The Rhetoric of Exemplary Governance in ‘Alī Naqī Kamarehī’s Himam al-thawāqib

As religious life in Safavid Iran took its Shi‘i form, the question of exemplary governance became one of the main concerns of Shi‘i scholars -- particularly in the second half of the Safavids reign. Hence, a number of prominent Safavid scholars produced important works in the genre of advice literature. For example, ‘Alī Naqī Ṭughā’i Kamarahī (d. 1650) and Muhammad Bāqir Khurāsānī, more commonly known as Muhaqqiq Sabzavārī (d. 1679) -- both of whom served as the shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan during the reign of Abbās II (d. 1666) -- each wrote such treatises. During the same era, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hassīb b. Sayyid Ahmad ‘Alawī ‘Amilī dedicated his Qawā’id al-salātīn to Shah Sulayman (d. 1694). Kamarehī’s Himam al-thawaqib, Sabzavārī’s Rowzat al-anwār and ‘Amilī’s Qawā‘id al-salātīn -- which were influenced to varying degrees by the earlier examples of advice literature -- help us to define the ideal kingship as it relates to Shi‘i Islam specifically.
My paper examines ‘Alī Naqī Kamarehī’s Himam al-thawāqib, a significant text that he dedicated to Shah Safī (d.1642) and which still remains in manuscript format. Himam al-thawāqib, in particular, presents the important link between the changing appropriations of ancient ideals of governance -- such as monarchial authority as the protector of the right religion -- and justice, with an intense emphasis on Shi‘i dogmas. The text gives us the opportunity to study a leading Shi‘i religious scholar’s attempts to appropriate models from ancient cultures for the purposes of influencing the young Safavid shah to maintain the supremacy of Shi‘ism and the Shi‘a. Furthermore, because of its emphasis on religious and political issues, it permits us to explore the relationship between historical Shi‘i exemplars, i.e. the imams, and practical advice. Lastly, the text reveals how Kamarehī’s discourse breaks away from the Perso-Islamic advice literature and begins to develop a new model of exemplary Shi’i governance.