Barághání, Muhammad Taqí

by Denis MacEoin

published in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Volume 3
New York: Columbia University, 1989

BARAḠĀNĪ MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD-TAQĪ, QAZVĪNĪ, ŠAHĪD-E ṮĀLEṮ, an important Shiʿite ʿālem of Qazvīn (d. 1263/1847). Baraḡānī was the first cleric to declare takfīr (ca. 1238/1822) against Shaikh Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī, and subsequently became the leading opponent of Shaikhism in Iran. He studied in Iran and Iraq, and accompanied his teacher, Moḥammad-ʿAlī Ṭabāṭabāʾī, on the 1242/1826 jihad against Russia. After a disagreement in Tehran with Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah, he returned to Qazvīn, where he acquired a reputation as one of the best preachers of his day. His best-known work is the Majāles al-mottaqīn on the sufferings of the imams. His brother, Moḥammad Ṣāleḥ, wrote numerous works on this theme. His niece, Fāṭema (Qorrat-al-ʿAyn), became famous as a Babi leader but Moḥammad-Taqī’s own opposition to Shaikhism and Babism increased and led to his murder in the mosque he had built in Qazvīn (Jāmeʿ-e Ṣaḡīr) on 15 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 1263/25 October 1847, apparently the work of three Babis. The title šahīd-e ṯāleṯ (the third martyr) was subsequently conferred on him, and his tomb remains prominent in Qazvīn.

Bibliography : Moḥammad b. Solaymān Tonokābonī, Qeṣaṣ al-ʿolamāʾ, Tehran, n.d., pp. 19-66 (with numerous digressions). Āḡā Bozorg Ṭehrānī, Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-šīʿa II, Najaf, 1956, pp. 226-28. Mollā Mīrzā Moḥammad-ʿAlī Kašmīrī, Nojūm al-samāʾ, Lucknow, 1303/1885-86, pp. 407-11. Bāmdād, Rejāl I, pp. 203-04. Moḥammad-Taqī Baraḡānī, Majāles al-mottaqīn, Tehran, 1280/1863-64, and other editions. Moḥammad Šarīf Rāzī, Ganjīna-ye dānešmandān VI, Tehran, 1354 Š./1975, pp. 162-63.