Eschatology and the World of Image in Suhrawardī and His Commentators

Abstract

This dissertation is primarily a study of the notion of an imaginable world, or ‘world of image’ (ʿālam al-mithāl), which is recognized as one of the most important innovations of late medieval Islamic philosophy and is unique when compared to other philosophical traditions. Unique and important as it may be, it has only received little attention so far, in scholarship. With the publication of new editions of texts crucial to the understanding of this notion, together with a newly developed methodology, this dissertation was able for the first time to study the notion of a world of image in a longue durée historical fashion. Beyond bringing to the surface a lot of material for the very first time, it also helped to shed new light on previously studied texts. In its fullest state of development, the world of image was thought of as a world beyond our earthly world. It is a world in the sense of consisting of all kinds of things such as mountains, seas, plants, animals, in all their particular details such as color, taste, and scent. However it is beyond our own world in two ways. Firstly, it is not bound to any physical laws; time and space are fluid concepts invoked and revoked whenever necessary, and entities can be of whatever kind they need to be, even the fabulous. Secondly, we cannot ordinarily witness it with our five senses. Only by crossing the boundaries of the physical world, such as in sleep, meditation, or after death, can we reach this world, witness it, and interact with entities in it. The mode in which soul can do that is the imagination: that faculty located right at the threshold between the material and the immaterial world. The core of the dissertation traces the development of the notion from its inception by Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037), through its elaboration by Suhrawardī (d. 1191), and its final development by Shahrazūrī (d. ≥1288). Earlier chapters pay particular attention to the context in which this notion was proposed, namely, discussions on the afterlife and bodily resurrection. Later chapters subsequently detail the reception of Shahrazūrī's ideas, showing how it eventually conquered a place in mainstream, traditional Shīʿī thought. With the newly developed methodology, this dissertation shows how we can quantifiably measure transmission of knowledge in the Islamic intellectual discourse. Most notably, this allows us to make better sense of commentary-writing, a phenomenon so particular to this discourse. In the case of Suhrawardī and his commentators, it turns out that most commentators seemed to be more concerned for preserving the ideas produced by Suhrawardī than to enthusiastically support them. As a corollary, this dissertation provides for the first time a comprehensive list of all commentaries on Suhrawardī's texts. Various sources currently only available in manuscript are utilized, which will hopefully inspire future editions and studies, to continue to excavate this fascinating part of the history of philosophy.