Rereading and interpreting the ideas of leading Muslim thinkers
mehdi asgari; Hossein Iranpour
Abstract
Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi is one of the Safavid period’s lesser-known philosophers. He held a prominent position at Shah Abbas II’s administration. Therefore, the king occasionally posed queries in his presence. The focus of this article is an analysis and investigation of Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi’s ...
Read More
Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi is one of the Safavid period’s lesser-known philosophers. He held a prominent position at Shah Abbas II’s administration. Therefore, the king occasionally posed queries in his presence. The focus of this article is an analysis and investigation of Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi’s political philosophy. The descriptive-analytical method is used to answer the question, “What are the conditions of leadership and government from Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi’s perspective, and on what anthropological foundations is it based?” After dividing the soul into higher souls, average souls, and lower souls in response to Safavi’'s King’s query about the levels of the soul, Tabrizi applies these levels to government officials, according to the research findings. In the meantime, he also specifies the rank of prophet and successor, the rank of kingship, and some fictitious principles in order to clarify his political philosophy based on his anthropological viewpoint. It has also been discovered that although Tabrizi was influenced by Plato and Aristotle on the issue of leadership and government, and like Farabi, he discusses the dos, his view on leadership and government and the ranks of officials was unique among the philosophers of the Islamic period and stemmed from the foundations of his unique anthropology.