Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination

Mehdi Amin Razavi Aminrazavi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781136792885
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi, also known as Shaikh al-ishraq or the Master of Illumination, lived in the sixth century AH / twelfth century CE.
His thoughts form a consistent and coherent philosophical system, and a close study of his writings in Persian reveals a theory of knowledge generally called 'Knowledge by Presence'. The elaborate web of myth and symbolism in Suhrawardi's philosophy articulates his theory of knowledge, an important subject in the ishraqi school of thought.
Suhrawardi, who claims first to have discovered the truth and then embarked on a path to find the rational basis of his experiential wisdom, represents a thinker who tried to reconcile rational discourse and inner purification.

1
The Life and Works of Suhrawardi

A. Life

Suhrawardi was born in a village near Zanjan, a northern Iranian city. His full name is Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash ibn Amīrak Abū’l-Futūḥ Suhrawardi, who also received the title “Shaykh al-ishraq” (the Master of Illumination) and “al-Maqtūl” (the Martyr).¹ The date of his birth is not certain but his most notable biographer, Shahrazūrī,² indicated that he was born in 545/1166 or 550/1171 while S.H. Nasr,³ a notable scholar of Suhrawardi, has stated the date to be 549/1170.

At an early age Suhrawardi went to the city of Maraghah, where he studied ḥSikmat with Majd al-Dīn Jīlī, and he then traveled to Isfahan, where he studied philosophy with Ẓahir al-Dīn al-Qārī and The Observations (al-Baṣā’ir) of ‘Umar ibn Ṣalān al-Ṣāwī.⁴ He journeyed through the Islamic lands to meet the Sufi masters while practicing asceticism and withdrawing for long spiritual retreats. He tells us that he had looked for a companion with spiritual insight equal to his, but he failed to find one.⁵

Having wandered through Anatolia and Syria on one of his journeys from Damascus to Alleppo, he met Malik Ẓāhir, the son of the famous Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ayyūbī (Ṣalādīn). Yāqūt ibn ‘Abdallāh al-Ḥamawī⁶ put the date of this journey to Syria at 579/1200. Shahrazūrī, his contemporary and bibliographer, writes:

Malik liked the Shaykh and he liked him. The ‘ulama of Syria gathered around the Shaykh and heard his words. In discussions he clarified the thoughts of the ḥukamā’ and their validity and weakened the opinion of the opponents of the ḥukamā’.⁷

It is not known whether Suhrawardi did train a number of students or not, but it is known that he had a circle of close friends and companions on whose request he composed The Philosophy of Illumination (Ḥikmat al-ishráq). Towards the end of this book,⁸ he refers to his companions as “his brothers” and asks them to preserve the book from the enemies of wisdom. This again alludes to the existence of a certain group of friends or followers who knew him personally.

Perhaps for political reasons Suhrawardi’s friends found it difficult to write his biography.⁹ Shahrazūrī is the only one who speaks of him in a manner that suggests he had met him personally, though this is highly unlikely because neither Suhrawardi nor any other biographer of him makes reference to this point. It is possible that Shahrazuri came to know of Suhrawardi through some individual who knew the master personally.

Suhrawardi’s keen intelligence, his vast and profound knowledge and finally his openness to other traditions of wisdom as well as his esoteric orientation, brought about hostility and antagonized the doctors of law at Malik Ẓāhir’s court. Yūsūf ibn Taqhribirdī in his book al-Nujūm al-ẓāhirahâ fī mulūk miṣr wa’l-qāhirah,¹⁰ describes a meeting between himself and Suhrawardi in which he calls him a “man with vast knowledge and a small mind”.¹¹

In comparison to other Muslim philosophers, especially Ibn Sīnā, he ranked himself as equal and stated:

In discursive sciences I am equal, if not superior, but in intellectual intuition (dhawq) I am superior.¹²

Having advocated a type of wisdom which was inconsistent with the views of the orthodox jurists, they finally asked Malik Ẓāhir to put Suhrawardi to death for believing in heretical ideas. When he refused they signed a petition and sent it to Ṣalādīn, who ordered his son to have him killed. Malik Ẓāhir reluctantly carried out his father’s order and Suhrawardi was killed in the year 587/1208. Taqhribirdī indicated¹³ that Suhrawardi’s death took place on the Friday of the month of July (Dhu’l-ḥajjah). According to Shahrazurī, there are different accounts of how he died. Shahrazurī writes:

… he was thrown in jail and eating and drinking was denied to him until he died. Some say he fasted until he joined with his Origin. Some are of the opinion that he was suffocated and yet others believe he was killed by the sword and there are those who say he was dropped from the wall of the fortress and then burned.¹⁴

Suhrawardi’s death was as mysterious as his life. Except for a number of works, he did not leave much behind to shed light on his life. He shied away from people and only sought the companionship of learned men. His manner of dressing is said to have varied from day to day. One day he would dress in court style and the very next day he would dress modestly.

In order to understand Suhrawardi’s philosophy, the socio-political conditions under which he lived must be understood. This is not to say that his philosophy is subject to historicity, but that some of the issues involved in his death as well as certain philosophical trends in his ideas may be further clarified if the circumstances under which he lived are better known. As S.H. Naṣr states:

The causes for Suhrawardi’s death can not be truly discovered until the situation of the region, historically, religiously, philosophically and socially is thoroughly investigated.¹⁵

Suhrawardi lived during a turbulent period when northern Syria was undergoing a major change from being a strong Shi’ite center to a Sunni dominated region. He came to Aleppo at a time when this transformation was taking place and when Ṣalādīn was seen as the last hope for Muslims as the strong man who could confront the Crusaders. In a situation such as this the more exoteric jurists were not in any mood to allow a young philosopher, perhaps with some Shi’ite tendencies, to “corrupt” Ṣaladin’s son, Malik Ẓāhir, in whose court Suhrawardi lived.

In light of the above factors, one can view Suhrawardi as a Persian who inherited a rich culture with Zoroastrian elements in it, a philosopher well versed in Peripatetic philosophy, and a mystic who tried to demonstrate that at the heart of all the divinely revealed traditions of wisdom there is one universal truth. Perhaps his desire to demonstrate such a unity had to do with the apparent hostility of different religions to one another, in particular Christianity and Islam. At a time when Christians and Muslims were engaged in a bloody war, Suhrawardi’s message of unity was perceived to be a dangerous and even a heretical doctrine.

There are several possible explanations for Suhrawardi’s death which can be formulated as follows:

1. Suhrawardi was advocating a form of Persian nationalism¹⁶ which is generally considered to be a reaction to the domination of Arabs over Persia. This view, which is often supported by the presence of Zoroastrian elements in his doctrine, is in my opinion incorrect since it is contrary to the spirit of his philosophy and because Suhrawardi must have understood that the court of Malik Ẓāhir, the center of the Arab world, was not the best place to advocate Persian nationalism.
2. In his article, “The Source and Nature of Political Authority in Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination,”¹⁷ H. Ziā’ī argues that Suhrawardi advocated a political doctrine which considered the “king philosopher” to be the rightful ruler. This must have been offensive to both the Caliph in Baghdad and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ayyūbī. As he states:
   While Suhrawardi’s categories of Divine philosophers-sages include a wide range of types, the most general being composed of the type called Brethren of Abstraction ikhwān al-tajrid) which includes the perfect philosopher referred to as God’s vicegerent (khalifat Allāh) who may be the actual ruler (ra’īs) of an era.¹⁸
   Such an idea as advocated in the beginning of Ḥikmat al-ishrāq must have been rather alarming to the more orthodox elements in Malik Ẓāhir’s court.
3. It has been argued by some, including Shah razuri, that some of Suhrawardi’s companions called him ua prophet of God” (Abū’l-Futūḥ Rasūl Allāh).¹⁹ If the above is true, then it may have been the likely cause of Suhrawardi’s execution. One can make a case for this by arguing that since Suhrawardi believed that he was the unifier of two branches of wisdom, he must have assumed a role for himself which was above and beyond that of a philosopher and mystic. The argument becomes stronger when Suhrawardi tells us that wisdom as such began by the prophet Hermes and then was divided into two branches. Suhrawardi then implicitly argued that he was at least at the same rank as Hermes.

B. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. The Life and Works of Suhrawardi
• 2. Central Themes
• 3. Practical Sufism
• 4. Philosophical Sufism
• 5. The Influence of Suhrawardi on Islamic Philosophy
• 6. Concluding Remarks
• 7. Appendix: A Translation of the Text and Commentary of the Chant of Gabriel’s Wing
• Bibliography
• Index