The Philosophy of Illumination

Suhrawardi’s philosophy grants an epistemological role to immediate and atemporal intuition. It is explicitly anti-Peripatetic and is identified with the pre-Aristotelian sages, particularly Plato. The subject of his hikmat al-Ishraq—now available for the first time in English—is the “science of lights,” a science that Suhrawardi first learned through mystical exercises reinforced later by logical proofs and confirmed by what he saw as the parallel experiences of the Ancients. It was completed on 15 September 1186; and at sunset that evening, in the western sky, the sun, the moon, and the five visible planets came together in a magnificent conjunction in the constellation of Libra. The stars soon turned against Suhrawardi, however, who was reluctantly put to death by the son of Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, in 1191.

About the Author & Translator

John Walbridge

John Walbridge (Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages, Harvard University) is presently associate professor of Near Eastern languages and of philosophy at Indiana University.

Publication Information

ISBN 10: 0-8425-2457-6
ISBN 13: 978-0-8425-2457-5
Page Count: 425
Price: $ 49.95
Sub Site: Middle Eastern Texts Initiative