Seeing the Signs:

Abstract: This article discusses a supplication commentary written by Sayyid Kāẓim b. Qāsim al-Rashtī (d. 1259/1843), the second leader of the Shaykhi Imami Shiʿi movement (al-Shaykhiyya) that emerged in nineteenth-century Iran. Al-Rashtī’s name has yet to reach a broader audience, and not without reason. It is easy to see how the first Shaykhi leader, Aḥmad b. Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1241/1826), could overshadow his successor given the former’s charisma and influence, as well as the great abundance of his writings. However, al-Rashtī’s marginality obscures a key stage in the movement’s history and development when the Shaykhi cause gained wider purchase within Qājār Shiʿi society and when the ideas of al-Aḥsāʾī took on growing urgency in fervent expectation of Imam al-Mahdī’s (re)appearance (ẓuhūr). The main purpose of this article is to highlight the role of interpretation in al-Rashtī’s Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-simāt (Commentary on the supplication of signs) in articulating Shaykhi thought. Al-Rashtī’s commentary is a deeply considered expression of the imams’ influence in sacred history. It interprets the speech of an Infallible (maʿṣūm) to indicate how God interacts with creation through prophetic and imamic archetypes, designating supplicative words and phrases to express this relationship. Given the paucity of information on al-Rashtī, the value of this enterprise will require some appreciation of his background and motivations. In the first section, I chronicle al-Rashtī’s fundamental role in Shaykhi history within the anarchic scene of the ʿAtabāt region of the mid-Qājār period and catalogue some of his main works. The first section lays the groundwork for the second, main section, which analyses al-Rashtī’s commentary and his interpretive procedure. (from brill.com/view/journals/ssr/8/1-2/article-p138_3.xml