The life spans of the two...

The life spans of the two, if we can trust Findiriski’s date of death, which is the same as that of Sadra, suggest that the two must have been colleagues rather than student or mentor for one another. Furthermore, Sadra does not mention Findiriski’s name when he speaks of his masters in his autobiography in the Asfar .

The fact that the traditional sources associate Sadra with Findiriski in one way or another is nevertheless interesting for Findiriski is considered to be a mystic, even a somewhat ‘eccentric’ one, with such habits as mixing with the low caste vagabonds, dressing up poorly, and having alchemical and mystical powers. Mir Findiriski’s extant works reveal him as a follower of the Avicennan school.

This, however, is not sufficient to qualify him as a Peripatetic in the ordinary sense of the term.[^9] Mir Findiriski is also known for his travels to India where he is reported to have met a number of Hindu sages and ascetics.[^10] One of the fruits of these travels is his Persian commentary on the Hindu mystical and philosophical text Yoga-Vasishtha , which is an important text from the point of view of both comparative philosophy and cultural history during the Safavid era.

Among Sadra’s teachers, Mir Damad occupies a special place. It is apparent from his writings as well as personal letters that Sadra had an intimate relation with Mir Damad in addition to his having studied under his tutorship.

Mir Damad is best known for his al-Qabasat haqq al-yaqin fi huduth al-‘alam (“Firebrands: The Certain Truth Concerning the Temporal Origination of the World”), which is an attempt to recast some of the central problems of traditional philosophy from the point of view of Peripatetic philosophy with some influences from the School of Illumination.

Mir Damad's prominence as a philosopher and teacher is shown by the honorific title given to him as the 'third teacher' ( al-mu'allim al-thalith ) after Aristotle and Farabi..[^11] Sadra seems to have made his first full-fledged introduction to formal philosophy under Mir Damad’s generous tutelage.

This is evinced by the fact that he mentions, in his short autobiographical essay at the beginning of Asfar , that he was once an upholder of the fundamental primacy of quiddity ( asalat al-mahiyyah ) over being ( wujud ), a doctrine which sums up the Illuminationist ontology of Suhrawardi and Mir Damad and from which Sadra was shortly thereafter to depart once and for all.