Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Greatest Secret (Persian translation of the Upanishads)
Persian translation of fifty Upanishads, made in 1657 with the help of pandits and introduced by Dara Shikoh as the “hidden book” of the Qur’an; A.-H. Anquetil-Duperron translated it into Latin as Oupnek’hat (1801–02), the version in which Schopenhauer read the Upanishads.
Introduction
“The Greatest Secret” (Sirr-i akbar) is the Persian translation of fifty Upanishads that Dara Shikoh had made with the help of pandits in 1657. In his preface he explains that he had searched the scriptures of many religions for the doctrine of God’s unity and found it most fully in the Upanishads, which he identified with the “hidden book” mentioned in the Qur’an (56:78). The translation includes Sufi terms and short explanations. Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron translated it into Latin as Oupnek’hat (1801–02); in this form the Upanishads reached European readers, among them Arthur Schopenhauer, who read it from 1814 and called it the consolation of his life.
Connections
Builds on
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishadc. 700 BCE · Yajnavalkya
- Chandogya Upanishadc. 650 BCE · Uddalaka Aruni
Taken up in
- The World as Will and Representation1819 · Arthur Schopenhauer
More works by Dara Shikoh
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