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

198 Part 3: Islamic Philosophy in History
referred to as Dawwån¥), he studied both kalåm and falsafah in Shiraz.
Soon he became a famous scholar occupying the office of „adr or leader
of the ‘ulamå˘ after which he became teacher of the Begum madrasah.
Under the ≈q Quyünlü dynasty he became the qå¿¥ of the whole province
of Fars. He died at the beginning of the Safavid period in 908/
1502–03 and was buried in Dawan.
In his early intellectual life Dawån¥ was Sunni and an authority
on Sunni kalåm as his commentary upon Taftåzån¥’s work on Ash‘arite
kalåm, Tahdh¥b al-man†iq wa˘l-kalåm (Refinement of Logic and Kalåm)
makes clear. He also wrote works that attracted the attention of Ottoman
scholars, and he was widely popular in that realm. There is little
doubt, however, that at the end of his life, as ascertained in traditional
sources, on the basis of a dream, he embraced Shi‘ism. In any case he
remained widely popular in both Sunni and Shi‘ite scholarly circles in
the Ottoman world, Persia, and Muslim India. 26
The fame of Dawån¥ among the general public rests on his very
popular work of philosophical ethics entitled Lawåmi‘ al-ishråq f¥ makårim
al-akhlåq (Flashes of Illumination concerning Ethical Virtues), known
more commonly as Akhlåq-i jalål¥ (Jalålean Ethics). 27 This work is the
third major opus in this genre of philosophical ethics in Islam. The
first well-known work of this kind that sought to deal with ethics as
discussed in Greek philosophy from an Islamic point of view and in
light of Islamic philosophy, and also Sufism, was Ibn Miskawayh’s
Tahdh¥b al-akhlåq (The Refinement of Character) 28 written in Arabic.
This famous treatise in turn served as the basis for Na∑¥r al-D¥n al-apple¨s¥’s
Akhlåq -i nå„ir¥. 29 Written in Persian this very popular work expanded
the scope of Ibn Miskawayh’s treatise to include “domestic disciplines”
and politics. 30 Dawån¥ in turn based his book on ethics on that of apple¨s¥
and like him dealt with law, politics, and certain aspects of economics,
as well as moral philosophy, and also dealt with such subjects as the
distinction between a legitimate and an illegitimate ruler, good and evil
societies, and categories of human beings from the virtuous to the evil.
Dawån¥ added Quranic references, ÷ad¥ths, and sayings of Sufis
to his text, and his interpretation of philosophical ethics was more
illuminative (ishråq¥), whereas apple¨s¥ was more Avicennan (mashshå˘¥).
Dawån¥ also sought to correlate the philosophical teachings of Aristotle
concerning the mean with the Quranic doctrine of moderation and
emphasized that ultimately the mean in ethical action is attained, as
far as the content and not form is concerned, through revelation and
Divine Law and not reason. This work of Dawån¥ along with those of
his predecessors and successors on philosophical ethics is very demonstrative
of the form that philosophical ethics and practical phi-