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Ḥabīballāh Bāghnawī (d. 995/1587), known as Mīrzā Jān, was an Ashʿarī theologian, logician, and mathematician from Bāghnaw, a district of Shiraz, in Iran. Born in about 930/1524, he studied in his hometown with Naṣr al-Bayān al-Kāzirūnī (fl. 950/1543) and with Jamāl al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Shīrāzī (d. 962/1555), who was a student of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī (d. 908/1502–3). Bāghnawī regarded himself as a student of al-Dawānī, through the intermediation of Jamāl al-Dīn Maḥmūd, and, in his writings, he referred to al-Dawānī as his master (ustādh). After completing his education, Bāghnaw…

Quṭb al-Dīn ʿ Abd al-Qādir b. Ḥamza b. Yāqūt al-Aharī (d. 657/1259–60), was a Ṣūfī and a philosopher from Ahar in Azerbaijan by whom a philosophical work titled al-Bulgha fī l-ḥikma is extant. The only known independent bio-bibliographical source on him is the Majmaʿ al-ādāb fī muʿjam al-alqāb by Ibn al-Fuwaṭī (d. 723/1318) (ed. Muḥammad al-Kāẓim (Tehran 1416/1995–96), 3:399–400 no. 2841). Ibn al-Fuwaṭī relates that al-Aharī left his home town in his youth and travelled to different regions in Khurāsān and Fārs. While he was in Herat he stud…

‘Rejecting the sophistries of the unbelievers by presenting inquiries into the three faiths’ Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Kirmānshāhī, Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Mujtahid, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn al-Waḥīd al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Bāqir al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Bāqir Iṣfahānī Date: 4 March 1801 Original Language: Persian DescriptionAt the beginning of the introduction to  Rādd shubahāt al-kuffār, Bihbahānī explains that, while he was in Tehran in 1798, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah requested explanations about a few matters including interreligious issues. B…

Ḥājjī Ibrāhīm Mujtahid Shīrāzī, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Fasāʾī, Ḥājjī Mīzā Ibrāhīm Mujtahid, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥusayn Ḥasanī Ḥusaynī, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Ḥasanī Ḥusaynī Date of Birth: Around 1769 Place of Birth: Shiraz Date of Death: 1839 Place of Death: Shiraz BiographyMuḥammad Ibrāhīm Shīrāzī was from a well-known and learned family in Shiraz. Among his ancestors were two distinguished philosophers, Ṣadr al-Dīn Dashtakī Shīrāzī (d. 1498) and the latter’s son Ghiyāth al-Dīn (d. 1542). His father, Ḥasan Shīrāzī, known as Mīrzā-Jānī Fasāʾī (d. 17…

‘The third treatise [on rejection of the path of the Sufis]' Henry Martyn Date: 1812 Original Language: Persian DescriptionThis treatise, found in MS Cambridge University Library – Add. 567, contains 13 folios (written on one side of the leaves only) and comprises three discussions. The first (fols 16v-20v) deals with the Sufis, arguing that union with God, which is their goal, cannot be attained by following the Sufis’ own path. In the second discussion (fols 20v-25v), which is actually a continuation of the fir…

‘The second treatise [on completing the response to Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Shīrāzī]' Henry Martyn Date: June-September 1811 Original Language: Persian DescriptionThis treatise, the original of which is contained in MS Cambridge University Library – Add. 567, is made up of 10 folios (written on one side of the leaves only). In his first treatise, Henry Martyn avoided dealing with the personality of Muḥammad. In the second, he ‘explains the falseness of Muḥammad’s religion’ ( Ris ā la-yi sivum, MS Cambridge, University Library – Add. 567, (fol. 29v). He also describes it as a ‘mor…

Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Lāhījī; ʿAlī Ḥazīn Lāhījī Date of Birth: 1692 Place of Birth: Isfahan Date of Death: 1766 Place of Death: Benares (Varanasi) BiographyMuḥammad ʿAlī Lāhījī, better known by his pen name Ḥazīn (‘sorrowful’), was a prominent Persian poet, historian, theologian and philosopher who, following the fall of the Safavids in 1722, continued his career in the Indian subcontinent. His father, Abū Ṭālib Lāhījī, was a philosopher who moved from his hometown Lahijan to Isfahan in order to study, where Ḥazīn was born…

‘The first treatise [in response to Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Shīrāzī]' Henry Martyn Date: June 1811 Original Language: Persian DescriptionBefore he wrote this work, Martyn requested Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Shīrāzī, one of the distinguished jurists of Shiraz, to write a treatise in defence of Islam, presenting all his arguments in support of its validity. Accepting the challenge, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm composed a short treatise in Arabic. The present work is Martyn’s response to this. It   contains 14 folios in MS Cambridge, University Librar…

‘Treatise on proof of [Muḥammad’s] particular prophethood’ Ḥājjī Ibrāhīm Mujtahid Shīrāzī, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Fasāʾī, Ḥājjī Mīzā Ibrāhīm Mujtahid, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥusayn Ḥasanī Ḥusaynī, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Ḥasanī Ḥusaynī Date: 1811 Original Language: Arabic DescriptionMīrzā Ibrāhīm Shīrāzī wrote this treatise in response to Henry Martyn’s questions to him about the reasons to believe in the prophethood of Muḥammad after Jesus Christ. It is 12 folios in length in both copies held in the Cambridge University Library, and 23 folios long…

Date of Birth: About 1572 Place of Birth: Mearns, Scotland Date of Death: After 1634 Place of Death: Unknown; possibly on his way back to Europe Biography A Scottish traveller and Orientalist, George Strachan was a Roman Catholic from Mearns, to the south of Aberdeen. He was born around 1572. In his early youth, his family sent him to study in France. There, he appears to have been based mainly in Paris, although he travelled around to attend lectures by the best teachers. He also spent some time in various cities in Ital…

‘Treatise on the allusions to the appearance of the Seal of the Prophets in the heavenly books’ Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Lāhījī; ʿAlī Ḥazīn Lāhījī Date: Before 1766, and probably after 1739 Original Language: Persian DescriptionBased on what Ḥazīn says in the introduction to this treatise, it can be inferred that he wrote it in the latter part of his life when he was in India. This would be after 1739, and before his death in 1766. The treatise has been published from a single manuscript, described by the editors as MS Khatak 163, thou…

As soon as Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (r. 1797-1834), the second ruler of the newly established Qajar dynasty, ascended the throne of Iran in 1797, he was engaged in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Caucasus. The Christian Kingdom of Kʻartʻli-Kakhetʻi in the eastern parts of present-day Georgia had for many years complied with the directions of the Iranian government, but it was now no longer prepared to submit to Iranian control. It rejected the authority of the new Iranian dynasty and decided to…

Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Kirmānshāhī, Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Mujtahid, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn al-Waḥīd al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Bāqir al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Bāqir Iṣfahānī Date of Birth: 1732 Place of Birth: Karbala Date of Death: 1801 Place of Death: Kermanshah BiographyMuḥammad ʿAlī Bihbahānī was born in Karbala on 20 June 1732 and was brought up in Behbahan (in the south-west of Iran). He was the eldest son of the renowned jurist Muḥammad Bāqir Bihbahānī, also known as Waḥīd (1706-92). Muḥammad ʿAlī studied various …

(Inter-linear translation and gloss on Mīr Ḥusayn Maybudī’s Jām-i gītī-numa) George Strachan Date: 1634 Original Language: Latin Description MS British Library add. 7720 contains a copy of Mīr Ḥusayn Maybudī’s (d. 1504)  Jām-i gītī-numā (fols 63r-106v), apparently copied for Strachan’s personal use. Strachan entitled it  Universum, adding as clarification that a more literal translation would be poculum mundi. The text is written in large script, leaving generous spaces between the lines, and difficult words have been vocalised throughout. With a few…

ʿAlī Qulī Jadīd al-Islām was an eleventh/seventeenth-century Christian convert to Islam who wrote several polemical works against Christianity and Judaism. His historical identity is not altogether clear. In his own writings he claims to have been a highly respected priest who had discovered the truth of Islam after a great deal of research and investigation, whereas independent historical evidence suggests that he was in fact an Augustinian Portuguese prior by the name of Antonio who converted to Islam in Isfahan in 1108/1696. ʿAlī Qulī wrote the following works in the field…