Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i

Allameh Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i (1904–1981) was one of the most influential Shia philosophers and Quranic exegetes of the 20th century, best known as the author of Tafsir al-Mizan. A sayyid descended from Imam al-Hasan on his father's side and Imam al-Husayn on his mother's, he was born in Shadabad near Tabriz into a family of scholars and was orphaned as a child.

Education

After his early studies in Tabriz, he spent ten years (1925–1935) in the seminary of Najaf, studying jurisprudence and its principles under Mirza Na'ini and Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Gharawi Isfahani, philosophy under Sayyid Husayn Badkubi'i, mathematics under Sayyid Abu l-Qasim Khwansari, and ethics and mysticism under the renowned gnostic Sayyid 'Ali Qadi, whose spiritual influence shaped his whole life.

Tabriz and Qom

Financial hardship forced him back to his family's land in Shadabad, where he farmed from 1935 to 1946 while continuing to write. In 1946 he moved to Qom, where he spent the rest of his life. There he revived the teaching of philosophy and the intellectual sciences in the seminary and taught Quranic exegesis, training a generation of leading scholars, including Morteza Motahhari, Abdollah Javadi Amoli, Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli, Mohammad Beheshti, Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, Musa al-Sadr, Ja'far Sobhani, Hussein-Ali Montazeri and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

Al-Mizan

Between 1954 and 1972 he wrote al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur'an, a 20-volume Arabic exegesis built on the method of interpreting the Quran by the Quran. It is widely regarded as the most important Shia tafsir of the modern era, combining philosophical, social, historical and narrative discussions alongside verse-by-verse commentary.

Dialogue with the West

For roughly twenty years (1959–1979) he held annual autumn dialogues in Tehran with the French philosopher Henry Corbin and other scholars on religion, philosophy and the challenges of the modern world. These discussions, and books such as Shi'a in Islam, introduced Shia thought to a European audience.

Death

He died in Qom on 15 November 1981 (18 Muharram 1402 AH) and was buried in the shrine of Lady Fatima al-Ma'suma. Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran is named in his honor.

*Note on birth date: WikiShia gives 29 Dhu al-Hijja 1321 AH (17 March 1904); some sources, including Wikipedia, give 16 March 1903.*