Shihäb al-Din al-Suhrawardi
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Shihäb al-Din al-Suhrawardi
Shihäb al-Din al-Suhrawardi was born around 1154, probably in northwestern Iran. Spurred by a dream in which Aristotle appeared to him, he rejected the Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy of his youth and undertook the task of reviving the philosophical tradition of the "Ancients.
List of Mystics
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Notes
Suhrawardi began his journey after a dream in which Aristotle told him to revive the wisdom of the ancients.[1]
His works are works of revelation through connection.
He is important for two reasons.
One because he is part of the tradition of Platonic Orientalism.
"Suhrawardi has been portrayed in various ways: as a reviver of the ancient wisdom of the Persians, as a reformer of the Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy, as a Sufi. He was all of those things, but I think he was first of all a Platonic philosopher, though one who used mysticism as a philosophical tool."[2]
Two, because he felt mystical connection a critical component of philosophy.
"For Suhrawardi true philosophy required mystical intuition, a kind of revelation, and the philosophers who employed mystical intuition often expressed themselves in symbols Those, like the Peripatetics, who confined themselves to rational speculation were limited in their ability to reach the truth, especially about higher things. It was the earlier philosophers who were the true exponents of the divine philosophy. The founder of philosophy was Hermes/Idris/Enoch, who is usually associated with Egypt."[3]
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Footnotes
- ↑ Walbridge, John. The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism. New York: SUNY Press, 2001.p.
- ↑ Walbridge, John. The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism. New York: SUNY Press, 2001.p. x.
- ↑ Walbridge, John. The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism. New York: SUNY Press, 2001.p. 2-3.