Mir Damad ( fa, ميرداماد) (c. 1561 – 1631/1632), known also as Mir Mohammad Baqer Esterabadi, or Asterabadi, was a Twelver Shia

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

in the Neoplatonizing Islamic Peripatetic traditions of

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...

. He also was a Suhrawardi, a scholar of the traditional Islamic sciences, and foremost figure (together with his student

Mulla Sadra Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā ( fa, ملا صدرا; ar, صدر المتألهین) (c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE / 980 – 1050 AH), was a Persian Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, the ...

) of the cultural renaissance of

undertaken under the Safavid dynasty. He was also the central founder of the

School of Isfahan The Isfahan School () is a school of Islamic philosophy. It was founded by Mir Damad and reached its fullest development in the work of Mulla Sadra. The name was coined by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Henry Corbin. Because of the attention of Shah ...

, noted by his students and admirers as the Third Teacher (mu'alim al-thalith) after

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

and

al-Farabi Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Isl ...

Philosophy

His major contribution to

Islamic philosophy Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa (literally: "philosophy"), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, ...

was his novel formulation regarding gradations of time and the emanations of the separate categories of time as descending divine hypostases. He resolved the controversy of the createdness or uncreatedness of the world in time by proposing the notion of ''huduth-e-dahri'' (atemporal origination) as an explanation grounded in Avicennan and Suhrawardian categories, whilst transcending them. In brief, excepting God, he argued all things, including the earth and all heavenly bodies, share in both eternal and temporal origination. He influenced the revival of al-falsafa al-yamani ( Philosophy of Yemen), a philosophy based on revelation and sayings of prophets rather than the

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...

of the

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

, and he is widely recognized as the founder of the School of Isfahan, which embraced a

theosophical Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

outlook known as ''hikmat-i ilahi'' (divine wisdom). Mir Damad’s many treatises on Islamic philosophy include '' Taqwim al-Iman'' (''Calendars of Faith'', a treasure on creation and divine knowledge), the '' Kitab Qabasat al-Ilahiyah'' (''Book of the Divine Embers of Fiery Kindling''), wherein he lays out his concept of atemporal origination, '' Kitab al-Jadhawat'' and ''

Sirat al-Mustaqim Aṣ-Ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm ( ar, الصراط المستقيم) is the Arabic term for "the straight path". In an Islamic context, it has been interpreted as "the right path", has been variously translated as "the Middle Way" and as "that which ...

''. He also wrote poetry under the pseudonym of ''Ishraq'' (Illumination). He also wrote a couple of books on mathematics, but with secondary importance. Among his many other students besides

were Seyyed Ahmad-ibn-Reyn-al-A’bedin Alavi, Mohammad ibn Alireza ibn Agajanii, Qutb-al-Din Mohammad Ashkevari and Mulla Shams Gilani. Mir Damad's philosophical prose is often accounted as being among the most dense and obtusely difficult of styles to understand, deliberately employing as well as coining convoluted philosophical terminology and neologisms that require systematic unpacking and detailed commentary. He was called Mir Damad (Groom of the King) because he married Shah Abbas's daughter and hence his fame was based on that event.

Architecture

Mir Damad was also the architect of the Masjide Shah ( Shah Mosque) in Isfahan which employed highly advanced mathematical calculations which required the knowledge of the speed of sound at that time. The geometry of the dome is as such that all sound dissipated from the base will echo in hundreds of carefully calculated and masterly executed interior corners of the dome which will ultimately collide in the center of the dome. The geometrical analysis of the dome is of absolute sophistication and the design of the dome is a magnificent piece of art and furthermore the construction of such dome in the 17th century to a precision where all sound waves must travel and collide in an imaginary point above.

Family

His son was Seyed Ali Naghi Astarabadi and his grandson was Sayyid Mahdi bin Sayyid Ali Naqi. His daughter was the wife of Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Abidin Alavi. The man has not been seen: Seyyed Ali Naqi Ibn Al-Seyyed Al-Musa (father of three sons: Seyyed Kamal Hassanzadeh Hafshjani, Seyyed Musa Hassanzadeh Hafshjani, Seyyed Mohammad Hafshjani and three daughters: Seyyed Ala Ala Begum Hassanzadeh Esther Shamsabadi, who had a special reputation): Mirza Nasrollah Karimian, Mirza Assadollah Karimian, Mirza Ali Karimian, Mirza Mehdi Karimian (father of musician Kaveh Karimian), Mirza Reza Karimian, Mirza Jalal Karimian, Mirza Hassan (father of Dr. Milad Karimian), Mirza Taghi Karimian, Seyedeh Tajzadeh Astarabad, Seyedeh Aghabazadeh, Hassanzadeh family). Male result: Sayyid Hassan bin Al-Sayyid Mahdi

Works

Among his 134 S.H. Nasr (2006), '' Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy'', State University of New York Press, p. 214: "Some 134 works of Mir Damad have been identified ..." works known: *'' Taqwim al-Iman'' (''Calendars of Faith'') *'' Kitab Qabasat al-Ilahiyah'' (''Book of the Divine Embers of Fiery Kindling'') *'' Kitab al-Jadhawat'' (''Book of Spiritual Attractions'') *''

'' (''The Straight Path'')

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Damad, Mir 16th-century Iranian philosophers Iranian inventors Islamic philosophers 17th-century Iranian philosophers 1630s deaths 17th-century writers of Safavid Iran People from Gorgan Safavid theologians 16th-century writers of Safavid Iran