Mir Damad

Mir Damad was a Persian philosopher and theologian of the Safavid era who helped found the School of Isfahan. He developed the doctrine of perpetual origination, reconciling the world's dependence on God with its lack of a temporal beginning.

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Perpetual origination: The doctrine that the world is originated through its dependence on God while having no first moment in time. This doctrine is Mir Damad's distinctive answer to whether a beginningless world can still be created.
Shaykh Baha'i: A Lebanese-born scholar and polymath who served the Safavid court as a jurist, mathematician, and architect. He belonged to the same Safavid scholarly milieu as Mir Damad in Isfahan.
Islamic philosophy: Philosophical inquiry developed in Islamic societies through engagement with Greek thought, revelation, and theological debate. Mir Damad's arguments joined inherited philosophical methods with Islamic theological commitments.
Transcendent Theosophy: Mulla Sadra's philosophical system, integrating Avicennian metaphysics, illuminationist ideas, and Islamic mysticism. Mulla Sadra developed this system after studying with Mir Damad, while revising key positions.
Temporal eternity: The condition of lasting through an infinite succession of moments without a first or last moment. Mir Damad distinguishes endless temporal duration from the world's dependence on God.
Safavid dynasty: An Iranian dynasty that ruled from 1501 to 1736 and established Twelver Shiism as the state religion. Safavid patronage shaped the institutions and religious setting in which Mir Damad worked.
Avicennism: The philosophical tradition based on the works and arguments of Avicenna. Avicenna's metaphysics supplied central problems and concepts for Mir Damad's work.
Substantial motion: Mulla Sadra's doctrine that change occurs in the very substance of material things, not only in their accidents. This account of becoming contrasts with Mir Damad's emphasis on the world's mode of origination.
Creation ex nihilo: The doctrine that God creates the universe from nothing rather than from preexisting matter. Its usual emphasis on a temporal beginning differs from Mir Damad's account of origination.
School of Isfahan: A Safavid-era intellectual movement centered in Isfahan that brought together philosophy, theology, and Islamic mysticism. Mir Damad helped establish this philosophical movement and became one of its leading figures.