Mir Damad
Seyyed Mir Mohammad Baqer Astarabadi (c. 1561 – 1631/1632), commonly known as Mīr Dāmād, was an Iranian Twelver Shia philosopher in the Neoplatonizing Islamic Peripatetic traditions of Avicenna. He was a scholar of the traditional Islamic sciences, and foremost figure (together with his student Mulla Sadra) of the cultural renaissance of Iran undertaken under the Safavid dynasty.
Also recorded as Muhammad Bāqir Mīr Damad · Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Bāqir al-Dāmād
Mir Damad
Mhsheikholeslami · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Birth Name
- Mir Mohammad Baqer Astarabadi
- Born
- 1561
- Died
- 1631/2
- Birthplace
- Astarabad, Safavid Iran
- Place of death
- Najaf, Safavid Iran (present-day Iraq)
- Name
- Mir Damad
- Nationality
- Safavid Iran
- Occupation
- philosopher · inventor · islamic jurist · sage · muhaddith · literary scholar · poet · mutakallim
- Education
- Isfahan Seminary
- Languages
- Persian · Arabic
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Seyyed Mir Mohammad Baqer Astarabadi (c. 1561 – 1631/1632), commonly known as Mīr Dāmād, was an Iranian Twelver Shia philosopher in the Neoplatonizing Islamic Peripatetic traditions of Avicenna. He was a scholar of the traditional Islamic sciences, and foremost figure (together with his student Mulla Sadra) of the cultural renaissance of Iran undertaken under the Safavid dynasty.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Mir Damad. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q3315763 · wikipedia · Mir Damad
In this article
Biography
Biography
He was also the central founder of the School of Isfahan, noted by his students and admirers as the Third Teacher (mu'alim al-thalith) after Aristotle and al-Farabi.
Key facts
Key facts
• Religion — Islam • Birth Name — Mir Mohammad Baqer Astarabadi • Born — 1561 • Died — 1631/2 • Birthplace — Astarabad, Safavid Iran • Jurisprudence — Ja'fari • Sect — Twelver • Denomination — Shia • Influenced — Mulla Sadra, Mohsen Fayz Kashani • Place of death — Najaf, Safavid Iran (present-day Iraq) • Name — Mir Damad • Native Name — ميرداماد • Burial Place — Imam Ali Shrine • Title — Sheykh ol-Eslam of Isfahan
Architecture
Architecture
Mir Damad was also the architect of the Masjed-e Shah (Shah Mosque) in Isfahan which employed calculations requiring the knowledge of the speed of sound. The geometry of the dome is as such that all sound dissipated from the base will echo in hundreds of interior corners of the dome and ultimately collide in the center of the dome. The design and construction of such a dome was sophisticated for the 17th century.
Family
Family
His son was Seyed Ali Naghi Astarabadi and his grandson was Sayyid Mahdi bin Sayyid Ali Naqi. His daughter was the wife of Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Abidin Alavi. He was the progenitor of the Mirdamadi family named after him, former supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, is maternally a descendant of him. The man has not been seen: Seyyed Ali Naqi Ibn Al-Seyyed Al-Musa (father of three sons: Seyyed Kamal Hassanzadeh Hafshjani, Seyyed Musa Hassanzadeh Hafshjani, Seyyed Mohammad Hafshjani and three daughters: Seyyed Ala Ala Begum Hassanzadeh Esther Shamsabadi, who had a special reputation): Mirza Nasrollah Karimian, Mirza Assadollah Karimian, Mirza Ali Karimian, Mirza Mehdi Karimian (father of musician Kaveh Karimian), Mirza Reza Karimian, Mirza Jalal Karimian, Mirza Hassan (father of Dr. Milad Karimian), Mirza Taghi Karimian, Seyedeh Tajzadeh Astarabad, Seyedeh Aghabazadeh, Hassanzadeh family). Male result: Sayyid Hassan bin al-Sayyid Mahdi
Works
Works
Among his 134 works known: • Taqwim al-Iman (Calendars of Faith) • Kitab Qabasat al-Ilahiyah (Book of the Divine Embers of Fiery Kindling) • Kitab al-Jadhawat (Book of Spiritual Attractions) • Sirat al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path)
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
His recorded languages were Persian and Arabic. His recorded confession was Islam. Other recorded relations include Mir-i Buzurg, Ali Sistani and Sayyed Ahmad Alavi.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1561
Mir Damad born at Gorgan.
1631
Mir Damad died.
Philosophy
His major contribution to Islamic philosophy was his novel formulation regarding gradations of time and the emanations of the separate categories of time as descending divine hypostases. He resolved the controversy of the createdness or uncreatedness of the world in time by proposing the notion of huduth-e-dahri (atemporal origination) as an explanation grounded in Avicennan and Suhrawardian categories, whilst transcending them. In brief, excepting God, he argued all things, including the earth and all heavenly bodies, share in both eternal and temporal origination. He influenced the revival of al-Falsafa al-Yamani (Philosophy of Yemen), a philosophy based on revelation and sayings of prophets rather than the rationalism of the Greeks, and he is widely recognized as the founder of the School of Isfahan, which embraced a theosophical outlook known as Hikmat-i Ilahi (Divine Wisdom). Mir Damad’s many treatises on Islamic philosophy include Taqwim al-Iman (Calendars of Faith, a treasure on creation and divine knowledge), the Kitab Qabasat al-Ilahiyah (Book of the Divine Embers of Fiery Kindling), wherein he lays out his concept of atemporal origination, Kitab al-Jadhawat and Sirat al-Mustaqim. He also wrote poetry under the pseudonym of Ishraq (Illumination). He also wrote a couple of books on mathematics, but with secondary importance. Among his many other students besides Mulla Sadra were Seyyed Ahmad ibn Reyn-al-A’bedin Alavi, Mohammad ibn Alireza ibn Agajanii, Qutb-al-Din Mohammad Ashkevari and Mulla Shams Gilani. Mir Damad's philosophical prose is often accounted as being among the most dense and obtusely difficult of styles to understand, deliberately employing as well as coining convoluted philosophical terminology and neologisms that require systematic analysis and detailed commentary. He was called Mir Damad (Groom of the King) because he married Shah Abbas's daughter and hence his fame was based on that event.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Formation and teaching. Damad studied at Isfahan Seminary. Each of those relationships is stated by the authority record rather than inferred from style. Recorded as philosopher, inventor, islamic jurist, sage and muhaddith.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,960 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Miquel-Lluís MuntanéAuthor
- Mir Ali Sir ThattviAuthor
- Mir Ali TabriziAuthor
- Mir Babar Ali AnisAuthor
- Mir Emad HassaniAuthor
- Mir Hamza NigariAuthor
- Mir Jalal PashayevAuthor
- Mīr S. BaṣrīAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Mir Damad?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.