Sayyid Kazim Rashti

The circle of disciples created by Ahsa'i was maintained and extended by his successor Sayyid Kazim Rashtl (1212-1259/1797-1843) ..
According to Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani (1225-1288/1810-1871), the Shaykhi leader, in Hidiiyat al-talibin (p.71), Ahsa'i made this announcement to his pupils about Rashti: "Take your instruction ('ilm)  from Sayyid Kazim, because he has acquired knowledge from me and I  have learnt from my Imams. (Rather), he has received instruction directly from God." Sayyid Kazim was at most 30 years when the Shaykh died (in 1241 or 1242H/l825 or 1826). Younger and inferior to others  among Ahsa'i's pupils in learning, he was designated by the Shaykh as  the most proper person to carry on his teachings and propagate his doctrines. Sayyid Kazim also taught that the Twelfth Imam (A), believed  by the Twelver Shi'is to live in this world in concealment, existed in the  world of harqiiliyah . He added that the Imam's return will not be in his  physical frame; rather, the Twelfth Imam would return to rule the world  and fill it with justice by incarnating himself in one of the disciples of  the Shaykh and Sayyid Kazim. With his failing health, he told his dis-  ciples that "the appearance of the Imam is near and the person in whom the Imam would be incarnated might be present among you."

This led his disciples to think that he himself was the Twelfth Imam  incarnate. For about 17 years after the Shaykh, Sayyid Kil?im kept  alive the circle of Ahsd'I, developing further adherents from Arabs and .  Persians and functioning in the professed role of ol-rukn al-riibi' and  intermediary between the Twelfth Imam and the community of believers. He did not return to Iran during this period.
Sayyid Kazim, far inferior to his predecessor in learning, is nevertheless the author of some works, such as Sharl; qasidah, Dalil al-mutah-ayyirin, al-Hujjat al-biilighah, Sharl:z Ayat al-Kursi and ai-Rasa 'il, the last being a collection of his letters and short treatises. In Shorb qasidah, which is an exposition of parts of the eulogy of an Arab poet, 'Abd al- Baqi Afandi, written to eulogize an Ottoman governor of Iraq, Sayyid Kazim expounds the following couplet, which alludes to the Prophet's famous tradition about 'AIi ibn Abi TaIib (A)

    I am the city of knowledge and 'Ali is its gateway

 

This is the bazaar of the city of knowledge,
One who does not enter whose gate is lost.

Therein, Sayyid Kazim imagines 'the city of knowledge' as a celestial  city inhabited by the Imams, and with an unenviable zest for the  grotesque goes on to describe its streets and lanes. One of the lanes  belongs to a man with a dagger in his hand called Rakhibah; others  belong to, or are given the names of, Shamshalak, Tiithasha, Tuti'al,  Suqtim Sahsuyilah ; Deh Darreh, Arhutah, Latunasidah, Samlsur,  Turtirush, Kashifl'Iyil, Khiyar Shirrish, Tala Liiriyah.i. and similar  incredible names. With the exception of 'Ali Muhammad Bab, perhaps,  no author has ever dived into the depth of imaginative absurdity to the extent of Sayyid Kazim Rashti (not even Salvador Dali, the surrealist  painter, with his grotesque 'masterpiece', The Art of Farting, comes any  near to the accomplishments of this Sayyid from Rasht!). His works  disclose the character and calibre of the disciples that had faithfully gathered around him. There is reason to believe that aside from his  degenerate imagination and inborn talent for the grotesque, the hallucinatory states induced by such drugs as hashish, bhang and marijuana had much role to play in the lively absurdities conjured up by him.
 

Nevertheless, Sayyid Kazim and his followers enjoyed the patronage and support of Ottoman authorities who saw the political potential of this strange group of Persian heretics, in their manoeuvres against the Persian regime of the Qachars and as a counterweight to the Shi'i religious  leadership based in Najaf and Karbala'i!
 

It is not certain whether Sayyid Kazim designated any successor. After his death in 1259/1843, a number of his disciples, including his son Sayyid Ahmad, claimed to be his successors. Three prominent  claimants to Sayyid Kazim's successorship were: Muhammad Karim  Khan Kirmani, the leader of the Shaykhis based in Kerman, Mirza .  Shafi' of Tabriz, and Mirza 'Ali Muhammad, the would-be Bab, in  Shiraz.