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The Structure and Nature of Political Philosophy in the Thought of Muslim Philosophers of the Islamic Period of Iran Aref Barkhordari*

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The Structure and Nature of Political Philosophy in the Thought of Muslim Philosophers of the Islamic Period of Iran Aref Barkhordari* A. Barkhordari (2020) Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 7, Issue-4: 256-265 DOI: 10.3126/ijssm.v7i4.32485 Research Article The Structure and Nature of Political Philosophy in the Thought of Muslim Philosophers of the Islamic Period of Iran Aref Barkhordari* Assistant Professor Department of Political Thought. University of Tehran, Iran Article Information Abstract Received: 15 September 2020 The present paper with a focus on the analytic-historical method and the study of Revised version received: 16 October 2020 the works of Iran’s Muslim philosophers in the Islamic periods is an explanation of Accepted: 19 October 2020 the structure and nature of the political philosophy of Muslim philosophers in the Published: 29 October 2020 Iran Islamic period. Political philosophy in the Islamic period of Iran is divided into two middle and new periods. The middle period starts from the arrival of Islam in Cite this article as: Iran, and continues until the arrival of modern thought to Iran, i.e. the Constitutional A. Barkhordari (2020) Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. 7(4): Revolution. In this period, political philosophy has a tendency toward unity with 256-265. DOI: 10.3126/ijssm.v7i4.32485 religion and the rules of production of thought and political philosophy have been based on the domination of religious texts and the function of reason is simply *Corresponding author summarized in the unambiguous explanation of the opinions of the ancients. The Aref Barkhordari, works of philosophers in this period are limited to the writings of the past, and Assistant Professor, Department of Political Thought. gradually the tradition of margin writing becomes common. Typically, in this University of Tehran, Iran period, political philosophy becomes the guidance writing, diplomacy writing, Email: [email protected] tradition writing and at the same time adopts an authoritative commentary. In the new period of political philosophy, following the first period, it seeks to revive Peer reviewed under authority of IJSSM traditional concepts, and intellect and thought are seeking to be interpreted, with © 2020 IJSSM, Permits unrestricted use under the the difference that authoritarianism disappears. In other words, in the second CC-By-NC license. period, in both fields of political philosophy and authoritarianism, we face a kind of void. This is an open access article & it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Keywords: Political Philosophy; Sharia Writing; Policy Writing; Authoritarianism Introduction A glance at various approaches of Iranian Muslim explanation of some of the political structures engaged the philosophers to political issues from Abu Nasr Farabi to minds and language of the Iranian philosophers in a course Allameh Mohammad Hussein Naeini explains how political of nearly 800 years. Regardless of the events surrounding philosophy in the era of Ibn Sina leads to the development them, they are rehearsing and repeating the ideas of the past, of theological issues and the unity of philosophy with and how the impoverished thought and authoritarianism in mysticism in the position of coordination with religion and it forms the main pillars of their way of thinking and mysticism, and in the following periods, it approached to political philosophy, even the Constitutional Revolution in precept writing, Sharia Writing and Policy Writing, and it Iran could not prevail the intellectual recession and take the also clarifies that the playing with words and the political thought out of traditional paradigm. Full text of this paper can be downloaded online at www.ijssm.org/ & http://nepjol.info/index.php/IJSSM/issue/archive 256 A. Barkhordari (2020) Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 7, Issue-4: 256-265 Although the Constitutional Revolution could beings have come to existence from the first being and institutionalize its advantage by a delay of twenty years, through that system, the existence of City also depends on Iranian thought never succeeded in attracting the the existence of the first head and it’s system is owed to him intellectual and cultural ideas of modernity, and the voice and the city has the order of the universe. Thus, in this case, of limited scholars who spoke of modernity did not echo. At the city is in such a way that its components are connected the beginning of Iranian acquaintance with modern with each other and are in a hierarchical order, and the thoughts, the works that were presented by the first modern moderator of such a city is similar to the first one that the thinkers of Iran were unaccepted and in fact the Iranian existence of other beings is related to Him (Farabi, world attached social and economic structures, and the 1995:117). Farabi, considering the combination of theology process of modernization to traditional ideas before and politics, takes another important step, he first considers modernity, without any second thought. Even with the a kind of pyramidal hierarchy in natural beings, and then arrival of the intellectuals and the first modern thinkers of extends this order of hierarchy in the world of divinity and Iran, no changes have taken place in the system of thought nature to the world of man and politics. Farabi points out of these people and no evolution appeared, and there are that the creatures of the universe are many and, in spite of signs advices for the return of the Iranian-Eastern identity that, they are varied, that is why some are superior to some against modernity and the liberation of soul from the or lower than others. (Farabi, 1993:84). Farabi then achievements of modernity. Thus, with the reflection on the emphasizes the similarity and unity of the structure of the thought of the second-era thinkers, we see that, in line with universe and the human soul on one hand and the hierarchy the first period of political philosophy in the second period, of the components of Medina on the other, and he considers in addition to having a kind of neo-liberal approach, the these three times the existence having a single ordinance. authoritarianism of the first period was also eliminated in Farabi compares and unites the position of God, the heart this period, and we are left with a kind of vacuum in the and the ruler of city and writes: field of political philosophy as well as in the field of As in human beings, the heart first becomes created, and authoritarianism. Therefore, in the second period, the closed then it causes the development of other organs of the body, story, which was in conflict with the traditional political the position of the head of the city is also that he must first thought of Iran, has reoccupied Iranian thought in this establish himself, and then he also causes the formation and period and according to Dariush Shayegan, has transformed education of city and its components, acquiring the it into the subject matter (Haghdar, 2003b:16). voluntary property of its components and its persons and Political philosophy in the thought of Muslim order of their degree, and now the beings of the world are philosophers in Iran Islamic period also the same, because the relation of the first to other creatures is such as the relation of king of the city, to other Political philosophy in Iran the Islamic period is divided persons and its components. (Farabi, 1995:87). The most into two periods: one, middle era and another, a new era. important result Farabi derives from these preliminaries in 1- Middle Era the field of philosophy is the division of Medina members into unequal components and the imposition of an The political philosophy in Islam and Iran (Iran Islamic era) authoritarian, hierarchical and componential order on the was established by Farabi. He, who was familiar with both individuals of the city, which durability and consistency of Greek philosophy and Islamic principles, wrote the first each of them is due to the head of the city. In this order of texts of political philosophy in Iranian-Islamic civilization authority, each component of city has a superior head, to explain the political issues of his time. With the which nothing is superior to him. There are also people discussion of power, Farabi turned its agent from the king- ruled that they do not rule over any other human being. Platonic philosopher to the Islamic Imam and, based on the Among these two, the absolute leader and the nobleman, rational knowledge of the Greeks, founded a kind of there are other human beings who, although they are the metaphysical political philosophy in the breakdown of the heads of some, and they are under the control of some others earlier era. In the philosophical approach of al-Farabi, the (Ibid: 116-118). Farabi, therefore, prefers the head of city dignity of the leader or, in other words, the Imam in society, for the city and its people, and considering the difference is like the heart in the existence of human and like the between the power and nature of human relations, he relation of the first (God) to the universe, the existence of considers the relationship between them to be an inalienable the society has existential precedence (And his existence and authoritative relationship among maladaptive and has an existential precedent on the existence of society) complete human beings. (Feirahi, ed. www.feirahi.ir). (Haghdar, 2003:63). Farabi linked theology and politics in the unitary philosophical system, and generalized the results Farabi explains that most people require education and of the two. Farabi writes that the relation of the first to other guidance, and thus somehow, they need another creatures, is like the relation of the king to the other department, because humans are divided into several groups components (Tabatabaei, 1996a: 122), as in the creation, all according to their ability to acquire knowledge and the Full text of this paper can be downloaded online at www.ijssm.org/ & http://nepjol.info/index.php/IJSSM/issue/archive 257 A.
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