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Azar Kayvan

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Azar Kayvan
آذر کیوان
Bornbetween 1529 and 1533
Fars Province
Diedbetween 1609 and 1618
Patna
Other namesZu'l-`Olum (master of the sciences)
Parent(s)Azar Zerdusht (father)[1]
Shirin (mother)
ReligionZoroastrianism

Āzar Kayvān[a] (b. between c. 1529 and 1533; d. between c. 1609 and 1618) was the Zoroastrian high priest of Estakhr and a gnostic philosopher,[2] who was a native of Fars in Iran and later emigrated to Patna in Mughal India during the reign of the Emperor Akbar. A member of Sepāsīān community (gorūh),[3] he became the founder of a Zoroastrian school of ishraqiyyun or Illuminationists which exhibited features of Sufi muslim influence. This school became known as the kis-e Abadi (Abadi sect).[4]

Biography

Details regarding Azar Kayvan's life are scant and are mainly derived from the hagiographical literature of the Abadi sect. This hagiography places Azar Kayvan, son of Azar Gashasb, and his ancestry back to Sasan V[b] then through Sasan I to the Kayanids, Gayomart, and finally to Mahabad, the figure who appeared at the very beginning of the great cycle of prophecy, according to the Bible of the Prophets of Ancient Iran, and who seems to be none other than the primordial Adam.[3] His mother was named Shirin; her ancestry goes back to Khosrau I Anushiravan, the Philosopher King.[3]

According to the Dabestan-i-Mazahib, as a young boy Azar Kayvan showed signs of his calling to the contemplative life. Through dreams and visions he received the teaching of the ancient sages of Iran, which allowed him to give extraordinary replies to questions which were asked of him at the madrasa where he was a student, and which won him the nickname Zu'l-`Olum (master of the sciences). Internal references in the biography by his devotees allow us to determine that his residence was at Estakhr (about a hundred kilometers north of Shiraz), where he spent the first thirty or forty years of his life in contemplation and where he assembled his first assembly of disciples. Around 1570, drawn by the religious revival which was taking place in India around the Emperor Akbar, he left with them to settle down in the town of Patna in Bihar, where he lived until he died at around eighty-five years of age.[3]

Students and influence

Amongst his students, certain of these hagiographical sources place key Shi'ite Muslim theosophical figures of the Safavid philosophical revival at Isfahan within his circle. Notably among these figures was Shaykh Baha'addin Amili and Mir Fendereski, on whose behest the latter seems to have translated a major Tantric yogic text[which?] from Sanskrit into Persian.

Azar Keyvan had tendency towards the philosophical school of Sohrevardi, another Persian philosopher of 12th century. He was regarded by his followers to be the reviver of hekmat-e eshrāq (Illuminationist Philosophy) within the context of Zoroastrianism.[2]

According to one school of thought, Dastur Meherji Rana, who had influenced Akbar and founded the famous lineage of Parsi high priests at Navsari, was a disciple of Azar Kayvan.[5][better source needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The first name sometimes transcribed Adhar; the surname is sometimes transcribed Kaiwan.
  2. ^ cf. the Dasātīr-nāma.

References

  1. ^ Peterson, Joseph H. (1998). "Dabestan-i-Mazahib or School of Religious Doctrines".
  2. ^ a b Goshtasb, Farzaneh; Kamalizadeh, Tahereh (2022). "AN ACCOUNT AND ANALYSIS OF METEMPSYCHOSIS IN THE VIEWS OF ĀZAR KAYVĀN AS A COMMENTATOR ON ILLUMINATIONIST PHILOSOPHY". Philosophy East and West. 72 (2): 295–314, III.
  3. ^ a b c d Corbin (2011).
  4. ^ Sheffield (2015), p. 539.
  5. ^ Dadrawala, Noshir. "First Dastur Mehereji Rana".

Works cited

  • Corbin, Henry (2011) [1987]. "Āẕar Kayvān". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation. Adapted from Corbin, Henry (1989). "Āẕar Kayvān". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume III: Ātaš–Bayhaqī, Ẓahīr-al-Dīn. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 183–187. ISBN 978-0-71009-121-5.
  • Modi, Jamshid Jivanji Jamshedji (1932). "Dastur Azar Kayvan with his Zoroastrian High Priests in Patna in the 16th and 17th centuries". Journal of the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute. 20: 1–85.
  • Sheffield, Daniel J. (2015). "Primary Source: New Persian". In Stausberg, Michael; Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab‐Dinshaw; Tessmann, Anna (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. pp. 529–542. doi:10.1002/9781118785539. ISBN 9781444331356.
  • Tavakoli-Targhi, Mohamad (1996). "Contested Memories: Narrative Structures and Allegorical Meanings of Iran's Pre-Islamic History". Iranian Studies. 29 (1–2): 1–2, 149–175. doi:10.1080/00210869608701847.
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