Historical Ecology of the Intellectual Movements of the Companions of the Imams with Emphasis on the Concepts of Imamate and Reason (from 716 to 874)
Other Research
Historical Ecology of the Intellectual Movements of the Companions of the Imams with Emphasis on the Concepts of Imamate and Reason (from 716 to 874)
The present study seeks to investigate those main cities where special thought streams about two topics of Imamate and reason were prevalent during time of Shia Imams from Imam Bagher to Imam Hasan Asgari (713 to 873 A.D). Six main cities were identified, Medina, Kufa, Qom, Rey and cities of Khorasan and Mesopotamia, i.e. Nishabur and Baghdad. Main ways of knowing Imamate notions and thoughts were investigated in every city. Imams’ followers usually used Kalam science, which is the main base of rationality, and also Hadiths and narrated and quoted texts from Imams to illuminate Imamate notions.
The study cleared that such cities as Kufa, Baghdad and cities of Khorasan and Mesopotamia like Nishabur, Merv, Beyhaq, Kash and Samarghand, dominantly, followed a rational and Kalam-based method and those of Qom and Rey mostly were Hadith-oriented. Medina mainly followed a middle way.it was discovered that Reason notion had a different definition compared with that of modern one. That is, it mainly meant the inward, spiritual apprehension of Imamate. It was also cleared that most of thought streams in different cities were influenced by Kufa School, in that, almost all of them, for or against Kufa School. So it can be said that Kufa was the main ax and main point of thought streams and schools of Imams’ followers.
As a whole, four main thought streams were identified about Imamate:
- Thought stream of majority personage of which were Aban ibn Taghlib, Abdullah ibn Abi Yafur, and especially Hisham ibn Salim and Mo’men al Taq.
- Hisham bin Hakam thought school, mostly introduced by his prominent apprentice Abd al Rahman bin Yunes.
- Jabir and Mufadhal Jo’fi thought stream, mainly focusing on gnostic aspects of Imams’ lives.
- Ghulat thought stream, the main personage of which was Abu al Khatab Meqlas Asadi.
All above thought streams were, more or less, present in above mentioned cities.
Shideh / M. Sadeghani, M. Chelongar, M.Pir-moradian
