Seyyed Hossein Nasr Three Muslim Sages

THREE MUSLIM SAGES Avicenna- Suhrawardi- Ibn 'Arabi

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

CARAVAN BOOKS Delmar, New York

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I.

AVICENNA (IBN SJNA) AND THE PHILOSOPHER - SCIENTISTS The Predecessors of Avicenna - 9 Avicenna, a Biographical Sketch - 20 The Avicennian Corpus - 23 Ontolofo': - 24 Cosmo ogy and Angelology - 28 The Natural and Mathematical Sciences- 31 Psychology - 38 Religion and Revelation - 40 The Esoteric Philosophy - 43 The School of Avicenna - 45

II. SUHRAWARDi AND THE ILLUMINATIONISTS The Backfound before Suhrawardi- 52

1

9

52

Suhra war i's Life and Works - 55 Sources of Ishraqi Doctrine- 60 The Meaning of lshriiq - 62 The Classes of Those Who Know - 63 Geographic Symbolism - 64 If ikmat al-i.shriiq and Its Basic Doctrines - 66 The Si~ni6cance of the Visionary Recitals -77 The Is riiqi Tradition -79

III.

IBN 'ARABI AND THE ~UFiS The ~Ufi Tradition - 83 The Significance of Ibn 'Arabi- 90 The Life of the Sage from Murcia- 92 The Works- 97 The "Sources.. of Ibn 'Arabi -100 The Doctrine - 102 Sufism after Ibn 'Arabi- 118

83

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

125

NOTES

131

INDEX

171

For Shaikh Isa Nur al-Din 1964 President and Fellows of Harvard College Reprinted by arrangement with Harvard University Press

Published by Caravan Books, Delmar, New York 12054-0344, U.S.A. First Printing 1976 Second Printing 1985 Third Printing 1997 Printed and made in the United States of America

§ The paper used in this publication conforms to the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives ANSI/NISO/Z39 .48-1992. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Thre Muslim sages: Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ibn 'Arabi. Reprint of the 1969 ed. published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Bibliography: p. 1. Avicenna, 980-1037. 2. Al-Suhrawardi, Yahya ibn Habash, 1152 or 3-1191. 3. Ibn al-'Arabi, 1165-1240. I. Title. [BP70.N36 1975] 297'.6 [B] 75-14430 ISBN 0-88206-500-9 (pbk.)

Published under the auspices of the INSTITUTE FOR PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Parviz Morewedge, Baruch College of City University of New York Milton K. Munitz, Baruch College of City University of New York Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh and the IMPERIAL IRANIAN ACADEMY OF PHILOSOPHY

e

HONORARY PATRONESS

H.I.M .. THE SHAHBANOU OF IRAN FARAH PAHLAVI DIRECTOR

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Aryamehr University and Tehran University

List of

Arabtc characters

,.