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

186 Part 3: Islamic Philosophy in History
al-Marwaz¥, and ‘Umar Khayyåm, as already noted the most famous
philosophical figure of Khurasan during this period. Gradually
Azarbaijan became the center of Islamic philosophy from even before
the Mongol invasion and continuing to the first half of the eighth/
fourteenth century 2 to the extent that one can speak of the School of
Azarbaijan in philosophy as one speaks of the School of Isfahan, which
has now become an established term 3 and to which we shall turn in
the next chapter.
There is still a great deal of research in manuscripts and monographic
studies needed before the full picture of the philosophical life
of this school as well as the School of Shiraz, which followed upon its
wake, become relatively well known. In fact the period covering these
two schools from the seventh/thirteenth to the tenth/sixteenth centuries
remains the least known period of the history of Islamic philosophy,
and each day new discoveries and studies are made that cast
new light upon this very rich period of Islamic intellectual history, not
only for Persia but also for the Ottoman world and Muslim India. Just
recently a collection was discovered in Persia and named Majm¶‘a-yi
Maråghah (The Collection of Maraghah), consisting of nearly twenty
works on logic and philosophy copied in the years 596/1200 and 597/
1201 less than ten years after the death of Suhraward¥. 4 This collection
was copied in the Mujåhidiyyah madrasah in which most likely Majd
al-D¥n al-J¥l¥, the master with whom Suhraward¥ studied philosophy
in Maraghah, taught. This collection, consisting of writings by al-Fåråb¥,
Ab¨ Sulaymån al-Sijistån¥, Ibn S¥nå, Ab¨ ¡åmid Mu±ammad al-
Ghazzål¥, ‘Umar ibn Sahlån al-Såwaj¥, and Majd al-D¥n al-J¥l¥ himself,
was copied for the students of the madrasah and bears witness to the
importance of the teaching of philosophy in Azarbaijan at that time
and also makes known the treatises that had been chosen as texts for
courses on logic and philosophy.
Philosophical activity in Azarbaijan reached its peak in the seventh/thirteenth
century in Maraghah, where the celebrated philosopher
and scientist Na∑¥r al-D¥n al-apple¨s¥ (d. 672/1274) built the Maraghah
Observatory, the first major observatory in the history of science built
for a group of scientists to work together. 5 The circle around Na∑ir al-
D¥n is in itself identified by some as the School of Maraghah known
especially for its scientific achievements, including the famous Ál-Khånid
astronomical tables. But Maraghah was also a major center for the
study of Islamic philosophy. In fact it was here that apple¨s¥ in revivifying
the thought of Ibn S¥nå influenced the whole later course of Islamic
philosophy. 6 Until recently apple¨s¥ as a philosopher was singularly neglected
in Western studies considering his status as one of the colossal