Seeing the Signs
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters.
Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Gianni Izzo, Seeing the
Signs, bahai-library.com.
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Seeing the Signs:

The Imamate in Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī’s (d. 1259/1843) Sharḥ Duʿāʾ
al-simāt

Gianni Izzo

published in Shii Studies Review8(1-2), pp. 138-173

2024-12

Abstract: This article discusses a supplication commentary written by Sayyid
Kāẓim b. Qāsim al-Rashtī (d. 1259/1843), the second leader of the Shaykhi
Imami Shiʿi movement (al-Shaykhiyya) that emerged in nineteenth-century Iran.
Al-Rashtī’s name has yet to reach a broader audience, and not without
reason. It is easy to see how the first Shaykhi leader, Aḥmad b. Zayn
al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1241/1826), could overshadow his successor given
the former’s charisma and influence, as well as the great abundance of his
writings. However, al-Rashtī’s marginality obscures a key stage in the
movement’s history and development when the Shaykhi cause gained wider
purchase within Qājār Shiʿi society and when the ideas of al-Aḥsāʾī
took on growing urgency in fervent expectation of Imam al-Mahdī’s
(re)appearance (ẓuhūr). The main purpose of this article is to highlight
the role of interpretation in al-Rashtī’s Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-simāt
(Commentary on the supplication of signs) in articulating Shaykhi thought.
Al-Rashtī’s commentary is a deeply considered expression of the imams’
influence in sacred history. It interprets the speech of an Infallible
(maʿṣūm) to indicate how God interacts with creation through prophetic and
imamic archetypes, designating supplicative words and phrases to express this
relationship. Given the paucity of information on al-Rashtī, the value of
this enterprise will require some appreciation of his background and
motivations. In the first section, I chronicle al-Rashtī’s fundamental role
in Shaykhi history within the anarchic scene of the ʿAtabāt region of the
mid-Qājār period and catalogue some of his main works. The first section
lays the groundwork for the second, main section, which analyses
al-Rashtī’s commentary and his interpretive procedure. (from
brill.com/view/journals/ssr/8/1-2/article-p138_3.xml

See chapter 6 in Devotional Wisdom: Commentaries on Prayer and Supplication in
Imami Shí'í Islam.

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DOI

10.1163/24682470-12340107

Language
English
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    — Seeing the Signs (Used by permission of the curator)