Beyond Extremism: Rethinking Rajab Borsi’s Intellectual Legacy

The Shiʿi author Rajab Borsi (d. c . 1411) has often been categorized as an extremist ( ghāli ). While he is alleged to have exhibited excessive devotion and love towards Shiʿi imams, reducing the boundaries between the imam and the divine, this paper contends that such a label requires reconsideration. The paper argues that although Borsi is accused of promoting extremist ideas in his work, his interpretation of extremism ( gholoww ) has remained unexplored. Throughout his Mashāreq al-anvār al-yaqin fi asrār amir al-moʾmenin (The Dawning-Places of the Lights of Certainty Concerning the Secrets of the Commander of the Faithful), Borsi presents a diverse array of arguments to distance his theological vision from that of extremists and delineate a clear boundary between God and the Shiʿi imams. This paper asserts that Borsi’s work should not be perceived as an isolated, exceptional, or even extremist literary creation, but rather as an outgrowth of pre-modern Islamic thought and a representative of the intellectual aspirations and imaginations of this period.