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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
The first substantial study of the Arabic autobiography, Franz Rosenthal's “Die arabische Autobiographie” appeared in 1937 and has yet to be superseded. Rosenthal mentions most of the autobiographies well known to historians and literary scholars of the Middle East, including al-Ghazāli's (d. 505/1111) spiritual biography, al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, Usāmah ibn Munqidh's (d. 584/1188) Kitāb al-i'tibār, famous for its humorous anecdotes about the behavior of the Crusader Franks, Ibn Khaldūn's (d. 809/1406) autobiography, included at the end of his voluminous history Kitāb al-‘ibar and since published separately, al-Suyūṭī's (d. 911/1505) al-Taḥadduth bi-ni'mati ‘Llāh, and a number of others. The first autobiographical text known in Arabic is ascribed to Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-'Ibādī (d. 260/873), the famous translator of Greek scientific works. It is included in the biographical dictionary of Ibn Abī Uṣaybi'ah (d. 668/1270) and described as “Treatise on the Trials and Tribulations which Befell Him” (risālah fīmā aṣābahū min al-miḥan wa ‘sh-shadā'id).
1 Rosenthal, Franz, “Die arabische Autobiographie,” Analecta Orientalia 14, Studia Arabica I (1937): 1–40.Google Scholar
2 al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid, al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, ed. ‘Abd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadīthah, 1965).Google Scholar
3 Munqidh, Usāmah ibn, Kitāb al-i'tibār (Baghdad: Maktabat al-muthannā, 1964)Google Scholar; trans. Hitti, Philip K., An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoires of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh (New York: Columbia University Press, 1929Google Scholar; repr. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).
4 al-Ta'rīf bi-Ibn Khaldūn wa-riḥlatihī gharban wa-sharqan, ed. al-Ṭanjī, Muḥammad (Cairo: Lajnat al-Ta'līf wa al-Tarjamah wa al-Nashr, 1951)Google Scholar. Abridged French translation: de Slane, Journal Asiatique, IVe Série 2(1844): 5–60Google Scholar, 187-210, 291-308, 325-54; revised abridgement in idem, Les Prolégomènes d'Ibn Khaldoun, vol. 1 (Paris, 1863)Google Scholar, introduction.
5 Sartain, Elizabeth M., Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975)Google Scholar. Volume two contains the edited text and translation of al-Taḥadduth bi-ni'mati ‘Llāh.
6 “Die arabische Autobiographic,” 15-19; Uṣaybi'ah, Ibn Abī, ‘Uyūn al-anbā’ (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāt, 1965), 264-71, 274.Google Scholar
7 al-Qifṭī, Ibn, Tārīkh al-ḥukamā (Leipzig, 1903), 413–17Google Scholar; Arberry, A. J., Avicenna on Theology (London, 1951), 9–24.Google Scholar
8 See e.g. ‘Abbās, Iḥsān, Fann al-sīrah (Beirut: Dār al-Thaqāfah, 1967), 120–51Google Scholar; Hodgson, Marshall G. S., The Venture of Islam, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 2: 493 n. 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sartain, Elizabeth M., Jalāl al-dīn al-Suyūṭī, 2 vols. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 1: 137–41.Google Scholar
9 Sīrat al-Mu'ayyad al-Shīrāzī, ed. Ḥusayn, Kāmil (Cairo, 1949).Google Scholar
10 Malti-Douglas, Fadwa, Blindness and Autobiography: al-Ayyām of Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 Fann al-sīrah, 120-51. This work contains a chapter devoted to autobiography.
12 Fihrist kutub al-shī'ah, ed. Sprenger, A. and al-Ḥaqq, Mawlawī ‘Abd, Bibliotheca Indica, vol. 19 (Osnabruck, 1980) [reprint of Calcutta, 1853-55 edition], 285–88.Google Scholar
13 Rijāl al-'Allāmah al-Ḥillī [= Khulāṣat al-aqwāl fī aḥwāl al-rijāl] (Najaf: al-Maṭba'ah al-Ḥaydariyyah, 1961), 45-49.
14 This treatise, written in 1065/1655, is not extant but is mentioned by the author of the biographical work Lu'lu'at al-baḥrayn, citing the auto-bibliography (fihrist) of al-Kāshāni. Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad al-Baḥrānī, Lu'lu'at al-baḥrayn (Najaf: Maṭba'at al-Nu'mān, 1966), 122, 130.Google Scholar
15 Amal al-āmil fī tarājim ‘ulamā’ Jabal ‘Āmil, 2 vols., ed. al-Ḥusaynī, Aḥmad (Baghdad: Maktabat al-Andalus, 1964-6), 1: 141–54.Google Scholar
16 al-Durr al-manthūr min al-ma'thūr wa-ghayr al-ma'thūr, 2 vols. (Qum: Maṭba'at Mihr, 1978), 2: 238–59.Google Scholar
17 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 4 vols. (Tabriz: Sharikat-i Chāp, 1958-62), 4: 302–26.Google Scholar
18 Lu'lu'at al-baḥrayn, 442-51.
19 Tunkābunī, Mīrzā Muḥammad, Qiṣaṣ al-'ulamā’ (Shiraz: Intishārāt-i ‘Ilmiyyah-yi Islāmiyyah, 1964), 70–91.Google Scholar
20 A'yān al-shi'ah, 10 vols., ed. al-Amīn, Ḥasan (Beirut: Dār al-Ta'āruf li'l-Maṭbū'āt, 1984), 10: 333–73.Google Scholar
21 cf. Browne's erroneous statement that Ni'mat Allāh wrote the work in al-Ḥuwayzah. (Browne, 4: 367; original text, 4: 321-22)
22 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah has been published in four volumes in Tabriz, 1958-61, and the autobiography appears on pages 302-26 of the fourth volume.
23 Qiṣaṣ al-'ulamā', 437-53.
24 A Literary History of Persia, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 4: 360–67.Google Scholar
25 A Literary History of Persia, 4: 361 n. 1. An edition of al-Anwār al-nu‘māniyyah has since been published, as mentioned above.
26 A Literary History of Persia, 4: 367.
27 The Mantle of the Prophet (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 94–98.Google Scholar
28 The Vanished Imam: Musa al-Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1986), 75–76, 80.Google Scholar
29 On al-Jazā'ir, see al-Khayyāṭ, Ja'far, ṣuwar min tārīkh al-'irāq fī al-'uṣūr al-muḥlimah (Beirut: Maṭba'at Dār al-Kutub. 1971), 33, 36, 50 n. 1Google Scholar; Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq (Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1968), 21, 25, 82, 105.Google Scholar
30 See e.g. Salim, S. M., Marsh Dwellers of the Euphrates Delta (London: University of London, The Athlone Press, 1962)Google Scholar; Fulanain, The Marsh Arab Hajji Rikkan (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1928).Google Scholar
31 'Abd Allāh al-Shustarī, Tadhkirah-yi Shushtar, ed. Bakhsh, Khān Bahādur Mawlā and Ḥusayn, Muḥammad Hidāyat (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1924), 56–59.Google Scholar
32 On the Akhbārīs see Wilferd Madelung's article “al-Akhbāriyya” s. v., Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, supplement.
33 On some aspects of humor in Islam, see Rosenthal, Franz, Humor in Early Islam (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1956).Google Scholar
34 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 4: 96-158.
35 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 4: 97.
36 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 3: 355.
37 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 4: 97.
38 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 3: 355.
39 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 4: 97.
40 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 3: 338-81.
41 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 3: 355.
42 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 4: 96.
43 al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah, 3: 362.
44 A Literary History of Persia, 4: 27-28.
45 Qiṣaṣ al-'ulamā', 437.
46 An earlier version of this translation was awarded first prize in the American Association of Teachers of Arabic translation contest, 1987.
47 1050 A. H. corresponds to 1640 A.D. In the colophon of al-Anwār, included at the end of this section, the author records that he completed the work on Ramaḍān 22, 1089/November 6, 1678.
48 The diminutive may be used, as in this case, to express endearment (ta'zīz). See Wright, W., A Grammar of the Arabic Language, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 1: 166.Google Scholar
49 hādhā shay'un lā yakūn in the original text, literally, “this is something which will never be.”
50 maktab in the original text. The maktab is a school or small teaching circle, often held in the teacher's house, where local children memorize the Koran and often some poetry as well, and learn to write. See Makdisi, George, The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981), 19.Google Scholar
51 al-Amthilah in the text.
52 Al-Jazā'irī gives the title as al-Amthilah al-Buṣrawiyyah but this is probably the book recorded by Brockelmann as al-Qawā'id al-Boṣrawiyyah fi al-naḥw (Buṣrawī's Rules on Syntax). It is extant in manuscript, and is evidently an elementary textbook in Arabic syntax (naḥw). The dates of the author, Shams al-Dīn al-Buṣrawi, a native of the town of Buṣrā in Syria, are not known, but a commentary on this work dates from before 950. Ḥājjī Khalīfah states that it is a short work on syntax, like al-Kāfiyah. See Kashf al-ẓunūn, 7 vols., ed. Flügel, Gustave (Leipzig: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1835-58), 4: 573Google Scholar; Brockelmann, Carl, Geshichte der arabischen Litteratur, 2 vols. (G), 3 supp. vols. (S) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937-49), SII: 925.Google Scholar
53 This is Kitāb taṣrīf al-Zanjānī, (Al-Zanjānī's Book on Morphology). The author is the seventh/thirteenth-century scholar ‘Izz al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍā'il ‘Abd al-Wahhāb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Zanjānī, who wrote the Kitab al-taṣrīf in Baghdad in 655/1257. With the commentary of al-Taftazānī (d. 791/1390), this work is still used in the Shi'ī centers of learning in Najaf and Qum. Brockelmann, Geschichte, GI: 283; SI: 497; Fischer, Michael M. J., Iran from Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), 247.Google Scholar
54 A descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The author, as his nisbah al-Ḥusaynī indicates, is descended from Ḥusayn, the Prophet's grandson, and the third Imam of the Twelver Shi'īs. Ni'mat Allāh gives his full genealogy in al-Anwār al-nu'māniyyah (4: 380-81), and it goes back to Mūsā al-Kāẓim, the seventh Imam. It appears that the nisbah al-Ḥusaynī was used to distinguish descendants of Ḥusayn's line from those of Ḥasan, rather than to indicate the last Imam included in the genealogy. Among the Shī'īs, and especially in Iran, Sayyids are accorded enormous respect and are granted special privileges, including the right to wear black turbans instead of white, and the right to accept alms and then distribute them to the poor as they see fit.
55 Al-Kāfiyah. This is a well-known work on Arabic syntax. Its author, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū ‘Amr ‘Uthmān ibn Abū Bakr, known as Ibn al-Ḥajīb, was a native Egyptian who died in 646/1249 in Alexandria. Al-Kāfiyah, along with its companion volume on morphology, al-Shāfiyah, mentioned in the text below, has been widely used in Arab and Muslim countries, as the large number of extant commentaries indicates. Both have been printed in many editions. See Brockelmann, Geschichte, SI: 531-37.
56 This would be from Kitāb taṣrīf al-Zanjānī.
57 This village has the same name as the well-known river which lies to the east of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. As with many of the other small villages in al-Jazā'ir which Ni'mat Allāh mentions, it was not possible to locate Kārūn exactly.
58 Shaṭṭ usually means a river bank, but it seems that al-Jazā'iri uses the term here to mean the larger region or area in which his village is situated. Elsewhere in the text, Shaṭṭ is used as a synonym for village (qaryah): “then I left for a village (qaryah) called Shaṭṭ Banī Asad.” [p. 304] It appears that Shaṭṭ was also used in this region to denote a river or canal itself, as with the well-known Shaṭṭ al-'Arab.
59 The term nahr is used to designate the small rivers and canals which feed into the Tigris and the Euphrates. Nahr is also used in the names of villages along the banks of the Tigris or Euphrates which lie at the mouths of streams of the same name. Nahr ‘Antar lies on the Euphrates about ten miles above the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates at Qurnah. Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq (Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1968), 189.Google Scholar
60 Later on in the text, Ni'mat Allāh tells us that his brother died on the first of Sha'bān, 1079/ January 3, 1669. [p. 321] In the next paragraph, he tells us that Najm al-Dīn was the older of the two.
61 It was not possible to locate this village exactly, but the Banū Asad are one of the prominent tribes of the region. A modern scholar reports that they now live in Ḥuwayzah and other parts of al-Aḥwāz. ‘Alī Ni'mah al-Ḥulw, al-Aḥwāz: qabā'iluhā wa usaruhā (Najaf: Matba'at al-Ghariyy, 1390/1970), 16–18.Google Scholar
62 yā ṣabghā wa-yā qarḥā’ hāy in the original text.
63 lā ilāha ilia ‘Llāh. Literally “We belong to God, and unto Him we shall return.” This common phrase, usually expressing the transience of human existence, and uttered upon hearing of a death or disaster, is used sarcastically here. The sense is, “If we don't die of starvation first!”
64 That is, al-Jāmī's Commentary on al-Kāfiyah. Mawlānā Nūr al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī (d. 898/1492), the famous Persian poet, spent most of his life in Herat and wrote several works on Arabic grammar and exegesis of the Koran. The commentary, entitled al-Fawā’ id al-ḍiyā’iyyah or al-Fawā'id al-wāfiyah bi-ḥall mushkilāt al-Kāfiyah, is extant and has been published many limes. Brockelmann, Geschichte, G II: 207; “Djāmi,” s. v., EI2.
65 Al-Shāfiyah. This work on morphology is, as mentioned above, the companion volume to al-Kāfiyah, both being the works of the Egyptian scholar Ibn al-Ḥajīb (d. 646/1249). Fakhr al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Jārabirdī (d. 746/1313) was a Tabrīzī scholar and a student of al-Bayḍāwī, the author of the well-known exegesis of the Koran. His commentary on al-Shāfiyah is extant, and has been published many times in Iran and India. Brockelmann, Geschichte, G II: 193; S I: 536.
66 In the text, li-barakāti anfāsihi ‘sh-sharīfah fi'd-dars, literally, “because of the blessings of his noble breaths in the lessons.”
67 Dr. Ahmad al-Matouq and Dr. Salah Rifat have informed me that raqqi, pronounced raggi, is the word for watermelon in Iraqi colloquial Arabic. In Iraq, baṭṭīkh denotes a number of different kinds of melon, including muskmelon and honeydew melon.
68 Alfiyyat Ibn Mālik, perhaps the most famous book on Arabic syntax. Its author, Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Ṭā'ī al-Jayyānī (d. 672/1274), was a native of Spain who settled in Damascus and became a leading grammarian. The Alfiyyah, as the name indicates, is work of a thousand verses explaining the rules of Arabic syntax. Still used in most Arab countries, it is the third of the four main text-books used today for the study of Arabic syntax in the Shi'ī center of education in Najaf, the four being al-Ajrūmiyyah, Qaṭr al-nadā, Alfiyyat Ibn Mālik, and Mughnī al-labīb.
69 According to Islamic law, both Sunnī and Shī'ī, it is permissible for a minor to leave home without parental consent in order to study if there are not any qualified scholars in his native region. In contrast, a minor may not perform the pilgrimage to Mecca without his parents’ permission. The precedence given to learning is to ensure that there be enough scholars of the religious law to guide the Muslim community, thus fulfilling a collective duty (farḍ kifāyah).
70 Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān were the first three caliphs, who assumed the leadership of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad. The Shī'īs charge them with usurping the legal right of ‘Alī, who they felt should have succeeded the Prophet. For this and for having opposed the Shī'īs, these three caliphs and many other Companions, who are extremely revered by the Sunnīs, have become the targets of Shī'ī curses. During the Safavid period, when the government was trying to establish Shī'ism as the religon of the Empire, these curses became one of the most important public manifestations of orthodoxy. It is very likely that the insults traded here were not merely the result of enmity between two local groups in southern Iraq; the Safavid Shahs had turned cursing into a public issue of immense proportion. There is no doubt that Shah ‘Abbās’ campaigns in Iraq, which resulted in the Safavid annexation of the region for the period 1033-48/1623-38, had strained relations between the sects in the region.
71 Ḥusayn Pasha was the ruler of Baṣrah from ca. 1060/1650 until he was replaced in 1079/1668 with the Ottoman governor Yaḥyā Pasha. Ḥusayn Pasha's grandfather, Afrāsiyāb, had taken over the government of Baṣrah in ca. 1021/1612 and established hereditary rule with nominal Ottoman suzerainty. The title Pasha indicates that the Ottomans considered him one of their governors. However, the text uses the word Sulṭān to refer to him, and Longrigg calls Afrāsiyāb and his descendants the “Princes of Basrah.” Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph, Geschichte des osmanischen reiches, 10 vols. (Graz: Academische Druck und Verlagsanhalt, 1963), 6: 185–87Google Scholar; Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq, 99-117.
72 Apparently a port on the Persian Gulf, near Shiraz, possibly that now known as Bandar-e Rig.
73 Muḥsin al-Amīn informs us that this was his cousin (father's brother's son: ibn ‘amm) ‘Azīz Allāh ibn ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib. A'yān al-shī'ah, 10: 226.
74 The text has “our friend” (ṣaḍīqanā), but this is obviously their cousin ‘Azīz Allāh, mentioned above.
75 As we find out below, this is al-Shaykh Ja'far ibn Kamāl al-Dīn al-Baḥrānī, d. 1088/1677-78 or 1091/1680-81. al-Amīn, Muḥsin, A'yān al-shī'ah, 4: 136–38.Google Scholar
76 Ni'mat Allāh does not specify which commentary this is. There are a large number of commentaries on Alfīyyat Ibn Mālik, but the commentary mentioned here is probably one of the following three most popular: the commentary of Ibn Mālik's son, Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 686/1287), usually referred to as The Commentary of the Composer's Son (Sharḥ Ibn al-nāẓim), the commentary of Ibn ‘Aqīl (d. 769/1367), or the commentary of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505). See H. Fleisch, “Ibn Mālik” s.v., EI2.
77 Here, al-Baḥrānī is not only reprimanding Ni'mat Allāh for running away at such an early age and warning him to pursue his studies earnestly, but is also referring sarcastically to Ni'mat Allāh's origins. Al-Jazā'ir and its neighboring regions were populated by numerous Arab tribes, including the Banū Ka'b and Banū Lām, who were a constant source of unrest and participated in numbers of battles during this period. Qāḍī Nūr Allāh al-Shūshtarī (d. 1019/1610) reports that the inhabitants of al-Jazā'ir were courageous and bellicose, and blames the fall of the region to the Ottomans on their intertribal disputes. See Majālis al-Mu’ minīn, 2 vols. (Tehran: Chāp-khāneh-yi Islāmiyyah, 1956), 2: 68–69Google Scholar; al-Ḥulw, ‘Alī Ni'mah, al-Aḥwāz: qabā'iluhā wa usaruhā (Najaf: Maṭba'at al-Ghariyy, 1390/1970).Google Scholar
78 mutawallī. See Makdisi, The Rise of the Colleges, 44-55.
79 Again, the text reads “my friend” (ṣaḍīqī) in reference to Ni'mat Allāh's cousin.
80 Miftāḥ al-labīb ‘alā sharḥ al-tahdhīb in the text.
81 Bahā’ al-Dīn Muḥammad al-'Āmilī (d. 1030/1621) was the leading scholar of the Safavid Empire during the reign of Shah ‘Abbās I (996/1587-1038/1629). He held the post of shaykh al-islām of the capital, Isfahan, and was an important figure at court. A native of Jabal ‘Āmil in southern Lebanon, he came to Iran as a child with his father Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd al-Ṣamad al-'Āmilī, who became an important scholar under Shah Tahmasb. The text mentioned here is his Tahdhīb al-naḥw (The Compendium of Syntax), a work on Arabic grammar. See al-Ṭihrānī, Agha Buzurg, al-Dharī'ah ilā taṣānīf al-shī'ah, 25 vols. (Tehran: al-Maktabah al-Islāmiyyah, 1948-78), 13: 165.Google Scholar
82 uṣūl in the text. Probably uṣūl al-dīn, or dogma.
83 Probably al-Sayyid Hāshim al-Aḥsā'ī, who taught at the Prince Muḥammad College in Shiraz. Al-Anwār al-Nu'māniyyah, 2: 7.
84 Abū al-Walī al-Ḥusaynī al-Shīrāzī was from the family of Shāhī sayyids of Shiraz, and appears to have spent his entire career there. Muḥsin al-Amīn, A'yān al-shī'ah, 2: 443.
85 Mīrzā Ibrāhīm al-Shīrāzī was the son of the famous philosopher, Muḥammad Ṣadr al-Dīn, known as Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640). Ibrāhīm taught in Shiraz and specialized in mathematics, logic, and philosophy. He died between 1070/1659 and 1079/1669. al-Amīn, Muḥsin, A'yān al-shī'ah, 2: 202–3.Google Scholar
86 Probably Ṣāliḥ ibn ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Baḥranī, d. 1098/1686-87. al-Amīn, Muḥsin, A'yān al-shī'ah, 7: 368.Google Scholar
87 In the traditional educational system, in subjects including ḥadīth, the Koranic sciences, and law, certain students would be designated to read the text, or preferably, to recite it from memory, while the professor listened to the recitation and corrected it as needed. The other students in the class would follow the text being recited. For the technical uses of the verb qara'a in medieval Islamic education, see Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges, 141-43.
88 uṣūl al-fiqh, i.e., jurisprudence, or legal theory and methodology. See Makdisi, The Rise of the Colleges, 76.Google Scholar
89 Al-'Amīdī was the sobriquet of ‘Amīd al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib al-Ḥillī (d. 754/1353), the nephew of the renowned Shī'ī scholar Jamāl al-Dīn Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf al-Ḥillī (d. 726/1325), known as Ibn al-Muṭahhar or al-'Allāmah. The commentary mentioned here is Sharḥ al-Tahdhīb, on one of his uncle's major works, Tahdhīb al-uṣūl, which was a standard text of uṣūl al-fiqh during this period. Khwānsārī, Rawḍāt al-jannāt fī aḥwāl al-'ulamā wa al-sādāt, 8 vols. (Tehran: al-Maṭba'ah al-Ḥaydariyyah, 1970) 4: 264–68Google Scholar; Ṭabāṭabā'ī, Hossein Modarressi, An Introduction to Shī'ī Law: a Bibliographical Study (London: Ithaca Press,, 1984), 8 n. 5.Google Scholar
90 Ḥaydarābād was the capital of the Quṭbshāhī kingdom in the Deccan in southern India. The Quṭbshāhs, themselves Shī'īs, were generous patrons of Shī'ī scholars, and many scholars were enticed to leave the Safavid Empire to go to the Quṭbshāhī court. Yūsuf al-Baḥrānī relates the following story about this scholar:
“My father related to me that [al-Shaykh Ja'far and al-Shaykh Ṣāliḥ ibn ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Kurzukānī] left Baḥrayn because of financial hardships and went to Shiraz. They stayed there a while--Shiraz was filled with learned men and notables at the time. Then they made a pact that one of them would go to India while the other remained in the land of the Persians, and whoever became wealthy the first would help the other. Al-Shaykh Ja'far travelled to India and settled in Ḥaydarābād, and al-Shaykh Ṣāliḥ stayed in Shiraz.” Lu'lu'at al-Baḥrayn, 70.
91 ‘Abd ‘Alī ibn Jum'ah al-'Arūsī al-Ḥuwayzi spent most of his career teaching in Shiraz, and though it is not clear here, he was one of Ni'mat Allāh's teachers there. His Koranic exegesis, entitled Nūr al-thaqalayn, has been published. Brockelmann reports that he completed the work in Shiraz in 1065/1655. Ni'mat Allāh was in Shiraz during the years 1061-70/1651-60, and therefore would have been there when his teacher completed Nūr al-thaqalayn. Khwānsāri, Rawḍāt al-jannāt, 4: 213-18; Brockelmann, Geschichte, GII: 412.
92 ḥadīth in the text.
93 The seventh Imām of the Twelver Shī'īs.
94 It is not at all strange that a Sayyid should give him food without his asking. In Iranian tradition, Sayyids are entitled to receive alms and then redistribute it to the needy. They often do so by handing out food or money at mosques and shrines.
95 This sentence is somewhat unclear, and Tunkābunī omits it in his Persian translation. Tunkābunī, Mīrzā Muḥammad, Qiṣaṣ al-‘ulamā’ (Shiraz: Intishārāt-i ‘ilmiyyah-yi islāmiyyah, 1964), 444.Google Scholar The text reads li'anna ‘l-mawja ‘l-awwala mawjun ‘awwād, meaning, roughly, “because the first flood was one which kept returning.”
96 ḥadīth in the text. The oral traditions of the Prophet Muḥammad and the Imāms.
97 fiqh in the text.
98 dhubiḥa ‘l-'ilmu fī furūji ‘n-nisā. Literally, “Learning has been slaughtered in women's vaginas.”
99 In the original text ahlī, literally “my family, my people.” Here it is used as a euphemism for wife. This and other euphemisms such as ahl bayt, “the people of one's house,” are often used for the more explicit zawjah or mar'ah. Ahl is used this way in the Koranic injunction, u'mur ahlaka bi'ṣ-ṣalāt “Command your wife to pray…” Sūrah 20 (Ṭāhā, Meccan), āyah 132.
100 An Ottoman fortress situated at the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates, about 40 miles north of Baṣrah.
101 Ḥusayn Pāshā, mentioned earlier.
102 This college still stands. It is located in an area of Isfahan's Bazaar called Nīm āvard or Nam āvard. The word Sar “head” in the name of the College possibly indicates that it lies at the entrance to this area, or at its highest point. Inscriptions on the building state that it was built in 1117/1705-6 by Zaynab Begum, the wife of Ḥakīm al-Mulk Ardestānī, but that must have been a renovation. Hunarfar reports that some scholars believe it dates from the reign of the Safavid Shāh Sulaymān (1077-1105/1666-94). See Hunarfar, Luṭf Allāh, Ganjīnah-yi āsār-i tārīkhī-yi Iṣfahān (Isfahan, 1344 sh.), 679–82.Google Scholar
103 Muḥammad Bāqir al-Majlisī (d. 1111/1699) was the leading scholar of his day in Isfahan, and a very powerful figure in Safavid politics during the reigns of Shah Sulaymān and Shah Sulṭān Ḥusayn (1105-35/1694-1722). He concentrated on the study of Shī'ī ḥadīth, and was compiling his monumental work, Biḥār al-anwār, during the time Ni'mat Allāh was in Iṣfahān. See “Madjlisī, Mullā Muḥammad Bāqir” s. v., EI2.
104 This college, though it still stands, has ceased to be used as a college and is now a private home. An Persian inscription remains, the last line of which contains a chronogram of three words (madrasah, ṭayyibah, khāliṣiyyah) giving the date when it was built as 1071/1660-61. The founder was Mīrzā Taqiyy ibn Muḥammad Bāqir Dawlatābādī. Hunarfar, Ganjīnah-yi āsār-i tārīkhī-yi Iṣfahān, 608-10; al-Qāsim Mihrabānī, Abū, Āsār-i millī-yi Iṣfahān (Tehran, 1352 sh.), 41–42.Google Scholar
105 On the Bathhouse of Shaykh Bahā'ī, see Hunarfar, Ganjīnah-yi āsār-i tārīkhī-yi I'fahān, 620; Mihrabānī, Āsār-i millī-yi Iṣfahān, 397 n. 1, 407.
106 About 300 miles northwest of Isfahan, now about 80 miles from the Iraqi border.
107 The ‘Abbāsid Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd is anathema to the Shī'īs, who hold him responsible for the poisoning of Riḍa, the eighth Imām, in addition to the murder and torture of Shī'īs and other nefarious acts. al-Amīn, Muḥsin, A'yān al-shī'ah, 2: 30–31.Google Scholar Al-Hārūniyyah is a town in the region of Baghdad which Hārūn built on the Khurāsān road. It lies near Shahrābān, and had a bridge called al-qanṭarah al-Hārūniyyah. Abū ‘Abd Allāh Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Ma'jam al-buldān, 6 vols., ed. Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand (Leipzig, 1867), 4: 946.Google Scholar
108 āyat al-kursiyy. This verse, āyah 255 in sūrat al-baqarah, the second sūrah of the Koran, is often recited for protection in times of danger.
109 Ba'qūbā is a town in Iraq, west of the Tigris, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, and 60 miles south-east of Sāmarrā'. Ni'mat Allāh and this small party were evidently travelling with a merchant caravan headed for Baghdad. Since they were making a side-trip to Sāmarrā', they left their belongings with the caravan, intending to pick them up later on in Baghdad.
110 Surra man ra'ā in the text, meaning “He who sees it is gladdened,” is probably an Arabic folk etymology for the original Persian name of Sāmarrā’, and appeared on the coins of the Abbasid Caliphs. Sāmarrā’ is a town on the Tigris, about 130 miles northeast of Baghdad. It was founded in 221/836 by one of the Turkish generals of the Caliph al-Mu'taṣim. “Sāmarrā’”, s.v., EI1.
111 This is probably the small river, now called Nahr al-'Uzaym, which flows into the Tigris between Sāmarrā’ and Baghdad.
112 The original has khawāshīq. This word, not to be found in Wehr's A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, Kazimirski's Dictionnaire arabe-français, or Ibn Manṣūr's Lisān al-‘Arab, is an Iraqi colloquial term, and derives from the Persian qāshoq, which, in turn, derives from the Turkish kaşik. Buṭrus al-Bustānī includes it in his Muḥīṭ al-muḥīṭ, giving the singular as khāshūqah, defining it as a spoon or a large spoon, and terming it a colloquialism (min kalāmi ‘l-'āmmah). Steingass defines the Persian word as a wooden spoon. Steingass, Persian-English Dictionary (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977), 947Google Scholar; New Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary (Istanbul: Çeltüt Matbaasi, 1968), 616Google Scholar; Muḥīṭ al-muḥīṭ, 2 vols. (Beirut, 1870), 1: 544.Google Scholar
113 An Ottoman coin, bearing the name of the then ruling Sultan, Muḥammad IV (1058/1648-1099/1687).
114 The tomb is that of Muḥammad Ḥasan al-'Askarī, the eleventh Imām of the Shī'īs. The underground vault (sirdāb) is the place where the Twelfth Imām, Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad al-Mahdī, is supposed lo have disappeared in 264/875. “Sāmarrā’”, s. v., EI1.
115 wa ka'annī arā ṭarafa mīzari wāḥidin min aṣḥābī fī yadihi wa ‘ṭ-ṭarafa l-ākhara fī yadi rajulin sayyidin min as-sādah, in the original text. Literally, “It was as if I saw one end of the head-cloth of one of my companions in his hand, and the other in the hand of one of the Sayyids.” The name of the garment is given in the text as mīzar, for mi'zar. Mi'zar has several meanings, including a man's coat, or a cloth rolled around the turban or the shoulders. The context shows that the appropriate meaning here is probably “espèce de toque ou de voile autour de la tēte, en laissant pendre les bouts des franges sur les épaules…” Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967), 2: 20Google Scholar; Dictionnaire détaillé des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes (Amsterdam, 1845), 42–46.Google Scholar
116 This shrine lies just west of Baghdad and is the site of the tombs of the seventh and ninth Imāms, Mūsā al-Kāẓim and Muḥammad Jawād.
117 This is the shrine at Karbalā’.
118 al-Ṣaḥīfah al-sharīfah. This is the famous collection of supererogatory prayers, existing in several different versions and known as al-Ṣaḥīfah al-Sajjādiyyah or al-Ṣaḥīfah al-Kāmilah, attributed to Zayn al-'Ābidīn, the fourth Shī'ī Imam. Ni'mat Allāh's commentary on the work, entitled Nūr al-anwār fī sharḥ al-safīnah al-sajjādiyyah, is extant and has been printed, Tehran, 1314 A.H. See Agha Buzurg al-Ṭihrānī, al-Dharī'ah ilā taṣānīf al-shī'ah, 13: 358; Sezgin, Fuat, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 9 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967-84) 1: 526–27.Google Scholar
119 This is at Kūfah.
120 The Safavid Shah who ruled from 1038/1629 to 1052/1642. Baghdad was taken by Shah Abbās I in November, 1623, and recaptured by the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV in December, 1638. Thus, a large part of Iraq, including the Shī'ī shrine cites, was under Safavi rule for most of Shah ṣafī's reign. See Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq, 56-74.
121 mujtahidīn in the text.
122 On, the western branch of the Euphrates, south of Najaf. See Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq, 2, 120-22.
123 Pilgrimages to Shī'ī shrines are termed ziyārāt, literally “visits,” setting them apart from the pilgrimage to Mecca, ḥajj. The ziyārat Rajab mentioned here is a pilgrimage to Karbalā', the sight of the tomb of Ḥusayn, the third Imām, performed in the month of Rajab, the seventh month of the Muslim calendar. The first and the fifteenth of Rajab are special occasions for performing pilgrimages to Karbalā’, and it seems that here, Ni'mat Allāh is referring to the pilgrimage on the first of Rajab. A modern historian who is a native of Karbalā’ reports that the celebration on the first of Rajab has a more local flavor than the other occasions, as large numbers of Arabs and farmers flock to the shrine from the surrounding region. ‘Abd al-Jawād al-Kilīdār āl Tu'mah, Tārīkh Karbalā’ wa ḥā'ir Ḥusayn, 2nd printing (Najaf: al-Maṭba'ah al-Ḥaydariyyah, 1387/1967), 138–49Google Scholar; Almanac, 3rd ed. (Karachi: Peer Mahomed Ebrahim Trust, 1974), 823-24; al-Jawharçī, Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, Ḍiyā’ al-ṣāliḥīn, 11th printing (Najaf: Maṭba'at al-Ādāb, 1384/1964), 11–24.Google Scholar
124 This is meant to refer to Sunnīs.
125 Ja'far al-Ṣādiq, the sixth Imam of the Twelver Shī'īs.
126 Tahdhīb al-ḥadīth. This is a famous work, also known as Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, by Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī (d. 460/1067), one of the four main books of Shī'ī ḥadīth. The four are al-Kāfī by al-Kulaynī (d. 329/941), Kitāb man lā yaḥḍuruhu al-faqīh by Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī (d. 381/991), Tahdhīb al-ḥadīth, just mentioned, and al-Istibṣār, also by al-Ṭūsī. During this period, these books were known as “the four sources” (al-uṣūl al-arba'ah), [see al-Anwār al-Nu'māniyyah, 2: 283] a term which may derive from the much older use of the word aṣl to refer to collections of ḥadīth made by companions of the Imams.
127 Al-Shaykh ‘Abd al-Nabiyy ibn Sa'd al-Jazā'irī was born in al-Jazā'ir, studied in Najaf, then settled in Kūfah. He was especially learned in uṣūl al-fīqh, uṣūl al-dīn, fiqh, ḥadīth, and rijāl. The fact that the author refers to him as the “seal of the mujtahids” indicates that he considered him the top isconsult of his time. This is especially significant because it appears that ‘Abd al-Nabiyy never studied in Iṣfahān, where most of the leading Safavi scholars were. This indicates that the center of learning at Najaf, though in Ottoman territory, was functioning at the time and enjoyed high prestige. al-Khwānsārī, Rawḍāl al-jannāt, 4: 268-72.
128 This was in 1078/1667. For a description of these events, see Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 6: 185-87; Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq, 115-17.
129 Ramaīān 10, 1078 = February 23, 1668.
130 Al-Dawraq, also known as Dawraq al-Furs, Little Baṣrah, and al-Fallāḥiyyah, lies about thirty miles east of Baṣrah, and is connected with it by a canal, also named Dawraq. See Chesney, Lieutenant Colonel, The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, vol. 1 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1969 [originally published in 1850]), 199–201Google Scholar, also map no. 11; Le Strange, Guy, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905), 242–43Google Scholar, map no. 2. Ḥusayn Pasha apparently fled to Shiraz, where he asked the Safavid Shah Sulaymān for support. Upon being refused, he fled to India. Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq, 117.
131 Alī Khān ibn Khalaf ibn Muṭṭalib ibn Ḥaydar al-Ḥuwayzī. His family were the wālīs of ‘Arabistān, the hereditary governors of the area of Khūzistan. Their seat was at al-Ḥuwayzah, the capital of the province. The approximate dates of ‘Alī Khān's rule as wālī are 1060-88/1650-78. ‘Alī Khān was not only a governor and a military commander, but also a poet. al-Ḥulw, ‘Alī Ni'mah, Al-Aḥwāz: ‘Arabistān fī adwārīhā al-tārīkhiyyah (Baghdad: Dar al-Baṣrī, 1967), 206–9Google Scholar; al-Amīn, Muḥsin, A'yān al-Shī'ah, 8: 235–39.Google Scholar
132 Now called Deh Dasht. It lies about 130 miles southeast of Shūshtar and about 150 miles southwest of Isfahan, near Bihbihān.
133 al-Ṣaḥīfah. That is, al-Ṣaḥīfah al-sajjādiyyah, mentioned above.
134 That is a prayer intended to be said at ‘Arafah, on the ninth of Dhū ‘l-ḥijjah, as part of the ceremonies during the pilgrimage to Mecca.
135 Ḥusayn ibn Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Khwānsārī (d. 1099/1687-88), a native of Khwānsār in Iran, went to Isfahan in his youth to study, and spent the rest of his career there. He was one of the most important scholars of his time in Iṣfahān, writing on law, logic, theology, and philosophy, and was close to Shah Sulaymān. He dedicated several books to the Shah, and the Shah built a dome over his tomb in the Bābā Rukn al-Dīn cemetery in Isfahan. He translated al-Ṣaḥīfah al-sajjādiyyah, the work being discussed above, into Persian, and he also taught Ni'mat Allāh. See al-Amīn, Muḥsin, A'yān al-shī'ah, 6: 148–50.Google Scholar
136 ḥullah in the original text. Steingass gives as a definition “A dress, consisting of a waist-wrapper and a cloak for the whole body.” Persian-English Dictionary, 429.
137 January 3, 1669.
138 The eighth Imām of the Shī'īs, whose tomb is at Mashhad in Khurāsān.
139 Sayyid ‘Alī Khān, mentioned above.
140 Ni'mat Allāh's grandson ‘Abd Allāh reports that Ni'mat Allāh had four sons, one of whom, named Ḥabīb Allāh, died at a young age. Tadhkirah-yi Shūshtar (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1924), 59.Google Scholar
141 laysa fīhā mujlahidun wa-lā muffin in the text.
142 Tahdhīb al-ḥadīth in the text. This is al-Ṭūsī's well known work, Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, mentioned above. Ni'mat Allāh's commentary is not known to be extant.
143 al-Hadiyyah. Modarressi calls this Hadiyyat al-mu'minīn or Hadiyyat al-ikhwān, and describes it as dealing with ritual purity and prayer, the first sections of standard works on fiqh. He lists four extant manuscripts. An Introduction to Shī'ī Law, 123.
144 Kashf al-asrār li-sharḥ al-Istibṣār. This is a commentary on al-Ṭūsī's second work on ḥadīth, al-Istibṣār, mentioned above as one of the four principle compilations of Shī'ī ḥadīth. The commentary is not known to be extant.
145 al-Anwār, i.e., al-Anwār al-nu’māniyyah.
146 al-Mughnī in the text. This is Mughnī al-labīb, the well known work on Arabic syntax by Jamāl al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ‘Abd Allāh ibn Yūsuf, known as Ibn Hishām (d. 761/1360). Al-Jazā'irī's commentary is not known to be extant. Ibn Hishām was a famous grammarian who taught in Cairo, and wrote Qaṭr al-nadā and Shudhūr al-dhahab, two other famous works on Arabic grammar, in addition to Muhgnī al-labīb. As mentioned above, both Qaṭr al-nadā and Mughnī al-labīb are part of the required curriculum in Najaf at present, and Mughnī al-labīb is the last required textbook for the study af Arabic grammar. EI2, s. v. “Ibn Hishām”; Brockelmann, Geshichte, GII: 23; SII: 17.
147 Sharḥ Tahdhīb al-naḥw in the text. This is the work Miftāḥ al-labīb ‘alā sharḥ al-tahdhīb, the commentary on Bahā’ al-Dīn al-'Āmilī's work which Ni'mat Allāh mentioned above.
148 sharḥ al-kāfīyah. This work is extant and has been published, Tehran, 1277 A.H., Lucknow, 1879.
149 November 6, 1678.
