A1 Journal article (refereed)
The Origins of Human Society and Justice in Early Modern Islamic Political Thought (2020)

Syros, V. (2020). The Origins of Human Society and Justice in Early Modern Islamic Political Thought. Istoriya, 11(11). https://doi.org/10.18254/S207987840012893-1

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Syros, Vasileios

Journal or series: Istoriya

eISSN: 2079-8784

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 11

Issue number: 11

Publisher: Ltd “Integration: Education and Science”

Publication country: Russian Federation

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18254/S207987840012893-1

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Abstract

This article offers a detailed examination of theories about the emergence of social life and the establishment of political authority and justice as developed in the central and eastern Islamic lands. Nasīr al-Dīn Tūsī (13th century), one of the major representatives of akhlāq literature, produced a powerful synthesis of earlier Islamic and ancient Greek theories to describe human society as growing out of man's need to obtain life necessities and likened the ruler to a physician. Tūsī's Nasirean Ethics exerted an important influence on Jalāl al-Dīn Dawwānī (15th century), a leading religious scholar, whose Jalalian Ethics contributed to the dissemination of Tūsī's political and ethical thought. Akhlāq ideas on the origins of human society were one of the sources of the Ottoman political tradition, as evidenced by Tursun Beğ's (15th century) History of Mehmed the Conqueror and KınalızâdeAlî Çelebi's (16th century) Sublime EthicsEthics of Ali. Indo-Islamic political discourse on social origins is characterized by an abiding concern with the means of eliminating discord and achieving maintaining social balance. These sentiments are forcefully expressed in Abū'l-Fażl's (16th century) Institutes of Akbar, in which the ruler-as-the-shadow-of-God motif is employed to depict Akbar as the recipient of divine light transmitted through the sequence of biblical prophets and great rulers in human history.

Keywords: Islamic culture; Middle Ages; Early modern age; political philosophy; social philosophy; social theories; authority; justice; Ottomans

Free keywords: Akhlāq literature; Delhi Sultanate; Medieval and early modern Islamic political thought; Mughal Empire; Ottoman Empire

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 1