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Mulla Sadra

Persian philosopher of the Safavid period, trained in Isfahan under Mir Damad and Shaykh Baha'i, who founded the school known as the Transcendent Philosophy…

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ملا صدرا

Also known as Sadr al-Din Muhammad Shirazi, Sadr al-Muta'allihin

c. 1571 – 1640 · Shiraz, Isfahan, Kahak, Basra

Traditions: Persian

Persian philosopher of the Safavid period, trained in Isfahan under Mir Damad and Shaykh Baha'i, who founded the school known as the Transcendent Philosophy (al-hikma al-muta'aliya). He drew together Peripatetic philosophy, Illuminationism, Sufi metaphysics and kalam into a system built on the primacy of existence.

Key ideas

  • Primacy of existence over essence (asalat al-wujud)
  • Gradation of existence (tashkik al-wujud)
  • Substantial motion: change within the very substance of things
  • The soul as bodily in origin and spiritual in its subsistence

Major works

  • The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect (al-Asfar al-Arba'a)
  • The Divine Witnesses (al-Shawahid al-Rububiyya)
  • The Book of Metaphysical Penetrations (Kitab al-Masha'ir)

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