Sheikh Bahai (1547-1621)

Sheikh Bahai 

Famous Iranians Sheikh Bahaei

Sheikh Bahaei

Bahā Al-Din Mohammad Ben Hossein Ameli known as Sheikh Bahāi (Bahai), born 27 February of 1547 a Baalbek, he was a versatile mind: a jurist, a mystic, an astronomer, a mathematician, a poet, a historian and a famous man of letters who grew up in Iran, a master of philosophy, logic, astronomy and mathematics.

Sheikh Bahāi spent his childhood at Jebel Āmel, a village in present-day Lebanon and at thirteen he moved to Iran and lived for thirty years in Qazvin where he devoted himself to the study of science and teaching.

The scientific and literary personality and his morality combined with devotion, meant that at 43 he became "sheikh al-islam"Of Esfahān and during the transfer of the capital from Qazvin to Esfahān, from the age of 53 until his death he played this role in the capital of the Safavids at the court of the most authoritative Shah safavide, or Abbas the Great.

Sheikh Bahāi undertook some travel outside the country. These journeys were for pilgrimage, recreation, learning and even according to some political historians. The goals were Mecca, Egypt and Asia Minor.

Sheikh Bahāi had very famous teachers and his students were among the best known writers of his time such as: Mollā Sadrā, Feyz Kāshāni, Mohaghegh Sabzevāri etc ... His competence in mathematics, architecture and engineering was well known and he made contributions important to the city of Esfahān including: determining the location of the qibla (direction of prayer) of the Shah mosque of Esfahān, the division of water of the Zayande Rud to the neighborhoods of the city and adjacent villages, the construction of a furnace for the public bath, thehammam Sheikh Bahāi, the design of the oscillating minarets of Esfahān that still exist today and of an underground water channel at Najaf Ābād-Esfahān, the architecture of the Shah mosque and the engineering of the walls of Najaf, the calculation of the determination of now canonical (solar hour east of the Shah mosque) etc..and according to what is handed down to Sheikh Bahāi is probably the invention of the preparation of bread sangak,halvā shekari and fereni.     

Of this great genius man there have remained more than 95 books and treatises (some writers have attributed 120 works) in the various sciences as the jurisprudence and the relative principles, the exegesis, theHadith, state science, administration, politics, ethics, astronomy, mysticism, literature, mathematics, algebra, geometry, engineering, physics, art, astrolabe etc ... in Persian and Arabic; some of them are as follows:

-Jāme'e Abbāsi, the first and most famous scientific treatise in the field of Islamic jurisprudence in Persian

-Zobdat fi ol- Osul, the most important work on the principles of fiqh

- Arba'in, a collection of 40 Hadith and their explanation

-Nun va halvā, a combination of satire, story, allegory, mystical epigram and sublime culture of humanity

-kashkúl, a book similar to an anthology of poems and prose beloved by the Sheikh

-Samadieh, on astronomy

-Mashregh osh-Shamsain wa Eksir os-Sa'ādatain, explanation of the Shi'i fiqh on the basis of the Qur'an, the verses and the Hadith

-Hadighat helāyat, including research and remarkable astronomical contributions

-Kholāsat Al-Hesāb, on the calculation, the algebra and the geometry that until a few decades ago was part of the textbooks

Sheikh Bahāi is also the author of a remarkable work in prose and poetry that in addition to Persian and Arabic, also included Turkish. His poems in Persian include mostly masnavi, ghazal, and robā'yyat.

Every year in the month of Ordibehesht, in conjunction with the anniversary of the commemoration of "Sheikh Bahāi", takes place in Esfahān and also at the national level the festival of innovation that bears his name with the aim of developing the culture of creativity , renovation, etc.   

Moreover, in honor of his contributions to astronomy, UNESCO in the year 2009, which coincided with the year of astronomy, has included its name in the list of glories of Iran.

Sheikh Bahāi died in Esfahan on 30 August 1621 and by his will his body was buried next to the mausoleum of Ali Ben Musa Al Reza, near the Āstān-e Qods museum. Today his tomb it is located between the Gouharshād mosque, Sahn-e Āzādi and the Imām Khomeini portico, on the porch which in his memory took its name.

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