On October, the 28th, a conference “Islamic Philosophy and Philosophic Islamology: development and interaction” took place at the Institute of Philosophy in Moscow. The conference was organized by joint efforts of the Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Science and the Islamic Culture Research Foundation. At the conference many prominent Russian and foreign scholars have delivered their reports, among them S.M. Prozorov, A.V. Smirnov, M.T. Stepanyants, V.A. Drozdov, R.V. Pskhou, Matem al-Janabi, Tawfiq Ibrahim, G.B. Shamilli and M.D. Nazarli were representing Russia. As for the guests from abroad, they were: Yanis Eshots (University of Latvia; Islamic College of Great Britain), Carmela Baffioni (Naples Eastern University, Italy), the director of Iranian Institute of Philosophy Abd al-Husein Khosrovpanah, seyyed Yadullah Yazdanpanah (The Scholarly Research Institute named after Imam Khomeini, Iran).
At the opening ceremony their welcome addresses the organizers and respected guests have delivered their welcome addresses, among them the representative of Mr. Iranian Ambassador Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi Mr. Ahmad Heidaryan, the president of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation Hamid Hadavi, the cofounder of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation Stanislav M. Prozorov, the editor-in-chief of the yearbook “Ishraq” Yanis Eshots, vice-director of the Institute of Philosophy Andrey V. Smirnov, the chief of a Cultural Mission of the Iranian Embassy Abuzar Ebrahimi.
Hamid Hadavi noticed that a scholar who wants to perform research profound and productive research work in the area of Philosophic Islamic Studies and Muslim philosophy should also be very well aware of the Islamic religion itself, including its creed, system of religious laws, etc.
Andrey V. Smirnov underlined that the humanity had entered the era of globalization. That's why in academic circles a question arouses: will we live in a multi-civilized world? According to A.V. Smirnov's point of view, philosophy and eastern studies face each other while studying civilizations, being at the same time separated from each other outside of this study. As other civilizations besides the Western one begin to play an important role in the contemporary history, philosophic eastern studies will develop further.
Yanis Eshots payed attention to difficulties which a research scholar faces while studying Islamic philosophy. He pointed out that Islamic philosophy shouldn't be considered to be something separated from Greek, Latin and the whole Western philosophic tradition. Y. Eshots told that a researcher of Islamic philosophy works according the following scheme: he translates some fundamental philosophic writing and prepares a scientific commentary. Mr. Eshots noticed that it's a very hard work. At the same time, the scholar pointed out to the importance of issuing the yearbook “Ishraq” for which the most prominent specialists prepare their research works and articles. He also payed attention to the special role of Mr. Hamid Hadavi and the late Mr. Hussein Ziyai who was a member of the editor stuff of the yearbook “Ishraq”.
Stanislav M. Prozorov underlined the importance of Islamic Culture Research Foundation's creation and greeted for this the ex-chieves of the Iranian Cultural Mission in Moscow Mahdi Sanai and Muhammad Mahdi Imanipour.
The first plenary meeting where Mr. S.M. Prozorov was a chairman was devoted to two main items: first, the philosophy of illumination by Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi and, second, topical problems of Islamic and Eastern studies nowadays. Unfortunately one of the declared participants wasn't able to deliver his report “Ibn Sina and the Philosophy of Ishraq” due to his illness – this was academician Musa D. Dinorshoev from the Academy if Science of Tajikistan.
Carmela Baffioni spoke about the relations between philosophic eastern studies and Islamic philosophy. She told that for a long time there were some prejudices against Islamic philosophy among Western scholars who considered it to be epigone and not successful in its attempt to understand philosophic thought of ancient Greeks. But in the 20th century Western researchers managed to appreciate Islamic philosophy and its genuine meaning. Mrs. Baffioni pointed out to the role of studying Shi‘ism of Twelve Imams and Isma‘ilism in this change of the attitude to Islamic philosophy in the West. She called the issue of Islamic Encyclopedia in 2008 a great vehicle in the development of philosophic Islamic studies. Mrs. Baffioni also noted the importance of studying Neoplatonism in Islam.
The director of Iranian Institute of Philosophy 'Abd al-Husein Hosrovpanah delivered a report about the methodology of Suhrawardi. He noted that the term “method” could be understood in different ways and that he intended to speak about Suhrawardi's way of receiving and systematizing information. The researcher said that Suhravardi was giving preference to direct intuitive method of cognition rather than to rational and logical method. Mr. Hosrovpanah also told that Suhrawardi often used cipher allegoric language because philosophy of his era was prosecuted by some official theologists (mutakallimun) and religious jurists (fukaha'), on the one hand, and by Sufis, on the other hand.
That's why Suhrawardi was speaking about “tasted [i.e. received through the intellectual intuition] wisdom (hikmat-i zawqi) and “cognition through presence (shinaht-i hudhuri)”. He also wrote that the condition of perceiving Divine lights is ascetic practice, extreme abstinence in taking food and in enjoying pleasures of this world.
Mr. Hosrovpanah has also pointed to such sources of Suhrawardi's philosophy as the philosophy of ancient Iran and Greece, peripatetic philosophy, Islamic mysticism and Sufism, the Qur'an and ahadith. Suhrawardi viewed the integration of those elements as his task.
According to Suhrawardi's philosophy, the primary method of cognition and the establishment of the postulates of his philosophy is intellectual intuition – the way of witnessing. But besides using this primary intuitive mystical way Suhrawardi also didn't deny rational (‘aqli) and traditional (naqli) methods. Suhrawardi was paying a special attention to the verses of the Qur'an that were devoted to describing God as Light and to Divine lights (especially the verse 25 of the surah 24). Suhrawardi was referring to Qur’an and Sunnah while proving such doctrines of his philosophy as ignorance of impure souls, wisdom of pure souls, the distinction between soul and matter, the principle “from one comes only one”, the necessity of the Necessary Existent, the best way of the world's organization, etc.
Besides referring to Qur’an Suhrawardi also used his own philosophic proves (barahin). For example, he laid them down while proving the necessity of the existence of God's vicegerent on the earth.
Summing all together, Mr. Hosrovpanah has stressed such features of Suhrawardi's philosophy as: the denial of absolute scepticism and the statement of world's cogniscibility, the primary role of intuition in the process of cognition, using of all methods of cognition, the harmony between belief and reason.
The colleague of Mr. Hosrovpanah Seyyid Yadullah Yazdanpanah from the Scientific Research Institute named after Imam Khomeini spoke about the influence of Suhrawardi on Islamic philosophy. According Mr. Yazdanpanah's opinion, Suhrawardi can't be called just an epigone of peripatetic tradition, rather he was a creator of a new philosophic system of darkness and light founded by Ibn Sina.
Seyyid Yazdanpanah listed main achievements of Suhrawardi, such as: attracting attention to ancient Greek and Iranian teaching, the acknowledgment of their symbolic character, the teaching about correlation between rational cognition and cognition by the means of heart inside of a mystical tradition, the creation of his own harmonic philosophic system and elaborating special terminology used by philosophers up till now.
Suhrawardi also elaborated the system of fundamental philosophic concepts, like a world of distant resemblance (‘alam-i mithali wa munfasil) which is the world of imagination playing a role of a mediator between the world of reason and the material world, cognition [by the means of] presence, the way how the Necessary knows things created by Him (idhafa ishraqiyya which is the cooperation like between sun and sun ray), Plato's similarities which Suhrawardi calls arbab al-anwa‘.
Marietta T. Stepanyants, who is a doctor of philosophy and the chief of Eastern philosophies' sector at the Institute of Philosophy, delivered a report called “Retrospective Outlook of Russian Eastern Studies' History and the Perspectives of their Development”. She noted that in Soviet era a special attention was paid to falsafa; as for contemporary research scholars, they are more interested in studying ishraqism, Sufism and kalam. But in all eras Russian scholars have been traditionally used the method of text analysis and careful attitude to historical facts.
The second plenary meeting chaired by Yanis Eshots has turned to be rather polemic. Mr. Mitham al-Janabi, the professor of history from People's Friendship University of Russia delivered the report called “Islamocentrism: the Overturn of the Turn of Philosophic and Cultural Discourse?” The philosopher spoke about the perception of history in Shi‘ism and Isma‘ilism and analyzed the concepts of some contemporary Muslim social thinkers.
The chief of the sector of Islamic world's philosophy, the corresponding member of Russian Academy of Science, the doctor of philosophy and professor Andrey V. Smirnov delivered a report called “How I Understand Philosophic Islamic Studies (The Preliminary Typology of Arabic Studies). Dr. Smirnov divided all the Arabic and Islamic studies into two groups: case studies and research works containing an attempt to understand the subject in a wider context. Here the scholar has mentioned two approaches: universal and civilizational. The adepts of the first trend are confessed in the unity of the whole humanity and view the differences as just specific features. As for the followers of civilizational approach, they believe in the unique character of each civilization. Mr. Smirnov has also pointed out that there's the third approach which he calls logically notional. The main question for this approach is revealing the method of sense's and notion's creation.
After Mr. Smirnov's speech the doctor of art history Mrs. Gultekin B. Shamilli delivered her report “Islamic Philosophy and Art: Together or Separately?” devoted mostly to the art of music in Islamic world and the correlation between music and Muslim philosophy. After that the doctor of philosophy, the leading employee of the Institute of Eastern Studies Tawfiq Ibrahim delivered his speech “Criticism of Some Stereotypes Concerning Muslim Philosophy”.
The third plenary meeting was devoted to the influence of Suhrawardi on Persian poetry about mystical love and painting miniatures of an early Safawi period.
The vice-director of the Institute of Eastern manuscripts, the co-founder of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation, the candidate of historic science Stanislav M. Prozorov delivered a report “The Essence of a Mystical Love to God (haqiqat al-mahabba) (on the foundation of ‘Azizi Shaizali's writing's manuscript, died 494/1100)”. Mr. Prozorov enlightened such items as specific conditions and signs of person's love to God, about context notional approach to love poetry's investigation, the symbolism of numbers and letters in poetry devoted to mystical love.
The report of the assistant professor of the chair of Iranian philology of St Petersburg State University Vladimir A. Drozdov was called “The Treatise Mu’nis al-‘Ushaq by Suhrawardi and the Tradition of Persian Medieval Writings about Mystical Love”. The scholar noted that that direction in poetry appeared in the 11th century. V.A. Drozdov told about the link between passionate love to a human being and passionate love to God. He pointed out that for Iranian mystic such a love is a bridge to love towards God. Beauty was perceived by Persian mystics not as personal human feature but as the sign of God's majesty. Seyid Yazdanpanah added that Islam doesn't deny passionate love if it's viewed as the bridge to love towards God and if its form doesn't contradict Islamic prescriptions.
The candidate of philosophic science, the assistant professor of the chair of human and social sciences of People's Friendship University of Russia Ruzanna V. Pskhou delivered a report devoted to such notions as ru’ya and nazar in Niffari's poetry. She analyzed the mystical aspects of the relations between Lover and Beloved and its stations according to Niffari, which can be described as a movement from nazar through ru’ya to nazar again.
The conference was finished by the report of Mais D. Nazarli, the candidate of art history from the Institute of Eastern Cultures and Antiquity of Russian State University for Humanities. The report was called “'Concealed Ornament' of a Perfect Man: Throne Scenes in Miniatures of Early Safawi Era” and was accompanied by showing excellent reproduction of the described miniatures.
The participants of the conference were satisfied with interesting reports and discussions, and gave an optimistic esteem to the scientific productiveness of this arrangement.