ ŠIRĀZI .
4. ↑ isfahan.org.uk: Hamam Sh. Bahai / Baths of Sheikh Bahai
5. ^ Peter Lamborn Wilson , Karl Schlamminger: Weaver of Tales. Persian Picture Rugs / Persian tapestries. Linked myths. Callwey, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0532-6 , p. 89 f.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Encyclopædia Iranica , BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN ʿĀMELĪ, SHAIKH MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN BAHĀʾĪ by E. Kohlberg.
7. ↑ hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk: Bahā 'al-Dīn al-`Āmilī = Shaykh Bahā'ī ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and norislam.com: Bahading Amili (Yang Keli) 
8. ↑ hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : The Orchards of Veracity in Commentary upon the Ṣaḥīfa al-sajjādiyya. 
9. ↑ hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : “ Shaykh Baha'i's commentary upon prayer No. 43 in the Ṣaḥīfa al-sajjādiyya of `Alī Zayn al-Ābidīn (dc95 / 713), an important collection of devotions ascribed to this fourth Imam. ” 
10. ↑ Edited by GHL Nesselmann (1843) ( biblioteca.universia.net: Essenz der rechenkunst / by Mohammed Beha-eddin ben Alhossain from Amul, Arabic and German ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) - openlibrary.org 
11. ↑ hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Diyārat al-Hadith (“On the Science of Hadith-Tradition”) or Wajiza (“ADD”). )
12. ↑ E. Kohlberg, Encyclopaedia Iranica : “ speaks of the Sufis as true believers, calls for an unbiased assessment of their utterances, and refers to his own mystical experiences. ”
13. ↑ imamreza.net: Sheikh Bahai, the renowned religious scholar during the Safavid era ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ↑ Francis Robinson: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Ottomans-Safavids-Mughals: Shared knowledge and connective Systems. ) (PDF; 125 kB).
15. ↑ Persian دانشگاه شیخ بهایی; English Sheikh Bahaei University (SHBU)
16. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Bahā 'al-Dīn al-`Āmilī = Shaykh Bahā'ī ).