Glimpses into late-Safawid spiritual discourse: An ‘Akhbārī’ critique of Sufism and philosophy

In the limited western-language study of him that has appeared to date Muḥammad Ṭāhir b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn al-Shirāzī al-Najafī al-Qummī (d. 1098/1687 ) occupies an interesting position. On one hand, he is known as a fierce critic of both Sufism and philosophy both generally and eleventh/seventeenth-century Sufi and philosophical discourse in particular. He is also known as an Akhbārī - Although this aspect of his work has been less explored - that is, a critic of the use of independent reasoning (ijtihad) as a source of the law on a par with reference to the Qur’an and, especially, the narrations of the Shī`ī Imams, both generally and as recourse thereto was manifest in the Safawid period (907/1501-1135/1722).