Categories of Shia Personages

Categories of Shia Personages, is an encyclopedic dictionary in 20 volumes, on the biographies of Shia scholars from the 10th to the 20th century. The author of the book –Sheikh Agha Bozorg Tehrani- was a celebrated Shia bibliographer and jurisconsult. From 1911, he started searching in libraries to obtain information about the early Shia scholars. He made an effort to find the biographies of the scholars who were the stars of their own time and today there are not left anything about them. Categories of Shia Personages is one of the most valid Shia books; it has been divided into 11 chapters, the scholars of each century has been arranged alphabetically. The book was published in three stages:

The first stage: it was in the during the author’s lifetime. The topics of the 13th and 14th centuries were published in Najaf –Iraq, because Sheikh Agha Bozorg had more perfect information about the recent centuries than the those of the previous. The 14th century chapter which has been arranged in 4 volumes, includes the introduction of 2228 contemporary scholars and in the 13th century chapter which has been arranged in 2 volumes, includes the introduction of 1562. It is necessary to mention that some parts of these two centuries have not been published yet and available in Najaf Library.

The second stage: it was after the author’s death. Son of the author, Dr Ali Naghi Munzavi took the drafts to Beirut then the correction and publication all were done under his observation.

The third stage: in 1936, Dr Munzavi went to Tehran and appointed the professor of Tehran University, the rest of the book was published during this period of time.