Page 18 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

The training of the Twelver ʿulamaʾ also received further impetus through the foundation of several madrasas, later resulting in the establishment of the in uence of Twelver ʿulamaʾ over the court by the closing decades of the 17th century. The Twelver ʿulamaʾ also initiated a renaissance in the Islamic sciences and Shiʿi scholarship, notable among which were the contributions of the so-called ‘School of Isfahan’. Employing a Shiʿi perspective its proponents integrated a number of theological, philosophical and gnostic traditions into a metaphysical synthesis known as divine wisdom or theosophy (al-hikma al-ilahiyya). The founder was Sayyid Mir Muhammad Baqir Astarabadi
(d. 1630), better known as Mir Damad because his father was the son-in-law (Persian, damad) of the in uential Shaykh al-Karaki. A Twelver theologian, philosopher and poet, Mir Damad was also Isfahan’s leading cleric (shaykh al-Islam).
The most important representative of the School of Isfahan was, however, Mir Damad’s principal student, Sadr al-Din Muhammad Shirazi (d. 1640), better known as Mulla Sadra. Like his teacher, Mulla Sadra was variously in uenced by the peripatetic philosophy of Ibn Sina (Latin, Avicenna, d. 1037), the illuminationist (ishraqi) tradition of Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi (d. 1191), and the gnostic- mystical teachings (ʿirfan) of Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1240). At the same time, Mulla Sadra was deeply grounded in the study of the Qurʾan, hadith and Twelver Imami tenets similar to the philosophical theology expounded by the earlier Fatimid Ismaili missionaries (daʿis), while the Twelver members of the School of Isfahan, too, elaborated an original intellectual perspective in philosophical Shiʿism. Mulla Sadra also had
a number of eminent students, such as Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani (d. 1680), who disseminated the traditions of the School of Isfahan in both Iran and India.
The Twelver ʿulamaʾ, especially the jurists among them, also began to play an increasingly important role in the a airs of state. Most notably, Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1699), the shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan, led the coronation ceremonies of the last Safawid shah, Sultan Husayn i (r. 1694–1722), and was allowed to initiate a campaign of persecution against Su s and philosophers, including members of the School of
Isfahan, in which he was supported by many Twelver jurists. Majlisi compiled a comprehensive corpus of Imami hadiths entitled the Bihar al-anwar (Seas of Lights).
Meanwhile, the Twelver ʿulamaʾ had begun to disagree among themselves on certain theological and juristic issues, and became sharply divided into two opposing camps, the Akhbari and the Usuli. From early on, traditionist and rationalist trends had existed within Twelver Shiʿism but the original predominance of the Imami adherance to the traditionist Akhbari position was superseded by scholars such as Shaykh al-Mu d and Shaykh al-Taʾifa al-Tusi of the Buyid period, who established the rationalist Usuli doctrine, adopting Muʿtazili theological principles in their fundamen- tals of jurisprudence (usul al- qh). The Usulis thus permitted speculative reasoning (ijtihad) in the principles (usul) of theology and law, in contrast to the Akhbaris, who relied primarily on the traditions (akhbar) of the Twelver Imams.
By the early 17th century, Mulla Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (d. 1624) had articulated the traditionist position afresh and, in e ect, became the founder of the revived Akhbari School. Astarabadi recognised the traditions of the Imams as the most important source of the law, required for correct understanding of even the Qurʾan and the Prophetic traditions, because the Imams were the divinely appointed interpreters of these sources. The Akhbari School ourished for almost two centuries in Iran and the shrine cities of Iraq. However, in the second half of the 18th century, when Twelver Shiʿism was already widespread in Iran, the Usulis emerged as the prevailing school of jurisprudence in Twelver Shiʿism. In time, this position led to an unprecedented enhancement in the authority of the Twelver ʿulamaʾ, also placing ijtihad at the very centre of Twelver juristic structure.
Twelver Shiʿism in India
Meanwhile, Twelver Shiʿism had also spread in India. It had already appeared successfully in the Deccan under the Bahmanids (1347–1528), who had founded the rst Islamic state in the Indian subcontinent, but it was not until a er the disintegration of the Bahmanid kingdom that Twelver
ʿulamaʾ and mujtahids, usually of Persian origins and under the in uence of the Safawids, became particularly active, taking root in the ve independent sultanates that followed: the ʿImad-Shahis of Berar, the Barid-Shahis of Bidar, the ʿAdil-Shahis of Bijapur, the Nizam-Shahis of Ahmadnagar and the Qutb-Shahis of Golconda.
In 1503, the ʿAdil-Shahis (1490–1686) became the rst Muslim dynasty in India to adopt Twelver Shiʿism as their state religion. Later, Shah Tahir al-Husayni, a learned scholar and the foremost Imam of the Muhammad-Shahi branch of Nizari Ismailism, arrived in Ahmadnagar from Iran to play a key role in further spreading Shiʿism. Since the Mongol destruction of their state in 1256, the Nizari Ismailis had observed dissimulation (taqiyya) very strictly under di erent guises, and this continued through their split in around 1310 into two factions, the Qasim-Shahi and the Muhammad-Shahi (or Muʾmini), over the succession to their Imamate, and into the Safawid period. It was under such circumstances of persecution that Shah Tahir, cleverly dissimulating as a Twelver scholar, reached India and became a trusted adviser to Burhan i Nizam-Shah (r. 1509– 1554). Shah Tahir succeeded in converting the Sunni Burhan i to Twelver Shiʿism, and soon a erwards in 1537
Twelver Shiʿism was proclaimed the o cial religion of
the Nizam-Shahi state. Henceforth, an increasing number of Twelver ʿulamaʾ gathered in Ahmadnagar and enjoyed
the patronage of its rulers. Sultan Quli (r. 1496–1543), the founder of the Qutb-Shahi dynasty in Golconda, too, adopted Twelver Shiʿism as the religion of his realm. Twelver Shiʿism also spread to northern India and was adopted as the state religion of the kingdom of Awadh (Oudh, 1722–1856), in present-day Uttar Pradesh, its capital Lucknow serving as the main stronghold of Twelver Shiʿism in southern Asia. However, although numerous Twelver Shiʿi minority communities continued to thrive, especially in Hyderabad, the independence of the Deccan sultanates would be short-lived as by the 17th century all had been absorbed into the Mughal Empire.
Mughal India
The Mughals were a Sunni-oriented dynasty who at their height ruled present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and most of India and Bengal. They traced their ancestry back to Chingiz Khan and Timur and hence took their name from the Persian and Arabic term for Mongol. The dynasty’s
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Detail of the mihrab of Bijapur’s Friday mosque. Begun in 1576 under ʿAli ʿAdil Shah I (d. 1580) the mosque was completed and expanded by his successors. The black and gold decoration was added by Muhammad ʿAdil Shah (d. 1656) and contains inscrip- tions of six Persian verses
that read:
Put no trust in life; it is short, the passing world has no rest; the world pleases the senses; life is the best
of gi s, but it lasts not; Malik Yaqub, a servant of the mosque and the slave of Sultan Muhammad nished the mosque; this gilding and ornament were done by order of Sultan Muhammad ʿAdil Shah, ah 1045 [1635 ce].