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Reading group: Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination, introduction and Part One

Reza Tehrani Fellow
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Mysticism & spiritualityIslamicPersian#illumination#light
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Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (1154–1191) was executed in Aleppo, still young, after falling foul of the authorities. His Philosophy of Illumination (Hikmat al-Ishraq), completed in 1186, founded a school that shaped Persian philosophy for centuries, Mulla Sadra included.

The first part is a critique of the Peripatetic philosophy of Ibn Sina, especially his theory of definition: we can't know a thing's essence by listing genus and differentia, Suhrawardi says, and real knowledge comes through direct presence (knowledge by presence). The second part develops his metaphysics of light: everything that exists is light of varying intensity or darkness.

I'll use the Walbridge and Ziai translation (1999), with the Arabic facing. Two weeks. Please join if you're interested in how Persian philosophy got from Ibn Sina to Mulla Sadra.

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  1. Layla Haddad

    Fellow

    I'll join. The critique of definition is underrated; it's a sharp argument, and modern philosophers who complain about the limits of conceptual analysis would find a friend in him.

    Helpful · 1
  2. Elif Yıldız

    Fellow

    I'll read along. Suhrawardi is a figure my grandmother mentioned as "Shaykh al-Ishraq", and I only recently discovered he was a philosopher, not only a saint.

    Helpful · 2