While the name Mulla Sadra (or sometimes even Sadra) has...

While the name Mulla Sadra (or sometimes even Sadra) has been a household word in Persia, Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent during the past centuries, he remained nearly completely unknown in the West until the beginning of this century.

The only exceptions to this were a few passing references to him by European travelers to the East and the important pages devoted to him by Comte de Gobineau in his now classic Les philosophies et les religions dans l'Asie centrale.2 Then during the early decades of this century, Muhammad Iqbal, Edward G.Browne and Max Horten3 turned the attention of the community of Islamicists in the West to him although the students of Islamic and medieval thought had as yet to awaken fully to the importance of his works.

It was only the discovery of Suhrawardi and through him of Mulla Sadra by Corbin that finally provided the key for the serious introduction of Mulla Sadra to both the orientalists and the philosophers in the West. When Corbin first journeyed to Persia after the Second World War in quest of the teachings of Suhrawardi, he was not aware of the rich philosophical tradition of the Safavid period to which the writings of the master of the school of Illumination (ishraq) would naturally lead him.

But soon he discovered a world of metaphysics and traditional philosophy of men such as Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra to which he devoted most of his energy for two decades.4 Besides his numerous other studies on Mulla Sadra, he was the only scholar up to his day to have translated a complete work of his into a European language.5 Following Corbin, the English writings of Toshihiko Izutsu6 and the works of Seyyed Hosein Nasr7 have further spread the interest in Mulla Sadra.

Finally, some years ago the first book in English devoted completely to Mulla Sadra saw the light of day, written by the Pakistani scholar, Fazlur Rahman. The book itself is the first fruit of the new interest which over a long period the works of the authors cited above had begun to awaken in him.

This interest is now shared by other scholars.8 Moreover, numerous studies, translations and analyses of various aspects of the writings of Sadr al-Din are now under way in both Europe and America, as well as in the Islamic world, particularly in Iran where a major revival of interest in his works is under way.