Seeing the Signs: the Imamate in Sayyid Kāẓim al-Rashtī’s (d. 1259/1843) Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-simāt

Abstract This article discusses a supplication commentary written by Sayyid Kāẓim b. Qāsim al-Rashtī (d. 1259/1843), the second leader of the Shaykhi Imami Shiʿi movement ( al-Shaykhiyya ) that emerged in nineteenth-century Iran. Al-Rashtī’s name has yet to reach a broader audience, and not without reason. It is easy to see how the first Shaykhi leader, Aḥmad b. Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1241/1826), could overshadow his successor given the former’s charisma and influence, as well as the great abundance of his writings. However, al-Rashtī’s marginality obscures a key stage in the movement’s history and development when the Shaykhi cause gained wider purchase within Qājār Shiʿi society and when the ideas of al-Aḥsāʾī took on growing urgency in fervent expectation of Imam al-Mahdī’s (re)appearance ( ẓuhūr ). The main purpose of this article is to highlight the role of interpretation in al-Rashtī’s Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-simāt (Commentary on the supplication of signs) in articulating Shaykhi thought. Al-Rashtī’s commentary is a deeply considered expression of the imams’ influence in sacred history. It interprets the speech of an Infallible ( maʿṣūm ) to indicate how God interacts with creation through prophetic and imamic archetypes, designating supplicative words and phrases to express this relationship. Given the paucity of information on al-Rashtī, the value of this enterprise will require some appreciation of his background and motivations. In the first section, I chronicle al-Rashtī’s fundamental role in Shaykhi history within the anarchic scene of the ʿAtabāt region of the mid-Qājār period and catalogue some of his main works. The first section lays the groundwork for the second, main section, which analyses al-Rashtī’s commentary and his interpretive procedure.