Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn, a contemporary biographer and Isfahan researcher (1915/1334–1995/1374).

Sayyed Muhammad-Hussein Mahdavī Eṣfahānī, known as Sayyed Muṣleḥ al-dīn, was born in 1915/1294 in the Bīd-ābād quarter* of Isfahan. From the Mahdavī family, many scholars and litterateur have emerged from the Safavid period to the present.¹ His father, Sayyed Shahāb al-dīn Muhammad-Taqī Naḥavī (d. 1921/1340), and his grandfather, Sayyed Muhammad-Hasan Mūsavī Yazdī Eṣfahānī (d. 1847/1263), were among the scholars of Isfahan. His mother, the daughter of Mullā Hussein Kermānī—one of the jurists and holders of judicial authority (d. 1951/1330)—was a pious and devout woman.² Muhammad-Hussein lost his father at the age of six, and his upbringing was undertaken by his mother and brothers.³ He studied at the Aqdasīyye and Gulbahār* primary schools and at Sa‛dī High School*. Before completing high school, he began learning preliminary religious studies at the seminary of Isfaha. Among his teachers in the Isfahan seminary* were Mullā Muhammad Humāmī, Mīrzā Muhammad-Bāqer Emāmī, Āqā Kamāl al-dīn Kh^wānsārī, ‛Abdul-Wahhāb Zāhedī, Sayyed Hasan Mudarres Hāshemī, Muhammad-Ali Mu‛allem Ḥabībābādī*, Sheikh Hasan Dāvarpanāh (Qāḍī ‛Askar), Sayyed Ali Nūrbakhsh, and Sayyed Ṣadr al-dīn Kūpāyī (Kūhpāyeʾī).⁴ Mahdavī then moved to Tehran in 1936/1315 and continued his studies at the Higher College of Education in the field of philosophy and educational sciences, studying under teachers such as Muhammad-Hussein Fāẓel Tūnī, Badī‛ al-Zamān Furūzānfar, ‛Abbās Iqbāl Āshtīyānī, and Sayyed Muhammad-Kāẓem ‛Aṣṣār.

Among the noteworthy events of Mahdavī’s life was his journey to the holy Shiite shrines in Iraq in 1944/1323, during which he met several renowned Emāmī scholars, including Sheikh Āqā Buzurg Ṭehrānī, from whom he received an authorization for transmission (ejāza).⁵ Throughout his life, he obtained further authorizations from other Emāmī scholars such as Sayyed Shahāb al-dīn Mar‛ashī Najafī, Mīr Sayyed Ali ‛Allāme Fānī, Sayyed Muṣṭafā Ṣafāyī Kh^wānsārī, Sheikh Muhammad-Ali Arākī, Sayyed Ḍīyāʾ al-dīn ‛Allāme, Muhammad-Bāqer Kamareʾī, Sayyed Muhammad Shīrāzī, Sayyed Esmā‛īl Hāshemī*, Sayyed Muhammad-Ali Muvaḥḥed Abṭaḥī, and Sayyed Muhammad-Ali Ravḍātī.⁶

In 1952/1331, he entered the Ministry of Education, Endowments, and Fine Industries (later the Ministry of Education). He taught for some time in high schools in Tehran and later in Isfahan, including Sa‛dī, Adab*, and Harātī*. Alongside his teaching—and even after his retirement—he devoted himself to writing, compiling, note-taking from various sources, and researching the historical monuments and structures of Isfahan. He possessed a personal library containing several thousand printed and manuscript volumes, including many rare and hard-to-find works.⁷
A portion of these books was later donated to the Isfahan Manuscript Treasury, and his manuscript collection was given to the Ebn Muskewayh Public Library in Isfahan. His manuscript holdings were also catalogued and introduced by Muhammad-Ali Hedāyat in a volume titled fehrest-e nuskhe-hā-ye khaṭṭī-ye Sayyed Muṣleḥ al-dīn Mahdavī, published in Qum in 2008/1387.⁸

Mahdavī’s greatest intellectual interest lay in history and biographical writing, especially the biographies of the notables of Isfahan; accordingly, most of his published works—according to his own statement—centered on the history of Isfahan and its distinguished figures.⁹ For this reason, Ḥusaynī Eshkevarī¹⁰ referred to him as “the historian of Isfahan.”

Mahdavī’s mastery of history and biographical literature has led many later researchers to rely on his findings in their own works.¹¹ Among his writings on prominent figures and the history of Isfahan are the following:

1. armaghān-e Isfahan dar sharḥ-e ḥāl-e ‛allāme Behbahān (2015/1394);
2. Isfahan dār al-‛elm-e sharq (2007/1386);
3. a‛lām-e Isfahan (2007/1386; 2008/1387; 2010/1389), a biographical dictionary of the learned and notable figures of Isfahan. In the introduction Mahdavī discusses the factors that elevated Isfahan to one of the major centers of civilization and culture in the Islamic world, and he provides a list of major works written about Isfahan from the 4^th/10th century to the present.¹²
   So far (2025/1404), three volumes of this work (up to the end of the letter ‛ayn ع) have been published, and several critiques have been written about it.¹³
4. bayān al-mafākher (1989/1368), a biography of Ḥājj Sayyed Muhammad-Bāqer Ḥujjat al-eslām Shaftī* (d. 1844/1260) together with accounts of his family, students, works, the events of his era, and the history of the Bīd-ābād quarter. A critique has been written examining its inaccuracies and shortcomings.¹⁴
5. tārīkhche-ye Arzanān va maqbare-ye ‛ulyājenāb Zeynab khātūn, ma’rūf be Zeynabīyye* (1996/1357);
6. tārīkhche-ye zendegānī va āthār-e marḥūm ayatollah al-‛uẓmā ḥāj Āqā Hussein Ṭabāṭabā’ī Burūjerdī* (1962/1341);
7. tārīkh-e ‛elmī va ejtemā‛ī-ye Isfahan dar du qarn-e akhīr (1988/1367), also known as bayān subul al-hedāya fī dhekr a‛qāb ṣāḥeb al-hedāya. In this work Mahdavī describes the life and writings of Sheikh Muhammad-Taqī Rāzī, the ancestor of the Najafī family of Masjed-e Shāhī in Isfahan, the history of that family, major events in Iran and Isfahan during the last two centuries, and the history of several neighborhoods of Isfahan.¹⁵
8. tadhkere-ye shu‛arā-ye mu‛āṣer-e Isfahan (1955/1334), containing biographies, photographs, and selected poems of 486 poets from Isfahan and its districts;
9. tadhkerat al-qubūr, yā, dāneshmandān va buzurgān-e Isfahan (1969/1348);
10. rejāl-e Isfahan yā tadhkerat al-qubūr (1949/1328), which also includes the complete text of tadhkerat al-qubūr by Ākhūnd Mullā ‛Abdul-Karīm Gazī*;
11. zendegīnāme-ye ‛allāme Majlesī (1978/1357 and 1980/1359), detailing the life of “Allāme Majlesī, his teachers, students, family, and works;¹⁶
12. seyrī dar tārīkh-e takht-e fūlād-e Isfahan (1991/1370), also known as lesān al-arḍ yā tārīkh-e takht-e fūlād. This work covers the history, monuments, tekyehā, and the biographies of notable scholars buried therein, and is the first independent printed monograph on Takht-e Fūlād;
13. mukhtaṣarī az tārīkhche-ye maḥalle-ye Kh^wāju va tārīkh-e sākhṭemān-e ḥammām-e sharīf va ‛eyn-e vaqfnāme-ye ḥammām (1966/1345);
14. mazārāt-e Isfahan.¹⁷

Mahdavī also authored works on the lives of the Imams and the Emāmzādehā, including:

1. ebṭāl al-ṣafā fī dhekr asmāʾ al-shuhadāʾ (1996/1375), a study on the names and the number of the martyrs of Karbalā;
2. tārīkh-e Sāmerrā va zendegānī-ye ‛Askarīyayn (1961/1340);
3. al-ḥāʾerīyūn, on a group of scholars buried in Karbalā (manuscript);
4. ‛aṭīyyat al-jawād, on the life of Imam Muhammad Taqī, ninth Imam of Shiite School (1987/1366).

Mahdavī’s prose was influenced by the style prevalent in the seminaries and is filled with Arabic vocabulary. At times he used long sentences in which the final element of a compound verb was omitted. In his writings he defended Shiism and Shiite jurists and criticized their opponents.¹⁸ His work includes examining and refuting the claims of Iranian and non-Iranian critics of ‛Allāme Mullā Muhammad-Bāqer Majlesī*,¹⁹ responding to the criticisms of certain writers and historians against Ḥājj Sayyed Muhammad-Bāqer Ḥujjat al-eslām Shaftī,²⁰ and against Ḥājj Sheikh Muhammad-Taqī Āqā Najafī Isfahānī and his family, accusing them of enforcement of religious punishments and of possessing considerable wealth.²¹ Although Mahdavī recorded the biographies of various Sufis of Isfahan and their followers in many of his works,²² he nevertheless defended ‛Allāme Majlesī’s campaign against the Sufis and criticized them.²³ He also criticized the municipality of Isfahan for demolishing the Takht-e Fūlād cemetery²⁴ and for changing the historical names of districts and streets in Isfahan.²⁵ Approximately eighty printed and unprinted volumes by Mahdavī have survived.²⁶ He also published articles in several periodicals, including the weekly Navīd-e Isfahan, the journal Nūr-e ‛Elm, and the newspaper Resālat.²⁷

Sayyed Muṣleḥ al-dīn Mahdavī is remembered as a morally upright and devout scholar, a diligent researcher, and a caring teacher.²⁸ In December 1994/Adhar1373, a ceremony was held in his honor, in which his five decades of commendable efforts in reviving the virtues and heritage of Shiism were acknowledged.²⁹

Mahdavī passed away in Isfahan in 1995/1374 and was buried in the Mahdavī family tekyeh in Takht-e Fūlād*. In his mourning, several poets of Isfahan, including Aḥmad-Reza Ghafūrzāde Ṭalāʾī and Muṣṭafā Hādavī (Shahīr), composed elegies.³⁰

/Gholam-Reza Nasrullahi/

Bibliography

‛Aqīlī, Aḥmad. “muqaddameʾī darbāre-ye vīzhegīhā va muhtavā-ye ketāb-e tārīkh-e mazārāt-e Isfahan,” āyene-ye pazhūhesh, vol. 19, no. 1, March–April 2008/1387.

Amīn, Muḥsen. mustadrakāt a‛yān al-shī‛a, Beirut: Dār al-Ta‛āruf le’l-Maṭbū‛āt, 1987–1996/1408–1416.

Anṣārī, Nāṣer al-dīn. “darguzasht-e dāneshmand-e faqīd ustād Sayyed Muṣleḥ al-dīn Mahdavī,” āyene-ye pazhūhesh, vol. 6, no. 2, June–July 1995/1374.

Aqā Buzurg Ṭehrānī, Muḥammad-Muḥsen. ṭabaqāt a‛lām al-shī‛a, ed. Ali-Naqī Munzavī, Beirut: [offset printing], 2009/1430.

Ḥaqāyeq-negār, Reza [Muhammad-Reza Zādhūsh]. “naqd-e a‛lām-e Isfahan,” faslnāme-ye ketābhā-ye eslāmī, vol. 9, nos. 32–33, Spring–Summer 2008/1387.

Ḥassūn, Muhammad and Umm-e Ali Mashkūr. A‛lām al-nesāʾ al-mu‛menāt, Tehran: Dār al-Uṣwa, 2000/1421.

Hedāyat, Muhammad-Ali. fehrest-e nuskhe-hā-ye khaṭṭī-ye Sayyed Muṣleḥ al-dīn Mahdavī ehdāʾī be ganjīne-ye nusakh-e khaṭṭī-ye Isfahan (Isfahan–Iran), Qum: Majma‛ Zakhāʾer-e Eslāmī, 2008/1387.

Ḥusaynī Eshkevarī, Aḥmad. al-mufaṣṣal fī tarājum al-a‛lām, Qum: Majma‛ al-Zakhāʾer al-Eslāmīyye, 2015/1436.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. A‛lām-e Isfahan, ed. Ghulām-Reza Naṣrullāhī, vol. 1, Isfahan: Sāzmān-e Farhangī Tafrīḥī-ye Shahrdārī, 2007/1386.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. bayān al-mafākher dar aḥvālāt-e ‛ālem-e jalīl ṣāḥeb-e manāqeb va maāther Ḥājj Sayyed Muhammad-Bāqer Ḥujjat al-eslām Shaftī Bīdabādī, Isfahan: Ketābkhāne-ye Masjed-e Seyyed-e Eṣfahān, 1989/1368.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. bayān subul al-hedāya fī dhekr a‛qāb ṣāḥeb al-hedāya, yā, tārīkh-e ‛elmī va ejtemāʿī-ye Isfahan dar du qarn-e akhīr, Qum: Nashr-e al-Hedāya, 1988/1367.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. ebṭāl al-ṣafā fī dhekr asmāʾ al-shuhadā: yārān-e bāvafā-ye Hussein, Isfahan: Gulbahār, 1996/1375.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. Isfahan dār al-‛elm-e sharq: madāres-e dīnī-ye Isfahan, ed. Muhammad-Reza Nīlfurūshān, Isfahan: Sāzmān-e Farhangī Tafrīḥī-ye Shahrdārī, 2007/1386.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. lesān al-arḍ, yā, tārīkh-e takht-e fūlād, Isfahan: Anjuman-e Ketābkhānehā-ye ‛Umūmī-ye Eṣfahān, 1991/1370.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. tadhkerat al-qubūr, yā, dāneshmandān va buzuorgān-e Isfahan, Isfahan: Thaqafī, 1969/1348.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. tadhkere-ye shu‛arā-ye mu‛āṣer-e Isfahan, Isfahan: Ketābfurūshī-ye Taʾyīd, 1955/1334.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-dīn. zendegīnāme-ye ‛allāme majlesī, Tehran: Vezārat-e Farhang va Ershād-e Eslāmī, 1999/1378.

Masjedī, Hussein. “naqdī bar ketāb-e bayān al-mafākher pas az bīst-va-chahār sāl,” darīche, no. 29, Spring–Summer 2013/1392.

Mīr-muḥammadī, Ḥamīd-Reza. “[darbāre-ye] a‛lām-e Isfahan,” āyene-ye pazhūhesh, vol. 19, nos. 2–3, June and September 2008/1387.

Mu‛tamedī, Esfandīyār. Isfahan: madāres-e nuwīn va mafākher-e ān, Isfahan: Sāzmān-e Farhangī Tafrīḥī-ye Shahrdārī, 2007/1386.

Najafī, Hādī. Mawsū‛at aḥādīth Ahl al-Bayt, Beirut: Dār Eḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-‛Arabī, 2002/1423.

Ustādī, Reza. gurūhī az dāneshmandān-e shī‛a, Qum: Reza Ustādī, 2004/1383.

Qanbarī, Bakhsh Ali. “[darbāre-ye] zendegīnāme-ye ‛allāme Majlesī,” ketāb-e māh-e dīn, no. 34, August 2000/1379.

Sa‛īdīyān Jazī, Maryam. “mu‛arefī, naqd va barresī-ye ketāb-e mazārāt-e Isfahan,” farhang-e Isfahan, no. 35, Spring 2007/1386.

Taqīpūr, Akbar. “nuskha-hā-ye khaṭṭī-ye ehdāyi-e Sayyed Muṣleḥ al-dīn Mahdavī,” ketāb-e māh-e kullīyāt, no. 155, November 2010/1389.

Zādhūsh, Muhammad-Reza. “ma’khadhshenāsī-ye Muṣleḥ al-dīn Mahdavī,” āyene-ye pazhūhesh, vol. 21, no. 1, March–April 2010/1389.

1. Mahdavī, 2007/1386a, p. 834; for the names of several scholars of this family, see: Ḥusaynī Eshkevarī, vol. 1, p. 259.[↩]
2. Aqā Buzurg Ṭehrānī, vol. 14, pp. 530, 556–557; Mahdavī, 2007/1386a, p. 347; Ḥusaynī Eshkevarī, vol. 1, pp. 259–262; compare with: Anṣārī, p. 111, who identifies his paternal grandfather as Sayyed Ḥasan Mujtahed Kh^wājūʾī.[↩]
3. Mahdavī, 2007/1386b, vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, pp. 23–24; compare with: Aqā Buzurg Ṭehrānī, vol. 14, p. 556, who states that he studied under his father.[↩]
4. Mahdavī, 2007/1386a, pp. 348–349.[↩]
5. Ibid., 2007/1386b, vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, pp. 24–25.[↩]
6. Ibid., 2007/1386a, p. 354; idem, 2007/1386b, vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, p. 28; Najafī, vol. 12, p. 385.[↩]
7. Mahdavī, 2007/1386b, vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, p. 27.[↩]
8. Hedāyat, pp. 9–11; see also: Taqīpūr, pp. 53–55.[↩]
9. Mahdavī, 2007/1386a, p. 350; see also: continuation of the article.[↩]
10. Mahdavī, 2007/1386b, vol. 1, p. 259.[↩]
11. For example, see: Aqā Buzurg Ṭehrānī, vol. 16, p. 1316; Amīn, vol. 3, pp. 133, 250; vol. 5, pp. 95, 220; Ḥassūn and Umm Ali Mashkūr, p. 299.[↩]
12. For further discussion of the critique of a‛lām-e Isfahan, see: Mīr-muḥammadī, pp. 93–94; Ḥaqāyeqnegār, pp. 9–18.[↩]
13. Mahdavī, 2007/1386a, vol. 1, pp. 11–37.[↩]
14. Masjedī, pp. 109–114.[↩]
15. See: Ustādī, pp. 546–543, who, while introducing the book, enumerates its strengths and shortcomings.[↩]
16. For further examination, see: Qanbarī, pp. 3–9.[↩]
17. For additional information, see: Sa‛īdīyān Jazī, pp. 100–109; ‛Aqīlī, pp. 47–40.[↩]
18. Mahdavī, 1989/1368, vol. 1, pp. 6–10.[↩]
19. Idem, 1999/1378, vol. 1, pp. 104–151, 237–246.[↩]
20. Idem, 1989/1368, vol. 1, pp. 47–54, 129, 146, 162.[↩]
21. Idem, 1988/1367, vol. 1, pp. 410–412, 478–479, 524–528.[↩]
22. For example, see: idem, 1955/1334, pp. 224, 255, 274, 280, 441; idem, 1969/1348, pp. 141–143, 352, 461.[↩]
23. Idem, 1999/1378, vol. 1, pp. 104–110.[↩]
24. Idem, 1991/1370, pp. 14–16, 21.[↩]
25. Idem, 1989/1368, vol. 2, p. 222.[↩]
26. For further information and the complete list of works, see: Mahdavī, 2007/1386b, vol. 1, pp. 30–33; Zādhūsh, pp. 118–123.[↩]
27. Mahdavī, 2007/1386b, vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, p. 31.[↩]
28. Ibid., vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, pp. 25–26, 34.[↩]
29. Ibid., vol. 1, Naṣrullāhī’s introduction, p. 27; Anṣārī, p. 113.[↩]
30. Mahdavī, 1996/1375, Hādavī’s epilogue, pp. 201–209.[↩]