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An Episode in the ‘Amili Migration to Safavid Iran: Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad al-‘Amili's Travel Account

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Devin J. Stewart
Devin J. Stewart*
Affiliation:
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Emory University
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Abstract

After emigrating from Ottoman territory to Safavid Iran in the mid-sixteenth century, the Shiite scholar Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad al-‘Amili wrote an eloquent letter-cum-travel account describing his experiences to his teacher Zayn al-Din al-‘Amili who had remained in Jabal ‘Amil. A manuscript of this fascinating document has now come to light and been edited twice, in 2001 and 2003. An analysis of the undated letter shows that it was written in 961/1554 and describes a journey that occurred earlier that same year. Husayn's statements do not spell out the exact cause of his flight from Ottoman territory but suggest that he was wary of being denounced to the authorities and felt that his academic career was severely limited there. He evidently supported Safavid legitimacy wholeheartedly, though he harbored misgivings about the moral environment in Iran and had sharp criticisms for Persian religious officials.

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Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 481 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2006

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References

1 ‘Muruwah, Ali, al-Tashayyu‘bayn Jabal ‘Amil wa-Iran (London, 1987), 51–59Google Scholar; al-Muhajir, Ja‘far, al-Hijrah al-‘amiliyyah ila Iran fi al-‘asr al-safawi: asbabuha al-tarikhiyyah wa-nata'ijuha al-thaqafiyyah wa'l-siyasiyyah (Beirut, 1989), 145–51Google Scholar; Newman, Andrew, “The Myth of the Clerical Migration to Safawid Iran: Arab Shiite Opposition to ‘Ali al-Karaki and Safawid Shiism,” Die Welt des Islams 33 (1993): 66–112Google Scholar; Stewart, Devin J., “Notes on the Migration of ‘Amili Scholars to Safavid Iran,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 55 (1996): 81–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Munfarid, Mahdi Farhani, Muhajarat-i ‘ulama-yi shi‘ah az Jabal ‘Amil bi-Iran dar ‘asr-i safavi (Tehran, 1998)Google Scholar; Abisaab, Rula Jurdi, “The ‘Ulama of Jabal ‘Amil in Safavid Iran: Marginality, Migration and Social Change,” Iranian Studies 27 (1994): 103–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idea, Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire (London, 2004).

2 On this scholar in general, see Stewart, Devin J., “The First Shaykh al-Islam of the Safavid Capital Qazvin,” Journal of the American Oriental Society cxvi (1996):387–405CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stewart, Devin J., “Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad al-‘Amili's Treatise for Sultan Suleiman and the Shi‘i Shafi‘i Legal Tradition,” Islamic Law and Society iv (1997):156–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the sources cited there.

3 Munshi, Iskandar Beg, Tarikh-i ‘alam-ara-yi ‘Abbasi (1 vol. in 2), ed. Afshar, Iraj (Tehran, 2004) 155–56Google Scholar; English translation by Savory, Roger M., History of Shah ‘Abbas the Great (1 vol. in 2) (Boulder, Colorado, 1978) 247–48Google Scholar. The date of Zayn al-Din's execution is given in Qadi Ahmad b. Sharaf al-Dın al-Husayn al-Husayni al-Qummı, Khulasat al-tawarikh (Tehran, 1980) 1:398–99.

4 al-Bahrani, Yusuf, Lu'lu'at al-bahrayn (Najaf, 1966) 23–28Google Scholar; also al-Khwansari, Muhammad Baqir, Rawdat al-jannat fi ahwal al-‘ulama’ wa ‘l-sadat, 8 vols. (Beirut, 1991) 7:81Google Scholar.

5 Mirza ‘Abd Allah al-Isfahani, Riyad al-‘ulama’ wa-hiyad al-fudala', 6 vols., ed. Ahmad al-Husayni (Qum, 1980), 2:119–21.

6 Valah Isfahani, Muhammad Yusuf, Khuld-i barin, ed. Muhaddith, Mir Hashim (Tehran, 1993), 433Google Scholar.

7 Mirza Abd Allah Isfahani, Riyad al-‘ulama,’ 2:117.

8 ‘Muhammad al-‘Amili, Ali b., al-Durr al-manthur min al-ma'thur wa-ghayr al-ma'thur, 2 vols. (Qum, 1978), 2: 110Google Scholar.

9 ‘Ali al-‘Amili, al-Durr al-manthur, 2:110.

10 Muhammad Mahdi al-Sayyid Hasan al-Kharsan, introduction to Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili, al-Kashkul, 3 vols., ed. Muhammad Mahdi al-Kharsan (Najaf, 1973),1:1–132, here 1:17.

11 Sa‘id Nafisi, Ahval va-ash‘ar-i farsi-yi Shaykh-i Baha'i (Tehran, 1937), 18; Muhammad Taqi Danishpazhuh, Fihrist-i kitabkhanah-yi ihda-yi agha-yi Sayyid Muhammad Mishka bi-kitakhanah-yi danishgah-i Tehran, 6 vols. (Tehran, 1952–57), 5:1751.

12 The letter is reproduced in part in Sayyid Muhammad Ashraf Isfahani sibt Muhammad Baqir Damad, Fada'il al-sadat (Qum, 1960), 421–22. On the embassy, see Hasan Rumlu, Ahsan al-tavarikh, ed. ‘Abd al-Husayn Nava'i (Tehran, 1978), 532.

13 Ahmad Husayni, Fihrist-i nuskhaha-yi khatti-yi kitabkhanah-yi ‘umumi-yi hadrat-i Ayat Allah al-‘Uzma Mar'ashi Najafi, 14 vols. (Qum, 1975–87), 2: 345.

14 Kharsan, introduction to al-Kashkul, 1:18.

15 Stewart, “The First Shaykh al-Islam,” 396–402.

16 See the studies cited in Stewart, Devin J., “A Biographical Notice on Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili (d. 1030/1621),” JAOS cxi (1991):563–71Google Scholar and also Newman, “Myth,” 106–7; al-Muhajir, al-Hijrah al-‘amiliyyah, 139, 146.

17 Stewart, “A Biographical Notice,” 564–67. In subsequent studies, I specified that Husayn had arrived in Iran and traveled to Mashhad by 960/1553. Stewart, “Migration,” 95; Stewart, “The First Shaykh al-Islam,” 390–91.

18 Newman, “Myth,” 106–7 n. 89.

19 Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Hurr al-‘Amili, Amal al-amil fı dhikr ‘ulama’ Jabal ‘Amil, 2 vols. (Baghdad, 1965–66), 1:74–75

20 al-Amin, Muhsin, A‘yan al-shi‘ah, 10 vols. (Beirut, 1984), 6:64Google Scholar.

21 Ja‘far Al Bahr al-‘Ulum, Tuhfat al-‘alim fi sharh khutbat al-Ma‘alim, 2 vols. (Najaf, 1935–36) 1:138. The passage cited matches the published text of the Rihlah, pages 192–93; it remains unclear whether Al Bahr al-’Ulum had direct access to the entire text or was citing this passage through an intermediary source.

22 al-Kharsan, introduction to al-Kashkul, 1:36–37; Dalal ‘Abbas, Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili, adiban wa-faqihan wa-‘aliman (Beirut, 1995), 102–3.

23 al-Kharsan, introduction to al-Kashkul, 1:17, 38.

24 Dalal ‘Abbas, Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili, 103–5.

25 Abisaab, Converting Persia, 32.

26 Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad, al-Rihlah, 164. This collection of treatises may have been compiled by the seventeenth-century scholar of ‘Amili origin Muhammad b. ‘Ali b. Khatun al-‘Inathi al-‘Amili. His father had taught in Mashhad, and there he must have come into contact with Husayn. Muhammad married one of Husayn's daughters, so that he was a brother-in-law of Baha’ al-Din. He later went to the court of the Qutbshahi dynasty in Hyderabad in the Deccan, where he became a prominent figure under Shahs Muhammad b. Muhammad-Quli (1020–35/1612–26) and ‘Abd Allah (1035–83/1626–72), serving as ambassador to the Safavids in 1027–29/1618–20 and being appointed grand vizier in 1038/1628. His death date is not provided in the sources. He translated Baha’ al-Din's famous commentary on forty hadiths into Persian and wrote a completion and commentary of Baha' al-Din's Persian legal compendium, Jami‘-i ‘Abbasi. See Iskandar Beg Munshi, TAAA, 941, 951; Savory, History of Shah Abbas, 1161, 1172; al-Hurr al-‘Amili, Amal al-amil, 1:169; al-Isfahani, Riyad al-‘ulama’, 5:134–35; Muhsin al-Amin, A‘yan al-shi‘ah, 10:10–11.

27 Munfarid, Muhajarat-i ‘ulama-yi shi‘ah, 84–87, 94, 184.

28 Yusuf al-Tabajah, “Majahil al-tarikh al-‘amili fi al-qarn al-sadis ‘ashar: Iktishaf makhtutah li-risalat al-Shaykh Husayn al-‘Amili al-mafqudah,” al-Safir (11 August 2001): 2–3. See also Abisaab, Converting Persia, 13.

29 Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad al-‘Amili, al-Rihlah, published with Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili, al-‘Urwah al-wuthqa, ed. Muhammad Rida al-Ni‘mati and As‘ad al-Tayyib (Qum, 2001), 163–94.

30 Yusuf al-Tabajah, “Risalat al-Shaykh Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad al-‘Amili, walid al-Baha'i, ila ustadhihi al-Shahid al-Thani (makhtutah): tahqiq wa-dirasah,” al-Minhaj: majallah islamiyyah fikriyyah fasliyyah xxix (2003): 152–95.

31 In what follows, parenthetical references will be given for the two editions of Husayn's travel account. Where both texts are cited, the Ni‘mati-al-Tayyib pagination appears first, followed by the Tabajah pagination: e.g., (168/157).

32 Riyad al-‘ulama,’ 2:110. The eldest daughter was born on 3 Safar 950/8 May 1543, and Salma was born on 16 Muharram 955/26 February 1548.

33 Reading raqīqī al-lubāb for rafīqīn al-lubāb in the text. He means that they are of good humor and pleasant behavior.

34 Reading wa-yastaḍī'u bihi fānūsunā laylan wa-nahāran for wa-tastaḍī'u min fānūsinā laylan wa-nahāran.

35 Munfarid, Muhajarat, 85, reports that they spent twelve days in two towns that Husayn does not mention by name, when he does name al-Zawra'/Baghdad and Ba‘quba.

36 Th. Bois, “Kurds, Kurdistan,” EI 2 5:438–86 states on p. 457 that the only province of Kurdistan which remained under Persian control in the early Safavid period was Kermanshah. In 990/1590, Shah Abbas I ceded it to the Ottomans along with Iran's other western provinces. Lambton reports that the Safavid governor in the time of Shah Tahmasb was Chiragh Sultan. She remarks that the town of Kermanshah is oddly not mentioned much in the sources of this period, but that there was a Safavid governor in Dinawar. A.K.S. Lambton, “Kirmanshah,” EI 2 5:167–71.

37 Danismend, Ismail Hami, Izahli Osmanli Tarihi Kronolojisi, vol. 2 (Istanbul, 1948), 259Google Scholar.

38 Munfarid, Muhajarat, 85–86.

39 Qadi Ahmad b. Sharaf al-Din Qummi, Khulasat al-tawarikh (Tehran, 1980) 316, 319, 328–30, 601; TAAA (Savory), 121, 225, 316, Th. Bois, “Kurds, Kurdistan,” 5:460–61, reports that the tribe of Siyah Mansur's chief was in Shah Tahmasb's time the amir al-umara' of all the Kurds in Persia (over 24 tribes).

40 Qadi Ahmad Ghaffari Qazvini, Tarikh-i Jahan-ara, ed. Hasan Naraqi (Tehran, 1963),172–74; ‘Abdi Beg Shirazi, Takmilat al-akhbar: Tarikh-i Safaviyah az aghaz ta 987 hijri qamari, ed. ‘Abd al-Husayn Nava'i (Tehran, 1990),143–44; Iskandar Beg Munshi, TAAA, 141, 469–70; Savory, History of Shah ‘Abbas, 227, 642–43; Mahmud Afushtah-yi Natanzi, Naqawat al-athar fi dhikr al-akhyar, ed. Ihsan Ishraqi (Tehran, 1971), 485–91; Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, Sharaf-namah, Tarikh-i mufassal-i Kurdistan, ed. Muhammad ‘Abbasi (Tehran, 1985–86), 57–83; V. Minorsky, “Lur-i Kuçik,” EI 2 5:828–29.

41 The text reads, wa-awwala laylatin fāraqnā Khurramābād “… and on the first night, we departed from Khurramabad” (181/170). This seems to mean that their party arrived in Khurramabad in the morning, stayed for the day, and left that very evening, rather than staying overnight and leaving on a subsequent day.

42 Iskandar Beg Munshi, TAAA, 470; Savory History of Shah ‘Abbas, 643.

43 Iskandar Beg Munshi, TAAA, 147–48, 149; Savory History of Shah ‘Abbas, 236, 238.

44 Munfarid, Muhajarat, 87.

45 Tabajah, “Majahil,” 2–3.

46 Husayn b. ‘Abd al-Samad, al-Rihlah, 165.

47 Tabajah, “Risalah,” 154–55.

48 Munfarid, Muhajarat, 86, erroneously states that they arrived in Khurramabad on 1 Rabi‘I.

49 Tabajah, “Risalah,” 154–55, 184 n. 13.

50 Reading sium “thirtieth” for bistum “twentieth” in the text.

51 Reading thalath wa-sittin wa-tis‘imi'ah “nine hundred and sixty-three” for thalath wa-tis‘in wa-tis‘ imi'ah “nine hundred and ninety-three” in the text.

52 Qadi Ahmad, Khulasat al-tawarikh, 368.

53 Qadi Ahmad, Khulasat al-tawarikh, 373, 438–39, 974, 987. His death date may be narrowed down somewhat. Mir Asad Allah was replaced in his position of mutawalli of Imam Rida's shrine by Mir ‘Abd al-Wahhab Shushtari. Given that Mir ‘Abd al-Wahhab had been appointed that same year to serve as deputy for his brother in mid-Dhu al-Hijjah 970/early August 1563 and that this would not have occurred had he already departed to assume a new position in Mashhad, Mir Asad Allah must have died after this date. In addition, Husayn was already in Mashhad on 9 Jumada I/25 December 1563, when he issued an ijazah to his student Rashid al-Din b. Ibrahim al-Isfahani in Mashhad.

54 Tabajah, “Risalah,” 155.

55 Wusul al-akhyar (Tehran, 1888–89 ed.), 8, 40; Wusul al-akhyar (Qum, 1981 ed.), 30–31, 60. See Stewart, “A Biographical Notice,” 566–67.

56 Danishpazhuh, Fihrist-i kitabkhanah-yi ihda-yi agha-yi Sayyid Muhammad Mishkat, 5:1751. It is possible that the date 969 A.H. is an error for 967 A.H.; the words seven (sab‘) and nine (tis‘) are easily confused in Arabic script.

57 See the facsimile of the last page of the manuscript on p. 22 of the Qum, 1981 edition.

58 Danishpazhuh, Muhammad Taqi and Munzavi, Ali Naqi, Fihrist-i nuskhah-ha-yi khatti-yi kitabkhanah-yi markazi-yi danishgah-i Tehran, 18 vols. (Tehran, 1952–79), 15:4241.Google Scholar

59 Stewart, “The First Shaykh al-Islam,” 391 n. 31.

60 Newman, “Myth,” 106 n. 88.

61 Riyad al-‘ulama’, 2:110.

62 Tarikh-i ‘alam-ara-yi ‘Abbasi, 1:156; English translation in Stewart, “A Biographical Notice,” 568.

63 Riyad al-‘ulama’, 2:119; English translation in Stewart, “The First Shaykh al-Islam,” 389.

64 Abisaab, Converting Persia, 32.

65 Tabajah apparently reads this as masār, “path” interepreting it as a reference to al-khaṭṭ al-risālī alladhī huwa al-islām “the path of messengership, which is Islam” (185 n. 35). It is more probably masārr, pl. of masarrah “cause for joy.”

66 ‘Ali al-‘Amili, al-Durr al-manthur, 2:149–99.

67 See Salati, Marco, “Ricerche sullo sciismo nell'Impero ottomano: il viaggio di Zayn al-Din al-Šahid al-ani a Istanbul al tempo di Solimano il Magnifico (952/1545),” Oriente Moderno ix (1990): 81–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 The text reads sawābigh al-kalim … sawābigh al-ni‘am “profuse words … profuse blessings.” It is likely that the repetition is not intended and results from a scribal error or mistake in deciphering the manuscript. I propose the emendation sawāṭi‘al-kalim “brilliant words.” Equally possible is sawā’igh al-kalim “pleasant or palatable words.”

69 Tabajah writes that Husayn sets out to emulate the Messenger, 185 n. 25.

70 ‘Ali al-‘Amili, al-Durr al-manthur, 2:182–83.

71 Reading nafara for nuffira in the text.

72 Reading nufūra ibāqī for nufūran bāqī in the text.

73 Reading ‘ilq, ‘allaqūhu for ‘alaf, ‘allafūhu in the text.

74 Reading qafrā' for faqrā' in the text.

75 Reading madhāri‘for madāri‘in the text.

76 Zayn al-Din al-‘Amili, Risalah fi taqlid al-mayyit, in Rasa'il al-Shahid al-Thani (Qum, 2000), 1:25–70, here 1:55.

77 Newman, “Myth,” 91.

78 Newman, “Myth,” 92–93, 103. I correct here my earlier, mistaken claim that Hasan b. Ja‘far al-Karaki could not be proved to have traveled to Iran and that Newman had inadvertently mistaken him or confused him with another figure. Stewart, “Notes on the Migration,” 88–89.

79 Qadi Ahmad Qummi, Khulasat al-tawarikh, 1:75, 931–32.