Badāʾiʿ Nigār, Mīrzā Mahdī (1279–1360/1862–1941), son of Sayyid Muṣṭafā Ḥusaynī Tafrishī, was a Persian author, man of letters and a statesman in the Qājār period. He was born in Tehran where he began his studies in the fields of language and grammar, religious studies, astronomy, geomancy, mathematics, philosophy and gnosis. He was authorised by Mīrzā Ḥusayn Nūrī and Shaykh Muḥammad Kāẓimīnī to narrate ḥadīths and wrote many books on a variety of subjects (Khiyābānī, 236–237; Mudarris, 5/120; Badāʾiʿ Nigār, Khayr al-kalām, 5–6).

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