The Ancient İranian Sources of the İshraq Philosopher Suhrawardi

Those who are after knowledge and truth have not stopped spending their lives in this search. In this context, they say that knowledge is not specific to any time and is not monopolized by a certain geography. As a matter of fact, starting from this paradigm, they emphasized the eternal wisdom. Philosophers emphasizing eternal wisdom have stated that this wisdom is constantly present, and in this respect, it is a universal knowledge. This comprehension of eternal wisdom has been defended by many people from different nations and religions throughout history and has been instrumental in the copyright and translation of many works in this direction. Shahabeddin Suhrawardi, the founder of the philosophy of israq, who is one of the wisdom hunters in pursuit of eternal knowledge, says that wisdom first emerged with Hermes and then gave life to ancient Greece and Iran. It is accepted that Hermes, who is a historical personality, received this wisdom and spread it to the world by contacting the divine. It is significant in this respect that the name Hermes is identified with Irmis in Greek, Henun in Hebrew, and Idris among Muslims. Thus, this wisdom, which is considered divine and eternal, is accepted to have spread to Greece in the West and ancient Iran in the East. After Islam, many thinkers have created original works by combining wisdom and philosophy with their own understanding of culture and civilization. Among these philosophers, Suhrawardi is one of the important names who refer to the eternal knowledge with the originality of his works and the sources on which they are based. Suhrawardi says that he is the heir of this wisdom, which he believes came from ancient Greece and Persia. In this context, he states that he wants to revive the ishraq philosophy rather than build it. In this context, it is stated that Suhrawardi referred to the unity and source of this eternal wisdom rather than a synthesizing philosophy, and in this context, the philosophy of ishraq is original. Suhrawardi states that wisdom passed from Egypt to ancient Greece and Iran by Hermes. The study of this article has limited itself to the reception of ancient Iranian sources by Suhrawardi. In this study, firstly, it was determined how Keyumers, Feridun and Keyhüsrev in ancient Iran were handled in pre- and post-Islamic texts and in what form the Zoroastrian tradition was. Then, the traces of these traditions and names in the philosophy of israq were traced. It has been determined where these sages who lived in ancient Iran were seen by Suhrawardi. Thus, it was tried to determine what position Suhrawardi gave to these traditions and names in the philosophy of israq. The way in which many concepts of the aforementioned names and traditions are used in Suhrawardi's works, either conceptually or in terms of meaning, has been revealed. Knowing the relationship of Suhrawardi, who is also an Iranian, with ancient Iranian thought is meaningful in terms of detecting the traces of ancient Iranian dimension of ancient wisdom in ishraq philosophy. So much so that one of the reasons that led Suhrawardi to the court process in Aleppo was the accusations that he was using ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian concepts despite being a Muslim. Suhrawardi, on the other hand, believed that by incorporating the concepts and symbols used in ancient Iran in his works, he emphasized the suprahistorical transcendence of eternal wisdom. Knowing the mentality of the ancient Iranian sages and determining the way in which the concepts and symbols inherited from this thought were evaluated by Suhrawardi are important in terms of revealing the intellectual-historical context of ishraq philosophy. As a matter of fact, the background and origins of Suhrawardi's emphasis on the coexistence of wisdom and tasteful wisdom should be sought in ancient civilizations.