Suhrawardi, a Twelfth-Century Muslim Neo-Stoic? JOHN WALBRIDGE EUROPEANS FIRST BECAME AWARE OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY through texts trans- lated into Latin in the Middle Ages, the youngest of which were the works of the Spanish philosopher Averroes, dating from the second half of the twelfth century. The latest eastern Islamic philosophical texts known to Europeans dated from almost a century earlier. Western orientalists later became familiar with the original Arabic texts of works of the major authors previously known in Latin translation (...) -- Fftrabi, Avicenna, Ghazfdi, Averroes, and others -- along with works of other Islamic philosophers of the same period. While it was known that there continued to be philosophers in the Islamic world after 12oo, it was assumed that their works reflected the general "decline" of the Islamic world and that the authors known to Europeans represented the "classical" Islamic philosophical tradition. The later tradition of Islamic phi- losophy tended to be ignored or dismissed with references to "epitomes" and "supercommentaries. ''' In fact, it can be argued that the historical reality is exactly the opposite, that it is precisely the part of the Islamic philosophical tradition not known to the I am presently working on a collection of Arabic texts relating to Stoicism, including scientific as well as philosophical material. I would.. (shrink)

Die Studie erinnert zunächst an die Anfänge altpersischer Weltanschauung in den Lehren Zarathustras und skizziert sodann geistige Strömungen der vorislamischen Zeit. Es folgt die Darstellung der Auseinandersetzungen um die Rechtfertigung der Philosophie unter dem Islam in der mittelalterlichen Periode. Der eigentliche Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt dann auf der Behandlung der im Westen bislang nur unzulänglich rezipierten Epoche der Wiederbelebung der iranischen Philosophie vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert.

An expert on the thought of medieval Islamic philosopher Suhrawardi argues that philosophers have romanticized this work as a revival of “oriental” wisdom.

Provides an account of Islamic philosopher Suhrawardi’s revival of Neoplatonism.