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Volume 2 . Number 4 . December 2001 Transcendent Philosophy An International Journal for Comparative Philosophy and Mysticism S. H. Nasr From The School of Isfahan to School of Tehran M. Damad Divine Attributes According to Suhraward¢ and Mull¡ ˉadr¡ M. Hajihosseini Theories of Knowledge in Islamic Philosophy: from Ibn S¢n¡ to Mull¡ ˉadr¡ Sajjad H. Rizvi Approaching the Study of Mull¡ ˉadr¡ Sh¢r¡z¢ (d. 1641): a survey of some doctoral dissertations Reza Akbarian The Principle of Primacy of ‘Existence’ over ‘Quiddity’ and its Philosophical Results in the Ontological System of Mull¡ ˉadr¡ Book Reviews Laxman S. Thakur, Buddhism in the Western Himalaya: A Study of the Tabo Monastery (Oliver Leaman) David Ray Griffin, Reenchantment without Supernaturalism (Ernest Wolf‐Gazo) Sabine Schmidtke, Theologie, Philosophie und Mystik im Zwölferschiitischen Islam des 9./15. Jahrhunderts: Die Gedankenwelt des Ibn Ab¢ Gumh£r al‐A¦s¡’¢ (um 838/1434‐35 – nach 906/1501) (Sajjad Rizvi) Antony Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present (Oliver Leaman) John Walbridge, The leaven of the ancients: Suhraward¢ and the heritage of the Greeks (Sajjad Rizvi) Alparslan Açikgenç, Scientific Thought and its Burdens: An Essay in the History and Philosophy of Science (Oliver Leaman) Wilferd Madelung & Toby Mayer, Struggling with the Philosopher: A Refutation of Avicenna’s Metaphysics (Kiki Kennedy‐ Day) ‘Y¡d’, Sayyid Mashk£r °usayn, Mull¡ ˉadr¡ k¡ q¡bil‐e ‘amal falsafah (Sajjad Rizvi) Pascal Engel (ed) Précis de philosophie analytique (Oliver Leaman) Rachel Fell McDermott, Singing to the Goddess (Notu Hoon) John L. Esposito & John O. Voll, Makers of Contemporary Islam (Kiki Kennedy‐Day) Idoia Maiza Ozcoidi, La concepción de la filosofía en Averroes: Análisis crítico del Tahafut al‐tahafut (Oliver Leaman) Books Received From The School of Isfahan to School of Tehran S. H. Nasr, The George Washington University, USA Abstract With the establishment of Tehran as the capital of Persia, the intellectual centre of the country also shifted gradually to that city. Fat¦ ‘Alī Shāh invited the great master of ˉadrian philosophy, Mullā ‘Alī Nūrī, who lived in Isfahan to migrate to Tehran, but because of old age the latter refused the invitation, sending instead one of his foremost students, Mullā ‘Abd Allāh Zunūzī. Thus began the last major school of Islamic philosophy, the School of Tehran, which during the nineteenth century was the locus of activity of such great masters as Mullā ‘Alī Mudarris, the son of Mullā ‘Abd Allāh, Āqā Mu¦ammad Ri¤ā Qumsha’ī and Mīrzā Abu'l‐µasan Jilwah. Different strands of Islamic thought including the ˉadrian al‐ ¦ikmat al muta‘āliyah, the ishrāqī School, the peripatetic philosophy of the School of Ibn Sīnā and ‘irfan were taught and pursued in teaching circles and many new books were written some of which also contain new philosophical teachings based on the principles of the earlier schools. Most of the later masters of Islamic philosophy in the contemporary period in Persia were students of the School of Tehran, which in a sense survived until a few decades ago. It was also in the Scholl of Tehran that the main Islamic philosophical tradition first encountered modern European philosophy. The study of this School is therefore important not only for a better understanding of the total tradition of Islamic philosophy, but also very significant for a grasp of the development of philosophy in Persia during this century (of the Persian hijrī calender). The School of Isfahan in its Later Phase The remarkable revival of Islamic philosophy which took place in the early Safavid period under the aegis of Mīr Dāmād and its aftermath has now come to be widely known as the School of Isfahan. 1 This School produced a galaxy of important philosophers, chief among them Mullā ˉadrā, 2 but also including his teacher Mīr Dāmād, as well as Mīr Findiriskī, Mullā ˉadrā 's students such as Mullā Mu¦sin Fay¤ Kāshānī and a number of other important figures such as Mullā Rajab ‘Alī Tabrīzī, Mullā Shamsā Gīlānī, Āqā µusayn Khunsārī, Sayyid A¦mad ‘Alawī and Qā¤ī Sa'īd Qummī. 3 Towards the end of the Safavid period the religious atmosphere in Persia turned against philosophy and especially the School of Mullā ˉadrā. Still the teaching of philosophy continued in Isfahan under the direction of such masters as 'Ināyat Allāh Gīlānī, Mīr Sayyid µasan Tāliqānī and Mawlā Mu¦ammad Sādiq Ardistānī. The tragic life of this last figure exemplifies the plight of philosophy in Isfahan during the reign of Shāh Sul§ān µusayn at the end of the Safavid period. This outstanding ¦akīm and saintly man was a follower of the teachings of Mullā ˉadrā as one can see in the former’s short Persian treatise entitled Ja'l ("Instauration"). He is also known for a treatise entitled µikmat‐i ¥ādiqiyyah ("ˉadiqiyan Wisdom") which deals with the powers of the soul and is of a mystical character. Despite his great piety and saintly demeanor, however, he was driven away from Isfahan in the winter and lost one of his children to the bitter winter cold. Ardistānī, who is the last ˉadrian philosopher of the Safavid period, died in 1113/1701. Meanwhile, in the latter part of the Safavid period the influence of the School of Isfahan spread to other cities. Mullā ˉadrā himself spent the last decades of his life back in Shiraz. Mullā Mu¦sin Fay¤ retired to his hometown of Kashan where he continued to teach and where an entourage grew around him. Later in the Qajar period philosophical activity was to continue in Kashan with the appearance of the major intellectual figure, Mullā Mu¦ammad Mahdī Narāqī. Lāhījī settled in Qom where he and his son µusayn Lāhījī as well as the major expositor of gnosis, Qā¤ī Sa‘īd, taught. Yet, despite all the opposition to ¦ikmat in Isfahan during the latter part of Safavid rule and despite the devastation brought about by the Afghan invasion, ¦ikmat continued to survive in Isfahan and once the political situation settled down, it was in this city that philosophical activity and especially the teachings of Mullā ˉadrā's al‐¦ikmat al muta‘āliyah were revived. A number of philosophers were witness to the storm at the end of the Safavid period, chief among them Mullā Ismā‘il Khājū’ī (d.1173/1760). In one of his works he describes the devastation caused by the conquest of Isfahan and the suffering he underwent. His own life was endangered and many of his works were lost but he survived to continue to teach ¦ikmat and trained as important a student as Narāqī. 4 The major reviver of ˉadrian philosophy in Isfahan was, however, Mullā ‘Alī Nūrī who lived about a century and taught ¦ikmat in Isfahan for some seventy years until his death in 1246/1830‐31. No one after Mullā ˉadrā has done so much to propagate the teachings of al‐¦ikmat al muta‘āliyah, through the teaching of numerous important students and writing glosses, commentaries and annotations upon the works of Mullā ˉadrā including the Asfār. 5 Nūrī ’s most important students include his own son Mīrzā µasan Nūrī as well as Mullā ‘Abd Allāh Zunūzī, Mullā Mu¦ammad Ismā‘īl Darbkūshkī I¥fahānī, Sayyid Ra¤ī Lārījānī, Āqā Mu¦ammad Ri¤ā Qumsha’ī, Mullā Mu¦ammad Ja‘far Langarūdī, Mullā Āqā‐i Qazwīnī and many other well known figures. The origin of the School of Tehran is to be sought in the Isfahan of the early 13th/19th centuries and the circle of Mullā ‘Alī Nūrī. Even after the centre of philosophical activity shifted to Tehran, Isfahan remained a vibrant philosophical centre producing such famous philosophers as Jahāngir Khān Qashqā’ī and in more recent times Āqā Mīrzā Ra¦im Arbāb. Whether one can call the long period of philosophical activity stretching from Mīr Dāmād to someone like Arbāb or Jalāl Humā’ī, who died just two decades ago, "The School of Isfahan" is open to debate, 6 but certainly something of the earlier School of Isfahan survived after the Safavid period into the Qajar period and even into the contemporary era and served as the source for the School of Tehran which became central in Persia from the 13th/19th century onward. The School of Tehran represents both a continuity with the School of Isfahan as far as major philosophical issues and position are concerned, and discontinuity created by the fact that it was in Tehran where the Islamic philosophical tradition in Persia encountered Western thought for the first time and developed in certain directions that make it distinct from the School of Isfahan from which it originated. The Beginning of the School of Tehran Soon after the establishment of the Qajar dynasty in 1210/1796, Tehran which was then a small town was chosen as capital of Persia and grew rapidly into an important city that became not only the political and economic heart of Persia, but also its intellectual centre. Mosques and madrasahs began to be built and they attracted religious scholars to the city. In 1237/1821‐22 Mu¦ammad Khān Marwī built a major madrasah in the heart of what is now the old city and the king Fat¦ ‘Alī Shāh invited Mullā ‘Alī Nūrī to migrate from Isfahan to Tehran to become the central mudarris or teacher of the newly built school. Nūrī was then at an advanced age and had numerous students in Isfahan whom he could not abandon. He therefore declined the king's offer but instead sent one of his foremost students, Mullā ‘Abd Allāh Zunūzī to Tehran. Mullā ‘Abd Allāh established himself in the Marwī School during that very year and taught Islamic philosophy there for the next two decades until his death in1257/1841.
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    2020 Preprint N°500 From Hesiod to Saussure, from Hippocrates to Jevons: An Introduction to the History of Scientific Thought between Iran and the Atlantic Jens Høyrup ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR Section for philosophy WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE and science studies Berlin FROM HESIOD TO SAUSSURE, FROM HIPPOCRATES TO JEVONS An introduction to the history of scientific thought between Iran and the Atlantic Jens Høyrup Preprint, April 2020 ©2020 Jens Høyrup In memory of Alex Novikoff whose Climbing Our Family Tree introduced me to scientific thinking at the age of six I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that reason infallibly be faulty Herman Melville, Moby Dick Jens Høyrup Section for Philosophy and Science Studies Roskilde University P.O. Box 260 DK-4000 Roskilde Denmark [email protected] http://ruc.dk/~jensh/ Greek alphabet V GREEK ALPHABET As a pretext for training the use of a dictionary of ancient Greek, the following pages contain a few words written in Greek letters. The four columns below show the corresponding alphabet – first the Greek minuscule, then the corresponding majuscule, then the name, and finally the approximate phonetic value (which does not always coincide with the phonetic value in modern Greek). αΑalpha a βΒBeta b γΓGamma g ( before γ, κ and χ; γγ thus as ng in English anger, γκ as nk in ink) δΔDelta d εΕEpsilon e (short) ζΖZeta z (i.e., voiced s) ηΗEta e¯ (long) θΘTheta þ (unvoiced th; originally t’) ιΙIota i (as i in English if or e in be, may thus be short or long) κΚKappa k λΛLambda l µΜMu m νΝNu n ξΞKsi ks οΟOmikron o (short) πΠPi p ρΡRho r (transcribed rh in initial posi- tion) σΣSigma s ςΣSigma s (used in final position) τΤTau t υΥYpsilon y (as German ü) φΦPhi f (originally p’) χΧKhi χ (as ch in German Ich; orig- inally k’) ψΨPsi ps ωΩOmega o¯ (long) The following double vowels may be taken note of: VI Greek alphabet αυ au ευ eu ου u (as English oo) Vowels in the initial position are marked by one of the two aspiration marks and .
  • Medieval Philosophy: an Historical and Philosophical Introduction

    Medieval Philosophy: an Historical and Philosophical Introduction

    MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY ‘Dr Marenbon’s book is an authoritative, comprehensive, yet accessible survey of medieval philosophy, written by an expert at the height of his critical powers. Not only does the book guide the reader through the diverse issues of medieval philosophy, but provides sagacious instruction and illuminating commentary on the central topics of its chosen period of study.’ Martin Stone, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. ‘Marenbon has managed to write about an enormous array of topics in a lucid and accessible way. His prose is clear without being condescending, informative without being either patronizing or importunate. The beginner will find it approachable and unpretentious.’ Peter King, University of Toronto, Canada This new introduction replaces Marenbon’s best-selling editions Early Medieval Philosophy (1983) and Later Medieval Philosophy (1987) to present a single author- itative and comprehensive study of the period. An entirely new book, written in the light of the scholarship of the last twenty years, it will be the standard companion for all students of medieval philosophy. It gives a lucid and engaging account of the history of philosophy in the Middle Ages, discussing the main writers and ideas, the social and intellectual contexts, and the important concepts used in medieval philosophy. Medieval Philosophy gives a chronological account which: • treats all four main traditions of philosophy that stem from the Greek heritage of late antiquity: Greek Christian philosophy, Latin philosophy, Arabic philos- ophy and Jewish philosophy • provides a series of ‘study’ sections for close attention to arguments and shorter ‘interludes’ that point to the wider questions of the intellectual context • combines philosophical analysis with historical background • includes a helpful detailed guide to further reading and an extensive bibliography All students of medieval philosophy, medieval history, theology or religion will find this necessary reading.