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

196 Part 3: Islamic Philosophy in History
mention here |adr al-D¥n’s chain (silsilah), which connects him to the
masters of old, as recounted by his son.
Ibn S¥nå ➝ Bahmanyår ➝ Ab¨˘l-‘Abbås al-L¨kar¥ ➝ Af∂al al-
D¥n al-Gh¥lån¥ ➝ Sayyid |adr al-D¥n al-Sarakhs¥ ➝ Far¥d al-D¥n Dåmåd
al-Nayshåb¨r¥ ➝ Na∑¥r al-D¥n al-apple¨s¥ ➝ Qu†b al-D¥n Sh¥råz¥ ➝ Sayyid
Muslim Fårs¥ (grandfather) ➝ Sayyid Muslim Fårs¥ (father) ➝ Sayyid
Få∂il Muslim Fårs¥ ➝ Sayyid |adr al-D¥n Dashtak¥. 20
This chain is of great significance not only for the understanding
of the “philosophical lineage” of |adr al-D¥n Dashtak¥ himself but also
for those of his son Ghiyåth al-D¥n, who was his father’s student, as
well as for the philosophical lineage of later philosophers of Shiraz,
Isfahan, and even Muslim India.
|adr al-D¥n became a major scholar and philosopher as well as
a powerful public figure. In 883/1478 he established the Man∑¨riyyah
madrasah in Shiraz, named after his son, Ghiyåth al-D¥n Man∑¨r, a
school where philosophy, logic, and the natural sciences, as well as
religious sciences, were taught. It became one of the most influential
centers of higher learning in later Islamic history. |adr al-D¥n’s life
ended tragically when the Turkic ruler of the city, thinking that |adr
al-D¥n had been involved in social disturbances, sent a group of ruffians
to his house where he was killed in 903/1497. He was buried in the
Man∑¨riyyah madrasah, where his mausoleum survives to this day.
|adr al-D¥n Dashtak¥ wrote nearly twenty works, many in the
form of glosses and commentaries on earlier texts, but these works are
not simply repetitions. Rather, they often contain many ideas associated
with |adr al-D¥n himself or clarify difficult passages of the earlier
classics not elucidated in earlier commentaries. 21 In these texts |adr
al-D¥n reveals his mastery of both falsafah and kalåm but writes essentially
as a philosopher in the school of Ibn S¥nå. These works, many of
which have not been as yet edited and studied carefully, 22 include
various subjects on logic, philosophy, and the natural sciences, including
a well-known work on agriculture. His most important work perhaps
is his commentaries upon the Tajr¥d of Na∑¥r al-D¥n apple¨s¥, which
include several sets of glosses, criticisms by Dawån¥, and Dashtak¥’s
response to those criticisms. The debate between these two masters
was well known in Shiraz and also India, a debate in which |adr al-
D¥n usually held the upper hand. The two also debated about the
famous “liar’s paradox” well known to logicians. 23 These debates led
to the discussion of different kinds of attribution (÷aml), which became
so important in Mullå |adrå. One can also see questions pertaining to
the principiality of existence or quiddity (a„ålat al-wuj¶d or måhiyyah),
mental existence, unity and gradation of wuj¶d, the immateriality of