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Shīʿite Esoteric Platonisms

Submitted to Program Units
1: Islamic Mysticism Unit and Platonism and Neoplatonism Unit

Sarah Eltantawi, Evergreen State College, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

This panel explores the importance of Platonic and Neoplatonic thought in various thinker’s conceptions of Shīʾite thought and practice. Towards this end, the papers that make up this panel address a number of questions with regard to the nature, scope, audience, and context of Shīʾite Muslim texts who were also reading Platonic and Neoplatonic works that were translated during the Arabic translation movement that occurred in ninth-century Baghdad, Iraq from Greek into Arabic. This panel seeks to show how the translations of the Dialogues of Plato, the ontology of Plotinus, and the theurgical practices of Iamblichus and Proclus became part-and-parcel of Shīʾite mystical thought after the ninth century. The ideas in these original Greek works were also often misattributed and even heavily redacted to conform to the monotheistic worldviews of their Muslim and Christian readers. The papers in the panel examine the use of these translations in the thought of various philosophers and mystics during the Medieval period.

Papers

  • Syed Zaidi, Fordham University

    Early Esoteric Shīʾite Conceptions of the Macrocosm-Microcosm Paradigm

    Abstract

    From its early inception with the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 661), Shīʾism has been seen as an esoteric, mystical sect within the Islamic world. This presentation examines how the Platonic and Hermetic microcosm-macrocosm paradigm is present in three early Shīʾite philosophical works. By using a close reading methodology, I examine how the Book of Foundations, attributed to the fifth Shīʾite Imām, Muḥammad al-Bāqir (d. 732), the thought of the famous alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (lat. Geber) (d. 816), and the works of the Brethren of Purity (cir. 870 – 950), I prove that Hermeticism was a real and distinct school of Islamic philosophy in their conceptions of the microcosm-macrocosm paradigm. I argue that this ancient Greek philosophical concept played an essential role in Shīʾite Muslims' conception of their relationship to the universe.

  • Elizabeth Alexandrin, University of Manitoba

    The Adornment of Nature is Spiritual: Soul World according to Abū Ya‘qūb al-Sijistānī (fl. 972 CE)

    Abstract

    This paper centers one theme in the Ismā‘īlī works of Abū Ya‘qūb al-Sijistānī- Soul World- to pose a question: is it both the allegory and story of individual soul to adorn the natural realm and nature itself with the spiritual (rūhānī)? Engaging in the Neoplatonist and Late Antique philosophical heritages of Sijistānī presents perspectives on Universal Soul in dialogue with Universal Intellect. The doubleness (zawjiyyah) of Intellect and Soul parallels a relationship which exists for all existents in Soul World, between the natural and the spiritual. For the individual human being, God’s creation serves as a dynamic template to obtain and receive pure knowledge (‘ilm-i mahz), and be receptive to spiritual colours (ranghā-ye rūhānī), thereby defining what constitutes Soul World, Soul’s dialogue with Intellect, and the adornment of nature as spiritual, and providing insights into the philosophical terminology Sijistānī's works employ.

  • Mohammad Amin Mansouri, University of Toronto

    The Pen and the Tablet as Expressions for Neoplatonic Cosmology in the Works of Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī

    Abstract

    Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī marks a significant moment in the integration of esoteric Neoplatonism into Shiʿi history. Ḥaydar Āmulī’s era also saw the emergence of lettrism as a major intellectual discourse, at times challenging Sufism and monism, representing itself as a legitimate and independent intellectual paradigm. The surge of lettrism during this period led to a renewed interest in certain quranic terms such as the pen (qalam) and the tablet (lawḥ) as vehicles for conveying lettrist concepts, which were also deeply rooted and invested in Neoplatonic cosmology. This presentation examines how Ḥaydar Āmulī employs these two imageries to shed light on the Neoplatonic process of world creation as an act of divine writing. Furthermore, by juxtaposing Sayyid Ḥaydar’s framework with that of his Sunni counterparts, it is argued that Islamic Neoplatonism offers a valuable perspective to position Shiʿi thought as an integral component of the broader trajectory of Islamic intellectual history.

  • Parisa Zahiremami, Villanova University

    Translating Shiʿite Philosophy: Sanāʾī’s Ḥadīqat- al-ḥaqīqah and its Shiʿite Neoplatonic Foundations

    Abstract

    The paper examines the Shiʿite epistemological and psychological foundations of Sanāʾī’s theory of sanctified authority (walāyah) and highlights the role that Sanāʾī played in bringing Shiʿite Neoplatonic philosophy and Sunni mysticism into dialogue, by means of court-patronized mystical poetry. Despite the significance of many of his works as early specimens of court-patronized mystical poetry, Sanāʾī’s poems have been studied by only a handful of scholars (e.g. J.T.P de Bruijn (1983), Franklin Lewis (1995), Nicolas Boylston (2017), Zahiremami (2021)). In this paper, I will focus on Sanāʾī’s magnum opus Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqah wa shari’at al-ṭarīqah (‘The Enclosed Garden of Truth and the Law of the Path’, here after Ḥadīqah). Ḥadīqah was a book of Sufi advice which Sanāʾī originally dedicated to his royal patron, the Ghaznavid ruler Bahrāmshāh (r. 1117–1157). As a result, the book has a strong political dimension and demonstrates Sanāʾī’s systematic way of connecting Islamic, particularly Shiʿite, Neoplatonic psychology and epistemology to his mystical view of walāyah and ideal kingship.

Responding
Khalil Andani, Augustana College
Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Podium microphone

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

2 Hours
Schedule Info

Sunday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Tags

Islamic philosophy
Sanāʾī of Ghazna Shiʿite theory of knowledge Mystical concept of walāya Imamate Intellect Universal Soul Brethren of Purity Nāṣir-i Khusraw

Session Identifier

A24-121