Sayyid Jamal al-Din Va'iz

Sayyid Jamal al-Din "Va'iz" Esfahani (1862–1908) was an Iranian preacher and writer, one of the founders of the constitutional movement in Isfahan in the 1890s and later the most famous constitutional preacher in Tehran. He wrote for the reformist newspapers, published Lebas ot-taqva against the import of foreign cloth, and was killed in 1908 after fleeing the capital. He was the father of the writer Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh. ^{1 2}

Born at Hamadan in 1279 AH, the son of Aqa Sayyed Ali Ameli, he settled in Isfahan — from which he took his name Esfahani — and preached in Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad and Tehran, and even in Karbala and Najaf. With Majd al-Islam Kirmani and others he wrote The True Dream, a booklet against the despotism of Zell al-Sultan and the ulama of Isfahan, and at the commission of Mohammad Husayn Kazeruni he wrote Lebas ot-taqva, "The Garment of Piety", to promote domestic cloth. ^{2 1}

In Tehran his sermons made him the best-known preacher of the constitutional cause. He continuously refuted Nouri's propaganda, arguing that religious tyranny was worse than temporal tyranny, and advised the Shia masses to follow the guidelines of the sources of emulation in Najaf rather than every turbaned speaker. His name stood with Malek al-Motakallemin, Mirza Jahangir Khan and Sayyed Mohammad Reza Mosavat on the list of four men whose exile Mohammad Ali Shah demanded before the bombardment of the Majles. ^{1 2}

The historian Nikki Keddie, quoted in the English article, describes the popular preachers of his circle as men of religious education who "were not themselves believers in any usual sense", and reports that Va'iz "was described by his son as a freethinker". That characterisation rests on Keddie's single account; no source names a school for him, and his recorded faith is therefore unknown, with her wording preserved in the record. ¹

After the bombardment of the Majles in June 1908, Va'iz left Tehran in disguise, heading for Najaf by way of Hamadan, and took refuge with an acquaintance, Mozaffar al-Molk. The refuge proved a betrayal: he was sent on to Borujerd and killed there by the city's governor on Mohammad Ali Shah's order, one of the charges against him being his part in The True Dream. His grave is recorded as remaining at Borujerd. ²

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