The Philosophical Discourse of Mir Damad: A Comparative Study of Meta-Temporal Creation and Substantial Motion

Abstract

This study explores the topic of the incipience of the cosmos and the God-world relationship in the writings of the famous seventeenth-century Safavid philosopher Seyyid Muhammad Baqir Mir Damad (d. 1631). It investigates his grand theory of meta-temporal creation (al-huduth al-dahri), presented as a solution to the ongoing debate between Islamic philosophers and theologians on eternity and creation. The thesis situates Mir Damad's theory of meta-temporal creation within the unique broad philosophical school he founded. Mir Damad's theory offers ratiocinative explanation to creation of the world, which continues to resonate strongly with the Twelver Shi'ah discourse. He is considered a recognised jurist, a scholar of many disciplines, and the last of the traditional Peripatetic Islamic philosophers. Polemicising with Mir Damad's theory, his student Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) presented a - divergent and better-known view regarding creation within his unique philosophical system. This research will critique Sadra's position based on the revised and in-depth reading of Mir Damad's original philosophy. The thesis highlights Mir Damad's outstanding place in the history of Shi'ah intellectual studies and renders his theory in an accessible manner to the English language readership. Its overall conclusion is that Mir Damad's insights into the creation of the cosmos constitute a culmination of the philosophical ideas advanced by Aristotle, Avicenna and Suhrawardi, and remain valid when compared to the alternative theories developed after him, especially those of Mulla Sadra.