Hajj Muhammed Khan Kermani And his Religious and Scholarly Impact (1847-1906) in Iran

Abstract

Hajj Muhammad Khan Kermani was one of the leading Twelver Shiite clerics and a religious authority of the Shaykhi school in Iran at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the following century. He worked to consolidate the identity of the doctrinal school and protect it from fragmentation in light of the challenges it faced, through his prolific religious and scholarly output in both Persian and Arabic. In these works, he simultaneously proved the authenticity of the school's ideas and Shiite Islamic beliefs, and crystallized theological concepts, especially the concept of the fourth pillar, including the concept of the One Speaker, when he formulated each of them, deepened their spiritual and social dimensions, and showed their reflection on the nature of the relationship between the senior cleric and his followers during the era of the major occultation of the twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (al-Mahdi) (peace be upon him).