Vaḥīd Bihbahānī

Persian religious scholar

• Born: 1705 or 1706
• Birthplace: Isfahān, Persia (now in Iran)
• Died: 1790 or 1791
• Place of death: Karbala, Iraq

Vaḥīd Bihbahānī was responsible for the victory of the Usuli Shiite position over Akhbari Shiism, which was predominant in Persia and parts of what is now Iraq at the start of the eighteenth century. His polemic established a structure of religious authority that persisted as an important precedent in nineteenth and twentieth century Iran.

Early Life

Vaḥīd Bihbahānī (vah-KHEED BIH-buh-hahn-ee) was born in Eşfahān, the capital of Persia during the rule of theṢafavid Dynasty. After spending a short period in the town of Bihbihan, he was taken by his father to the city of Karbala in Iraq. One of the most holy cities in the Islamic world, Karbala is venerated by Shiite Muslims as the site where the Prophet Muḥammad’s descendant Hussein was martyred and buried. Though Iraq had remained under the control of Sunni regimes while theṢafavids sponsored the Shia faith next door, in the early seventeenth century, the shrine cities of Karbala and Najaf developed into centers of Shia scholarship and attracted Persian scholars seeking freedom fromṢafavid and post-Ṣafavid establishments.

The young Bihbahānī began his lifelong engagement with religious scholarship under the tutelage of his father, Mulla Muhammad Aqmal. He inherited not only an education, but also a prized academic lineage from his father, who had studied under the most influential figure in Persian Shiism during the seventeenth century, Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi. In addition, Mulla Aqmal had married Majlisi’s niece, linking the family to the great scholar both genealogically and spiritually. In Karbala, the young Bihbahānī studied under the religious scholar Sayyid Sadr al-Din Qummi, and though he intended to leave the city after completing his training, he was dissuaded from doing so by a dream in which Imam Hussein came to him. Bihbahānī interpreted the dream as a call to remain in the holy city to complete his life’s work.

Life’s Work

In obedience to his dream, Bihbahānī stayed on in Karbala, where he engaged in a fierce and long-standing controversy between the Usuli and Akhbari schools of Shiism, a struggle that had become particularly intense in the late Ṣafavid period. Debates between the two schools centered on questions of jurisprudence and religious authority. The Akhbari position, which was predominant in Karbala and other Iraqi shrine cities such as Najaf, asserted that legal judgments should be based exclusively on the Qur՚ān (the Muslim holy book, consisting of the direct revelations of God), the Ḥadīth (oral reports of the Prophet), and the emulation of the twelve Shiite imams.

Usuli rationalists, on the other hand, insisted that the consensus of a group of scholars—mujtahids (those qualified to practice religious interpretation)—could be a basis for legal activism. As a proponent of the Usuli position, Bihbahānī argued for a greater use of independent reasoning (ijtihad) in reaching legal decisions, and as a result of his work, the role of the mujtahid was greatly increased during his lifetime. The conviction in an able body of independent jurists presupposed the division of the community into jurists and laymen and required the latter’s regard for the former.

Mujtahids were required to study theology, Arabic syntax and morphology, lexicography, logic, and traditional sources of knowledge. Moreover, in accordance with the Usuli position, they were expected to prepare legal judgments not only in conformity with traditional sources, but also through the application of intellectual proofs. Bihbahānī’s belief in the mujtahid’s ability to establish rational proofs led him to consider them vice-regents of the Prophet, an idea that was later elaborated upon by Mulla Ahmad Naraqi (d. 1830) and, even more recently, by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Bihbahānī’s polemic often took the form of debate and written treatises. For instance, he waged a lifelong argument with an Akhbari rival, Shaikh Yusef Bahrayni(d. 1758), which centered on the validity of the mujtahid’s speculative reasoning after the so-called “gate of acquisition of knowledge” was closed by the occultation of the Twelfth Imam. He also demonstrated the position of the mujtahid by example. One of his pupils, Shaykh Jaՙfar Najafi (d. 1812), recorded that Bihbahānī was constantly accompanied by armed men who would instantaneously execute any judgment that he passed. Such practical methods served to win popular support for the Usuli position, and by the end of his life Bihbahānī had managed to outlaw Akhbaris as heretics.

In the eighteenth century, Bihbahānī led religious scholars in a fierce attack against mystical orders within Islam. Prompted by the flood of Sufi mystics returning to Iran after having been driven into India by Majlisi in the previous century, Bihbahānī and his coterie wrote vigorous tracts rejecting the claim that Sufism is compatible with Shiism. During his lifetime, he showed particular enmity against the Niՙmatallahi order of Sufis, and his hostility toward it and other Islamic mystical movements earned Bihbahānī the nickname “Sufi-killer.” His son, Mirza MuhammadՙAli Bihbahānī (d. 1801), who settled in Kirmanshah, perpetuated his father’s hatred of mystics.

Bihbahānī died in Karbala in 1790 or 1791 near the tomb of Imam Hussein, which he had visited in reverence each day of his life in the holy city. His achievement has persisted into the twenty-first century in both Iraqi and Iranian Shiism. As a scholar, he is credited with more than sixty written works, the most important of which was the Kitab al-ijtihad waՙl-akhbar, a refutation of the Akhbari position. His legacy was also maintained by the large number of pupils that he trained. Influential students include AqaՙAbd al-Hussein and Shaikh Jaՙfar Najafi, who authored many important works of jurisprudence. By the end of his life, Bihbahānī had trained a generation of mujtahids, who would come to dominate the life of Eşfahān in the early nineteenth century. These pupils, among whom were Hajj Muhammad Ibrahim Kalbasi, Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Shafti, Shaikh Abuՙl Qasim Qummi, and Sayyid Mahdi Bahr al-ՙUlum, are often viewed as the ancestors of all of the mujtahids who have guided Iranian society since the eighteenth century.

Significance

Before Vaḥīd Bihbahānī’s work, Akhbari Shiites had dominated Iranian religious law. By the end of his life, Bihbahānī had obliterated the Akhbari influence and established the Usuli position as the norm for all of Twelver Shiism. This approach, which legitimized the role of interpretation in legal decisions and increased the power of the learned class, would form the basis for Iranian religious authority in the following two centuries. In addition, by declaring the “infidelity” of the Akhbaris, Bihbahānī brought the threat of such claims into the field of theology and jurisprudence, narrowing the field of orthodoxy in Twelver Shiism. This paved the way for an increase in the influence of the mujtahids during the rule of the Qajar dynasty in the nineteenth century. Ultimately, Usuli Shiism provided the religious legitimacy for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 and for the theocratic state that followed it.

Bibliography

Algar, Hamid. Religion and State in Iran, 1785-1996: The Role of the Ulama in the Qajar Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. A comprehensive history of religious scholarship and jurisprudence in Iran, beginning with the establishment of Usuli supremacy in the eighteenth century.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Religious Forces in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” In The Cambridge History of Iran 7. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. The most comprehensive source on religious and political developments in Iran during the eighteenth century. Contains maps and genealogical tables.

Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shiite Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. An account of Shiism’s development in Iran, with a thorough analysis of its role in the construction of Iranian political rule and authority.

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shii Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987. A comprehensive introduction to Shiism, and specifically to Twelver Shiism, incorporating modern critical research as well as orthodox traditional accounts. Offers clear accounts of Shia doctrines and jurisprudence.

Mottahedeh, Roy. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. Reprint. Oxford, England: Oneworld, 2000. Narrative account of the development of Shia doctrines and jurisprudence in Iran. Contains detailed information on the curriculum used to train religious scholars in Iran and Iraq during the eighteenth century.