Mohammad Bagher Shafti (1761 in Charazeh – 22 March 1844 in

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

), also known as Rashti and Bidabadi, was an Iranian

shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

clergyman. The Seyyed mosque in Isfahan was built by him. According to

Hossein Nasr Seyyed Hossein Nasr (; fa, سید حسین نصر, born April 7, 1933) is an Iranian philosopher and University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. Born in Tehran, Nasr completed his education in Iran and the United St ...

and

Hamid Dabashi Hamid Dabashi ( fa, حمید دباشی; born 1951) is an Iranian-American professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City. He is the author of over twenty books. Among them are ''Theology of Disc ...

, he is probably the first

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

, who was titled as

Hujjat al-Islam Hujjat al-Islam (from ''ḥujjat-u l-Islām'') (also Hojatoleslam) is an honorific title meaning "authority on Islam" or "proof of Islam". Sunni Islam Its first recorded use was in a Sunni context, as a title for the 11th-century theologian al- ...

(proof of Islam). The reason for the titling was his double role as

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

and

Mufti A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important rol ...

and also his book about execution of Sharia.Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Hamid Dabashi: ''Expectation of the Millennium''. State University of New York Press, S. 205–206Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi: "The Institutionalization of Marja'-i Taqlīd in the Nineteenth Century Shī'ite Community." ''Journal of The Muslim World''. Band 84, Nr. 3–4, S. 279–299, 2007, S. 296

References

{{commonscat, Mohammad Bagher Shafti 1761 births 1844 deaths Iranian ayatollahs 18th-century Iranian people 19th-century Iranian people People of Qajar Iran