The Safavid Dynasty After Shah ‘Abbas

The Safavid Dynasty remained after him for almost a hundred years, coming to its end in the year 1148 AH. The Safavid leaders had no interest in religiosity. All of them murdered their own family members, a son, a sister, a nephew; their killing wanton and their punishments barbaric. Further, drinking wine had become commonplace. These were the hallmarks of the First Twelver Shia Dynasty. These atrocities were covered by erecting ‘Hussaini’ monuments in support of the Ahlul Bayt. Within this spectrum there emerged a Sheikh al Islam of the Safavids, Muhammad Baqir Majlisi 1037 – 1111 AH. He authored the largest Shia encyclopaedia entitled Bihar al Anwar. He collated all the earlier Shia reports and saying in this book, which has been published time and again in more than a hundred volumes.

Some moderate Shia opine that this book has painted Shi’ism in a bad light since it gathered all types of statements, true and false. It includes reports that exposes Shi’ism as an ideology based on extremism, excommunication, and bloodshed. As such this book has become a focal point for criticizing the Shia, with preachers of the Hussaini pulpits exploiting the reports of extremism and spreading it amongst the masses.[1]

We don’t accept the assertion of the moderate Shia. Instead, we believe that the Shia tradition had been exclusively accessible to its scholars whilst this book allowed the layman exposure to its underbelly; secrets which the scholars hoped would not come to light and for which they adopted Taqiyyah. This book exposed every secret of theirs.

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[1] Lamahat Ijtima’iyyah, vol. 2 pg. 78.

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