Mír Muḥammad Báqir of Astarábád, with the pen-name of Ishráq, commonly known as Dámád (“son-in-law”), a title Mír Dámád d. 1041/1631-2. properly belonging to his father Sayyid Muḥam-mad, whose wife was the daughter of the cele­brated theologian Shaykh 'Alí ibn 'Abdu'l-'Álí, pursued his earlier studies at Mashhad, but spent the greater part of his life at Iṣfahán, where, as we have seen, he stood in high favour with Sháh 'Abbás the Great, and where he was still living when the author of the Ta'ríkh-i-'Álam-árá-yi-'Abbásí wrote in 1025/1616. He died in 1041/1631-2. Most of his writings were in Arabic, but he wrote poetry in Persian under the takhalluṣ of Ishráq. He seems to have Observes the habits of bees. had a taste for Natural History as well as Philosophy, for, according to the Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ula-má , he made an observation hive of glass in

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Autograph of Shaykh Bahá'u'd-Dín-i-,Ámilí
Or. 4936 (Brit. Mus.), 15
To face p. 428

order to study the habits of bees. It is stated in the same work that after his death his pupil and son-in-law Mullá Ṣadrá saw him in a dream and said, “My views do not differ from yours, yet I am denounced as an infidel and you are not. Why is this?” “Because,” replied Mír Dámád's spirit,

Mír Dámád more cautious than Mullá Ṣadrá. “I have written on Philosophy in such wise that the theologians are unable to understand my meaning, but only the philosophers; while you write about philosophical questions in such a manner that every dominie and hedge-priest who sees your books understands what you mean and dubs you an un­believer.”

Ṣadru'd-Dín Muḥammad ibn Ibráhím of Shíráz, commonly known as Mullá Ṣadrá, was the only son of an aged and Mullá Ṣadrá, d. 1050/1640-1. otherwise childless father. On his father's death he left Shíráz and went to Iṣfahán, where, as we have seen, he studied with Shaykh-i-Bahá'í and Mír Dámád, from both of whom he held ijázas. or authorizations to expound their works. He subsequently retired to a village near Qum, where he lived a secluded and austere life, engaged in profound meditations on Phi­losophy. He is said to have made the Pilgrimage to Mecca on foot seven times, and to have died at Baṣra on his return from his seventh journey in 1050/1640-1, leaving a son named Ibráhím who did not follow his father's doctrine but denounced and controverted it, boasting that “his belief was that of the common people.” To these meagre par­ticulars of Mullá Ṣadrá's life, derived from the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát (pp. 331-2) and the Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá, I can only add that it is clear from some expressions in the Preface to his Asfár that he suffered a good deal at the hands of the His influence on Shaykhí and Bábí theology. orthodox divines, and that Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsá'í, the founder of the Shaykhí school, wrote commentaries on two of his works, the Ḥik- matu'l-'Arshiyya and the Mashá'ir. Shaykh Muḥammad Iqbál is therefore probably right when he says * that “the Philosophy of Ṣadrá is the source of the metaphysics of early Bábíism,” and that * “the origin of the philosophy of this wonderful sect must be sought in the Shí'a sect of the Shaykhís, the founder of which, Shaykh Aḥmad, was an enthusiastic student of Mullá Ṣadrá's philosophy, on which he had written several commentaries.”

The two most celebrated of Mullá Ṣadrá's works, all of which, so far as I know, are in Arabic, are the Asfár-i-

His chief works. Arba'a, or “Four Books,” * and the Shawáhidu'r-Rubúbiyya , or “Evidences of Divinity.” Both have been lithographed at Ṭihrán, the first in two folio volumes in 1282/1865, the second, accompanied by the commentary of Ḥájji Mullá Hádí of Sabzawár, without indication of date or place of publication. Amongst his other works which I have not seen the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát (p. 331) enumerates a Commentary on the Uṣúlu'l-Káfí, the Kitábu'l-Hidáya, notes on the metaphysical portion of Avicenna's Shifá, a Commentary on the Ḥikmatu'l-Ishráq (presumably that of the celebrated and unfortunate Shaykh Shihábu'd-Dín-Suhrawardí, known, on account of his exe­cution for heresy, as al-Maqtúl), the Kitábu'l-Wáridáti'l-Qalbiyya , the Kasru Aṣnámi'l-Jáhiliyya, or “Breaking of the Idols of Ignorance,” several commentaries on various portions of the Qur'án, etc.

Of Mullá Ṣadrá's philosophical doctrines, in spite of their high reputation in Persia, I know of only two brief and Gobineau's account of Mullá Ṣadrá. necessarily superficial accounts in any European language. The Comte de Gobineau devotes several pages * to them, but his information was probably entirely derived orally from his Persian teachers, who were very likely but ill-informed on this matter, since he concludes his notice with the words “la vraie doctrine de Moulla-Sadra, c'est-à-dire d'Avicenne,” while the Raw-ḍátu'l-Jannát * explicitly states that he was an Ishráqí (“Illuminatus” or Platonist) and strongly condemned the Aristoteleans or Peripatetics (Mashshá'ún), of whom Avi-cenna was the great representative.

The other shorter but more serious account of Mullá Ṣadrá's doctrine is given by Shaykh Muḥammad Iqbál,

Shaykh Mu­ḥammad Iqbál's account. formerly a pupil of Dr McTaggart in this Uni­versity of Cambridge, and now himself a notable and original thinker in India, in his excellent little book entitled Development of Metaphysics in Persia: a contribution to the History of Muslim Philosophy, * p. 175, but he devotes much more space (pp. 175-95) to the modern Ḥájji Mullá Hádí of Sabzawár, whom he regards as Mullá Ṣadrá's spiritual successor, and who, unlike his master, condescended, as we shall presently see, to expound his ideas in Persian instead of in Arabic. It may be added that Mullá Ṣadrá speaks with great respect of that eminent Influence of Shaykh Muḥyi'd­Dín ibnu'l­'Arabí. Maghribí Shaykh Muḥyi'd-Dín ibnu'l-'Arabí, whose influence, non-Persian though he was, was probably greater than that of any other thinker on the development of the extremer forms of Persian philosophical-mystical speculation.

Muḥammad ibn Murtaḍà of Káshán, commonly called Muḥsin with the poetical pen-name of Fayḍ, was a native Mullá Muḥsin-i­Fayḍ, d. about 1091/1680. of Káshán, and, as already said, the favourite pupil and son-in-law of Mullá Ṣadrá. In the Rawḍátu'l-Jannát (pp. 542-9) and the Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá much fuller notices of him are given than of his master, and, since he was not only a theologian and a philo­sopher but likewise a poet of some note, he is also mentioned in the Riyáḍu'l-'Árifín (pp. 225-6) and the Majma'u'l-

His prodigious literary activity. Fuṣaḥá (ii, 25-6). His literary activity was enormous: according to the Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá he wrote nearly two hundred books and treatises, and was surpassed in productivity by hardly any of his contemporaries or predecessors except Mullá Muḥammad Báqir-i-Majlisí. Sixty-nine of these works, of which the last, entitled Sharḥu's-Ṣadr, * is autobiographical, are enu­merated in the Qiṣaṣ, but fuller details of them are given in the Rawḍát (pp. 545-6), where the dates of composition (which range between 1029/1620 and 1090/1680) are in most cases recorded. His age at this latter date, which is also notified as the year of his death, is stated as eighty-four , * so that he must have been born about 1006/1597-8. Of one of his works, the Mafátíḥu'sh-Sharáyi', I possess