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Nāṣīr-i Khusraw’s Aristotelian Interpretation of the Resurrection (Qiyāma)
Abstract
The prominent Ismāʿīlī thinker and the proof (ḥujjat) of Khurāsān, Nāṣir-i Khusraw (d. ca. 462/1070), was the only Fāṭimid philosopher who exclusively wrote in Persian. While he is often known in the west for his iconic Book of Travels (safar-nāma) (e.g., Brown, 1905; Thackston, 1986), and his philosophical contributions were sometimes undervalued (e.g., Ivanow, 1948; Pines, 1954; Madelung, 1961), there have been emerging scholarship on his philosophical thought (Corbin, 1982; Hunsberger, 1992; Hunsberger, 2000; Virani, 2005; Lewisohn, 2007; Andani, 2016). In this presentation, I discuss Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s original articulation of the resurrection (qiyāma), which does not seem to have any parallel in the works of his Ismāʿīlī predecessors. While Nāṣir-i Khusraw generally follows the Neoplatonic scheme of Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī (fl. 4th/10th), the esteemed Iranian luminary (al-dāʿī), by accepting the cosmological dyad of the First Intellect (al-ʿaql al-awwal) and Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyya) as the first created beings, his interpretation of the resurrection is significantly Aristotelian. Nāṣir-i Khusraw uses the Aristotelian four causes, namely, the material, formal, final, and efficient causes, to explain the Universal Soul’s journey towards its perfection, which will be fully accomplished in the resurrection. He regards the material cause (ʿillat-i ḥayūlānī) of the world to be the four elements, the efficient cause (ʿllat-i fāʿila) or its demiurge to be the Universal Soul, and the formal cause (ʿillat-i ālatī) to be the heavens and stars, which are the means (dast-afzār) of the Universal Soul. With regards to the fourth cause or what he identifies as the final or completing cause (ʿillat-i tamāmī), Nāṣir-i Khusraw states that it is hidden from people and once it is achieved, the world “returns to that from which it appeared” (Nāsir-i Khusraw, 1959, p. 15). He further explains that while the Intellect originated as a complete being (tamām), the Universal Soul lacks this completion due to which it gives rise to the motion. The Universal Soul then becomes the demiurge (ṣāniʿ) of the world in the hope that once the world reaches its final completion, which occurs once the lord of the resurrection or the Messiah arrives, the Soul will also receive its own completion (tamāmī) and is united with the Intellect (e.g., see Nāsir-i Khusraw, 1959, p. 69-73). My presentation, thus, aims to demonstrate that Nāṣir-i Khusraw marries the Aristotelian notion of the four causes with the Neoplatonic cosmology he inherited from Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī to explain his theory of the resurrection.
Discipline
Philosophy
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
7th-13th Centuries