Sheikh Bahai Day · Ruz-e Sheykh Baha'i

Culture of origin: Iranian · Cultural

Holiday sources: Iran

Baha al-Din al-Amili (1547–1621), known as Sheikh Bahai, was a polymath at the court of Shah Abbas the Great who wrote in Persian and Arabic. He is credited as the principal planning mind behind Safavid Isfahan, conceiving the urban vision of Naqsh-e Jahan Square. He wrote over a hundred treatises, on astronomy and mathematics among other subjects, along with Persian poetry, and in his Tashrih al-Aflak he raised the possibility that the Earth moves.