BEHBAHĀNĪ, ĀQĀ SAYYED MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER, Shiʿite mojtahed and champion of the Oṣūlī school in Shiʿite law (feqh). Often designated as Waḥīd-e Behbahānī (Behbahānī the unique) or Moḥaqqeq-e Behbahānī (Behbahānī the investigator), he is commonly regarded as the “renewer” (mojadded) of the twelfth Islamic century (see opinion of Fāżel-e Darbandī quoted by Moḥammad Ḥerz-al-Dīn in Maʿāref al-rejāl, Najaf, 1384/1964, I, p. 121). He was born in Isfahan either in 1116/1704-05 or in 1118/1706-07. His father and first teacher, Mollā Moḥammad Akmal, took him first to Behbahān and then to Karbalāʾ, which was destined to be his home for the rest of his life. There the young Behbahānī became his father’s principal student, while studying also under Sayyed Ṣadr-al-Dīn Qomī. Mollā Moḥammad Akmal was a pupil of Mollā Moḥammad-Bāqer Majlesī, the great divine who had dominated Iranian Shiʿism in the late Safavid period, and had in addition married his niece; Āqā Sayyed Moḥammad-Bāqer, who came to exercise a similar dominant role at the close of the twelfth/eighteenth century, was thus both spiritually and genealogically a descendant of Majlesī. It is said that after completing his studies in Karbalāʾ, Behbahānī intended to go elsewhere and teach, but a dream in which he saw Imam Ḥosayn instructing him to stay dissuaded him (Moḥammad-Bāqer Ḵᵛānsārī, Rawżāt al-jannāt fī aḥwāl al-ʿolamāʾ wa’l-sādāt, Tehran, 1304/1887, p. 122). Remaining in Karbalāʾ, he began to do battle with adherents of the Aḵbārī school of feqh, which predominated at the time both in Karbalāʾ, and in the other shrine cities of Iraq. The controversy between the Aḵbārīs and the Oṣūlīs, centering on various questions of oṣūlal-feqh and especially the problem of ejtehād, was an ancient one, but it had become particularly intense in the late Safavid Period. Before Behbahānī’s appearance on the scene, the Aḵbārīs were so assured in their dominance of Karbalāʾ that no one dared openly to carry books of Oṣūlī feqh, but by the end of his life he had almost completely uprooted Aḵbārī influence from the ʿatabāt. This achievement, combined with similar developments that were taking place in the Shiʿite centers of Jabal ʿĀmal, established the Oṣūlī position as normative for the whole Twelver Shiʿite community. He was vigorous in debate and polemic, and also wrote a number of refutations of the Aḵbārī position: al-Fawāʾed al-oṣūlīya, a response to al-Fawāʾed al-madanīya of Mīrzā Moḥammad-Amīn Astarābādī, one of the main Aḵbārī texts; Ketābal-ejtehād wa’l-aḵbār; and Ebṭāl al-qīās. In all, he is credited with more than sixty works (for a partial list see Moḥammad-ʿAlī Modarres, Rayḥānat al-adab, Tabrīz, n.d., I, p. 52), some of which were preserved in autograph in the library of his descendants in Kermānšāh (see Aʿyān al-šīʿa XLIV, p. 96). His writings on oṣūlal-feqh are said to have been compiled into a single work by a pupil, Sayyed Mahdī Qazvīnī. He died in 1206/1791-92 or, according to certain accounts, in 1208/1793-94, and was buried close to the tomb of Imam Ḥosayn, which he had diligently and reverently visited every day of his life in Karbalāʾ. He left behind a large number of influential pupils: his sons, Āqā Moḥammad-ʿAlī Behbahānī, Āqā ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn; Mollā Mahdī Narāqī, Mīrzā Abu’l-Qāsem Qomī, Shaikh Jaʿfar Najafī: Ḥājj Moḥammad-Ebrāhīm Kalbāsī; and Sayyed Moḥammad-Bāqer Šaftī. These exercised a determining influence on religious life in early Qajar Iran, but Āqā Moḥammad-Bāqer Behbahānī accomplished far more than the training of a generation of mojtaheds. Through his vindication of the Oṣūlī position and emphasis on the function of mojtahed, he was in effect the forerunner of those numerous ʿolamāʾ who since his time have sought to play a directive role in Iranian society.
Bibliography:
Moḥammad b. Solaymān Tonokābonī, Qeṣaṣ al-ʿolamāʾ, Tehran, n.d., pp. 198-204.
Moḥammad-Bāqer Ḵᵛānsārī, Rawżat at-jannāt fī aḥwāl al-ʿolamāʾwa’l-sādāt, Tehran, 1304/1887, p. 123.
ʿAbbās b. Moḥammad-Reżā Qomī, Hadīyat al-aḥbāb, Najaf, 1349/1930, p. 100.
Mīrzā Moḥammad-ʿAlī Modarres, Rayḥānat al-adab, Tabrīz, n.d., I, pp. 51-52.
Moḥammad-ʿAlī Moʿallem Ḥabībābādī, Makārem al-āṯār dar aḥwāl-e rejāl dawra-ye qājār, Isfahan, 1337 Š./1958, I, pp. 220-36.
Aʿyān al-šīʿa XLIV, pp. 94-96. Moḥammad Ḥerz-al-Dīn, Maʿāref al-rejāl, Najaf, 1384/1964, I, pp. 121-23.
ʿAlī Davānī, Ostād-e koll Āqā Moḥammad-Bāqer Behbahānī b. Moḥammad-Akmal Behbahānī maʿrūf be Waḥīd Behbahānī, Qom, n.d. Hamid Algar, Religion and State in Iran, 1785-1906. The Role of the Ulama in the Qajar Period, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969, pp. 34-36.
(Hamid Algar)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 1, pp. 98-99
Hamid Algar, “BEHBAHĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, IV/1, pp. 98-99, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/behbahani-aqa-sayyed-mohmmad-baqer (accessed on 30 December 2012).
