Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi

Life and work

Majlesi first studied with his father, Mohammad-Taqi Majlesi, an important jurist and hadith commentator.^[2] The Encyclopaedia Iranica notes that Ṭabresi listed 18 teachers for Majlesi.^[2] Majlesi focused on suppressing Sufism, falsafah, and Sunnism, which he claimed were contrary to Islam.^[3] He re-established clerical authority and renewed the impetus for conversion from Sunni to Shi'a school.^[4]

The Encyclopaedia Iranica states that Majlesi was an astonishingly prolific author who wrote dozens of works in Arabic and Persian.^[2] His most important book is the Beḥār al-anwār, a massive hadith encyclopedia comprising 111 volumes.^[2] Majlesi's grandson and student Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Ḵātunābādi wrote the earliest substantial biography of him.^[2] Once in that role, the Sultan gave Majlesi unrestricted authority to reward or penalize as he chose.^[3]

What the cited sources add

The Encyclopaedia Iranica reports that Majlesi's exact birth and death dates are disputed. Ṭabresi's work al-Fayż al-qodsi remains one of the most valuable sources on Majlesi's life, though it is of a decidedly hagiographic nature.^[2] The same source notes that Majlesi was the last scholar of outstanding reputation within his own family.^[2] The Encyclopaedia Iranica mentions that French travelers occasionally noticed Majlesi's extraordinary office without specifying his name.^[2]