Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the ...

CHAPTER 10
Philosophy in Azarbaijan
and the School of Shiraz
CENTERS OF PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVITY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Throughout Islamic intellectual history certain cities and/or areas have
become the main focus for philosophical activity during particular
periods, while other areas have played little or no role in the cultivation
of Islamic philosophy. Such is not the case of Islamic Law or
Sufism, whose centers of cultivation have been widespread throughout
nearly all of the Islamic world during the whole of Islamic history.
When one thinks of philosophy, Baghdad in the third/ninth century,
Khurasan from the fourth to the sixth century, Cordova and more
generally Andalusia in the fifth and sixth centuries, and Cairo during
the Fatimid period come readily to mind, while such major centers of
Islamic civilization and culture as Fez, Tlemcen, Damascus, and the
holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which have produced a galaxy of
Islamic scholars and saints, are not particularly known as loci for the
study of Islamic philosophy. The reasons for this historical fact are too
complex to analyze here. They include the general religious and educational
climate, patronage of the philosophical sciences by rulers and
other authorities of influence, social conditions, and so on. But whatever
the reasons for such a phenomenon, its reality can hardly be
disputed. Even in India where Islamic philosophical texts were taught
in madrasahs throughout the Islamic regions of the country, only a few
places such as Farangi Mahall and Khayabad became major centers of
philosophical activity from the late Mogul period onward. 1
THE SCHOOL OF AZARBAIJAN
In Persia, which became the main arena for the cultivation of Islamic
philosophy after Ibn Rushd, one can observe the same phenomenon.
The school of Khurasan began to wane after Ab¨˘l-‘Abbås al-L¨kar¥
al-Marwaz¥, Qu†b al-Zamån Mu±ammad al-appleabas¥, ¡asan Qa††ån
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