Bāqir al-Majlisī, Muḥammad Ṣafavid Shīʿī Iran Muḥammad Bāqir al-Majlisī (1037/1628 – 1110/1698) is among the most influential modern Shīʿī Muslim scholars, and he was closely associated with the Ṣafavid state (1501-1722) in Iran. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Majlisī (1037/1628 – 1110/1698) is among the most influential modern Shīʿī Muslim scholars, and he was closely associated with the Ṣafavid state (1501-1722) in Iran. Al-Majlisī is especially known for popularizing, centralizing, and homogenizing a vision of Shīʿī Islam focused on the twelve Imāms. Scholars have concluded that al-Majlisī was instrumental in reviving and reforming Shīʿī practices that have colored Shīʿī culture for the past three centuries. Rula Abisaab has rightly pointed out that “Majlisi’s activities revived the power of the ‘ulama and promulgated a ‘missionary’ Shi’ism of a public devotional character” (Abisaab, 127). Said Arjomand argues that “there is hardly a feature of contemporary Shiʿism that is not either fully depicted or at least presaged in his [al-Majlisī’s] writings” (Arjomand, Shadow, 158). According to Colin Turner, al-Majlisī prompted “a dramatic reformulation and reorientation” of Shīʿism “from mainstream theocentrism to Twelver Shi’ite externalist imamocentrism” (Turner, 150-1). Al-Majlisī’s supporters laud him as the seal of the clerics (khātim al-mujtahidīn) and reviver (mujaddid) of Islam, whereas his detractors denounce him as a fanatic persecutor of minorities who contributed to the demise of the Ṣafavids. There is no doubt that al-Majlisī strengthened the legalistic Shīʿī establishment as he persecuted Ṣūfīs and philosophers. Al-Majlisī was a prolific writer who was effective in propagating popular Shīʿī practices that remain part of mainstream Shīʿism to this day.