THE DEVELOPMENT OF METAPHYSICS IN PERSIA (1908) INTRODUCTION

By Mohsin Qasmi

This was a thesis submitted to the University of Munich for his PhD. It was published in London in the same year. The book traces the development of metaphysics in Persia from the time of Zoroaster to Bahaullah. No similar monograph had been written in the English language before or since. Iqbal explains in his introduction that he is attempting to:

1. Trace the logical continuity of Persian thought and interpret it in the language of modern philosophy; and
2. Discuss Sufism in a scientific manner and explain the intellectual conditions encouraging the phenomenon. He argues that Sufism is the necessary product of the play of various intellectual and moral forces and could take the slumbering soul to a higher ideal.