The Grand Armour
A Commentary on the Divine Names
An explication and translation of Hādī Sabzavārī’s Sharḥ al-Asmāʾ wa Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabīr by Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi
Considered to be the greatest work by the renowned Persian philosopher, theologian and poet Hādī Sabzavārī, Sharḥ al-Asmāʾ wa Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabīr is a sublime commentary on a famous prayer composed of a thousand and one names of God. Sabzavārī’s work is an exceptional example of the tradition of Islamic devotional literature as well as a key contribution to the fields of gnosis (ʿirfān), theology (kalām), and mysticism. Born in the East of Persia in 1212/1797, Sabzavārī began his formal education in Mashhad, at the Ḥājj Ḥasan madrasa, before travelling to Isfahan to study under the direction of Mullā ʿAlī Nūrī and Mullā Ismāʿil Iṣfahānī, two masters of Mullā Ṣadrā’s school of transcendent philosophy. Over a long career that saw him author fifty-two works across a range of philosophical, theological, and literary subjects, Sabzavārī earned a reputation as the leading luminary of thirteenth/nineteenth-century Persia through his works and commentaries on theology (kalām), logic, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), mysticism, and prosody, as well as his teaching, which drew students from across the Middle East and South and East Asia. Sabzavārī won the favour of the fourth Qajar monarch, Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh, and founded an important school in his native Sabzavār, establishing his home city as a leading intellectual centre alongside Isfahan and Tehran. To this day, Sabzavārī’s works remain a cornerstone of the study of philosophy and theology in the Islamic world, and he is the most significant figure in modern Islamic intellectual history.
In The Grand Armour: A Commentary on the Divine Names, the Dean of The Shīʿah Institute, Dr Sayyid Amjad H. Shah Naqavi offers the first comprehensive translation and explication of a masterpiece by the pre-eminent intellect of Qajar Persia. The Grand Armour is among the finest orisons on the divine names and Dr Shah Naqavi astutely renders and clarifies Sabzavārī’s erudite language and esoteric wisdom in a translation that will benefit scholars, students, and those interested in spirituality for generations to come.