Ayatollah Rahim Arbab Isfahani

Ayatollah Rahim Arbab Isfahani, jurisconsult and philosopher, born in 1879 into an educated and wealthy family in Isfahan. His father was a poet. Isfahani also knew most of Persian poems of "Rumi" and "Hafez" and Arabic poems by heart. His ancestors were all nobles and celebrated grandees of Isfahan.

Education
Isfahani studied Persian literature and some parts of inflection & syntax under "mullah Muhammad Homami", #### then continued in the presence of "Mirza Badi' (d. 1900), methdology under "Baqer Dorcheyi" (d. 1923), jurisprudence in the presence of "Abu Qasem Deh kordi" (d. 1934) and "Monir Ahmad Abaadi" (d. 1923) and philosophy, astronomy and mathematics under "Jahangir Qashqaee" and "mullah Muhammad Kashi". Isfahani also studied "Asfar" (mullah Sadra's work) in the presence of "mullah Ismail Darb kushi". Then travelled to Iraq to complete his education, he participated in the classes of "Mirza Muhammad Hsan Shirazi" and achieved a high position. He was so kind, respected all, had a simple life and always helped poor people.

The masters:
The following are his masters in Najaf and Isfahan: He loved his masters too much.
1- Abul Ma'ali Kalbasi
2- Mullah Muhammad Kashi
3- Seyyed Taqi Modarres
4- Jahangir khan Qashqaee
5- Seyyed Abul Qasem Deh kordi
6- Mirza Badi' Darb Imami
7- Seyyed Baqer Dorcheyi
8- Monir Ahmad Abaadi
9- Mahmoud Kalishadi (d. 1906)

Teaching
Isfahani taught "Explanation of Lom'eh" (Shams al –Din Makki's famous work). He also taught jurisprudence, theology and philosophy. He was expert at philosophy and was known as "Hakim". He followed philosophy of "mhlla Sadra" and "peripatetic philosophy". When hewas going to talk on philsophy, usually refered to "mulla Sadra" or "Muhy al –Din Arabi Andelusi", because these two great philosophers were his main sources for philosophy and theosophy.

Students:
1) mullah Muhammad Ali Mo'allem said abou him: "I studied astronomy in the presence of him, although at that time there were not any facilities, he explained the lessons as if we were watching everything and it seemed real."
2) Seyyed Hossein Modarres Hashemi (b. 1873), he studied astronomy in th presence of Ayatollah Isfahani. He said about him: " he paid attention to literature too much, if a student read a piece of reading wrong, the master would get upset and if someone read correctly, he would encourage him.
3) Jalil al –Din Homaee said: "I was proud to study astronomy, theology an djurisprudence for many years in the presence of him.
4)Seyyed Mustafa Beheshti
5) Muhammad Hossein Beheshti
6) Muhammad Mufatteh
7) Hossein Ali Rashed
8) Mulla Hashem Jannati
9) Mirza Imam Deh kordi
10) Seyyed Reza Khorasani
11) Sheikh Murteza Shams
12) Kalbasi
13) Ayatollah Naseri
14)Mullah Ramezan Imlaie
15) Murteza Mutahari
16) Muhammad Mobarakeyi
17) Reza Beheshti ,etc.

Works:
Ayatollah Isfahani wrote a pamphlet on astronomy, he wrote glosses on scientific and philosophical books. He also wrote marjinal notes on the book "Menhaj –e Ma'den al –Tajnis".

Ayatollah Arbab Isfahani passed away in 1976.

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