A learned theologian, poet, stylist and an accomplished diplomat,Shah Tahir Husayniwas also the most famousImamof the Muhammad-Shahi branch ofNizari Ismailism. He was born in the final decades of the 9th AH/ 15th CE century in the village of Khund, near Qazwin in northern Persia, where his forefathers known locally as the Khundi Sayyids had lived and acquired some following after the middle of the 8th AH/ 14th CE century.
The most detailed account of Shah Tahir is contained in the Tarikh-i Firishta (History of Firishta), composed around 1015 AH/ 1606 CE by Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi, better known as Firishta, the celebrated historian of the Deccan who knew members of this family. Shah Tahir’s father,ImamShah Radial-Din, who had led the Muhammad-ShahiNizarisof Quhistan andSistanin eastern Persia, later established his rule over a part of Badakhshan where he had many followers. Shah Radial-Dinwas murdered in 915 AH/ 1509 CE and his head was taken to Mirza Khan, a local SunniTimuridruler who persecuted the IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Ja尪far al-廜〢diq (d. 765), as his successor. of Badakhshan.
Shah Tahir succeeded his father to theimamateof the Muhammad-ShahiNizarisAdherents of a branch of the Ismailis who gave allegiance to Nizar, the eldest son of the Fatimid Imam-caliph al-Mustansir (d. 1094) as his successor.. It seems that from early on in his life and as a form oftaqiyyaor precautionary dissimulation, Shah Tahir presented himself as an Ithna Ashari or Twelver Shii, and this explains why he composed several commentaries on the theological and juridical treatises of a number of well-known Twelver scholars such as al-Allama al-Hilli (d. 726 AH/ 1325 CE).
He was also in contact with Sufi circles and wrote a commentary on theGulshan-i raz(The Rose Garden of Mystery), the famousmathnawipoem of the Sufi master Mahmud Shabistari (d. after 740 AH/ 1339 CE).
Author
Dr Farhad Daftary
Co-Director and Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications
An authority in Shi’i studies, with special reference to its Ismaili tradition, Dr. Daftary has published and lectured widely in these fields of Islamic studies. In 2011 a Festschrift entitledFortresses of the Intellectwas produced to honour Dr. Daftary by a number of his colleagues and peers.