al-Qism al-awwal. Fī ḍawābiṭ al-fikr (manṭiq) --.

This treatise on the nature and levels of the human soul considers the limitations of human senses and our true or theomorphic essence; the various realms or Centers, including Absolute Mind as well as Ordinary Mind and Divine Mind; the nature of firmaments; and the meaning of pleasure and pain.

When in 1868, Alfred von Kremer (1828–89) in his Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Islams (“History of the Ruling Ideas of Islam”) introduced al-Suhrawardī for the first time to a Western readership, he presented him as a freethinking Sufi devoted to “theosophy.” In a long chapter on Sufism, al-Suhrawardī appears under the heading “anti-Islamic tendencies.” Von Kremer characterized al-Suhrawardī's thought as a balanced mixture of three sources: Neoplatonic philosophy, a Zoroastrian theory of light, plus Islamic monotheism. “According (...) to the Arab biographers, his teaching was aimed at the destruction of the existing religion, which, however, they say of anyone who dared to oppose the ruling orthodox party.” Expressing views that openly contradict the ruling religion, von Kremer wrote, meant putting one's life in danger. In accordance with that explanation, al-Suhrawardī died as “a martyr for his convictions” after the all too powerful group of orthodox scholars obtained his death sentence from Saladin. (shrink)

RésuméL'idée d'un “monde des images” situé quelque part entre les mondes immatériel et matériel est un pivot de la spéculation eschatologique dans l'Islam médiéval tardif. Comme cela a déjà été reconnu, le concept a été inauguré par al-Suhrawardī. Cependant, ses fondements plus proprement philosophiques et en particulier la notion d'images “suspendues” – des images dotées d'un statut en quelque manière objectif plutôt que purement mental ou subjectif – méritent d’être davantage clarifiés; et c'est ce que cet article entend faire. (...) Puisque le concept de “formes suspendues”, tout en étant appliqué par al-Suhrawardī à des questions eschatologiques dans le dernier traité de sa Philosophie de l'illumination, apparaît pour la première fois dans une discussion sur la vision spéculaire, j'examine assez en détail la conception avicennienne de la vision spéculaire telle qu'elle est présentée dans le Shifāʾ, ouvrage contre lequel al-Suhrawardī réagit. J'entreprends ensuite une reconstruction détaillée de deux paragraphes de la Philosophie de l'illumination en accordant une attention particulière à la question du statut ontologique des images “suspendues” ou “auto-subsistantes” ainsi qu’à l'idée selon laquelle les miroirs servent non pas de lieux dans lesquels les images résideraient, mais de lieux où elles deviennent manifestes. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie Jahrgang: 98 Heft: 3 Seiten: 272-301.

Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi was born around 1154, probably in northwestern Iran. Spurred by a dream in which Aristotle appeared to him, he rejected the Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy of his youth and undertook the task of reviving the philosophical tradition of the "Ancients." Suhruwardi's philosophy grants an epistemological role to immediate and atemporal intuition. It is explicitly anti-Peripatetic and is identified with the pre-Aristotelian sages, particularly Plato. The subject of his hikmat al-Ishraq --now available for the first time in English--is the (...) "science of lights," a science that Suhrawardi first learned through mystical exercises reinforced later by logical proofs and confirmed by what he saw as the parallel experiences of the Ancients. It was completed on 15 September 1186 and at sunset that evening, in the western sky, the sun, the moon, and the five visible planets came together in a magnificent conjunction in the constellation of Libra. The stars soon turned against Suhrawardi, however, who was reluctantly put to death by the son of Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, in 1191. (shrink)

v. 1. Kitāb al-Talwīḥāt, Kitāb al-Muqāwamāt, Kitāb al-Mashāriʻ wa-al-muṭāraạ̄t al-lawḥīyah wa-al-ʻarshīyah, Prolégomènes -- v. 2., pt. 1. Kitāb Ḥikmat al-ishrāq (matn-i ʻArabī), Risālah fī iʻtiqād al-ḥukamāʼ (matn-i ʻArabī), Qiṣṣat al-ghurbah al-gharbīyah (matn-i ʻArabī bā tarjumah va sharḥ-i Fārsī), Prolégomènes II.

Avicenna (d. 1037) bequeathed the Arabic philosophical tradition with an aporia : self-knowledge is conceived, at times, in terms of intellection, at other times, in terms of apperception. In his Book of Discussions and Book of Notes, Avicenna has lengthy discussions on apperception, defined as a direct ontological mode of knowledge. Heir to this tradition, Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 1191) moved away from the first conception of self-knowledge as intellection to adopt the second conception of an apperception of the (...) self as a direct, intuitive and "presential (hcombining dot belowudcombining dot belowūrī)" perception, and which he defended with four types of arguments. (shrink)

Suhrawardī, Yaḥyá ibn Ḥabash, 1152 or 3-119.Ḥikmat al-ishrāq- Criticism and interpretation ; Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, d. 1641- Criticism and interpretation ; Islamic philosophy.

The square of opposition has never been drawn by classical Arabic logicians, such as al-Fārābī and Avicenna. However, in some later writings, we do find squares, which their authors call rather ‘tables’ (sing. _lawḥ_). These authors are Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī and Muhammed b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī. They do not pertain to the same geographic area, but they both provide squares of opposition. The aim of this paper is to analyse these two squares, to compare them with each other and with (...) the traditional square of opposition drawn by Apuleius and Boethius, with regard to their particular structure and their vertices and to evaluate their validity. We will show that both squares are different from each other and from the traditional square both with regard to their vertices, and to the arrangements of the oppositional relations. In addition, while al-Suhrawardī uses the notion of matter modalities to define the oppositions, al-Sanūsī relies rather on al-Rāzī’s and al-Khūnajī’s distinctions. Both authors agree, however, on the fact that affirmatives have an import while negatives do not. For this reason, their squares are valid from a logical viewpoint. As diagrams, these squares are nevertheless entirely original, due to the particular arrangements of their oppositional relations. Our analysis shows also that the later author does not seem to know the square drawn by the earlier one and that both authors do not seem to know Apuleius’ or Boethius’ squares. (shrink)

Dashtakī Shīrāzī's commentary on al-Suhrawardī's Hayākil al-nūr.

al-Dawwānī's commentary on al-Suhrawardī's Hayākil al-nūr.

La vida de Siháb al-Din al-Suhrawardi es oscura. Datos aislados referentes a sus estudios, viajes y contactos se encuentran en breves noticias de los diccionarios biográ-ficos de los siglos xn y xm. Estas noticias permiten esbozar una biografía de al-Suhrawardi desde sus comienzos hasta la oposición de que fue objeto por parte de los Memas de Alepo y su trágica muerte, interpretada en el marco y el contexto de la ciu-dad. Todo este material de los diccionarios biográficos es sólo relativamente (...) fidedigno e incluso los textos contemporáneos incluyen datos erróneos. = Shiháb al-Din al-Suhrawardi's life is obscure. Some clues regarding his studies, travels and encounters are found in short biographical notices of the 12th and 13th centuries. These notices can provide the means to sketch al-Suhrawardi's biography: his early life, his coming to Aleppo, the mounting opposition of the Memas of Aleppo, and the final moments that led to his tragic death. The sociopolitical context of Aleppo provides a good framework for the interpretation of the data provided by the biographers. All these biographical works are, however, of relative reliability. Even the most contemporary texts are in fact not devoid of erroneous elements. (shrink)

Sufism; Islamic philosophy; early works to 1800.

“Maqamat as-Sufiyya” is a small theoretical works of Shihab ad-Din as-Suhrawardi (ab. 1154-1191), the founder of the Philosophy of Illumination. It contains practical instructions and theoretical reflections and proofs. As-Suhrawardi especially notes terminology used by philosophers and terminology used by sufis in “Maqamat as-Sufiyya”.

This study investigates Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī's sufi philosophy of illumination and explores its potential contribution to contemporary environmental consciousness. The increasingly urgent global ecological crisis has sparked interdisciplinary debate about root causes and comprehensive solutions. Several contemporary thinkers argue that the ecological crisis is a manifestation of a more fundamental ontological crisis, namely the loss of humans' harmonious relationship with nature. In this context, Islamic philosophy, especially the school of illumination (ishrāq) developed by Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī, offers a (...) unique perspective that can enrich environmental discourse. The research aims to integrate Suhrawardī’s ontological and epistemological concepts with contemporary ecological principles to offer a novel perspective on human-nature relationships. A descriptive-analytical approach is employed to analyze Suhrawardī’s philosophical texts and correlate them with modern ecological theories. The study reveals that Suhrawardī’s concept of asala al-mahiya (essential reality) and his illuminationist epistemology, which views all beings as emanations of divine light, challenge the anthropocentric worldview. This perspective promotes two fundamental ecological principles: biospherical illuminative egalitarianism and illuminative equilibrium. These principles emphasize social justice and environmental balance, recognizing humans as integral parts of nature with responsibility for its preservation. By shifting the human-nature relationship from a subject-object dichotomy to an inter-subject interaction, Suhrawardī’s philosophy can enhance awareness of environmental issues and inspire more sustainable practices. Integrating spiritual wisdom and ecological consciousness offers a holistic approach to addressing contemporary environmental challenges. (shrink)

The present study on al-Dīn Suhrawardī's Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, develops some preliminary explorations on his logic under the background of his remarkable epistemology of pis some witness of d resence. The paper paves the way for responding to the challenges of Tony Street on the compatibility of Suhrawardī's critique of Ibn Sīnā with the development of a temporal and modal syllogism that at first sight seems quite close to that of Ibn Sīnā. In fact, Suhrawardī's modalities are to (...) be understood as the different ways a predicate relates to its subject rather than as propositional operators. Accordingly, necessarily necessary modality relates actual instances (presences) of the Subject-Term with actual (presences) of the Predicate-Term; in contrast, necessarily contingent modality relates these terms conditionally, notably involving states of the Subject-Term within time intervals. Suhrawardī's main innovation, so we claim, is the explicit dialectical role presences or actual instances have in his modal-temporal logic, and particularly so in shaping his notion of contingency that admits both a generic and an individual or de re form of plenitude. (shrink)

In _Suhrawardī’s Illuminationism_, Jari Kaukua offers a new interpretation of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191 CE) illuminationist (_ishrāqī_) philosophy. Commonly portrayed as a mystic, Suhrawardī appears here as a critical and systematic philosopher.