Mirza Muhammad al-Akhbari

Mīrzā Muḥammad al-Akhbārī, or in full, Mīrzā Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Nabī ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣāniʿ Nīshābūrī Astarābādī (Persian: میرزا محمد بن عبدالنبی بن عبدالصانع نیشابوری استرآبادی, 1178–1233 AH/1764–1817 AD)), was a Shia jurist, theologian and muhaddith. He has been called the last significant representative of the Akhbārī scholar in Iraq and Iran.

Works

al-Akhbārī authored most works in Arabic and some in Persian.

In print

• A'īne abbāsī dar namāyesh ḥaqshenāsī, also indexed as Amāli Abbāsī. This book is in Farsi and was written by the order of Abbas Mirza to refute the beliefs of Jews, Christians and Magi, and to prove prophethood.
• al-Burhān fī al-taklīf wa al-bayān, printed in Baghdad, 1923. A polemic work, establishing the Akhbārī school and rejecting the mujtahids.
• Dawā'ir al-ulūm wa-jadāwil al-ruqūm also known as Tuḥfat al-khāqān. Published in Qom, 1982. In this book, the author has gathered materials from various sciences in circular diagrams and tables, with a list at the beginning of the book.
• Fatḥ al-bāb ilā al-ḥaqq wa’l-ṣawwāb, published in 1924.
• Iqāz al-nabīyya, on jurisprudence, published in Egypt, 1937.
• Maṣādir al-anwār fī al-ijtihād wa al-akhbār, printed in Baghdad, 1923 and in Najaf, 1924.

In manuscript

• Dhakhīrat al-albāb wa bughyat al-asḥāb, a book in which he presents knowledge in circles and tables, like in his Circles of Sciences.
• Ḥijr mulqam, on the history of ijtihad and twelve reasons for its rejection.
• Ḥurmat al-tanbāk wa al-qahwa, a collection of hadiths and narrations that the author cites to prove the lawfulness of using tobacco and drinking coffee.
• Tuḥfa amīn or Durr thamin, answering twelve questions raised by Muḥammad Aminkhān Ḥamadānī.
• Tuḥfa jahānbānī (Persian), in proving the Imamate of Ali and other issues in uṣūl al-dīn.
• Tuhfa lārīya also known as lārīya and Mukhtaṣar lārīya.
• Uṣūl dīn wa furū'-i ān, a treatise on the principles of faith.

External links

• Page at Brill’s Encyclopaedia Islamica.
• Author page at Iranica Online.

Bibliography

• Algar, H., “AḴBĀRĪ, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/7, p. 716; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/akbari-mirza-mohammad (accessed on 26 April 2024).
• Gleave, Robert (2007). Scripturalist Islam: The History and Doctrines of the Akhbārī Shīʿī School. Brill. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004157286.i-344. ISBN 978-90-04-15728-6.
• Mohammadhoseini, Kamran, and Rasul Jafarian. 2024. ‘Mysticisim and Akhbarism in the Thought of Mirza Muhammad Al-Akhbari An Investigation of Relation Between Ijtihad, Sufism, and Akhbari Movements in the First Half of the 13th Century AH.’ Religions and Mysticism 56 (2): 387–406. https://doi.org/10.22059/jrm.2024.366375.630475.
• Newman, Andrew J., The Nature of the Akhbārī/Uṣūlī Dispute in Late Ṣafawid Iran. Part 1: ʿAbdallāh al-Samāhijī's "Munyat al-Mumārisīn, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 55, No. 1 (1992), pp. 22–51.
• Shokri, Reza, translated by Suheyl Umar. “Al-Akhbārī, Mīrzā Muḥammad”. In W. Madelung and F. Daftary (eds.), Encyclopaedia Islamica Online, (Brill, 2015) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_0239