The Effects of Philosophical Trends on Teaching Philosophy in Schools in the Safavid Era

Not the same level of attention was paid to philosophy in schools in different periods of the Safavid era, and there were some ups and downs in this regard under the influence of the various philosophical and scientific trends dominating the society of that time. This paper examines the process of teaching philosophy in schools in two halves of the Safavid era based on historical sources while employing a descriptive-analytic method. During the first half of this era, because of the dominance of rationalism over schools, philosophy, alongside religious sciences, was the focus of great attention, as it was in the pre-Safavid era. We can observe the peak of its growth in the middle of the Safavid era in the philosophical School of Isfahan. However, in the second half of this era, particularly during its last decades, with the revival of the Akhbari school of thought or the school of the people of hadith, the teaching of the Shi‘ite traditions and hadith became prevalent in schools, and the teaching of philosophy in schools was very limited and suffered huge decline. For example, in some schools such as “Sultani” and “Maryam Beigum” in Isfahan they banned the teaching and learning of philosophy and placed it in the list of subversive sciences.