Essays in Philosophy and Kalam

Journal History

The first issue of this journal was published in the winter of 1968 by the late Professor Dr. Mahmoud Ramiyar, in commemoration of the "Centenary of the Passing of Hakim Sabzevari," under the title "The Journal of the University of Mashhad Faculty of Theology (Ma’qul va Manqul)". The establishment of this journal came after Ramiyar was transferred from the administration of parliamentary laws at the National Consultative Assembly of the time to the newly founded Ministry of Science and Higher Education. By order of this ministry, he was appointed "Vise-president of Mashhad University in Administrative and Financial Affairs" and later, while retaining this position, also assumed the directorship of the Faculty of Ma’qool and Manqool Sciences. During the three to four years, he headed the faculty, he rendered valuable services, one of which was the founding of this journal. Of course, the role of other faculty professors in encouraging him to undertake this endeavor should not be overlooked. For instance, Professor Mohammad Vaez-Zadeh made significant efforts in preparing articles for the first issue as well as subsequent issues. 

From the beginning, the journal was well received by scholars and knowledge seekers. The late Professor Ahmad Aram, after reading the first issue, wrote in a letter to Ramiyar:"...As for the journal, it truly holds many advantages over other publications of Ferdowsi University, and this is undoubtedly due to your efforts" (Aram, p. 225). Moreover, professors such as Seyyed Abdolkarim Amiri Firouzkouhi, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Rouzati, Reza Ostadi Tehrani, and others consistently enriched the journal with their critiques and insights in the following years. 

The second issue was published after a three-year hiatus in the spring of 1972, under the title Journal of the Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies. From then until the spring of 1979, it was published regularly as a quarterly, reaching its 28th issue. The journal's editor-in-chief from its inception until 1974 was Professor Mohammad Vaez-Zadeh. Afterward, the responsibility was entrusted to the late Professor Gholamreza Nafeli. In October 1973, when Ramiyar went to the University of Edinburgh to further his studies and research, and Dr. Ali Akbar Shahabi took his place, the journal underwent changes in its internal layout and article organization. Articles and research papers from each field were grouped together in separate sections. During this phase, specific pages of the journal were dedicated to "Shi’a Studies," and Shahabi, in addition to encouraging others, personally authored and published articles on the subject. 

In 1979, following the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the change in the country's political system, the journal's operations were suspended. This hiatus lasted for fifteen years, until 1994. In 1993, the late Professor Dr. Seyyed Mehdi Sane’i, who was then the dean of the faculty, made efforts to resume the journal's activities. These efforts bore fruit in 1994, and after fifteen years of inactivity, the 29th issue was published under the management of Professor Gholamreza Nafeli. Before the 30th issue could be published, Nafeli suffered a heart condition and passed away a few months later. Subsequently, the late Dr. Mahmoud Yazdi Motlaq, known as "Fazel," assumed the journal's management. In 1997, the "Commission for the Evaluation of Scientific Journals of Iran" (affiliated with the Ministry of Science) recognized the journal as scientific-research in its session dated May 28, 1997. 

In 2001, coinciding with the retirement of Professor Dr. Mahmoud Fazel, the university introduced Dr. Seyyed Kazem Tabatabai as the managing director to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. However, when the required forms and documents were submitted to the General Directorate of Domestic Publications of the ministry, it was announced that the journal had no prior record with them. As a result, the journal was treated as a newly established publication. The ministry did not even recognize the name Journal of the Faculty of Theology and requested that several alternative names be proposed. Consequently, the faculty suggested several names to the General Directorate of Domestic Publications. After a legal process lasting over a year, the directorate finally issued a publication license for the faculty's journal under the title Islamic Studies. 

In recent years, efforts have been made to specialize scientific journals. In 2008, the respected Director-General of Research Affairs of the relevant ministry, via letter No. 4442/3 dated August 27, 2008, granted the journal permission to operate in four specialized fields and publish two issues per year for each field. Following this approval, as of September 22, 2008, the following four specialized titles have been published: 

1. Journal of Fiqh and Usul,

2. Quran and Hadith Studies,

3. Essays in Philosophy and Kalam,

4. History and Culture.

Open access policy

Essays in philosophy and Kalam journal is an open access journal from the first issue that has been published. It means that all the content of the journal is free for users and institutes. They can download, copy, print, search, and link to full text of the manuscripts without any publisher or author permission. The journal provides immediate open access to its content based on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports the greater global exchange of knowledge.

Copyright

• Under the open access license of the Essays in philosophy and Kalam journal, authors retain copyright ownership of their content.
• Authors grant Ferdowsi University of Mashhad the license to publish the article and identify itself as the primary publisher.
• Authors also grant any third party the right to freely use the article, provided its integrity is maintained and the original authors, citation details, and publisher are clearly acknowledged.

Licensing

The Journal of Essays in philosophy and Kalam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) 

That means readers are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.