A Theoretical Component of Political Inegalitarianism in Perso-Islamicate Thought

Abstract

The disparity of human intellects dictum imposes an a priori limit of thinking and imagining that partially precludes the emergence of democratic thought in the Iranian commonsense. This paper presents three exemplary accounts of the disparity dictum in Perso-Islamicate philosophical and mystical traditions – by Ghazzali, Sadra and Molavi. The goal is to see how, despite varying verbalism, these thinkers share the view that human beings are not ultimately unified – and, accordingly, that humans cannot have equal rights to political power.