ELĀHĪ QOMŠA’Ī, MAHDĪ

 

ELĀHĪ QOMŠA’Ī, MAHDĪ b. Abu’l-Ḥasan, poet and professor of Islamic law and philosophy (b. in Qomša, ca 1320/1902; d. in Tehran, 1354 Š./1975). His ancestors had emigrated from Bahrain to Qomša (present-day Šahreżā) near Isfahan during the reign of Nāder Shah (1148-60/1735-47). Mahdī learned the basics of Islamic sciences under Shaikh Mollā Hādī Farzāna in his native town Qomša before moving to Isfahan to study Islamic jurisprudence (feqh), oṣūl, andphilosophy. Then he moved to Mašhad, where he continued his studies under Adīb Nīšābūrī (q.v.), Shaikh Borsī, Āqā Ḥosayn Faqīh, and Āqā Bozorg Ḵorāsānī. Finally he settled in Tehran and taught Islamicphilosophyfor many years, first at Madrasa-ye ālī-e Sepahsālār and later at the Faculty of Islamic sciences (Dāneškada-ye maʿqūl o manqūl) of Tehran University. His literary and scholarly output, totalling fifteen volumes, includes poetry (Nāḡma-ye Elāhī [versified partial tr. of Nahj al-balāḡa; Tehran, 1319 Š./1940], Nāḡma-ye ʿoššāq [Tehran, 1320 Š./1941], Nāḡma-ye ḥosaynī [on the life and martyrdom of Imam Ḥosayn; Tehran, 1324 Š./1945]; all three were later published in a single volume as Dīvān-e Elāhī), Islamic philosophy (Ḥekmat-e elāhī, 2 vols., Tehran, 1330-36 Š./1951-57; text and Pers. tr. of Ebn al-ʿArabī’s Foṣūṣ al-ḥekam as Tawḥīd-e hūšmandān, Tehran, 1332 Š./1953; etc.), mysticism, translation of the Koran (Ḵolāṣat al-tafāsīr) and other religious texts.

 

Bibliography:

Elāhī Qomšaʾī, ed., Gozīda-ye naḡma-ye ʿoššāq, Tehran, 1368 Š./1989.

R. Yāsamī, Tārīḵ-e adabīyāt-e moʿāṣer-e Īrān, Tehran, 1316 Š./1937, p. 18.

(S. Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī)

Originally Published: December 15, 1998

Last Updated: December 13, 2011

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