The Transmission of the Works of Suhrawardī the Illuminationist and His School

The manuscripts of the works of Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā al-Suhrawardī, the Shaykh al-Ishrāq, his three most important 13th century followers—Ibn Kammūna, Shams al-Dīn al-Shahrazūrī, and Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī—and their later commentators offer important clues to the reception of the Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) philosophy. While manuscripts are usually considered mainly from the point of view of establishing reliable texts of particular works, they can be made to yield considerably more information.

Based on some four hundred manuscripts that I have identified containing one or more such works, I will look at several questions that the manuscript record can shed light on:
1) The occultation of the works of Suhrawardī after his execution and through the first half of the 13th century.
2) The rediscovery and popularization of his works and thought in Ilkhanid Iran and Iraq.
3) The separate patterns of transmission of Suhrawardī’s Arabic and Persian works and their implications for interpreting the Illuminationist philosophy.
4) Patterns of reading as shown by the majmū‘as.
5) The Ottoman appropriation of Illuminationist thought as indicated by patterns of library holdings.
6) The occult works, authentic and spurious.

Taken together, these manuscript phenomena shed interesting light on the reception of the thought of Suhrawardī and the early Illuminationists.