The History of Interdisciplinary Approaches in Islamic Studies
and the Establishment of the Shiraz Majd Institute
In the history of Islamic civilization, the first systematic discipline of religious studies to emerge among the intellectual elite of the nascent Muslim community—developed to address jurisprudential questions based on the Qur’an and Prophetic tradition—was Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). However, the rapid expansion of Islam into the territories of Rome, Persia, and the Indian subcontinent within the first century of Hijra not only introduced Muslims to the philosophical achievements of these ancient civilizations but also encountered scholars from these regions with more complex philosophical inquiries. This led to the emergence and growth of kalam (Islamic theology), a new discipline that functioned as philosophy with religious presuppositions, alongside foundational Islamic studies such as Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir) and Hadith.
The rise of the Umayyad and Abbasid empires, which extended Islamic rule into the heart of Europe and the Indian subcontinent, prompted some Muslims—seeking to revive the spirituality of Islam’s early decades—to establish Islamic mysticism (tasawwuf). Thus, another discipline was added to Islamic studies. Simultaneously, due to the intellectual openness of Muslim scholars to other cultures and their access to the perennial wisdom of ancient Greek, Roman, Persian, and Indian civilizations, the field of ethics (akhlaq) was established in the Islamic world. This discipline drew from all preceding Islamic disciplines, including jurisprudence, Hadith, exegesis, theology, philosophy, and mysticism.
Today, some 21st-century researchers of religious studies are marveled at how early Muslim scholars, confident in their religious perspective, facilitated the assimilation of vast portions of Greek, Persian (khosravani), and Indian wisdom. This approach ensured that newly converted Muslims from Persian, Roman, and Indian backgrounds did not feel alienated from Islamic thought, leading to a remarkable exchange of cultural and scientific knowledge between the Islamic world and regions beyond, from the Far East to Europe. Such intellectual fluidity and cultural openness appear extraordinary in the 21st century, an era marked by religious fundamentalism across cultures, making it seem almost anachronistic.
During the first four centuries of Islamic civilization’s expansion—while Europe struggled through the dogmatism and stagnation of the thousand-year Medieval Era—the Islamic world, particularly Iran, spearheaded advancements in the humanities, social sciences, and empirical sciences. Today, it is widely acknowledged that the intellectual roots of the European Renaissance must be traced back to the Islamic world. European societies even had to translate the works of Aristotle and Plato from Arabic into Latin to recover their own Greek heritage.
These developments were also reflected in the curricula of Islamic seminaries (madrasas), which, from North Africa to Iran, promoted interdisciplinary studies. It is for this reason that the world’s first universities, in the modern sense of the term, emerged in cities such as Fez (Morocco), Kairouan (Tunisia), Al-Azhar (Egypt), and the Nizamiyya of Baghdad. This interdisciplinary culture in the Islamic world nurtured polymaths like Al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, whose works remain scientifically and intellectually robust even into the late modern and contemporary periods.
The question of what factors led to the narrowing of interdisciplinary perspectives in Islamic seminaries likely invites multiple answers. However, it can be stated with certainty that contemporary fundamentalist ideologies in both the East and West rely on educational systems deprived of interdisciplinary engagement with human knowledge.
The Rise and Decline of Ethical Studies
Like other disciplines of Islamic thought, the study of ethics (akhlaq) has experienced notable fluctuations. Classified as a branch of philosophy in classical categorizations—often framed as theoretical and practical wisdom (hikma nazari and hikma amali)—Islamic ethics largely resulted from the intellectual openness of early Muslim scholars to the wisdom of other civilizations. The Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa is considered one of the first ethicists in the Islamic world. His compilation of Indian wisdom in Kalila wa Dimna demonstrated that wisdom transcends local cultures, reflecting a shared human rationality across civilizations.
During the golden age of Islamic scholarship, while Avicenna was commenting on Greek philosophy and systematizing Islamic Peripatetic philosophy, Abu Ali Miskawayh was compiling a work that harmonized Aristotelian ethics with Islamic religious values, showing that apart from tawhid (monotheism) and Islamic eschatology, there was no fundamental contradiction between Islamic and Greek virtue ethics. Around the same time, the Persian poet Ferdowsi, in his Shahnameh, illustrated the harmony between Persian khosravani wisdom and Islamic ethics. Similarly, Al-Raghib al-Isfahani and Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, drawing from Qur’anic and Hadith sources as well as literature, reached comparable conclusions. Aristotle argued that in a society based on friendship, justice is unnecessary; Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, however, posited that justice is the successor (khalifa) of love.
Subsequent generations of Islamic ethicists focused more on Qur’anic, Hadith, and Prophetic sources but remained, to varying degrees, faithful to the idea that ethical wisdom constitutes a universal human heritage. Even figures like Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, who opposed interdisciplinary approaches while composing one of Islam’s most important ethical works (Ihya Ulum al-Din), drew inspiration from Miskawayh’s Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, which integrated Greek and Islamic wisdom. Ghazali’s Kimiya-yi Sa’adat became the Persian adaptation of Miskawayh’s work.
Although the universalist perspective on ethics was dominant, various schools gradually emerged, focusing on Qur’anic, Hadith-based, mystical, philosophical, or synthetic approaches. Examples include:
- Reported Ethics: Works by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Al-Kulayni, Ibn Maja and Majlisi.
- Philosophical Ethics: Works by Al-Razi, Al-Farabi, Miskawayh, and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.
- Mystical Ethics: Works by Al-Sarraj al-Tusi, Al-Makki, Al-Sulami, and Ibn Sina.
- Synthetic/Religious Ethics: Works by Al-Harith al-Muhasibi, Al-Mawardi, Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, and Al-Ghazali.
Additionally, secular ethical works, such as Qabusnama and Nasihat al-Muluk, focused on life skills and governance without strict adherence to religious or philosophical doctrines.
Despite this rich tradition, ethical studies gradually faded from seminary curricula. Not only did interdisciplinary approaches weaken, but even within Islamic studies, disciplines like ethics and Qur’anic exegesis were marginalized. The relationship between this curricular shift and the rise of fundamentalism in the Islamic world remains a critical question for further research.
The Shiraz School
The region of Fars, particularly its capital Shiraz, holds a distinguished place in global civilization. Its moderate climate and strategic location in the Middle East made it a hub of free thought and a crossroads of civilizations. Examples of this legacy include:
- Cyrus the Great (d. 530 BCE), a paragon of political ethics in antiquity, whose respect for religious freedom is enshrined in the Cyrus Cylinder.
- Early Islamic Mysticism: The first theoretical work on divine love in Sufism, ‘Atf al-Alif al-Ma’luf ‘ala al-Lam al-Ma’tuf, was written by Ali ibn Muhammad al-Daylami (d. 1001 CE), a student of Abu Abdullah ibn Khafif Shirazi (d. 982 CE).
- Philosophy of Friendship: The only classical Islamic treatise on the philosophy of friendship was authored by Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. 1023 CE).
- Mulla Sadra Shirazi (d. 1635 CE), the last great philosopher of classical Islamic thought, developed Transcendent Theosophy (Hikmat al-Muta’aliyah), which sought to unify various branches of religious knowledge. He can be considered a pioneer of interdisciplinary approaches in religious studies.
Fars is also the birthplace of prominent ethicists:
- Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa (d. 759 CE), the first Muslim ethicist, translated Kalila wa Dimna from Pahlavi to Arabic, introducing Indo-Persian wisdom to Islamic ethics.
- Ghiyath al-Din Mansur Dashtaki (d. 1541 CE) authored Akhlaq-i Mansuri and Jahan-Nama, encyclopedic works on philosophical wisdom that influenced later ethical texts like Mi’raj al-Sa’adah and Jami’ al-Sa’adat by the Naraqi scholars.
Shiraz’s contributions extend to linguistics, art, and architecture:
- Arabic Grammar: Systematized by two Iranians, Sibawayh (d. 796 CE) and Abu Ali al-Nahwi al-Farsi (d. 987 CE).
- Architecture: The Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, with its stained-glass windows, and the Shah Cheragh Shrine exemplify Shiraz’s artistic brilliance.
- Calligraphy and Painting: Shiraz developed distinct schools, with figures like Ahmad al-Nayrizi (d. 1742 CE) producing masterful Qur’anic manuscripts. Also, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Muqla al-Baydawi (d. 940 CE), who served as vizier multiple times in the Abbasid court, is recognized as the inventor of several Arabic scripts.
- Philanthropy: Shiraz is also renowned for its philanthropy. Presently, one-third of Shiraz lands belong to charitable endowments (waqf). Its historical resilience, even during the Mongol invasions, reflects a philosophy of peacemaking.
The essence of the School of Shiraz may be characterized by virtues such as peace-seeking, friendship, benevolence, tolerance, patience, chivalry, mediation, cosmopolitanism, and aesthetic appreciation. These ethical principles have enabled Fars to maintain social and civilizational continuity despite historical upheavals.
The Fluid Era
The early decades of the 21st century have been marked by multipolarity and instability in social, political, and economic systems, leading to crises in belief, ethics, and behavior. Contributing factors include:
- The rise of self-sufficiency philosophies and increasing depressive loneliness.
- Consumerism promoted by neoliberal economics with disastrous environmental effects.
- Regional and international wars, including genocides in the Middle East and Europe.
- The digital revolution and widespread access to information without moral control.
- Growing wealth disparities and the emergence of “democratic fascism.”
With this background, Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents both opportunities and threats, with its potential to replace human professions and its misuse in warfare, as seen in Gaza. The unchecked power of AI risks enabling unprecedented political authoritarianism.
The Shiraz Majd Institute: An Institution for Comparative Ethics in the Contemporary World
In 2016, a group of scholars from Fars recognizing Shiraz’s ethical and philosophical legacy, the urgent need for ethical studies to reinforce religious teachings and respond to the challenges of a fluid global society, established the Shiraz Majd Institute. Hosted by the Imam Asr Seminary (founded in 1973 by Ayatollah Majd al-Din Mahallati), the Institute has published over 40 books on comparative ethics, particularly on the ethics of war and peace, in Persian, Arabic, and English. Notable works include studies on friendship, forgiveness, gratitude, dignity, and the ethics of conflict resolution.
The center aims to:
- Bridge classical ethical values with modern interdisciplinary, interreligious, and international studies.
- Translate and disseminate comparative ethical literature in global languages.
- Offer specialized courses and workshops on comparative ethics for universities and seminaries.
Future Projects
- A six-volume series on the comparative ethics of war (2025).
- The Green Silk Series: Reference works on comparative Shi’i and global ethics.
- Handbook and Companion to Ethics in English.
- An Arabic handbook on Islamic ethics by 2031.
- Imam Hossein Studies with a view to draw lessons for controlling war and violence.
Collaborations
The Institute has signed memoranda with the University of Shiraz and hosts the Shiraz branch of the Iranian Philosophical Society. It welcomes partnerships for joint publications and research.
Long-Term Goals
In an era of societal fluidity and global crises, the center seeks to elevate ethical values from personal to collective and international domains through interdisciplinary and interreligious studies. Success in this mission requires articulating these values in contemporary languages and fostering academic collaboration.
The Shiraz Majd Institute warmly welcomes scholars and students interested in the shared goals.