Sources for the Study of Shaykhism I

 أحمد بن زين الدين الأحسائي 

Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Aḥsā'ī

(d.1241/1826)

A Select, Annotated, Alphabetical Listing of Sources for the Study of the Shaykhi School of Shi`i Islam. I Arabic, Persian and other non-western sources.

Stephen N. Lambden, UC Merced.
^{Under revision and supplementation - last revised 27-03-2021.}

The alphabetically organized (bio-) bibliographical notes below will attempt to list  books and other writings of importance for the study of al-Shaykhiyya (= Shaykhism), the name given to the twelver Shī`ī movement originating with Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī (d.1241/1826). Neither the latter spiritual genius nor his Persian successor Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī (d.1259/1843) intended to form a new sect or faction but to set forth Shī`ī, imamologically inspired insights into the significance of Islam in the, for some, eschatologically charged late 18th- early 19th century.

The foundational writings of Shaykh Ahmad al-Aḥsā'ī and Sayyid Kāẓim al-Husayni al-Rashti (d. 1259/ 1843) and their various Shaykhi successors (selectively listed in well-known Shaykhi Fihrist ("Index") of Āqā Ḥajjī `Abu'l-Qāsim ibn Zayn al-Abidin Khān al-Ibrahīmī , 1314-1389 /1896-1969) will, for the most part, not be listed below (see URLs on the main Webpage here). Included below are select biographical and general studies pertaining to the   Shaykhi phenomenon and to the main Shaykhi leaders along with examinations of their thought, writings, milieu and other aspects of their lives, writings and associates. Persian, Arabic,  and other non-wetsern language writings on the significance of the first two foundational Shaykhi leaders and the post-Sayyid Kāẓim (1259/1843) claimants to Shaykhī leadership will, in other words,be selectively detailed here. Diverse and varied Arabic  and Persian materials pertaining to the Shi`i religious phenomenon known as al-Shaykhiyya (Shaykhism), will, in other words  be detailed below in a loosely alphabetical order.

MATERIALS FOR THE STUDY OF SHAYKHISM I

`Abd-Allāh ibn Ahmad al-Aḥsā'ī, Shaykh.

• Sharḥ-i ḥālāt-i Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī. Bombay 1309/1892-3.  A very influential Arabic or short Persian treatise upon the life of Shaykh Aḥmad by one of his sons.
• Risālah-i Fārsīyah-i Sharḥ-i ḥālāt by ʻAbd Allāh Aḥsāʼī  [Bombay : s. n.], 1310/1892-3. In Series: (Princeton University Arabic collection ; cn. 9100441.08).  A Persian translation of the above from the Arabic by Muhammad Ṭāhir. 96 pp.
• Sharḥ aḥvāl-i Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn Aḥsāʼī keh Muhammad Ṭāhir Khān... by ʻAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʼī. Kirman, Chāpkhāneh-yi Saʻādat , 1387/ 1967. "Tadhkirat al-awliyāʼ dar ṣharḥ-i aḥvāl-i Muḥammad Karīm Khān Kirmāni": p. 53-end.p. 53-end. +  7, 181 pp.

Shaykh`Alī Naqī ibn Shaykh Ahmad al-Aḥsā'ī (d. 23 Dhu'l-Ḥijjah 1246 / 4th June 1831).

• Minhāj al-Sālikīn. 2nd ed. Kuwait : Jāmi` al-Imam al-Sādiq. 1419/1998 [Hajji Mirza `Abd al-Rasūl al-Ḥā'iri al-Ihqāqī]. 514pp. [Index]. Has 5 sections with subsections and a conclusion. Part 1 is about al-`aql (the intellect) and `uqalā ("intellectuals") as well as `ilm (knowledge) and the `ulamā' (clerics, divines..) 

This sizeable work of a son of Shaykh Aḥmad was completed 27th Dhu`l-Hijja 1244 AH = 30th June 1829,  a few years before the passing of its author.  For some further details see Ḥajji Mīrzā `Abd al-Rasūl al-Ihqāqī, al-Taḥqīq fī madrasa  al-awḥad,  p. 221ff. where a further 9-10 of his works are listed.

• al- Maʻād al-jismānī ʻinda al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā'ī ("Bodily Return in Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i"). Beirut: Dār al-Maḥajja al-Bayḍā'. 2009. 137 pp.

 al-Aḥsā'ī, Muhammad Taqi [son of Shaykh Ahmad]

• محمد تقي الأحسائي ورسالته في الإجتهاد والتقليد هادي مکارم
• Muhammad Taqi ibn Ahmad al-Aḥsā'ī and his Risala on Ijtihad and al-Akhbar. Majma' al-Dakha'ir al-Islami, 1294 Sh./1436 AH./2015 CE. 75pp.
• PDf. https://archive.org/details/haady_201606

Amīr, ʻAbd al-Jalīl Amīr  أمير، عبد الجليل  . 

• فكر ومنهج : دراسة تحليلية حول فكر ومنهج مدرسة الشيخ أحمد الإحسائي =   Fikr wa-manhaj : dirāsah taḥlīlīyah ḥawla fikr wa-manhaj madrasat al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʼī.  Beirut : Dār al-Funūn, 1413 / 1993. 124pp.
• PDf. 3rd ed. 1426/2005-6. 260pp.  PDf. Fikr wa manhaj.pdf
• شرح حياة النفس في حضرة القدس = Sharḥ ḥayāt al-nafs fī ḥaḍrat al-Quds by Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn Aḥsāʼī;.   Beirut: Muʼassasat al-Balāgh lil-Ṭibāʻah wa'l-Nashr wa'l-Tawzīʻ, 2006.
• كتاب المخازن واللمعات والبراهين الساطعة  = Kitāb al-makhāzin wa'l-lamaʻāt wa'l-barāhīn al-sāṭiʻah 
• Kitāb al-makhāzin wa-al-lamaʻāt wa-al-barāhīn al-sāṭiʻah by كوهر، حسن. Ḥasan Kawhar; ed. ʻAbd al-Jalīl Amīr Beirut: Muʼassasat al-Balāgh : Muʼassasat Shams Hajr, 2006.

Anvari, Muhammad Javad.

• `al-Aḥsā'ī, Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Din ibn Ibrahim' in Dā'irat al-ma`ārif buzurg-i islāmī  (`The Great Islamic Encyclopedia', in Persian and Arabic editions), ed. Kāẓim Musavī  Bujnurdī, vol. 6, Tehran: Markiz Dā'irat al-ma`ārif buzurg-i islāmī ...   1373/1995), pp. 662-668.

 A substantial  article in a major, ongoing Persian [+Arabic] encyclopedia. 

The Baraghani-Qazvini family: see URL on main page.

al-Būshafīʻ al-Aḥsāʼī, Aḥmad ʻAbd al-Wahhāb /  أحمد عبد الوهاب البوشفيع الأحسائي  (ed.)

• شمس حجر =  Shams ḥajar by Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn Aḥsāʼī , ʻAbd Allāh Aḥsāʼī; (ed) Aḥmad ʻAbd al-Wahhāb Būshafīʻ     Beirut: Lajnat Iḥyāʼ Turāth Madrasat al-Shaykh al-Awḥad, 2003. 256pp.
• نجاة الهالكين في بيان حصر العلل الأربع في محمد وآله الطاهرين  = Najāt al-hālikīn fī bayān ḥaṣar al-ʻilāl al-arbaʻ fī Muḥammad wa-ālihi al-ṭāhirīn. Beirut : Dār al-Maḥabbah al-Bayḍāʼ : Lajnat Iḥyāʼ Turāth Madrasat al-Shaykh al-Awḥad al-Aḥsāʼī, 2003.
• اسرار حديث الكساء وسر تكرار فاطمة في حديث الكساء = Asrār ḥadīth al-Kisāʼ wa-sirr tikrār Fāṭimah fī ḥadīth al-Kisāʼ. Beirut: al-Maḥajjah al-Bayḍāʼ, 1431/2010.
• مختصر شرح حياة الأرواح  = Mukhtaṣar Sharḥ Ḥayāt al-arwāḥ. Beirut: Lajnat Iḥyāʼ Turāth Madrasat al-Shaykh al-Awḥad al-Aḥsāʼī, 2003.
• علم المحجة = ʻAlam al-maḥajjah.

Bū Khamsīn, Sāmī.

• نظرية إبداع الوجود عند الشيخ أحمد بن زين الدين الأحسائي = 

  Naẓarīyat ibdāʻ al-wujūd ʻinda al-shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʼī. Beirut: Dār al-Maḥajjah al-Bayḍāʼ lil-Tibāʻah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ, 2011. 164pp.

Chahārdahī.  Murtazā Mudarrisī (ADD-ADD).   مرتضا مدرسى چهاردهى

• Shaykh-i Aḥmad-i Aḥsā'ī.  Tehran:  ʻAlī Akbar ʻIlmī, 1334 Sh. / 1955 CE., 53pp. 
• Shaykhīgarī  Bābīgarī. Tehran : Kitābfurūshī-i Furughī,  1966. 212pp.
• شيخى‌گرى بابى‌گرى : از نظر فلسفه، تاريخ و اجتماع = Shaykhīgarī Bābīgarī : az naẓar-i falsafah, tārīkh va ijtimāʻ. Tehran : Furūghī,  1345/1966.
• Shaykhīgarī  Bābīgarī.  2nd Ed. Tehran: ADD  1351/1972.
• MacEoin refers to these two vols.  as confused and unreliable.
• See also World Cat : Chahārdahī.  Murtazā Mudarrisī

Dehkhodā, Alī Akbar Qazvīnī, (1879-1956). Born. Tehran c. 1297/1879 d.  Tehran 7th Esfand 1334 Sh. / 26th February 1956.

His Persian [Shī`ī] Encyclopedic Dictionary, the  Lughat-Nāmeh contains some useful entries covering Shaykhī subjects, including:   ADD

Ḥasan Fuyūḍāt,  ،حسن.فيوضات 

• ‏مدخل الى فلسفة الشيخ احمد بن زين الدين الاحسائي ‏

• Madkhal ilá falsafat al-Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʼī.‏ Beirut : Lajnat Iḥyāʼ Turāth Madrasat al-Shaykh al-Awḥas al-Aḥsāʼi : tawzīʻ Dār al-Maḥajjah al-Bayḍāʼ, 1424 / 2003 or 4. 118pp.

Ḥasan, Shaykh Muhammad.

• Ākhir al-falāsifah : ruʼyah ʻaṣrīyah jadīdah fī fikr al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʼī. Beirut: : Muʼassasat al-Fikr al-Islāmī, 2003. 252pp. Listed in World Cat.

• Gawhar al-Shahīr, Shaykh / Mīrzā Ḥasan ibn `Alī  .. al-Dāghī al-Tabrīzī  (d. 1266/ 1849).  
• Sharh ḥayāt al-arwāḥ ("Commentary upon the Life of the Spirits"). 3rd edition (printing) Dawlat al-Kuwait : (`Abd al-Rasūl al-Iḥqāqī) Jāmi` al-Imam al-Muhammadādiq, 1423/2002. 881pp. + Index pp. 883-4. Hbk. Beautifully printed in Kuwait. this volume by the Adhirbayjani  born anti-Babi Shaykhi with the laqab Jawhar or Gawhar deals with the centrally important Shi`i doctrines : Sect. 1 On Tawḥīd (the Divine Unity) pp.27-112 in 5 sub-sections; Sect.2 on `Adl (the Divine Justice) pp.115 -208  in 24 subsections; Sect. 3 on Nubuwwa (Prophethood ) pp. 213-302 in 5 (+1) subsections; Sect. 4 on the Imāma (the Imamate), pp.351-678 with 5 sub-sections; Sect. 5 On  al-Ma`ad al-jismānī (On the [Eschatological] Bodily Return pp. 679-880 in  5 subsections.  This  very bulky volume... ADD details.... 

For biographical notes in Taliqani, al-Shaykhiyya, pp.183-6. ADD..

Ibrāhīmī, Ḥajjī Abul-Qasim Khān Ibrahimi [Kirmānī] (d. 1389/1969).

= ابراهيمى، ابو القاسم خان = ابو القاسم بن زين العابدين بن كريم

The Fihrist (Index) of Abū al-Qāsim Khān Ibrāhīmī..

• فهرست كتب شيخ اجل اوحد مرحوم شيخ احمد احسائى و ساير مشايخ عظام و خلاصه شرح احوال ايشان 
  Fihrist-i kutub-i shaykh-i ajall-i awhad-i marḥūm Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsāʼī va sāyir mashāyikh-i `iẓām va khulāsah-i sharḥ-i aḥvāl-i īshān.
• Fihrist-i kutub-i shaykh-i ajall-i awhad-i marḥūm Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsāʼī va sāyir mashāyikh-i `iẓām va khulāsah-i sharḥ-i aḥvāl-i īshān. 3rd ed.,  Chāpkhānah-i Saʻādat, 1974.
• Fihrist-i kutub-i Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsā'ī va sā`ir mashāyik-i `izām. 3rd ed. Kirman: : Chāpkhānah-i Saʻādat, 1977. 653pp (+3pp of errata).
• Fihrist-i kutub-i Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsā'ī  va sā`ir  mashāyik-i `uzām.  3rd ed. Kirman: : Chāpkhānah-i Saʻādat,   / 1977.  653pp (+3pp of errata).

    Partial Annotated Translations

•  Moojan Momen trans. in BSBM1 = Pt. 1 Shaykh Aḥmad, Fihrist, pp. 220-288, listing 132 items;
•  Stephen Lambden trans. Pt. II Sayyid Kāẓim, Fihrist, pp. 288-359 listing nos.133-304 (= 171 items) (ongoing; forthcoming). See here at

Isbir. Muhammad Alī,

• العلامة الجليل أحمد بن زين الدين الاحسائ في دائرة الضوء =   al-`Allāma  al-jalīl  Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsā'ī fī Dairat al-Daw. 2 vols. in 1  Beirut: Dar al-Aṣāla, 1993.

 al-Iḥqāqī - حسن  ,حائري الاحقاقي

• al-Iḥqāqī, [al-Uskū'ī],  Āyāt-Allāh, al-Shaykh al-Mīrzā Ḥasan ibn al-Shaykh al-Mīrzā Mūsā ibn al-Shaykh al-Mīrzā  Muhammad Baqir ibn Muhammad Salīm al-Uskū'ī al-Ḥā`iri [al-Iḥqāqī, al-Uskū'ī].

= Āyāt-Allāh, al-Shaykh al-Mīrzā Ḥasan al-Ḥāʼirī al-Iḥqāqī  (b. Karbala 1896 d. Add 2000). (b. Karbala [Iraq] 2nd Muḥarram 1314 / 13th June  1896- d. 14th Ramadan 1421, 11th December 2000). 

A prodigiously clever child  Mīrzā Ḥasan  al-Ihqāqī, al-Uskū'ī was studying the Qur'an and Arabic grammar aged six and  reading the Persian Gulistan of Sa`di and more besides,  at age seven. He early visited al-Aḥsā (in Eastern Saudi `Arabia) with his brother Mīrzā Ḥasan `Alī who also took him (when aged 16) to Najaf (Iraq) where they both resided. At  the age of thirty Shaykh Mīrzā Ḥasan al-Iḥqāqī obtained ijtihād, he became a twelver Shi`i mujtahid like his father, grandfather and brother. In 1348/1930 he traveled to Uskū (S. of Tabriz, in Persian Adhirbayjān, NW Persia) where his grandfather had resided and where he lived for roughly six years. Around the time of WWII he lived for five years in Mashad (Iran) after which he returned to Tabriz where he taught and, among other things, renovated the Mosque of his grandfather Hujjat al-Islam Mamaqani (=? Mīrzā  Muhammad Baqir ibn Muhammad Salim al-Uskū'ī al-Ḥā`iri, Tabrizi ? d. 1303/1885?).  See URL below.

It was on his brother Mīrzā Ḥasan `Alī 's death in Kuwait in Ramadan 1384 / January 1965 that   Mīrzā Ḥasan al-Iḥqāqī  was begged to remain in this country by devoted Shi`i followers. This he did in the light of the internationalism of this country and from there he guided a vast number of Shi`i Muslims (in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi `Arabia [al-Ahsa, etc] India, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey as well as parts of Africa, America and Australia, etc) and engaged in various educational and charitable activities.   ADD  (see al-Taliqani, al-Shaykhiyya, 20002;  Letter from the Shi`ites, 7ff  ADD).

Shaykh al-Mīrzā Ḥasan Iḥqāqī   authored many books in Arabic and Persian  one of which has been translated into English, his Persian Nāmih-Shi`ayan  which was compiled in Mashad in 1363/1942 and first published there in 1366/1945 (2nd printing in 1369/1948 and 3rd in 1397/1976). The English translation was entitled `Letter From the Shi`ites' San Rafael (California, USA): The Islamic Foundation, 1983. ISBN 0-9610614-0-5. Hbk. 221pp. This work contains a few biographical notices.  ADD.......

For some further details see Ḥajji Mīrzā `Abd al-Rasūl al-Ihqāqī, al-Taḥqīq fī madrasa  al-awḥad,  pp. 33-40 where a 13 of his works are listed.

Select further works of  حسن  ,حائري الاحقاقي 

• توضيح الواضحات : ردود على اعتراضات السيد برقعي حول فكر الشيخ الاحسائي  =

  Tawḍīḥ al-wāḍiḥāt : rudūd ʻalá iʻtirāḍāt al-Sayyid Burqaʻī ḥawla fikr al-Shaykh al-Aḥsāʼī. ed. Rāḍī Nāṣir Salmān: Beirut: Muʼassasat Fikr al-Awḥad, 2003. 223pp.

Ḥasan Ḥāʼirī al-Iḥqāqī + Rāḍī Nāṣir Salmān

• حل مشكلات شرح الزيارة الجامعة الكبيرة للشيخ الاوحد الاحسائي  =   Ḥall mushkilāt Sharḥ al-Ziyārah al-jāmiʻa  al-kabīrah lil-Shaykh al-Awḥad al-Aḥsāʼī .  Beirut : Muʼassasat Fikr al-Awḥad : Muʼassasat al-Balāgh, 2003. 143pp.

al-Ḥajji Mīrzā Mūsā al-Iḥqāqī  al-Ḥā`irī al-Uskū'ī  (b. Karbala 25th Shawwal 1279/ 15th April, 1863 - d.  ADD 5th Ramadan 1364/ 14th August 1945)

•  Ihqāq al-ḥaqq ("The Verification of the Real Truth") Ed./ Pub. Āyāt-Allāh al-Ḥajji Mīrzā `Abd al-Rasūl al-Ihqāqī  4th ed [printing], Kuwait: Jāmi` al-Imam al-Sādiq, 1421/2000. HBk. pp.643+ (index) pp.645-661. (1st printed in Najaf in 1343/1924-5).
• Available at:  42379823 : Internet Archive. 42379823 : ed.    4th ed. Kuwait. Manshurat Jāmi` al-Imam al-Sādiq, 1421/2000.