Sheikh Bahai

Baha al-Din Muhammad ibn Husayn al-Amili, universally revered as Sheikh Bahai, was born in Baalbek, Lebanon, into an illustrious scholarly family that immigrated to Safavid Persia. Mastering mathematics, astronomy, civil engineering, jurisprudence, and poetry, he rose to become the Shaykh al-Islam (Supreme Religious Authority) under Shah Abbas I.

Bahai was a legendary civil engineer and master architect who laid out the urban master plan of Isfahan, designing the colossal Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the Shah Mosque, the Zayandeh River canal distribution network, and the famous 'shaking minarets' (Menar Jonban). He also authored seminal textbooks in mathematics (Khulasat al-Hisab) and astronomy that were studied for centuries.