Seerah al-Suhrawardi — Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi (1154-1191 CE): The Iranian Philosopher-Mystic Who Founded Ishraqiyya (Illuminationist Philosophy) Based on the Primacy of Light as the Most Real Category of Existence, Who Was Executed by Saladin's Order in Aleppo at Age 36, and Whose Synthesis of Platonic Philosophy With Persian and Islamic Mysticism Created a Third Path Between Peripatetic Philosophy and Orthodox Kalam

Seerah al-Suhrawardi (سِيرَةُ السُّهرَوَرْدِيّ; full name: Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash ibn Amirak Abu al-Futuh al-Suhrawardi; born 549 AH / 1154 CE in Suhraward [near Zanjan in northwestern Iran]; died 587 AH / 1191 CE in Aleppo [executed]; he is also known as Sheikh al-Maqtul [the Martyred Sheikh] and Sheikh al-Ishraq [the Sheikh of Illumination]; his context: he lived during the Crusades and the period of Saladin's reconquest of Jerusalem [1187 CE]; he spent time in Anatolia and eventually reached Aleppo under Saladin's son al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, who was his patron; his execution: the fuqaha' of Aleppo — who found his philosophical positions heterodox — pressured Saladin to order his execution; he was imprisoned and died [accounts differ on the manner: starvation, execution, or both] in 587 AH / 1191 CE at approximately 36 years of age; Illuminationist philosophy [Ishraqiyya]: al-Suhrawardi's primary contribution is the construction of a complete philosophical system based on light ontology; his foundational works: [1] Hikmat al-Ishraq [The Philosophy of Illumination]: his masterwork; a two-part work — the first part is a condensed logic and peripatetic philosophy that he then moves beyond; the second part is his own illuminationist metaphysics; [2] al-Talwihat [The Intimations]; [3] al-Muqawamat [The Oppositions]; [4] al-Mutarahat [The Conversations]: together these three form a trilogy in which al-Suhrawardi approaches his system from different angles; [5] allegorical mystical narratives: 'Qissat al-Ghurba al-Gharbiyya' [Story of the Occidental Exile]; 'Awaz-e Par-e Jibreel' [The Song of Gabriel's Wing] — visionary narratives about the soul's journey; the light ontology: al-Suhrawardi's system replaces Aristotelian substance ontology with light ontology: the most real category of existence is Light [Nur]; God is Pure Light [Nur al-Anwar, Light of Lights]; from this primary light, lesser lights emanate in a hierarchy of increasing density/distance from the source; the material world is 'darkened light' or 'barriers' [barzakhs] to the pure light; the soul is a light that has become trapped in the 'dark barrier' of the body; philosophy as illumination: the goal of philosophical inquiry is not merely logical knowledge but the illumination of the soul — the gradual lightening of the soul as it moves toward the Light of Lights; this connects philosophical reasoning with mystical experience; the Persian heritage: al-Suhrawardi claimed to recover and systematize the ancient Persian Khusrawani philosophy [the wisdom of the ancient Persian kings]; he saw himself as inheriting the wisdom of Zoroaster, Hermes, Pythagoras, and Plato — all as expressions of the universal illuminationist tradition; this claim was controversial and contributed to his execution; the Ishraqiyya school: the Illuminationist school survived through later commentators: Shahrazuri [13th century] wrote a major commentary on Hikmat al-Ishraq; Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi [d. 1311] was the most influential later commentator; Mulla Sadra engaged with the tradition; in Safavid Persia, Ishraqiyya became one of the major philosophical traditions alongside Peripatetics and the 'school of Isfahan') is Islamic philosophy's great martyred visionary.