: Iranian-Islamic Hikmah-Based
In a commemorative ceremony honoring the late Professor Abdolhamid Naghshkar, Hojjat-ol-Islam wal-Muslimin Abdolhossein Khosropanah, Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, presented a comprehensive analysis of the distinguished scholar’s life, intellectual legacy, and his pivotal role in defining Iranian-Islamic architecture. The event underscored Naghshkar’s status not merely as an academic, but as a revolutionary theorist whose work bridges philosophy, architecture, and civilizational identity.
A Life of Struggle, Scholarship, and Service
Professor Naghshkar’s biography reads as a chronicle of Iran’s modern history. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he was an active political dissident, enduring imprisonment by the SAVAK. Following the Revolution, he served under President Rajai and was wounded in the Hafte Tir bombing of 1981. During the eight-year Sacred Defense, he volunteered as a Basiji fighter, sustaining further injuries. Academically, he chaired the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Iran University of Science and Technology for nearly 14 years, mentoring generations of architects while simultaneously shaping national educational policies through the High Council for Humanities and the Ministry of Science’s curriculum planning council.
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The Unity of Theory and Practice
Khosropanah emphasized that Naghshkar transcended the ivory tower. His portfolio includes the design of the Qoba Mosque, the residence of martyr Ayatollah Beheshti, the Rasulullah (PBUH) Mosque, and sections of the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Abdolazim. This synthesis of building and thinking earned him the Special Prize and the Theory Chairs Award at the 6th International Farabi Festival, cementing his reputation as a leading theorist of Iranian-Islamic architecture.
Breaking the “Veil of Contemporaneity”
A central theme of Khosropanah’s address was the “veil of contemporaneity”—a cultural blind spot preventing due recognition of living indigenous scholars. He contrasted the reverence afforded Western thinkers like Foucault, Habermas, and Heidegger with the frequent neglect of contemporary Iranian luminaries. He argued that true justice to Naghshkar’s legacy requires moving beyond ceremonial respect to rigorous academic engagement: critique, dialogue, and theoretical development of his ideas.
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The Philosophical Core: Defining “Theory” and “Hikmah”
Drawing on his own research in philosophy of science, Khosropanah established a philosophical benchmark for theory, concluding that Naghshkar met the criteria of a genuine theorist. The core of Naghshkar’s oeuvre—evident in works like Islamic Hikmah in the Creation of Artistic Works in Architecture and Urban Planning, Feasibility of Identity in Architecture and Urban Planning, and Foundations of Architectural Theory—revolves around “Hikmah-based Architecture” (Memari-ye Hekmati).
The Five-Stage Creative Process
Naghshkar articulated a five-stage model of human artistic creation—”Sensory Perception, Imagination, Rationality, Intuitive Insight (Shuhud), and Innovation”—describing the flow of meaning (software) into the physical edifice (hardware). Khosropanah termed this “engineering behavior,” a structured epistemology distinct from both Western traditionalism and modernism.
Three Civilizational Paradigms: Tradition, Modernity, and Hikmah
Khosropanah proposed a tripartite framework for understanding architectural history:
- Traditional Architecture (Tradition): Pre-Renaissance, theocentric, symbolized by the cruciform church connecting man to the divine through renunciation of the world.
- Modern Architecture: Born of the Renaissance, founded on Humanism (centrality of man), Secularism (centrality of world), and Subjectivism (centrality of the human agent). Exemplified by Philip Johnson’s Glass House.
- Hikmah-based Architecture: The Islamic-Iranian alternative. Not a hybrid of the first two, but an independent discipline rooted in Hikmah—defined as the synthesis of Rationality, Virtue, and Service.
Reason vs. Instrumental Rationality
A critical distinction in Khosropanah’s analysis separates Reason (deductive, mathematical, Cartesian) from Instrumental Rationality (Weberian, utilitarian, efficiency-driven). He warned that the global dominance of instrumental rationality—devoid of virtue—fuels oppression, militarism, and the marginalization of weaker nations. Hikmah-based architecture, conversely, subordinates instrumental reason to a higher ethical-epistemic order.
Geopolitical Roots of Conflict
Khosropanah situated the Iran-US conflict not merely in political ideology but in a civilizational clash: the Islamic Republic stands against a pre-ordained geopolitical design powered by Western instrumental rationality. He cited his decades-long engagement with Western critical theory, including direct dialogue with Jürgen Habermas, to argue that the Frankfurt School’s critique of instrumental reason remains internal to modernity, whereas the Islamic-Iranian project offers a “third way” via Hikmah—a path Naghshkar dedicated his life to elucidating.
Hikmah’s Iranian Lineage: From Khosravani to Ferdowsi
Khosropanah traced Hikmah to pre-Islamic Iran (Hikmah-e Khosravani), distinguishing it from Western philosophy’s reliance on discursive reason alone. Hikmah integrates reason, imagination, and intuition. He hailed Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh as a “Hikmah-nameh,” preserving the Persian language—and thereby the epistemic vessel of Iranian Hikmah—against assimilation. This linguistic preservation was not nationalism, but a civilizational necessity to safeguard a unique mode of knowing.
The Urban Manifestation: Mosque, Bazaar, and Madrasa
In the Hikmah-based city, the mosque sits at the heart of the bazaar and connects to the madrasa. Worship, economy, and knowledge are spatially intertwined. This organic unity—neither the otherworldly rejection of the medieval church nor the secular zoning of the modern city—exemplifies the distinct discipline Naghshkar championed.
Azadi Square: A Case Study in Hikmah-Based Synthesis
Khosropanah cited Tehran’s Azadi Square as a successful application: a fusion of Iranian-Islamic identity and modern engineering, governed by a Hikmah-centric worldview. This demonstrates that the discipline can selectively absorb tools from tradition and modernity without surrendering its epistemological sovereignty.
The Untranslatable Legacy
Khosropanah concluded by noting that “Hikmah” has no exact English equivalent (“Wisdom” or “Pure Reason” capture only fragments), just as “Modern” defies precise Persian translation. This linguistic uniqueness underscores the civilizational distinctiveness of Naghshkar’s project. He praised Naghshkar’s “ghirat” (protective zeal) for Islamic architectural identity—his vigilance against curriculum erosion—and affirmed that his students, now leading academics, will continue advancing this independent theoretical edifice.
