Shaykh al-Islām
Shaykh Baha' al-Din (also spelled Baha'uddin) Muhammad ibn Husayn al-'Amili was born near Baalbek, in Ottoman Syria (present-day Lebanon) in 1547. After the execution of al-Shahid al-Tani in 1558, his father's mentor, he and his family moved to the neighboring Safavid Empire; first to Isfahan, and from there to Qazvin, the then Iranian royal capital. At the time, the Safavid realm was ruled by king Tahmasp I (r. 1524-1576). Tahmasp I appointed Shaykh Bahāʾī's father to serve as "Shaykh al-Islām" in several important Safavid cities in order to propagate Twelver Shi'ism amongst the population.