Suhrawardi

Agora

Suhrawardi

1154–1191

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Reality is light in many degrees of intensity, and we know it most truly by direct inner presence rather than by definitions and proofs.

Placement

Philosophy in the Islamic World · West Asia & North Africa · Metaphysics, Epistemology, Religion

Founder of the philosophy of illumination (ishraq): reality is a hierarchy of lights, known by direct presence rather than by definitions; executed in Aleppo at 36.

Key ideas

Philosophy of illumination
Knowledge by presence
Hierarchy of lights

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Influence

Influenced by 2

Plato

influenced by
Suhrawardi called Plato the leader of wisdom and identified the Platonic Forms with the lights that govern each species (Philosophy of Illumination, 1186). Suhrawardi, Hikmat al-ishraq (1186), tr. J. Walbridge & H. Ziai (1999); SEP “Suhrawardi”
Evidence: AI draft
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

influenced by
Suhrawardi was trained in Avicenna’s philosophy and wrote Peripatetic works such as The Intimations (al-Talwihat) before setting illumination against it as an alternative. Suhrawardi, al-Talwihat; SEP “Suhrawardi”
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) › 980–1037

Influenced 8

Athir al-Din al-Abhari

influenced
Al-Abhari took up Suhrawardi’s criticism of the real distinction between essence and existence and incorporated Illuminationist ideas in several of his works. SEP “Suhrawardi” (C. Marcotte), citing H. Eichner (2012); SEP “Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Essence and Existence”
Evidence: AI draft
Athir al-Din al-Abhari › c. 1194–1265
Najm al-Din al-Katibi

influenced
Like al-Abhari, al-Katibi responded to Suhrawardi’s criticism of the distinction between essence and existence. SEP “Suhrawardi” (C. Marcotte), citing H. Eichner (2012)
Evidence: AI draft
Najm al-Din al-Katibi › 1203–1277
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi

influenced
Qutb al-Din’s commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination (1295) explains Suhrawardi’s logic, critique of the Peripatetics and metaphysics of lights; it supplanted Shahrazuri’s commentary. Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, ed. A. Nourani and M. Mohaghegh (2001); SEP “Suhrawardi”; J. Walbridge (1992)
Evidence: AI draft
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi › 1236–1311
Jalal al-Din al-Dawani

influenced
Al-Dawani wrote a commentary on Suhrawardi’s Temples of Light (Shawākil al-ḥūr), reading the hierarchy of lights through Ibn Sina. al-Dawani, Shawākil al-ḥūr fī sharḥ Hayākil al-nūr (Madras 1953); SEP “Suhrawardi”; SEP “Arabic and Islamic Mysticism”
Evidence: AI draft
Jalal al-Din al-Dawani › c. 1426–1502
Mulla Sadra

influenced
Mulla Sadra wrote glosses on the commentary on Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination and transferred Suhrawardi’s gradation of light to existence itself. Mulla Sadra, Taliqat ala Sharh Hikmat al-ishraq; SEP “Mulla Sadra”; SEP “Suhrawardi”
Evidence: AI draft
Mulla Sadra › c. 1572–1640
Seyyed Hossein Nasr

influenced ✓
Nasr devoted the second lecture of Three Muslim Sages (1964) to Suhrawardi and edited his Persian works (Oeuvres philosophiques et mystiques III, 1970). S. H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (1964); Suhrawardi, Oeuvres philosophiques et mystiques III, ed. S. H. Nasr (1970)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Seyyed Hossein Nasr › b. 1933

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al-Sharif al-Jurjani

influenced
Al-Jurjani wrote a commentary on Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination. SEP “Suhrawardi”, citing M. Kadivar (2011), 290–292
Evidence: AI draft
al-Sharif al-Jurjani › 1340–1413
Mir Damad

influenced
Mir Damad, who wrote poetry under the pen name Ishraq (illumination), joined Suhrawardi’s illuminationist themes to Avicenna’s philosophy in the School of Isfahan. Encyclopaedia Iranica “Mir Damad”; Mir Damad, Diwan-i Ishraq
Evidence: AI draft
Mir Damad › c. 1561–1631

Criticism

Criticizes 1

Aristotle

criticised
Suhrawardi rejected the Peripatetic theory of definition by genus and differentia and their categories, grounding knowledge in illumination and presence (Hikmat al-ishraq, 1186). Suhrawardī, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq (1186), tr. J. Walbridge & H. Ziai, 1999; SEP “Suhrawardi”
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE

Works

1186The Philosophy of Illumination (Hikmat al-ishraq)
Against Peripatetic definitions: being as light, knowledge as presence.

Position

Suhrawardi founded the philosophy of illumination (ishraq) as an alternative to Avicenna’s Aristotelian tradition. Definitions cannot give true knowledge, he argued, since defining a thing presupposes knowing its essential features. The most basic knowledge is knowledge by presence: the self knows itself directly, without concept or image. Reality is light in degrees of intensity, from the Light of Lights, God, through countless ranks of lights down to dark bodies; between the spiritual and the physical lies a world of images. He drew on Plato, Hermetic wisdom and the sages of ancient Persia, and his school lives on in Iranian philosophy to this day, notably through Mulla Sadra.

Life & context

Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi was born in 1154 in Suhraward in north-western Iran. He studied philosophy in Maragha and Isfahan and wandered through Persia and Anatolia, seeking the company of Sufis. In Aleppo he won the friendship of its young governor, a son of Saladin, but jurists accused him of heresy. On Saladin’s orders he was executed in 1191, aged about 36.