Jamal al-Din Khwansari

Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Khwansari, known as Aqa Jamal and by the laqab Jamal al-Muhaqqiqin, was a jurist, traditionist, legal theorist and philosopher of Safavid Isfahan, the son of the scholar Aqa Husayn al-Khwansari. He died in 1125 AH/1713 CE according to WikiFeqh; the Persian Wikipedia gives his death as 1122 AH, or by another account 1125 AH, and both readings are preserved in his record.¹² The Persian article counts him among the Shia scholars of the twelfth Hijri century and WikiFeqh among the Imami jurists; on those two independent texts this museum records his faith as shia-twelver.¹²

Neither text records his birth date or birthplace; what is certain is that he was raised in Isfahan and that his family came from Khwansar.¹² He studied in the Isfahan seminary under his father Aqa Husayn al-Khwansari and his uncle Muhaqqiq Sabzavari, with Majlisi the Elder also among his teachers.¹ The Persian article tells how, as a boy, he met Mulla Muhsin Fayz Kashani, who stopped at his father's house on the way to the Hajj and put a question to the boy that he could not answer; Fayz's stinging remark turned the boy to serious study, and when Fayz returned the following year he found a different Aqa Jamal, possessed of merit and knowledge.¹

Aqa Jamal mastered the varied sciences of his age — jurisprudence, legal theory, philosophy, exegesis, mathematics, poetry and literature, doctrine and theology — and taught them all in the Isfahan seminary.¹ Mirza Muhammad Tahir Nasrabadi's Tazkira records that he came to the madrasa every day and that its students and those of other schools profited from him, and Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Khwansari's Rawdat al-Jannat testifies that the headship of teaching in his time was his, and that a company of scholars rose through him to the highest scholarly and spiritual ranks.¹ WikiFeqh adds to his activity the training of outstanding students, the administration of the Shi'i seminary of Isfahan and the settling of people's affairs.² His influence among the people was such that the Safavid kings showed him devotion.¹

He left a large body of original works, glosses and Persian translations. His compositions include the Mabda' wa Ma'ad on the principles of religion, Jabr wa Ikhtiyar, a treatise on the Friday prayer, al-Hashiya al-Jamaliyya, Usul al-Din fi'l-Imama, Ithbat al-Raj'a, a commentary on the Ziyarat al-Jami'a, commentaries on the hadiths of the Tinat, the Sahab and the Bisat, fiqh questions and answers, and treatises on khums and vows.¹ His glosses cover the Tahdhib al-Ahkam, Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih, the Shara'i' al-Islam, the Sharh al-Lum'a, the natural philosophy of Ibn Sina's Shifa', the Sharh al-Isharat and the Ma'alim al-Usul.¹ His Persian translations include the Ghurar al-Hikam of al-Amidi with commentary, Shaykh Baha'i's Miftah al-Falah, al-Mufid's al-Fusul al-Mukhtara, the Qur'an, the Sahifa Sajjadiyya and the Du'a al-Sabah.¹

His best-known work today is the Aqa'id al-Nisa', the "Beliefs of Women", also called Kulsum Nana: a satirical Persian book against the folk religion and superstitions current among the women of Safavid times. Written to fight superstition, it matters now as the oldest written document on the manners and customs of ordinary Iranian women; it has been translated into English, French and Azerbaijani Turkish, and manuscripts survive in libraries around the world.¹