The Position of Correspondence in Nasir Khusraw’s World View

In Nasir Khusraw’s thought system, correspondence, which is constructing similitude and connection among constituents, stages, and domains of the world, human and Ismailism, has a special position. In his view, there are close and delicate relationships and similarities among stages of existence and existential spheres of human being with different dimensions of Ismaili doctrine. Based on a descriptive-analytical method, this study tries to find answers to the following questions: What are the areas of correspondence in Nasir Khusrawworks? What are the backgrounds and origins of correspondence in his works? And what is his objective of designing and developing the correspondence approach? This study shows that correspondence between the major and the minor worlds, correspondence between the spiritual and the physical worlds, and correspondence between the stages of the call to Ismailism and the constituents of existence are the most important areas of correspondence in Nasir Khusraw’s writings. The origin of the special attention to correspondence in his thought stems from the mythology and philosophical thinking of different nations as well as the works of grand Ismaili priests. The aforementioned domains are interrelated and Nasir Khusraw’s main objectives of his widely propounding this approach are understanding existence, explaining the human place in the world’s stages, and substantiating the truth of Ismaili teachings.