Kashkul

“The oblong bowl” (Kashkul) composed by the distinguished Iranian scholar “sheikh Bahaee”, is a collection of various kinds of subjects and many Persian and Arabic poems.

It includes the prophets and the Imams traditions, some of the sermons of the Prophets, the most essential Islamic Hadith and traditions.

The great part of the book includes Arabic and Persian poems selected from Arabic collected poems as well as Persian collected poems such as:

Masnavi Manavi (prosed by Rumi).

The author also presents pure words of great philosophers (Aristotle, Plato, etc). And theosophists as well as prominent   scholars.

Sheikh Bahee also mentions the sciences: mathematics, philosophy, theology, etc, in this book.

 

The author

Sheikh Baha al-Din Muhammad Ameli, known as Sheikh Bahaei, celebrated philosopher,  jurist,  mathematician,  astronomer, theosophist,  historian,  poet and man of letters, born in 1546 in Lebanon into an educated family. His father Hossein Ibn Abdul Samad Harethi was a prominent scholar.

In his childhood emigrated to Iran with his family. He joined to Safawid dynasty (the dynasty which ruled Iran from 150 till 1786) in Isfahan.
Sheikh Bahaei was known as “Sheikh al-Islam” (honorific title). He was an outstanding scholar, fully versed at all the common sciences of his own time and had a profound knowledge about different scientific fields.
Sheikh Bahaei travelled to many countries: Egypt, Syria, Hejaz, Iarq, Palestine, Azerbaijan and Herat and studied in the presence of great scholars. He was one of the most significant scholars in the 16th and the 17th centuries.
 Sheikh Bahaei studied commentary, Hadith and Arabic literature in the presence of his father;  philosophy, theology and some of the intellectual sciences under Mullah Abdullah Modarres Yazdi;  mathematics in the presence of Mulla Ali Maz’hab and Mullah Afzal Qazi and Mullah Muhammad Baqer Yazdi.  He also studied medicine in the presence of Imad al-Din Mahmoud.

His students:
Over forty scholars of the 17th century studied in his presence, some of them are as follwing:

1-    Mullah Sadra (leading Iranian philosopher 1570 – 1640)
2-    Mullah Mohsen Feiz Kashani
3-    Mullah Iz al-Din Farahani (famous poet in the 17th century)
4-    Mullah Baqer Khorasani
5-    Sheikh Javad Baghdadi
6-    Mullah Muhammad Taqi Majlesi
7-    Seyyed Iz al-Din Hosseini Ameli

Works:
He was one of the most prolific authors, 123 works are attributed to him. The most important are as following:

1-    Jame’ Abbasi (his most important work, on jurisprudence. It was written by order of Shah Abbas I)
2-    Kashkul (a collection of different sciences and some poems in Persian and Arabic)
3-    The forty Hadiths
4-    Samadieh (on syntax)
5-    The choice part
And many other books and treatises.

Sheikh Bahaei died in 1622.

 

The book structure

Kashkul is divided into 20 subjects as follows:

1- Prayer

2- Pure teachings

3- History

4-finer points

5-explanatory subjects

6- Treatises and letters

7-sciences and techniques

8-wise

9- Ethical notes

10- Dreams

11- Literature

12-Hadiths

13- Advice

14-Action and reaction

15- Proper nouns and celebrated persons

16-stories

17-love story

18-strange subjects

19-poems

20- Inter-religions sayings