Muhammad 'Ali Mudarris Tabrizi

Muhammad 'Ali Mudarris Tabrizi

Personal Information
Well-Known As	Mudarris Khiyabani
Birth	1296/1878-9
Place of Birth	Tabriz
Death	Sha'ban 1373/April 1954
Burial Place	Shaykhan Cemetery, Qom
Scholarly Information
Students	Muhammad Khiyabani
Permission for Ijtihad From	Sayyid Muhammad Hujjat Kuhkamara'i, al-Sayyid Sadr al-Din al-Sadr, Muhammad 'Ali Shahabadi, Muhammad Husayn Kashif al-Ghita', Mirza 'Abd al-Husayn Rashti
Permission for Hadith Transmission to	al-Sayyid Hibat al-Din al-Shahristani, Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim, Muhammad Husayn Kashif al-Ghita', Mirza 'Abd al-Husayn Rashti
Works	Rayhanat al-adab

Mīrzā Muḥammad 'Alī Mudarris Tabrīzī (Farsi: مُحَمَّدعَلی مُدَرِّس تَبریزی) (b. 1296/1878-9 - d. 1373/1954), known as Mudarris Khīyābānī (Farsi: مُدَرِّس خیابانی), was a Shiite scholar of the 14th/20th century. He was born in Tabriz and studied different Islamic disciplines with prominent scholars of his time to a degree approximate to ijtihad. He received permissions for ijtihad and transmission of hadiths from great scholars of the Islamic seminary of Najaf. Mudarris Tabrizi wrote a number of books and essays, the best-known of which is Rayhanat al-adab. His burial place is located in Shaykhan Cemetery in Qom.

Birth

Muhammad 'Ali Mudarris was born in Tabriz in 1296/1878-9.

Education

Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Mudarris went to the Talibiyya Seminary in Tabriz to learn the preliminaries of the Arabic language and literature, textbooks of fiqh, usul al-fiqh and mathematics. He studied rational sciences with Mirza 'Ali Lankarani, and advanced courses of fiqh and usul al-fiqh with Haj Mirza Abu l-Hasan Mujtahid. He also attended the lectures of Mirza Sadiq Mujtahid Tabrizi.

Mudarris Tabrizi received permissions of ijtihad from marja's of the time, such as Sayyid Muhammad Hujjat Kuhkamara'i, al-Sayyid Sadr al-Din al-Sadr, Muhammad 'Ali Shahabadi, Muhammad Husayn Kashif al-Ghita', and Mirza 'Abd al-Husayn Rashti.

Muhammad 'Ali Mudarris Tabrizi also received permission for transmission of hadiths from scholars such as al-Sayyid Hibat al-Din al-Shahristani, Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim, Muhammad Husayn Kashif al-Ghita', and Mirza 'Abd al-Husayn Rashti.

Late in his life, he taught, wrote, and researched in Sipahsalar Seminary in Tehran for 12 years. His students include Shaykh Muhammad Khiyabani, Sayyid Muhammad Rida 'Alawi Tihrani, Mahdi Muhaqqiq, and Ahmad Mahdawi Damghani.

Work

• Rayhanat al-adab: this is a Persian book concerning the biographies and works of Muslim scholars, mystics, philosophers, men of literature, and poets who were known with titles and kunyas. The author spent 9 years to collect data for the book—from 1364/1945 until his death. It includes biographies of 4,624 people.
• Al-Durr al-thamin or Diwan al-ma'sumin: it includes poems attributed to the Fourteen Infallibles (a).
• Farhang-i baharistan: the book was written in the style of Sirr al-adab by al-Tha'alibi. It is about synonyms in Persian. It was published in Sha'ban 1348 (January 1930) in Tabriz.
• Farhang-i nuwbahar: this is a dictionary of Persian words defined in Persian. It was published in 1348/1929-30 in Tabriz. It contains over 19,000 words.
• Kifayat al-muhassilin fi tabsirat ahkam al-din: the book is a text-involving exposition of Tabsira by al-'Allama al-Hilli in two volumes. The first volume was published in Tabriz and the second was published lithographically.
• Nathr al-la'ali dar sharh-i nazm al-la'ali: this book is concerned with tajwid. It is an exposition of Sharh nazm al-la'ali by Mir Abu l-Qasim (a reciter of the Qur'an in the period of the Safavid king, Shah Abbas II). The writing of this Persian book finished in 1363/1943-4.
• Al-Tuhfat al-mahdiyya: the book was extracted from al-Durr al-thamin. It contains poems by the Imams (a) from the Fourth Imam onwards.

Mudarris Tabrizi's unpublished works include the following:

• Hiyad al-zala'il fi riyad al-masa'il: this is the first book written by Murdarris Tabrizi when he was 28 years old. It was written in Arabic in Rajab 1324/August 1906. This is an exposition of the tahara (cleanliness) part of Riyad al-masa'il by Sayyid 'Ali Tabataba'i.
• Ghayat al-muna fi tahqiq al-kuna: the writing of this book finished in Sha'ban 1331/July 1913. The book was written in Arabic concerning the kunyas used for non-human entities.
• Farhang-i nigaristan: the writing of this book finished in Muharram 1359/February 1940. It concerns single and phrasal words. It consists of 5 volumes of manuscripts.
• Qamus al-ma'arif: the writing of this book finished in Rabi' II 1345/October 1926. It is written in Persian. This is a dictionary of Persian words, but it also includes many Arabic words and some words from other languages which were common in Farsi. The book also contains brief accounts of various religious beliefs and denominations, religious terminologies, astrological sciences, mathematics, Arabic prosody ('arud), history, and so on.
• Amthal wa hikam-i Turki-yi Azarbayjani (proverbs and aphorisms in Azerbaijan).

Demise

He died in Sha'ban 1373 (April 1954). After a funeral, he was temporarily buried in Tuba'iyya in Tabriz. His corpse was then moved to Qom, Ayatollah Mar'ashi Najafi said the Funeral Prayer on his body, and he was buried in Shaykhan Cemetery in Qom.

Commemoration

The Society for the National Heritage of Iran introduced Mudarris Tabrizi as a prominent Iranian figure in a commemoration held on February 17, 2002.