Al-Shahrazuri

Last updated

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud Shahrazuri was a 13th-century Muslim physician, historian and philosopher. He was of Kurdish origin. [1] It appears that he was alive in AD 1288. However, it is also said that he died in the same year. [1]

Shahrazuri was an important historian and scholar of the late 13th century who composed a biographical dictionary of both ancient Greek and early Muslim learned men. Although he wrote a major biographical work on scholars, very little is known about his life, including the dates of his birth and death. [1] Perhaps the most well known work by him is Nuzhat al arwâḥ wa rawḍat al-afrâḥ. According to the correction and reprint by M A Khurshid, there are several copies of the book; one of them in the John Rylands library in Manchester. [1]

Edward Granville Browne mentions two medical works attributed to him, one in Arabic and another in Persian language.(E. Browne, p. 100) One of his philosophical works is commentary about philosopher Suhrawardi called Sharḥ Ḥikma al-ishrâq. [2] [3] It is also said that the well known commentary works of Qutb al-Din Al Shirazi called Durrat al-Taj about Suhrawardi's Hikmat al-Ishraq is based on Sharḥ Ḥikma al-ishrâq. [4] [5] It is also said that another of his work regarding Suhrawardi's Illumnationist philosophy is the most faithful, called al-Shajarah al-Ilahiyyah (The Divine Tree). [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi</span> Persian philosopher and founder of the school of Illuminationism

"Shihāb ad-Dīn" Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardī (1154–1191) was a philosopher and founder of the Iranian school of Illuminationism, an important school in Islamic philosophy. The "light" in his "Philosophy of Illumination" is the source of knowledge. He is referred to by the honorific title Shaikh al-ʿIshraq "Master of Illumination" and Shaikh al-Maqtul "the Murdered Master", in reference to his execution for heresy. Mulla Sadra, the Persian sage of the Safavid era described Suhrawardi as the "Reviver of the Traces of the Pahlavi (Iranian) Sages", and Suhrawardi, in his magnum opus "The Philosophy of Illumination", thought of himself as a reviver or resuscitator of the ancient tradition of Persian wisdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mulla Sadra</span> Iranian Shia Islamic philosopher and theologian

Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā, was a Persian Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, theologian, and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. According to Oliver Leaman, Mulla Sadra is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibn Hazm</span> Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath (994–1064)

Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, muhaddith, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Caliphate of Córdoba, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpreters, Ibn Hazm was a leading proponent and codifier of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works, of which only 40 still survive. In all, his written works amounted to some 80 000 pages. Described as one of the fathers of comparative religion, the Encyclopaedia of Islam refers to him as having been one of the leading thinkers of the Muslim world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaghmini</span>

Mahmūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Umar al-Jaghmini or 'al-Chaghmīnī', or al-Jaghmini, was a 13th or 14th-century Arab physician, astronomer and author of the Qanunshah a short epitome of by Avicenna in Persian, and Mulakhas (Summary), a work on astronomy.

Ibn Miskawayh, full name Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb Miskawayh al-Rāzī was a Persian chancery official of the Buyid era, and philosopher and historian from Parandak, Iran. As a Neoplatonist, his influence on Islamic philosophy is primarily in the area of ethics. He was the author of the first major Islamic work on philosophical ethics entitled the Refinement of Character, focusing on practical ethics, conduct, and the refinement of character. He separated personal ethics from the public realm, and contrasted the liberating nature of reason with the deception and temptation of nature. Miskawayh was a prominent figure in the intellectual and cultural life of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banu Taym</span> Sub-Tribe of the Quraysh tribe

Banū Taym was a clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, hailed from the Banu Taym, as did another prominent companion of Muhammad, Talha ibn Ubaydallah.

Hikmah is an Arabic word that means wisdom, sagacity, philosophy, rationale or underlying reason. The Quran mentions "hikmah" in various places, where it is understood as knowledge and understanding of the Quran, fear of God, and a means of nourishing the spirit or intellect. Hikmah is sometimes associated with prophethood, faith, intelligence ('aql), comprehension (fahm), or the power of rational demonstration. In the Quran, God bestows wisdom upon whomever He chooses, and various individuals including the House of Abraham, David, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and Luqman are said to have received wisdom. The Quran also uses the term hikmah in connection with the Book or the scripture in general. The Quran also refers to itself as the Wise Book, and refers to God as The Wise in several places.

Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī was an Andalusian Sunni Muslim polymath, Maliki jurisconsult, mufassir, muhaddith and an expert in the Arabic language. He was taught by prominent scholars of Córdoba, Spain and he is well known for his classical commentary of the Quran named Tafsir al-Qurtubi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shah Jalal</span> Sufi Muslim saint

Jalāl Mujarrad Kunyāʾī, popularly known as Shah Jalal, was a celebrated Sufi figure of Bengal. His name is often associated with the Muslim conquest of Sylhet and the Spread of Islam into the region, part of a long history of interactions between the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Various complexes and religious places have been named after him, including the largest airport in Bangladesh, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and numerous mosques around the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Qastallani</span>

Shihāb al-Dīn Abu'l-‘Abbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Qasṭallānī al-Qutaybī al-Shāfi‘ī, also known as Al-Qasṭallānī was a Sunni Islamic scholar who specialized in hadith and theology. He owed his literary fame mainly to his exhaustive commentary on the Sahih al-Bukhari entitled Irshād al-Sarī fī Sharḥ al-Bukhārī.

Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah b. Masarra b. Najih al-Jabali (883–931), was an Andalusian Muslim ascetic and scholar. He is considered one of the first Sufis as well as one of the first philosophers of Al-Andalus.

Hossein Ziai was a professor of Islamic Philosophy and Iranian Studies at UCLA where he held the inaugural Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies until his passing. He received his B.S. in Intensive Physics and Mathematics from Yale University in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy from Harvard University in 1976. Prior to UCLA, Ziai taught at Tehran University, Sharif University, Harvard University, Brown University, and Oberlin College. As Director of Iranian Studies at UCLA, where he taught since 1988, Ziai established an undergraduate major in Iranian in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures—the first such degree in North America—and developed the strongest and most rigorous Iranian Studies program in the U.S.

Illuminationism, also known as Ishrāqiyyun or simply Ishrāqi is a philosophical and mystical school of thought introduced by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi in the twelfth century, established with his Kitab Hikmat al-Ishraq, a fundamental text finished in 1186. Written with influence from Avicennism, Peripateticism, and Neoplatonism, the philosophy is nevertheless distinct as a novel and holistic addition to the history of Islamic philosophy.

Sadid al-Din Muhammad ibn Mas‘ud al-Kazaruni was a 14th-century Persian physician from Kazerun, Fars, Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasir al-Din al-Tusi</span> Persian astronomer (1201–1274)

Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi, also known as Nasir al-Din (al-)Tusi or simply as (al-)Tusi, was a Persian polymath, architect, philosopher, physician, scientist, and theologian. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was a well published author, writing on subjects of math, engineering, prose, and mysticism. Additionally, al-Tusi made several scientific advancements. In astronomy, al-Tusi created very accurate tables of planetary motion, an updated planetary model, and critiques of Ptolemaic astronomy. He also made strides in logic, mathematics but especially trigonometry, biology, and chemistry. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi left behind a great legacy as well. Tusi is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of medieval Islam, since he is often considered the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right. The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) considered Tusi to be the greatest of the later Persian scholars. There is also reason to believe that he may have influenced Copernican heliocentrism. Nasir proposed that humans are related to animals and that some animals have a limited level of awareness while humans have a superior level of awareness amongst animals.

Sharh al-Isharat is a philosophical commentary on Avicenna's book Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat. This commentary has been written by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in defense of the philosophy of Avicenna in response to the criticism made against him by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in a book of the same title.

<i>Al-Isharat wa al-Tanbihat</i> Book by Avicenna

Al-Isharat wa’l-tanbihat is apparently one of the last books of Avicenna which is written in Arabic.

Shaykh 'Ali Shīr al-Ḥanafī al-Bangālī, or simply Ali Sher Bengali, was a 16th-century Bengali author, teacher and Sufi pir of the Shattari order. He was one of the three khalifahs (successors) of Muhammad Ghawth Shattari.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 M A, Khurshid (1976). Nuzhat ul arwah wa rawdhat ul afrah of Rulers and Philosophers. For the model of historians Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud al Shahrazuri (in Arabic) (First ed.). Haidar Abad: Ministry of Culture of India. pp. ز.
  2. Seyyed Hossein, Nasr (1971). The Spread of the Illuminationist School of Suhrawardi (PDF). studiesincomparativereligion.com.
  3. Sharif, Miyad Muhammad (1966). A history of Muslim Philosophy. Royal Book Company. p.  396.
  4. 1 2 Leaman, Oliver; Nasr, Sayyed Hossein (1971). History of Islamic Philosophy. p. 468. ISBN   9781136780448.
  5. R Pourjavady, S Schmidtke (2006). A Jewish philosopher of Baghdad [electronic resource]:'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 683/1284) and his writings. Leiden/Boston: EJ Brill. p. 30.

Sources

For his life and writings, see: