PERSIAN MYSTICISM - Al-Suhraward

Nikola Benin

Suhrawardi, (born c. 1154, Suhraward, Iran—died 1191, Ḥalab, Syria). A mystic theologian and philosopher who was a leading figure of the illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy, attempting to create a synthesis between philosophy and mysticism.

Suhrawardi has become the eponym of an ‘Illuminationist’ (hashtagshraqi) philosophical tradition. An immense gratitude to Henry Corbin who worked relentlessly to edit and publish Suhrawardi’s works, effort which generated much interest in his novel philosophical system. 'His new epistemological perspective led him to introduce a theory of ‘presential’ knowledge, to elaborate a complex ontology of lights, and to add a fourth ontological ‘world of images’ where imagination plays an innovative eschatological function, expanding on insightful avicennian allusions.