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Suhrawardi
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Stanford Encyclopedia Trained in Avicennan Peripateticism, Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi (1154–

1191) became the founder of an Illuminationist (ishraqi) philosophical
of Philosophy tradition in the Islamic East. Since none of his works were translated into
Latin, he remained unknown in the West; but from the 13th century
onwards, his works were studied in a number of philosophical circles in
the Islamic East. In the mid-20th century, Henry Corbin worked
relentlessly to edit and study his writings, which led to renewed interest in
Edward N. Zalta Uri Nodelman Colin Allen R. Lanier Anderson Suhrawardi's works and thought, especially in the later part of the 20th
Principal Editor Senior Editor Associate Editor Faculty Sponsor century.
Editorial Board
http://plato.stanford.edu/board.html Suhrawardi provided an original Platonic criticism of the dominant
Library of Congress Catalog Data
Avicennan Peripateticism of the time in the fields of logic, epistemology,
ISSN: 1095-5054 psychology, and metaphysics, while simultaneously elaborating his own
epistemological (logic and psychology) and metaphysical (ontology and
Notice: This PDF version was distributed by request to mem-
cosmology) Illuminationist theories. His new epistemological perspective
bers of the Friends of the SEP Society and by courtesy to SEP
content contributors. It is solely for their fair use. Unauthorized led him to critique the Avicennan Peripatetic theory of definition,
distribution is prohibited. To learn how to join the Friends of the introduce a theory of ‘presential’ knowledge, elaborate a complex
SEP Society and obtain authorized PDF versions of SEP entries, ontology of lights, and add a fourth ‘imaginal’ world.
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1. Life and Works
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1.1 Life
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1.2 Works
The Metaphysics Research Lab
Center for the Study of Language and Information 1.3 Influences on Suhrawardi
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 2. Logic
Suhrawardi 2.1 Role of Logic
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Roxanne Marcotte 2.2 Definition
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3. Physics
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1
 Suhrawardi Roxanne Marcotte

3.2 Epistemology In 1183, Suhrawardi arrived in Aleppo, the year Saladin (d.1193)
4. Metaphysics conquered that city and handed it over to his son al-Zahir (d.1216).
4.1 Essence and Existence Suhrawardi, a Shafi‘i Sunni, made a name for himself among religious
4.2 Ontology of Lights scholars of the city, such as Iftikhar al-Din. He eventually managed to
4.3 Imaginal World secure an audience at the palace and to befriend al-Zahir. In 1186, he
5. Politics and Ethics completed his most important work, the Philosophy of Illumination
6. Legacy of the Illuminationist Tradition (hereafter, PI), at the age of thirty-three. Unfortunately, he also succeeded
6.1 Post-Suhrawadian Traditions in alienating the powerful religious elite of Aleppo on whom the Ayyubids
6.2 Historiography depended for the legitimacy of their rule over the city.
Bibliography
Primary Sources: Editions, Translations, Commentaries A combination of religious and political factors led to Suhrawardi's
Secondary Sources downfall. On the one hand, he was accused of holding heretical beliefs, a
Academic Tools vague charge easily sustained with pre-Islamic Persian names and symbols
Other Internet Resources that some of his works contain, his claim to divine-like inspiration, and his
Related Entries questioning, in light of God's omnipotence, the logical finality of
Prophethood. On the other hand, his earlier and close relationships with
the rulers of the recently conquered Artuqids of southwest Anatolia or
1. Life and Works with al-Zahir, the Ayyubid ruler, may have been interpreted as political
intrigue. In the end, Suhrawardi's fate was sealed with accusations of
1.1 Life heresy (rather than treason). Biographers and historians remain at odds
over the exact charges and course of events that led to his execution at the
Biographical data on the life of Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, the ‘master
end of 1191 (or early1192) (Marcotte 2001a).
of illumination’ (shaykh al-ishraq), is scarce. Born in the northwestern
Iranian village of Suhraward in 1154, he pursued his education in nearby 1.2 Works
Maraghah with Majd al-Din al-Jili, one of the teachers of Fakhr al-Din al-
Razi (d.1209). He then traveled to Isfahan, where he studied with the Suhrawardi's works are traditionally divided into four categories: several
logician Zahir al-Farisi with whom he read a text on logic written by Ibn early works, a number of mystical or allegorical texts, many written in
Sahlan al-Sawi (d.ca.1170). Suhrawardi then embarked on a journey that Persian (Suhrawardi 1976; 1993c; 1999b), minor works which often
led him to Anatolia. Shams al-Din al-Shahrazuri (d.ca.1288) identifies this present Peripatetic ideas and methods, but which also contain distinctive
period as his quest for spiritual guidance, a period when he would have Illuminationist theses, e.g., his Temples of Light (Suhrawardi 1996), and,
met a number of Sufi masters, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Maridini (d.1198), finally, his four major Arabic works which Suhrawardi intended to be
and would have sought patrons among the local rulers of Anatolia. studied in the following order: the Intimations (Suhrawardi, 2009 [logic,

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 Suhrawardi
physics, metaphysics]; cf. Ibn Kammuna 2003, 2009), the Oppositions
(Suhrawardi 1993a), the Paths and Conversations (Suhrawardi 1993a),
and the Philosophy of Illumination (Suhrawardi 1993b; 1999a; 1986). In
the latter work, Suhrawardi developed his Illuminationist philosophy in
detail, wherein the symbolism of Light becomes central in his
reconfigurations of cosmology and ontology.
Needless to say, such a classification, as well as the theory of two distinct
periods in Suhrawardi's life and works — Peripatetic, followed by
Illuminationist — poses some difficulties. The classification may well be
merely heuristic, as it fails to account for a number of works that expound
Peripatetic principles and methods and yet include a number of
Illuminationist principles, e.g., in his Tablets Dedicated to ‘Imad al-Din
(Suhrawardi 1976: 99-116) and in his Temples of Light (Suhrawardi 1996;
1976: 139–47). Although Suhrawardi mentions that he was “once zealous
in defense of the Peripatetic path” (PI, 108.8–9), a period during which
time he may have written such works as the Flashes of Light (a précis of
Avicennan Peripatetic theses) whose attribution to a specifically
identifiable ‘pre-inspiration’ period remains problematic; The Flashes of
Light, however, mentions both the Intimations and the Philosophy of
Illumination as completed works (Suhrawardi 1993a: 70.3–7). Although
Suhrawardi asserts that his Intimations was a work written according to
the Peripatetic tradition, the work contains some of his more distinctive
Illuminationist positions (Suhrawardi 1993a: 70–7 and 105–21).
Suhrawardi composed most of his treatises over a very short span of time,
most probably during the course of about ten years. The brevity of this
period would not have left him much time to undergo a radical
transformation through two different and successive stages in which he
would have espoused two distinct styles and modes of thought. For
Suhrawardi, a great number of valid Peripatetic principles remain
necessary for understanding his Illuminationist Philosophy. Henry Corbin
4 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
(d.1978) noted that there may not have been a purely Peripatetic period,
though Suhrawardi confessed he once defended the Peripatetic approach.
Very few of his works can, in fact, be dated; whereas a number of his
works were written simultaneously.
Suhrawardi's works circulated mainly within the traditional philosophical
circles of learning of the Islamic East until the end of the 19th and the
beginning of the 20th centuries when, in the wake of the works of Carra de
Vaux, Max Horten (1912), Louis Massignon, Otto Spies and Khatak
(1935), and Helmut Ritter, the French Iranologist Henry Corbin began to
study and edit a great number of his works. A first volume, published in
Istanbul in 1945, contained the metaphysics of Suhrawardi's first three
major Arabic works (Suhrawardi 1993a). In 1952, Corbin then edited
Suhrawardi's magnum opus, the Arabic Philosophy of Illumination
(Suhrawardi 1993b; 1999a; 1986), together with two minor works. Corbin
then went on to write his major study on Suhrawardi et les platoniciens de
Perse (Corbin 1971; cf. Abu Rayyan 1969). In 1970, Seyyed Hossein Nasr
edited fourteen of Suhrawardi's Persian texts (two attributed to him), many
of which are allegorical or mystical in nature (Suhrawardi 1993c).
1.3 Influences on Suhrawardi
Mapping Suhrawardi's intellectual trajectory and identifying the sources
which he may have used has proven exceedingly difficult (Walbridge
2000, 2001; cf. Gutas 2003). Suhrawardi was undoubtedly instructed in
the Avicennan Peripatetic tradition (in Maragha and Isfahan), but this
would have also included the study of the ideas of Aristotle, Plato and,
most importantly, of the Neoplatonists and earlier philosophers who wrote
in Arabic. Avicenna's (d.1037) works were undoubtedly central. Much
work still needs to be done to assess the real significance of Avicenna's
Discussions (1992) and his Notes on Aristotle's De anima (1984) on
Suhrawardi, as well as the nature of the influence exerted on him by post-
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 Suhrawardi
Avicennan philosophers, in particular, Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi
(d.ca.1150), the original, yet eclectic critic of Avicenna's logic, psychology
and metaphysics, and the logician Ibn Sahlan al-Sawi.
The influence of both Plato and Aristotle remains readily identifiable in
Suhrawardi's works. Attempts have been made to trace the Greek
influences of such figures as Empedocles, Pythagoras, and the Stoics, an
exercise which has led to Suhrawardi being labeled a ‘Pythagoreanizing
Neoplatonist’ (Walbridge 2000; 2001), but with more or less success (see
Gutas 2003: 308). Notwithstanding Suhrawardi's frequent appeals to the
authority of Plato, another, more fruitful area of research might rest with
such works as the Arabic Theology of Aristotle (a paraphrase of parts of
Books IV-VI of Plotinus’ Enneads), in particular, the passages it contains
from Enneads IV, 8.1, where the names of many philosophers of the Greek
tradition important to Suhrawardi are mentioned.
Charting Suhrawardi's intellectual journey and encounters with mysticism,
ancient Greek Gnosticism and Hermeticism, or ancient Persian
Zoroastrian traditions, to whose symbols he often appeals, remains
exceedingly difficult. In addition, no one has as yet fully explored the
possible influences of Ismailism or Sufism on Suhrawardi; his
Illuminationist doctrine could have more affinity with Ismaili thought
(such as the hierarchical notion of being in the works of 10th century Abu
Ya‘qub al-Sijistani) than with the doctrines of classical Sufis whom he
claims to be following (Landolt 1987), although similarities with certain
Sufi theories have been noted (Landolt 2007). Medieval biographers, on
the other hand, readily reported Suhrawardi's mystical inclination, his
association with mystics, his ascetic practices and (hagiographic)
wondrous deeds. Suhrawardi himself considered spiritual exercises a
necessary preparation for the advent of presential knowledge and vision of
the Lights. He often appealed to ancient Zoroastrian motifs, terminology
and mythical figures, even Mazdean theology, e.g., in his Invocations and
6 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
Prayers (Suhrawardi, 1976; cf. with occult and devotional works
unearthed by Walbridge, 2011). His appeal to angels as embodiments of
the intellective principles, for example, shares much with ancient
Zoroastrian angelology (Corbin 1972: 111–3, 124–5), but also with the
angelology found in Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi's Considerations (1939,
vol. 2: 157; cf. Pines 1979: 253–5), the latter, however, being devoid of
any ancient Persian symbolism. Without any clear historical filiations to
particular textual traditions, one can only rely on Suhrawardi's own claims
to having intended to provide a synthesis of these ancient Western and
Eastern intellectual traditions. Why Suhrawardi “presented himself as
following these ancient philosophers, and especially Plato, rather than
Avicenna” has yet to be elucidated and adequately explained (Gutas 2003:
309).
2. Logic
2.1 Role of Logic
Very little has been written about Suhrawardi's logical treatises or his logic
in general. Ziai (1990) provides perhaps the only general overview of
Suhrawardi's logic, his criticism of Peripatetic (Aristotelian) essentialist
definitions and his own elaboration of an Illuminationist theory of
definition. While Suhrawardi includes logical discussions in his major
Arabic works, in his Philosophy of Illumination, he ventures a criticism
and a restructuring of some elements of Avicennan Peripatetic logic.
The Philosophy of Illumination does not follow the customary Avicennan
tripartite division into logic, physics, and metaphysics which was standard
in Post-Avicennan Peripatetic works. Instead, Suhrawardi begins with a
small number of useful ‘Rules of Thought’ (PI, 14–105) that cover not
only logic, but also elements of physics and metaphysics which, according
to his 13th century commentator Shahrazuri, are rules derived from the
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 Suhrawardi
Avicennan Peripatetic corpus (Ziai 1990: 41–76). Suhrawardi first
introduces elements of semantics, where he discusses problems of
meaning, conception, assent and the nature, the definition and the
description of ‘reality’ (haqiqa), the latter being equated by Qutb al-Din
Shirazi (d.1311) with quiddity (mahiyya). Suhrawardi also discusses
accidents, universals (adopting a more or less nominalist position), innate
(fitriyya) and non innate human knowledge and the notion of definition
and its elements (PI, 8.20–11.9). He then proceeds with short discussions
on the conditions of proofs, on defining propositions, their classes and
modalities, and includes a number of discussions on contradiction,
conversion, and some syllogisms (reductio ad absurdum and
demonstrative syllogisms). Suhrawardi identifies some errors of formal
and material logic with the logic of the Peripatetics (an epitome of the
Sophistical Refutations). He even includes brief discussions on dialectics,
rhetoric, and poetics whose premises he considers non-scientific and thus
part of non demonstrative syllogisms (Ziai 1990: 41–74). He criticizes the
Peripatetics’ understanding of negation, as well as the second and third
figures of the syllogism. He reduces all types of propositions to necessary
affirmative propositions and discusses some of the differences between the
Peripatetics and the Illuminationists regarding a number of sophisms.
Suhrawardi even revisits the classical theory of the ten Categories which
(as with the Stoics) he lumps together and reduces to five: substance,
quality, quantity, relation, and motion, of which the latter four are
accidental categories. The Categories now become ‘degrees of intensity’
(or perfection) of light that entities possess and that they emit, rather than
being merely distinct ‘ontic entities’ (Ziai 2003: 452). As such, the degree
of intensity (with its corollary ‘weakness’) of light becomes a property of
substances as well as of accidents.
2.2 Definition
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Roxanne Marcotte
Suhrawardi criticizes the Peripatetic theory of definition and the inductive
approach it advocates as a foundation for scientific knowledge and
demonstration. He uses logical and semantic arguments to question
‘essentialist’ types of definitions (Aristotelian) on which Avicenna's own
‘complete (essentialist) definition’ depends. He rejects the claims that it is
possible to obtain a complete definition that could encompass all the
essential constituents needed to lead to the knowledge of that which is
previously unknown and in need of a definition (Ziai 1990: 77–114).
Suhrawardi writes that “it is clear that it is impossible for a human being
to construct an essential definition in the way the Peripatetics require—a
difficulty which even their master [Aristotle] admits. Therefore, we have
definition only by means of things that specify conjunction” (PI, 11.5–9).
He insists that a definition should enumerate, in some kind of unitary
formula, all the essential elements of the described object. He therefore
includes elements of definition by extension (enumeration of members of a
‘class’) and of definition by intension (enumeration of defining property or
properties), for example, that “the essence of man, which is the truth
underlying the symbol ‘man’, is recoverable only in the subject. The act of
‘recovery’ is the translation of the symbol to its equivalent in the
consciousness or the self of the subject” (Ziai 2003: 448–9). Suhrawardi
explains his ‘conceptualist’ notion of definition at greater length in his
Paths and Conversations (Ziai 1990: 110). His epistemological critique of
the Peripatetic theory of definition is undoubtedly inspired by Abu al-
Barakat al-Baghdadi's own critical evaluation of the Isagoge which was
developed in his Considerations (1939: vol. 1, 55–7; cf. Ziai 1990: 183–
4), but also by Suhrawardi's own understanding of the epistemic role of
self-knowledge.
Suhrawardi proceeds by introducing his reformulation of an
Illuminationist theory of definition that signals what some have identified
as a ‘Platonic’ or ‘Neoplatonic’ turn (Ziai 1990: 114–128). Now, only
direct experience guarantees acquisition of true knowledge, such that
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 Suhrawardi
epistemological considerations are at the heart of his reconceptualization
of the definition. Suhrawardi's theory of definition thus builds on a
Platonic epistemology. Knowledge of the reality of things occurs through
the direct apprehension of the intrinsic light-nature (the thing as it is) of all
entities (see metaphysics below). Direct knowledge occurs through
‘vision-illumination’, as a person realizes that what is to be defined
becomes available to one's self through self-consciousness. At such time,
the soul becomes directly aware of the reality of that which is to be
defined. The soul is then able to grasp directly these essences whose
elements can then be translated using proofs and demonstrations to
develop a discursive type of knowledge about that original apperception of
reality.
Suhrawardi writes that, in and of itself, light is not in need of any
definition, because all that is required is for light to be experienced, as
there is nothing more evident than light. In his Paths and Conversations,
Suhrawardi writes that to define something is to actually ‘see’ the thing as
it really is (Ziai 1990: 104–14). Suhrawardi begins the second part of his
Philosophy of Illumination by stating that “anything in existence that
requires no definition or explanation is evident. Since there is nothing
more evident than light, there is nothing less in need of definition” (PI,
76), thereby establishing the centrality of the concept of light for his
Illuminationist ontology and epistemology. Suhrawardi argues that only
direct intuitive experience can lead to knowledge of the reality (haqiqa) of
things, which definitions can only attempt to describe and explain via a
posteriori rational investigations or demonstrations (Ziai 1990: 81). Qutb
al-Din Shirazi noted that Illuminationist epistemology relied on this type
of personal and intuitive knowledge, itself not in need of any definition
(Ziai 1990: 133).
10 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
3. Physics
Suhrawardi's Intimations, Paths and Conversations, and Oppositions
contain substantial sections on physics, although all have remained
unstudied. At present, only the physics of the Intimations has been edited,
together with a commentary by Ibn Kammuna (2003). In the Philosophy of
Illumination, Suhrawardi deals mainly with some general principles of
physics, but not with any kind of detail. With his philosophy of lights, he
manages, nonetheless, to reconfigure some elements of physics. He
criticizes, for example, the Peripatetic hylomorphic division of matter and
form, since hylomorphism becomes incompatible with the ontic
luminosity of reality. Immaterial entities and material bodies that are
composed of varying degrees of light remain ‘unitary concrete entities’.
The physical world is composed of dusky substances with dark accidents,
while self-subsistent magnitude appears to replace prime matter which,
like a number of traditional physical notions, becomes a mere mental
concept that has no reality outside the mind. It is no longer the perception
of the form of objects, but their constitutive lights that becomes the true
object of knowledge (Walbridge 2000: 22–3).
3.1 Psychology
Suhrawardi equally revisits Avicenna's psychology. The soul remains an
immaterial, self-subsisting, living, knowing substance, capable of ruling
over the body, but now defined in terms of its luminosity. A relation of
dominion and desire is established between the luminous substance of the
soul and the tenebrous substance of the body. Between the two, the
psychic pneuma functions as an intermediary that is able to receive
images, forms or ‘icons’ of metaphysical realities that it then reflects and
manifests into the soul.
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 Suhrawardi
Vision remains the most important sense. It is integrated into Suhrawardi's
Illuminationist theory of vision and incorporated into his theory of
knowledge by presence. Suhrawardi begins with a criticism and a rejection
of the prevalent ‘extramissive’ and ‘intromissive’ theories of vision on
account of the materialist implications of the imprinting of forms in the
material substratum of the eye. Although mediated by a physical organ,
vision remains primarily an activity of the human soul, whereby the soul
accesses directly the reality of the objects of vision. In the Philosophy of
Illumination, the vision of physical objects requires, first, a ‘presential’
face-to-face encounter of that which perceives, both the physical organ
and the human soul, and the illuminated object; second, the absence of
obstacles between subject and object, often described in mystical terms as
the absence of veils, whereby the soul becomes illuminated by the
(substantial or accidental) light of the object; and finally, the presence of
light, the necessary condition for the establishment of an Illuminationist
relation. Vision thus unfolds simultaneously on two different planes,
physical visual perception being reduced to the soul's perception or
awareness of the intrinsic and essential light possessed by the object. True
vision does not require the presence and transmission of forms, but occurs
through the soul's ability to be aware of the essential light-reality of the
object. Physics and metaphysics thus merge, as objects have the ability to
receive and emit light, though only in an accidental manner, light being
precisely what the light-soul, the Isfahbad-light, is able to perceive,
whether it be through the senses, the intellect, intuition, or dreams (PI,
240.4–241.4).
Suhrawardi criticizes the localization of the internal faculties in different
parts of the brain, as their localization in a material organ again naturalizes
the process of representation. Internal faculties now become shadows (or
functions) of the soul, lumped together into a single faculty responsible for
representation. The Isfahbad-light principle accesses the supernal lights,
rules over the active imagination, and reflects onto it the lights it receives.
12 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
The faculty of representation perceives particulars, while the ruling light,
the Isfahbad-light principle guaranteeing the unity of the soul, perceives
universals and immaterial entities. The new emphasis on the totality of the
soul, as the main perceiving entity, and the reduction of the Avicennan
faculties traditionally responsible for representation to a single faculty
could find their origin in Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi's Considerations
(1939, vol. 2: 318-24; cf. Pines 1979: 227–31). As for recollection,
Suhrawardi defines it in a rather Platonic manner, whereby it becomes the
retrieval of images (or concepts) whose existence lies in the ‘world of
memorial’, accessible only to the luminous part of the soul.
Illumination becomes a metaphor for the intellective process. Illuminative
relations are established between metaphysical active light principles and
the human soul. Whereas only the (rational) Isfahbad-light part of the soul
is immortal, Suhrawardi, nevertheless, notes the possibility for the
imaginative faculty of souls that have not yet achieved perfection to
perhaps survive, something that is required for the experiencing of divine
retribution and for the perfecting of souls in the afterlife. The spheres of
Ether and Zamharir, both situated below the Moon and associated with the
world of elements, are identified as possible ‘pneumatic’ substrata for the
posthumous activities of the imaginative faculties of those souls
(Suhrawardi 1993c: 245.5–7). Suhrawardi attempted, therefore, to
postulate the existence of an independent eschatological realm with the
assistance of which sensitive perceptions could occur in the form of
imaginal representations (Marcotte, 2011). Finally, he does not appear to
completely reject the possibility of some kind of transmigration of souls,
especially of miserable souls, in spite of the fact that he does not overtly
affirm it and that many other passages seem to deny it (Schmidtke 1999).
3.2 Epistemology
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 Suhrawardi
Suhrawardi's Illuminationist epistemology revolves around his theory of
‘presential’ (huduri) knowledge that one is able to achieve through
intuitive apprehension or contemplative vision (mushahada). Qutb al-Din
Shirazi noted the importance of continuous practice of spiritual exercises
for the occurrence of such intuitive and mystical aptitudes to access true
reality. The ‘Plotinian’ (cf. Enneads V 3.6) Aristotle figure of Suhrawardi's
famous dream-vision found in his Intimations (cf. Walbridge 2000: 225–9)
provides us with an illustrious example of what constitutes, for
Suhrawardi, real knowledge based on immediate and intuitive knowledge.
Whereas the Peripatetics had extolled intellection, Suhrawardi brings
direct intuition or mystical contemplation (heightened by ascetic
components) to the forefront, as an alternative — albeit more reliable —
foundation of certainty. Intuitive knowledge provides access to a priori
truths of which discursive knowledge can only be subsequently validated
through a posteriori demonstrations (Dinani 1985; Ha’iri Yazdi 1992;
Aminrazavi 1997; 2003).
Suhrawardi explores some of the issues raised by the hypothetical example
of the ‘suspended’ person found in Avicenna's Discussions and his Notes
on Aristotle's De anima, and his treatments of the soul in the Cure and the
Salvation. He analyzes the notions of apperception and self-awareness and
alludes to a pre-logical mode of perception that remains distinct from
intellection. He discusses the primary awareness of the soul's existence, its
self-identity, the unmediated character of this particular type of knowledge
and issues of individuation. He provides various arguments to demonstrate
the existence of a type of knowledge that is self-evident, a priori and
unmediated through any type of abstraction and representation of forms,
whether it be through an image, a form, a notion or an attribute of the self.
The perception of pain becomes paradigmatic of self-knowledge as
unmediated perception, i.e., a non discursive, non-conceptual and non-
propositional type of knowledge that, nonetheless, does constitute a mode
of knowing distinct from discursive knowledge. Similar to pain, self-
14 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
knowledge provides yet another illustration of the type of epistemic
process that Suhrawardi considers being at the heart of intuitive
knowledge. The unmediated nature of this process characterizes both the
soul's self-knowledge and the soul's knowledge of supernal entities and the
glimpses of the Light of Lights it may obtain (Marcotte 2006; see the more
recent studies of Kaukua, 2011 and Eichner, 2011).
In Suhrawardi's ‘science of lights’, the object of perception — light —
cannot be known discursively, but only through an immediate presence or
awareness of its luminosity. Mystical vision and contemplation operate
through this intuitive process of knowing metaphysical lights. Individuals
achieve such states through spiritual and ascetic practices that enable them
to detach themselves from the darknesses of the world in their quest for
the apperception of those lights. Intuitive knowledge thus constitutes a
superior means of accessing the luminous reality and the divine realm of
metaphysical truths.
Suhrawardi appears to spiritualize Avicenna's Peripatetic epistemology
with a greatly Platonic reading, now that the access to the ultimate reality
is guaranteed through divine photic illumination. His classification of
learned men according to their respective merits in discursive (philosophy)
and intuitive (mystical) knowledge is revealing. Direct intuition or
mystical contemplation plays a predominant role, even for prophets.
Prophetic knowledge relies on the functions of the faculty of imagination,
i.e., its mimetic function and its role in the particularization of universal
truths. Prophecy becomes the ‘direct’ experience of the world of lights.
Suhrawardi also introduces an independent imaginal realm to account for
the ability of prophets and other gifted individuals to access divine
metaphysical realms where imaginal forms already exist. Such individuals
are either commissioned or uncommissioned to receive and transmit God's
message, the prophets being those who are among the privileged
commissioned.
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 Suhrawardi
Direct intuition lies at the heart of Suhrawardi's prophetology, inasmuch as
only the most perfect sage who witnesses those truths, whether he be a
prophet or not, deserves God's viceregency, by being either a living proof
or in occultation. Individuals who have access to those metaphysical lights
can be invested with the viceregency of God, depending on the degree of
their receptivity and the purity of their hearts. On the whole, however, the
epistemic process by which mystics such as Abu Yazid al-Bistami (d.874),
Sahl al-Tustari (d.896) and Hallaj (d.912), sages such as Zarathustra and
Empedocles, philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato, or Suhrawardi
himself have all had access to those metaphysical truths and divine realms
remains quite similar to the process by which prophets have accessed the
same divine and metaphysical truths. Liberated from the enslavement of
the material world, their Isfahbad-light souls become receptive to
illumination and perceive truths similar to those perceived by prophets.
Prophetic and mystical knowledge only occur once the human soul is able
to conjoin with those metaphysical lights. The soul is able to acquire a
luminous and theurgic power, mediated by the active imagination which
existentiates images and forms that have been reflected, in a mirror-like
manner, onto it. It can imitate and reproduce forms that it has received
from non-sensible realms, as it short-circuits all incoming external and
sensible data. The faculty of active imagination then projects those matters
onto the ‘common sense’ which provides a sensible form to those divine
metaphysical realities that they did not originally possess.
4. Metaphysics
In his Philosophy of Illumination, Suhrawardi develops a complex
metaphysic of ‘divine’ lights. Light, the lynchpin of his metaphysics,
structures his ontology and cosmology at the heart of which lies a
spectrum of light and darkness that shapes the whole of reality. In his
Intimations (1993a: 2.11–3.16), philosophy is divided into theoretical and
16 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
practical components, where the practical includes ethics, economics and
politics, while the theoretical is concerned with immaterial realities, the
highest theoretical component being concerned with absolute being
(wujud).
4.1 Essence and Existence
The concept of light manages to ‘disrupt’ classical Peripatetic ontology by
somehow rendering irrelevant the Avicennan distinction between essence
and existence in contingent beings (Rizvi 2000). Perhaps following
Aristotle, Avicenna favored the primacy of essence over existence, the
latter considered an abstract concept. Suhrawardi criticized and rejected
the Peripatetic logical distinction between the two concepts, insisting that
the concept of existence is added to quiddity in re, such that the general
extension of the concept of existence remains a mental predicate, not a
real one. For Suhrawardi, concepts such as essence and existence
considered a priori and real were “merely mental considerations (i‘tibari)
with no corresponding reality” (Rizvi 1999: 222).
The primacy of light signals a shift in the understanding of the very nature
of the ‘essence’ of things. The degree or intensity of light of essences
makes them distinct from one another, although they all share in the same
light whose origins remain with the Light of Lights. Everything partakes
in and of light, in an almost infinite manner. The distinction between
essence and existence no longer becomes appropriate to assert
contingency and only remains notional, since the difference between
necessary and contingent beings now depends on whether a being
possesses light in itself or light for other than itself (Rizvi 1999: 223). In
his Philosophy of Illumination (83.24–7), Suhrawardi writes: “Light is
divided into light of itself and in itself and light of itself but in another.
You know that accidental light is light in another. Thus, it is not a light in
itself although it is a light of itself”.
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 Suhrawardi Roxanne Marcotte

Rizvi showed how later philosophers ascribed the ontological primacy of being, blending Avicenna's ontology of contingency with Suhrawardi's
essence (or quiddity) thesis to Suhrawardi and noted that he “clearly states Illuminationist hierarchy of lights (Rizvi 1999: 225).
that quiddity/essence in itself is a conceptual and unreal a notion as
existence” (Rizvi 1999: 224), Suhrawardi noting that “the quiddity of 4.2 Ontology of Lights
luminosity [i.e., the same as light] is a mental universal” (PI, 92.4–5). But
In the Niche of Lights (1998), Muhammad al-Ghazali (d.1111) discussed
it is also true that Suhrawardi's “phenomenological epistemology of
mystical epistemology using Qur’anic light terminology, whereas
eidetic vision” could easily imply a primacy of essence (Rizvi 1999: 224).
Suhrawardi, in his Philosophy of Illumination, developed a truly original
Suhrawardi's position, therefore, is greatly nominalist, now that both
light ontology. While light always remains in itself identical, its proximity
existence and essence are considered mere mental concepts, reality having
or distance from the Light of Lights determines the ontic light reality of all
been redefined with the new primacy of light. Light and essence cannot,
beings. Light operates through the activities of dominion of the higher
however, be synonymous. Both light and darkness exist: “light is the being
‘triumphal’ or ‘victorial’ lights, as well as the desire of the lower lights for
of things as their instantiating principle in concreto and not their essences”
the higher ones, operating at all levels and hierarchies of reality (PI, 97.7–
(Rizvi 1999: 224). By the same token, light is not identical with substance,
98.11). Reality proceeds from the Light of Lights and unfolds via the First
since both dark substances and accidental lights exist (Walbridge 2000:
Light and all the subsequent lights whose exponential interactions bring
24). Rizvi (1999: 224) notes that entities grasped as essences through
about the existence of all entities. As each new light interacts with other
presential knowledge are “apparent aspects of what one might regard as
existing lights, more light and dark substances are generated. Light
‘light monads’”, an idea whose source appears to be greatly Platonic.
produces both immaterial and substantial lights, such as immaterial
For Suhrawardi, being is grasped through the (non-sensible) vision of intellects (angels), human and animal souls. Light produces dusky
lights that lie beyond the essences, as even the existence of bodies depends substances, such as bodies. Light can generate both luminous accidents,
upon incorporeal lights (PI, 78.10–79.18). In his Philosophy of such as those in immaterial lights, physical lights or rays, and dark
Illumination (79.19–22), Suhrawardi writes that “Nothing that has an accidents, whether it be in immaterial lights or in bodies (PI, 77.1–78.9).
essence [dhat] of which it is not unconscious is dusky, for its essence is
Suhrawardi's metaphysics of lights rests on at least two central principles
evident to it. It cannot be a dark state in something else, since even the
which account for all the basic classes of beings (light and darkness,
luminous state is not a self-subsistent light, let alone the dark state.
substance and state, independent and dependent beings). A first principle,
Therefore, it is nonspatial pure incorporeal light”. Access to this ultimate
Walbridge notes, “is a form of the principle of sufficient reason, ‘the
reality of beings is achieved through the direct experience of its ontic light
principle of the most noble contingency’ […] which asserts that nothing
reality, rendering intuitive and non-discursive knowledge (logically) prior
can exist without a cause of higher ontological level” (PI, 90.1–92.25). A
to any other type of knowledge. Later, Mulla Sadra (d.1640) noted
second principle is the Aristotelian “impossibility of an ordered, actual
Suhrawardi's confusion between the concept of existence and the reality of
infinity” which, with the first principle, guarantees that “there cannot be an
existence and replaced Suhrawardi's notion of light with the notion of
infinite number of levels of being and that there must be one being whose

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 Suhrawardi
existence is necessary in itself—Avicenna's ‘Necessary of Existence’
(wajib al-wujud)”, the Light of Lights (Walbridge 2000: 24–5; PI, 87.1–
89.8).
With the notion of intensity of light, Suhrawardi then develops his two-
fold process of light production. A vertical and a horizontal hierarchy of
pure immaterial lights structure his Illuminationist metaphysics. From the
Light of Lights proceeds a first vertical hierarchy of lights: from the Light
of Lights proceeds a First Light (following the classical principle that from
the one only the one proceeds) from which proceeds a Second Light and
the all-encompassing barzakh (i.e., a ethereal body), from the second a
Third Light and the Second barzakh, or the Sphere of Fixed Stars, and so
forth. The first vertical hierarchy of lights mirrors the Avicennan
Peripatetic process of emanation of Intelligences. Suhrawardi, however,
increases the number of active principles, something that Averroes
denounced in Avicenna's Neoplatonic ontology. Suhrawardi's ‘triumphal’
or ‘victorial’ lights are now as numerous as there are stars in the fixed
heavens. While no longer limited to the ten Peripatetic Intelligences and
now indefinite in number, they are not infinite (PI, 99.20–100.19).
The vertical hierarchy of lights interacts with a horizontal hierarchy of
lights. This second hierarchy of ‘ruling’ lights incorporates, amongst other
things, ancient angelologies (Semitic angelic hierarchies and Zoroastrian
mythology) and some type of Platonic Forms. Each of these horizontal
lights becomes a ‘Lord of Species’, i.e., a luminous self-subsisting and
fixed species, whose function is analogous to the Platonic Forms in so far
as it ‘governs’ the species under it (rather than being a mere universal),
such as the species of bodies that move the celestial spheres and all
matters sublunar, including human souls. Out of the interaction of the
vertical and the horizontal lights, the bodies of the lower world are
generated. These horizontal or vertical lights are all structurally
interrelated through the principle of love that the lower lights have for the
20 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
higher lights and the principle of domination that the higher lights have
over the lower ones (PI, 101.12–103.31). The two dimensional hierarchy
of lights introduces a new non linear notion of metaphysical causation.
The multiplication of metaphysical entities serves to increase the
ontological distance that exists between the Light of Lights and the
sublunar world, while simultaneously providing a greater holistic view of
reality, since light lies at its core. Notions of intensity and gradation of
light, together with notions of presence and self-manifestation, are thus
central to Suhrawardi's metaphysics. The intensity of light corresponds to
the degree of their self-awareness, such that the self-awareness of the
Light of Lights encompasses all of reality (in terms of intensity). Later,
Mulla Sadra (d.1640) takes up Suhrawardi's insight about the gradation
and intensity of light and develops an ontology based on the gradation of
existence (rather than light) of all beings, somehow reversing Suhrawardi's
ontology with his primacy of existence and his understanding of essence
as a mental concept.
4.3 Imaginal World
About half a century earlier than Ibn ‘Arabi (d.1240), Suhrawardi
introduced his own independent ‘imaginal world’, what Corbin has called
the mundus imaginalis, a fourth ‘imaginal’ world, alongside the
intelligible, the spiritual and the material. This imaginal world, a substance
made of shadows, operates like an ‘isthmus’ or an intermediary realm
between the world of pure light and the physical world of darkness, lying
somewhere between this physical world and the world of the species and
of Platonic Forms (the horizontal lights), perhaps at the lower threshold of
the world of souls.
In the imaginal world, entities somehow possess an existence of their own
(some, prior to their coming into existence in this world). The imaginal
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 Suhrawardi
world contains images that are not embedded in matter, a plane of “ghosts,
of the forms in mirrors, dreams, and worlds of wonder beyond our own”
which light can existentiate (Walbridge 2000: 26). The imaginal world
provides the material for the miraculous. It is where the ‘metahistorical’
(Corbin's term) visions of Imams occur, where eschatological forms and
images will perhaps be existentiated for the souls of the deceased, so that
they may continue to perfect their souls (PI, 148.29–150.17), as well as
where elements not fitting conveniently into the Aristotelian scheme of
forms in matter are found. Suhrawardi did not, however, systematically
develop the concept. This was left to his followers.
5. Politics and Ethics
Suhrawardi's Philosophy of Illumination carries a political dimension. Ziai
(1992) provides an overview of what he calls the ‘Illuminationist political
doctrine’ which establishes a connection between political authority, just
rule, and the ruler's access to divine light. This is particularly manifest in
the Tablets Dedicated to ‘Imad al-Din (Suhrawardi 1993c: 184.12–188.4)
and the Book of Radiance (Suhrawardi 1998: 84–5), where Suhrawardi
appeals to ancient Persian notions of royal glory (kharrah) and of
luminous divine light (farrah), two signs of the divine authority of ancient
kings of Iranian mythology, the divine lights that instructed Kay Khusraw
and Zarathustra (PI, 156.3–157.3).
Suhrawardi may, in fact, appeal to a somewhat ‘mythological’ genealogy
of the transmission of ancient Illuminationist philosophies from the
Greek/West and the Iranian/East which he claims to revive. Ziai speculates
that Suhrawardi tried to put into practice the political dimension of his
Illuminationist philosophy (Ziai 1992: 337; cf. Walbridge 2000: 201–10),
based mainly on passages from Suhrawardi's works and the possible
circumstances of his demise and execution. Historical data supporting the
thesis, Suhrawardi's relationship with his many patrons and the purpose of
22 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
passages relating to these Illuminationist political doctrines need further
examination.
The ethics underlying Suhrawardi's Illuminationist system has yet to be
adequately investigated, but the political doctrines can provide indications
of the conditions that would guarantee the reign of a just rule, thus
providing some elements of an Illuminationist political ethic. Suhrawardi's
particularly Platonic understanding of the mystic qua ruler and his
political role, coupled with the role of intuitive or ‘mystical’ access to the
‘divine’ lights by prophets, mystics and sages might, however, not leave
Suhrawardi immune to the same criticism Popper leveled against Plato.
One needs to turn to Suhrawardi's eschatology and his discussions on the
fate of the soul in the afterlife to obtain a glimpse of what might constitute
a ‘good’ and ethical life in this world. In line with Avicenna's classification
of souls in the hereafter according to their worldly acquisition of practical
and theoretical knowledge, the moral qualities developed in this life
determine the fate of souls in the afterlife (PI, 148.27–150.17). In search
of felicity, souls must attempt to detach themselves from their tenebrous
bodies and all that is worldly and material and to access the world of
immaterial lights. Souls engrossed in matter in this life partially determine
their fate in the afterlife and Suhrawardi, in this respect, does not depart
greatly from Peripatetic eschatology.
Prophets, saints and exceptionally gifted mystics are able to achieve
conjunction with the world of pure lights. Ascetic practices in this life
become a means to attain self-consciousness of the ontic luminosity of the
soul. Some of Suhrawardi's allegorical and mystical treatises, such as The
Treatise of the Bird, A Tale of Occidental Exile or A Day with a Group of
Sufis (Suhrawardi 1982; cf. Landolt 1987), provide examples of the
pedagogical role and instruction of the guide figure, of the Lord of the
human species, or of spiritual entities to the novice in his or her quest for
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 Suhrawardi
the immaterial world of lights in which salvation lies. The posthumous life
of individual souls and their ability to perceive the promised other-worldly
rewards and punishments become conditions for divine retribution.
6. Legacy of the Illuminationist Tradition
6.1 Post-Suhrawadian Traditions
The tragic end of Suhrawardi marked the birth of the Illuminationist
tradition. By the end of the 13th century, at least two of Suhrawardi's
works were readily available and studied in the major centers of learning
of Syria (Damascus and Aleppo), Iraq (Baghdad) and Iran (Maraghah),
some of which circulated most probably even before his death. Ziai (2003:
473–87) identifies at least two trends within the Illuminationist tradition of
the 13th century that were to shape later developments: Ibn Kammuna
(d.1284), on the one hand, emphasized the purely discursive and the more
systematically philosophical aspects of Suhrawardi's Illuminationist
philosophy, while Shahrazuri, on the other hand, focused and expanded on
the symbolic and the allegorical aspects of the tradition. Ibn Kammuna, a
Jewish philosopher greatly influenced by both Avicenna and Suhrawardi is
the first commentator (Langermann 2005: 297–301; Pourjavady and
Schmidtke 2006: 23–32). While in Baghdad, Ibn Kammuna (2003) wrote
his commentary on the physics and the psychology of Suhrawardi's
Intimations (in 1268). Having resided in Aleppo, Ibn Kammuna could well
be, with such works as his al-Kashif (al-Jadid fi al-Hikma) completed in
1278, the link between Suhrawardi and Shahrazuri (d.ca.1288) who wrote
the earliest commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination (Shahrazuri
1993; cf. Marcotte 2002) and whose encyclopedic The Divine Tree
(Shahrazuri, 2004 and 2005 [a better edition]; Marcotte 2001b) and his
Book of Symbols (Privot 2004) can readily be labeled Illuminationist
works, although much work is needed to determine the extent of
Shahrazuri's contribution to the Illuminationist tradition. In 1295, Qutb al-
24 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
Din Shirazi wrote his own commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination
(Shirazi 2001; Suhrawardi 1986), based on Shahrazuri's work (Walbridge
1992).
Authors that incorporated Illuminationist ideas include Muhammad Ibn
Rizi (fl.ca.1280), in his Life of Souls (Marcotte 2004); Athir al-Din al-
Abhari (d.1242) in his Uncovering of the Realities; Ibn Abi Jumhur Ahsa’i
(d.1501) (Schmidtke 2000); the two theologians Jalal al-Din Dawwani
(d.1501) and Ghiyath al-Din Dashtaki (d.1541) who both wrote
commentaries on Suhrawardi's Temples of light (Dawwani 1953; Dashtaki
2003; Suhrawardi 1996); and Mir Damad (d.1631), especially in his
Spiritual Attractions (2001) and his Embers (1977). Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-
Din al-Shirazi) (d.1640) was most interested in Suhrawardi's critique of
Avicennan Peripateticism (existence as a being of reason, the Platonic
Forms, and knowledge by presence) and wrote marginal glosses on Qutb
al-Din al-Shirazi's commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination (Mulla
Sadra, 2010; cf. with Suhrawardi 1986). Mulla Sadra positioned himself in
opposition to what he understood to be Suhrawardi's view that quiddity
was primary, a view shared by Mir Damad (d.1631), and instead held,
such as Hadi Sabzawari (d.1873) after him, that existence was primary.
During the same period, Suhrawardi's works entered the Turkish Ottoman
and Persian Indian philosophical traditions. In the Ottoman world, Isma‘il
Ankaravi (d.1631), a member of the Mevlevi Sufi order, translated and
commented Suhrawardi Temples of Light (Kuspinar 1996). In the 17th
century, the enigmatic Ahmad Ibn al-Harawi (probably from Herat) living
in the Indian subcontinent, translated into Persian the Philosophy of
Illumination on which he wrote a commentary (Harawi 1979). Azar
Kayvan (d.ca.1615), a Zoroastrian high priest from Fars who emigrated to
Gujurat in Mughal India during the reign of Emperor Akbar (ruled 1556–
1605), started a Zoroastrian Illuminationist school (Walbridge 2001: 91–
3). Even thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Muhammad Kazim
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 Suhrawardi
‘Assar, have been influenced by the Illuminationist tradition (Ziai 2003:
472). Cataloguing and making accessible hundreds of philosophical works
in Arabic and Persian from the 12th-19th century, such as the recent
publication of the Persian work of Shihab al-Din Kumijani (d.1895), the
Nur al-Fu'ad, or the Inner Light, are bound to shed new light on the legacy
of Suhrawardi's works. On the whole, however, almost nothing has been
written on the history of the philosophical legacy of Suhrawardi's
Philosophy of Illumination.
6.2 Historiography
Historiography of the Illuminationist tradition has been dominated by two
main schools of thought. The first, older and more prevalent school, views
Suhrawardi as the founder of a mystical, esoteric and ‘theosophical’
tradition. Its roots are found in Corbin's mystical or ‘theosophical’
paradigm (Gutas 2002: 16–9). The adoption of an ‘esoteric’ wisdom or
‘theosophy’ (Corbin), or even a philosophia perennis approach (Nasr), to
Suhrawardi's work often overemphasizes the mystical at the expense of
the philosophical and somehow blurs the distinction between philosophy,
theology and mysticism. Proponents of this approach highlight
Suhrawardi's aim to expound on Avicenna's incomplete project to develop
an ‘Eastern’ (not ‘illuminative’) philosophy of Khurasan (mashriqiyya), in
spite of the fact that Avicenna's ‘Eastern’ philosophy was not a mystical
enterprise, but merely a philosophical tradition distinct from the one of the
school of Baghdad (Gutas 2000). More generally, the proponents of the
mystical approach interpret Illuminationist philosophy as a break or a
departure from Avicennan Peripateticism (Mehdi H. Yazdi, Hossein Nasr,
Ashtiyani), rather than seeing it as its extension and critique. Scholars
have often overlooked the fact that Suhrawardi's major works are largely
devoted to technical philosophical questions, of which his allegorical or
minor works are not devoid.
26 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Roxanne Marcotte
Some, such as Fakhry (1982), have gone so far as to question the
originality of Suhrawardi's Philosophy of Illumination, deeming it a mere
transposition of Avicennan philosophy into a light terminology. Izutsu
(1971) was one of the first to explore the analytical aspect of Suhrawardi's
work, followed especially by Ziai (1990), but also by Walbridge (2000,
2001) who have focused on some of the analytical and philosophical
elements of Suhrawardi's Philosophy of Illumination. While some, such as
Henry Corbin and Mohammad Mo’in, have viewed Suhrawardi as the
reviver of some ancient form of Persian philosophy, others, such as Ziai
(2003: 443), are more skeptical and note the absence of textual evidence
for such an independent Persian philosophical tradition. Similarly, Gutas
(2003) notes the absence of textual evidence to support the claim that
Suhrawardi attempted to revive ancient Western Greek, Gnostic and
Hermetic traditions. Research should perhaps focus on the reasons why
Suhrawardi appealed to the authority of the ‘Ancients’, East and West,
rather than on trying to find ‘real’ historical filiations to sources to which
Suhrawardi might have had access.
More studies are needed on the works of authors who belonged to, or who
were influenced by the Illuminationist tradition (see e.g., Schmidtke 2000;
Pourjavadi & Schmidtke 2006). This will provide the much needed
accounts of the complex historical and philosophical developments of the
Illuminationist tradition. Although recent scholarship highlights
Suhrawardi's critique of Avicennan Peripatetic logic, epistemology and
metaphysics (Ziai 1990) and even psychology, more studies are needed
that explore specific logical, epistemological, physical, and metaphysical
issues found in Suhrawardi's four major Arabic texts and that compare
systematically Suhrawardi's Philosophy of Illumination with Avicenna's
major works, such as the Cure. This will undoubtedly provide new insight
into Suhrawardi's greatly Platonic reworking of Avicennan Peripateticism,
what Gutas (2002) has identified as Suhrawardi's Illuminationist
Avicennism.
Fall 2016 Edition 27
 Suhrawardi
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