Mohammad Taqi Baraghani (Persian: ملا محمدتقی برغانی, Arabic: محمد تقي البرغاني) (died 25 October 1847), was a prominent Shiʻa cleric in Qajar Iran, who established himself as a leading ʿālem of the city of Qazvin. Baraghani is known for being the first cleric to declare takfir (c. 1822) against Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í, the founder of the Shaykhi school, and subsequently became the leading opponent of Shaykhism in Iran.^[1]

He pursued education in Iran and Ottoman-ruled Iraq, and accompanied his teacher Mohammad-Ali Tabatabai in 1826 on the jihad that had been declared against the Russian Empire during the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828).^[1] At some point thereafter, Baraghani is known to have had a disagreement with the Qajar shah Fath-Ali Shah (r. 1797-1834) in the capital Tehran, after which he returned to Qazvin. There, Baraghani obtained a reputation for being one of the foremost preachers of his day.^[1]

Baraghani's niece Fatemeh (nicknamed Qorrat-ol-Ayn), rose to become a prominent Bábi leader.^[1] Due to Baraghani's increased rejection of Shaikhism and Bábism he was killed, seemingly by three Bábis, in the mosque he had built in Qazvin.^[1] He was subsequently bestowed with the title shahid-e sāles ("the third martyr") with his tomb remaining prominent in Qazvin until this day.^[1]

Works

His best-known work is Majāles al-Mottaqīn on the sufferings of the imams. His brother, Mohammad Saleh Baraghani, wrote numerous works on this particular theme.^[1]

References

Sources

• MacEoin, D. M. (1988). "BARAḠĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-TAQĪ". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume III/7: Banān–Bardesanes. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 740. ISBN 978-0-71009-119-2.