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

Philosophy in Azarbaijan and the School of Shiraz 199
losophy take when philosophy is cultivated in the land of prophecy. As
far as practical philosophy and ethics are concerned, one can see clear
parallels to this Islamic development not only in the Jewish and Christian
traditions but also in lands beyond the confines of the Arahamic
traditions, such as in the Confucian and Neo-Confucian worlds.
Dawån¥ was known not only for his works on kalåm and ethics.
He was also fully a philosopher with strong ishråq¥ tendencies. His
most famous work in this domain is Shawåkil al-h¶r f¥ shar÷ hayåkil aln¶r
(Forms of Brightness concerning the Temples of Light), 31 a work
that clarifies many of the subtleties of Suhraward¥’s Hayåkil al-n¶r,
(Temples of Light) including clarifying the meaning of the word haykal
as used by Suhraward¥. Although this work is an important opus in
the ishråq¥ tradition and was popular in both Persia and India, it was
strongly criticized in Ghiyåth al-D¥n Man∑¨r’s own commentary upon
the Suhrawardian text.
This ishråq¥ commentary of Dawån¥ is not his only ishråq¥ work.
Many of his other writings, such as his metaphysical treatise al-Zawra’,
written in Najaf while he was on pilgrimage and therefore called
“Tigris,” have a strong ishråq¥ color. Ideas expressed in these and other
works were of keen interest to later philosophers especially those of
the School of Isfahan and Mullå |adrå devoted many pages to their
discussion, especially in the Asfår. Among the most well known views
associated with Dawån¥ is a special interpretation of the unity and
principiality of being called “dhawq al-ta˘alluh,” which is discussed extensively
but rejected by Mullå |adrå and later |adrian philosophers.
Ghiyåth al-D¥n Man„¶r Dashtak¥
Ghiyåth al-D¥n Man∑¨r, the oldest son of |adr al-D¥n Dashtak¥, is
considered by many as the foremost Islamic philosopher of the tenth/
sixteenth century, preceding M¥r Dåmåd and the greatest ishråq¥ philosopher
between Qu†b al-D¥n Sh¥råz¥ and the foundation of the School
of Isfahan, 32 although he was not only an ishråq¥ philosopher but was
also well versed in mashshå˘¥ philosophy and ‘irfån. Born in the quarter
of Dashtak in Shiraz in 866/1461, he displayed signs of exceptional
intelligence from childhood and was for that reason greatly loved by
his father, who, as already mentioned, named the famous Man∑¨riyyah
madrasah after him and undertook to educate him himself. Soon Ghiyåth
al-D¥n Man∑¨r became a major thinker, well versed in the natural and
mathematical sciences and philosophy, not to speak of theology and
the religious sciences. He was a polymath like Na∑¥r al-D¥n al-apple¨s¥
and Bahå˘ al-D¥n al-‘≈mil¥ and considered an authority in language