Abstract
Often considered a high point of Iranian culture, the period of rule of the Ṣafavid dynasty (1499–1720) witnessed the flourishing of some of the most prominent postclassical Islamic philosophers, most notably Mīr Dāmād and Mullā Ṣadrā. But the wealth of philosophical activity in the period did not arise from nothing, nor did it end abruptly at the fall of the empire. Indeed, Ṣafavid philosophy is a natural outgrowth of the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century philosophical and theological debates, especially in Shīrāz, and most of the topics, questions, and solutions would continue to be debated down to the nineteenth-century Qājār era and ultimately to our own day.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Primary Literature
Brown, K. 2009. Mīr Dāmād. Kitāb al-Qabasāt: The book of blazing brands. A provisional english translation, introduction, and notes. Including selections from Sayyed Aḥmad ‘Alawī’s Sharḥ Kitāb al-Qabasāt. New York: Global Scholarly Publications.
Corbin, H. 1964. Mollâ Sadra Shirazi (980/1572-1050/1640). Le Livre des pénétrations métaphysiques (Kitâb al-Mashâ’ir). Tehran/Paris: Département d’iranologie de l’Institut Franco-Iranien/Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve.
Corbin, H., and J.D. Āshtiyānī. 1971–1979. Anthologie des philosophes iraniens depuis le XVIIe siècle jusqu’à nos jours, 4 vols. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve.
Nasr, S.H., and M. Aminrazavi. 2015. An anthology of philosophy in Persia, From the school of Shiraz to the twentieth century, vol. 5. London: I.B. Tauris.
Nasr, S.H., and I. Kalin. 2014. Mullā Ṣadrā. The book of metaphysical penetrations. Kitāb al-mashā‘ir. Provo: Brigham Young University Press.
Qarāmaleki, A.F. 2007. Dashtakī, Davāni, Khafrī, Bokhāri. 12 Treatises on Liar Paradox in Shirāz School. Tehran: Iranian Institute of Philosophy.
For Mullā Ṣadrā’s works, worth consulting are the recent critical editions published by Ṣadrā Islamic Philosophy Research Institute in Tehran (www.mullasadra.org).
Secondary Literature
Abisaadb, R.J. 2004. Converting Persia: Religion and power in the Safavid Empire. London/New York: I. B. Tauris.
Arjomand, S.A. 1984. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, political order, and societal change in Shi‘ite Iran from the beginning to 1890. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
Bonmariage, C. 2008. Le Réel et les réalités: Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī et la structure de la réalité. Paris: Vrin.
Dabashi, H. 2001. Mīr Dāmād and the founding of the ‘School of Iṣfahān’. In History of Islamic philosophy, ed. S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman, 597–634. London/New York: Routledge.
Kalin, I. 2011. Knowledge in later Islamic philosophy: Mullā Ṣadrā on existence, intellect, and intuition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nasr, S.H. 1986. Spiritual movements, philosophy and theology in the Safavid period. In The Cambridge history of Iran, vol. 6, ed. P. Jackson and L. Lockhart, 656–697. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nasr, S.H. 2006. Islamic philosophy from its origin to the present: Philosophy in the land of prophecy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Newman, A.J. 1986. Towards a reconsideration of the Isfahan school of philosophy: Shaykh Baha’i and the role of the Safawid Ulama. Studia Iranica 15: 165–199.
Pourjavady, R. 2011. Philosophy in early Safavid Iran: Najm al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Nayrīzī and his writings. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Rahman, F. 1975. The philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā (Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shirāzī). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rahman, F. 1980. Mīr Dāmād’s concept of ḥudūth dahrī: A contribution to the study of god-world relationship in Safavid Iran. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39(2): 139–151.
Rizvi, S.H. 2006. Between time and eternity: Mīr Dāmād on God’s creative agency. Journal of Islamic Studies 17: 158–176.
Rizvi, S.H. 2007a. Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī: His life and works and the sources for Safavid philosophy. Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement 18.
Rizvi, S.H. 2007b. Neoplatonism revived in the light of the Imams: Qāḍī Sa‘īd Qummī (d. AH 1107/AD 1696) and his reception of the Theologia Aristotelis. In Classical Arabic philosophy: Sources and reception Qummi, ed. P. Adamson, 176–207. London/Turin: Warburg Institute/Nino Aragno Editore.
Rizvi, S.H. 2007. Isfahan school of philosophy. In Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. XIV/2, 119–125. Available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/isfahan-school-of-philosophy
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kaukua, J. (2015). Philosophy in Safavid Persia. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_158-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_158-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities