ʿABD-AL-KARĪM GAZĪ (or JAZĪ, 1272-1339/1856-1921), a respected religious leader of Isfahan. Born to one Mollā Mandī in the village of Gaz (or Jaz) to the north of Isfahan, he studied the religious sciences, first in Isfahan under Moḥammad Ṣādeq Ketābforūš and Mīrzā Moḥammad Ḥasan Naǰafī, then under a succession of teachers in the ʿatabāt (the shrines of Iraq), the most important of whom was Mīrzā Ḥabīballāh Raštī. After a prolonged residence in Iraq, he returned to Isfahan and began teaching feqh and oṣūl (religious law and its principles) at the Madrasa-ye Nīmāvard in Isfahan. He became celebrated not only as a teacher but also as a pious, ascetic, and scrupulously just arbitrator of local disputes. He shunned the pomp frequently affected by the clerics of his day and would often visit the poor in their homes in Isfahan and its environs. He died on 13 Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa 1339/19 August 1921 and was buried in the Taḵt-e Fūlād cemetery. He wrote two brief treatises on feqh as well as an account of famous men buried in Isfahan entitled Taḏkerat al-qobūr. This work was first printed in Isfahan in 1324/1906 and published, with the inclusion of additional material supplied by Moṣleḥ-al-dīn Mahdavī and Šehāb-al-dīn Maṛʿašī, under the title of Reǰāl-e Eṣfahān in 1328 Š./1949.
Bibliography:
Bāmdād, Reǰāl II, p. 275. Honarfar, Eṣfahān, p. 680. Aʿlām al-šīʿa I, pp. 1183-84.
(H. Algar)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 14, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, p. 123
H. Algar, “'Abd-Al-Karim Gazi,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, p. 123; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-karim-gazi (accessed on 16 January 2014).
