Endnotes

1 Mahdawi, Bayan al-mafakhir (Isfahan, 1368Sh/1989), v. 2, p. 185. For a brief overview of Qajar Iran see Ettehadieh Nezam-Mafi, “Qajar Iran (1795-1921),” in The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History (Ox­ford, 2012), pp.

2 Mahdawi, A'lam-e Isfahan (Isfahan, 1386Sh/2007), v. 3, p. 500.

3 Muhammad Sharif al-Mazandarani, known as Sharif al-'Ulama’, was a prominent teacher in Karbala; he left no writings behind. On him see al-'Amili, A'yan al-shi'a (Beirut, 1403/1983), v. 9, p. 364.

4 Agha Buzurg al-Tihrani, al-Dhari'a ila tasanif al-shi'a (Beirut, 1403/1983), v. 2, p. 205; v. 18, p. 177. It is to be noted that Kawashif is also not a particularly well-organised treatise.

5 Mahdawi, A'lam-e Isfahan, v. 3, p. 501.

6 See Ma'alim’s Table of Contents in al-'Amili, Ma'alim al-usul (Qum, 1374Sh/1995), pp. 353-354.

7 For an overview of various historical developments in Shi'i legal thought, including the Usuli school of Twelver jurisprudence, see Gleave, “Imami Shi'i Legal Theory: From its Origins to the Early-Twentieth Century,” in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

8 On the Akhbari movement see Gleave, “Akhbariyya and Usuliyya,” in EI3; Gleave, Scripturalist Islam (Leiden, 2007); Gleave, Inevitable Doubt: Two Theories of Shi'i Jurisprudence (Leiden, 2000); Stewart, Is­lamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite Responses to the Sunni Legal System (Salt Lake City, 1998), pp. 175-208; Stewart, “The Genesis of the Akhbari Revival,” in Safavid Iran and Her Neighbors (Salt Lake City, 2003), pp.

9 On al-Bihbahani see Gleave, “Muhammad Baqir al-Bihbihani (d. 1205/1791),” in Islamic Legal Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists (Leiden, 2013), pp. 415-432. For a study of his legal thought see Gleave, Inevitable Doubt: Two Theories of Shi'i Jurisprudence (Leiden, 2000).

10 According to some reports, copies of some of Mazandarani’s books like Usul al-fiqh were circulating among several leading scholars, including Sayyid Muhammad Kazim Tabataba’i Yazdi (d. 1337/1919). See Agha Buzurg al-Tihrani, al-Dhari'a, v. 2, p. 205.

11 For a brief outline of Ansari’s life and thought see Hairi, “Ansari,” EI2.

12 The section on the prima facie sense of the Qur’an and the semantic discussions concerning the term ‘mujtahid’ in the previous section on whether a non-Muslim can become an expert in Islamic law are related. Hence, we have placed the latter before the former in the chapter, although they are reversed in the Arabic.

13 The four sources of the law are the Qur’an, the sunna, consensus, and reason.

14 Sharif al-'Ulama’, though an active teacher, was not a prolific author; reportedly he only authored one treatise. His view on the topic examined here, beside Mazandarani’s presentation, can also be consulted in the extant lecture notes of his students. See, for example, Sayyid Ibrahim al-Qazwini, Dawabit al-usul, p. 453.

15 Other renditions of lutf include “divine assistance” and “divine favour”. On this principle see Shihadeh, “Favour, Divine (Lutf),” in EI3. For a Shi'i treatment of this principle see al-'Allama al-Hilli’s brief ex­position as translated in Watt, Islamic Creeds: A Selection (Edinburgh, 1994), pp. 101-102.

16 A reference to the verse, “God does not charge a soul with more than it can bear” (Qur’an 2:286).

17 Sunna refers to the prophetic tradition as preserved in the hadith literature.

18 Mazandarani is referring here to a well-known verse from the Qur’an: “There is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise. It is He who has sent down to you [Prophet] the Book. Some of its verses are clear in meaning [muhkam]-these are the cornerstone of the Book-and others are ambiguous [mutashabih]”

(Qur’an 3:7, trans. by Abdel Haleem with minor revisions).

19 For al-Astarabadi’s view on the probative force of the Qur’an's prima facie sense see, for example, al-As- tarabadi, al-Fawa’id al-madaniyya (Qum, 1426), pp. 178-179. Gleave has translated and contextualised this passage from al-Fawa’id in his Scripturalist Islam, pp. 72-74. Also see al-Astarabadi, al-Fawa’id al-madaniyya, pp. 269-271. For a study of the disagreements between Akhbaris and Usulis on various issues including on the probative force of the Qur’an’s prima facie sense see Newman, “The Nature of the Akhbari/Usuli Dispute in Late-Safawid Iran. Part One: 'Abdallah al-Samahiji’s ‘Munyat al-Mu- marisin’,” and “Part 2: The Conflict Reassessed,” BSOAS 15 (1992), pp. 22-51, 250-261.

20 Unlike their Sunni counterparts, Twelver scholars do not regard consensus (ijma') as the agreement of all or most experts on some matter guaranteeing the correctness of their view on it. Rather, they regard consensus as the agreement on some matter between any number of people - at least one of whom is unknown - indicating that the hidden Imam also agrees, which would guarantee the correctness of the position, since the Imam is considered inerrant in his views. For brief studies on the Shi'i conception of consensus see Stewart, “Ejma',” EIR; Pakatchi, “Ejma',” Da’irat al-ma'aref-e bozorg-e eslami (Tehran, 1374Sh/1995), v. 6, pp. 615-632. For discussions of consensus in Sunni thought see Zysow, The Econ­omy of Certainty (Atlanta, 2013), pp. 113-158; Weiss, The Search for God’s Law (Salt Lake City, 1992), pp. 181-258; Hallaq, “On the Authoritativeness of Sunni Consensus,” IJMES 18/4 (1996), pp.

21 al-Fadil al-Tuni (d. 1071/1660) was an active figure in Safavid intellectual scene. As Gleave has point­ed out, his stance on the Akhbari-Usuli disputes is nuanced and both sides have claimed him as their own. See Gleave, Scripturalist Islam, pp. 238-239, 262-263.

22 A report or text is considered mutawatir when the recipient attains certainty that it was faithfully trans­mitted by first-hand independent narrators in such a number and in each successive generation that it would be inconceivable for them all to have colluded in forging it. According to most Muslim theolo­gians and jurists, mutawatir reports engender necessary knowledge in their recipients.

23 al-Fadil al-Tuni, al-Wafiya fi usul al-fiqh (Qum, 1424/1992), p. 147. For al-Tuni’s discussion of the prima facie sense of the Qur’an see his al-Wafiya, pp. 136-140, 257-260.

24 al-Wafi fi sharh al-Wafiya, al-Sayyid Muhsin al-A'raji al-Kazimi’s (d. 1227/1812) commentary on al- Tuni’s al-Wafiya remains in manuscript (for further details see Chapter 2 of this volume).

25 In one version of this hadith, the Prophet is reported to have stated that if a saying of his reaches his followers, they should compare it to the Qur’an. If the saying agrees with it, they should accept it; if it disagrees with it, they should put it aside. See, for example, al-Kulayni, al-Kafi (Qom, 1429), v. 1, pp. 171-174.

26 Mazandarani is likely alluding to the following verse: “Will they not contemplate the Qur’an? Do they have locks on their hearts?” (Qur’an 47:24, trans. by Abdel Haleem).

27 For a study of Ibn Ziba'ra’s life, poetry, and relationship to the Prophet see Coster, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Allegiance and Authority in the Poetical Discourse of Muhammad’s Lifetime (PhD diss., Gron­ingen, 2019), pp. 176-262. This reported interaction between Ibn Ziba'ra and the Prophet, and its possible implications in legal hermeneutics, appears in several major texts of the classical period. See, for instance, al-Amidi, al-Ihkam fi usul al-ahkam (Riyad, 1424/2003), v. 3, pp. 46-48.

28 On this statement, known as hadith al-thaqalayn, and its various versions see Bar-Asher, Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imami Shiism (Leiden, 1999), pp. 93-98.