By the end of the 16th and the middle of the 17th centuries...

By the end of the 16th and the middle of the 17th centuries, the Sunni character of the greater Khorasan, the heartland of Persia, was already erased, and such Sufi orders as the Naqshbandiyyah, Khalwatiyyah, Nurbakhshiyyah, Ni’matullahiyyah, and the Qalandariyyah/Malamatiyyah were either completely subdued or driven out of the Safavid Empire.[^7] One of the direct consequences of this policy was the migration of a number of notable Sufi masters to India and other places, and the drastic decline of Persian Sufi poetry in the heartland of Iran.[^8] This process was further invigorated by the revival of Akhbarism by Mulla Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (d.

1627). The akhbari traditionalism, grounded in a strong pietistic anti-intellectualism, was particularly opposed to mystical and philosophical interpretations of the Qur’an and the sayings of the Imams. The followers of this school relied solely on the literal authority of the sayings of the Imams, bolstering the socio-religious status of rulers and scholars who claimed family descent from the Shi’ite Imams.

The proponents of the akhbari movement, who had gained the unmistakable favor of the Safavid court until the reign of Shah Safi (1629-1642) and Shah Abbas II (1642-1666), came to be called the ‘people of the exterior’ ( ahl-i zahir ) and the ‘scholars of the skin or surface’ ( ‘ulama-yi qishr ) by their opponents.

The mounting tension between the two groups is vividly recorded in contemporary chronicles as well as in Sadra’s fierce and relentless attacks against the exoterist*‘ulama’* as we see especially in his Sih asl . The menacing power of the exoterist Shi’ite*‘ulama’* , however, do not appear to have deterred Mulla Sadra and his mentor Mir Damad from pursuing a serious career in either speculative metaphysics or theoretical mysticism.

It was against this background that Sadra gave himself completely to the thorough study of intellectual sciences in Isfahan. He studied with the most celebrated teachers of the time, among them especially Sayyid Baqir Muhammad Astarabadi, known as Mir Damad (d. 1040/1631) and Baha’ al-Din Muhammad al-Amili known more popularly as Shaykh-i Baha’i (d. 1031/1622). Some sources add Mir Abu'l-Qasim Findiriski (d.

circa 1050/1640-1) to the list of the masters with whom Sadra studied in Isfahan even though no direct historical connection between the two has been established in a satisfactory manner.