Islamic Philosophy from its Origin to the Present

Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present offers a comprehensive overview of Islamic philosophy from the ninth century to the present day. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr attests, within this tradition, philosophizing is done in a world in which prophecy is the central reality of life?a reality related not only to the realms of action and ethics but also to the realm of knowledge. Comparisons with Jewish and Christian philosophies highlight the relation between reason and revelation, that is, philosophy and religion.

Nasr presents Islamic philosophy in relation to the Islamic tradition as a whole, but always treats this philosophy as philosophy, not simply as intellectual history. In addition to chapters dealing with the general historical development of Islamic philosophy, several chapters are devoted to later and mostly unknown philosophers. The work also pays particular attention to the Persian tradition.

Nasr stresses that the Islamic tradition is a living tradition with significance for the contemporary Islamic world and its relationship with the West. In providing this seminal introduction to a tradition little-understood in the West, Nasr also shows readers that Islamic philosophy has much to offer the contemporary world as a whole.

?One of the author?s great gifts is to set down the significance of what is fundamentally at issue in philosophical thinking and to show the relevance of that thinking to the human situation across the board. No one else in the field of Islamic philosophy has such a sweeping vision of what that philosophy has been and is all about, nor is there anyone else who can suggest as clearly why this and kindred traditions are utterly central to us as human beings today.? ? William C. Chittick, author of The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-Arabi

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University. He is the author and editor of many books, including Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization.

line to separate header from information

Table Of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Philosophy and Prophecy

PART 1. ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND ITS STUDY

1. The Study of Islamic Philosophy in the West in Recent Times: An Overview

2. The Meaning and Role of Philosophy in Islam

3. Al-Hikmat al-Ilahiyyah and Kalam

PART 2. PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES

4. The Question of Existence and Quiddity and Ontology in Islamic Philosophy

5. Post-Avicennan Islamic Philosophy and the Study of Being

6. Epistemological Questions: Relations among Intellect, Reason, and Intuition within Diverse Islamic Intellectual Perspectives

PART 3. ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY

7. A Framework for the Study of the History of Islamic Philosophy

8. Dimensions of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition: Kalam, Philosophy, and Spirituality

9. The Poet-Scientist ?Umar Khayyam as Philosopher

10. Philosophy in Azarbaijan and the School of Shiraz

11. The School of Isfahan Revisited

12. Mulla Sandra and the Full Flowering of Prophetic Philosophy

13. From the School of Isfahan to the School of Tehran

PART 4. THE CURRENT SITUATION

14. Reflections on Islam and Modern Thought

15. Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy Yesterday and Today

Notes
Index