Knowledge and Power in the Philosophies of Ḥamīd al-Dīn Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī

Sayeh Meisami

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319711928
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

This book is a comparative study of two major Sh??? thinkers ?am?d al-D?n Kirm?n? from the Fatimid Egypt and Mull? ?adr? from the Safavid Iran, demonstrating the mutual empowerment of discourses on knowledge formation and religio-political authority in certain Isma?ili and Twelver contexts. The book investigates concepts, narratives, and arguments that have contributed to the generation and development of the discourse on the absolute authority of the imam and his representatives. To demonstrate this, key passages from primary texts in Arabic and Persian are translated and closely analyzed to highlight the synthesis of philosophical, Sufi, theological, and scriptural discourses. The book also discusses the discursive influence of Na??r al-D?n ??s? as a key to the transmission of Isma?ili narratives of knowledge and authority to later Sh??? philosophy and its continuation to modern and contemporary times particularly in the narrative of the guardianship of the jurist in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

© The Author(s) 2018

Sayeh MeisamiKnowledge and Power in the Philosophies of Ḥamīd al-Dīn Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzīhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71192-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Sayeh Meisami¹

(1)

University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA

End Abstract

1.1 Philosophy and Authority in Shiʿism: Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā

Following the lead of Plato and Aristotle , classical Islamic philosophers built their political views on their understanding of a hierarchical cosmos, including a hierarchy of souls (nufūs). Abū Naṣr Fārābī (d. 339/950), commonly referred to as “the Second Master” in works of Islamic philosophy,¹ formulated the first systematic political discourse in Islamic intellectual history. He made a discursive framework for Islamic political theory based on Platonic idealism and intellectual authority. Nowadays, Fārābī’s work and the continuation of his political philosophy by later thinkers is widely known to scholars of Islamic studies.² In addition, Shīʿī scholars have written extensively on the unique authority of the imams, signifying a designated line of the genealogical descendants of Prophet Muḥammad . What still needs attention is the discursive bond between philosophy and Shiʿism. This is particularly true regarding the relation between the narratives of Islamic epistemology /psychology ³ and that of Shīʿī authority in its complex religious and political applications. The possibility of historical confluence aside, the two fields share narratives, arguments, statements, and concepts, as well as a synthetic methodology which is prominent in the philosophical texts produced in a Shīʿī context.

The present book is a critical investigation into the shared discursive ground between epistemology/psychology and religio-political theories of authority in the works of two thinkers who represent the intellectual dimensions of two influential Shīʿī dynasties. Ḥamīd al-Dīn Kirmānī (d. 412/1021) and Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī (d. 1050/1640) contributed to the generation of Shīʿī discourses of absolute authority in Fatimid Egypt and Safavid Persia . This analysis will show that the religio-political discourses of the two states are similar in character and orientation, sharing analogous arguments and narratives with respect to the doctrine of the imamate. This will be demonstrated based on the place and function of epistemology /psychology in narratives of authority as developed by the two thinkers. However, the differences between Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā in their application of some of the narratives also reveal the influence of the dominant religious and political ideologies of their times.

Though separated by time and location, Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā belong to the same tradition of incorporating Aristotelian philosophy in their writings as well as Neoplatonic readings of Aristotle and Plato’s works. This is due, in part, to early Muslim philosophers adopting pseudo-Aristotelian writings, the intellectual attractiveness of Aristotelian logic and epistemology, and the political significance of a Platonic perfect ruler for Muslim thinkers. I argue that the utopian aspect of Plato’s philosophy has been appealing particularly to those philosophical discourses that were formed in Shīʿī contexts.⁴ From this point of view, it does not matter if Fārābī was Shīʿī or not, nor does it make much difference whether Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) was influenced by his own Ismaʿili family background, which he actually criticized and turned against.⁵ Rather, the present study is focused on the confluence of discourses as not fully determined by the intentions of the writers in question or by specific historical links. This is not to underestimate the fact that Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā were unquestionably Shīʿī and dedicated to the Shīʿī cause of intellectually reinforcing the imamate . Rather, their conscious motivation is not the subject of the present study. Moreover, it is posited that the philosophical narratives of knowledge and authority that the two philosophers incorporated into their works are discursively rooted in a tradition which organically grew on the bedrock of Greek philosophy rather than solely on Shīʿī ideology.

To reveal the intricate relationship between knowledge and power in the philosophies of Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā, I will begin with their epistemology/psychology, focusing specifically on their narratives of intellectual-spiritual evolution and existential transformation through knowledge. I use the term epistemology in the broad sense of the study of the nature, scope, and source of knowledge rather than as part of a theory of logical demonstration and conditions of knowledge and justification . Next, I will analyze the relation between these narratives, and their philosophical accounts of the imamate. By comparing Kirmānī and Mullā Ṣadrā, I elucidate (1) the main components of their epistemic/psychological discourses in terms of concepts, narratives, and arguments; (2) the common grounds of their epistemic narratives about the source and scope of human knowledge in light of their Shīʿī philosophies; (3) the function of their epistemic concepts, arguments, and narratives in their discourses on the absolute authority of the Shīʿī imam ; and (4) knowledge-power dynamics within philosophical discourses of Shīʿī background and the influence of such dynamics on modern and contemporary Shīʿī religio-political discourses.

In view of the above findings, the book also sheds light on the possible influence of Ismaʿili philosophical discourses on Mullā Ṣadrā’s writings. To better investigate this issue, I discuss the discursive influence of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274) as a key to the transmission of Ismaʿili narratives of knowledge and authority to later Islamic philosophy in the Twelver context. The analysis specifically explores the influence of Ismaʿili philosophical imamology on Mullā Ṣadrā’s writings on the imamate through the medium of Ṭūsī ; however, as a Twelver Shīʿī in the Safavid period, Mullā Ṣadrā could hardly admit to this influence.

In my comparison of the two thinkers, I have consulted a great number of primary sources and major secondary literature. Among Kirmānī’s works, Rāḥat al-ʿaql,⁶ which is my main primary source for his philosophy, is the broadest in scope, and the most philosophically ambitious. This volume has been edited twice and is not yet available in translation apart from several passages translated by Daniel C. Peterson⁷ and other scholars in journal articles. The volume is divided into seven major parts called “ramparts” (singular. mashraʿ), with the last one divided into fourteen “Pathways” (singular. al-sūr). The treatise opens with a list of reader instructions on how to prepare oneself spiritually and intellectually to appreciate the book. Among the preparatory steps are the mortification of vicious desires and learning the words of the Ismaʿili past masters. Among these, Kirmānī specifically refers to Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān (d. 363/973) for his works on the exterior side of faith, and to Imam al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh (d. 365/975), Manṣūr al-Yamān , and Abū Yaʿqūb Sijistānī for their contributions to the esoteric reading of the religion.⁸ Therefore, from the very beginning, Kirmānī clarifies his philosophical methodology, which is based on a balance between revelation and reason, exoteric and esoteric . The purpose of Kirmānī’s Rāḥat al-ʿaql is summarized by De Smet as “the exposition of the science of tawḥīd that literally encompasses all the universal principles and all the sciences and forms of knowledge contained in the primary formula of shahādah, la ilāha illā Allāh.”⁹ Rāḥat al-ʿaql incorporates Ismaʿili teachings and the Greek heritage as presented by preceding Islamic philosophers, primarily Fārābī. Kirmānī’s theology of tawḥīd is intertwined with his philosophical cosmology, epistemology/psychology, and eschatology. Through an intricate, discursive system that draws on many narratives, the treatise presents the goal of the Fatimid Summons (daʿwa) as the intellectual/spiritual resurrection of the Shīʿī believer. The text is very challenging to read due to the complex content and style. Kirmānī presents his ideas within an intricate web of overlapping concepts and arguments that are repeated in different chapters and in different contexts.

As for other primary texts by Kirmānī, I use al-Riyāḍ ¹⁰ and al-Aqwāl al-dhahabiyya. ¹¹ The chapter on the soul in the former treatise focuses on the ontological aspect of the soul rather than its evolution through knowledge formation. Al-Aqwāl al-dhahabiyya discusses the constitution of the soul in the context of Kirmānī’s criticism of the famous scientist and philosopher Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā Rāzī (d. between 313 and 320/925 and 932).

The text that I use for Kirmānī’s imamology, al-Maṣābīḥ fī ithbāt al-imāma, ¹² is available in a critical edition and English translation. The translator opens with a concise introduction to Kirmānī’s works, and the significance of the theme of the imamate. Similar to contemporary writings on the imamate, which will be discuss...