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The Autobiography of Yūsuf al-Baḥrānī
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An Account of the Life of the Author and the Events That Have Befallen Him
[Lu’lu’at al-Baḥrayn, pp. 442–49]

Let us now fulfill the promise we made above that we would relate the conditions of this miserable wretch, who is guilty of many sins and shortcomings, the author of this ijāza. So I say:

I was born in the year 1107 [1695–96 [C.E.].[1] My brother, Shaykh Muḥammad—may God prolong his presence [in this world]—was born in 1112 [1700–1] in the village of Māḥūz, for our father was residing there in order to attend the lessons of his teacher Shaykh Sulaymān, who has been mentioned above. I was about five years old then and in that year the battle between the Huwala and ‘Utūb tribes took place.[2] The ‘Utūb had been causing great havoc in previous hit Bahrain next hit and the [Safavid] ruler [Shah Sulṭān Ḥusayn] could do nothing to stop them. So the Shaykh al-Islām, Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mājid, wrote to the Huwala entreating them to oppose the ‘Utūb. A large force from the Huwala tribe came and there was a great battle. The land was ravaged right up to the fortress, affecting everyone, notables and commoners, until God finally caused the ‘Utūb to be defeated. My father—may God have mercy on him—wrote some verses describing and dating this battle, but I only remember the last line, which includes the date and reads as follows:

The year of the battle of the tormented tribe
    is “they scattered it” [shattatūhā], so reckon the sum.[3]

I was raised in the lap of my grandfather, the late Shaykh Ibrāhīm—may God bless his soul. He was involved in pearling and the pearl trade. He was noble, pious, generous, and merciful, and would spend all of his income on his guests, relatives, and petitioners. He neither hoarded nor jealously guarded anything from others. Since my father had not had any sons before me, my grandfather took me in and raised me. He had a teacher come to the house to teach me the Qur’ān, and he himself taught me how to write. His script and that of my father were extremely fine and beautiful. After this, I attended the lessons of my father—may God bless his soul—but at the time I had no great desire to study for I was still overcome by the ignorance of youth.


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Under my father's supervision I read Drops of Dew [a work on basic Arabic syntax],[4] most of The Son of the Versifier[an intermediate commentary on Arabic syntax],[5] most of al-Niִzām on morphology,[6] and the beginning of al-Quṭbī [on logic][7] until the Khārijites [the Omani Ya‘riba dynasty] came to seize the land of previous hit Bahrain next hit.[8] The earth shook and everything came to a standstill while preparations were made to do battle with these vile men. The first year they came to seize it they returned disappointed, for they were unable to do so. Nor were they able to succeed the second time a year later, despite the help they received from all of the Bedouin and outlaws. The third time, however, they were able to surround previous hit Bahrain next hit by controlling the sea, for previous hit Bahrain next hit is an island. In this way they eventually weakened its inhabitants and then took it by force. It was a horrific battle and a terrible catastrophe, for all the killing, plunder, pillage, and bloodshed that took place.

After the Khārijites had conquered it and granted the inhabitants safe passage, the people—especially the notables—fled to al-Qaṭīf and other regions. Among them was my father—God have mercy upon him—accompanied by his dependents [i.e., wives] and children, who traveled with them to al-Qaṭīf. But he left me in previous hit Bahrain next hit in the house we owned in al-Shākhūra because some chests filled with bundles of our possessions, including books, gold coins, and clothes, were hidden there. He had taken a large portion of our possessions up to the fortress in which everyone had planned to [take refuge] when we were besieged, but he had left some behind in the house, stored in hiding places. Everything in the fortress was lost after the Khārijites took it by force, and we all left the fortress with nothing but the clothes on our backs. So when my father left for al-Qaṭīf, I remained in previous hit Bahrain next hit; he had ordered me to gather whatever books remained in the fortress and save them from the hands of the Khārijites. I did manage to save a number of books that I found there along with some that were left in the house, which I sent to him a few at a time. These years passed in an utter lack of prosperity.


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I then traveled to al-Qaṭīf to visit my father and stayed there two or three months, but my father grew fed up with sitting in al-Qaṭīf because of the large number of dependents he had with him, the miserable conditions, and his lack of money, so he grew determined to return to previous hit Bahrain next hit even though it was in the hands of the Khārijites. Fate, however, intervened between him and his plans, for the Persian army, along with a large number of Bedouins, arrived at that time to liberate previous hit Bahrain next hit from the hands of the Khārijites. We followed the events closely and waited to see the outcome of these disasters; eventually the wheel of fortune turned against the Persians, they were all killed, and previous hit Bahrain next hit was burned. Our house in the village [of al-Shākhūra] was among those burned. My father's anguish—may God have mercy on him—increased further with this. He had spent a considerable sum to have it built and its loss was the death of him. He fell ill and the illness lasted for two months. He died on the date mentioned above [January 14, 1719, at the age of forty-seven]. When death approached, he summoned me and said, “I will never forgive you if you should ever sit down to eat even once without your brothers and sisters around you.” This was because my siblings were from other mothers and most of them were small children whose mothers had died and who had no one else to turn to. I had no choice but to allow myself to be saddled with dependents and the burden of all these siblings, both the smaller ones and the older ones.[9]

I stayed thus in al-Qaṭīf for about two years after the death of my father—may God have mercy on him—studying with Shaykh Ḥusayn al-Māḥūzī, mentioned above. Under him I read some of al-Quṭbī and a great deal from the beginning of the Old Commentary on al-Tajrīd.[10] During this time, I was traveling back and forth to previous hit Bahrain next hit in order to take care of the date palms we owned there and gather the harvest, then returning to al-Qaṭīf to study. [This continued] until previous hit Bahrain next hit was taken from the hands of the Khārijites by treaty, after a great sum had been paid to their commander, because of the Persian king's weakness and impotence, and his empire's decline through bad administration. I returned to previous hit Bahrain next hit and stayed there five or six years engaged in my studies both in group lessons and individually with our peerless, most accomplished professor Shaykh Aḥmad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Bilādī, who is mentioned above, and then, after his death, with Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Alī.

During that period I traveled to perform the pilgrimage to God's Sacred House, and I gained the honor of visiting the Prophet Muhammad and his noble descendants—may the blessings of God the Omniscient Ruler be upon them. I then traveled to al-Qaṭīf again to study the traditions of the Imams in detail with our professor, Shaykh Ḥusayn mentioned above, since he had remained in al-Qaṭīf and had not returned to previous hit Bahrain next hit with the others. I studied with him, reading some of the Tahdhīb [Revision; of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī, d. 1067] and checking for errors with the texts of other students. Then I returned to previous hit Bahrain next hit and matters grew very difficult for me as a result of the many debts I incurred which burdened and worried me because of my numerous dependents and my general lack of funds.


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It then happened that previous hit Bahrain next hit was ruined by the Huwala Bedouin who conquered it and became its rulers—for reasons it would take too long to explain—after the Afghanis had conquered the kingdom of the [Safavid] Shah Sulṭān Ḥusayn [r. 1694–1722] and killed him. I fled to Iran and stayed for a while in Kirmān. I then came back as far as Shiraz, and God—glory be to Him—granted us success and blessings, and caused the heart of its governor at that time, Mīrzā Muḥammad Taqiyy, who subsequently rose in rank until he became Taqiyy Khān, to have sympathy for us. He was most noble and generous toward us—may God reward him generously. I stayed for a while in the protection of his rule, teaching in his college of law and serving as the Friday prayer leader for the town. During that time I wrote a number of treatises and many responsa to legal questions. I was free to study until the storms of time, which allow neither rest nor rest themselves, swept through the region, shattered its society, scattered its inhabitants, plundered its wealth, and dishonored its women.[11] Time wreaked havoc with its conditions, and I left that region to go to a village, settling in the township of Fasā, after I had sent my dependents back to previous hit Bahrain. I then acquired new dependents [i.e., got married] in that village and stayed there engaged in study. I wrote the book al-Ḥadā’iq al-nāḍira [The Priceless Gardens] up to the chapter on ablutions there, while at the same time engaging in farming to earn a living and to avoid becoming indebted to others. The administrator in charge of the region, Mīrzā Muḥammad ‘Alī—may God have mercy on him—was extremely friendly toward me, very attentive and generous. He did not impose any land tax on me during my stay.

[This continued] until the town was struck by fateful events which scattered its inhabitants to other regions and killed its administrator, Mīrzā Muḥammad ‘Alī. The book I just mentioned [i.e., al-Ḥadā’iq al-nāḍira] remained untouched and the spiders of forgetfulness spun their webs over it. The disasters that befell me because of this destruction caused most of my books and a great deal of my property to be lost. I fled to al-Iṣṭihbānāt and remained there, striving to recover from bitter times and awaiting the opportunity to travel to the High Threshholds [the Shi‘ite shrines of Iraq] and to settle in the vicinity of the Imams descended from the Prophet, until God—glory be to Him—granted me success in drinking the nectar from this cup. I went to Iraq and stayed in Karbalā’ the Blessed—may God the Exalted bless him who is buried there, his forebears and his descendants—intending to stay until my death, without regret for what I had lost after having gained the honor of arriving there and patiently to endure the easy and difficult times brought on by fate, as has been said:

Your nearness is my wealth, despite a lack of riches,
    and your distance my poverty, despite abundant wealth.
God—glory be to Him—granted, through His extreme generosity and all-encompassing bounty, and His continual gifts to His sinning, wrong-doing servant, the opening of the doors of providence toward every horizon, and—praise be to God—I became well-to-do and without worries.


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I engaged in research, teaching, and writing, and began to finish my book al-Ḥadā’iq al-nāḍira mentioned above. The volumes which I have already completed are the section on ritual purity, in two volumes, the section on prayer, in two volumes, the section on alms and the section on fasting, in one volume, and the section on pilgrimage, in one volume. Praise and glory be to God! No book like this has ever been written among the Twelver Shi‘ites, nor has anyone written anything of its kind, for it contains all the scriptural texts related to each legal question, all the opinions of earlier scholars, and all of the subsidiary issues relating to each question except those I may have overlooked inadvertently. This method is followed in the parts I wrote in Karbalā’, but the first part, which I wrote in Iran, though it presents the legal questions fully and provides the necessary evidence, does not include all of the ḥadīth, though it mentions them collectively, and the same may be said for the opinions of earlier scholars. On the whole, our aim is that the reader not need to consult any other traditions or works of legal derivation [kutub istidlāl]. Therefore, it has become a large work, as extensive as a sea filled with elegant pearls. While writing it, I also wrote a number of treatises in answer to questions, which will all be mentioned below, in addition to[12] the work, Salāsil al-ḥadīd fī taqyīd Ibn Abī Ḥadīd [Iron Chains to Fetter Ibn Abī Ḥadīd].[13]

I shall conclude by mentioning the works I have completed from long ago and recently.

[Al-Baḥrānī here lists thirty additional works.]


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