The Philosopher-Prophet as the Ideal Ruler in the Political Thought of the Medieval Iran

The theory of ideal ruling is the central idea of the medieval Persian political thought; as the ideal ruler, in turn, is at the center of this theory. This paper intends to identify and introduce, with an analytic view, the most important features of the ideal ruler in the medieval political thought of Iran. The focal thesis of this article is to introduce the philosopher-prophet as the central idea of the political thoughts in medieval Iran. We will investigate the ideas of the principal representatives of this thought in medieval Iran such as Al-Farabi,Avicenna, Suhrewardi, and Mulla Sadra, and recreate their intended ruler. In the author's view, the philosopher-prophet introduced as the real ruler in the works of these representatives of Iranian thought has the characteristics of the ideal Iranian king, the platonic philosopher, the prophet of Islam, and the Shite Imams. Besides recreating the features of the ideal ruler in the main streams of Iranian thought, the author has tried to find and introduce the common foundation of these thoughts.