The Book of Blazing Brands (Kitab al-Qabasat)

Introduction

Mir Damad, the leading philosopher of the “School of Isfahan” at the court of the Safavid shahs and teacher of Mulla Sadra, wrote this work in Arabic, probably in the 1620s. It addresses an old dispute between philosophers and theologians: is the world eternal, as Avicenna argued, or created in time, as the kalam theologians held? Mir Damad distinguishes three levels: eternity (sarmad), the realm of God; “perpetuity” (dahr), the realm of unchanging intellects and essences; and time (zaman), the realm of changing bodies. The world originated “perpetually” (huduth dahri): it is preceded by real non-being, though not by a stretch of time. The doctrine was much discussed, and disputed, in later Safavid philosophy.

Connections

Builds on

• The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa)c. 1027 · Ibn Sina (Avicenna)