Multiple English translations of the Qur'an, Islam's scripture, line shelves at book stores. Amazon.com sells more than a dozen. Because of the growing Muslim. L to r: Henry Corbin, Qajar era portrait of a murdered Sufi, Hossein Ziai. There is no photograph of Suhrawardi, and so substitutions may be a resort for illustrative.

Christianity, Modern Arianism, and Islam by Wild Iris. From the hard sciences to the humanities, a vice that is part and parcel of academia’s DNA is the perennial.

Suhrawardi and Ishraqi Philosophy. SUHRAWARDI  AND  ISHRAQI  PHILOSOPHYAn overview of a twelfth century Iranian philosopher who exercised an unusual eclectic disposition. Suhrawardi exhibits a complex relation to Peripatetic philosophy, Islamic Neoplatonism, and Sufism.

His ishraqi (illuminationist) perspective is the subject of different interpretations. CONTENTS  KEY1. 1.

Iran, and became known posthumously as Shaikh al- Ishraq, meaning . Peripatetic (Aristotelian) philosophy, in the format of Ibn Sina, was apparently the initial priority.

This article summarizes the different branches and schools in Islam. The best known split, into Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, and Kharijites, was mainly political when it.

At Isfahan he studied under the obscure Zahir al- Farisi, with whom he read a distinctive book on logic composed by Ibn Sahlan al- Sawi (d. The young Suhrawardi afterwards journeyed to Anatolia, where he stayed for some years.

At Mardin he studied with Fakhr al- Din al- Mardini (d. Peripatetic and apparently also a Sufi. Shahrazuri tells of his extreme austerities and his spiritual powers, yet he is not recognised by most Sufi writers and biographers as one of them.. Perhaps the explanation is simply that he learned from the Sufis but never fully joined them, as Shahrazuri seems to imply.. The setting seems to have been largely Anatolian, in the Saljuq domain called Rum. Suhrawardi reputedly engaged in .

This was not typical of the deportment of learned men. According to Shahrazuri, he tended to maintain silence, keeping aloof from outside contact. Yet Suhrawardi does appear to have gained aristocratic patronage while in Anatolia. Shahrazuri describes him as living at Diyarbakr, in south- east Anatolia. According to Henry Corbin (En Islam iranien, vol. Suhrawardi was welcomed at the Saljuq court in Rum, and dedicated one of his minor treatises to Imad al- Din Qara Arslan, a ruler in this zone.

This Arabic work was entitled Tablets Dedicated to Imad (al- Alwah al- imadiyyah). Moving to Syria, in 1. Aleppo, wearing the attire of a dervish. That same year, the Ayyubid ruler Saladin captured Aleppo, making his son al- Zahir the temporary governor. Suhrawardi soon gained the goodwill of (al- Malik) al- Zahir, but incurred the hostility of local jurists and ulama (scholars of the Quran and hadith).

Like them, he was a Sunni Muslim. The Ayyubid capital was Damascus, and Suhrawardi may also have resided there for a time, before al- Zahir's return to Aleppo and renewed governorship. Suhrawardi apparently completed his major work Hikmat al- Ishraq (Philosophy of Illumination) in 1. Aleppo. He became a tutor of the governor, implying a close contact with the court.

The ruler was apparently both the disciple and patron of the unconventional philosopher. According to Shahrazuri, the subject was very forthright in defending the views of philosophers, disputing with the ulama of Aleppo and exposing the limitation of their dogmas. Suhrawardi became regarded as a heretic. The jurists attributed to him the claim of prophecy; Shahrazuri denies the accuracy of this charge and says that the accusers were motivated by jealousy. The earlier heretic Hallaj had also been accused of such things by the orthodox gossip.

Sultan Salah al- Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (d. Christendom as Saladin.

Saladin then requested his son to carry out the dire prescription. The prince was reluctant to comply, but gave in when threatened with the onus of abdication.

The heretic was accordingly imprisoned. The zealous accusers of Suhrawardi said that if he were allowed to live, he would corrupt the faith of the prince, and that if he were merely banished, he would corrupt any other place to which he might go. According to Shahrazuri, the victim was shut in a room and denied food and drink.

This source also reported that the philosophers were amongst the parties who were . The execution occurred in 1. Hedge Fund Prospectus Templates Free. Suhrawardi became known as al- maqtul, which means .

There is no reliable date for his birth. Ismailis converged with some philosophical themes in their missionary teaching, and they had even been called followers of Pythagoras and Empedocles. Another interpretation is that the inter- religious tendencies of Suhrawardi were considered dangerous at a time when Muslims were locked in a bitter war with the Christian Crusaders. However, Suhrawardi is not known to have mentioned Christianity, although the basic drift of his approach was against doctrinal insularity. A contrasting argument is that an .

The suggestion here is that the Hikmat al- Ishraq could have been viewed as the . Suhrawardi very briefly states in his Arabic treatise Hikmat al- Ishraq(8) that . Ziai also suggests that the prince requested Suhrawardi to compose Hikmat al- Ishraq; the implication from one passage in this work is that the author was reluctant about publication. The role of Saladin was marked by different phases. This Syrian Turk was sent to Egypt with a military expedition by the Zangid ruler of Aleppo in 1. Saladin established his own loyal Turkish army and destroyed the Fatimid rival. He dealt ruthlessly with the mutinous black troops of the Fatimid army, burning down their quarters.

Saladin founded the Ayyubid dynasty, which ruled over Egypt, Syria, and other territories. The vast treasures of the deposed Fatimids were divided between his officers and the allied Zangid ruler of Aleppo. Saladin also destroyed the famous Fatimid libraries in Cairo, and commenced to persecute the Egyptian Ismailis, who went into hiding. This ambitious Sultan of Egypt took Aleppo in 1. He became the formidable foe of Crusaders, but gained a reputation for diplomacy in that contest. The Ayyubid rule lasted until 1. Turkish and Kurdish soldiers and some slave troops.

A rebellious slave regiment eventually killed the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt and created the new Mamluk dynasty. Nevertheless, this argument in terms of a political context does have relevance to the ideation of Suhrawardi, and is based on a close knowledge of statements made in various of the latter's works. Scattered statements found in the Suhrawardi corpus have created perplexity, and some confusing interpretations. In particular, references to ancient Persian wise kings have been misconceived. The words kharra (or khurra) and khvarnah (khvarenah) have not always been duly clarified, but Ziai made an improvement.

This presentation is significant. The criterion is wisdom, not aristocratic blood or elite background.

This version of wisdom escapes the classical Greek tendency to distinguish between the elite educated class and the lower classes. Suhrawardi also seems to be saying, by means of varied references (including those in his Partu- Nama or Book of Radiance) that the citizen with wisdom can assist kings. He distinguishes between two types of ennobling light: the kharra bestowed on any human and the kiyan kharra bestowed on kings. A relevant factor for assimilation is that the widely read .

According to Ziai, Suhrawardi's occasional references to the wise kings of Iranian mythology (as in his Tablets Dedicated to Imad) . Even if that comment represents a simplification, the Ziai argument is strong in the context of: . Suhrawardi's Partu- Nama contains a section on prophecy, miracles, dreams, and so forth.

Ziai credits that both the Partu- Nama and the Tablets Dedicated to Imad (often considered . It is possible that Suhrawardi entertained ambitions to be a . However, his profile is complex, and exhibits features of the more retiring and ascetic Sufi lifestyles.

Yet he was not a typical Sufi by any means (see section 6 below). His strong affinity with the . In particular, his distinctive theme of a .

What Suhrawardi conceived as being passed down in time via the . The concept is no doubt esoteric, but the difference is necessary to grasp. Subsequently, this light was mediated via key Sufi figures like Hallaj and Dhu'l Nun al- Misri. In this way, Suhrawardi himself had become a participant. These themes ran contrary to what the fundamentalist ulama taught and decreed. Yet Suhrawardi does not rail against the jurists (a very dangerous expedient), but instead criticises the Peripatetics.

In his Paths and Havens, he says: .