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Work #1659 · Mature

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi)
c. 17th century (mid-career) · Arabic
Arabic philosophical treatise · Transcendent Theosophy (al-Ḥikma al-Mutaʿāliya) / Twelver Shiʿi Islamic philosophy

Mulla Sadra's 'Kitāb al-Mashāʿir' — concise statement of his metaphysics of wujūd (existence)

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Kitāb al-Mashāʿir (Mature)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Relational
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Emergent
Space · Curvature Curved
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Emergent
Matter · Conservation Non-conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Revelation
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Emergent
Energy · Conservation Non-conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Reversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Mid-17th century. Mulla Sadra was active 1571-1640; the Kitāb al-Mashāʿir likely dates from his mid-career.

Space

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Shiraz (Sadra's home city, where he returned after Isfahan and Qom periods) / Qom (where Sadra taught for years).

Matter

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Concise Arabic philosophical treatise (~80 pages in standard editions). Form is sustained systematic philosophical argument with internal sections.

Observer

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Mature Mulla Sadra. The observer-philosopher is at the height of his constructive philosophical work, articulating the Transcendent Theosophy that synthesises Avicennan philosophy, Suhrawardian Illuminationism, Ibn ʿArabian mysticism, and Shīʿī theological resources.

Energy

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Mature Sadrian-philosophical energies. The Mashāʿir is the most concentrated short statement of the Sadrian philosophical position.

Information

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Single compact treatise. The three central doctrines (primacy of existence / gradational unity of existence / substantial motion) are set out in their definitive Sadrian form.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Kitāb al-Mashāʿir

Mulla Sadra's most accessible compact statement of his metaphysics. Continuously studied in the Iranian-Islamic philosophical tradition (especially within the contemporary Iranian philosophical schools) and increasingly in Anglophone Islamic-philosophical scholarship since Henry Corbin's mid-twentieth-century recovery of Sadrian thought.