Title : A study of simile and purification in Islamic art based on the views of Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra on fantasy

Student : Ahmad Pahlevaniyan

supervisor : Dr. Hasan Moallemi

Advisor : Dr. MohammadMahdi Gorjiyan

Grade : PHD  Years : 201.

Abstract :

Studying the works of Islamic art compared with the art of other religions such as Christian art and Eastern schools such as Hinduism, Judaism, and Taoism leads us to a serious difference: the amount and manner of using image and portraiture. 

The forthcoming research seeks to answer the main factor and determining element in this evident distinction and leads us to the intellectual foundations of different religions and schools. Meanwhile, the central principle is monotheism and belief in God and the type of belief in the essence and characteristics of the Most High.

In the meantime, the mystical view of the Arab world on existence corresponds to the basic and fundamental principle of the religion of Islam, that is, monotheism, which, according to him, all the multiplicities of the world of Nasut is perceived along with the unity and oneness.

Of course, this view of Ibn Arabi on existence is based on his approach to existential unity; This view allows Ibn Arabi and his like-minded philosopher Mulla Sadra, by proposing the subject of imagination as a distinguishing feature of the human sector, and as a window between the two worlds of Nasut and the kingdom, to combine simile and purification, this perspective also allows them to know the two aspects of Jamalieh and Jalalieh of God as corresponding to simile and purification.

From this perspective, the imagination has absolute power in recreating its desired world and purpose.

Although the imagination, like the senses and the intellect, is incapable of conceiving the truth of the essence of the Most High, but with the language of symbolism and symbolism, it makes possible an innovative translation of the world of meaning.

The reflection of such a translation has given special components such as the use of symbolism and non-figurative pictorial components to the works created in the field of Islamic art, which revolve in the form of a harmonious system in a specific orbit around the basic principle of monotheism.

According to the characteristics of imagination from the point of view of these two thinkers introducing it as a field with the possibility of the occurrence of anything, even if impossible, in the world of sense and intellect, imagining and realizing the combination of simile and purification in the process of creating a work of art is possible only in imagination.

Based on the theoretical framework of Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra, this fundamental research is a theoretical attempt in a descriptive-analytical way to shed light on the relation of expressing the views of these two thinkers to the discussion simile and purification and the connection with the concept of imagination. It is also related to the formation of a distinctive feature of Islamic art in its special non-figurative visual expression.

Keywords: simile and purification, Islamic art, fantasy, Ibn Arabi, Mulla Sadra