The doctrine of the transmigration of soul according to Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (killed 587/1191) and his followers

Abstract

This paper investigates the attitudes of the Illuminationists towards metempsychosis. It considers Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī's (executed 587/1197) treatment of issue in his Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Shahrazūrī's (d. after 688/1288) notion of metempsychosis in his Shajara al-ilāhiyya and Ibn Abī Jumhūr al-Aḥsā'ī's (d. after 906/1501) concept of transmigration in his Kitāb al-Mujlī. Whereas the aforementioned thinkers adhered to the temporal origin of the soul, other Illuminationists, namely the Jewish philosopher Sa'd al-Dīn Manṣūr b. Kammūna (d. 1284) and the Imanite Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 710/1311 or 716/1316) believed in the pre-eternity of the soul. Their notion of metempsychosis therefore necessarily differs from the concept of Suhrawardī, Shahrazūrī and Ibn Abī Jumhūr.

L'article concerne l'attitude des philosophes illuminationistes à l'égard de la métempsychose. Y sont analysées les positions de Suhrawardī (exécuté en 587/1191) dans sa Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, de Shahrazūrī (m. après 688/1288) dans sa al-Shajara al-ilāhiyya et d'Ibn Abī Jumhūr (m. après 906/1501) dans son Kitāb al-Mujlī. Alors que ces penseurs professent l'origine temporelle de l'âme, d'autres, en l'occurence le philosophe juif Ibn Kammūna (m. 1284) et l'imamite Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī (m. 710/1311 ou 716/1316), croient à sa pré-éternité. Leurs attitudes envers la métempsychose s'en trouvent ainsi modifiées par rapport aux premiers.