[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í (1743-1826), the founder of the [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]í school, belonged to the ancient tribe of Banú-Ṣa[_kh_]r, and his family originated from the region of Aḥsá on the Arabian mainland. His father's name was [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Zayni'd-Dín, and Baḥrayn had been their home. [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad first visited Najaf, where the Tomb of `Alí, the first Imám, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muḥammad, is situated. Then in Karbilá, close by the Shrine of the martyred Ḥusayn, the third Imám, he began to preach and a circle of earnest students gathered round him. He asked the leading [_Sh_]í`ah divines of the holy cities of `Iráq to issue him a licence which would give him recognition as a mujtahid in his own right, that is, a divine empowered to interpret and prescribe. They all declared that they considered [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad to be a man of knowledge and talent superior to their own, and that their testimonial was written solely at his request. The fame of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad soon spread throughout Írán. Fatḥ-`Alí [_Sh_]áh (reigned 1797-1834) and Muḥammad-`Alí Mírzá,[A] a son of the [_Sh_]áh who held the life-long tenure of the governorship of Kirmán[_sh_]áh, were particularly desirous to meet him. But [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad preferred to go to Írán by way of Bú[_sh_]ihr (Bushire) in the south, rather than by the nearer and more accessible route of Kirmán[_sh_]áh in the west. From Bú[_sh_]ihr he went to [_Sh_]íráz and thence to Yazd, where he stayed for a number of years. Siyyid Káẓim-i-Ra[_sh_]tí, a young man barely out of his teens, who shared the same views, joined him there (sometime in 1231 A.H.: 1815-16). [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad was then making his final arrangements to go on pilgrimage to the holy city of Ma[_sh_]had,[B] prior to his visit to Ṭihrán. He received Siyyid Káẓim with great affection and asked him to remain at Yazd to take up his own patient work of many years. In Ma[_sh_]had and later in Ṭihrán, [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad was shown every mark of high respect and reverence. [Footnote A: The Rukni'd-Dawlih.] [Footnote B: Ma[_sh_]had (Meshed) contains the Shrine of Imám Riḍá, the eighth Imám.] Eventually Siyyid Káẓim travelled north to be in his company, and together they went to Kirmán[_sh_]áh, as the Prince-Governor had been urgently begging his father to let [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad visit him. They stayed in Kirmán[_sh_]áh as long as the Governor lived. After his premature death, they departed for Karbilá, where [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad, his zeal unabated and his powers untouched by advancing years, preached and taught. He was in his early eighties when he took the road to Mecca and Medina. From that journey he did not return and lies buried in the famed cemetery of Baqi`, in the vicinity of the Tomb of the Prophet Muḥammad.