Takwīn va Tashrīʻ Persiska (Farsi) 2025

The book “Takwīn and Tashrī - Creation and Legislationʿ” is a treatise by Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, critically edited by M. Rezaei Tazik and published by Asemana in September 2025. This work is published for the first time and represents an important source for understanding Aqa Khan Kermani’s philosophical, religious, and social thought.

Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (1853/1854–1896) was one of Iran’s prominent nationalist intellectuals, a pioneer of the intellectual discourse that later shaped the Constitutional Revolution, and an influential critic of religion and political authority in nineteenth-century Iran. Although many studies have examined his life and writings, the publication of “Takwīn and Tashrīʿ” provides a new opportunity for a more direct exploration of his ideas.

Aqa Khan Kermani wrote this treatise during a period when he was associated with the Azali Babi movement. The text contains references to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i, the founder of the Shaykhi school, and to intellectual currents that emerged from it, including Babism and the Ahl-e Bayan tradition. Given Aqa Khan Kermani’s reference to this work in his book “Hasht Bihisht” and the existence of a copy sent to Edward Browne in 1891, scholars have suggested that “Takwīn and Tashrīʿ” was written in that year or earlier.

In this treatise, the concept of “takwīn” (creation or formation) holds a central position. Aqa Khan Kermani uses the term both in its traditional sense of creation and the origin of existence, and in the modern sense of evolution and Darwinian development. This combination of religious concepts, philosophical ideas, and modern scientific thought is one of the defining features of his intellectual approach, reflecting his effort to connect the intellectual heritage of the past with the modern world of the late nineteenth century.

“Takwīn and Tashrīʿ” is a valuable work for researchers of Iranian intellectual history, religious studies, Qajar-era reformist thought, and the emergence of modern ideas in Iran. It brings to light a lesser-known aspect of Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani’s intellectual legacy.