Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
Commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination
Commentary, completed in 1295, on Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination: Qutb al-Din explains Suhrawardi’s logic, his critique of the Peripatetics and his metaphysics of lights phrase by phrase, drawing on Shahrazuri’s earlier commentary, which his own supplanted; Mulla Sadra wrote glosses on it, and Henry Corbin began his study of Suhrawardi from a copy of it.
Introduction
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi completed his “Commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination” (Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-ishrāq) in 1295. Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination had criticised Peripatetic logic and metaphysics and set in their place a metaphysics of lights, grounded in a knowledge by presence that needs no definition; Qutb al-Din explains this text phrase by phrase, drawing on the earlier commentary of Shams al-Din Shahrazuri and on his own training in Ibn Sina’s philosophy. His commentary supplanted Shahrazuri’s and became the form in which the work was studied in Iran and India: Mulla Sadra wrote glosses on it, and the printed editions of the Philosophy of Illumination long appeared together with it. In the twentieth century Henry Corbin began his study of Suhrawardi from a copy of this commentary.
Connections
Builds on
- The Philosophy of Illumination (Hikmat al-ishraq)1186 · Suhrawardi
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