In Suhrawardī’s Illuminationism, Jari Kaukua offers a new interpretation of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191 CE) illuminationist (ishrāqī) philosophy. Commonly portrayed as a philosophically inclined mystic, Suhrawardī appears here as a perspicacious critic of Avicenna who developed his critique into an alternative philosophical system.

Focusing on metaphysics and theory of science, Kaukua argues that Suhrawardī’s illuminationist philosophy combines rigorous metaphysical monism with a modest but positive assessment of scientific explanation. This philosophical core of Suhrawardī’s illuminationism is reconcilable with but independent of the mystical side of the shaykh al-ishrāq.