The Role of Tolerance in Scientific Authority, Civilization, and the Emergence of Elites

As one of Iran's main goals, the revival of the Islamic golden age requires excellence in various power components. Scientific and technological progress has a vital role because, besides having soft power, it is the driving force for strengthening other components. The history of the emergence of the Iranian elites indicates that wars and political dictatorships weaken the flow of knowledge but cannot diminish scientific efforts. However, intellectual suppression has prevented the emergence of elites in various periods. Therefore, tolerance can support scientific authority and the revival of the Islamic-Iranian civilization.Although the current construction of tolerance has its roots in the thought of Western philosophers (e.g., John Locke, Sir Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart Mill, and Francois Voltaire), it can be traced back to various cultures and specifically in the Qur'an and Islamic religious tradition as God's universal mercy, Prophet's kindness, and the desire for peace and dialog. Among Islamic thinkers and mystics, many emphasize tolerance and pluralism in Islamic thought within the framework of the interpretability of Shariat and the multiplicity of paths to reach the truth. In the history of Iran and the Islamic world, tolerance institutionalizes peaceful coexistence and provides an opportunity to expand transcendental ideas. Pre-Islamic Iranians often had numerous and close ties with religious minorities, but this solidarity stopped after the rise of Islam with the intensification of conflicts between different religions. Although the imposition of the official religion continued to deepen the crisis, with the beginning of the Shiite rule of Buyid in Iran in the fourth century, tolerance was promoted as the cornerstone of the flourishing of Islamic civilization, with Avecinna and Abu Rayhan al-Biruni as pioneering elites. This process was not continued in the following centuries by the Ghaznavid and Seljuq rulers, leading to the decline of Islamic civilization, which ended with the Mongols' invasion. The Mongol rulers also adopted a tolerance policy given their foreign identity, resulting in the emergence of elites such as Jamshid al-Kashi and Kamal Khujandi and preventing the scientific collapse in Iran. During the Safavid dynasty - especially the reign of Abbas the Great - a circle of elites, including Baha al-Din al-Amili and Mulla Sadra, was formed again. This process did not last long, resulting in scientific downfall during the Afsharid, Zandi, and Qajar dynasties.