Document Type : Research Paper
Author
, Assistant Professor Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, Allamah Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The study of Khusrawani wisdom, also known as the wisdom of ancient Iran, encompasses all cultural conceptions. It serves as a means to gain a more accurate understanding of Islamic-Iranian culture, tracing back to the second century of the Hijra. This culture predominantly consists of mystical mythology and philosophy. Iranian wisdom summarizes the various schools of thought, religions, and worldviews of the Iranian peoples. These traditions evolved in Iran for centuries both before and after the advent of Islam. Sheikh Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi referred to this wisdom as "Eshraq/Khusrawani wisdom." Iranian philosophers and sages emerged within Iran's rich intellectual and cultural milieu, drawing from the vast seas of wisdom and philosophy from both the East and the West. Among these sages was Nasser Khosrow Qubadiani, an Ismaili Da'i and Hujjat in the 5th century AH. While previous analyses of his works have been approached from a Western perspective, focusing on the influence of Greek philosophy, this research delves into fundamental questions. It explores Nasser Khosrow's relationship with the ancient world of Iran and whether he drew from the legacy of Iranian philosophy/Khusrawani wisdom, and to what extent. Nasser Khosrow's impact on Iranian culture and literature, spanning both ancient and Islamic eras, can be divided into two main aspects. In the first part, Nasser Khosrow was influenced by the heritage of ancient Iranian culture. This influence is evident in his references to figures like Zoroaster, Avesta, Zand, and Pazand, as well as mentioning great kings such as Anusharvan and Sam in his Diwan. The second part reveals Nasser Khosrow's assimilation of the culture of the Abbasid era, including its writers and poets. This article investigates the role and significance of Iranian/Khusrawani wisdom in Nasser Khosrow's intellectual framework. By highlighting the importance of reason and authority in his intellectual structure, it compares, interprets, and analyzes the key aspects of Khusrawani wisdom and Nasser Khosrow's wisdom concerning reason and authority.
Keywords
Main Subjects
Aminrazavi, M. (2008). Ḥamīd al-Dīn Kirmānī. In S. H. Nasr & M. Aminrazavi (Eds.), An anthology of philosophy in Persia: Vol. 2. Ismaili thought in the classical age (pp. 179–208). London: I. B. Tauris.
Corbin, H. (1975). Nasir-Khusraw and Iranian Ismailism. In R. N. Frye (Ed.), The Cambridge history of Iran: Vol. 4 (pp. 520–542). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fakhry, M. (2004). A history of Islamic philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ivanow, W. (1917). Ismailitskiia rukopisi Aziatskogo Museia. Izvestiia Rossiĭskoĭ Akademii Nauk, ser. 6, no. 11, 359–386.
Ivanow, W. (2015). Fifty years in the East: The memoirs of Wladimir Ivanow (F. Daftary, Ed.). London: I. B. Tauris
Schaeder, H. H. (1927). Original form and further developments of the Manichaean system. In Lectures from the Warburg Library 1924–1925 (pp. 65–157). Leipzig.
Semenov, A. A. (1912). Iz oblasti religioznykh vierovaniĭ shugnanskikh ismailitov. Mir Islama, no. 4, 523–561.
Semenov, A. A. (1918). Opisanie ismailitskikh rukopiseĭ, sobrannykh A. A. Semenovym. Izvestiia Rossiĭskoĭ Akademii Nauk, ser. 6, no. 12, 2171–2202.
Semenov, A. A. (1923). Nasyri Khosrov o mire dukhovnom i material'nom. In al-Iskandariyya: Sbornik Turkestanskogo Vostochnogo Instituta v chest' professora A. Ė. Shmidta (pp. 97–130). Tashkent.
Tajer, L. H., & Zekrgoo, A. H. (2019). Wisdom (ḥikmah) as perceived by Iranian Muslim scholars: Reflections on Ibn Sina, Ghazali, and Suhrawardi. Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Multidisciplinary Studies, 6(1), 1–10.
Zarubin, I. I. (1918). Materialy i zametki po ėtnografii gornykh Tadzhikov: Dolina Bartanga. Sbornik Muzeia Antropologii i Ėtnografii imeni Petra Velikago, no. 5, 97–148.
)