al-Bihbahānī, Muḥammad Bāqir - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Gleave, Robert M.
Leiden
Brill
(542 words)
Muḥammad Bāqir b. Muḥammad Akmal al-Bihbahānī (d. 1205/1791) was an Imāmī jurist and teacher active in Najaf and is known in the Imāmī tradition as the mujaddid ("renewer") of the thirteenth Islamic century. His re-establishment of the Uṣūlī school of Imāmī jurisprudence was his major achievement. Through this, he secured the primacy of the mujtahid scholar in Imāmī jurisprudence, a view that continues to dominate Imāmī Shīʿī learning to this day. His theory gives the mujtahid (a scholar qualified to give personal legal opinions) a pivotal role