[11] A towering figure of the Illuminationist School of...

[11] A towering figure of the Illuminationist School of Islamic Philosophy and likewise known as Shaykh Ishrāq, Shahāb ad-Dīn Yahyā Suhrawardī, was born in Suhraward, near Zanjān, Iran in 1155. After studying in Isfahān, a leading center of Islamic scholarship, Suhrawardī traveled through Iran, Anatolia and Syria. Influenced by mystical teachings, he spent much time in meditation and seclusion, and in Halab (modern Aleppo) he favourably impressed its ruler, Malik az-Zāhir.

His teachings, however, aroused the opposition of established and learned religious men [ ‘ulamā ], who persuaded Malik to have him put to death. The appellation al-Maqtūl [the killed one] meant that he was not to be considered a shahīd [martyr]. Suhrawardī wrote voluminously. The more than 50 works that were attributed to him were…