Defending Shiʿism in Mughal Delhi: The Work of ʿAbd al-Vahhāb Daybulī Shīrāzī (d. after 1662)

The present article explores the work of ʿAbd al-Vahhāb Daybulī Shīrāzī (d. after 1662), a little known Shiʿi scholar active in mid-seventeenth-century Delhi. The study situates the work in the context of the shifts in political theology in the Mughal Empire during the late years of Shāh Jahān (r. 1628–58) and the early years of Awrangzīb (r. 1658–1707). It seeks to understand how the author combined common tropes of Sunni–Shiʿi polemics with context-specific issues. Special attention is given to the treatment of legal questions and to the validity of independent reasoning (ijtihād) among Sunnis and Shiʿa. The study argues that Daybulī’s work attests to an environment of ambiguity, whereby the Shiʿa were seen as a major ideological nemesis within the shifting political theology of the time but were nonetheless able to find ways to present their positions in open theological debates.