The Status of

Suhrawardian Studies in the West

Mehdi Aminrazavi

Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi is the founder of the school of ishraq and the most important philosopher between the early peripatetic philosophy of Ibn Sina and the later peripatetic philosophy of Ibn Rushd. Suhrawardi, who is the link between these two golden periods of Islamic philosophical thought should also be regarded as the figure who laid the ground work for the emergence of the school of Isfahan since both Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra were heavily influenced by the enormous weight of his philosophical school.

Suhrawardi who is both an original thinker and a great synthesizer, has left us not only with a unique philosophical genre which can be labeled as ishraqi and a peculiar use of language known as lisan al-ishraq, but also with a number of highly analytical works as well as purely Sufi writings. It is perhaps for this multifaceted nature of his works that so many philosophers in recent years have taken a keen interest in him.

The present work is concerned not with the validity of his ideas nor does it seek to discuss Suhrawardi’s numerous contributions to Islamic philosophy but instead it is a survey of the development of Suhrawardian studies in the West in the present century, its present status and future prospects.

It is indeed difficult to say with absolute certainty who pioneered Suhrawardian studies in the West but in the opinion of this author, it began by Germans in the latter part of the last century and then the French after the second world war and finally the Americans and to a lesser extent the British.

There are currently several Spanish and Italian scholars who are also working on Suhrawardi. In this regard, the efforts of such Iranian scholars as Seyyed Hossein Nasr who through his works on Suhrawardi in English and French introduced him to the West must be acknowledged. Needless to say that Suhrawardian studies in the Arab world and the subcontinent is extensive but it is beyond the scope of this work.

The earliest references in the Western world to Suhrawardi are made in various histories of world philosophy and encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Philosophique universelle where he is referred to as a critic of the peripatetic philosophy as well as such lexicons as Soheil Afnan’s Philosophical Terminology in Arabic and Persian in which the etymology of some of his ishraqi terms are analyzed. Mercea Eliade, the famous historian of religion and the editor of the Encyclopedia of Religion has also alluded to the significance of Suhrawardi’s theological and mystical thought in chapter thirty-five of his major work Historie des croyances et des idées religieuses. He includes Suhrawardi among such figures as Farabi, Ibn Sina and Ghazzali as one of the most outstanding Muslim philosophers. Let us now consider specific European contributions to the Suhrawardian studies in different parts of the world.

Germany:

Beside fragmented references to Suhrawardi in the early part of the last century by such figures as A. Von Kramer, in Geschichte derherrschenden Ideen des Islam (1868) and Carl Brockelmann’s encyclopedic work, one finds a major treatment of Suhrawardi by the German scholar Max Horten in his Die Philosophie der Erleuchtung nach Suhrawardi (1911). This work contains a summary of Suhrawardi’s Hikmat al-ishraq in German as well as Mulla Sadra’s glosses on it. This work had become a source book for many other German scholars of Suhrawardi who came later. Horten in another work entitled Die Spekulative und positive Theologie des Islam nach Razi composes a lexicon of philosophical terms based on works of a number of philosophers such as Mulla Sadra and Razi and includes Suhrawardi’s ishraqi terminologies. Horten in this work takes special note of the distinct language of Suhrawardi’s lisan al-ishraq.

The other German scholar who in the early part of the century turned his attention to Suhrawardi is Otto Spies who in his edited volume Three Treatises on mysticism by Shihabuddin Suhrawrdi Maqtul introduces three of Suhrawardi’s Sufi writings, Risalat al-tayr, Lughat-i muran and safir-i simurgh. Also, one has to mention the two extensive articles of Helmut Ritter on Suhrawardi entitled “Die vier Suhrawardi,” in which he offers a general discussion of Suhrawardi and alludes to the central themes of his philosophy.

In recent years the subject of metempsychosis has been of some interest to the German scholars of Suhrawardi. First we have the major work of Rainer Freitag entitled Seelenwanderung in der islamischen H?resie in which he discusses Suhrawardi’s view on metempsychosis and then there is the article by Sabline Schmidtke of the University of Bonn entitled “The Doctrine of the Transmigration of the Soul According to Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi and His Followers.” Schmidtke argues that according to Suhrawardi transmigration of the soul, a subject of great controversy among philosophers is not only possible but that Suhrawardi took a favorable attitude towards it.

References are also made by some of the lesser known scholars of Suhrawardi such as `Abdolamir Johardelvari’s brief history of philosophy in Persia, written in German entitled Iranische Philosophie von Zarathustra bis Sabzewari, Miklos Maroth’s work on prepositional logic in which he discusses Suhrawardi’s logic and Macuch Rudolf in an informative article entitled “Greek and Oriental Sources of Avicenna’s and Suhrawardi’s Theosophies,” in which he highlights the intellectual sources of these two figures.

To this list one should add the Dutch scholar, Simon Van Den Bergh who in 1916 partially translated Suhrawardi’s Hayakil al-nur with notes and brief comments.

France:

The earliest work on Suhrawardi in French is written by Carra de Vaux in 1902 entitled “La Philosophie illuminative” in which he discusses the structure of Suhrawardi’s ishraqi’s doctrine. Among the next generation of French scholars, we find the towering figure of Henry Corbin. Few Westerners have contributed more to the introduction of Islamic philosophy in the West than Henry Corbin. His contributions are not only significant in the West but also in Iran since he highlighted the significance of Suhrawardi for Iranians as well. The list of his translations and commentaries of Suhrawardi’s works are too numerous to mention here. Suffice it to say that Corbin has translated, introduced and commented on most if not all of Suhrawardi’s works. To begin with, he edited the major philosophical works of Suhrawardi in two volumes at the time when Suhrawardi was a much-neglected figure both in Iran and the West. His translations of Suhrawardi’s major works include a free translation of Hikmat al-ishraq and Awaz-i par-i jibra’il in which he collaborated with Paul Kraus. To Corbin’s long list of works on Suhrawardi one can add En Islam iranien, where in the second volume he discusses Suhrawardi and his connections to Platonism and neoplaotnism.

One can also find a discussion of Suhrawardi in Corbin’s Historie de la philosophie islamique as well as his L’homme de lumiére dans le soufisme iranien, a work that has been translated in English, German and Italian. It is in this later work where Corbin using Suhrawardi develops a “sacred geography” and discusses schools of wahdat al-wujud of Ibn Arabi and wahdat al-shuhud of Semnani. He continues to discuss ishraqi motifs and the spiritual journey of the soul from the occidental exile to the orient of light in a number of his works among which we can name L’Iran et la philosophie (a collection of mostly unedited articles,) and Les motifs Zoroastrians dans la philosophie de Sohrawardi a work that traces the philosophical roots of Suhrawardi’s thought to ancient Persia and argues for perennial philosophy.

Where as Suhrawardi’s concept of spiritual humor is the subject of Corbin’s short paper titled Mystique et humeur chez Sohrawardi, Shaykh al-Ishraq, the philosophical significance of Suhrawardi’s ishraqi doctrine for comparative purposes is treated in a separate paper. Corbin also offers a thorough analysis of his life and thought in his major work Suhrawardi d’Alep fondateur de la doctrine illuminative. One may find numerous other references to Suhrawardi in the entire corpus of Corbin’s work but an exhaustive reference to them is beyond the scope of this work.

Like many great masters, Corbin too has trained a number of students who have paid some attention to Suhrawardi among whom Christian Jambet can be named. In his La logique des orientaux, Jambet develops and elaborates on what he calls “oriental logic.” In the same circle one can name Amir Naffaky whose work La méthode et la loigque chez al-Suhrawardi, is concerned with Suhrawardi’s methodology, logic and the salient features of the ishraqi way of philosophizing.

Before moving to other figures, the work of Darush Shayegan has to be mentioned which is both a celebration of Henry Corbin and Suhrawardi. In his major work entitled La topographie spirituelle de l’Islam iranien, Shayegan uses a complex web of psychology, mythology and contemporary European philosophical themes to reflect on the major themes of Suhrawardi’s philosophy.

Among other works in French which celebrate the contributions of Suhrawardi are George Anawati’s Avicenna: La Metaphysique du Shifa’, where he discusses the extent to which the structure of Ibn Sina’s Shifa’ influenced Suhrawardi whom he considers to be essentially an Ibn Sinian. Anawati also in his work “La notion de wujud dans le Kitab Al-Mashari` wa’l-Mutarahat de Suhrawardi” wrote on Suhrawardi’s concept of existence and once again draws analogies to Ibn Sina’s concept of existence.

In a different study of Suhrawardi’s ontology, `Ab al-Rahman Badawi in his Les points de rencontre de la mystique musulmane et de l’existentialisme, compares Suhrawardi’s ontological structure with that of the existentialism and alludes to the similarities and differences among the two philosophical paradigms. Among other comparative studies one can mention Chahine Osman’s work Ontologie et théologie chez Avicenne in which the ontological similarities of Suhraawrdi and Ibn Sina are philosophically analyzed. Mohamad-Reza Fashahi in his work Aristotle de Baghdad devotes a section to Suhrawardi and expounds upon him as a philosopher, politician and martyr.

In this context, one has to mention the contributions of Louis Gardet. This famous French scholar wrote several articles introducing Suhrawardi to the European audience. Among his notable works one can mention his article on the ishraqi aspects of Suhrawardi’s thought emphasizing the spiritual aspects of his intellectual paradigm, or his second work which is a survey of his central themes as well as the nature of mystical experience. One may also mention his article Suhrawardi, Shaykh al-Ishraq et la culture musulmane, in which he compares Farabi’s peripatetic philosophy with that of Suhrawardi.

Where as the significance of Suhrawardi in the history of Islamic philosophy is highlighted by Gomez Nogales in a work entitled “Suhrawardi et sa significaiton dans le domaine de la philosophie”, his philosophical structure is put in a dialogue with the contemporary philosophical debates by Hasan Hanafi. In a most interesting and original article entitled, “La philosophie de l’Ishraq et la phenomenology,” Hanafi compares the philosophy of ishraq with the Husserlian phenomenology both in terms of methodology and the notion of transcendental self.

Suhrawardi in the English speaking world:

Among the pioneers of Suhrawardian studies in the West first and foremost one has to mention Seyyed Hossein Nasr who in the late 1950’s-60’s began to introduce Suhrawardi to the West. His works on the subject matter are too numerous to mention here but a few of them are as follows: First there is the volume on his Persian writings with Nasr’s introduction to it, a first of its kind. There are also his numerous articles among which one can name “The Persian Works of Shaykh al-Ishraq Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi” and “The Spread of the Illuminationist School of Suhrawardi” in which Nasr discusses the spread of Sufi thought in the sub-continent and the West. Also, Nasr’s article in the History of Islamic Philosophy edited by M.M. Sharif, was one of the first comprehensive articles in the English language. His section in the Three Muslim Sages as well as his article “Suhrawardi:The Master of Illumination, Gnostic and Martyr,” published in the 1960’s, went a long way to introduce Suhrawardi to the Western audience.

One also needs to mention Majid Fakhry, who in addition to several articles in Arabic on Suhrawardi, briefly discusses him in his History of Islamic Philosophy as well as in his work Philosophy, Dogma and The Impact of Greek Thought in Islam, in which he devotes a section to Suhrawardi’s critique of the peripatetics. Richard Netton, the British philosopher has not only referred to Suhrawardi in a number of his works but has examined the Neoplatonic structure of Suhrawardi’s metaphysical system and regards him as a Sufi-philosopher.

In this regard, one has to mention Iqbal Lahori who in his Development of Metaphysics in Persia devotes a section to Sufism and there he discusses Suhrawardi and the ishraqi doctrine.

Most of the Persian Sufi treatises of Suhrawardi were first translated and published by the Harvard scholar William M. Thackston and recently this work was published for a second time. It is perhaps as the result of such translations that Ishraqi concepts and terminologies have also been noted by some of the American poets such as William Blake and William B. Yeats who in their poetry allude to ishraqi concepts and use some of the technical terminologies. Salah Salim Ali, a contemporary scholar has studied the similarities and the influence of Suhrawardi on Blake and Yeats in his article “Ishraqi Themes in the Theory and Prose of William Blake and William B. Yeats.”

In one of the most outstanding works on Islamic philosophy in the English language, the late Mehdi Ha’iri Yazdi wrote an exposition and commentary on Suhrawardi’s theory of knowledge by presence (`ilm al-huduri) entitled The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence.

Among the lesser known works on Suhrawardi in the English language one can name Edward Jurji’s article which discusses the revival of the ishraqi doctrine in the modern era. ilal Kuspinar wrote on Mulla Sadra, Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi, comparing their view on Divine knowledge. Anthony Tuft studied Suhrawardi’s use of symbolism and how his use of the symbolism of light and that of Ghazzali can be compared. He offers an analysis of this comparison in his article entitled “Symbolism and Speculation in Suhrawardi’s The Song of Gabriel’s Wing.” There is also Ziya’ Siddiqi’s article titled “The Philosophy of Ibn Tufayl” in which he discusses Suhrawardi’s use of allegories in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and the mystical and philosophical symbolism that are implied in this narrative. Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti, in his The Shape of Light offers a Sufi interpretation of Suhrawardi’s Hayakal al-nur.

As the result of the pioneering works of Corbin and Nasr, a number of doctoral dissertations were written on Suhrawardi in the 1970’s among whom the following can be mentioned: Michael Bylebly wrote his dissertation on the prose and literary aspect of Suhrawardi’s narratives. In his work entitled The Wisdom of Illumination: A Study of the Prose Stories of Suhrawardi, Bylebly undertakes an extensive discussion and analysis of Suhrwardi’s Persian narratives and highlights their literary value. Kazim Tehrani in his doctoral dissertation reflects on four Sufi treatises of Suhrawardi and offers an extensive analysis of the symbolism in these treatises. He also wrote an article on the concept of “sage” in the works of Suhrawardi.

Hossein Zia’i pioneered a doctoral dissertation on Suhrawardi’s logic and proposes for the first time that Suhrawardi has a distinct logical system which sets him apart from other peripatetics. He has written a number of articles and a book entitled Knowledge and Illumination on Suhrawardi’s logic. Perhaps the most significant contribution of Zia’i has been his recent translation of Hikmat al-ishraq with John Walbridge and his critical edition of Shahrazuri’s commentary on Suhrawardi. Among other doctoral dissertations one can mention Gesila Webb’s work on Suhrawardi’s angelology in which she investigated the relationship between the Zoroastrian roots of Suhrawardi’s angelology and the Islamic framework of his philosophical thought.

My own contributions to the field of Suhrawardian studies includes a doctoral dissertation on Suhrawardi’s epistemology in which his concept of truth and `ilm al-huduri examined. In a number of articles on Suhrawardi, I have examined various aspects of his thought among which the following can be mentioned: "The Influence of Suhrawardi on Islamic Philosophy;” "A Philosophical Exposition of Suhrawardi's Metaphysics and Ontology,” and "Suhrawardi's Mystical and Philosophical Poetry." Also, this author’s book Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination can be mentioned which is an introductory and comprehensive work written for the Western audience.

Among the other contributors to the field of Suhrawardian studies one has to mention John Walbridge. His work on Qutb al-Shirazi entitled The Science of Mystic Lights discusses Suhrawardi’s other commentator on Hikmat al-ishraq. Also, Walbridge’s article on Suhrawardi as a “Neo-Stoic” and his recent book on Suhrawardi entitled The Leaven of the Ancients has to be mentioned. Walbridge in this work relies on a reductionistic method of investigation to analyze the intellectual components and sources of Suhrawardi’s thought. His forthcoming work is The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism is in a sense a continuation of the previously mentioned work in which Walbridge further investigates the intellectual sources of Suhsrawardi’s school of ishraq.

Spanish, Japanese and Italian Philosophers

The Spanish philosopher Aragues Juan Manuel, in his work El pensamiento irrational islamico: el sufismo de Sohrawardi focuses on the Sufi aspects of Suhrawardi’s thought or what he calls the “irrational thought in Islam." The other Spanish philosopher and well known scholar of Islamic thought, Miguel Cruz Hernandez addresses the spiritual symbolism of Suhrawardi’s thought in his work Simbolismo y esoterismo en la filosofia islamica: Ibn sina y Sohravardi, and compares the spiritual symbolism of Suhrawardi and that of Ibn Sina in particular the concept of the flight of birds in Suhrawardi and that of Risalat al-tayr. In his other work, Cruz Hernandez examines the mystical and philosophical structure of Hikmat al-ishraq and the relationship between these two modes of discourse. To this list, one has to mention, Andrea De Vita, a young scholar from Argentina whose doctoral dissertation is on Suhrawardi and intends to translate a number of his works into Spanish.

In Japan, several scholars have paid attention to Suhrawardi’s in recent years even though not much literature has been produced by them. Among such scholars are Tushiko Izutsu who worked with Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr in the 1970’s and has trained a number of students in Japan who have been interested in Suhrawardi. Among such students one can name Akiro Matsumoto who also studied with Professor Ashtiyani and has translated Jala al-Din Dawwani’s treatise Risalat al-wujud. One has to mention Haruo Kobayashi whose work entitled “Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi on Self-Consciousness: Some Comparative Remarks,” examines Suhrawardi’s epistemology and the theory of knowledge by Presence in a comparative context with Ibn Sina.

The Italian philosopher, Pio Filippan-Ronconi wrote an important work on Suhrawardi’s metaphysics in which he discusses the structure of his thought with references to the Sufi aspect of his ishraqi doctrine.

The present study has been a summary of most of the works that have been written on Suhrawardi in Western European languages and is by no means exhaustive of all the works. I have not mentioned those works in which Suhrawardi has been mentioned briefly. Some of the anthologies have been mentioned only as anthologies as opposed to mentioning each article in it separately where Suhrawardi is discussed.

Also, the works of Suhrawardi in Eastern languages in the subcontinent or the Arab world have not been mentioned. There is certainly room for an exhaustive work on Suhrawardi in all languages which will be invaluable to the students of this great master of learning whose timely message was interrupted by an untimely death. Perhaps the poem that is said to have appeared on his tomb summarized it all.

Footnotes

1-‏ For more information on the life and thought of Suhrawardi see Memorial Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi à l’occasion du huitième centenaire de sa mort, Cairo, 1974. Mehdi Aminrazavi, Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination, London: CURZON Press, 1996.
2-‏ Encyclopedia Philosophique universelle, vol.3, Paris:1990.
3-‏ Soheil Afnan’s Philosophical Terminology in Arabic and Persian, Leiden:1964.
4-‏ Eliade. Mercea . Historie des croyances et des idées religieuses, Paris:1983.
5-‏ A. Von Kramer , Geschichte derherrschenden Ideen des Islam, Darmstadt, 1961. Reprint of 1868 edition in Leipzig.
6-‏ Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur and Geschichte der arabischen Literatur Supliment.2d ed.5 vols. Leiden:1937-49.
7-‏ Max Horten, Die Philosophie der Erleuchtung nach Suhrawardi, Tehran: 1895-1898.
8-‏ Max Horten, Die Spekulative und positive Theologie des Islam nach Razi, Leipzig: 1967, pp.123-365.
9-‏ Otto SpiesThree Treatises on mysticism by Shihabuddin Suhrawrdi Maqtul, Stuttgart: 1935.
10-‏ Helmut Ritter, “Philologika IX: Die vier Suhrawardi” Der Islam 24(1937): 270-86; 25(1938)35-86.
11-‏ Rainer Freitag, Seelenwanderung in der islamischen H?resie, Berlin:1985
12-‏ Sabline Schmidtke, “The Doctrine of the Transmigration of the Soul According to Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi and His Followeres.” Studia Iranica, Tome 28-1999 fascicule 2, 237-254.
13-‏ `Abdolamir Johardelvari, Iranische Philosophie von Zarathustra bis Sabzewari, Frankfurt: 1994.
14-‏ Ibn Sina und die peripatetische “Aussagenlogik”, Leiden:1989.
15-‏ Macuch Rudolf, “Greek and Oriental Sources of Avicenna’s and Suhrawardi’s Theosophies”,Graeco-Arabica, 1983:1, 11-34.
16-‏ Simon Van Den Bergh, “De temples van het lich door Soehrawerdi”, Tijdschrift voor wijsbegeerte. Haarlem. 1916; 10:30-59.
17-‏ Carra de Vaux, “La Philosophie illuminative,” in Journal Asiatique, 9th ser., 19, no.1 (janvier-février 1902):63-94.
18-‏ For a complete list of Corbin’s translations and commentaries on Suhrawardi see Hans Daiber, Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy, Brill:1999, vol.1, pp.189-198 & 866-867.
19-‏ Henry Corbin, Oeuvres Philosophiques Et Mystiques, Institut d’Etudes et des Recherches Culturelles, Tehran: 1993.
20-‏ Corbin, En Islam iranien, vol.2, Paris:1971.
21-‏ Corbin, Historie de la philosophie islamique, Paris:1986.
22-‏ Corbin, L’homme de lumiére dans le soufisme iranien, Paris:1984.
23-‏ Corbin, L’Iran et la philosophie, Paris 1990.
24-‏ Corbin, Les motifs Zoroastrians dans la philosophie de Sohrawardi, Tehran 1964.
25-‏ Corbin, Mystique et humeur chez Sohrawardi, Shaykh al-Ishraq, in Collected Papers on Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, Paris:1971,16-38.
26-‏ Corbin, Philosophie iranienne et philosophie comparée, Tehran:1977.
27-‏ Corbin, Suhrawardi d’Alep fondateur de la doctrine illuminative, Paris:1939.
28-‏ Among such works can be mentioned Terre céleste et corps de resurrection: de l’Iran mazdéen a l’Ir?n shi`ite. Paris:1960. Part II of this work contains excerpts from Suhrawardi’s works.
29-‏ Christian Jambet, La logique des orientaux: Henry Corbin te la science des forms, Paris:1983.
30-‏ Amir Naffaky , La méthode et la loigque chez al-Suhrawardi, fondateur de la philosophie de l’Ishraq, illuminisme en Islam, Aix-Mareille, 1976. 31-‏ Daryush Shayegan, La topographie spirituelle de l’Islam iranien, Paris:1990.
32-‏ George Anawati in his Avicenna: La Metaphysique du Shifa’, Livres I ? V. Traduction francaise du Text arabe, Paris:1985.
33-‏ George Anawati, Memorial Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi à l’occasion du huitième centenaire de sa mort, Cairo, 1974. 136-150.
34-‏ `Abd al-Rahman Badawi, “Les points de rencontre de la mystique musulmane et de l’existentialisme,” in Studia Islamica, 1967; pp.55-76.
35-‏ Chahine Osman, Ontologie et théologie chez Avicenne,Paris:1962.
36-‏ Fashahi, Mohamad-Reza, Aristote de Baghdad, Paris:1995.
37-‏ Gardet, Louis , “A propo de l’Ishraq de Suhrawardi: valeurs spéculatives et experience vécue,” in Essays on Islamic Philosophy and Science, 1975:112-117.
38-‏ Gardet, Louis, “Quelques reflexions sur l’Ishraq de Suhrawardi et sa portée expériencielle,” in Memorial Shihab Al-Din AL-Suhrawardi, Cairo: 1974:87-101.
39-‏ Gardet, Louis, “Suhrawardi, Shaykh al-Ishraq et la culture musulmane” in Dirasat falsafiyya muhdat ila li-duktur Ibrahim Madkur, 1974:75-89.
40-‏ Gomez Nogales , “Suhrawardi et sa significaiton dans le domaine de la philosophie”in Mélanges d’Islamologie, Leiden:1974, 510-171.
41-‏ Hasan Hanafi, “La philosophie de l’Ishraq et la phenomenology,” in Memorial Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi, Cairo:1974:169-252.
42-‏ For a complete list of Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s works see his bibliography edited by Mehdi Aminrazavi in The Library of Living Philosophers, ed. L. Hahn, Illinoise, 2001.
43-‏ S.H. Nasr, “The Persian Works of Shaykh al-Ishraq Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi,” in The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia, CURZON:1996, pp.154-159.
44-‏ Ibid., 160-171.
45-‏ M.M. Sharif, “Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi Maqtul” in History of Islamic Philosophy, Wiesbaden, 1963.
46-‏ S.H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, New York:1964
47-‏ S.H. Nasr, “Suhrawardi:The Master of Illumination, Gnostic and Martyr,” in Journal of the Regional Cultural Institute, Tehran, 1969:2, 209-225.
48-‏ Majid Fakhry “History of Islamic Philosophy,” NY:1983, pp.293-304.
49-‏ Majid Fakhry,, Philosophy, Dogma and The Impact of Greek Thought in Islam, VARIORUM, 1994, pp.279-284.
50-‏ Richard I. Netton, “The Neoplatonic Substance of Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination:Falsafa as Tasawwuf,” in the Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism.1992:247-260.
51-‏ Salah Salim Ali, “Ishraqi Themes in the Theory and Prose of William Blake and William B. Yeats,” Hamdard Islamicus, XVI,3:37-61.
52-‏ Mehdi Ha’iri Yazdi, The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence, New York: 1992.
53-‏ Edward Jurji, “The Ishraqi Revival of al-Suhrawardi”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1940:60, pp.90-94.
54-‏ Bilal Kuspinar, “Mulla Sadra’s Criticism of Ibn Sina and Al-Suhrawardi on the Problem of Knowledge,” Islami arastirmalar, Ankra:1991:5,1 45-55.
55-‏ Anthony Tuft, “Symbolism and Speculation in Suhrawardi’s The Song of Gabriel’s Wing” in Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, 1981:207-221.
56- Ziya’ Siddiqi, “The Philosophy of Ibn Tufayl,” Aligarh Publicatin Series, v.81.
57-Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti, Suhrawardi: The Shape of Light, Louisville: FONS VITAE Press, 1998.
58-‏ ichael Bylebly, The Wisdom of Illumination: A Study of the Prose Stories of Suhrawardi,Chicago:1976.
59-‏ Kazim Tehrani, Mystical symbolism in Four Treatises, Ph.D. Diss., C
olumbia:1974. 60- ‏Kazim Tehrani, “The Role of the Sage in the Works of Suhrawardi,” in Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism. 1981:191-205.
61-‏ For a complete list of Zia’i’s works see Daiber, Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy, pp.968
62-‏ Zia’i, Hossein, Knowledge and Illumination, Atlanta:1990.
63-‏ Zia’i, H. and Walbridge, J., Hikmat al-ishraq, Utah:1999.
64-‏ Gisela Webb, Angelology, Ph.D. Diss., Temple Univ. 1989.
65-‏ Mehdi Aminrazavi, "The Influence of Suhrawardi on Islamic Philosophy." In Islamic Culture, 63:4(1989) pp. 1-31; "A Philosophical Exposition of Suhrawardi's Metaphysics and Ontology." In Aligarah Journal of Islamic Thought, March/April 3 (1990), pp. 9-36; "Suhrawardi's Rationalistic Approach to the Problem of Knowledge." In Journal of Islamic Studies, 29:2 (1990), pp. 163-182;"Nufuz-i Suhrawardi dar Hind" "Influence of Suhrawardi in India" In Persian, Rahavard Journal of Persian Literature, Part I, 27 (1991), pp. 72-78 and Part II, 28 (1991), pp. 70-76; "Epistemological Significance of Suhrawardi's Persian Writings." (written in Persian), Iran Nameh, 2:1(1993). pp. 7-89; "The Significance of Suhrawardi's Persian Sufi Writings in the Philosophy of Illumination." In Classical Persian Sufism: From Its Origin to Rumi, (ed.) by L. Lewisohn, (London: KNP Press, 1994), pp. 259-283; "The Essential Works and Doctrine of Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi." (in Persian), In A Journal of Sufism, 22:(1994). pp.11-19; al-Farabi, Avicenna, Ghazzali, Suhrawardi, Mulla Sadra, in Great Thinkers of the Eastern World, ed. Ian P. McGreal, (San Francisco: Harper-Collins Publishers,1995). pp. 446-488; "Suhrawardi's Mystical and Philosophical Poetry," in Islamic Philosophical Treatises, ed. by Z. Moris, (Chicago: Kazi Press), 1999; "Avicenna and Suhrawardi on Knowledge," Journal of Islamic Science and Philosophy, (forthcoming);
66-‏ Mehdi Aminrazavi, Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination, London:1996.
67-‏ John Walbridge, The Science of Mystic Lights, Cambridge:1992
68-‏ Walbridge, John “Suhrawardi, a Twelfth-Century Muslim Neo-Stoic?”, Journal of the History of Philosophy,1996; 34:515-533.
69-‏ Walbridge, John, The Leaven of the Ancients, New York, 1999.
70-‏ Walbridge, John, The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism, SUNY Press, 2001.
71-‏ Aragues Juan Manuel , El pensamiento irrational islamico: el sufismo de Sohrawardi. Revista espa?ola de filosofia[medieval], Zaragoza:1993; pp.15-19.
72-‏ Cruz Hernandez , Miguel. Simbolismo y esoterismo en la filosofia islamica: Ibn sina y Sohravardi,in Literatura y fantasia en la edad media, ed. J. Paredes Nu?ez. 1989:179-191.
73-‏ Cruz Hernandez, Miguel “La estructura mistico-metafisica del `Saber de alborada’ (Hikamt Al-Ishraq) de ?ihab Al-Din Yahya Suhrawaridi , Al-?ayj Al-I?raq, Al-Maqtul wa-l-?ahid,” in Homenaje a Pedro Sainz Rodriguez, Madrid, 1986; IV:309-318.
74-‏ Haruo Kobayashi, “Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi on Self-Consciousness: Some Comparative Remarks.” Orient, Tokyo, 1990:XXVI, 62-77.
75-‏ Filippan-Ronconi, Pio “La metafisica della luce presso ?ihabu’d –Din Yahya Sohrawardi:analogie e considerazioni,” In Atti del convegno sultema: Mircea Eliade e le religioni asiatiche, Series orientale Roma, LXIV, 87-102.
76-‏ Ibn Ibi Usybi`ah (`Uyun al-anba’, Beirut;1965, p.644) tells us that the following verses appeared on Suhrawardi’s tomb:
The owner of this grave was a jewel
It was a hidden jewel that Allah had made out of nobility
The days did not know his worth,
So Allah returned it to its shell out of loving concern