The Emergence of Shīʿī Mysticism in Early Safavid Iran: A Study of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Dashtakī's Maqāmāt al-ʿarifīn wa manāzil al-sāʾirīn

This paper will consider the emergence of an Islamic mysticism (ʿirfān) with a conspicuous Shīʿī colour in the early Safavid period by examining a little known treatise known as Maqāmāt al-ʿarifīn wa manāzil al-sāʾirīn written by the Shīʿī philosopher-mystic Sayyid Ghiyāth al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 1542), known as the “Third Teacher” (al-muʿallim al-thālith) by his contemporaries, and the “Eleventh Intellect” (al-ʿaql al-ḥādī ʿashar) by his later admirers.

The Maqāmāt al-ʿarifīn of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Dashtakī was written towards the end of his life when the Safavids ruled Persia and established Shiism as the official religion of the realm. Unlike Dashtakī’s earlier works, produced during the periods of anti-Shīʿī hostility under the rule of the Āq-Quyunlu, in the Maqāmāt he does not hesitate to demonstrate his deep commitment to the Shīʿī faith. Primarily intended for Peripatetic philosophers with mystical proclivities, this treatise is in fact a commentary upon Fī maqāmāt al-ʿarifīn (On the Stations of the Mystics), the ninth namaṭ of Avicenna’s al-Ishārāt waʾl-tanbīhāt.

This paper will argue that the treatise heralds Mullā Ṣadrā’s synthesis between revelation (waḥy), reason (ʿaql), and mystical intuition (kashf). Its Shīʿī character is indicative by the author’s attempt to bring harmony between mystical ideas such as spiritual wayfaring and relevant traditions (aḥādīth) reputedly uttered by the Shīʿī Imams. As one would expect, the work is both discursive and didactic, it instructs aspiring mystics on correct method and on ways of avoiding extreme spiritual mannerism, including the “dangers of blind dogma and austere asceticism”, terms used by the author to refer to Sufism and Sunnī kalām.

Additionally, this paper will consider whether the Maqāmāt marks the emergence of Shīʿī mysticism in the early Safavid period as a distinct intellectual tradition. For example, Ghiyāth al-Dīn speaks specifically of al-ʿirfān al-shīʿī, a mystical tradition which is presumably different from Sufism, and which advocates instead spiritual wayfaring inspired by the teachings of the Shīʿī Imams.