International Society for Iranian Studies

The Book of Radiance, Partaw-Nāma by Sohravardi; Hossein Ziai; The Philosophical Allegories
and Mystical Treatises by Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi; Wheeler M. Thackston,
Review by: John Walbridge
Iranian Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3/4 (Summer - Autumn, 2000), pp. 421-423
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian Studies
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 Reviews421

Because Aristotle came to dominate Islamic philosophy so completely, much

less attentionis now given to Pythagoras,the divine Plato, and many others who
came before Aristotle and held doctrines he later rejected. Walbridgehas quite
appropriatelyprovideda correctionto the trendof looking at Islamic philosophy
primarilythrougha peripateticlens.
Unfortunately,many readers will be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of
detail Walbridge finds relevant and thus necessary. Though for the most part
nicely presented in a clear style, it is often a bit difficult to rememberexactly
why Walbridge's many and varied explorations of the ancient schools are all
essential to the understandingof Suhrawardihimself, who tends to sink from
view at many points. Yet when Walbridgereturnsto him, the exposition of what
he said seems to make good sense, even though Suhrawardihimself was not
always clear about the matters at hand. The uncertainties in this thought are,
moreover, compounded by contexts in which he was advocating first a peripa-
tetic point of view and then in anotherplace his own that is at odds with the first.
Despite these problems,some of which are, in any case, inherentto the study of
Suhrawardi,this book representsa major contribution,making the "wisdom of
illumination"far more accessible to modernreadersthanit has ever been before.

Paul E. Walker
Universityof Chicago

The Book of Radiance, Partaw-Ntama,Sohravardi,edited and translated by

Hossein Ziai, Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1998, Bibliotheca Iranica,
Intellectual Traditions 1, ISBN 1-56859-080-6 (cloth), 1-56859-081-4 (paper),
xx + 104 pp. + 85 pp. (Persiantext), bilingualglossary of technicalterms,index.

The Philosophical Allegories and Mystical Treatises, Shihabuddin Yahya

Suhrawardi,edited and translatedby Wheeler M. Thackston, Jr., Costa Mesa,
CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999, Bibliotheca Iranica, Intellectual Traditions 2,
ISBN 1-56859-091-1 (paper), xxxiii + 131 pp. + 122 pp. (Persian and Arabic
text), glossaryof persons,bibliography.

These are the first two volumes of a series that the preface says is intended "to
provide scholars and students of the IranianIslamic heritage with new source
materials."(vii) Both are bilingual editions and English translationsof shorter
works by Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi,the founder of the Illuminationist
school of Islamic philosophy. The editor is Hossein Ziai, who is also the editor
and translatorof the first of the two books.
The Book of Radiance is a short Persian summary of philosophy, written
aphoristicallyin a form not unlike that of Ibn Sina's Isharat. The prose style has
the usual elegant simplicity of Suhrawardi'sPersian.The work begins with phil-
osophical logic and moves throughphysics and metaphysics to a philosophical
eschatology. It is not a systematic survey of philosophy but rathera collection of
422 Reviews

comments on particularinteresting points. In the introductionZiai argues that

the work is a sort of shortPersiancounterpartto Suhrawardi'smaturework, The
Philosophyof Illumination.I am not convinced that this is so. Though Ziai does
not try to date the work, the fact that it is dedicatedto an Anatolianprincepoints
to an earlier period, prior to Suhrawardi'sarrival in Aleppo. Though there are
anticipations of the true Illuminationistdoctrine, characteristicIshraqi themes
like the intensity of being, the defense of the Platonic Forms, and the critiqueof
essentialist definition are not fully developed. It seems to me to belong to
Suhrawardi'sPeripateticperiodor to a transitionalperiod.
Ziai's translation is extremely literal, sometimes even down to the word
order.While the result might have been made a little smootherby more natural
English sentence structure,it works well enough for technical materialof this
sort, particularlygiven the clarity of Suhrawardi'sstyle. Renderingsof technical
terms are generally consistent and standard. While it is not especially easy
reading, a student with backgroundin ancient or medieval philosophy would
have no difficulty in following the argumentfrom the translation.Indeed, the
translationis on the whole clearerthan the original, since medieval Persianphil-
osophical terminology is less standardizedthan its modem English renderings.
Thereare no annotationsto the translation.
The Persian text is based on two earlier editions and one additionalmanu-
scriptnot previously used. The text is quite close to that of Seyyed Hossein Nasr
in the standardthree-volumeCorbin-Nasredition of Suhrawardi'sphilosophical
works. Thereare a handfulof textualannotations.
The second book, The Philosophical Allegories and Mystical Treatises
gives editions and translationsof ten of Suhrawardi'spopularallegories, most of
them Persian. The translationwas originally published in 1982. The text is also
from Nasr's third volume of the edition of Suhrawardi'sworks, supplemented
by the Spies edition of three allegories and an additionalmanuscript.There were
minor correctionsto the translationfor this edition but no majorrevisions. The
virtue of this work is not in making new materialavailable, but in conveniently
combining the Persian and Arabic texts with a translationthat had been out of
print. There is, unfortunately,no index. One minor correction:Thackston(xiv,
n. 10) mentions that the Kalimat al-Tasawwuf is unpublished;it has actually
been publishedby Najaf-GholiHabibi in Three Treatises (Lahore:Iran-Pakistan
Instituteof PersianStudies, 1977).
The allegories are interesting and charmingtexts. Mostly they portraythe
fall of the soul and the efforts that it will need to make to returnto its natural
home in the intelligible world. In the process, they work in a good deal of ele-
mentaryscience and philosophy, particularlyastronomy,and elementarymysti-
cal concepts. There has been a tendency to view them as arcane renderingsof
Suhrawardi's deepest thoughts. I see them rather as popular works, perhaps
intendedfor students.At any rate, they do not contain any particularlycomplex
mystical theories, nor do they containmost of the doctrinesthat Suhrawardilater
identifiedas characteristicof his Illuminationistphilosophy
Thackstonis a good translatorand writes a clear, lucid English that matches
the original style of these texts. His introductionis considerablylonger than that
 Reviews423

of the previous volume and gives a quite detailed explanationof the philosophi-
cal and scientific backgroundof these allegories. Thackstonis a literarytransla-
tor, not a philosopher,but it seems to me that philosophically his renderingsare
good enough. There are not many philosophical technicalities in the text, after
all, and Thackstondoes well not to write loftier notions into the translationthan
the underlyingtext will bear. One curious feature is Thackston's habit of citing
the Qur'an from Sale's 1734 translation.The purpose is obviously to make the
Qur'anic citations stand out from the text in the way that they do in the Persian
text. (They are also printed in Old English type, a less successful innovation.)
Sale's translationis actuallyquite nice if one has a taste for King JamesEnglish.
The explicit purpose of the series is to make source materials available to
scholars and students.There would be no difficulty using The Book of Radiance
in a course on Islamic philosophy, though a more thoroughintroductionwould
have made it considerablymore useful. The lack of contextualizationmight also
be a problem for a philosopher trying to use the text. On the other hand, the
translationis clear and accurateenough for both scholarly and student use, and
an English translationputs the text in play for historiansof philosophy.
The allegories are an ideal student text and could be used in a variety of
contexts: philosophy, history of science, literature,and religion, among others.
Thackston's introductionmeans that the volume could be easily used as a text
in, for example, a course on medieval literatureor on allegory.
Though printedfrom camera-readycopy producedby the editors, the qual-
ity is quite good, with good roman type, excellent Persian, and only a slight
awkwardnesswith the English layout to indicate that it is not the productof pro-
fessional typesetters.The matchingof the Persianand English pages, technically
a difficult matter,has been done well.
Bilingual texts are very handy things, useful to specialists, people attempt-
ing to become specialists, and students. It is to be hoped that this series contin-
ues.

John Walbridge
Indiana University

An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, Volume I: Early Persian and Islamic

Philosophy, Volume II: Ismacili and Hermetico-Pythagorean Philosophy,
Seyyed Hossein Nasr with Mehdi Aminrazavi, eds., New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999, 2001, ISBN: 0-19-512699-8 (cloth), 0-19-512700-5
(cloth), xxx, 434 pp., indices, ix, 400 pp., indices, each volume $75.

The study of the pursuit of philosophy in the Persian and Islamicate world
remains a marginal discipline within the broader field of Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies. It is rare indeed to find a departmentthat offers courses or
specialized researchresources in it. Unfortunately,it is even more rare to find a
philosophy department(certainly in Anglo-Saxon academe) that offers courses