The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia

Abstract

The Islamic fnlellectual Tradition in Persia is an edited collection of essays by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the Iranian metaphysician and ontolgist, on Muslim philosophers and the intimate relationship between Persian culture and its philosophical schools. The 24 essays were written over a period of four decades and scattered among numerous journals and collections. The book is divided into six parts: Islamic thought and Persian culture; early Islamic philosophy; the works of al Suhrawardj; philosophers, poets, and scientists; later Islamic philosophy; and Islamic thought in modem Iran. The essays highlight Nasr's prolific and learned scholarship on the development of Islamic philosophy and illuminate many aspects of the rich philosophical traditions in Islamic Persia and its history. Throughout this unique collection of articles, Nasr covers the lives and works of more than fifteen prominent thinkers and scientists who made significant contributions to the evolution of the Islamic intellectual traditions in the Muslim world in general and in Islamic Persia in particular. Among those covered are al Farabi, lbn Sina, al BirOni, N????ir Khusraw, Fakhr al Din al Razi, al Suhrawardi, Quib al Din Shirazi, $adr al Din Shiriizi, and Mullii HadT Sabzawari. Nasr presents their ideas through their actual works and informs readers of their conditions and life stories in an easy and enjoyable sty le, which allows the reader to learn about their ideas and conditions through the lives of these great philosophers. Their lives and works cover a wide spectrum of the Muslim mind and bear a noticeable interplay of ideas from different fields, ideas that can neither be separated from their conditions nor confined to one field. The book touches on many subjects of pure academic interest and provides an insight into Persian culture. Although the essays are useful in researching the intellectual history of Muslim philosophers in the largest sense, no one essay researches the development of specific ideas or aspects of the Persian philosophers. Nasr 's essays describe al Fara bi as the "second teacher" in philosophy and elaborates on lbn Sina's contributions to logic and language, metaphysics and cosmology, medicine pharmacology, and psychology. Some of their works cover classical debates on being and existence, what is learned and what is realized, discursive knowledge and the insights of illumination, and concepts of unity and ...