Born in Isfahan in 1617, his father, Mulla Mohammad Taqi Majlesi (Majlesi-ye Awwal—Majlesi the First, 1594 AD-1660 AD), was a cleric of Islamic jurisprudence. The genealogy of his family is at times traced back to Abu Noaym Ahmad ibn Abdallah Esfahani (d. 1038 AD), the author, inter alia, of a History of Isfahan, entitled Zikr-i akhbar-i Isfahan. However, his first definitive, attested ancestor appears to be Kamal al-Din Darvish Mohammad ibn Hasan Ameli. Ameli, of Lebanese extraction, was the first scholar to propagate the science of (Shi'ite) Hadith in Isfahan following the establishment and rise of the Safavids. Ameli later adopted two nisbas, that is, Natanzi ("from Natanz") and Esfahani ("from Isfahan"). Majlesi himself also used these nisbas and even signed some of his ejazat as "al-Esfahani al-Natanzi al-Ameli". Majlesi's father Mohammad Taqi was the first of the line to bear the epithet "Majlesi"."Mohammad Taqi Majlesi" in Encyclopaedia Iranica
