Document Type : Book introduction

Author

Professor, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, JAPAN

Abstract

This is a 392-page, extensive Persian book published in Tehran in November 2021. The biography, achievements, and ideologies of Azar Kayvan (1533–1618), who lived in Safavid Iran and Mughal India in the 16th and 17th centuries are covered, as the title of the book implies. First, I want to commend the author for having the courage to write a book about a mystical philosopher who falls into a rather minor category in the intellectual history of the contemporary Persian world. I hope that this achievement will elevate a minor to a position where people in Iran and India will realize his significance. The author is Farzaneh Goshtasb (1973–), who is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Humanities and Culture in Iran. She is a Zoroastrian lady with only 0.03% of Iran's population. The author’s possible research motivation is the fact that Azar Kayvan was regarded as a Zoroastrian priest-thinker in the history of modern Zoroastrianism in the research stage of the 20th century, which is why the issue is important. Nevertheless, the more the author researched, the more she is forced to come to conclude that Azar Kayvan was not a Zoroastrian.

Keywords

[1]. See Kianoosh Rezania, “Did the Āẕar Kaivānīs Know Zoroastrian Middle Persian Sources?” in Entangled Religions: Safavid and Mughal Empires in Contact: Intellectual and Religious Exchanges between Iran and India in the Early Modern Era, Vol. 13 No. 5, 2022 (View of Did the Āẕar Kaivānīs Know Zoroastrian Middle Persian Sources? (rub.de)).
[1]. See ʿAlī Ašraf Ṣādeghī, “Āyā hama-ye Loġāt-e Dasātīrī barsāḫta-ye peyrovān-e Āzar Kaivān ast?” Journal of Iranian Studies XVI (Osaka University, Japan): 96–100, 2020.
[1]. See Takeshi Aoki, “The Dasātīr and the “Āẕar Kaivān school” in Historical Context: Origin and Later Development,” in Entangled Religions: Safavid and Mughal Empires in Contact: Intellectual and Religious Exchanges between Iran and India in the Early Modern Era, Vol. 13 No. 5, 2022 (View of The Dasātīr and the “Āẕar Kaivān school” in Historical Context: Origin and Later Development (rub.de)).
[1]. See Daniel J. Sheffield, “The Language of Heaven in Safavid Iran: Speech and Cosmology in the Thought of Āẕar Kaivān and His Followers.” In No Tapping Around Philology: A Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler McIntosh Thackston Jr.’s 70th Birthday, edited by Alireza Korangy and Daniel J. Sheffield, 161–83. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014.