ṬAĀṬAĀʾ, Sayyed ѰḤAѲѴ-ḤO۱ (b. Šdbd, a village near Tabriz, 29 Du’l-ḥejja 1321/17 March 1904; d. Qom, 18 Moḥarram 1402/16 Nov. 1981, Figure 1), eminent Twelver Shiʿite philosopher and author of the famous exegesis, -Ѿ. His esteem amongst Shiʿites is such that they often refer to him solely by the honorific title, the ʿAllma (erudite scholar). Ṭabṭabʾi came from a distinguished lineage that included a number of prominent religious scholars and dignitaries in the history of Tabriz (Algar, pp. 326-27; Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 32-35). Both of his parents died before he was a teenager, and he and his brother were entrusted to a guardian and raised by two servants.
In 1925, after completing the elementary and intermediate levels of the ḥaɳ (Shiʿite learning community, seminary; see EDUCATION v; IRAQ xi SHIʿITE SEMINARIES) curriculum in Tabriz, like many seminary students (ṭo) of the time, Ṭabṭabʾi went to Najaf to complete his religious education. There he studied advanced jurisprudence and its principles (ḵ- feqh wa oṣul-e feqh) with the leading scholars of the day, Āⲹٲs Abu’l-Ḥasan Eṣfahni (d. 1946) and Mirz Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Nʾini (d. 1936). Although Nʾini granted him permission () to practice ٱ (ʿAwsi, p. 43), Ṭabṭabʾi only wrote one work dedicated to traditional jurisprudence, a book of glosses on a major text of legal theory, the Kefyat al-oṣul by Āḵund Ḵorsni (1839-1911).
In philosophy, the field in which Ṭabṭabʾi would spend most of his life formally teaching, he studied the works of eminent Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna, Shaikh Moll Hdi Sabzavri (d. 1289/1873) and Moll Ṣadr Širzi (d. ca 1045/1635-36) for six years with Sayyed Ḥasan Bdkubʾi (d. 1358/1939), who made a strong impression on the young ʿAllma (Algar, p. 329; Ṭabṭabʾi, 1976, p. 9). The teacher who had the greatest impact on Ṭabṭabʾi's overall persona, however, was a relative, Sayyed ʿAli Qżi Ṭabṭabʾi (d. 1366/1947), popularly known as ʿAllma Qżi. Ṭabṭabʾi always spoke of Qżi with great reverence, and the two developed a relationship that could be characterized more as master and disciple than teacher and student (Dabashi, pp. 290-92). Ṭabṭabʾi was known to say privately that everything we have is from Qżi, and this very likely included Ṭabṭabʾi’s enthusiasm for mystical poetry as well as his dedication to self-purification (tahḏib al-nafs). Perhaps the most significant teaching Qżi bequeathed to Ṭabṭabʾi was the method of using some verses of the Qur’an to interpret others, which Ṭabṭabʾi later made the basis of his own exegesis, -Ѿ (Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 26-32).
Because of financial difficulties, Ṭabṭabʾi left Najaf in 1935 and returned to his native Tabriz, where he mainly attended to the family farmland but also taught small classes. His written output of this period was rather meager, but noteworthy are a series of essays in theology and philosophical anthropology that were posthumously collected and published as al-Rasʾel al-tawḥidiya (Beirut, 1991). These essays are an early indication of ʿAllma Ṭabṭabʾi’s pedagogical concern with “separating” subject matters. While he believed that it was senseless to study theology without the aid of philosophy, and that mysticism would never conflict with revelation, at the same time he was adamant that their methods should never intermingle (Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004,p. 43).
Since his commitments to farming left him insufficient time for teaching and writing, Ṭabṭabʾi was very dissatisfied with life in Tabriz, later calling the period one of “spiritual loss” (ḵosrn-e ruḥi; Ṭabṭabʾi, 1976, pp. 9-10). When Soviet-backed forces took over the city in December 1945, he needed little incentive to leave Tabriz and relocate to Qom, then already secure under the directorship of Āⲹٲ Ḥosayn Ṭabṭabʾi Borujerdi (d. 1961) as the premiere seminary city in Iran. Aside from summer excursions to Mashhad, occasional trips to Tehran, and a journey to London for eye surgery, Ṭabṭabʾi remained in Qom from March 1946 until his death on 16 November 1981.
Once in Qom, Ṭabṭabʾi assessed the intellectual state of the ḥaɳ and concluded it was imperative to revive the comparatively neglected fields of philosophy and exegesis. When Ṭabṭabʾi started teaching Moll Ṣadr’s al- al-arbaʿa in private, high demand forced him to make the class public, which in turn caused a stir among anti-rationalist seminarians. Āⲹٲ Borujerdi personally did not object to the private teaching of philosophy, but agreed that its public teaching could prove harmful to unsophisticated students (ṭo) and consequently he suspended the monthly payment of stipends (šahriya) to Ṭabṭabʾi’s students. Ṭabṭabʾi wrote Borujerdi a widely-quoted and insightful letter in which he explained that he came to Qom solely to teach philosophy and thereby unpack “the few suitcases of [intellectual] objections and problems” that the seminary students brought with them to the ḥaɳ; accordingly he would not stop unless Borujerdi gave a religious order (ḥokm-e šarʿi) to do so (Dabashi, pp. 281-84; Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 103-6). While the standard version of the incident concludes with Borujerdi deferring to Ṭabṭabʾi and allowing him to continue teaching the , an alternate version provided by Ḥosayn-ʿAli Montaẓeri, a common student of the two scholars, reports that Montaẓeri intervened and persuaded Ṭabṭabʾi (who apparently was considering leaving Qom over the issue) to compromise and instead teach the &Dz;ʾ of Avicenna, which was relatively less objectionable (Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2008, III,pp. 351-53).
Another issue highlighting the challenges Ṭabṭabʾi faced in Qom was his scholia (ٲʿ) in a new edition of the Beḥr al-anwr of Moḥammad-Bqer Majlesi (d. 1699 or 1700). Ṭabṭabʾi admired Majlesi as an eminent transmitter of Hadith (ḥaṯ) and appreciated his care in organizing the Beḥr al-anwr, yet he diverged sharply from the Safavid-era scholar on a number of points. He rejected Majlesi’s facile interpretations of theological hadith, in particular the meaning and nature of ʿ (intellect). He also opposed Majlesi’s unwarranted suspicion (suʾ al-ẓann) of the philosophers and his contempt for philosophizing. When Ṭabṭabʾi castigated Majlesi on these points (Majlesi, I, p. 100, n. 1, p. 104, n. 1), it again upset some seminarians, and the publishers of the new edition pressured Ṭabṭabʾi to tone down his criticisms. Ṭabṭabʾi replied defiantly, “in Shiʿism [Imam] Jaʿfar b. Moḥammad al-Ṣdeq is more esteemed than ʿAllma Majlesi… I will not change one word” and stopped writing glosses with the seventh volume of the new edition (ʿAlawi; Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 55-56).
Ṭabṭabʾi’s magnum opus is -Ѿ fi tafsir al-Qorʾn, a twenty-volume exegesis written in Arabic between 1955 and 1972. Tafsir -Ѿ, as it is commonly known, is not only Ṭabṭabʾi’s masterpiece, but arguably also the most significant Shiʿite exegesis authored in modern times (see Awsi; Medoff). It was written partly in response to the commentary of Moḥammad ʿAbdoh (d. 1905) and Rašid Reż (d. 1935), commonly known as Tafsir al-manr, an influential exegesis that Ṭabṭabʾi found objectionable in its hasty rejection of miracles and other modernist tendencies. Each section of the Tafsir -Ѿ begins with a series of verses followed by the exegesis proper (), in which Ṭabṭabʾi comments on how the pericope is related to the previous one, if at all, then elucidates each verse of the pericope starting with its key words (using Rḡeb Eṣfahni’s lexicon Mofradt al-Qorʾn), and finally presents his view of the most likely meaning of the verses. Following the exegesis proper is a number of excursions (ḥuṯ, lit. “discussions”), starting with one on the relevant Hadith followed by others on pertinent historical, philosophical, or social issues. Tafsir -Ѿ’sfame lies both in the encyclopedic breadth of its topics, in particular those covered in the excursions, as well as its distinctive hermeneutics, interpretation of the Qurʾan by the Qurʾan (tafsir al-Qorʾn be’l Qorʾn). Since the Qurʾan declares itself a light and guidance to the world it should be expected to be a light and guide to itself and act as its own interpreter, especially in its foundational teachings (Ṭabṭabʾi, -Ѿ I, p. 14). A corollary of Ṭabṭabʾi’s hermeneutics is his special understanding of the controversial topic of exegesis by personal opinion(tafsir be’l raʾy). In opposition to the literalist understanding of tafsir be’l raʾy as commentary that does not regard Hadith as the foremost exegetical source, Ṭabṭabʾi interprets it to mean commentary that fails to rely primarily on the Qurʾn. Qurʾanic intertextuality does not mean that each and every verse possesses a corresponding explanatory verse; rather, the exegete relies on prominent verses (yt al-ḡorra) that have wide scope in the manner they capture the spirit of the Qur’anic teachings. One important prominent verse is “Nothing is like him [God]” (42:11), which illuminates many Qur’anic teachings about God and his nature. Ṭabṭabʾi believed that his hermeneutics had important antecedents in the history of exegesis but that its implementation in the Tafsir -Ѿ was “unprecedented” (raveš-e bi-sbeqa; Ṭabṭabʾi, 1976, p. 12).
Next to the Tafsir -Ѿ,Ṭabṭabʾi’s most famous work is the Oṣul-e falsafa wa raveš-e reʾlism, which was the result of biweekly classes held in the 1950s and 1960s concerning the challenge that Islam faced from Western philosophy prevalent at the time, in particular dialectical materialism. Based on the discussions, Ṭabṭabʾi wrote fourteen essays in defense of philosophical theism, and his close student Mortaż Moṭahhari (d. 1979) provided an introduction and detailed notes (Dabashi, pp. 313-14; Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 61-62). Salient features of the work include the authors’ categorization of certain forms of idealism and materialism as non-philosophy, or “sophism” (the first and second essays), the necessity of identifying mental constructs (ʿٱ) and separating them from extra-mental realities (ḥaʾ; the sixth essay), and the exposition of a novel formulation (taqrir) of the “demonstration of the veracious” (borhn al-ṣeddiqin), a celebrated proof for the existence of God (the fourteenth essay; also Moll Ṣadr Širzi, VI, pp. 14-15, n. 3). The Oṣul-e falsafa is significant as it is the first work written by traditional Iranian philosophers engaging extensively with topics of modern Western philosophy; it has also been an important catalyst for increased interest in comparative philosophy in Iran in recent times. Other well-known works by Ṭabṭabʾi in philosophy include Bedyat -ḥe쳾 and ⲹ -ḥe쳾, a two-part summary of Islamic (mostly Sadrian) philosophy intended to serve as a textbook for aspiring seminarians, and his scholia on Moll Ṣadr’s al-arbaʿa. Ṭabṭabʾi was a staunch but not uncritical supporter of Moll Ṣadr’s metaphysical system, called Ḥe쳾 (lit, wisdom) in the Iranian seminaries, deeming it “closest to the truth” (Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 43-45).
Ṭabṭabʾi was one of the first seminarians who actively fostered relations with European and American professors of Islamic studies, most notably the French orientalist Henry Corbin (1903-78). For nineteen years, Ṭabṭabʾi went to considerable trouble to meet Corbin in Tehran and discuss divers historical, theological, and philosophical questions related to Shiʿism. Some of the transcripts of these meetings were edited with notes and published as &Dz;ʿ: majmuʿa-ye moḏkart b Prof. Hnri Korban and Reslat-e tašayyoʿ dar dony-ye emruz (Algar, pp. 341-45; Ḥosayni Tehrni, 2004, pp. 74-78). Ṭabṭabʾi also accepted a proposal from the American professor Kenneth W. Morgan (1908-2011) to write introductory texts on Islam for the purpose of translation. The result of this project was the widely-read works &Dz;ʿ dar E峾 (tr. by Sayyed Hossein Nasr with extensive notes as Shiʿite Islam) and Qorʾn dar E峾.
As appropriate for an Dz (master-teacher), Ṭabṭabʾi was known not only for his vast knowledge but also his exemplary behavior. He was very mindful of the sanctities of Shiʿite Islam, showed courtesy to all regardless of one’s personal belief and opinion, and lived a modest life in small quarters (Bidhendi, pp. 62-77; Dabashi, pp. 301-02). Ṭabṭabʾi was typical of the seminary culture in terms of his general quietism; he had no noteworthy participation in the events leading up to the Islamic Revolution, and he apparently regarded a religious scholar’s involvement in political affairs as an unwelcome distraction. He exhibited a certain amount of interest in various socio-political questions, however, as both the Tafsir -Ѿ and his collected essays (Barrasih-ye e峾i) attest (Algar, pp. 345-46). Noteworthy in this regard is “Welyat wa zaʿmat dar E峾,” an essay written around the time of the death of Āⲹٲ Borujerdi, in which he draws the broad outlines of a Shiʿite political theory. Written in his characteristic philosophical-theological style, Ṭabṭabʾi identifies ɱⲹ (charismatic authority and the allegiance owed to it) as the supreme principle of Islamic government. He is rather noncommittal regarding the contentious question of precisely who should be the political leader in the absence of an infallible Imam, but he stipulates that the leader should be religiously observant (taqw-ye dini), possess effective administration skills (ḥosn-e tadbir), and be aware of current events (Ṭabṭabʾi, 1976, p. 192).
Ṭabṭabʾi’s contribution to modern Shiʿism, particularly its Iranian dimension, lies squarely in the revival of philosophy and exegesis. His legacy has been secured through his numerous students, many of whom are well-known figures in the contemporary ḥaɳ scene, and quite a few of whom have had significant involvement in the post-Revolution order (Bidhendi, pp. 81-82). Whether it is possible to call the largely apolitical Ṭabṭabʾi one of the intellectual architects of the Islamic Republic, however, is a debatable matter (Algar, pp. 347-48; Dabashi, pp. 276-77).
Bibliography:
Works (a selection).
-Ѿ fi tafsir al-Qorʾn, 20 vols., Beirut, 1970-74.
Qorʾn dar E峾, Tehran, 1974, tr. Alaedin Pazargadi, as The Quran in Islam, Tehran, 1984.
ⲹ -ḥe쳾, Qom, 1975.
&Dz;ʿ dar E峾, tr. Hossein Nasr, as Shiʿite Islam, Albany, 1975.
Barrasih-ye e峾i: Majmuʿa-ye maqlt wa rasʾel,ed. Hdi Ḵosrowšhi, Qom, 1976.
ʿAli wa’l-falsafa elhiya, Beirut, 1980.
Ẓohur-e &Dz;ʿ, Tehran, 1982.
Bedyat -ḥe쳾, Qom, 1984, tr. Ali Quli Qarai, as The Elements of Islamic Metaphysics, London, 2003.
Oṣul-e falsafa wa raveš-e reʾlism, 5 vols.,Qom, 1985.
Reslat al-ɱⲹ, Beirut, 1987, tr. Fżel Asadi Amjad and Mahdi Dasht Bozorg, as The Return to Being: The Treatise on Friendship with God, London, 2009.
Sonan al-Nabi, Beirut, 1988, tr. Tahir Ridha Jaffer, as Sunan an-Nabi: A Collection of Narrations on the Conduct and Customs of the Noble Prophet Muhammad, Kitchener, Ont., 2007.
Ḵolṣa-ye taʿlim-e E峾, tr. R. Campbell, as Islamic Teachings: An Overview, New York, 1989.
Reslat-e tašayyoʿ dar dony-ye emruz: Goftoguyi digar b Hnri Korban (Henry Corbin), Tehran, 1990.
&Dz;ʿ: Majmuʿa-ye moḏkart b Prof. Hnri Korban, ed. Hdi Ḵosrowšhi, Qom, 1991; al-Rasaʾel al-tawḥidiya, Beirut, 1991.
References.
Ebrhim Sayyed ʿAlawi, “Taʿliqt-e ʿAllma Ṭabṭabʾi bar Beḥr al-anwr,” Keyhn-e andiša 38, 1991, pp. 12-30; 39, 1992, pp. 49-61.
Hamid Algar, “ʿAllmah Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabṭabʾī: Philosopher, Exegete, Gnostic,” JIS 17/3, 2006, pp. 326-51.
ʿAli Awsi, al-Ṭabṭabʾi wa manhajohu fi tafsirehi -Ѿ, Tehran, 1985.
Nṣer Bqeri Bidhendi, “Mofasser wa ḥakim-e elhi ḥażrat-e Āyat-Allh Sayyed Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Ṭabṭabʾi,” Nur-e ʿelm 3/9, 1989, pp. 45-87.
Hamid Dabashi, Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, New York, 1993.
Amin Ehteshami and Sajjad Rizvi, “Beyond the Letter: Explanation (ٲڲī) versus Adaptation (ٲṭbī) in Ṭabṭabʾī’s al-Mīzn,” in A. Keeler and S. Rizvi, eds., The Spirit and the Letter: Approaches to the Esoteric Interpretation of the Qur’an, London, 2016, pp. 443-73.
Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Ḥosayni Tehrni, Mehr-e tbn: Yd-nma wa mosḥabt-e talmiḏ wa ʿAllma, ʿlem-e rabbni ʿAllma Sayyed Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Ṭabṭabʾi Tabrizi, Mashhad, 2004; tr. Tawus Raja, as Shining Sun: In Memory of ʿAllamah Tabatabaʾi, London, 2011.
Idem, Allh-šensi, 3 vols., n.p. (Mashhad?), 2008 (online at , accessed 12 June 2017).
Qanbar-ʿAli Kermni, Ketb-šensi-e ʿAllma Ṭabṭabʾi, Tehran, 1994.
Moḥammad-Bqer Majlesi, Beḥr al-anwr al-jmeʿa le-dorar aḵbr al-aʾemma al-aṭhr, 110 vols., Beirut, 1983.
Louis Medoff, “Ijtihad and Renewal in Qurʾanic Hermeneutics: An Analysis of Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabṭabʾī’s al-Mīzn fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾn,” Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2007.
Rḡeb Eṣfahni, Mofradt fi ḡarʾeb al-Qorʾn, 2 vols., Beirut, 1961.
Moll Ṣaḍr Širzi, al-Ḥekma al-motaʿliya fi’l-asfr al-ʿiya al-arbaʿa, 9 vols., Beirut, 1990.
(Louis Medoff)
Originally Published: June 13, 2017
Last Updated: June 13, 2017
Cite this entry:Louis Medoff, “ṬAĀṬAĀʾ, ѰḤAѲѴ-ḤO۱,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2016, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tabatabai-mohammad-hosayn (accessed on 30 April 2017).
