Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān’s Miʿrāj al-salāma and Miṣbāḥ al-ʿirfān: Edition (with Introduction) of Two Early Witnesses to the Incorporation of Avicennian Metaphysics into Imāmī Shiite Kalām

Abstract

This article provides an editio princeps of two short philosophical treatises, Miʿrāj al-salāma wa-minhāj al-karāma and Miṣbāḥ al-ʿirfān wa-miftāḥ al-bayān, by the Imāmī Shiite thinker Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān al-Baḥrānī (d. ca. 670/1271). ʿAlī b. Sulaymān served to link Ibn Saʿāda and Ibn Maytham, who were fellow scholars from Bahrain and ʿAlī’s teacher and student, respectively. Like them, ʿAlī played an important role in introducing Avicenna’s philosophy to Imāmī Shiite theology.