The occult sciences in Safavid Iran and Safavid occult scientists abroad

Abstract

This chapter examines the occult sciences as theorized and practiced in Safavid Iran during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with attention to both Iranian scholar-occultists who chose to remain under Safavid patronage and the diaspora of those who opted for the greener pastures of the Mughal and Ottoman Empires. It focuses on three occult sciences as illustrative of developments specific to the Safavid context: geomancy, lettrism and alchemy. Geomancy, the ‘science of sand’, is a uniquely Arabic and Islamicate occult science that captured the intellects and imaginations of scholarly elites and their royal patrons throughout the IslamoChristianate world. Possible political difficulties aside, Mahmud Dehdar is responsible for the definitive Twelverization of lettrism, including both letter divination and letter or talismanic magic, such that it became a primary pursuit of Safavid philosophers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His entire oeuvre – nineteen works survive, all on this science – is explicitly dedicated to this project.