RĀVANDI, Qoṭb-al-Din Saʿid

 

RĀVANDI, Qoṭb-al-Din Saʿid, Imami author, traditionist, and jurist (d. Qom, 14 Šawwāl 573/5 April 1178; his birthday is not known). His full name is Abu’l-Ḥosayn Saʿid (or Saʿd) b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ḥosayn b. Hebat-Allāh b. Ḥasan b. ʿIsā, often abbreviated to Saʿid b. Hebat-Allāh. He belonged to a scholarly family from Rāvand, located 12 km west of Kāšān. He studied with both Sunni and Imami masters; the latter include Fażl b. Ḥasan Ṭabresi (d. 1154) and ʿEmād-al-Din Ḏu’l-Faqār b. Moḥammad Marvazi. For a time he must have stayed in Isfahan, as many of his teachers came from there. There are also indications that he lived in Rey; he is thus mentioned in the Taʾriḵ al-Rayy by his contemporary Montajab-al-Din Qomi (cited in Ebn Ḥajar, III, p. 59; see further Ṭabāṭabāʾi, p. 256). Rāvandi’s students included some of the best-known Imami authors of the l2th century, such as Ebn Šahrāšub and Moḥammad b. Abi’l-Qāsem Ṭabari (who is sometimes erroneously counted among Rāvandi’s teachers; see Ḵᵛānsāri, VI, pp. 232-33). His sons also studied with him. They are Ẓahir-al-Din Moḥammad (author of al-Arbaʿun ḥadiṯan),ʿEmād-al-Din ʿAli, and Naṣir-al-Din Ḥosayn. Rāvandi was buried in Qom at the shrine of Fāṭema Maʿṣuma, sister of the eighth Imam, ʿAli al-Reżā.

The titles of some sixty works by Rāvandi are known (see the list in Ṭabāṭabāʾi, pp. 261-89); over half of them are mentioned in the Fehrest of Montajab-al-Din. About twelve works are extant, and the following have been published.

1. Feqh al-Qorʾān, also known as Šarḥ āyāt al-aḥkām (ed.Aḥmad Ḥosayni, 2 vols., Qom, 1405/1984-85), a collection of the passages of the Koran that deal with legal matters (comp. Moḥarram 562/October-November 1166), arranged into chapters according to the subject matter. In Rāvandi’s view (Feqh al-Qorʾān I, pp. 3-4), these passages constitute proof for the validity of Imami law, in addition to that provided by the consensus (ejmāʿ) of the Imami community; this consensus is an authoritative argument (ḥojja qāṭeʿa), since it includes the opinions of the Imams (I. p. 4: cf. II, pp. 93, 351, 354, 358, 361. 403). Rāvandi cites mainly Imami authorities, but also refers to the views of Mālek b. Anas, Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad Šāfeʿi, Ṭabari, and other Sunni authorities. In citing the opinions of the Imami jurists Shaikh Mofid, Šarif Mortażā, and Shaikh Abu Jaʿfar Ṭusi, he occasionally points out differences among them (e.g. I, p. 162, II, p. 357).

2. Al-Ḵarāʾej wa’l-jarāʾeḥ, also known as Ketāb al-moʿjezāt ( ed. Moḥammad-Bāqer Abṭaḥi Eṣfahāni, Qom, 1409/1988-89; repr. Beirut, 1411/1990-91; tr. Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Moḥarrami as Jelwahā-ye eʿjāz-e maʿṣumin, Tehran, 1997), a comprehensive work on the miracles of the Prophet Moḥammad and the Imams, largely based on Imami traditions. Its last section comprises five treatises on the general subject of miracles, which sometimes are regarded as separate works. There are two lithograph editions (Bombay, 1301/1883-84: Tehran, 1305 /1887-88), but both are in fact abridgements. A Persian translation of the entire text, entitled Kefāyat al-moʾmenin fi moʿjezāt al-aʾemma al-maʿṣumin, was made by Moḥammad Šarif Ḵādem for the Qoṭbšāhi ruler Ebrāhim b. Qoli (r. 1550-80).

3. Menhāj al-barāʿa fi šarḥ nahj al-balāḡa (ed. ʿAbd-al-Laṭif Kuhkamari, Qom, 1406 /1985-86), a commentary in three volumes on the Nahj al-balāḡa,the collection of speeches, letters and sayings of Imam ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb made by Moḥammad Šarif Rażi. Though the Menhāj is not the first commentary to have been written on the Nahj al-balāḡa,it is one of the earliest. It deals with grammatical, lexicographical, theological, literary and historical topics. In his own Šarḥ nahj al-balāḡaʿAbd-al-Ḥamid b. Abi’l-Ḥadid repeatedly cites from the Menhāj,usually accompanying his quotations with critical remarks. The faults he finds with Rāvandi include insufficient command of Arabic grammar and lexicography (e.g. Ebn Abi’l-Ḥadid, I, pp. 48, 62 ff., 78, 90, 111, 115, 210, 218, II, pp. 162, 164. VI, p. 407, IX, p. 242, X, p. 78, XI, p. 240), ignorance in genealogical matters (e.g. X, p. 77), arbitrariness (e.g. IX, p. 243), and long-windedness (wa-aṭāla jeddan fimā lā ḥāja elayhe, see I. pp. 42, 71).

4. Qeṣaṣ al-anbiāʾ (ed. Ḡolām-Reżā ʿErfāniān, Mašhad, 1409/1988-89), a work dealing with stories of the prophets, beginning with Adam and ending with Moḥammad. Much of the material is taken from Ebn Bābāwayh.

5. Salwāt al-ḥazin (Qom, 1409/1988-89, tr. Ḥosayn Qohestāni as Daʿawāt-e šafābaḵš wa moškelgošā, Qom, 2001), manual of supplications better known as Daʿawāt al-Rāvandi.

Most of Rāvandi’s legal works have not survived. Judging by their titles, some dealt with specific subjects such as ritual ablution, prayer or ḵoms,while others were of a more general character. Five works were abridgements or commentaries on the Nehāya fi mojarrad al-feqh wa’l-fatāwā by Abu Jaʿfar Ṭusi. The most substantial of these appears to have been the Moḡni fi šarḥ al-nehāya,said to have comprised ten volumes (Montajab-al-Din p. 68). Some of Rāvandi’s legal pronouncements are cited by later Imami scholars, including ʿAllāma Ḥelli (e.g. Moḵtalaf al-šiʿa I, p. 184, II, p. 263, III, pp. 48, 93; idem, Montahā al-maṭlab I, pp. 7, 41) and Moḥaqqeq Karaki (e.g. Jāmeʿ al-maqāṣed I, p. 116; idem, al-Ḵarājiyāt, p. 79). A number of passages cited by the ʿAllāma Ḥelli (e.g. Moḵtalaf al-šiʿa II, p. 219, III, p. 81) are taken from Rāvandi’s Rāʾeʿ fi’l-šarāʾeʿ,which is not extant.

Rāvandi also wrote on Koranic sciences (ʿolum al-Qorʾān), the methodology of law (oṣul al-feqh, including a lost commentary on the Ḏariʿa elā oṣul al-šariʿa by Šarif Mortażā), theology, grammar, and adab. Six of his works are cited or referred to by Rażi-al-Din Ebn Ṭāwus (see Kohlberg, pp. 166-67, 215, 217, 271, 309, 329-30); and several were used by Moḥammad-Bāqer Majlesi for his Beḥār al-anwār.

 

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(Etan Kohlberg)

Originally Published: July 20, 2004

Last Updated: July 20, 2004