Ilāhī Ardabīlī and the First Commentary of Nahj al-Balāgha

This article is about Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥussayn Ilāhī Ardabīlī (9th and 10th centuries AH), the Twelver Shī‘a scholar from Ardabīl who has written tens of books in Persian to promote the Shī‘a knowledge. Among these are his commentaries on Nahj al-Balāgha that attracted the attention of his contemporary scholars. The author of the present article believes that the book Minhāj al-Faṣāḥa fī sharḥ Nahj al-Balāgha is the first Persian commentary on Nahj al-Balāgha. According to the biography of Ilāhī that is presented in this article, he taught for five decades in Shaikh Ṣafī al-Dīn Ardabīlī monument in Ardabīl, and has been a judge there, too. The author of the article has provided the chronologically-ordered list of resources used in his biography, and has presented the bibliography of nearly forty books penned by him in the three languages of Persian, Azeri Turkic, and Arabic in various topics (including Islamic beliefs, pilgrimage prayer texts, the interpretation of the Qur’ān, mathematics, Islamic theology, Islamic jurisprudence, principles of Islamic jurisprudence, astrology, and literature). Book replications and his ownership of the books and his scientific licenses are another part of his scientific services. Ilāhī has allocated four of his books to Nahj al-Balāgha. The author of the article extensively discusses them, their manuscripts, their position in the set of commentaries on Nahj al-Balāgha, makes their themes known, and composes divine poems based on them.